Chapter 4

No Honor Among Thieves

Zora stopped at the edge of town, Lilly was right behind him, he turned to see her gazing up into the trees. The wall and giant door were unable to hide the massive trees, Zora put his hand on the wooden door, the texture was smooth.

"Do you like the forest?" he asked, turning back to look at her, she shook her head in response.

"No, I've never been, I've only ever been around the town, but they're so big I can't help but stare." She replied, tearing her eyes away from the trees above, "The festival starts an hour after dusk, so we should start making our way back at dusk."

"Yeah, that makes sense." Zora grunted, as he pushed open the door, Lilly just nodded absent mindedly as she walked through the door. Her gaze had yet to stray from the trees, Zora was a little more focused on the forest floor.

"I'd love to find some rare artifact, get some extra pocket change." He said, Lilly looked down from the trees before responding. "Why do you need some extra pocket change, hmmm?"

"So I can buy you that armor and weapon." He replied, glancing up at her, he'd just picked something from the dirt, "remember?"

"Oh, you're still gonna do that?" Lilly asked, her eyes sparkled with anticipation, "Thank you!" He nodded, and stared at the object in his hands, his fingers digging into its dirt shell.

"I found an old medallion, probably worth a couple gold coins," He said, dropping it into his pocket, "come on I think I hear a stream up ahead." Lilly nodded, standing up to follow him, but instead her ears twitched.

"Someone is following us." she whispered, quickening her pace to keep up with him. Zora nodded in response, but kept walking and Lilly followed in pursuit, her ears still picking up the faint crackle and rustle of someone tracking them.

"Um, Zora-" Lilly began, but he put his hand up silencing her as they kept walking, then before she could react he shoved her against a tree, his knife to her neck. She looked into his eyes, they were calm, except for the knife at her neck she felt safe.

A figure burst from the undergrowth, a flash of metal revealed that he had a weapon in hand, he went straight for Zora who dropped his knife into Lilly's hand and rolled out of the way. When he looked back Lilly had the newcomer on the ground, the knife had found a new throat to graze.

"H-hey, wait!" He choked out, "Lilly don't you remember me?" Lilly frowned, staring down at him, then her eyes lit up with recognition.

"Zeldren! Is that you?" She suddenly said, taking the blade away from his throat, and tossing it back to Zora.

"Yeah, It's me." Zeldren replied, He sat up, and Zora's eyes widened.

"You're an elf!" Zora exclaimed, sheathing his knife as he walked over. "I Haven't seen an elf before."

"Yeah, elves don't normally come this far south, but unlike most elves I've got very little magic." Zeldren replied, "Lilly and I used to be business partners, before . . ." He trailed off and looked down, Lilly looked oddly despondent as well.

"Yeah, but why were you stalking us?" Lilly asked, her ears twitched nervously as she gave Zora a look that said, be careful.

"Cause I saw you," Zeldren replied, pointing at Lilly, "And I thought you'd been captured or something cause you don't normally show your true form so freely." Lilly smiled, and nodded.

"Took you guys a month to figure it out, though Zora only took five days." Lilly replied, teasingly, her tail began to sway back and forth as her mood improved, "Ever since then I've felt safe enough to show myself."

"Oh, well since the incident me and Drake hid in the collapsed part of the dungeon, at least until recently. We moved out here a few days ago." Zeldren said, his face was neutral, not giving anything away. "I'd love to show you guys around."

"Yes please, I've missed Drake, I'd love to see him again." Lilly replied, her ears perked up, listening for voices.

"Ok, then follow me!" Zeldren replied, before sprinting away, Lilly followed, and with little choice to do otherwise Zora quickly pursued them. Before long a clearing appeared up ahead, a fire-pit was in the center, but otherwise it was empty. Lilly stopped by the firepit and looked around, nothing out of the ordinary, then she looked up just in time to see a large short boy leap from the tree and land by Lilly's side. Upon closer inspection she could see a hidden home in the higher branches. The boy who'd landed beside her was a dwarf, a battle axe strapped across his back, he looked up at her and smiled.

"Lilly! It's been long time, how are you my friend?" The dwarf asked, smiling and holding out his hand. Lilly shook his hand and replied honestly.

"I'm doing good, mighty glad to see you again Drake." She dropped his handshake and turned to look at Zeldren, "The others who ended up with me. . . we never found a good place to hide, and the imperials picked us off one by one, I'm the only one that I know of who got enslaved, though I did escape, the other were imprisoned." Zeldren frowned at that, "of course, don't worry, it wasn't your fault that incident couldn't have been prepared for." He replied,

"hey so what are ya'll doin out here in dis here forest?" Drake asked, puzzled, "not that I don wanna see ya."

"Oh, just killing time before the festival tonight, I'd love to spend more time here, but we'll need to leave in about an hour." Lilly replied, just as Zora pushed through the undergrowth.

"Lilly what'd I tell you about slowing down, I almost lost you guys." He said, frowning in annoyance, but his eyes were soft with humor.

"Sorry, hey meet my friend Drake." Lilly said, leading the dwarf over to Zora, they both shook hands.

"I sense that you, my boy, are strong fighter." Drake said, looking up into Zora's eyes, "and honest and true alley of Lilly. Stay strong friends, protect each other." Drake let go of his hand and stepped back.

