Creeten will forever be my most hated city. The smell of the overwhelming sewer system, the cold stone pavements and buildings, and the constant chattering within the marketplace.

“THIEF!” Also the occasional yelling in alarm gets annoying rather quickly. A man runs past our small group with a coin purse and two city guards close on is tail. The man scales a stone fence, before jumping down into the sewer water, disappearing in its murky embrace. Never uneventful in this city at least, I will give it that much. Instinctively, even though I am with others, my hand doesn’t leave my coin purse. We only have a few pieces of gold left, I am not about to lose what is left. After those days in the forest, we lost more than half our food supply. We only have one slice of cheese left, one apple and three carrots. Not much to live on if we plan to continue this adventure for more than a day. Stocking up will be a necessity before we leave the confines of Creeten, as well as picking up Ghirsham at the stables. I know Grady won’t stop complaining until his horse is by his side.

Grady seems more on edge than me. His head is on a swivel, constantly turning and jumping at anyone who passes us. I know what he is looking for when those green eyes lock on to someone. He is looking for the mark of Sipawn, the tattoo all thieves brandish themselves with when they join his father’s band of thieves. Grady’s mark was removed by himself about a week ago, the pale spot where it used to be still shows that blank paint used to be there. As far as I know, most thieves actually put the ink on their skin with the use of a needle and precision hands. Not Grady, he just painted his on. After all, he is a terrible thief as it is. I can understand why he would want to keep away from that sort of life.

We make it into the center market place and everyone who is selling anything calls out to us, begs us to check out their small supply of goods, and claims that they alone have the finest jewels in all of Jerensi-a. Kahetia eyes a ruby necklace and her paws twitch, before Ryneld grabs her tail and pulls her own. She lets out a shrill cry of pain before hissing at him. He chuckles and shrugs his shoulders, “Bad kitty.” She huffs air out of her nose, crosses her arms over her chest before continuing to follow the group.

During our time in the forest, those two spent most of their time together. They are Amalian after all, and as I have said before, humans and Amalians don’t usually get along. Bad history of slavery and all of that good stuff that made Jerensi-a great! Please, they have feelings and emotions just like humans, they deserved freedom as well. Grady does his best to talk to Kahetia, they even talk in the Amalian language from time to time. It usually ends with Grady blushing and Kahetia giggling with a paw in front of her muzzle. He claims he learned their language while he was on the ship heading to Jerensi-a from Breetanya, says that there was a crew member who was a Felidal and taught him some of the language from his home land. Now those two seem to chat non-stop behind mine and Ryneld’s backs. Leaving the dog and myself to walk side by side through the cold city.

“These two, huh?” he asks breaking the silence between us.

“You can say that again,” I mutter through my teeth hearing the two behind us speaking in a foreign language to me. “At least you know what they are talking about.”

“For the most part, even Kanonian and Felidals have different language barriers. Considering we live on different sides of our country, we developed our own words for certain objects and emotions. If Grady learned from a Felidal, then he can communicate easier with Tia than I can,” the mage explains to me as his eyes scan the city for anyone seeming suspicious. Behind us, I hear Grady shush Kahetia before she laughs. I look over my shoulder and see the lad with a bright red face, burying it in his hands with a groan. My eye brow arches up before I look back ahead of us. “So, what is your plan today?”

“We stock up, get some rooms at the Inn, rest and then tomorrow we finally reach Fort Everico,” I say, unknowingly straightening my spine and pushing my shoulders back to make my chest look larger.

Ryneld looks me up and down seeing my new stance, with a smirk he replies, “Alright, boss. Should we split up to get supplies or stay together?”

“Together. Thieves are less likely to try and pick pocket you that way.”

He nods, accepting my reasoning. Of course, he should accept it, it’s a valid reason after all. If a person is alone, they are more vulnerable and more liking to get stolen from. If there are multiple people, the thief is more than likely to get caught by one of the members of the group. With Grady on a constant watch out for any thieves, I doubt someone will pick us to check our pockets. Then again, I could be wrong. Seems to be a reoccurring trend anymore since I picked these strangers up.

I see a small wooden stand with a female Kanonian selling cured meat. The fresh cuts look clean and well sliced. When wrapped up and salted, I’m sure these would work well to feed for a little while longer. “How much?” I ask pointing to a piece of meat that seems to be the rib of a cow.

