59th of Searing, 120 Coninued from here.
Quickly, his eyes darted about the room. He saw her immediately; a large lump atop the bed in the middle of the room. There was a dresser and a small table with built-in drawers and a mirror on either side of the bed frame. To Arkash's right, there was even another door, presumably her closet, or wardrobe. He didn't care which.
[Indent=30]Despite the fumble of his entry, however, she didn't immediately wake. Not immediately. The woman rolled over in the bedding, and Arkash ducked low reflexively. Just seconds later, she sat up. Arkash's heart stopped. She was awake. She was going to catch him, call an errant knight, and he'd be executed on the spot. Except... She wasn't moving, she sat there for a good five seconds or so without any movement whatsoever, then laid back down, and rolled onto her side.
[Indent=30]What. Why? What just happened? Arkash carefully crept forward and peeked over the bedframe. She appeared to be asleep by the way she breathed, but it was impossible to tell for sure, even if he could see her face, which he couldn't.
[Indent=30]With that over and done with, Arkash decided to remain close to the ground while he moved. The floorboards were dark, like his scales, and he had the cover of the bed. In the absolute worst-case scenario, he had the chance to slip under the bed and hide until she went back to sleep.
[Indent=30]With a very careful exhale, Arkash returned to his search, and wandered over to her make-up station. One by one, he opened the drawers of the desk but found no key. He proceeded to her dresser, which he imagined housed all her clothes. In truth, he'd not wanted to look through the drawers there as something felt unsanitary about digging through her fabrics.
[Indent=30]Humans, he knew, were prone to secreting odorous fluid that latched onto fabrics and spread its odor. The larger the human, the more they secreted the fluid, and she was quite large. It was sweat; something Arkash was glad that he didn't have as a reptilian.
[Indent=30]When he arrived at the drawers, he held the breath of his nostrils, and carefully opened one of the drawers. He couldn't tell what the garments inside were, which was both a blessing and a curse as he rummaged through in search of something solid. There was no key there. The next one up yielded nothing, as did the one after that, but in the final drawer, he found his prize hidden beneath a large article of clothing.
[Indent=30]The key gleamed in the lamplight that bled from her bedroom window. That was to say that he at least thought it was a key. The teeth looked to be more of a puzzle, a square with a series of fine, precise cuts taken out of the body. He couldn't be entirely sure, but he believed that to be the key he was searching for, especially considering it was so well hidden and close to the owner.
[Indent=30]Arkash exhaled and wrapped the key in a balled fist. Promptly, he shut the drawer, which sounded a loud wooden clack, and Arkash froze. He closed the drawer with far too much force, had he forgotten where he was? A glance of his eyes directed his gaze to the shopkeeper, who laid with her back to him... That was until she began to writhe and squirm in an effort to turn around to face him.
[Indent=30]At once, Arkash dropped to the floor in a sprawl, then slid under the bed frame. His heart began to beat hard in his chest and his venom glands activated as he looked to the edge of the bed that he'd come from. There, he saw the woman's feet lower to the floorboards, then shift to support her weight. She was standing. Arkash was completely still; he barely moved to draw breath, even, but swallowed hard on his venom.
[Indent=30]A yawn sounded, then the woman's feet shifted and turned. She began to walk barefoot across the ground toward the door, which she slipped by with little thought. Arkash furrowed his brow. That was the second time that she'd ignored the fact that her door was open. Did she just not realize it to be the case?
[Indent=30]Regardless, he directed his gaze downward, where he saw her in her living room. She poured a drink from a jug on the table into a china cup. Arkash furrowed his brow, then shifted to the right a little, where his head bumped against some sort of clay obstruction. He looked to behold a clay pot, undoubtedly empty by the weight. What it was doing there, he didn't know, but the air tasted strange around it. An incredibly brief inhale from his nose burned his nostrils with the potent scents that one might associate with a pot in someone's chambers.
[Indent=30]It was a struggle to remain beneath the bed once he'd discovered what the pot's purpose was. It was a commoner's utility, something the more fortunate used to relieve themselves in from the comfort of their homes. And his head had touched it. Arkash cringed, grimaced, and held back his urge to vomit.
