My first steps! Careful, don't fall! A battle!

[Kenji Ausamatu]

Kenji had just left his home, in hopes to become a great artist. Avalon, where he was from was right at the foot of Heaven's Reach Mountain. Though Kenji never actually had been here before, he had seen the massive mountain range many times from various parts around the city.

Now that he was here he wanted to draw the mountain from it's best angle. He had thought about doing it from the city a few times and attempted it too, he had already picked a specific angle that was his favorite.

Unfortuneately now that he was here, on the mountain, to get that perfect angle, Kenji would have to stray off the path a bit. Because of the nature of Heaven's Reach Mountain, monsters and the like stayed away, but knights and crusaders ussually came here to train. Kenji was a bit worried of who he would run into. If he was challenged by a knight in trainning, he wouldn't refuse.

[Voice of Fate]

Name: Cindy the Female Thief
Phenotypical Age: Mature Teen
Gender: Female
Class: Mercenary
Post Count: 45
Information: Don’t get too distracted… you’ll regret it if you do…
Equipment: Kid’s Claws
Skills/Spells: NaN
Recruit Requirements 120 posts

Sitting on a rock in the woods, listening to the birds sing, chewing on a delicious apple aquired in a perfectly honest way. Bliss.

The mountains might not be the most hospitable of places to a city rat, but the constant flow and movements of the training camps and occasional adventurer moving around these parts made for decent pickings. Even if you where caught, if you laid it on heavily enough, the average Heaven's Reach visitor was going to let you go, or even treat you to a meal. Knights where suck suckers for sob stories.

A sudden noise interrupted Cindy in her personal moment, and she was just about to go see who was disrespecting her privacy when her gut feeling kicked in and told her to do something smart instead.

Sliding down behind the large rock she had sitting on, Cindy hid herself, listening to the unmasked footsteps coming her way.

Just one, she thought. And he doesn't walk heavily enough to be a knight. That means he's either a newbie, or a traveller. Let's hope for the former.

[Kenji Ausamatu]

"Ah traveling is great, though I am new at it... I already feel like traveling was a good choice," Kenji decided to say as he neared the perfect angle of Heaven's Reach mountain. He'd just need a good place to sit to start drawing it. He spotted a nice looking large rock that might make a good seat. He decided to make his way towards it, unbenkownst to him it was the same rock that the theif was hiding behind.

Kenji looked down at his new Iron Guards. They covered and protected his hands, and were still comfortable enough to move in. His fingers could grasp a pencil and drawing pad easily. He decided for safety's sake he would rarely remove his fist type weapons. Kenji was a very careful person and rarely let his guard down.

[Voice of Fate]

Ok. That was unexpected. It appeared that this person was indeed a traveller, and a rather loony one at that. Perhaps he needed a good bringing down to earth. That wasn't Cindy's responsibility, though. Her responsibility was to relieve this loony of all his valuables.

The thief had her back to the rock, and as she heard the footsteps changing direction towards her, she pressed herself harder against the uncomfortable surface, not noticing that she was getting crud all over her half, eaten apple.

Crap, my position's compromised, he's gonna find me, and then he'll beat me up and take me to jail... I haven't actually done anything to him yet. All right then, plan B."

While listening closely to the footsteps, Cindy got in position to strike, Instead of sitting down, resting against the rock, she pulled her feet up below herself, ready to spring into action.

When she determined that the traveler was close enough, she jumped high into the air, stretching her arms out and yelling out loud:

"Boo!"

[Kenji Ausamatu]

As Kenji neared the rock, a young girl with in skimpy clothes jumped out from behind the rock, "Ack! Who... what?!" Kenji stopped suddenly, blushing slightly. He looked away and had to collect himself for a moment. He held up his hand to block her from view. Though he was clearly peaking from in between his fingers. "Um.. ah who are you?" he managed to squeak out.

[Voice of Fate]

Cindy let her arms fall to her sides, flashing a pleasant smile at the young man who was obviously more embarassed than frightened by her sudden appearance. He was very self-aware, but only human. In fact, Cindy would have been pretty disapointed if he hadn't been peeking. She had always found it puzzling how some people thought it rude to ogle women wearing clothes like hers. The intention was obviously to attract attention.

"Hi!" she said cheerily, "Gave you a fright, did I?"

She nimbly scaled the rock and jumped off of it, landing just in front of Kenji. The bouncing was significant and intentional. Reaching her righ hand out, offering to Shake Kenji's, Cindy gave him the overjoyed smile again.

"My name's Serenity. Pleased to meet you."

This is going to be so easy.

[Kenji Ausamatu]

"Eh heh, you could say that you did," Kenji said forcing one of his trademark laughs. Though if you were paying attention you could easily tell he actually said 'Eh heh' as aposed to actually laughing.

When she exstended her hand to him, Kenji forced himself to recover his composure. He took her hand lightly, closed his eyes and gave her a slight bow and kissed her hand lightly. "Pleased to me you," He said as he did, and as he stood up he continued, "My name is Kenji Ausamatu,"

He was still blushing heavliy, esspetially after that particular jump. To be honest it was his favorite thing, but thats not the thing he'd say out loud. His eyes were focused on hers, never straying. For that was how he was raised. Besides, personally he always thought that theres no point in getting excited when you weren't going to go through with anything. Thats why it was easy for him to remain a gentlemen even when his more primal emotions were barking at him in his head.