The brown haired dog rubs the chin of her muzzle, pondering the price for the medium size cut of meat. She eyes it and then turns back to me, “For you? Twenty-five gold rounds.” My eyes widen in shock. Twenty-five rounds for a piece of meat that is a little bit smaller than my head? That is highway robbery, and she isn’t even a thief. Not in sense of stealing from you, but rather raising prices of her goods so high that she will break you. I shake my head with my hands raised up, “No thanks, I will look elsewhere.” Normally when someone says that, the seller doubles back on what they had previously said and try to make a better deal. Not this girl, she stands firm behind her wooden stand with a proud smirk, as if she is glad to not have sold me anything.

I back up to the group and I see Ryneld as firm, glaring eyes aimed at the female Kanonian. “Give me a second, Michael. I want to see something. Watch me. If I signal for you then come on over.” Without waiting for me to respond, he leaves our group and heads over to the stand. From this distance, I can’t hear what they are saying and they look blurry to my vision as well. I must be more tired than I had originally thought. The two seem to start with a friendly small talk, both smiling and tails wagging, but soon Ryneld’s tail raises and hers lowers. He raises up and motions for me to come over. When I walk over, the girl stares at me with her icy blue eyes.

“You were willing to sell me this piece of meat,” Ryneld points to the piece of rib I had originally asked about, “for ten gold rounds. But, how many did she offer to you for?” He turns to me, waiting and expecting me to answer.

“She was going to sell it for twenty-five gold rounds,” I say, putting my arms over my chest and spread my legs apart to strengthen my stance.

“Can you tell me, miss, what was your reasoning to selling it to me as a much more reasonable price, than my friend here?”

The brown haired dog stutters at her own words, looking between Ryneld and myself. She can’t seem to find the right excuse that she figures he will accept. My eyes shift to a side glance over at Ryneld. He holds a smirk, knowing he has out witted her at her own game. He leans forward on her stand, right forearm resting on the wooden table. “Now, how about you sell my friend her that piece of meat, for the price you were going to offer me?”

She looks from him to myself, with a relenting sigh. After her sigh, she raises back up and gazes right into my own eyes. “That will be ten gold rounds sir for that piece of beef.” Ryneld smiles, pleased with his work, as he pulls back away from the stand and straightens up beside me. I pull out ten gold rounds, lay them on the stand while she pulls the meat off of its twine, salts it and wraps it in a brown paper like packaging before tying it with twine. She counts out the gold rounds on the table, puts them in her locked container under her stand then smiles at me. The smile is obviously forced, “Pleasure doing business with you, sir.”

While she forces those words from behind her teeth, I put the meat into my bag. “Same to you, miss.” Ryneld and I walk away from the stand and back to where Kahetia and Grady are waiting for us on a bench. Before we reach them, I place my hand on Ryneld’s shoulder. He stops and turns to me. “Thank you.”

His expression is of a puzzled nature, as if he doesn’t know why I am thanking him. The realization dawns on him, and he sighs. “Don’t think me, Michael. I am working to try and bring peace and equality between Humans and Amalians. I know that humans have treated my people like slaves in the past, but that is just it. The past. That was hundreds of years ago. There is no need to hold on to that seeding hatred for this long period. It is actually past time that we move away from that chip on our shoulders and work toward being equal with each other. Humans and Amalians, we occupy the same Terasiia, so why can’t we just see eye to eye?” The entire time he speaks, his voice is slow, methodical but passionate as well. As if he believes every word he says can actually come to fruition. I hope this can be the case as well. I never understood why the humans were so cruel to the animal races. They could think and feel just like us, so why did we have to treat them so differently, and why does that hatred still exist in a few people? These are questions that I may never know the answer to, but I do know one thing. As long as I am breathing and walking, I will work to treat the humans, elves, Lalinos, and Amalians with equal respect. Again, I am a mercenary. I kill people without a second thought, no matter what their races are.

After he makes his peace, we walk up to the other two in our group. “What was that all about?” Kahetia askes Ryneld as she moves to stand next to him.

“Just a bit of specism is all,” he says looking down at her with a soft grin.

“As long as everything is settled, we need to find more arrows for me,” Grady says showing his quivers around his waist and back. One is empty and the other is less than half full. “I only have twenty-three left after the fight with Weharla. We have to stock up on-” his words are cut off when a cloaked figure grabs him by the mouth and drags him into an alley way.

