Birthstone

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Well... crap. That went a out as awfully as he could have predicted. Phen ground his teeth and quickly got to his feet, making chase after Ar'ruubis and the she pirate who, for all intents and purposes, seemed to be almost glowing..and was that a little extra Essryni heathe was feeling?

Ar'ruubis was much faster and lighter than the pair who were after him, his tail erect and wagging as he bounded gracefully over a few crates and then paused a moment to chew at the thing in his mouth. Realizing it wasn't food, he shook his head and gagged a little, but upon hearing Phen scold him he took off again, evidently this was now a game.

[allthekingsmen]

Ember was certainly fast, and was used to moving quickly through many kinds of spaces, but unfamiliar territory was unfamiliar territory, and she had to take a few precious seconds to discern the best path to Ar'ruubis, bounding over the crates and following straight.

"Ar'ruubis! If you give me that thing in your mouth, I'll give you a bunch of tasty treats to snack on!" she called after him. "Jerky! Biscuits! Even fish tails, if you want them again!"

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When Ar'ruubis, who had bounded off again, paused curiously at the pirate's promise,  Phen huffed out, "Oh come on!" Was his dog really about to betray him to treats? He was certainly surprised how fast Ember was, but was glad his hound was inevitably faster.. and unfortunately faster than both.

It wasn't until Pheonix realized where the pair had been lead to did he smirk. Seskah... he spotted his mount from the corner of hid eye and Ar'ruubis would be leading them soon past. All he had to do was bide his time I this chase and he could get the upper hand.

But boy oh boy was Ar'ruubis in an overly playful mood! And here Phen thiught the damn dog would have been exhausted by their run from earlier!

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Ember laughed triumphantly, though she kept her breakneck pace to better catch up to Ar'ruubis. "Good boy, Ar'ruubis! I'm gonna feed you so many treats—just drop what you have, and you'll be full of meat soon enough!"

The area was close enough to where she originally was that she could see just the tip of her ship's mast in the distance, past a tall stack of crates. Within whistle-distance of anyone shopping for supplies, surely—her cook wouldn't be able to resist the array of Essyrni spices, and Kenway would've tagged along to ensure their safety, as well as to run his own errands. They'd come if they knew it was her (probably), so long as she was distinctive and close enough.

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The dog paused to waggle his tail, evidently happy about the idea of treats. Phen actually began to worry if his furry companion was about to sabotage him for meat!

"Ar'ruubis!" Phen called. "Don't drop or eat that gem!"

But the second either got nearer to him the damn beast took off again, skirting between the pair in a zigzagging dash that made Pheonix lunge for him as he missed.

Damn dog!

[allthekingsmen]

"Come on!" Ember hissed under her breath, lungs straining under the toil of running at a full sprint for so long. She was strong, and certainly fast, but she still had her limits. Regardless, she pushed on—just a little more, and she could rip the gem out of the dog's mouth by force if need be.

Or, she thought, eyes darting to the side. She could take the owner and the pet would follow. Probably. It'd be satisfying, at the very least.

She lurched to the side, using her tiredness to her advantage to slam herself into Phen's side, elbow first, then taking him into the ground with a tangle of her foot and a heft of her weight, trying her best to keep him grounded by looping her limbs around his, keeping one arm free just in case.

She lifted her head and whistled loudly, a short yet recognizable cadence of notes carrying through the air. If her allies were nearby, they'd know it was her—at worst, a bunch of strangers just heard whistling behind a bunch of clutter and would try to see what was going on, but Ember could deal with that when she got to it.

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Phen hadn't seen the change of target coming and before he knew it he was eating the wood of the dock. It took him a moment to realize Ember was looping limbs and keeping her weight on him to keep him down.  He wriggled beneath her weight, eyes following his dog that just...

That just left him there, abandoning him to the woman who promised him death! He was the worst dog, ever. Growling, Phen wriggled until he got an arm free and tried to pry Ember's other arm off his.

"You know you're a lot heavier than you look."

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"And you're a lot weaker than you look," Ember shot back, tightening her grip on him and using her free hand to bat away his arm. Maybe the dog would come back, maybe he wouldn't—at this point, she cared more about tormenting Phen for stealing it than actually getting the gem back. There were plenty of riches in Essyrn, after all; one little rock wouldn't make that big of a difference, would it? "Careful who you steal from, Mr. Estaglave."

