Close Your eyes only for a moment... (Draken)

Sayomi reached for her sword and sighed. She was resting on top of a building waiting for a passerby. Mean-while Bandit was on the floor sitting near the wall. She'd signal Sayomi when someone was coming. So Sayomi smiled and clicked her tongue to the wolf/dog. Bandit responded with a muffled grunt. Sayomi took out her sword and waited on the top of the building. It was short and she could jump down easily. She ducked her head with her eyes peering over waiting. Bandit grunted and then barked once. Someone was coming. Sayomi stood up and held her sword with pride as she waited for the right time.

Rela (and Jira)

It was their first time in the Fire Nation. Rela patted Jira's neck as they disembarked the huge vessel that had brought them here. She looked around curiously. This was what she loved about travelling: Everything was new, everything was exciting.

Jira was obviously glad to be not only al fresco again, he almost went nuts when he finally felt solid ground under his four hooves, dancing around, the fine small ears playing nervously. Rela knew him well enough to see what he needed now. She had saddled him aboard already, strapping her bundle behind the saddle and filling the two saddlebags with all the small tools and belongings that had not fit in her bundle.

Now, all she needed to do was hop on him, and begone. And that was exactly what she did. She glid on Jira's back, and the grand stallion charged forwards, she could not possibly hold him in his excitement. The rider and her horse flew through the harbour's gate, Rela's red, waistlong braid bouncing down on the horse's back, and it was not until they left the harbour docks of the Fire Nation Capitol, and entered the lower ring of the city, that Rela got a hold of her horse and managed to rein him in to a slower pace.

Finally, she had time to look around, take in the foreign architecture, the people of the Fire Nation, all the shops and buildings and exotic things... She liked it here!

Jira was still very nervous, as she directed him into a grander side alley, not realizing that they were the only ones to come through there until she was already halfway through it.

The figure on top of the building in front of her, that she had not yet recognized, could probably hear Jira's hooves on the street before the wolfhound had to warn his mistress...

Sayomi jumped down from the building in front of the horse and rider, with the sword and held it side ways to try and block the alley for the large horse. Bandit moved towards the horse stalking lowly and barking at them furiously and her eyes seem almost like black pits because it was so dark. Bandit snapped at the air showing her large teeth signaling the horse not to try anything or other wise the horse would get bitten. He large jaws opened and closed, when they closed a snapping sound filled the alley. Sayomi let Bandit bark and snap at the air so they would stay. They wouldn't possibly try to escape unless they were utterly dumb. Sayomi smiled and loosened her position. "So what do you have? I should probably tell you," She said with a pause nodding to Bandit, "She will bite." She smiled and walked slowly towards them.

They passed the grand wolfhound that sat on the side of the street, when, without as much as a warning, a dark, but small and slim figure parted from the shadows and jumped down into the alley right in front of Jira.

The grand, chestnut stallion baulked, mounting, his sharp, small hooves whirling through the air. Rela had not reckoned this, she was thrown off her mount, and crashed to the ground, right next to the wolfhound.

For a moment, she was dizzy, not able to tell where she was or even who she was. When the clouds on her mind lifted, she realized the strange figure had said something, but she had not understood what that was, being too dizzy from the fall.

Her fighting and wandering staff had landed in her back, and she could feel the growing, awakening pain where her back had dashed into that long, cylindric item - there would be a diagonal bruise all over her back, that was, if she was lucky and had not broken something when she suddenly landed so ungently. Groaning, she tried to sit up straight. She could see that Jira had backed off towards the wall of the building, his ears laid back and his eyes white and widened with panic, the head lifted high. He was about to bolt, she could tell.

"Are ye crazy?" She meant to snap, but in her dizzyness all that she produced was a murmur. "Ye coul' 'ave gotten me kill'd... you don' jus' jump in fron' o' a horse like tha'!"
Something here was very odd. She had not caught the other person's words, but the beast near her was barking and growling in a very hostile manner and the figure had drawn something that looked a lot like a sword. "Wha..." Still fighting her dizzyness and trying to sit up straight, Rela shook her head. "Who are ye? An' wha' do ye wan' o' me?"

Sayomi chuckled lightly, "Don't worry yourself..." She reached for the horses reins to reassure the the girl her horse wouldn't bolt. 'Are ye crazy?' the girl had asked her. She smiled lightly, "Possibly." Sayomi said. The Bandit eased her position and sat her brown eyes staring at the girl trying to detect any movement. 'Ye coul' 'ave gotten me kill'd... you don' jus' jump in fron' o' a horse like tha'!' "I've been doing this a long time... I am a master at surprise. I don't intend to kill or damage anybody. But as I try to do my best, you've gotten hurt and my apologies." 'Who are ye? An' wha' do ye wan' o' me?' The girl asked, "My name isn't important. What I want- no need is something of yours worth a few coins we all got to get by eh?" Sayomi looked at the girl.

