Solo [Day 1] Trapped

[Amora Jade]

Season of Winter, Day 57, 513 AV Things were getting expensive. The harsh winter that Sunberth had been seeing that year forced food merchants to drastically raise the prices of their wares. So many people in the city could barely afford food as it was, now more would be starved if they didn't find another way to go about getting something to eat. Not only was the food nearly impossible for someone to purchase, but it seemed that it was always already spoiled when bought. If it wasn't already, it would be very quickly. The snow had caused many unstable buildings to collapse under its pressure, leaving some people without shelter. A few citizens had taken part in gathering some lumber four days prior that would be made into a refuge center to help house the homeless and sick, including Amora. Since the building was just getting started many of the sick, dying people of the city were seen sitting or laying on the ground in small groups to keep warm. Every once in awhile someone would be seen carrying food, attracting the attention of the starved. If the one carrying food was big enough, not many people would test their strength. If not, they would be tackled to the ground by a mass of people who craved it. Amora and her mother were beginning to run short of the small food they had stocked in the apartment and needed to obtain some more. Rayana simply went out to try and sell some of the items she still had left, hoping that at least a few fools still had a few coin to spare. Amora herself wasn't interested in coin, she'd rather just take the food itself. Why waste Mizas on food that was already spoiled and twice as expensive? With that thought in mind she found herself in the Castle Commons at sunrise. Merchants would for sure have much more security than usual to help protect their wares, this would prove to be a difficult situation as Amora tries to snatch a thing or two off the stands. Her boots kicked up snow with every step she took forcing flecks of white to stick to her breeches and the end of her wool coat, making them look much cheaper than they actually were. The thief strode into the marketplace with her head down, she pinned her hair up into her hood and pulled the ends of the hood down to cover her face. The backpack she wore on her shoulders only contained a few items that usually stayed in it including: flint and steel, a few copper mizas, tools fit for a thief, and her waterskin. The emptiness of the pack is what she counted on to pull this off successfully. There were four food merchants out that morning, each of which had at least one hired mercenary guarding their stand. Many citizens crowded around the stands, eyeing and drooling over the food they couldn't afford. It was a sad sight to see, but not sad enough for anyone to give food away for free. Amora observed the stands closely before deciding. "The first one has a ton of food on it, a thick crowd too, but three mercenaries. Too dangerous." She looked to the next stand, "Less of a crowd, only one merc... rotten food. Not even worth the struggle." The third stand seemed a bit more promising, "Two mercs, a bit of a crowd... and food. Not the best looking of food- but food nonetheless." The young thief weaved her way around the people and approached the stand with caution, blending into the crowd of hungry citizens. "Get your bloody hands away from my food! You ain't takin' nothin' without givin' me money in return! Get outta here you filthy scum!" The merchant screamed at the people and motioned for one of the hired men to pull one of them off to the side for a good "talk" for trying to take something without paying. "Well, one less mercenary helps." Amora closed the gap between herself and the stand and waited until the merchant was distracted with screaming at yet another person for getting too close. In one swift movement, she slid the pack off her back and flipped open the top; then she held it to the end of the table and shoveled some bread and dried meat into it. "Hey give me that! I need it more than you do!" One of the people of the crowd grabbed Amora's backpack and tried to pull it from her hands. Quickly the thief grabbed for her dagger which was strapped to her leg. The dagger slid from underneath the cloth she used to keep it in place and was forced into the hand of the starving citizen. He let out an awful scream and let go of the backpack. Amora pulled the dagger from his hand and closed the pack quickly before anyone else tried to grab it. "Hey! Hey you! What ya got there in that bag? Open it now!" Unfortunately the commotion that she had caused by stabbing that guy had attracted the attention of the merchant she just stole from, as well as one of the thugs he had hired. Without hesitation, Amora swept her backpack onto her shoulders again and sprinted away, but not without knocking over two people of the crowd and nearly falling herself first. The old man motioned for the mercenary to chase the thief. Thinking she had plenty of distance and was nearly safely away, Amora looked back over her shoulder as she continued to run. The brute was fast, really fast. Even though he was still about twenty-five feet behind her she could hear his huffing as he took in each breath. His running seemed as if it were practiced, each stride was uniform with the other and each breath came as one foot hit the ground. The way he looked as he ran was almost as if he were trained, and that training was going to good use as he chased the young girl. The gap between them was closing fast, a foot every three ticks. In a panic, Amora quickly turned a corner and began to look for open buildings to hide in. Before she could turn another corner to throw off the man's direction, he had already caught up enough to see her. "What the hell? Where did this guy come from?" Amora turned another corner, then another, and another. The last was a mistake as she found herself at a dead end. The man took his place at the entrance of the alley and gave the girl the most evil and hideous smile she had every seen. "You can't go no where now. Might as well come back with me. Don't wanna have to kill ya." Lies. The man wanted nothing more than to cut off the thief's head. It was obvious in the way he looked at her and played with the ax that hung from his belt. Amora quickly looked around her for any way out. She thought about trying to run straight at the guy and sliding under his legs, but the brute was much too large and fast. As she looked up she noticed that the roof of the building to her right was't very tall, maybe fifteen feet or so. She took in a deep breath and planned out how she was going to do it in her head. "What are you lookin' at? There is no way you gonna get up there!" The mercenary was closing the gap between the two, so she had to act fast. Without having a full plan in mind yet, Amora quickly backed up two steps and ran at the tall wooden fence that cause the dead end. Her right foot kicked off the fence and sprung her upwards and to the left. Then she placed her left foot on the building with the low roof and kicked off the wall, lunging herself just a little bit higher. The girl reached her arms up as high as she could and barely was able to grab the ledge. As she struggled to pull herself up the man ran over to her and tried to grab onto one of her boots, luckily she was just a bit too quick for him. Amora rolled onto the rooftop and then looked back over the ledge, laughing. "What's wrong? Your big butt can't get up here or somthin'?" The brute growled under his breath at her and began to curse and scream. The thief just laughed at him and then sat down on the roof, watching him. Snow blanketed her perch and caused her bottom to feel as if it were becoming frozen to the wood. "Well I guess I better get outta here before he really does find a way up." Amora took a step towards the fence, planning on vaulting herself over it to make a quick get-away. As soon as her foot touched the snow and she put her weight on it, a hole formed and engulfed her before she could react. Her fall was broken by an old wooden table which snapped in half as her body smacked on top of it. Unable to catch her breath, Amora laid there for several chimes. She was able to hear the brutal laughing of the man outside as her mocked her and tried to find a way inside the building. Fortunately for her, the side of the building which housed the entrance had a snow barrier guarding it, and there were no windows. No one was going to be able to get inside the building... or out. Once she was able to breath steadily again, Amora sat up and took in her surroundings. There wasn't much inside and it was difficult to see anything due to the only light source being from the hole she created in the ceiling. The table she had broken was the only furniture, and it was made of old rotten and dry wood. Amora decided to stand up to try and find a way out, but the action of standing itself caused a sharp pain to shoot through her side. "Ah! Damn it..." The thief used her fingers to trace her ribs from as far as she could reach back, to the front. She did it slowly, trying to feel if there were any breaks and at the same time causing herself a world of pain. She sighed in relief once she was finished, happy that she didn't find any broken bones. "Just bruising.. really bad and painful bruising.."