[Indent=30]Before long, the woman returned to her bedroom, and shut the door behind her. As the door creaked shut, she paused. Arkash froze. She turned to face the door for a moment and held there before she returned to the bedside, and climbed under the covers. It would likely take her a moment to fully fall asleep again, and he couldn't make a move without her being fully beneath the spell, so, he was trapped there.
[Indent=30]There was no way to tell how much time passed as he hid beneath her bed, but he could see the faint glow of an Errant Knight's lamp pass by from her window. From his earlier observation, he knew they passed the building once every twenty minutes or so with their planned route. The second time the lamplight passed, Arkash carefully crawled out from under the bed and shivered in disgust. Humans were utterly repulsive, and he never wanted to be trapped beneath one's bed again.
[Indent=30]He was presented with a new obstacle as he crawled to the door. Opening it would surely wake her again, which was something Arkash couldn't risk. Not for a third time. She was suspicious of the door already, he believed. That was his last chance.
[Indent=30]His eyes then fell upon the window, which he crawled toward carefully. The Errant Knight had just passed by not long ago, he had time to climb out. The street below led to the front of the store. If he climbed out from there and dropped to the street below, he could go back into the store from the front door, as he'd already picked the lock.
[Indent=30]They key was placed in his mouth, only to be pinched between two of his serrated teeth as he tested the window. It opened silently, which automatically made it the superior choice. Very carefully, Arkash lifted the window open fully, then peered out.
[Indent=30]There was a very narrow ledge he could stand on, which was the wooden sign posted at the front of the store. It would do.
[Indent=30]Carefully, Arkash stepped out, and dug the talon-like claws into the wood of the sign. Once he was fully out, he carefully closed the window, and lowered into a crouch. The height didn't scare him, he'd fallen from higher when Chad Thompson broke the downspout he was climbing.
[Indent=30]In his crouched position, he gripped the sign with his hand claws, then gently eased his feet off the sign. Gravity claimed him in a heartbeat and pulled on the strength of his keratin claws to dangle from the sign. Arkash clung to it in a desperate attempt to save from the fall, but the woodwork gave way to his claws and curled shavings of lumber rolled from the sign as he slipped and dropped.
[Indent=30]His feet had been a good three feet from the ground as he'd hung fully extended from the sign. With his thick tail to cushion the blow too, he was unharmed from the drop, but his claws hurt. Arkash hissed a little and shook off his hands as he gathered his bearings, then walked to the front door.
[Indent=30]He began to push it open when he realized that he'd forgotten the bell, the built-in trap that would alert the owner of his presence. Arkash cringed, then reached up to hold the bell in place before he opened the door and slipped in. Very carefully, he closed the door and let the bell down in the same process as before. Arkash had butchered so many steps to his plan, but he'd be damned if he made such a stupid mistake that close to his prize.
[Indent=30]Finally, the young Rath approached the counter and ducked behind it. There, he pushed the complex key to the keyhole and prayed. Sure enough, turning the key unlocked the drawer with a click, and Arkash's heart began to beat quickly. Finally, he opened the drawer fully and beheld a stack of farthing notes of various sizes. Arkash's eyes were alight with awe. With a great big smile on his face, he swiped the cash and stowed it in his bag. Then, he closed the drawer and locked it again before he withdrew the key.
[Indent=30]He stared at the lock a moment longer. With how complex the key was, he had little to no chance of opening it with his equipment. It was evident that he needed better tools if he was to continue that path. With a sigh, Arkash returned to the door with his backpack in tow, then ducked for cover until the next patrol wandered by. Once it was clear, he stepped out into the night while he minded the bell, crouched, and rotate the tumbler of the door's lock back into place, and the mechanism locked itself again. With a grin, the lizard hurried back to his Alley, dressed, then made his way through the back alleys of Outer Nivenahin.
[Indent=30]The woman would likely believe she'd lost her key somehow and commission a new one to get made. It would be days before she'd realize that she'd been robbed, with any luck.
