COMPLETED ~ Eldar X Rogue: CSI DC- There's a murderer on the loose...

The body was what could be most definitely categorized as gory. Perhaps the level of violence may have been more common (and understandable) in a city like Kaionar, or even Xanile or Jiluria, but this was far from any of those places, and even a small spat of words was quite argument enough for everyone.
What was less common in those places, was the murder of a dragon.

The poor unfortunate victim, a night dragon to be precise, barely out of its adolescence, lay twisted in the middle of the main street, quite dead. It had received a brutal death sentence, crossbow bolt through the shoulder, then obvious signs of more involved beating, the scales around its face cracked and some even shattered into pieces on the ground. There was no sign of missing limbs or other organs- a hunter hadn’t killed it out of want for ingredients for black magic. Nor could the dragon have been killed to support the gory new fashion in Surahnian parts- cloaks made out of genuine dragonwing. The rebel king had created quite the stir when he had emerged with that new trend. But night dragons had no wings, and hunters for such purposes were not looked upon kindly. Any who wanted to kill dragons for a quick buckknew full well to keep it under wraps, and far from civilization, not abandon the mangled corpse of his night’s work in the middle of the village high street.

The sight churned Lutis’ stomach. He stood with one hand over his mouth and tried not to look too hard as he wondered what to do, apart from go and quietly be sick somewhere. Yes, he was from Kaionar, and quite used to violence, but that didn’t mean to say he had to become accustomed to it to such a degree. It was an hour of ‘really much too early’, but he was awake because the rooftop he had been sleeping on (oh the joys of being broke, once again) had gotten quite cold and damp with the morning dew settling down, and he wanted to spend his last few coppers on a decent breakfast, not a quack cure for colds. Unfortunately for him, being up before even the crack of dawn meant he had come across this wandering around to keep warm.
It had quite put him off the idea of breakfast.

Quietly coming up next to the man who had discovered the corpse, much to his dismay, she stared down at the pile of bones, for that was all she could see this as. If she even tried to consider this bruised and mutilated victim as a dragon, she would start heaving. Soneya had always considered herself strong, but in the face of this, her stomach certainly proved that she may be weaker than she had given herself credit for.

“Who would do something like that?” she whispered, if only to alert him to her presence, unsure if he had even noticed that she was standing beside him. Talking had been a grave mistake however as the disgusting scent of decomposing flesh hit her, making her gag. It wasn’t her first dead being, by no means, but it was the first she saw up this close and she had never imagined the smell to be so powerful.
Luckily for them, a small gust of wind blew from behind them, carrying most of the smell away and making for more bearable breathing, as long as they kept their mouths closed for the most part and kept it shallow.

It was because of the cold that Soneya was up so early. She liked winter and rain. They were her elements and she could already feel the overflow of energy crackling over her hands, almost like a burst of electricity. She had rented a room at an inn not too far from here and the owners seemed to be a little scared of her ever since she had cooled off her own glass of water, so they didn’t bother her at all and kept out of her way as much as possible. She had crossed the owner on her way outside as he had just rolled out of bed to prepare some bread for breakfast and he had been very quick to scramble out of her way. She really couldn’t fathom why they were so scared. It had only been a little ice…

“Do you think we should…?” Soneya started though didn’t know how to continue. “Should we…?” she tried again but still she did not know how to say what she was thinking. With a shrug, she gave up and simply looked at the man, hoping he would just read her mind or something.

Lutis glanced up as he was joined by a woman, quite happy to take his eyes off the sight in front of him. Yep, breakfast was definitely off. Yep, even with the sight of this lovely lady to counter that at his feet (definitely not as lovely, potentially a lady, but he hadn’t cared to look). He kept his hand firmly over his mouth and thought of more pleasant things than whatever gruesome things the body’s insides might be doing at their feet.
“I’m not sure, but whoever it was, I sure as heck don’t wanna come across them.” He gulped, putting his gaze on this new companion instead of… the rest. She was quite striking, like a fallen star amidst the dark of the morning- or more, night, as it still was to be technical. “Wasn’t you, was it? I mean…” she looked shocked and as sickened as he felt, but it could have been a good charade. “If it is, I’d rather, y’know, live…” his words petered out quickly and he grimaced, both at the sickly smell and his inept words. What a way to insult her, if she actually was the one who had done this. Although, things pointed against that… and she was a lovely little thing. Lovely little things didn’t just go out and murder other lovely things. Did they?

He blinked at her to hear her fumble for words, looking her up and down and shaking his head a little from side to side as he tried to guess the end of her sentence. “Should we…?” Go? Oh great guardians, yes. Together, preferentially. Call for help? He didn’t exactly want to get involved in this; a good adventure or mystery he was up for, but when there was a dead body giving him the eye and severely putting him off lunch too now, it didn’t quite ring of ‘fun’.
“Move it? Please don’t make me touch it. That. Him? Whatever.” He pulled a face, although it was slightly masked by his covering hand still.

