“What is that thing doing here?” “It’s hideous, and what are those? Little horses?”
“They are probably its snacks. Quick collect the kids, it’s not safe out here.”
I caught a rock aimed to my head, so far the reactions of the citizens were… Not very nice, I think I received more death threats here then when I played on Xbox Live, and that’s saying something alright.
“Tela? Why are they saying those things?” Applebloom asked standing awkwardly under my abdomen with her two friends.
“Don’t listen to them AB they are just scared of things they don’t see often, they think I’m going to jump one of them and eat them.” I answered her.
“Can’t we just beat one up so they leave us alone?” Scootaloo asked.
“Absolutely not Scoot, that would just worsen things, listen in this situation violence is not the answer.” I reprimanded her.
“I heard my sister say that if violence doesn’t solve all your problems it means you are not using enough of it.” Sweetie said, I was going to reprimand her too when she added. “Or was that Pinkie?”
“Either way, yes it is technically the truth, only problem is we don’t have the strength to pull it off and you three wouldn’t even have the-.” I stopped myself, I was going into dangerous territory there, “Let’s just say that violence is not always the right way to do things. Defending from bandits? From wolves? Sure. But not now, not here.”
“Then what do we do?” Applebloom asked.
“We find a, sigh, shady old tavern that would accept my kind.” I said with a smirk, “If you are going to ask nicely I bet 99% of the girls in this town would gladly take you in.” I stated.
“You are joking right?” Sweetie said.
“Absolutely not, look at those dream struck eyes of the little girls at the windows eager to grab and cuddle you to death.” I said pointing around.
“They want to kill us!?” Applebloom exclaimed.
“Did the horse just talk?” “She’s a witch!” “She summoned them like demons! Someone call the guards!”
“Hmm, I diagnose this situation with going to shit.” I said and shot a web to the roof of a tall house and slinged myself up while scooping the girls in my arms.
“Wooo!” They shouted not expecting the motion. We landed on the roof and I quickly scurried away jumping easily from roof to roof until I arrived in a part of the town that was visibly less rich and frankly, a dump.
“What happened?” Scootaloo asked.
“They thought you were demons and they called for a mob to take my abdomen.” I explained putting them down.
“But that’s dumb!” She said.
I sighed. “People just don’t want something they can’t handle going around willy nilly, the problem is that I’m not like them. And believe me just a difference in colour is more than enough to make them tick so imagine having a completely different body.” I said.
“Like I said, dumb.” She said crossing her forelegs angrily.
“Come, I’ll bring you down to the ground, I think we are far enough.” I said making them climb on my abdomen once again, I descended the wall of the ruined home and returned them to the ground. Once there I looked around but as I was expecting the people were too distracted with finding a meal to freak out about me.
The streets were unkempt, the poor littered it like flies on a farm. But what really got my attention was a specific part of the district, there was a section that clearly showed that there was a door near yet no one crowded the streets. We continued our journey till we reached the giant door, the door had metal bars over it to keep it shut while the thick wood underneath survived the passage of time.
It was clear the barricade was old, tons of mold had formed on the it and rust over the iron. “This is so strange…” I said to myself.
“Why is the door closed?” Applebloom asked.
“Don’t know, maybe we could ask?” I offered, I went to a nearby human and asked him just that.
“That door is there to keep freaks like you out!” He replied smelling like alcohol and vomit. I couldn’t stand it so I quickly went away just in time to avoid the bottle he just threw at me. “And stay out!”
“Ok so, that’s where the freaks at.” I said to the girls, “Unfortunately we are freaks.”
“Awww.” Sweetie said lowering her head. I tilted her chin up and looked into her eyes.
“Don’t worry sweetie, you are not a freak for me, they don’t know what they are missing.” I said with a smile, this cheered her up a bit and nodded.
“Yeah we are cool!” Scootaloo said.
“Sure are!” With their spirits back on track we approached the gate, at first there was nothing particular or interesting in it, just wood and iron. But with a closer look I saw something in the shadow between the two gates, there was a figure of a lizard on two legs, it held a small pouch in his hand and waited.
I told the CMC to remain behind while I was going to talk to this guy, shady as he was he probably knew a lot of things.
“Hey.” I called him.
“Oh, who do we have here? A drider? What are you doing here cursed one?” He asked in a well spoken, even refined, english accent.
“I’m travelling with my three friends, we are lost.” I told him remaining vague.
“Oh, well then what do you want from me? But where are my manners... “ He bowed slightly. “I’m Krivroth Clecanendek.” He said.
“I’m Tela, it’s a pleasure to know you. You are not like the dirty and rude people I encountered so far.”