[Voice of Fate]

Yet again, Cíndy smiled warmly at Kenji's antics, giggling musically as he kissed her hand. In truth, she was getting a little annoyed. Her cheeks where beginning to get a little tired from looking so pleased all the time. She wasn't a con woman, she was a thief, and she couldn't keep this charade up forever. At the very least, she really didn't want to. Still, if he behaved like a gentleman, there was the subtle hint that he asumed she was a lady, which meant that her cover wasn't blown.

She gave him a quick looking over, scanning for a coin purse, jewelry or something else that was small enough to palm and valueable enough to be worth the trouble. The only obvious item that seemed remotely interesting was a pair of metal gauntlets, but they where heavy and cumbersome. Besides, the Traveler's guild gave those things out like candy, anyway. Maybe this wasn't such a great idea after all.

"Nice clothes," she said merrily, excusing her checkover. They were rather nice clothes, too. Very white. Maybe he did have some money, somewhere. Now, the trick was finding out how much, and where he kept it. "Were they very expensive?"

[Kenji Ausamatu]

"Eh heh, these old things?" Kenji said looking down at his clothes. He had 'odd' tastes, all white, all silk. For a merc it wasn't smart... but it was so easy to move in... "Yeah, they kinda were, but I planned to use them alot so I didn't mind spending the extra amount." Kenji answered scratching the back of his head.

occ- Kenji is poor... unless she's going to strip him and take his clothes she's out of luck.

[Voice of Fate]

((OOC: I know that. Cindy doesn't, though. You'll just have to wait and see how greedy she is.))

He said they where expensive, and that wasn't a good sign. Neither was the way he said it. Cindy had been hoping for 'What can I say? I have discriminating tastes.' or 'It wasn't too bad for clothes like this.' not 'I didn't mind paying the extra amount.' This looked like it might not be an ideal situation, after all. Maybe it was time for Cindy to cut her losses and get out of here. She had to make absolutely sure she wasn't missing the opportunity of her life, though. Living of stealing can breed a certain kind of paranoia.

"So, you don't have much money, then?" she said, leaning in towards the perfect gentleman she had been faced with. She placed her slender right hand on his chest, just above his heart. "I owe some really scary people rather a bit of the stuff, see, and I was hoping that maybe, you could..." she trailed off, and lowered her gaze. If this didn't play to his sense of mercy and compassion, nothing would. "Please."

[Kenji Ausamatu]

Kenji took a step back away from the woman. She wasn't exsactly in his taste, aside from phsyically... particuarly the way she was dressed. He didn't think about that though, it still may have affected his reaction. She was seriously over estimating her cuteness factor. How could he just hand over money to some random stranger. Still he had no money anyway.

"Eh heh... well... that sounds terrible, but I don't actually have a single copper peice," Kenji said shrugging.

[Voice of Fate]

Damn. The whole situation had gone belly-up, and Cindy was starting to feel ripped off herself. The perfect victim had turned into the perfect failure. There was only one thing left to do, a last-ditch attempt to get out of this horrid situation with at least a little profit.

She took a short step back, doing her best to look disappointed. Her body trembled in a phony shiver, and she hugged herself, rubbing her arms with her hands absentmindedly. Looking into Kenji's face, she used her best hurt tone of voice.

"Fine, but will you at least let me borrow your coat for a second? It's freezing."

[Kenji Ausamatu]

Thats what you'd get for wearing clothes like that, Kenji thought. He felt it odd she'd be out here dressed like this and ask for a coat. Asking for money then his things. Kenji had grown susspitious, but it was his nature to give. So when she asked him, he began to take his coat off. "Sure, as long as I'm with you, you can wear it," Kenji said forcing a smile, to hide his suspition. He held the coat for her to wear after he slipped out his drawing pad and materials from a pocket. Since he intended to draw the montain soon.

[Voice of Fate]

Cindy graciously accepted the coat, slipping into its warm folds. It was cozy, but rather a bit too large for her. That could probably be fixed, though. She did want to keep it, too. It had lots of useful pockets and the kind of distracting floaty property that was optimal for pickpocketing. She might have to get it shortened, though. In a pinch, she could probably sell it for a couple of days worth of meal money, too.

First things first. She had to get it away from this oddball first. She had an idea that she was probably faster than him, but she'd still prefer to have a head start. Noticing the objects he removed from the coat's pockets gave her an idea of how to get that head start.

"Thanks," she said, holding the coat together, pretending she was actually cold. She gestured towards the drawing implements Kenji was holding. "You an artist? Are you gonna draw something around here?"

[Kenji Ausamatu]

"Yeah, I came to draw the mountain," Kenji said turning to face the mountain. He shivered slightly at the breeze, it was actually quite brisk out here. His drawing would suffer if he was shivering like this. Kenji decided that he needed to force himself to relax, he knew how exsactly to do just that.

Kenji used Relax Muscle. He stopped shivering and a look of calmness fell over him.