Soneya shot the man a withering look when he suggested she might have been the psychotic killer who took it out on a poor dragon – though ‘poor’, who knew what the dragon had done to deserve it. Disgusting as the whole thing was, there sure had to be a reason for it, right? This wasn’t just some random act of happily killing anything that comes into one’s path. At least, she really, really hoped that wasn’t the case because otherwise she would pack up her things and leave straight away. Though, that raised the question of where the murderer had gone and she might bump into him, and even if she had a mind to tell him that it was a complete dick move to mutilate someone like this, she wasn’t very fond of the idea. So staying put it was.

“No, it wasn’t me,” she grumbled when her thoughts returned to the actual situation at hand. A vision of setting lose a bit of pouring rain over his head popped up but she pushed it away again. They had only just met and though she generally didn’t object to speaking her mind, these were extraordinary circumstances, and he did have a rather charming face. It wouldn’t do to mess up his hair even more.

“Move it?” she exclaimed, her eyes growing huge as she stared at the man. “Gods, no! I don’t want to touch that thing either. We shouldn’t anyway, should we? I mean… it’s evidence, is it not? Isn’t that how it works?” Looking back down at the corpse, she shivered and quickly looked away again, catching his brown eyes. “Let’s just… you know… go or something.” She didn’t exactly want to just up and leave or go anyway with this guy, but for at least a few minutes she’d prefer not to be alone. The sight had rattled her a little more than she had thought and she was still having a bit of trouble breathing.

“Someone should definitely come look at this though.” Soneya averted her gaze again to the body, then away, looking down the road. This was awkward, very much so. But what on earth were they to do about this? They couldn’t just leave it there, could they? But nobody was up yet. Apart from the inn owner, and when she came in and told him about a dead dragon not far from his front door, the poor man would faint. Or worse, think she was the one who did it. “Is there anyone we could alert? I’m not from around here.”

“Well, worth checkin’ these things… you never know…” Lutis shrugged and looked away from the woman as she so vehemently denied any part in this. Sometimes people turned out to be not so nice as they seemed, and that was never good, because Lutis always managed to end up in some sort of trouble due to it. He didn’t want to outright blame her, but it was easy to act sickened. Either through prevailing skill or real disgust, she kept it up well enough. He grimaced a little to look down at the body for somewhere else to look at her indignance, then highly regretted it.

Thankfully though, she took the same stance as he did on moving the thing, and he not-so-subtly took a pace away from it. He breathed out heavily, then put his hands on his hips and looked at her more fully, very intently not looking at their unpleasant object of discussion.
“I’m so bloody glad you said that. Alrigh’, so what d’we do then?” He frowned and tried to think. Breakfast, no, no that was a bad idea. Obviously he had no wish to either move this grisly body, nor stand here until some other poor sod came across the two-and-a-half of them. “I guess whoever acts as the ‘guard’ ‘round here’s probably the best bet… I dunno who that’d be though.” He pulled a face, looking around the buildings nearby for some sort of bright idea, but nothing popped out at him, except a gutter that looked like it would hold if he tried to climb it at some point when he might need an escape. The important things in life. He scratched at his head, bringing his gaze back to the blue-clad woman. “Erm, well. Maybe we should… go find some official lookin’ door and have a knock.” And then scarper before it got answered, and Lutis got called in for whatever illegal thing he had done this time, inevitably. For all that, he was actually trying to help. Sometimes. After he had made a living. “Err, pick a road an’ see where it goes?”
His haphazard way of doing things started to look a little foolish in the face of a woman who was obviously a little more settled in her life than he was in his.

Soneya dubiously looked at the man but then simply shrugged and started turning around on the spot, slowly, examining each direction they could take. North would inevitably lead them out of the village soon. West and South were just small side-alleys, thus she was fairly certain they weren’t going to find any help there. “East,” she said with a sigh, hoping they weren’t going to walk to their doom now. “Let’s go east and see what we’ll find.”

Unsure on the whole ‘official door’ part, she followed the man’s lead anyhow, for lack of a better idea. What else were they to do? This place was almost as dead as the dragon they were now swiftly leaving behind them.
It really was quiet, and the houses were still dark wherever they looked. After all, dawn hadn’t even broken through the clouds yet and only thieves and fools were up and about at this time of day, or night rather. With a sideways glance at the man next to her, she wondered if the saying was true and if that were to make him the thief.

“Do you think that one might be it?” Soneya pointed towards one of the only houses in that street without flowerpots strewn all over the window or a shop sign. There was nothing else that seemed particular about the door however, nor was there any sign that screamed “Welcome to the guardians’ station” – though that would have been ridiculous anyways.