[Amora Jade]

After assessing her body the thief sat back down on the dusty floor and rested for a long while. Nearly four bells had passed before she decided she’d get back up. If it weren’t for the freezing wind coming through the hole in the roof, she probably would have sat there all night. Amora pushed against the ground and found her footing. Stretching out her torso caused her some pain, but it would be a lot worse had things gone differently. She made her way to the door, hoping that she would have enough strength to push the door hard enough to knock away some of the barrier of snow. Amora turned the old copper handle and put her back against the oak. She positioned her feet slightly wider than shoulder-width and squatted a bit, then began to push herself back. The girl grunted and strained as she used every bit of strength she had to try and escape the building. The door only budged an inch or two after eight chimes worth of pushing. Out of energy and hope, the thief let her feet slide out and her bottom hit the floor. She sat there for a moment to catch the breath she’d lost from straining so hard. There was no way she’d have enough strength to get the door open enough for her to slide out. “Great. I’m stuck here, and it’s freezing.” Her hope of escaping anytime soon was lost, so she decided to just make the best of what she could in the cottage. The first thing on her mind was to find a way to heat the place up. There was no way she was going to allow herself to die of pneumonia. Amora pushed herself up to her feet and walked over to the hearth that occupied the back of the building. It was unusual for a cottage to have the hearth built against the back wall rather than in a corner, but it was a bit convenient. The corners of the building had become inhabited with spider webs and who knows what else. She’d rather not try her luck by finding out. The hearth wasn’t filled with snow as she had assumed it would be. “But why?..” Amora bent down and stuck her head into the pit, then looked up. The top was sealed off with wood, probably to keep people from sneaking down inside for whatever reason. The girl backed out of it and looked around for something to burn. If she didn’t get a fire going soon she’d be sure to get sick. It was extremely inconvenient that she had managed to fall into an abandoned building, had she fallen into one that actually had things in it she wouldn’t be having any issues finding something to put in the hearth. “Petch.. I gotta do something..” She looked around at the emptiness several times before an idea hit her. The table she had landed on was made of old- thin wood that was sure to light easily. The young thief gathered up some pieces of the table and placed them into the hearth in an upward triangular fashion, almost making it look like a tent. “I still need something to start it…” Amora felt around in the bottom of the pit and was able to find some half-burnt kindling that still remained in the bottom. She gathered it up and put it on the ground in front of her. “This won’t be enough to get a big fire going…” The wood from the table she had put into the hearth was peeling, which gave her the idea to pull thin strips of it off and add it to her pile of kindling. For safe measure, Amora took her dagger from its holster and cut an inch from the bottom of her trousers all the way around the cuff. The girl then took the cloth and tied it around the wood, placing the burnt bits that would light easily on top. “That should do it.” The thief took her backpack off her shoulders and sat it beside her, then fumbled through it until she found the flint and steel. “Ok.. I’ve done this a few times before, just gotta be sure to get it right the first time or two, otherwise I’ll be screwed.” Amora laid the kindling and cloth-wrapped wood on the edge of the stone that housed the hearth. The thief then took her tools in hand and began to strike the flint against the steel. Her movements of scraping the tools together increased and began to form a rhythm until she was able to get a few sparks to light some of the kindling. Immediately she bent down and gently began to blow onto the small flame. One sudden breath almost caused it to vanish, but the thief quickly moved her left hand onto the opposite side of it and blew more gently until it grew again and quickly engulfed the kindling and lit the cloth that housed the wood strips. “Ack!” Amora quickly pulled her left hand away and used the other to gently place the flame under the canopy of wood inside the hearth. She shook her hand and blew on it, unfortunately she hadn’t pulled it away fast enough before it burned her. “Could be worse, I could freeze to death instead..” Amora watched as the small flame flickered and stretched to reach the wood to the sides and above it. It blackened the surface before the flame was able to catch it and hold on. A small sigh of relief escaped her lips and she rested on her heels. The warmth quickly filled the space around her, as well as smoke. The girl hadn’t even considered that the smoke would be blocked by the wood that blocked the chimney. A small panicky feeling forced her heart to race until she noticed that the smoke was being sucked up through the hole she had created when she fell through the ceiling. The thief began laughing as she watched the black cloud dance through the hole. The embarrassing fall saved her from being smothered by smoke.

