The lone candle burned in the dark room, giving off little light and lots of smoke, as it neared it's end. Mik'len smiled across the table at the man seated there. The man's face was hidden in the many shadows in the room and, although Mik'len found it annoying to not be able to see who he was talking to, it meant that the man probably couldn't see him either. Gamble, Mik'len's bronze firelizard, chirped happily from his shoulder. Mik'len was glad to see that the man jumped.
The man's tone implied that he was glaring at Mik'len. "Get that damned creature out of here! He'll wake the whole bloody Weyr up!"
Mik'len rubbed his firelizard's head and smiled. "He won't cause any trouble, will ya? He can just tell that I'm excited."
The man did not seem convinced. "Are we alone?"
Mik'len nodded. "Of course. I know what I'm doing."
"We could get in big trouble for this."
"I know. I was extra careful." Mik'len looked to be a youth of 18 or so turns, in reality he was almost 28 turns. The youthful appearance helped him in situations like this. The man across the table obviously thought that Mik'len was an inexperienced youth. The man would take more chances, not expecting such a young innocent lad to catch on. Boy does he have it coming. Mik'len smiled reassuringly.
The man finally grinned back. "So, you got the marks."
"Would I arrange all this if I didn't?" Mik'len gave the man the bag of marks. Again Mik'len was grateful for the dim light. The bag was half-full of marks, half-full of pieces of worthless metal. The man peeked in, but in the dim light couldn't tell that he'd just been swindled.
He pulled out one mark, examined it closely, them smiled and replaced it. "Good work boy." The man threw a bag onto the table.
Mik'len grinned. "This had better be what I think it is." The bag was full of individually wrapped bundles. Mik'len grabbed one of the bundles and opened it carefully. A tiny vial of ink came out, unbroken, into his hand. He grinned and continued to search the bag. Along the bottom were two or three sheaves of paper. On a planet where trees were few and paper even rarer, the bundle was worth a small fortune. "Ooohhh….." He smiled at the older man. "My birthday came early."
Gamble quickly began to chirp and creel again, excited by his master's strong emotions. The other man cringed. "Shut that beast up!"
Mik'len quickly covered Gamble's mouth. "Sorry again. They really are empathetic creatures. Pleasure doing business with you." Mik'len turned to examine the bundle again. The man turned to leave. "Oh," Mik'len added quickly, looking up with amusement as two other men entered the room and grabbed the other man's arms. "By the way, we've never been properly introduced. I'm Mik'len, Bronze-rider and member of Adanuk Weyr Security. Nice doing business with you. You're under arrest."
Mik'len yawned and stretched. He'd been crammed in that little room waiting for the criminal for almost 5 candlemarks. But, He smiled, remembering the look on the man's face when the two other guards had broke in. It was worth it.
You're telling me! Vekunth helpfully added. We've been after him for months! The bronze stretched as well and kneeled to let Mik'len mount.
"You should have seen the look on his face Vekunth. Trust me, it was priceless!"
The dragon smiled. I'm sure. Are you sure we've got him? He's gotten himself out of things like this before.
Mik'len nodded, feeling rather proud of himself. "Positive. He was caught red-handed with a bag full of paper and ink. There's no way he can get out of this one."
Vekunth smiled. Good. It's about time. The bronze jumped into the air and flapped his huge wings, gaining altitude.
"Wait!" Mik'len screamed right before his lifemate popped between. "Where's Gamble?"
The dragon halted and searched for the firelizard with his mind. Nothing. I'm landing.
Mik'len swore under his breath. "Where did that blasted creature get to? It's not like him to just disappear."
Vekunth landed again. He's a firelizard. You can't expect much from them. Although he was trying to reassure his rider, Vekunth was just making it worse. Gamble wasn't just a firelizard, he was an above average firelizard. He was a key player in a lot of Mik'len's scams and a pretty good actor. If he'd proved anything over the years, he'd proved that he was dependable. The Gamble that Mik'len knew would not disappear right after a good bust. Gamble should be flying around Mik'len's head waiting for his reward. Mik'len started to worry.
"Hey!" Mik'len called to one of the brutes that'd helped him on the bust. "Have you seen my firelizard?"
The brute raised an eyebrow. "Firelizard?"
Mik'len couldn't stand insolence. "You know what firelizard I'm talking about. He was the goddamned signal for heaven's sake. He creeled you entered. Forget already?"
"Jeez, calm down. He probably just betweened himself home and is waiting for his scraps of meat." The brute turned back to whatever he was doing, obviously considering the conversation over.
"Gamble can't go between." Mik'len muttered to himself, working himself into a panic.
Calm down! If you get upset you won't be able to think logically. When's the last time you saw Gamble?
Mik'len took a deep breath and thought back. "I grabbed his mouth right after he gave the signal, then the brutes came in, then….I don’t remember!"
"Calm down! What's the problem?" Another one of the brutes approached him.
If one more person tells me to calm down I'm going to kill someone! "My firelizard." Mik'len explained again. "It's gone. I can't find him."
"You mean that little bronze flitter?"
"Yes! Have you seen him."
"Yeah. He was with the prisoner. We thought that it belonged to him. It was pretty friendly towards him."
Mik'len's heart literally stopped. "What?!? You let Gamble go with that crook?!?"
The brute shrugged. "He'll probably between right back to you anyways."
Mik'len had had it. "Gamble can't between!!!!" He screamed it loud enough that passing people stopped to look at him. He grabbed the brute by the shoulder's and shook him until his teeth rattled. "Where did you send that idiot with my Gamble?"
"He should be down in the holding cells. You're first right in the Lower Caverns." Mik'len dropped the man and ran off in that direction.