“Are there no Elites around here?” she grumbled, more to herself than her companion. Of course, they weren’t everywhere or couldn’t even be everywhere seeing that Dragons’ Cove was fairly big, but that didn’t make her feel any less inclined to rant about the lack of Elites. But no, she was going to behave. Even if she were never to see this guy again after they parted ways, that did not mean she could behave like a fool. Of course, if she went back to the earlier metaphor, well then…

“Look! A light just went on in the house!”

Lutis quite happily left the carcass of the dragon behind as they set out to find some official somewhere that might be able to help them, or better than help, take this whole case off the pair of them. He was less than pleased to have such a gross start to his morning, and although the sight of someone else (albeit equally appalled by the morning’s find) was cheering, it wasn’t quite what he had wanted or expected from the day.
But when could you ever expect something from a day and actually get it? Next to never, seemed to be the answer.

He couldn’t help but glance across once or twice at his new ‘companion’; she seemed somewhat haughty towards him, quiet unless something needed saying, and rather put-off by his demeanour, but on retrospect and a little thinking, he had made a bit of an assumption by his question earlier. Of course she wasn’t some heartless murderer. She was only a waif of a woman, after all. Dressed strangely too in all those robes; perhaps she was a priestess or something of the sort. Why did his brain only have to catch up and think these things now, instead of earlier?

He put his hands on his hips as they came to the house that Soneya pointed out, looking it up and down for some sort of sign (other than the obvious decoration-less front) that it might be an official’s house. Nothing really.
“I guess it might be it…” he didn’t sound particularly convinced himself, and wasn’t quite in the mood to wake someone else up at such an hour- especially if they were an official. Lutis’ demeanour seemed to (somehow, he couldn’t fathom why) annoy officials.
“Oh yeah, let me jus’ summon my pet Elite.” Lutis’ tone turned sarcastic as he put two fingers to his mouth to whistle shrilly through the air, then wave his hands out to the sides a little as if he were doing a magic trick. “Tada, one Elite to take care o’your problems, so we don’t haveta.”
It did actually sometimes work, but Hone wasn’t in the area at the moment. He rolled his eyes and shook his head a bit, thinking the whole thing ridiculous, that she wanted all the law and otherwise to sort this out, in a little town like this. He hadn’t seen an Elite for weeks.
He looked up to the house as the woman pointed out a light, seeing the dim flicker through one of the shutter hatches. Great, well, at least they wouldn’t be directly waking anyone up…
“Brilliant, knockin’ time then.” Lutis stepped up to the door and rapped loudly on the wood, trying to think of some plausible explanation. The woman who opened it looked sleep-deprived and scatty, with her hair sticking in a good few directions from sleeping.
“We uh… I dunno if you’re an official ‘bout the place or somethin’… Are we in the right place to report that there’s a gory-lookin’ dragon in the middle of the high street?” He made a face, looking back at Soneya.

Oh now he wanted her help, after she was on the brink of ditching him with a heavy raincloud above his head afterall after his bloody annoying commets. Remaining quiet to let him talk his way out of the oddly phrased question, Soneya returned his glance with a level stare before ignoring him and turning her attention fully to the woman who had opened the door. Honestly, summoning his pet Elite and mocking her. Who did he think he was?!

At first, the woman just looked at the pair of them, eyeing them each in turn, clearly wondering what the heck they were on about though her eyes had grown huge at the mention of a gory dragon body lying in the middle of town. “What do you mean?” she asked before looking hesitantly down the road in both directions. “I’ll send my husband out to meet you. Just a moment.”

And with that, she slammed the door shut again without even asking them for more details, or more importantly, asking them inside to wait there. Not that Soneya was particularly interested in getting into the house. On the contrary, she just wanted to get away so she wouldn’t have to deal with this situation any longer but her wish was most likely not going to be granted.

“You really aren’t the social skills sort of person, are you?” the woman asked as the two reluctant companions were left on their own again.
Soneya gladly would have ranted on for a while longer as well but already the door was ripped open again and a rather imposing looking man was stepping out into the street to meet them. “Alright,” he said in an oddly smooth voice that didn’t really match his appearance – in Soneya’s eyes at least. “You scared my wife with a story of a gory-looking dragon or some such nonsense. Show me your discovery.”
It seemed as though there wasn't much else to do about the situation except for turning back and walking the man, who really did seem to be an official of some sort but Soneya didn't care to ask, in the direction of the corpse they had barely just left behind them, and gladly so.

“Uhm, well…” Lutis was about to try and explain a little better, gesturing widely with his hands to illustrate what he meant a little more graphically, but the door was shut in his face before he could start and he was left hanging. He shut his mouth after a moment and dropped his hands to his sides, face turning somewhat irritated. Friendly.

