Airship Mauled

by Darkonshadows

Chapter forty-one, Sandy Situations: Knowledgable Power.

-Neighgrabah Bazaar, Jacky-

Thinking on what Flotsam’s request and because I wanted to be a good captain for boring her with Belfry and Nefer, I stopped at a book stall to make a purchase.

“What do you have that’s long and would take forever to read?” The stall owner gave me a friendly smile.

“Ah, something that would take a long time to read? I have just the book, one thousand and one Saddle Arabian tales. Some of them are even said to be true or as close to the truth as one can get.” This modestly plump pony behind the counter was trying to stoke my curiosity. “Genies, magic, mystery and monstrosities, some history even, all can be found in this book of ancient tales. Why I think I even saw an interesting Abyssinian not too long ago. Whether she be a merchant or an entertainer, she reminds me of one particular Abyssinian in the history of Neighgrabah. Do you wish to hear a small sample, maybe it will make you keener to make a purchase, yes?”

“It’s like your trying to sell me something, I just know it.” My reply made him blink. It wasn’t like there were a lot of customers lining up for this book stall, he apparently had several copies of old Saddle Arabian lore and they looked pretty beefy reads. “Sure, go ahead, I’ve got plenty of time. I’m in no rush and might be here for weeks.”

I sat down and tried to ignore the din going on around me as various species haggled and focused more on the pony before me.

“Good, good, my dear customer, settle in for a tale of Mirage the elusive and vile sorceress.” The pony cleared his throat. As long as my curse didn’t act up I was interested to hear what this story was about, I had an interest in Abyssinians. “Back in ancient times Abyssinians were a rarer sight than they are nowadays, this one in particular was an ancient evil awoken from her slumber by some stupid thief.”

“Yeah, that tends to go around a lot in Equestria apparently.” My comment made the stall owner twitch.

“Be that as it may, this story is considered to be very much true!” The stall owner chastised me and I was going to take all this with a grain of salt anyway. “In ancient times there was an Abyssinian who was separated from all she loved, in turn she started to hate the concept of love itself and she gathered dark magic to become a feared and destructive sorceress. She was sealed away to one day be woken up by the thief I talked about. One of the many things she did in the name of evil was try to disrupt the courtship of a street rat turned prince named Ballad Din and the noble princess, Jasmine.”

“I’ve heard of something like that a few times.” Being a pirate I grew up on fantastical tales, mostly pirate related stories.

“Yes, but I assure you that you haven’t heard this particular tale! For you see Mirage poisoned Jasmine with a powerful mixture that turned her into a lamia, a snake pony that had sharp poisonous barbs all over her body.” He looked a bit grim for a second. “Thanks to that, she could no longer touch the one she loved without the danger of her poisonous barbs harming him and she saw herself as a monster that couldn’t be loved.”

“I can already tell where this is going.” I received an intrigued look.

“Oh?” The shopkeeper asked.

“I’m assuming that having barely survived the poison of his lover’s changed form, for how else would they figure out that Jasmine had poisonous barbs to begin with, Ballad Din did the only thing that would make sense to do at the time if he was truly in love with Jasmine.” I figured it was something that Jade would absolutely do for Maries and Fizzle, she’d make almost any sacrifice to stay with them if such a situation occurred. “He truly loved Jasmine, so he decided to make a sacrifice to be with her… he turned himself into a lamia pony too using the original mixture that changed Jasmine in the first place. Thus he would be immune to his lovers poison by becoming the same poisonous monster. So was their love proven true?”

“Ah… so you do! Now for the rest of the tale. The two lovers embraced, trapped forever in their monstrous forms for the rest of time… until a pony that believed love can conquer all more than anything else came along and returned them to their normal forms.” The shop keeper eyed me expecting me to know this, I didn’t. “His name was Far Seer a powerful mystical cyclops pony who wore bandages over his eye to hide his true nature, he was often seen in the form of a beggar or old stallion and was always mysterious in his ways. Unfortunately, I heard tale that he died of a broken heart when the one he truly loved was finally struck down for her evils. If you want to know more stories…”

“I buy the book. Right, how much?” It better not be too much.