She heard rapid footfalls coming closer and closer, one pair heavy and one pair light. Likely her allies—Kenway had a taste for lighter, nimbler footwear, while Sorrel preferred big, clunky boots—answering her whistle. She kept her eyes squarely on Phen, though, leaning further over him to get a better look at his face, a few long locks of her hair spilling over her shoulder. "Are you a thief, or do you have a legal job that you make money off of?"

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Phen grunted as he all but bucked beneath her. He could probably have pushed her off if he were more vicious in his attempts to escape, but she was merely wrestling him, and he wasn't about to use a dirty trick ... quite yet.

"You wound me," he lamented through a garbled breath. But then his eyes widened when he heard that others approached.  He looked at her and at her words he bared his teeth.

"I'm much too pretty to be a theif."
Infact, he was surprised any of his slight of hand tricks worked.

But now wasn't the time to compliment himself. Others were coming and he had to think fast. Once he got his other hand free again he stuffed two fingers between his lips and gave a particular whistle and jerked suddenly, spilling around and using his momentum and weight to shift their balance to knock Ember down while he swooped around to take the top position,  pinning her down with effort...

And then a moment later his dragon bird came honking through the docks straight towards the pair with a purpose.

[allthekingsmen]

Ember struggled all the way down, trying to use the hard edges of her elbows to jab him in the stomach or throat to make him reel away in pain, flailing her legs and hoping that she'd hit him between his—their size difference wasn't so great that she couldn't headbutt him, or try to force him back under her, but the whistle had startled her. Clearly, he had reinforcements of his own.

"You absolute—" she interrupted her own insult with a grunt of effort as she tried to whip her head back hard enough to whack him in the face. It'd hurt for her, sure, but it'd hurt for him, too. Unfortunately, her hair was caught beneath them and didn't allow for much movement of her head. She scowled in frustration. "Ken, Sor, ye lousy fucks—get this prick off of me!"

In that moment, Kenway seemed to burst onto the scene, a pistol in his hand and aimed at Phen almost immediately, while Sorrel lagged behind, seemingly startled by the dragon bird, indicated by a "What in the hells is—?!"

Kenway kept his cool, one hand training the pistol on Phen's head while the other drifted to his belt, where his knife was kept. Deep purple eyes took in the situation, flicking to a thrashing (or attempting to thrash) Ember before returning to Phen. "She cause you trouble?"

Ember just scowled deeper. "You are the worst."

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Their awkward thrashing and tangle of limbs didn't come without consequences.  Her elbows must've been barbed as her words, and although whatever head butt failure she had attempted and failed, Phen was at a similar disadvantage as he now had a pistol pointed at his face and two others to contend with.

Atleast he had his dragon bird, whom now haulted just behind him and shifted her weight, agitated. But at Kenway's inquiry,  both of Phen's brows lifted.

"No, no, we're absolutely fine. This is just how most of my pre-date, walks on the beaches always go."
He wasn't sure weather it was wise to have kept his sarcastic mouth shut or not, but given the choice.. he'd still make his quirky remarks

Seskah squacked uneasily, ruffling her stumpy set of wings as she seemed to eye the pair tangled on the ground curiously . It almost seemed like she might peck them as if they were seed.

"You can uh, probably put the gun away? See?" He went on, slowly removing his hands from Ember, forcing an easy going grin as he lifted up both hands in surrender. "No need to get bullets involved."

Ember would be mostly free now,  except Phen would be awkwardly straddling her and she'd now have to more or less zigzag her way around his form as he remained on his knees.

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Sorrel finally caught up, stopping at Kenway's side and warily flicking their gaze from the dragon bird to the tussle on the ground, a thunderous frown on their face. They, too, moved their hand to their own belt, hovering between their cutlass and their rope.

Kenway's expression didn't change much besides a slightly-deeper furrow of his brow, his gaze akin to a disappointed parent. "Obviously, if you know how this looks, then you'll know how many ways this could be construed. The least I could do is check if this is just a regular fight or something more serious."

"As if me being stolen from isn't serious," Ember hissed, her anger divided between Phen and her second-in-command.

Kenway just sighed, stance just as strong and directed at Phen as before. He cocked his gun (as it wasn't before) and vaguely motioned with his chin. "Get fully off of her, first. Slowly. And keep your bird at bay, or you'll lose your head."