He rolled his eyes at the sarcastic comment from behind and turned to look at her. “I’m tryin’ my best. Be my guest if y’can do better.” Folding his arms across his chest grumpily, he let her get on with her silent moping for some reason. Whatever. Grumpy cow, shouldn’t have been up so early if she was just going to get her knickers in a twist over every little thing, trying to be friendly.
Lutis took half a step backwards to see the overly grim-faced official he was met with the sight of turning back to the door, quite the sort of person he was better off never coming into contact with. He was easily reminded of why. These types were so attached to their moral goodness.
“Yeah, sorry about that. Your house looked like the sort of… official… kinda place to come to.” Lutis’ expression betrayed all sorts of dislike as he looked the other man up and down, then resigned himself to having to cooperate at least a little bit with this man. “Well. It ain’t pretty.”

The body was –unsurprisingly- still in place when the now-three of them got back to it, looking even more gory for the second time around and more for the slight better light to see by. Or perhaps Lutis was more keenly noticing the things he hadn’t the time before, he didn’t know. Either way, he didn’t get too close, letting the man see for himself and trying to stay uninvolved.
“We just found it like that.” Well, he had found it first, but Soneya hadn’t been far behind. “Didn’t poke it or touch or anythin’.” It was too gross to be poking or moving. He didn’t look much as the man made his inspections, looking grey around the edges of his complexion, despite peering closely at the body. Then he came over to look closely at Lutis and Soneya, taking his time over the both of them.
“Who is to say it was not you that killed this dragon?”

‘Here we go again,’ Soneya thought as she was once again being accused of having killed the dragon, this time along with the first person to have accused her however. Not that that made it any better.
She had already had trouble with the stench of the corpse the first time she had been standing next to it but after she had been breathing some clean air for a while, it now hit her even harder and the woman had serious trouble to calm her stomach. To no avail. Unable to hold back any longer, she heaved a little but before she could actually throw up, she managed to stop the motion, only retching a few times.

“Why would you think it was one of us who did it? Why would you think we’d come to your house to mention that we found a dead dragon if we had actually done it? The fact that we’re both travellers from somewhere else doesn’t give you the right to just start accusing us of having committed a crime. Being a stranger doesn’t make us instant criminals,” Soneya said, indignant at the way they were being treated. Granted, she had no idea who the man next to her was or why he was there or what he was doing with his life but they had already established that neither of them had done it and by the way he had turned green earlier, she believed him.

“It could have been anyone,” she added though when thinking about that final sentence, she almost regretted it, seeing that she was practically accusing the official – if that really was what he was – of being capable of having done it as well. Who knew? After all, he had been awake, or his wife had been, at this time of day. Who was to say he wasn’t the one to have cruelly killed this poor beast. The mere thought made Soneya take a step back involuntarily, though she managed not to look at him sidewise. Instead, she gagged once more when the consequences of such a thought hit her. What if it had been him and they were in for it now?!

Lutis sighed. Did he really look so dangerous that he could have done this to a dragon? He liked to think not- suspicious, perhaps, but that was a trait better assigned to a thief than ‘dangerous’ was. Dangerous was the sort of label you earnt yourself if you were a crazy-ass adventurer, up for anything, or, or… well, a crazy murderer of dragons.
And his companion, well, it seemed she could hardly keep her dinner from the night before stomached any longer. He glanced her way as she put one hand to her mouth, quite glad she didn’t actually throw up. It would only have gotten him started too.

Thankfully though, Soneay covered most of the points Lutis might have wanted to make under such a question, and all he had to do was nod along and point a little at her when the man looked to him for more input, at least until her last little interjection. At that he shook his head vigorously.
“It wasn’t me, jus’ gonna make that clear now to everyone around. I just found it, didn’t do it.” Finding it was turning into quite the hoo-hah too, when all Lutis wanted to do was pass the buck onto someone else and let them have done with the whole mess. Or at least, not get him any more involved. It didn’t look like such a peace was going to be given to him though.

For all their mess of trying to explain their innocence however, the man wasn’t taking much of it- that or, he was just too thorough. With a somewhat unamused expression as if he didn’t want to listen to any of this, let alone at such a godawful hour in the morning, he quickly dressed them down and gave them the situation.
“For all your words, I can’t take them just at face value, when I have a murdered dragon at my feet. Yes, this is murder, despite the victim being a dragon. You two are the only ones who have seen this, and unless you can give me foolproof alibis with justification than others, then I can’t name you innocent in this mess. I am sorry.” He did at least have the decency to sound a little apologetic. “If you can give me any more information, I am willing to say you are innocent, but on this alone at the moment…” He shook his head and crossed his arms, looking between the two and how Soneya backed away a pace from him.

Not for the first time in the course of the last, what, hour – it felt like a whole day had gone by already – Soneya wished she had simply stayed in bed longer that morning and evaded this whole hocus-pocus. This was crazy!
“Of course we’re the only ones to have seen this – that we know of – because everyone else is still comfortably in their bed! I never knew that getting up early was punishable, but apparently I was mistaken.” It wasn’t that she blamed the official for the situation, really not. After all the man was only doing his job but Soneya was growing pissed off at the whole situation and she really just wanted to go about her own business.

