It was cold, it was wet, and Julian had a head ache. While it was completely his fault- the idiot was drinking all of last night- he was not in the best mood. Dark rain clouds hung above and off in the distance, thunder could be heard. The streets were wet from earlier rain and very little people were out and about.
Julian was resting against the wall, the collar of his jacket was flipped up to keep out the cold/wet air. He was hired by an older man. It was a good amount of money, but it would have been more if it hadn't been for the fact that the guy also hired someone else. Goddam beginners, although Julian did hear that this person had some sort of beast with them.
The job was easy enough. Brake into Lord Donalbain's mansion. Get a scroll with some sort of weapons plan on it. Then kill the Lord. That was Julian's part of the job. Whoever was coming with him would be getting the scroll, with help from Julian's powers to negate magic, and deliver it. But Julian can't see why he couldn't do it himself.
If they don't show up soon, I am going to get out of this muggy weather and do it myself.
How much you wanna bet that sour-looking fellow is our partner for the job?
Kiara rolled her eyes as her dragon pointed out the man leaning up against the wall of the alley poor Kit was trying to slink down- there's only so much slinking a dragon can really do.
"Well, he'll certainly be sour if you treat him like that," she pointed out quietly. A bit louder, she called as she stepped away from Kit's side, "Julian?" That was supposed to be his name, right?
Kit lowered his head a bit as though trying to make himself smaller, almost hiding behind the fae girl.
Julian looked down, eybr raised. The girl in front of him was a foot shorter. She looked like an elf of some sort, Julian couldn't really tell.
"You're the other person the old man hired?" Julian asked, his mood brightening up a bit after finding out his partner was a girl. "What a pleasure. However, it seems that you know my name but I do not know yours."
She smiled. May as well try to get off to a good start, right? "Kiara." She extended a hand, then jerked her head over her shoulder. "The big lizard is Kittsareyn. Kit to his friends."
The dragon snorted at her and shoved his head in between her shoulders in retaliation. She kept her balance with the ease of long practice, rocking forward onto the balls of her feet before settling back again.
"I was told that a you had a creature with you," Julian said, taking her hand, "But I was not aware that it was a dragon. And a very shy one looks like. How cute."
Julian checked her out, looking for a sword or even a wooden staff, but saw none.
"Uh... What exactly do you do? Like where's your sword or do you do hand to hand? If you do magic, I'll let you know that there is a chance that it might not work well around me."
Kit growled at the word "cute" and Kiara raised a hand to soothe him, stroking his neck. She smiled again, but there was a bit of a hard edge to it this time. "Pyromancer, but only if I have to be." She gave him a nod. "Mostly knives. Daggers." One hand gestured to her body- she appeared unarmed, but it was easiy to conceal smaller blades on one's person- if you knew what you were doing.
Scratching Kit's brow ridge, she added, "Kit will be our getaway more than anything else. He's a bit too big for stealth."
Julian rolled his eyes at "stealth". Julian wasn't the best at it, but he wasn't the worst either. Its a skill that he gained years ago and didn't really use it all the time.
"Well then, it seems we have everything," Julian said, grinning wide. He deepen his voice and lifted his chin up, a fist raised in the air. "We have the handsome and strong man with amazing skills. A girl who love fire and knives, good at both. And our getway animal; the smallest dragon I have ever seen!"
Kit growled again, more insistently this time, and Kiara frowned at the man as she reached a hand up to stroke her dragon's muzzle. "Even a small dragon is a dragon," she said warningly, eyes narrowed. There was a flash of dark fire in the green, something distinctly inhuman.
Then it was gone, as quickly as it had come. She nodded her head toward the mouth of the alley. "Let's get moving then? Kit will come when I call, it's pretty much up to us, here on out."
Julian snickered quietly at the dragon. It was quite fun to mess with theses two. Maybe he'll keep them around.
"Aw, lighten up. All is in good fun." He said to Kit, giving him a wink. Julian then turned to Kiara, smile never fading. "Well then, shall I lead us on this sneaky quest?"
Julian didn't even wait for an answer before he started forward. Man, he was in a much better mood than before. His head ache was much less and they were finally getting a move on with this mission. He has a really good feeling about this.
Kiara seemed a bit less enthused, turning to press a quick kiss to Kit's muzzle before she set off following the semi-stranger.