Jira bolted in panic as soon as the stranger touched his reins. He hated being handled by any stranger, and especially when he was afraid, getting near him was normally a very bad idea.

While he bolted, his sharp little hooves parted the air with swishing sounds and the stranger was forced to either let herself be dragged up by the horse and risk being hit by one of its hooves, or let go of the reins and save herself.

Rela grimaced in pain, as she slowly stood up. To the figure's speech, she simply snorted, losing most of her respect to the common thief she was adressing. "Ye wan' me gol'?" For a second, she was almost glad she had spend so much on the travel. She had yet to earn some more to make a living. Without the fistfull of coins in her small bag she would have to spend the nights in the streets, and she did not like that idea, but she would sooner give up her money than risk being attacked, especially since she had strained her bag and was pretty sure she was in no fighting shape for now.

"Here, suit yerself," she said, taking her purse from her belt and tossing it over towards the masked figure. "It's no' much, bu' 'ts all I have."
She was glad the figure only took her money, as it was basically the one thing almost nothing worth in her possession right now. She could live without those few copper and the two silver coins, having spent all the rest of her savings on getting to the Fire Nation Capitol by boat. But she would not have been able to part from her tools, or, spirits forbid, her horse!

After she had tossed the purse, she started to talk to Jira in a deep, low voice, that always calmed him down. "Good boy, good boy, don' be scare'... 'ts all gonna be alrigh'..."
But although the horse stopped bolting and came back down to four hooves on the ground, he had still his ears laid back and did not look at all like the calm horse you would like to pat.

Sayomi Ddropped the reins as the horse started to bolt and she reached her hand out tot ry to stop it but she couldn't. She caught purse, and she opened the purse, but she felt guilty as she did. She hated doing this. She reached in and grabbed the silver coins and a few copper coins, "You know what? Here." She tossed the coins to her and held on to one copper coin. She smiled shyly and looked at her, "Do you have a place to stay here?" Bandit loosened up and walked towards the horse and dog. With a soft grunt she sniffed the horse and ran her cold nose up the girl hand to her wrist. "Good girl, Bandit." Bandit trotted up to Sayomi and she rubbed her head down Sayomi's legs in affection. "She's harmless if you don't scare her. Sorry about her act back there with the barking and snapping." He wolf dog hung her head in shame and Sayomi patted it to comfort her.

Rela had finally calmed down Jira and had secured his reins. With a frown she took almost all of her money back and looked the other girl up and down. "Wha' kin' of a thief are ye, anyways?"

She thought by herself, that that had just been the weirdest ambush of all times. She had lost almost nothing, and now she got invited to stay the night, if she had understood that right...

"I have nowhere ter go yet, we jus' arrive' here," she told the other girl, still frowning and patting Jira's elegant neck. With a careful glance, she looked over at the wolf, that seemed far less dangerous than it had just moments ago, and back to its mistress who seemed to have the strangest changes of mind within moments. What a very, very strange town...

[color=indigo]"Well I"m not a violent thief for sure."[/color] [i]She said with a small smile. [i]'I have nowhere ter go yet, we jus' arrive' here,'[/i] [/i]the girl said. [color=indigo]"Well, I don't have much of a home a small house with a small barn I pay my neighbor to use for storage but it has a empty stall for your horse there."[/color] She nodded tot he horse. [color=indigo]"He's rather loyal for a horse. Any body is lucky to have a pet that stands by you."[/color] Bandit let a soft woof escape her throat. She flipped the coin in her hand and caught it. [color=indigo]"So? Would you like to stay a night?" [/color]she asked moving the coin with her fingers. She'd kind of wanted company for a while, but she doubted that the girl she'd just robbed, and injured (by accident) would want to stay with her.

Rela's frown grew even deeper. "Thanks for the offer..." she murmured, while she was still wondering how a girl who was clearly unpracticed at robbing people and who even if she managed to robb someone gave most of the money back could afford to live in a house with a barn.

But it was late night, and how Rela always said, life without risks is no life at all. She agreed to get home with the stranger, and followed the other girl closely. On the whole walk to the girl's house, she staid cautious, and did not say much, even if she was asked a question. Her back hurt badly, and she suspected that she had bruised it badly. But she was used to even worse pain and would live through it.

Jira was still very nervous around the wolf and the thief, and Rela could but hope that he would calm down eventually. It was not very likely, though, her horse was not dumb and he was easy to mistrust, but by far not easy to trust strangers. This was one of the features she liked about him. Made it less easy for people to steal her only friend away from her.