It was also especially annoying that the same thoughts kept circling in her mind. She disliked being this confused, and she was not very fond of the ‘organisation’ that was going on here. “You’re serious, aren’t you?” she finally stated the obvious when the official just stood there looking from one to the other waiting for the explanations he had requested.
“Well,” she continued, her tone of voice not the nicest anymore as her annoyance became harder to control. “What do you expect me to tell you? I got up early this morning because I couldn’t sleep any more so I decided to go get some fresh air when I came across this,” she waved a hand at the corpse, “and he,” at this she pointed at the man beside her, “was arleady there, looking just as disgusted and shocked as I was.”

As she could have predicted if she’d considered her words a little before speaking, the official was not impressed. But alas, what had been said had been said and she couldn’t take back her words. Not that she wanted to anyway. She was pretty sure as well that her partner in crime – so to speak – wouldn’t have much more to say than her. They had just stumbled across the corpse, how much could they possibly have seen? “Isn’t he supposed to inspect like the body or something instead?” Soneya muttered, only just loud enough that she heard herself, maybe the one standing next to her but the official shouldn’t have heard it, though she couldn’t be sure, but she was slowly moving past the point of caring. He didn’t look as though he was going to let them go any time soon. Mimicking his posture, though unconsciously so, Soneya stood there, waiting for the situation to slowly start spiralling out of control, because that was what was going to happen, wasn’t it?

These two were not being particularly helpful; their stories at least were sound, they did not deviate from them, but at the same time, surely they might have seen more than what they said? Either way, it was impossible for the town peacekeeper to just let the pair of them go.
“I’m afraid you’ll have to come with me. Innocent or not, this needs greater investigation than a quick look before even the rise of the sun.” He looked back at the body behind him, then gestured away, back to his house. “I think we are all tired of looking at a body, in any case.”

Lutis was filled with the wish to leg it down the street and not even look back, but it was obvious that such a tactic would either land him in jail for a good long while, supposedly ‘guilty’, or labelled a murderer for all the world to see. He made a face of dislike at Soneya, although it was less aimed at her this time, as the whole of this damn situation.
Although even then, the situation included her, and she wasn’t the most pleasant person to be around. Seemed like they were going to spending a little more time together. At least they weren’t cuffed together too?

==X==

For all the pleading they had to do, to the best of their abilities, the peacekeeper would not move on his decision that the ‘safest’ and ‘best’ place to have them put was in the tiny town jail. Hardly even what could be called habitable, it was a domed stone thing with no windows, no comfort and only a small grill in the one door to look through. Quite the unpleasant place to be, and Lutis had been some unpleasant places.
His hands clenched around the door grill as he shouted after the man’s receding back, shaking on it in anger until there was nothing more to see. Then he turned back to the rest of the small room and slumped to the floor, putting his head in his hands.
“Bloody great. Great! Stuck in a prison for some bonkers murderer runnin’ round! Guardians, I am enjoyin’ today.” He scowled, thunking his head back against the wall now and looking to Soneya. “Stuck with you, an’ let’s face it, you ain’t in the best of moods.”

Soneya gladly returned the face that was being pulled at her, not sure who or what she was more annoyed with. The whole situation had quickly spiralled out of hand and she was really not looking forward to being further questioned. There was nothing more to tell! What on earth did this guy want with her, with them?

The worst of it all however was when they were thrown into the town jail. Together, in one cell, a tiny cell with no comfort whatsoever and hardly anything that would deserve to be named a seat or a bed. It was utterly horrible and they were stuck in there together.
Looking around in disgust, Soneya crossed her arms over her chest and refused to sit down. She also refused to acknowledge their jailkeeper, even if by the time she had taken that decision he was already on his way out again, leaving them back there in that crappy little hole he called a cell that didn’t even have a window.

“Speak for yourself, will you? I may not be in the best of moods but at least I’m not trying to jump on the grill like some sort of crazed monkey.” Soneya muttered in return. She knew it was hardly fair, neither of them had asked for this but there they were, grumpy and starting to be hungry with nothing else for company than a foul-humoured stranger.

“The name’s Soneya, by the way,” she finally said to break the awkward silence, her voice somewhat calmer though still cold enough to make it clear that she wasn’t really intending to become best friends with him. “Since we have never been formally introduced…,” she added by means of explanation, though it was hardly necessary.

“At lest I’m tryin’ to make the best of things. He might still have let us out. Well, me out for trying.” Lutis rolled his eyes at Soneya’s mean temperament. She really was a happy bunny now, wasn’t she. Not even trying to get out of here, and he had tried a lot of persuasive words on the way here as they had been frogmarched through the streets. He pulled his coat close around him and folded his arms over the top, like she had, staring at the other wall in a sulk.