“Don’t be too hasty and severe my lady, they are scared and tired.” he said rather mysteriously.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Let’s say that recent attacks and raids created a lot of attrition. But I’m sorry to inform you that if you wish to know more you’ll have to pay a little price.” he said motioning with his hand.
“I see… Let me guess, you are a member of what? A rogue guild?” I said.
“Well not exactly, we are the thief guild.” He said dismissing the phrase with a wave of his hand. “Still…”
“Yeah, yeah.” I said and gave him half the silver we took from those bandits.
“Five, six… Ok then I think you have paid enough, see this big gate? It’s used to keep the slums away from the rest of the city, you want something illegal it’s there. Want someone dead? You’ll find someone that will do that for you, of course for a price. Someone like you may be suited for such a job, I heard Drider have potent venoms in their bodies after all.”
“Thanks…” I said flatly. “Can we go through? We would like to find an inn or something.” I said.
“An inn? For a drider? Sorry lady but I don’t think you will find anything for you. Driders are quite feared and for good reasons.” He replied.
“You don’t seem scared.” I said with surprise.
“True” He shrugged. “But anyway, to go through one must either go down in the sewers or find a way to climb.” He said pointing at my legs.
“Hehe… thanks.” I said awkwardly remembering that I can actually just climb up on it.
“Was a pleasure to do business with you lady.” He said and returned to wait. I left him to his devices and returned to the CMC.
“Alright girls, we’ll have to climb this wall.” I said.
“But why?” Sweetie asked.
“We’ll have to find an inn or something for the night, then we start looking for jobs around, emphasis on WE. WE stay grouped, is that clear?” I said sternly, I didn’t want to be rude, but it’s extremely important we don’t get separated.
“Yes Tela.” They all said in unison.
“Good girls, now climb on and remember to not fall.” I said jokingly.
“They rolled their eyes but climbed on nonetheless. “Alright here we go.”
Just as I said that I started to climb up, and up until I reached the top of the wall and started descending.
“Hey I just realized…” Sweetie started. “We forgot the cart.”
I screeched to a halt, looked at her in the eyes.
“FUCK!”
“What’s fuck?” Applebloom asked.
‘Why do I have a sense of deja vu?’ “It’s nothing, it’s just a bad word adults use when they are angry.” I explained.
“Isn’t that also when you are making a baby?” Sweetie asked. I fell silent, I could hear my own heart beating in my chest.
“What?” I fearfully asked.
“I mean, I read in one of Rarity's romance book that when two adults wants to make a baby they fuck! It’s pretty easy too, you only have to put his d-”
“OK!” I shouted. “We are stopping here, no more out of you young miss, I’ll teach you when it’s proper to talk about such things later.” I said. “For now don’t you dare say anything more.”
“Yes Tela.” She said lowering her head.
“I still wanna know…” Applebloom whispered softly.
“I’ll explain later.” Sweetie whispered back.
I sighed and decided to just move on, they were going to learn about it regardless. Defeated, I returned to the ground and looked around, tall buildings were all but gone in this part of the city. The slums were filled with filth and dust, dozens of different races lived there varying from orcs to lizard people, we started looking around the ruined homes of many, and yet even with them having so little for themselves they were not aggressive or even too mad about it.
They went along their days with determination to survive, but still to help if someone needed it, the girls were treated like pets by many, they tried to give them carrots and sweets to make them come to their side. And for me, well…
“You better not be another deranged Drider stranger.” One orc said to me and returned inside his own home. ‘Well that was rude.’ I thought with a raised eyebrow, I shrugged and continued along the dirt road leading to the outskirts.
“Hey Tela look!” Sweetie said from my right, she was pointing at a fatiscente house, the windows were completely dark due to the dust and there were some traces of mold on the walls, the house was two stories tall and had a pitched roof covered with red tiles.
“What about it?” I asked confused.
“Well it says there that this is an inn!” She said pointing again to the building.
“Where the… Oh now I see it.” Indeed hidden under a lot of cobwebs and possibly years of dust there was a sign, “Jotun Blodbok” It read. “it seems abandoned though.” I said looking at the building once more.
“But there is one guy inside!” Scootaloo shouted watching from the window.
“uh…” I wisely concluded and moved to open the door, the handle screeched from the rust but held, I opened the door which fared a little bit better than the handle. The inside was basically the same as the outside, lots of dust and cobwebs, although there were lots of tables and chairs covered with white blankets. The inn was rectangular, the entrance immediately showed where people were supposed to eat, on the left there was a staircase leading upstairs while on the right side there was another staircase leading down. A bit further in, just passing the first row of tables was the bar, it held a variety of bottles and ingredient on the wall, the bar stretched through the whole length of the inn making it absolutely massive, and there with his back to us was a lonely person busy doing some kind of alchemy experiment.