The three of us call out his name as we jump to chase after the masked figure and our friend. Grady struggles and thrashes against the abductor’s hold, but the mysterious man has Grady in a hold he can’t escape. I open my mouth to command Ryneld to cast a spell to slow the figure, right before Ryneld cast a spell and a stone wall seems to appear from the ground, blocking the man from his original path. I give a smirk and nod to the mage, who gladly nods back to me. The man holding Grady, looks at the wall and comes to a halt. Without thinking twice, he heads to the right, running behind the city temple, evading our sights as he rounds the corner of the building.

Once behind the temple, we arrive in a graveyard, no sign of the man or Grady anywhere. I call out the man’s name, but no answer can be heard. The three of us spread out, checking behind gravestones, in the mausoleum, and up in the surrounding trees. It seems that minutes pass before we hear the squawking yell of our friend come from past the graveyard and back toward the city. Without wait, we haste toward the squeal to find the man toss Grady over the wooden railing and down to the open sewer system below. The figure gives us a salute before jumping in as well. Each of us run to the railing to see Grady’s head pop out of the water.

“Grady! Hold on!” I call out moving to jump into the sewer as well.

“No! Michael!” He yells out before he is drug back under. I pause, wondering why he didn’t want me to chase in after him. The thoughts of the man’s safety flood my head, the worst possible scenarios coming to my mind’s theatre on what was going to happen to the blonde archer. He heads breeches the water and he looks right at me, “The sewer system! Secret entrance,” he fights with his captor in the water, both fighting to stay above the murky mess. “Under the market place! The password is, Si-” his words are cut off again as he disappears back under the brown thick liquid.

“Grady, no!” I move to jump over the railing but Kahetia and Ryneld grab my shoulders. “What are you doing? Let me go.” I demand of them, struggling against their gripe to jump in and rescue my friend. They push me down and away from the railing, on to the stone cold pavement.

“Didn’t you hear him?” Kahetia asks me with one nub of her paw pointing at the sewer water. “He said for us to find the other entrance. He must know who these people are.”

I stand up and brush the gravel off my chest and arms. “I heard him, but I also heard him fighting for his life.”

She slaps me on the side of the head before putting her paws on her hips. “Idiot! That was obviously a thief. Didn’t you see the mark on his neck?”

“No, I was too busy chasing after my friend,” I say with a more defensive tone than I meant it to be.

“He knows these people, and if they are under his father’s control then they won’t hurt him,” what she says is true, and she knows it and so do I. The band of thieves here in Creeten belong under the control of Grady’s father, they wouldn’t hurt him unless they wanted to get killed by McDrago.

My hand runs through my red hair and over the back of my neck. I hate to admit she is right since I want so bad to jump into those waters and try to find where that scum took Grady. The lad’s life is in my hands now and I don’t feel right sitting back and letting him get taken away from me. I relent to her logic with a sigh and nod my head, “You are right. Let’s wait until night time and try to find that hidden entrance he was saying that was in the center plaza.”

The two agree with me, each giving their own nod of satisfaction at my plan. During the hours between then and nightfall, we stock up on some small supplies, nothing to extravagant. We mainly bought a torch to carry into the undergrounds with us. That and the oil to light the fire costed thirty gold rounds, I just hope we put it to good use tonight. While we wait, I can tell Kahetia is probably more distraught than I am. While we were in the forest, she and Grady talked the most with each other. They were the ones going off to track together, speaking the Amalian language behind my back, and she even made Grady blush while they were talking. Yeah…they must be really close. She didn’t even talk to Ryneld as much as she does Grady, and Grady doesn’t even talk to me as much as he does to her. What’s the big deal? Why do they talk to each other so much, and what are they even talking about? I look over to the cat woman, who is pacing back and forth on the stone brick pavement, waiting for the shops to close in the center plaza. I can see it in her eyes and stance that she is racking her brain to try and figure out how to get Grady back. She must really have grown an attachment to the man during our time in the woods.

Surprisingly, it’s not that uncommon for a human and an Amalian to be in a relationship anymore. If a human was to do that around fifty years ago, that would have been taboo, but now it’s not a rarity. Humans and Amalians are both reaching out to try and bridge the gaps and break stereotypes that were set on them by history and society, and it seems that’s what our small group is. Breaking stereotypes one person at a time. I stand up and approach Kahetia. She is so caught in thought that she doesn’t even hear me come up. When I place my hand on her shoulder, she jumps with a start and I almost receive claws to the face. She apologizes once she realizes it is me.

“Hey, don’t worry. We will get him back,” I say gently to her, my hand moves back to my side and away from her shoulder.

She lets out an almost inaudible sigh before looking up to me, “Grady has been through so much, he deserves happiness.”