Quickly, his eyes darted about the room. He saw her immediately; a large lump atop the bed in the middle of the room. There was a dresser and a small table with built-in drawers and a mirror on either side of the bed frame. To Arkash's right, there was even another door, presumably her closet, or wardrobe. He didn't care which.
[Indent=30]Despite the fumble of his entry, however, she didn't immediately wake. Not immediately. The woman rolled over in the bedding, and Arkash ducked low reflexively. Just seconds later, she sat up. Arkash's heart stopped. She was awake. She was going to catch him, call an errant knight, and he'd be executed on the spot. Except... She wasn't moving, she sat there for a good five seconds or so without any movement whatsoever, then laid back down, and rolled onto her side.
[Indent=30]What. Why? What just happened? Arkash carefully crept forward and peeked over the bedframe. She appeared to be asleep by the way she breathed, but it was impossible to tell for sure, even if he could see her face, which he couldn't.
[Indent=30]With that over and done with, Arkash decided to remain close to the ground while he moved. The floorboards were dark, like his scales, and he had the cover of the bed. In the absolute worst-case scenario, he had the chance to slip under the bed and hide until she went back to sleep.
[Indent=30]With a very careful exhale, Arkash returned to his search, and wandered over to her make-up station. One by one, he opened the drawers of the desk but found no key. He proceeded to her dresser, which he imagined housed all her clothes. In truth, he'd not wanted to look through the drawers there as something felt unsanitary about digging through her fabrics.
[Indent=30]Humans, he knew, were prone to secreting odorous fluid that latched onto fabrics and spread its odor. The larger the human, the more they secreted the fluid, and she was quite large. It was sweat; something Arkash was glad that he didn't have as a reptilian.
[Indent=30]When he arrived at the drawers, he held the breath of his nostrils, and carefully opened one of the drawers. He couldn't tell what the garments inside were, which was both a blessing and a curse as he rummaged through in search of something solid. There was no key there. The next one up yielded nothing, as did the one after that, but in the final drawer, he found his prize hidden beneath a large article of clothing.
[Indent=30]The key gleamed in the lamplight that bled from her bedroom window. That was to say that he at least thought it was a key. The teeth looked to be more of a puzzle, a square with a series of fine, precise cuts taken out of the body. He couldn't be entirely sure, but he believed that to be the key he was searching for, especially considering it was so well hidden and close to the owner.
[Indent=30]Arkash exhaled and wrapped the key in a balled fist. Promptly, he shut the drawer, which sounded a loud wooden clack, and Arkash froze. He closed the drawer with far too much force, had he forgotten where he was? A glance of his eyes directed his gaze to the shopkeeper, who laid with her back to him... That was until she began to writhe and squirm in an effort to turn around to face him.
[Indent=30]At once, Arkash dropped to the floor in a sprawl, then slid under the bed frame. His heart began to beat hard in his chest and his venom glands activated as he looked to the edge of the bed that he'd come from. There, he saw the woman's feet lower to the floorboards, then shift to support her weight. She was standing. Arkash was completely still; he barely moved to draw breath, even, but swallowed hard on his venom.
[Indent=30]A yawn sounded, then the woman's feet shifted and turned. She began to walk barefoot across the ground toward the door, which she slipped by with little thought. Arkash furrowed his brow. That was the second time that she'd ignored the fact that her door was open. Did she just not realize it to be the case?
[Indent=30]Regardless, he directed his gaze downward, where he saw her in her living room. She poured a drink from a jug on the table into a china cup. Arkash furrowed his brow, then shifted to the right a little, where his head bumped against some sort of clay obstruction. He looked to behold a clay pot, undoubtedly empty by the weight. What it was doing there, he didn't know, but the air tasted strange around it. An incredibly brief inhale from his nose burned his nostrils with the potent scents that one might associate with a pot in someone's chambers.
[Indent=30]It was a struggle to remain beneath the bed once he'd discovered what the pot's purpose was. It was a commoner's utility, something the more fortunate used to relieve themselves in from the comfort of their homes. And his head had touched it. Arkash cringed, grimaced, and held back his urge to vomit.