"Visit again sometime, but today, something important must attend." Drake continued, and Zeldren nodded, as Drake set off into the forest.

"I must go as well, good day my friends." Zeldren said, frowning in thought as he followed Drake into the trees, Lilly glanced at Zora, a puzzled expression on her face.

"Odd, Zeldren is acting weird, nevermind, let's head back maybe we'll get there on time." Lilly said, before setting off in the direction they'd come, but this time at a reasonable pace.

Zora pulled the giant wooden door closed, Lilly was standing at a stall when he turned around, he walked towards her and as the conversation came to his ears he got quite annoyed.

"Sorry!? That's not gonna cut it mister, I want to buy this, and you say sorry!" Lilly was saying, her tail tip twitched in annoyance.

"Yeah, I don't serve lithians sorry, go find another store you filthy rat!" The man replied, angrily. As Zora walked up, the man looked over at him, and his entire attitude changed.

"Hello sir how can I help you today?" He asked politely, smiling a smile of crooked yellow teeth.

"Oh nothing just here to get my rat." He said angrily, grabbing the sleeve knife that Lilly was trying to buy, he tossed half its price at the man and started walking away, Lilly was right behind him.

"Here." Zora said to Lilly as he handed her the knife, she smiled and nodded her thanks. The Inn was right around the corner, Zora opened the door for his companion as they entered. Scaling the stairs Zora opened the door to their room. Ashley wasn't in the room, but that was fine, Zora crossed to his bed and pulled a traditional festival dress from under it and tossed it to Lilly.

"Bought this for you, thought you'd wanna wear it to the festival." He said pulling out a traditional festival robe and slipping it on over his current attire, easily concealing his light armor, while he was getting ready Lilly had slipped into the bathroom. She now emerged wearing the dress, it's beautiful array of colors made her look amazing and would go well with the colorful festival they were about to attend.

"Come on!" Lilly exclaimed, opening the door and beckoning him to follow, "the festival will start soon." She turned and disappeared out the door, Zora in pursuit .

They exited the Inn to see two men making their way down the street lighting the street candles, Lilly didn't even stop to watch she led Zora in a mad dash down the street, they were headed to the park on the north side of town. At the speed they were going it didn't take them long to skidd to a stop outside of the park, Zora gasped, the whole park was lit up. There were vender stalls set up in multiple convenient spots, people milled about among them, several open areas had been filled with different activities, and a makeshift stage had been set up on one side.

"This is gonna be fun!" Lilly exclaimed, dashing into the crowd. Zora followed, sighing in exasperation, she was like a little kid excited by the pretty lights. He did his best to keep up with her though, not wanting her to be alone if an imperial officer were to show up, she stopped in front of a stall selling cotton candy.

"Hey, What do you sell?" She asked, glancing at the different colors and signs.

"You stupid, I sell cotton candy, says so on the sign." The man replied, pointing to the sign above him. Lilly looked offended at that but she brushed it off and smiled before replying

"Oh, how much for one?" The man glared at her and pointed to the sign again, noticing a couple of numbers, took a guess. "I'll one blue." She said, the man sighed in annoyance and handed her the cotton candy.

"That'll be four silver coins." The man said, Lilly pulled out her money but before she could give it to him Zora grabbed her wrist.

"Hey it says two silver not four." He said, frowning, "Do you take pride in ripping your customers off." The man just grumbled angrily, taking the two silver he shooed them off. Lilly took a bite of her cotton candy as they walked, her eyes lit up.

"Yum this is good!" She said, taking another bite, "by the way thanks for the assist." Zora nodded, his face lost in thought.

"Can you read?" He asked suddenly, stopping to look at her, she blushed and shook her head, "No, I never learned, I didn't need to know how to read to be a thief." She replied, "But it looks like I'll have to learn." Zora nodded as they continued towards the center of the park.

"Let's go check out that stage, I saw it from the entrance, but there weren't any lights on." Zora suggested, pointing towards the stage which now was lit up.

"Sounds great." lilly agreed and they quickened their pace, only slowing down once the crowd got to thick to push through.

A young lithian cat ran down a dark alley, he kept looking over his shoulder like something was after him, he took a turn and stopped dead. In front of him stood a boy in an imperial officer uniform, his sword was unsheathed.

"No! I won't go back!" The Lithian yelled, he turned to run, but didn't get far before a sword went through his neck and his knees hit the ground, the boy put his foot on the shoulder of the lithian and pulled his sword from his neck. Magnus tied a rope around the neck of the lithian and dragged him away down the alley disappearing into the night.

Lilly and Zora stood side by side at the front of the crowd, no one was on stage, but apparently something was about to happen, at least that's what Zora assumed. A few moments later a couple of imperial soldiers walked out onto the stage, they held up signs, seeing one of them having Lilly's picture and slave number he quickly pulled her back into the crowd.

"Hey did you bring your cloak?" He whispered urgently, She shook her head, "I didn't expect to be hunted."

"Of course." Zora replied, sighing, "We'll have to sneak out, come on!" He grabbed her wrist and they both pushed through the crowd, making slow progress towards the edge. Finally he pushed his way out, and was checking his surroundings when he felt a prick in his neck, and suddenly everything started to get hazy. As he slumped to the ground he could only watch as Zeldren dragged Lilly away.