Been through so much? What does she mean by that? “Wait, what all has he told you?”

She shakes her head with a frown, “I can’t tell you, Michael. When he wants to tell you, he will, but for now, I am the only one he feels he can tell his secrets to. It’s nothing against you,” she says quickly putting her paws up to dispel any negative thoughts I had, “It’s just he doesn’t want you to see him any differently if he tells you the truth of his past and present.”

I eye her, curious about the secrets and tales about Grady that she has stored in her mind. The stories that he is keeping away from me, but for some reason can only tell her. This isn’t the time to pester her anymore, though. The sun sets and within the next few minutes, the center plaza is cleared of its merchants and empty of any civilian. Now, was the time to attack.

With our eyes peeled, we head to the center of the plaza and look around for any sort of entrance. Nothing seems out of the ordinary, except, that there is a carpet in the middle of the plaza. Normally, I would say this is to keep people from stepping in a sewer grate, or maybe it was left by a sales person, but with my grasping at hay to try and say Grady, I would be willing to bet this carpet is hiding more than what people think. Ryneld kneels down, lifts up the carpet and to our surprise, there is nothing underneath. We each stand up, puzzled by this find. If that wasn’t what Grady was talking about, then where could it be? We each split up and move around the plaza looking for any sort of entrance or switch to reveal an entrance. I watch Kahetia open up the shop keepers locks on their wooden display tables, to only reveal a small lockbox and nothing more. Kahetia moves to open the box and I smack her paw away from it. She mews and pulls her paw back to rub it and I shake my head at her. There is no time for thieving, we have to find Grady. Ryneld calls us over to him, suddenly

When we walk over, there is a wooden set of stair cases going down to the lower section of the city, close to the sewer drain flow. We walk along a small stone path, right next to the murky water where Grady disappeared. The path takes us around the center plaza and under a bridge, to reveal a small opening underneath the plaza. Under its stone arch is a wooden door, and on that wooden door is a lock.

“Step aside, boys, I can handle this,” Kahetia says with a smirk as she extends her claws through her gloved paws and goes to work picking the lock. While she works, I can help but wonder if anyone knows this is down here. Doesn’t seem like many civilians would be down here, but if I were a guard looking for a thief, this would be a first place I would check. The lock pops off with a clink and falls to the cold ground with a clank. The cat woman stands back up with a smirk as she lets her claws go back into her gloves. “All in a day’s work.”

Before we move inside, I catch a glimpse of Ryneld and he holds a goofy but proud grin on his muzzle. I pat his shoulder with a chuckle, I know what that smile means. “Not now horn dog,” I whisper in a teasing manner, leading him to huff air out of his nose. I slip past him and Kahetia, to walk through the door. Now, in the depths of the sewers, it’s time to put that torch and oil to use.

I pull the torch from my bag, pour the oil on the end, and then Ryneld uses a spark spell to ignite the tip of the wooden torch. When the light floods the area, all of the rats on the floor scatter away from our feet. Normally, I would figure that Kahetia would be the one to scream, but instead, Ryneld lets out a yelp of surprise, jumping back away from the direction of the little vermins. Kahetia giggles and gives the dog an unimpressed glance, to which he grumbles and crosses his arms over his chest, muttering about how much he hates rats.

The sewer system is just like anyone would expect. A single stream of dirty water runs in the center, with two small paths on either side of the filth. The tunnels are low hanging, and full of dirt and parts of dead people. Wait? What? I jump back seeing a dismembered arm float through the murky liquid and disappear when a rat pulls it to the side and a whole horde of the creatures begin to fight over the meat on the bones. Terrible but also good sign. At least we know there were people down here. Whether that means good news for us is a different story yet to be told. We continue our trek through the putrid tunnels until we come to a large room, where we can actually stand up right again. Each of us groan when we stretch out our hunched backs, but our groans are short lived when we see the room we are in. How could this be under the city? It feels like we are inside of a building, makes me wonder how far we just travelled through that tunnel and if we are even in the city limits anymore.

The room is two storied, with the level we are standing on now with the water still running through the drain canals, and then a set of steps leads up to another level which seems to be some sort of prison. I tell Ryneld and Kahetia to stay there, and soon I brave to ascend the stairs. The stairs creak and crack underneath my weight, giving the impression that they haven’t been used in years, but the fresh mud on them tell me otherwise. At the top of the stairs is exactly what I thought. A row of cells line the walls of the sewers. This must be where the thief’s band keep their prisoners, or hostages that they hold ransom. Maybe Grady was in one of them. I run along the side of the wall and check in every single cell, only to find each of them empty and no sign of my friend. A disgruntled sigh leaves my lips. I turn around to see Kahetia and Ryneld climb up to the second floor.