[Indent=30]Before long, the woman returned to her bedroom, and shut the door behind her. As the door creaked shut, she paused. Arkash froze. She turned to face the door for a moment and held there before she returned to the bedside, and climbed under the covers. It would likely take her a moment to fully fall asleep again, and he couldn't make a move without her being fully beneath the spell, so, he was trapped there.
[Indent=30]There was no way to tell how much time passed as he hid beneath her bed, but he could see the faint glow of an Errant Knight's lamp pass by from her window. From his earlier observation, he knew they passed the building once every twenty minutes or so with their planned route. The second time the lamplight passed, Arkash carefully crawled out from under the bed and shivered in disgust. Humans were utterly repulsive, and he never wanted to be trapped beneath one's bed again.
[Indent=30]He was presented with a new obstacle as he crawled to the door. Opening it would surely wake her again, which was something Arkash couldn't risk. Not for a third time. She was suspicious of the door already, he believed. That was his last chance.
[Indent=30]His eyes then fell upon the window, which he crawled toward carefully. The Errant Knight had just passed by not long ago, he had time to climb out. The street below led to the front of the store. If he climbed out from there and dropped to the street below, he could go back into the store from the front door, as he'd already picked the lock.
[Indent=30]They key was placed in his mouth, only to be pinched between two of his serrated teeth as he tested the window. It opened silently, which automatically made it the superior choice. Very carefully, Arkash lifted the window open fully, then peered out.
[Indent=30]There was a very narrow ledge he could stand on, which was the wooden sign posted at the front of the store. It would do.
[Indent=30]Carefully, Arkash stepped out, and dug the talon-like claws into the wood of the sign. Once he was fully out, he carefully closed the window, and lowered into a crouch. The height didn't scare him, he'd fallen from higher when Chad Thompson broke the downspout he was climbing.
[Indent=30]In his crouched position, he gripped the sign with his hand claws, then gently eased his feet off the sign. Gravity claimed him in a heartbeat and pulled on the strength of his keratin claws to dangle from the sign. Arkash clung to it in a desperate attempt to save from the fall, but the woodwork gave way to his claws and curled shavings of lumber rolled from the sign as he slipped and dropped.
[Indent=30]His feet had been a good three feet from the ground as he'd hung fully extended from the sign. With his thick tail to cushion the blow too, he was unharmed from the drop, but his claws hurt. Arkash hissed a little and shook off his hands as he gathered his bearings, then walked to the front door.
[Indent=30]He began to push it open when he realized that he'd forgotten the bell, the built-in trap that would alert the owner of his presence. Arkash cringed, then reached up to hold the bell in place before he opened the door and slipped in. Very carefully, he closed the door and let the bell down in the same process as before. Arkash had butchered so many steps to his plan, but he'd be damned if he made such a stupid mistake that close to his prize.
[Indent=30]Finally, the young Rath approached the counter and ducked behind it. There, he pushed the complex key to the keyhole and prayed. Sure enough, turning the key unlocked the drawer with a click, and Arkash's heart began to beat quickly. Finally, he opened the drawer fully and beheld a stack of farthing notes of various sizes. Arkash's eyes were alight with awe. With a great big smile on his face, he swiped the cash and stowed it in his bag. Then, he closed the drawer and locked it again before he withdrew the key.
[Indent=30]He stared at the lock a moment longer. With how complex the key was, he had little to no chance of opening it with his equipment. It was evident that he needed better tools if he was to continue that path. With a sigh, Arkash returned to the door with his backpack in tow, then ducked for cover until the next patrol wandered by. Once it was clear, he stepped out into the night while he minded the bell, crouched, and rotate the tumbler of the door's lock back into place, and the mechanism locked itself again. With a grin, the lizard hurried back to his Alley, dressed, then made his way through the back alleys of Outer Nivenahin.
[Indent=30]The woman would likely believe she'd lost her key somehow and commission a new one to get made. It would be days before she'd realize that she'd been robbed, with any luck.