He looked back at her again a little more open to listening what to say when she did not immediately launch into more insults, instead seeing the giving of her name as something a little more akin to… peace? Or at least, as close as he might get from such a haughty figure.
“Lutis. Nice to meetcha… I guess.” He went quiet again, then sulkily looked up and uncrossed his arms. “I was just tryin’ to be friendly. There’s no point in t’two of us fightin’ when apparently we’ve got everything against us already.”
Lutis really disliked prison cells. They were so gloomy, cold, dull and quite the opposite of everything he enjoyed. Soneya only seemed to want to make it more unbearable in here, and they could be stuck for any length of time. A long length of time, if they were really unlucky.
And he hadn’t even gotten his breakfast yet.
“So… any ideas how t’get out of here? Like, here-here, not here, this whole mess. Which still wasn’t caused by me.” If there was any doubt.

She couldn’t help it. She didn’t really want to, but she smiled when Lutis introduced himself, somewhat reluctantly. Taking a deep breath when he went off again, Soneya mirrored him uncrossing his arms and fully turned towards him. “I know,” she said, her voice level. “I’m sorry.” But she didn’t offer up anything else and turned her gaze away again. She wasn’t going to apologise and then make life easy for him. Oh no! He hadn’t been a cookie all this time either and she wasn’t the only one making this situation worse than it already was.

At his next question, she looked at him abruptly and frowned. “Why would I? Do you?” She turned the question around on him. He had been somewhat nervous around the official, or whatever the man had actually been, could that have a specific meaning maybe?
“There is no window, and the door is locked. I don’t see how I could possibly come up with an idea to get us out of here. Of course, you could always try rattling the cage again.” As soon as the words were out, she almost regretted them again. Almost. But what had been said, had been said and she wasn’t going to take them back. Lutis may have tried sweet-talking the guy into letting them go but it hadn’t worked now, had it? They were still locked up and no amount of talking had changed that fact, and banging the door like a bull hadn’t helped either. So why would she even try and waste her time coming up with something ridiculously useless?

“We’re in a bloody hole. What do you expect to be able to do? Do you think an opening will magically appear in the wall to let us step into freedom again? Just like that?” Soneya shook her head as she looked away from the man again, staring at the wall, when suddenly she cocked her head to the side as a thought crossed her mind. Magic…

Okay, apparently not the right question to ask. This wasn’t ideal for him, stuck in a prison cell (would alone have been worse? He couldn’t tell… Soneya wasn’t exactly easy company) with no knowing what might happen to him. He already had a rocky relationship with the law, this was the last thing he needed…
“Well…” He shrugged, waiting for a better response than just being put down… and was given wholly negative answers. Not to mention sarcasm. Brilliant, he really loved that. His expression went a little blank, then he thudded a fist against the wood of the door. The grill didn’t make one extra sound of metal shaking.
“Tried, failed. Not exactly a unique idea there.” He was quite at a blank. What Soneya said was unfortunately true, and there was no easy… normal… legal way out of this pit. She was starting to piss him off too, long as his tether was; her constant downing his ideas wasn’t exactly productive, and he didn’t see her offering anything more plausible.

“Nice to see you tryin’ stuff though, when obviously what I’m coming up with is so valid. Thanks for the moral boost, I really needed it.” He grunted in displeasure, starting to resign himself to the fact that they were well and truly locked away until they were retrieved. Or… left to rot. He shoved his hands in his pockets in the hope of finding something either to pass the time, get out or block his ears with so he didn’t have to listen to any more of her words, when his fingers brushed against cold metal… why hadn’t he thought of it before! He was a thief, what was he doing stuck?!
He leapt up and pulled out his lockpick, running his other hand over the wood of the door to try and find a keyhole. His movements became more frantic as all he could feel was the rough chip of the surface; no, there had to be a keyhole, there had to be.

“Psssssst,” Soneya hissed, trying to interrupt Lutis’ annoyed babbling. He was wrecking her concentration and that was not something she could use at that very moment. There was water in the walls, and quite a bit of it, she could sense it and the air was damp. Walking up to the nearest wall, she put her right hand on it, concentrating, calling the water to her, slowly, completely oblivious to what Lutis was doing.

When she was sure the water was following her every whim, she opened her eyes again – she hadn’t even realised she had closed them – to look at Lutis, a slight gleam visible in them. Though Lutis wasn’t where he had been standing when she had tuned out of the ‘conversation’ they had had. Instead he was fumbling around with the door, his movements becoming more and more frantic, the longer she observed him.

“Looking for something?” she asked quietly, though she was beginning to guess what it was he might be looking for, which confirmed her previous guess that maybe he was not always on the right side of the law, if not a dragon murderer. He didn’t have the guts for such an act.