“There is nothing down below. Have you found anything up here?” Ryneld asks looking at the cells within the wall.

“Nothing besides these, and these are all empty,” I note before continuing my search for something that could lead us to Grady. I follow the cells and down a small corridor is a lever. “Guys, over here,” I call before I pull the lever. When a door, what I thought was a wall falls forward and it turns into a small bridge between the rock ledge I am standing on to another ledge twenty feet away from me. Ryneld and Kahetia congratulate me on the find before we press on the search to find Grady.

Past that small bridge, and down the next path way, we enter another large room. Something about this room is different from the last. In the center of this room, connected by four bridges around the rotunda, a platform with a statue of the Divine Sipawn. The stone carved woman stands in full glory with the moon light shining down on her from the drain grate above her head. In one hand she holds a dagger and in the other a coin purse. At her feet are two cats, each with their tails wrapped around her legs. This had to be their base, but which door leads us to their main room. From each of the four bridges is a door. One we just came out of, one that seems bigger and has a large lock on it, one that is simple and surrounded by food supplies, and the other is already opened.

“I say we go through the one that is near the food,” I say to the group but Ryneld shakes his head at me.

“No, we should go through the one that is already open. That means that someone has been through there recently,” he says to me with one arm pointing toward the door.

It is like the forest all over again. Neither Ryneld nor I can seem to agree on which direction to go. But, last time I made the choice, we were lost for a week in a Divine forsaken forest. I give a sigh of defeat and nod, “Yes, you’re right. The open door is the best choice.”

He blinks and his heads moves back in a shocked manner. Did he not think I was going to agree with him? I wouldn’t either if I was in his shoes. A proud smile replaces his look of shock and he fixes his cloak over his shoulders. Before I give him the gratitude of me saying he is right, I head straight for the door opposite from where we are standing. When I push the door open, I can hear singing and clanking of beer mugs, along with laughter and chewing sounds. They were definitely down here and if they were, so was Grady. I put out the torch by sticking it into the water and then I store it back in my bag for a later use. Never know when a torch will come in handy. I lead the three of us down the dark hallway, following the noises of merriment and gleeful celebrating. We reach a final door and I push it open to reveal an underground tavern surrounded by men and women all with the marks of Sipawn on their necks. We slowly walk in and we would have gone undetected if the door hadn’t slammed shut behind us.

The singing stops and they all turn to us. My heart stops, jumps to my throat and my eyes widen as all of these people, roughly thirty people all lock eyes with us. They slowly stand up and draw their weapons. We raise up our hands, knowing it would be useless to try and fight off this many persons. They push us against the door each with their weapons at our bodies. The door closes behind us, and that means our only means of escape has now vanished and we were at the mercy of these thugs and heathens.

“You found your way down here,” one grunt says with an accent that seems foreign to me. Almost like a dwarf’s accent, then again, Dwarves were long since killed out in Jerensi-a, all that were left were Lalinos. He walks closer, well rather he limps because he has a wooden leg, and keeps his eyes locked with mine as he talks. “So you must know our password.”

I blink at the man who has his knife pointed at my face. Password? Shite! Grady did mention something about a password, but what was it? I try to rethink of the memory of him being drug under the sewer water. All that he got out was the sound of “Si”, wait….could it really be that simple?

“Sipawn,” I answer, and too my pleasurable surprise, the group backs off and leaves us to catch our breath. It really was that simple. How many people couldn’t guess that and save their lives, I don’t know. It seemed like a simple password, guess the name of their Divine and you were given their blessing. The simplicity of it may be what was tricky. No one would ever guess something so mundane and basic to be the coveted password to a band of thieves. But thankfully, I was one that could.

Our victory is short lived when a large man, and I do mean large man, makes his way through the crowd and up to us. The crowd parts like a herd of sheep when the shepherd makes his way through the herd. This man is so large and bulky, that I have to raise my head to look up to him. His shoulders are broader than the Shermine Forest. Hands larger than an Ogre’s club. Beard thicker than a Kanonian’s tail, and eyes that burned like the fire from a dragon. I instantly know who this is. He fit all the stories told of him in song and in word. It was none other than the leader of thieves, the dreaded man and Grady’s dad. McDrago Hemonia.