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Well the gun was cocked and he wasn't about to risk getting his head blown off, so Phen slowly rose from his feet. He kept his arms up, eyes never leaving Kenway as he gestured towards the much taller man. He was pretty tall, especially compared to Phen, who was merely average height at best.  But as he stood, the gilded gold adorning his clothing would be much more evident , as would be the fancy way he dressed. Silk wasn't exactly a cheap clothe, and most of his outfit was constructed of it. So it might have been an interesting thing to call the rather well off man a theif, for even his hair was wrapped in a fancy, tidy and bejewelwd manner, as was his awkward bird thing now standing tall and behind him, for Seskah had a fancy rein and saddle bags.

"Easy there, big guy. See? No foul here," he went on, wiggling fingers for emphasis.

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Ember pulled herself up the second Phen was off of her, fixing her hair and brushing dirt and grime off her clothes the best she could with a low grumble under her breath. This was utterly humiliating—now that Kenway and Sorrel had seen her like this, she'd be hounded by the both of them for the rest of time, she was sure.

Kenway simply cocked an eyebrow just like his gun, his expression dryly unamused. "You've made my day difficult already, even though I only just stepped off the ship. There's enough foul for a whole flock, here."

Ember inwardly groaned at his pun, putting her hand to her sash and settling over her knife, ready to draw it at any moment. "By Chrysan's beard, stop stalling. Sorrel, are you done gawking yet?"

At her last words, Sorrel flung a loop of rope towards Phen, a pre-tied lasso whipping towards him at lightning speed while Ember darted away, careful to not get ensnared in Sorrel's action.

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Phen's grin widened a little at the play on words. He appreciated that,  not so much the gun on him, but he did enjoy a good pun. So he was a bit caught off guard when a loop of rope was launched towards him, and equally surprised when , without any effort, he somehow caught the rope.

Holding the caught lasso, Phen blinked,  confused, then his eyes slowly slid to Ember.
"Err.. should I be concerned? I mean.." he went on, laughing nervously. "It honestly looked like you were about to rope me in like a wild horse." He grinned wider. Surely that wasn't their intentions.. right?

[allthekingsmen]

Ember simply smirked, a slow, sinuous, sinister seeping of a nefarious-looking smile onto her face. Sure, she wasn't pleased that it didn't go all to plan, but it could still work out. "Don't doubt yourself so much—that's exactly what we're doing."

Sorrel huffed, tugging hard on their side of the rope to pull back to lasso. Kenway still had his gun aimed at Phen, though his arm was admittedly getting a bit tired. Ember shrugged and sighed lightly, "Well, whatever. Would you mind coming with us? We won't kill you, I promise—we abide by at least some hospitality rules—but I would like for us to have a little chat. A private one."

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Phen gave her the most skeptical of looks.
"Not to sound unconvinced or anything, but weren't we kind of sort of doing that as a walk on the beach?. I mean... it's nice you wanted to invite your friends and all, but the beach would have been pretty private for the pair of us."

Foolish or not, Phen was going to drag his feet on this one for as.long as he safely could.  As much as it was fun hanging out with Ember, now that things got a little less safe and perhaps a little toopersonal,  he wasn't exactly ready to follow her and her gun toting friends away from the safety of the docks just yet.

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"Not my scene when I'm dealing with a thief, really," Ember retorted, sorely missing the company of her own preferred weapons. "Besides, I prefer the comfort of my own cabins when deciding ransoms. I assume you have people who would notice if you were gone for too long?"

She crossed her arms, taking her hand away from her sash. "I do assure you that none of us will kill you so long as you're on our ship—I can even make a magic-imbued vow for that if it makes you feel better—but I can't guarantee your safety if you keep standing here and making things even more difficult for yourself."

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"Yeah... well, I'm sort of knownto be a little difficult, "he said in earnest. Although,  he supposed that much was quite obvious by now.
"Besides, am I really the thief here? I mean.. I thought you were aiming to just steal my heart ... not well, all of me."
He hadn't exactly stolen the goods first. For all she knew,  he aimed to return the gem to its rightful owner!

[allthekingsmen]

To be honest, Ember didn't care whether or not Phen was stealing out of altruism or greed—she took something from her, and as someone who made a living off of taking things from other people, she was more than a little irritated that someone got the leg up on her. That was the area of offense... besides, she liked shiny things.

She rolled her eyes, though her smile twitched on her lips. "Oh, please. Just come with us before I—or, rather, my second-in-command—have to hurt that princely face of yours. A bullet between your eyes won't do you good with any woman, whether or not it's me."