“Wait, let me help,” she offered. “The water will reveal it. There has to be a keyhole, right? There has to be. How else would he have locked us in? It’s only logical.” But she wasn’t quite so sure. There was still the possibility of there being a bolt. But maybe the water could help in that case. Magic was magic after all and what good did her magic do her when she couldn’t use it in a situation of dire need? Like now.

Putting her hand against the wall again, she called the liquid to her, trailing her hand along the wall towards the door, tracing her slender fingers in wavy patterns over the door in hopes of it finding a bit more resistance which could possibly indicate a lock.

Lutis looked away from the door as he seemed to find nothing, quite frustrating indeed! How could there be no lock at all… it was locked, of course, and he could break through doors quite well… but not if there was nothing to break. Apart from the wood, but he was no heavyweight.
“What?” He saw Soneya standing as if she suddenly had discovered a secret and narrowed his eyes. “What are you…” Something had changed. What though, he wasn’t sure.
“Yeah the uhh… the lock.” Subtly he slipped his lockpick up into his coat sleeve so she wouldn’t see what illicit ‘toys’ he carried around. No need letting her get ideas that made him look any worse than he already did, now was there?

“Water? I’m not followin’ ya Soneya.” He patted his hands over the door again, trying not to let his lockpick slip from his sleeve now it jostled around in there. She seemed to have quite the secrets as well as he did, and it was a little… unnerving to know he was quite stuck inside here with her. She spoke like she knew what she was doing with something very familiar to herself, and very not-familiar to himself. Sometimes that meant a good thing, but it gave Lutis a tingly unpleasant feeling inside that mostly said ‘run away’.
Shame there was nowhere to go.

He checked over the wood a third time, even around the bars of the opening to see if there was anything there that he could open, but they were very firmly set into the door. He shook his head. “Nothin’. There’s nothing there. What are y’talking about, water? Not sure a drink’s gonna help us get out darlin’.”

Soneya narrowed her eyes at Lutis’ unnecessary comment but didn’t reply. She preferred to concentrate on the task at hand, especially because she wasn’t sure she was getting somewhere. “The wood is too thick,” she growled, adding a flowery curse before she finally saw the water pooling around a specific area in the door.

“As a matter of fact, a drink would be good, but since you’re apparently not very interested in keeping hydrated, have a look at that area in the door for me, will you? After all you’re the lock expert here.” Her tone wasn’t the friendliest but he hadn’t been very nice now either, and she was slowly starting to be annoyed by the constant back and forth of insults and accusations. Once they were out of this place, she would be glad never to see the guy again.

“I’m not sure if there is a lock, but that might be where the bolt is. Do you think that we could break in the door if I manage to wet the wood enough so it would start rotting a little? I’ve never done this kind of thing before,” she admitted reluctantly, hoping that Lutis did have a bit of a clue in terms of wood and breaking in doors and the like. Lock picking was one thing but actually breaking stuff was another matter, but she hoped that he had experience in those areas as well. It would definitely help them get out of here, because other than this, she wasn’t really sure what good her magic could possibly do other than providing drinks for the both of them.

“I did find that a bit of a problem when I tried to shake the grate free, yes,” said Lutis, standing back as Soneya focused on the door despite his sarcasm. Whatever she was doing, it didn’t look like it was much. Staring at the door and waiting for it to step aside like a gentleman wouldn’t really work with… oh, a door. He rolled his eyes, but bent to look at the door more closely when she asked. Well, told. She really needed to learn a few niceties.

His fingers came away damp when he touched them to where she asked, and he looked up surprised towards her at it. Either it was raining in one very specific area with no clouds to be seen through the grill… or someone outside was watering the door silently… or this was magic. He betted on the third option. His fingers quested over the damp wood for any feel of something different- he betted on cold metal, but was met with nothing of the kind, although there was a depression at one point, circular.
He prodded around a little more, crouching down to see as well, growing more excited as his fingers probed into the hole- yes, yes! It was a lock! Crude, but a lock!
“Here, there’s something. The lock!” He yanked his finger out from where he had gotten it stuck and shook out his sleeve, wasting no time to put his ear to the door and slide round his lockpick, forgetting how he had been trying to be sly about it only moments before. It was too thin so he traded it for another, jiggling this around for a good few minutes.
“It’s a bit old I think, not near as good as it should be. An’ I’m bettin’ someone’s been usin’ the wrong key at points, sounds a bit kooky in here.” He heard a few clicks, then a slightly louder thunk as something inside the mechanism moved. Grinning, he looked up at her. “Y’don’t have to thank me.”

Soneya instantly withdrew her magic and stopped letting water seep into the door; she had to be careful anyway, in case this wasn’t enough, she didn’t want to waste all the water around them. They might still need it to get themselves a drink or two. But Lutis’ sudden excitement was enough to make her feel all giddy too.