“Ten bits.” He grinned at my sudden disbelief. “There are many books of these stories, they are relatively inexpensive.”

I paid for the book, Nefer and Flotsam might get some good bonding moments out of it if anything.

I continued to look around the bazaar and listen in for gossip of the surrounding people as I randomly browsed.

-Savannah-

I’m not much of a thief, I just know how to catch one off guard.

Seeing a little mare so hungry was disheartening, but that’s sometimes life here I guess. This city was built entirely on commerce in imports, exports and rare finds. The place was beautiful at least, so many short stone buildings sprawling across the city barely three stories in height each.

“Do you want some more?” I asked the cloaked filly, she nodded and I bought her some more food. “I don’t care what you do with it, just make sure it doesn’t go to waste. Now run along and stay safe, I have some dancing to go do. Also don’t always rely on strangers like me too often, but don’t deny help if you think you can trust someone. No one deserves to be alone in this world.”

I stood up and walked away from the restaurant my money a little bit lighter than when I entered. The little pony might be watching me leave with something approaching curiosity. I didn’t care, I did my good deed for the day.

Walking along the street, I started humming a tune to myself until I saw a shop being run by a familiar face. The famous Traveling Neko, the shortest Abyssinian curio and sundries seller ever.

“Hello… what are you doing here?” I asked as I came up on him, he sent me a broad smile.

“As I always do when I travel around, I’m following my nose for profit pretty kitty!” Neko said with a wink up at me. “If you need something rare, then I might have it on paw. The weather is just purr-fect for some desert trading today.”

“Can I ask for some information for free Neko or are you going to charge me?” The fact that my question was being considered was telling, he’d absolutely sell the information if he thought it was worth his time earning money from it.

“If it’s important information, then yes, I will have to charge you for it. If it’s directions to the nearest place in the general area… well I’m not a tour guide, but I’ve been all over this city well enough to know where everything is at.” That’s Traveling Neko for you. He might work a hard bargain for something you may need, but he was always congenial about it. “A fine feline queen such as yourself might need to know a thing or two on good will. I’ll never know when you might become a lucrative paying customer, so helping you now may lead to a much more profitable encounter later on.”

“That and you will charge me a lot for whatever I could buy from you next time we meet, provided I seriously needed something right that instant. The only exception I’ve heard about you, is if you were directly put in danger and needed saving.” I ignored his smug little smile, he was always in the right place to help a hero or traveler when they were down on their luck. Advice was free, but outright getting help from him was a premium. Whatever he currently had on him was to be of decent quality as he never sold anything that wasn’t worth the slightly exorbitant costs. “That said… give me advice on where not to go, on where I can get some information cheaply and tell me a little of Neighgrabah. I always wanted to visit Saddle Arabia and now I’m getting my chance to do so.”

“If it’s just advice and a general lay of the land, that’s free.” He cleared his throat and resettled the sack he carried on his back. “In that direction is the section of the city known as the Thieves’ Quarters, don’t go there unless you have something you need to steal or buy black market style. Guards don’t patrol around there much, mostly because they don’t want any daggers to the back. I suggest staying out of that area completely unless you have good reason to go there, you’ll know when you’re in the Thieves’ Quarters when you see the symbol of an eye with a coin drawn inside the pupil.”

I nodded, I would avoid that area unless I had to go there.

“The bazaar is always near the entrance and the market place district is mostly central leading up to the palace and some of it is in the opposite direction of the Thieves' Quarters leading into the Merchant’s Quarters.” Okay from the entrance and to the left are merchant’s, to the right thieves and down the central road is the marketplace, part of which leads to the Merchant’s quarters. “The entertainment district is in the corner next to the Merchant’s Quarters, thieves only show up there if they have money to spend. To the right is the fountain and Main Square of the city for the steps leading up to the palace. To the immediate right going towards the palace is the Noble’s Quarters, the most heavily guarded place considering the Thieves' Quarters nearby.”

Thieves’ Quarters is next to merchant and nobles… which makes a lot sense, like how entertainment is between nobles and merchants. As for housing, it was clearly all over the place in every section of the city.

