Gurta huffed as his arms crossed his broad chest, "Well, as you all are well-aware, we've not been taking in as much as we used to. In fact, we're barely scraping by. We're gettin outta the thievin business. Well, fer now at least. Got us a mercenary gig lined up that's supposed to pay quite nicely."

"Who's the recruiter?" Asked Rayce as he kicked his boots up onto the table, leaning back in his chair a bit, still donning his own trenchcoat for now, but his sleek crimson tail dangling to the floor outside of it.

Gurta gave him a bit of a glare for the boots, snorting once more and relaxed a bit himself, posture loosening up some, "Some ex-guard from Rabinthe who needs us to get a friend of his safely outta there. Guard lives here in Callumden now. Met him at the pub couple days ago."

Rayce glanced over to Gurta and gave him a questioning lift of his brow, "A guard? Thought ya never trusted those types. He say somethin' that affected ya?" He asked the boar, not believing for a second that was the case in the usually cold-hearted boar.

Gurta responded with a wide grin, "The size of his wallet certainly 'affected' me" Replied the solid boar, "Man paid for both our drinks that night. Suffice to say it was my first time gettin wasted in nearly a year!" Said the boar with a hearty laugh. Rayce was quite impressed by that very concept, since it took gallons upon gallons of alcohol to get Gurta even a little tipsy, much less full-on drunk. "Sure he didn't spike your drinks?" Asked the salamander. To which Gurta's gaze narrowed a bit and his hearty demeanor diminished noticeably. "You think I'da let someone drug me, Rayce? Ya gone daft, maybe? Questioning your leader?"

To which Rayce only kicked back in his seat a bit more and brought his hat down over his eyes quite casually, "Nope"

"That's what I thought..."

At long last the fourth member of the group finally piped up, this one a sleeker, more refined-looking, female anubis type, "Aaaanyways... a rescue/kidnapping op then, huh? And what's it pay, exactly?" She asked with narrowed eyes to the burly boar. Her voice had caught the attention of all of the assembled for a moment, but then their eyes turned back to Gurta who took a moment to recall the agreed rate, "Guard said 5,000 astra for each of us if we pulled it off." At which the anubis' ears lay back a bit and her tone growing more frustrated, "And what kind of ex-guard just has 20,000 astra lying around, huh? You sure this isn't a set-up? Maybe it's all one big trap!" She nearly barked back at him.

Gurta merely snorted in response and replied, "Who would honestly double-cross us, huh? We're professionals." Another small snort following the statement as Asta half-chuckled. "Yea, but we're a small organization, Gurta. It wouldn't be hard to cut down the four of us if push came to shove."

"We're thieves, Asta. If it's one thing we know how to do, it's escape." Shot back the rather crude leader. "Y'know... he's got a point. We're all pretty slippery... even that heavy-set codger." Replied Rayce with a snicker, muzzle darting toward Gurta a moment, which exuded another snort from the boar.

"And, um... when do we leave then?" Asked the timid Skirra who had simply let them all say their peace up until now while Asta simply turned away from them in a huff. "Tonight..." Replied Gurta, eyes and expression quite serious.

---

On a completely different pace from the softer Where the Snow is Whitest series. Even so, I WILL be getting back to that one. Still plenty of story to tell there, folks. Just thought I'd bring this colorful band into the mix. Hope you like em all and Hell, maybe you've even got a favorite already! We shall simply have to see where this goes from here. Who knows, I may write even more tonight. ^w^

Characters and story ©  setzan
(Dat's right, I'm an author, beetches! Even if I can't draw. x.x)