“Do you think you can get it open like this?” Soneya bent down to have a look but realising that she might be in the way, she quickly stood up again and backed away a few steps. Now that they seemed to be on the right track and – hey! – for once not bitching at each other, she didn’t want to ruin it again. Especially not in the light of possibly being able to get out of there.

When Lutis suddenly grinned up at her from his position down at the ground, Soneya could have jumped for joy. Instead her face lit up into a beam and ignoring the man’s comment, bent down to hug him. “You did it! Oh my gosh, you really did!”
Once again standing up, she grabbed the grill of the door, for lack of a handle on the inside, and pulled. Expecting to have to pull fairly hard because the door looked heavy, Soneya was more then surprised when she was suddenly yanked back and thrown back against the door when the bloody thing didn’t budge.

A frown appeared on her forehead as she rattled on the grill in almost the exact same way that Lutis had before – obviously not seeing the irony in this – before she looked at the man in question. “Are you sure you didn’t lock it further instead of opening it?!”

Lutis was astounded, Soneya could actually show… pleasant emotions? Be nice? He had almost started to think she was one of those permanently miserable people. Even more he was struck dumb when she hugged him, blinking up at her as she stood straight again with his mouth a little open.
“Now ain’t that a thank you.” He finally found his tongue again as she put her hands to the bars, stepping away and slipping his tools away. Always was a use for a thief, even when you were in the innocent. And they were, this had had nothing to do with them! They were an unlucky pair in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Although not as unlucky as if they had been there a little while earlier.

His excitement faded however as Soneya pulled on the bars, trying to open the door, and coming up with utterly nothing. That wasn’t right, he was sure he had gotten the door open. He frowned too as she looked towards him, then stepped forwards himself and gave a pull.
“I’m sure. Also quite sure that yes, these bars ain’t comin’ out any time soon. That was one good carpenter who made this, but a lousy locksmith.” He looked over at her with a slightly patronising expression. “If you’re quite done testin’ them… First rule of breakin’ out of prison, don’t try and pull a door open if it pushes open.” He put his shoulder to the door and gave it a shove, the hinges protesting with a squeal as it opened as laboriously as it had shut. Freedom again, ah it tasted sweet.
Now he wanted to run for the hills.

Soneya was blushing furiously. She was completely and utterly embarrassed! And the fact that Lutis was mocking her wasn’t making this any better at all. Her cheeks were burning as she tried to look away, keeping her face hidden from him, not wanting him to see her reaction, though there wasn’t anything to see that he couldn’t gauge anyway. Wasn’t this how most people would react? So he most certainly knew what she was going through anyway.

“You...,” she muttered under her breath but didn’t finish the sentence. Instead she put her hand on the wall as though she wanted to steady herself, urging some of the water onto the stones before his feet, hoping that it would make the ground slippery enough for him to smack his face into the wall, or at the very least take a small tumble. What satisfaction even the mere thought provided! Hopefully he would come away with his nose bleeding or something. But with her luck, the bastard would probably barely notice anyway; a thought that didn’t do anything to lighten her mood.

“Just... shut up and let’s go, alright? I don’t want to be stuck in here any more than you do. And most certainly not with you.”
And of course, it had to happen. It always had to take a turn for the bad, didn’t it? Nothing could go right. Soneya almost wanted to scream in frustration but kept her lips shut tightly.
Just as they were about to set off, the sound of footsteps came up the hallway.

For all the craving to leg it, Lutis couldn’t help but look smugly back at Soneya for a moment. As expected, she was red as a rose and looking rather more lovely for the flush in her cheeks. Better than scarlet like a poppy and angry as hell for being such a know-all.
“As I said, no need t’thank. I’m great, I know.” He winked at her and poked his face outside, feeling rather jaunty for the fact that he could now stroll right out and into the sunshine again. His hands thrust into his pockets, he was already planning where to go, and nothing Soneya could say would stop him. He ‘tsk’-d at her.
“An’ you were being so nice a minute ago. Maybe you do better in t’dark. Made you a bit cheerier, I’d say.”

He was just about to saunter out into the corridor when the sound of footsteps suddenly started to echo down it. He looked stricken, his pleased expression dropping from his face in an instant, then he looked to Soneya and –against everything he wanted to do- grabbed hold of the grill again, kissing goodbye to sweet, sweet freedom as he dragged the door shut again. Oh it was horrible, the very moment they had broken free? That very second?! Not even one step out of this cell?!
The bars clanged as he hit his head on them in frustration, holding onto them as he pressed his face close by to see who it was that was coming. Maybe there wasn’t even someone coming, it was just the peacekeeper wandering past. Maybe he could have taken a chance and legged it while the footsteps were faint.
Bit late now though, really.

» COMPLETED ~ Party Time! With Liz and Eldar
» Anyone for the rescue? (Cold, Parade, Eldar)
» Chance Meeting [Kor] - Completed
» Height of the Hunt (Eldar & Nen)
» The Altar of Stars (Alex X Eldar)