I know you said you'd kill the next person who said it, but I'm not a person. Calm down. Don't do anything rash or stupid. Vekunth sighed as he watched Mik'len storm into the Lower Caverns. Nevermind.
"There's a good firelizard. Now just bring the keys to me."
Gamble didn't know whether he should or not. This man was obviously not Mik'len, but he and Mik'len had seemed rather close. Little under a candle mark ago the two men had been smiling and exchanging presents. This man seemed like Mik'len's friend. The fact that he was in prison didn't stop Gamble from considering him a nice guy, after all Mik'len had spent some of his youth in prison. The man seemed nice enough and after all, Gamble had helped Mik'len out of prison on more than one occasion. The bronze firelizard helpfully dragged the keys to the man.
The man smiled, grabbed the keys, unlocked the door and grabbed Gamble. He stuck a piece of cloth in the creatures mouth to shut it up and stuck the bronze firelizard in a bag. "You can be my payback. When that Mik'len finds you dead he'll be sorry he ever messed with me."
Gamble suddenly regretted helping the man, no matter how nice he seemed.
Mik'len banged the man's head against the wall one more time for good measure. "You just let him stroll right out of here?!?"
The man winced. "Why wouldn't I? Prisoners aren't supposed to be able to slip through the bars!"
"How did he manage to get out then!!!" Mik'len was not having a good day.
"My guess is that your helpful Gamble got the keys for him." Weyrwoman Magika stood in the tunnel leading down to the cells, the key ring in her hand.
"Magika!" Mik'len was surprised. "How did you…?"
She smiled. "Vekunth was worried that you would do something stupid. He told Hyth who told me." She patted his shoulder. "Don’t worry, we'll get Gamble back."
Mik'len pulled out of the embrace. "Damned right we will. And when I get my hands on the scum who took him I'll….I'll…"
"Get yourself arrested for brutal assault?" Magika helpfully added.
Mik'len almost smiled. "Yeah." He stalked off back into the Weyrbowl and Magika helped the shooken guard to his feet. She quickly joined him in the Weyrbowl.
Mik'len was standing beside his dragon, rubbing Vekunth's side. He laid his head against his mount and pounded it there once or twice.
Magika sighed and approached him. "You know, the more people you deck, the less cooperative they become."
Mik'len just sighed and continued pounding his head against the big bronze.
Magika gave him a reassuring half-smile that he completely missed. She grabbed his shoulder and spun him around so he was facing her. Whatever she'd been about to say was lost when she saw his face.
Unwanted tears had crept into his eyes and he looked horrible. He snorted when he saw Magika's look of pity. "Can you believe it? I lost my firelizard. I lost Gamble."
"He was stolen. You didn't expect to have anyone try to kidnap your firelizard."
Mik'len wasn't consoled. "Gamble can't protect himself. He's trusting. He went willingly with that man. He left. Now only Faranth knows what that idiot has done to him."
"Gamble's fine. Trust me. I'm a Weyrwoman, I know these things, we're all psychic. And Gamble didn't leave you. You said it yourself, he's trusting. I don’t believe he would ever willingly leave you."
Mik'len was about to argue, but was interrupted by Vekunth. I've found him. The bronze didn’t stop to explain, he quickly landed to let both Mik'len and Magika on, then took to the skies again. There. I'd fly lower, but he'd spot us.
Mik'len looked down. He saw a small figure running across the plains. From this altitude he couldn’t tell whether it was his man or not. He'd have to trust Vekunth. "Can you between down so he won't see us?" Mik'len yelled for Magika's behalf. She nodded approving his plan and held on. The giant bronze disappeared, then reappeared in a flash. Before Magika could even dismount, Mik'len was on top of the man. Magika grabbed the bag and freed an unharmed, but disgruntled Gamble and then wondered when to stop Mik'len. The bronze-rider was pummelling the man who was very close to losing consciousness. Magika walked over and grabbed Mik'len's shoulder. Gamble landed on the other one. Mik'len stopped to hug the firelizard. Magika smiled as the man's body slumped to the ground. He was pretty bruised up and had a broken nose, but he'd live. She sighed. "How do I explain this one?"
Mik'len smiled, his good humour and sarcasm returned with his firelizard. "We're doing our job. We caught the bad guy."
"Yeah," Magika smiled. "We just don’t normally pound them into such a bloody pulp first."
Mik'len shrugged and mounted Vekunth. The dragon and the firelizard briefly sniffed each other, happy to be reunited. Mik'len offered Magika a hand up.
She accepted than nodded towards the unconscious man. "What do we do with sleeping beauty?"
Mik'len grinned. "That's the beauty of my plan. Not only do we avoid explaining why the man is so beat up, we avoid carrying him back."
"You're not going to just leave him here, are you?"
Mik'len smiled and Vekunth leapt into the air. "Of course not. We're just going back and telling those brutes we think we know where he is. By the time they get here, he'll be just coming too."
Magika sighed. "And if he gets away before they get here."
"Then I get the pleasure of hunting him down and pummelling him again."
Magika laughed. "Not the best plan, but it may work."
Mik'len grabbed Gamble and held him close as Vekunth disappeared between. Mik'len was glad to feel the warmth of the little creature in the few moments of coldness. He grinned. Don't ever do that to me again buddy, okay?
Gamble creeled and snuggled closer to his friend. He rubbed his head against Mik'len's chest, his way of letting his friend know that he'd never leave again.
Read Mik'len's Weyrling Story!
Read Mik’len’s Hatchling Story!
Read Mik'len's candidate story.
Mik'len impressed Vekunth at Talor Cliff Weyr.
Mik'len impressed Gamble at Blue Star Weyr.
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