I'm here when you need me. The dragon huffed and glared at her new partner. Be careful. I don't trust him.
"You don't trust anyone," Kiara muttered. "But I will." She gave him another pat and hurried to catch up with Julian. "Y'know, if you're self-admittedly not the best at sneaking, maybe I should take the lead?" she pointed out with a quirked eyebrow.
Julian shrugged and stepped back. He then held his hands out as if he was holding a door open.
"Here then. Ladies first." he said, non moving, "I'll let you know that I don't care about who goes first or who does what. I'm in for the money. Just as long as the job gets done."
This time he smirked, but it wasn't playful like the previous times. It was more... sinister. But the Julian stood up straight and laughed loudly.
"Shall we go on?"
The hair stood up along the back of her neck and Kiara shot him a tense, wary look. There wasn't much she thanked her father's fae blood for, but a rather uncanny judge of character was in the small number.
And she couldn't quite get a read on this man.
She shrugged. "As you like, then. Don't see why it should be so complicated- get in, grab the mark, get out."
Julian paused and frowned. Was it him or did she miss part of the mission. Julian thought about and shrugged. Whatever. Even if she didn't remember it, he definitely did.
There was a crack of lighting and thunder rummbled. Julian looked up just as a rain droplet hit his face. Then his hands, and his shoulders. He looked back down to Kiara.
"Uh, it's raining."
One eyebrow slowly crept up toward her hairline. "Wow." The sarcasm in her voice was so sharp it rightly should have cut right through him. "That is just an astoundingly astute observation. Well done. I shudder to think what the fate of this mission might be were it not for your keen powers of deduction."
With a little flick of her wrist, she warmed the air around her immediate vicinity, raindrops drying almost the moment they touched her skin or clothes. She tilted her head at him. "Not sure how much use this'll be with your whole "no magic" thing, but I'm willing to try to dry you off a bit too."
"Well, you certainly surprised me," Julian said, choosing to ignore her sarcasm, "most people have a difficult time trying to use any magic around me. Impressive but no, a little rain wont kill me. Lets just get this done with. If we dilly-dally anymore, the sun would have set and risen again."
She shrugged. "Suit yourself." Her eyes flickered about warily as they moved through the rain. Already she was missing the comfort of Kit's bulk at her back. "I was told you're lead on this," she said conversationally. "So I'm really just following you here."
"Are you kidding me?" Julian said, bending down so he was face to face with Kiara. "You do know that whole reason we even stopped walking was because you said that you wanted to lead. I even gave you a bow and waved you on."
Julian stood back up and tilted his head to the side, hands on his hips.
"Are you stalling? Is someone not ready to go yet?" He said in a cooing voice.
Her eyes narrowed. "I'm plenty ready," she muttered. "I meant more metaphorically. What's the plan here, exactly- aside from me being the lead on sneaking in."
Julian took a deep breath, sucking in some water.
"Well..." He let it out, "I don't know. I was just gonna wing it. Dont really know what to do until I see it for myself."
Seeing how Kiara was still standing there, Julian started to walk again, rubbing his head. He waved his hand for her to follow.
"I can let you know this. There are three floors, a basement, uh... there is Caretakers house. He would most likely have a set of keys. So there's that. As for everything else, that is all guess work."
"Oh good." The sarcasm was back in her tone. "Guess work. My favorite." She sighed and rubbed at her temple. Getting closer to Julian, her magic sputtered a bit and the rain finally met her skin, making her wince and glare upward.
"Where's the caretaker's place then? Actually on the property?" Gods, she wished she'd been properly briefed before this job.
"Well I sure hope so." Julien said grinning. "Caretakers tended to be a perminate hired hand and live directly on the property. Their house tends to be a bit away from the main house and a lot smaller. It shouldn't be a problem."
He looked back at her, his grinning widening to a large smile. "We just have to get over the wall, avoid the guards, pass through the grounds, and get into the building. Anything after that is unknown. Don't know the amount of guards inside and I sure as hell don't have a clue where the vault could be. We could make a detour to the Caretaker if that is something you want to do. He might even has th layout of the place."
Julien winked and look ahead again. The manson was just around the corner. By now the sky was almost completely black and the rain had soaked Julian, making his black hair stick to his face. I should have brought a better coat...