“Hello?” I said trying to make him notice me.
“Oh hello there!” He said jovially, he turned around. He was a young man with a well kept beard, his hair was almost pearly white, his eyes were as black as the night just like his skin. He wore a seemingly comfy leather jacket with a pair of brown pants, at his wrists there were several bracelets jingling whenever he moved his hand, he also wore a necklace shaped like a coin with the symbol of the moon on it.
“Hi mister!” Applebloom said waving her leg, “Hi!” The other two said as well.
“Oh shit a talking horse!” He said completely throwing away his best behaviour.
“Oi!” I shouted. “No swearing in front of the children!” I said pointing a finger at him.
“Hear here now, you eight legged miss, this is my inn and so I can say whatever I want in it.” He replied crossing his arms.
“Fair, but still no swearing with them.” I said backing away a bit. “Are you perhaps a drow?” I asked after a bit.
“Oh whatever made you think that?” He said full of sarcasm. “Anyway what do you want?”
“We were looking for a place to stay for the night.” I replied.
“Uh, and you chose here, Why?” He asked suspicious.
“Well, seeing how the others outside treat me I thought no one would have even wanted to stay near me, and that’s fine by me, but the girls needs a place to stay so can you keep them in here?” I asked.
“Uh, sure.” He replied easily enough. “The bedrooms are on the upper floor, there is no one here so you can all have separate rooms for all I care, breakfast is at 0800 sharp, the basement only contain alchemical ingredients and alcohol. If you want any drink the bar is open.” He said and crouched down. “Yes,even you can even have something, I think I still have some milk somewhere.” He said and looked back at me. “The cost of all this luxury will be 5 copper coins at night.” He said.
I looked at my pursue and checked our finances. ‘Six silver coins, if they work like in D&D then we should have twelve days worth of payment, I guess we will have to search for a job soon. Or some treasure.’ “That’s fine, here.” I handed him the silver coin.
“Wonderful, now do you want anything from the bar or I can return to my affairs?” He asked pointing at the table behind the counter.
“What are you doing there mister?” Applebloom asked. “If you're making potions I can help! My friend Zecora showed me how to brew a few!” She said enthusiastically.
“Uh, sure why the hell not.” He said shrugging. I coughed at his obvious negligence of my request about swearing. “Oh yeah,” he said looking back at me, “The name’s Tenebris Plantae.” He said with a bow. “And you are?”
“My name is Tela Pellegrino, a pleasure.” I said.
“Truly? What a strange name.” He replied a bit confused.
“I’m not from around here.” I simply replied.
“Alright, come with me uh…” He said gesturing to Applebloom.
“Ah’m Applebloom.” She replied.
“I’m Sweetie Belle.”
“I’m Scootaloo.”
I put two fingers in my ears.
“And we are the CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS YAY!” I could hear them loud and clear.
“That’s fucking fantastic thanks for the deafening by the way.” Tenebris lamented. “Come Applebloom.”
“Alright girls go upstairs and choose a room.” I said softly. “I’ll reach you as soon as possible.”
“Yes Tela.” They diligently said in unison, while they were gone Applebloom started to go around trying to understand what Tenebris was concocting.
“So what were you doing Mr?” She asked curious. “Some kind of elixir of eternal youth?”
“Nah, something much better, Dragon Fire!” He proudly said showing a bottle full of an orangish liquid that swirled and moved like a flame inside the bottle.
“WOW can you breathe fire with it?” Applebloom said extremely excited.
“Why don’t you try it?” He said offering the bottle. I was starting to have some doubt about that bottle though, I kept myself near Applebloom, as soon as she opened the bottle I felt it. The absolute and inconfundible smell of…
“ALCOHOL!” I shouted and grasped the bottle away from Applebloom. “How dare you make her almost drink this?” I angrily asked him.
“Relax babe, it was just a prank. Now for the real deal come over here AB we have lots of potions to do.” He said with a smirk returning to his station. Applebloom nodded and followed him.
Night fell quickly and soon we were all in our rooms, the rooms were not that bad, they had a bed, a drawer and a carpet even. That being said the actual cleaning could have been a bit better. I wasn’t tired, it was probably midnight but still couldn’t sleep. I started to work some more on my silk, I tried to make it a bit more thick and resistant so that I could grab people with it as a sort of lasso or to trap them. After some hours I finally found the correct, uhm, way? Yes way to do it, I nodded to myself and started to create a nest on the ceiling when a sudden sound scared me. I turned around and saw a little pebble hit my window, making the same sound as before.
