A Little Too Bold

[Northen Light36]

Skif takes a deep breath and closes his eyes for a minute. Strangling one of the guild kids will only get HIM in trouble. "No, Aries, you're not like us," he says, firmly but reasonably gently. "We're big enough to run away, you're not. That's why you got caught." Skif pauses then decides to throw the boy a small drop of praise. "But, for a kid, you didn't do bad. How'd you get his purse?"

[Kender Bard]

"Cut it free," Aries said, swelling with even that little bit of praise. "He wasn't lookin' so I nabbed it."

[Northen Light36]

Skif sighes again. "How'd you get hold of a knife?" he asked, then shook his head and held out a hand. "No, I don't want to know. Hand it over, Aries. You're to little to have one." He looks seriously at Aries and adds, "Why'd you do it, Aries? You know you'll just be in trouble when I tell the adults."

[Kender Bard]

"Don't tell!" Aries begs, looking worried. "I wanted to prove I was brave..." He pat around and added, "Dunno where the knife is."

[Northen Light36]

Skif sighes and, after patting Aries down to make sure he's not just hiding the knife, takes Aries hand. "Look, Aries, let's take those coins of yours and get something sweet from the baker stall. Then we'll go somewhere we won't be overheard and I'll explain why someone has to be told." Taking pity on the boy, he adds, "Chin up, Aries. I think I can tell someone and get you into as little trouble as possible."

[Kender Bard]

"How much trouble is little?" Aries asks sullenly, but takes Skif's hand and doesn't try to run off or anything silly.

[Northen Light36]

Skif chuckles. "Less then you deserve," he replies, giving Aries a light tickle. "Maybe you'll get scolded, that's all," he tells the little boy, leading him off to buy a couple of small fruit pies then taking him back to the guild.

Once at the guild, Skif leads Aries into one of the private bedrooms, after making sure that it and the rooms on either side are empty since there are sounds a kid does NOT need to hear, and sits him on the bed. "Aries, do you know why, when people here get caught working, they go off to one of the other guild cities?" he asks after a moment of thought as to how to start.

[Kender Bard]

Aries thinks about it, then answers, "Cause they're embarassed?" He had never given it great, serious thought before but reasons that his answer makes the most sense. As an afterthought, he adds, "Or they got scared and ran away?"

[Northen Light36]

Skif groans and covers his face with his hands. "Fucking Taed's balls, what do they teach you kids?" he groans quietly then sighes. "No Aries, they don't leave because they're scared or embarassed," he explains through slightly clenched teeth. "They leave because if they're caught and get away or are broken out of jail, the guards know what they look like. And if they keep working here, the guards will be looking for them."

Skif watches Aries' face to see that the younger boy understands so far and goes on, "And if the guards are looking really hard for one thief, they might find all of us." In a moment of annoyed cruelty, Skif asks, "And do you know what'll happen if the guards ever find the guild?"

[Kender Bard]

Aries chews his lip for a moment as he thinks about it. "We'd all run away somewhere else?" he offers.

[Northen Light36]

"No, Aries," Skif replies, frowning. "If the guards ever found us, they'd take all the adults and the older kids like me away, far away where you'd never see us again," Well he's not going to go so far as to tell the kid all the adults would die, "and you little kids would be locked up in tiny little rooms all alone, in the dark, with only bread and dirty water to eat. And they'd never let you out again, except when the guards come to beat you up cause they're bored."

Skif gives Aries a dark look, "And the same thing could happen if someone gets too nosy about little boys with no parents who are stealing in the markets."

[Kender Bard]

Terrified by the thought, Aries grows pale.

Then Skif's second statement makes him think about what had happened. What if he hadn't been able to get away? He'd lied but... Well, what if? He almost got thrown into a cell, all alone, almost got everyone...

Aries tears up and then starts to cry.

[Northen Light36]

Satisfied, Skif walks out of the room to leave Aries to cry on his own while he asks one of the guild minds to contact Mat. Then he goes and fills a cup with grape juice for Aries and comes back to the room. "Okay, stop crying," he tells Aries. "You didn't get caught and we're going to fix everything okay? Here, I brought you some juice."

[Kender Bard]

"I don't want juice," Aries mutters, and reaches for a pillow on the bed to hug. What did he want? To undo the whole day, he supposed.

So, everytime someone stole something, they could get caught. And if they got caught, they could reveal where all the others in the guild were. Aries doesn't say anything but there's a pensive look on his face as he absorbs this train of thought.

[Northen Light36]

Skif sighes, leaves the juice on the bedside table and walks out of the room, leaving Aries to his thoughts.

About twenty minutes or so later, Mat walks into the room, having gotten the basics of the story from Skif. Sitting on the bed, he just wraps an arm around Aries and holds him in slience for awhile. Then at last he says gently, "Heard you had a bit of a bad day today. Want to tell me about it?"