Kiara's curly hair had started matting to her face and neck and she shot him a quick, annoyed glare. "Okay. So apparently neither of us was properly briefed for this," she muttered. "Wonderful."
With a little sigh she rubbed at her temple and clicked her fingers to summon the thin shield of warmth around her body gain. It was a bit more difficult this time, but she didn't think it should drain her too badly.
"We've got...nothing in terms of disguise? We're not merchants, or what-have-you?"
Julian shrugged.
"I've got this sword. And that one." He pointed at the cloth on his back. "I also got amazing skills."
He looked back down and saw her sour face. He sighed.
"If it makes you feel better, since it is raining there will probably be no guys out. It is after dinner so everyone will most likely be asleep or drunk. The doors are easy to pick lock and despite it being a mansion with three floors, it's still pretty small. And everyone knows the basic layout for a house so we can easily by pass most rooms. When you have as much experience as I, you get pretty good at small things like this."
Kiara rolled her eyes. "I'd still be a whole lot more comfortable if there was a real plan involved," she muttered.
Julian huffed flicking his hair out of his eyes.
"Do you want to spend an extra two days having someone scouting up ahead? Or do you want to spend a hour figuring stuff out? We have time, but I'll let you know that I haven't eaten yet."
Kiara was really starting to think she shouldn't have taken this job.
But the coin was good. She'd just...avoid this town for the foreseeable future once they were down.
Scowling, she muttered, "Look, fine, just- if we get caught, I'm definitely blaming you. Let's move."
Julian took lead as they walked down the turning streets. The sun was completely gone, the only light coming from windows and Kiara's hand. Soon the muddy roads turned stone as they entered the richer part of town. Still in an ally ways, Julian took a step out and inspected the road.
There wasn't anyone out, so it was unlikely that the two of them would get caught. The whitewash house in front of him had two floors, just like he described. A large stone wall surrounded the place, a slick, black gate attached to it. From what Julian could see over the wall was few. There was a nice garden -it was the spring season, so some of the flowers had bloomed-, he could only see two guards -one at the front door, the other walking around- and there was a smaller house on the far right of the manson. Julian turned back around, grinning at the person beside him.
"This is it. Have you decided what you wanted to do yet? Go to the Caretaker's house or dive right into the manson?"
She huffed, glancing around furtively. "Let's just get this over with," she grumbled. She was really starting to wish she'd never taken this job.
Julian shrugged, not caring either way. If she didn't want to decide then fine with him.
"Into the house we go." He said and took off towards that wall. He jumped, grabbing the edge, hoisted himself up and landed safely on the other side. He took a moment to see if he was heared or spotted but the guards didn't look alerted so he was safe.
Julian turned back the wall and called out to Kiara quietly. "I'm good. Hurry up and get over here."
Muttering curses under her breath all the while, Kiara scaled the wall with the ease and grace of a youth spent clambering through hard-to-reach, high places, then dropped into an almost feline crouch beside him.
"Okay, we're in. Let's move fast, yeah?"
"Right, right. Lets go."
Julian peeked out from behind the brush, making sure the guards where facing the other way before he creeped quickly to another set of bushes, crouching and looking over his shoulders at the guards once and a while.
There was a cough and Julian instantly ducked. There was a third guard, waking out from behind the mansion. The man was older, his wrinkles caused deep shadows over his face. A lit cigarette hung loosely between his fingers as he coughed. Julian looked back at Kiara and shrugged.
He wasn't ready to wait, so Julian started to walk again, taking the opportunity. As soon as the other guards were out of eye sight, Julian stood up and leaped at the man. The old guy, done with his coughing and had his cigarette back in his mouth, reached for his side to grab his sword. Julian hit him in the side of the neck, making the cigarette fallout, and covered the man's mouth and nose.
He grunted quietly as the man fought back but after a few moments, the guard stopped moving and Julian let him down to the ground softly. He looked back up at Kiara ans smiled wickedly though the darkness.
Kiara nearly jumped out of hiding, but she held herself back. She rolled her eyes at Julian's smile and stepped carefully to his side once it was clear the guard was unconscious.
She jerked her head meaningfully at the manor and quirked an eyebrow, indicating he should lead.