[Amora Jade]

The heat from the fire filled the air around it for about five feet out, but the crisp winter air occupied the rest of the building. Snow was beginning to fall again in light flakes that were carried by the wind to the hearth. Each one turned into a tiny speck of water before hitting the ground in front of the thief. Amora sat on her knees across from the fire to keep herself warm. If it began snowing heavily she’d be sure to get sick due to most of the heat being sucked out through the roof. Amora closed her coat tightly around her and pulled her hood onto her long black hair. “What I’d give to have some gloves right now..” The girl rocked back and forth, shivering more violently by every passing chime. The sun was slowly disappearing from the sky as the moon took its place. Along with the beauty of the crescent pearl came the hideous torture of the freezing winter air. The fire burned strongly in the pit, unwavered by the wind that brushed its flames. Amora was lost in a trance as she watched the embers dance and the smoke swirl from the hearth. It was so beautiful the way the flames ate away at the old wood slowly, how the fuel turned black before being engulfed in the light. The smell was relaxing, and familiar. It made her feel as if she were in her own home with her mother, and smelling the oak that burned in their hearth in preparation for a meal. Grrruuubbgggguuuhh! Amora was snapped away from her world of delight by the awful sound of her stomach begging for food. She had completely forgotten that she hadn’t eaten since early that morning. With the freezing air causing her to shiver so much, the thief knew it’d be important to keep her body strong. “Let’s see what I have here…” Amora lifted her backpack onto her lap and grabbed from it a half-loaf of bread and some dried meat, followed by her waterskin. It wasn’t a luxurious meal, nor was it at all tasteful due to the staleness of the bread and the dryness of the meat, but it would do the job. She ate slowly, being sure not to eat too much just in case she couldn’t find a way out the next day either. The amount of snow that was piled in front of that door made a strong argument that she wouldn’t be able to get out for awhile. After finishing half of her bread and only a couple pieces of the handful of meat she had, Amora laid her backpack on the ground to the side of her and moved down to rest her head on it. The cold hard floor proved to be a challenging bed to rest on, but she needed to regain enough strength to move that snow.

[Zandelia]

Amora :

Skills
Larceny – 1
Running – 2
Dagger – 1
Acrobatics –1
Observation – 3
Stealth – 1
Climbing – 1
Endurance – 1
Wilderness Survival - 1

Lores
Stealth: Blending Into A Crowd
Lesson: Watch The Crowd
Acrobatics: Wall Push
Stuck After A Heist
How To: Light A Fire

Notes :

Short and sweet. Nice. Try to have events cover a couple posts rather than one as it means you can get more xp. I’d also like to see more detail of the larceny side of things, it’d gain you what you need to survive and thrive

Any questions about my grade? Feel free to PM anytime. Keep Writing!