“Thanks for the information, do you know a place where I can learn some dancing and earn some money at the same time?” Apparently that was the right question for me to ask, Neko gave me a broad creepy smile.

“I know just the place in the entertainment district, I take it your only doing this for the culture?” Nodding to him, he smiled at me and motioned for me to follow him. “Well come on then, I might actually get some money from this referral. I can even get you a good deal on a bag of dates, a local delicacy they are!”

-Gene-

I last saw Jacky talking to a book seller in the bazaar and who knows where Savannah got off to. I probably didn’t want to know what Savannah was doing. Me, I was currently looking into the most notorious section of the city, known as the Thieves’ Quarters.

I looked at the symbol of an eye with a coin in it, beyond this point is rumored where thieves are said to roam in high numbers. I didn’t have anything on me worth stealing aside from the protective scarf wrapped around my head, that and I was a griffon. Messing with a griffon was a bad idea, especially when that griffon had Vikings in his blood.

Entering this section of the city, I eventually found a seedy little place and saw something of grave interest. There was an old friend of Jade’s sneaking into the establishment, in fact she was there when Jade was taken from us.

What was the familiar face of Daring Do doing here of all places?

Moving across the street to lean up against the wall and idly gazing into the den of thieves, I saw another pony I didn’t have the pleasure of digging my claws painfully into yet. After he had tried to kill Jacky, I wouldn’t be able to trust him being here for anything other than nefarious purposes. Teatime Clockwork, with two clockwork pony golems protecting him.

There was also a large blue, long faced monster with a tail that ended in four digits with a bunch of dangerous looking felines who seemed to take interest in Clockwork's golems, anyone who’s interested in befriending an agent of GODLESS was not a good thing.

Having read some of Daring Do’s less than fictional, but still embellished, novels, I could also see Doctor Caballeron and his cabal of several pony goons were also here. This gathering looked dangerous and I should try to listen in on what was going on here.

How to approach the thieves den though… maybe I could find one of the stronger looking guys and knock them out? I’d have to be entirely nonchalant about it though.

I moved to the doorway and looked inside, those three were currently enjoying themselves and the felines were keeping mostly to themselves as long as no thief approached their table to try and listen in on their conversation.

I picked a target close enough to their table and walked up to a dark furred stallion.

“May I steal your money?” I asked politely

“What are you a…” He was about to say ‘amateur’, but my curled right fist slammed across his temple dazing him. I dug my claws into his mane and bounced his head off the table. He fell out of his seat and I proceeded to loot him.

All the thieves stared at me in disbelief and then started ignoring me after a solid minute, must have hit a high profile target… darn it. Having stole the guy’s belt and money, I sat down.

“I need a bottle of any beverage that is of a questionable quality, any will do as this guy got a little too drunk and is paying.” I pointed out the unconscious pony, quite a few thieves were gawking at my audacity. No one, thankfully enough, was willing to call me on it though.

Eventually I received my bottle from a frightened thief, I grinned at him innocently as I paid him lucratively and sat back to listen up for what was going on with the trio.

“Ignore the strange thief, I have information that may be mutually beneficial to us.” Caballeron started as I looked the bottle over and leaned back. “You Ahuizotl are looking for one of the wayward ‘Rings of Scorchero’ to complete the dark tower, I’m looking for the next clue to the ‘End of Immortality’ and Teatime, my acquaintance, is here to looking for the same place we both are. The Caves of Intrigue... of which you can only find if you have the three keys to it.”

Comments

[Booster Spice]

To a thief, All keys are Free?

[The Scarlett Mare]

“Be that as it may, this story is considered to be very much true!” The stall owner chastised me and I was going to take all this with a grain of salt anyway. “In ancient times there was an Abyssinian who was separated from all she loved, in turn she started to hate the concept of love itself and she gathered dark magic to become a feared and destructive sorceress. She was sealed away to one day be woken up by the thief I talked about. One of the many things she did in the name of evil was try to disrupt the courtship of a street rat turned prince named Ballad Din and the noble princess, Jasmine.”

No... don't tell me... no! I refuse. Absolutely not. You are cruel beyond all imagination, stop foreshadowing things I don't want to hear