I approached the window and opened it, on the other side there was the same guy that gave us information at the gate. “We meet again.” He politely said with a bow. “A magnificent occurance I might say.” He said with honey in his voice.
“Hi, Krivroth, right?” I asked a bit unsure. He nodded and motioned for me to come down. I obliged and climbed down the wall. “Why the visit?”
“You see, my guild is interested in what you can do. Not many driders pass by here and many are against even talking to us, but you are different. What I propose is simple, there is this merchant a certain Napolos, this guy is a fierce competitor for our guild and unfortunately also deal with drugs, as you can imagine there is not much we can offer to top that. This is where you come into play, the doors of his mansion are magically locked and the windows are heavily surveilled, we can’t go in but you can.” He finished pointing a finger to me.
“Uh, let’s say I accept and kidnap this guy, kidnap right? Not killing.” I asked worried.
“Yes, we only need information, for the moment.” He said with a glint in his eyes.
“Ok let’s say I accept, what do I get from that?” I asked.
“Well, we can pay you in money, of course,” He said showing a bag full of golden coins, I just looked at it disinterested, I could use some gold sure. “But I see you want something different, so the higher ups said that you could join the guild if you successfully do the job, furthermore I will personally train you in the arts of the rogue.” he said showing off a dagger. “So what do you say?”
***
“Ok so the target is in there.” He said pointing to the tallest window on a three story tall house. The house, or better yet the estate was a fine looking building decorated like an ancient roman building, the place was filled with statues and ornaments used to show the wealth of the man who possessed them. We were right on the edge of the outer wall that circled the estate, my new friend and teacher was instructing me on what they knew of the house itself.
“The guards pass under the window every three minutes sharp, they always come from the right, once you are up there though you will be fine because they can’t see you in the dark. Go up there and enter, the window is always open so you shouldn’t have any problem going in. The target is alone in the room, if you find someone else inside dispose of them, try to not kill them though cause clearing corpses is very.” He gestured to me as to count money, “expensive.”
“Got it.” I said giving a thumb up. He nodded and returned inside a nearby shadow into the darkness… I could still clearly see him thanks to my night vision but still. I climbed on the wall and made my way behind a nearby fountain, I waited for a bit and when the patrol passed under the window I made my move, I quickly reached the wall and started to ascend. The light of the torches on the ground quickly gave way to the darkness and thanks to the absence of the moon, it was completely black, for them.
I reached the window and looked inside, Napolos was sleeping in his velvety bed, and unfortunately someone else was indeed in the room. Next to Napolos were two women, one of them an elf and the other a human, clearly something happened before I got here. ‘Fortunately I wasn’t here to witness…’ I said, Napolos wasn’t exactly the fittest of man and probably not the cleanest either.
That though could be a problem, ‘How do I take him without waking the other two?’ I started to think of a plan and suddenly remembered that my bite is venomous and had a paralyzing effect. I went near the bed which reeked with a pungent odor and bit the neck of the first woman while keeping her mouth shut with my hand, she obviously woke up but couldn’t make a sound and in seconds the venom finally took effect and I laid her on the floor her eyes open and terrified, unfortunately there wasn’t much I could have done there.
I did the same with the other one as well and then I bit Napolos too, he didn’t even woke up after I bit him. His muscles seized and locked up, I grabbed him with my hands while I slowly lifted myself on the ceiling with my silk, then I put him under me and started to cocoon him, after a minute I was done and had a wonderfully packed drug lord in my clutches. ‘Nice and wrapped just as I like.’ I said with a bit of humor. I climbed out of the window and without being seen I returned to where Krivroth was waiting for me.
“You did it!” He half shouted half whispered, “Wonderful my dear, come, I shall show you one to the guild.” We went around a normal looking house and ended up in an alley filled with crates and dust, he started to look around to see if anyone was there with us, nodding after his checking he whispered “Furta” and suddenly the crate disappeared leaving behind a large tunnel with a ladder inside. “Climb down.” He ordered, I nodded and went down, I had to remove Napolos from my back and keep him parallel to me in order to climb down, fortunately I didn’t have to use the actual ladder.
I arrived down in the sewers and looked around, the tunnel was big, a single torrent was coming from the left, we followed the stream and arrived later on in a gigantic area, the torrent was still going but here I saw boats floating around and in the middle of this chamber there was an entire citadel nested on a complex structure of stone pillars and bridges, the buildings were all connected by wooden passages, the docks were filled with activity. The people were not making any attempt to be silent or anything, we were too deep underground for that to be a problem.
“Welcome Tela to the Den.”