“It's not stealing: it's retrieving.” ― Mora Early, Twisted Arrangement Dream Landscape

Karl found himself in a rather pleasant dream. He had his human form back and he was laying on a luxurious sofa. His attention was swiftly drawn two rather… well-proportioned women sharing the room with him. One crawled on her hands and knees towards him, pushing herself up to his level. The other climbed onto the sofa, pulling herself close

They pressed their lips together, deepening into languorous kiss. The taste of sweet strawberries filled Karl’s mouth. While closing his eyes for maximum enjoyment, Karl heaved her up to the sofa as the second woman climbed up on her own...

****

He opened his eyes to look straight into Locust’s face, who still had his tongue in Karl’s mouth. Karl broke the kiss, but once again found himself unable to say anything comprehensible.

“Sunovabitch! Again?!” he blurted out after a *very* awkward pause. “I get that on the other night there was a miscommunication, but there’s no way that it was an accident this time!”

“Come on Karl, you need to see this from my point of view! Not accepting those kisses of yours is like saying no to free food, and that’s something even you wouldn’t do.” Locust defended himself, and once again Karl found himself without a valid argument beyond “But I don’t like it.”

Of course, he didn’t actually say it out loud, but it was echoing around his head like a trumpet blast in a cathedral.

“Ugh, fine. Just make sure that it doesn’t get to anything more than kissing.” Karl finally said, making sure to not wake anyone up. The less other people knew about this, the better.

“Will do.”

“One more thing. Do you have strawberry flavor lipstick on your lips?” Karl asked as he tasted some kind of strawberry cream on his lips.

“Yep. Remember when you told me you liked cherry and strawberry flavour? Well I thought this would be smart to do. The more pleasure you feel, the more power I get.” Locust happily stated.

Karl meanwhile was debating on what to think of this new revelation, but decided that it really wasn’t worth it. Locust was part of a race for whom gender-bending was business as usual. A man putting on lipstick was probably one of the less dramatic things to do in their society.

“You know Locust, uh… do you think you can get off me?” Karl asked as he found out he had another problem more down south.

“Sure thing.” Locust said as he hoped off, making Karl mentally sight in relief. ‘Well at the very least I am spared of that embarrassing fact to be known.’ Karl thought.

“It was getting uncomfortable anyway with your boner against my ass.” Locust drily stated like he it was the most normal thing to say against your friend.

‘Well, shit!’ Karl thought. ‘This day’s already started out great, and the actual heist part still needs to happen.’

It had been five days since the Dogs had given him that mission, so today would be the day that he and Locust (who had agreed without much protest) would have to steal the Nāga artifact.

“Here: put these in.” Locust said as he handed Karl two earplugs.

“Why?”

“It’s almost time for the wakeup call.” Locust dryly stated and Karl immediately put the earplugs.

Then the two sat and waited. Not a moment too soon. All the others immediately shot up from their hammocks indicating the blasting of the wakeup call.

‘You know, it’s actually kinda funny to watch when you can’t hear anything.’ Thought Karl.

They waited ten seconds or so before pulling the plugs out and started getting dressed. They dressed in the normal attire, consisting of a white loincloth, a dark olive green tunic and their wooden sandals, or for Locust, the closest you could get to sandals for hooves, before heading to the mess room.

They got a somewhat fancier breakfast consisting out of eggs, bacon and toast. Or at least Karl thought it was bacon: it tasted different than he remembered and the texture was slightly off. Locust got a special bottle with fluid love. How love could be fluid, Karl didn’t know, and he didn’t care either. Adler and some other captains gave a small speech and after some small talk the bell rang that officially announced their day off.

The two didn’t immediately head over to the museum though. Karl needed to get some stuff Max had given him. Namely, a forgery tablet meant to replace the one being stolen to keep the museum staff from noticing the theft. They might figure it out eventually, but by the time they did, the real tablet would be long gone.

As they walked past the sickroom they heard some noises from inside. Normally he would just ignore it, but let’s say that for this nurse, Karl wanted to make an exception. He and Locust slowly opened the door and saw Froă and her female Changeling assistant making out on the desk.

“Well, looks like we now know how that Changeling gets her love.” Karl stated with a devious smirk on his face.

“Damn this is hot.” Locust said, stating the obvious. Suddenly the Changeling literally ripped Froă’s shirt off exposing her C-cup breasts.

Karl and Locust’s eyes shot open like window shades.

“Dammit! This is not what I need right now!” Karl said annoyed, as he felt another erection coming up.

“Tell me about it! My loincloth is way too tight!” Locust complained urgently as he gripped his nether regions in discomfort.

“Too much information pal.”

“How is it different from what you just did.”

“…Shut up. Let’s just beat it… quit smirking, you know what I mean!”

Karl scooped the Changeling up with his right claw and as quickly and quietly as possible made his escape towards the barracks. The two females meanwhile continued without having noticed that they had been watched.

****

About an hour and a half later Locust and Karl were in an alley at the back of the museum, which was, like most of the other businesses, closed because of the festivities.

Karl regretted not taking the time for more extensive planning. Sure, he’d gotten a basic idea of how to plan the break-in, but it wasn’t exactly easy to work in heist planning while training under Adler’s iron fist. Or should it be iron claw? Whatever.

“I’m sorry, but how did you say we’re we going to get inside?” Locust asked.

“We need to get up to the roof. See those pipes? Those are for ventilation. We can get into the building through the ducts. Now it looks like there’s a fire escape ladder up there. Do you think we can get it down?”

“Easy. Just wait a second.”

Karl wanted to ask Locust what he was doing, when he put his forehooves on the wall of the museum and started walking up it like a bug. Karl waited for Locust to reach the ladder, which he dropped down to Karl’s level.

“You never told me you could do that.” Karl shouted up at Locust.

“You never asked!”

The roof was wide with a high wall running around the edge, concealing them from anyone who might happen to look up.

“Hey Karl, look at this.” said Locust, pointing at a padlocked hatch on the roof. “Maybe we won’t have to use the ducts.

“Locust, USE LOCK PICKING SPELL!” Karl ordered as he dramatically pointed at the door.

“...What?”

“Uh… nothing. I was just thinking of a television show from back home.”

“What’s a television show?”

“I said it was nothing! Now seriously, I need you to pick that lock.” Karl urged.

“Cant’ do it: if I break that lock then that alarm rune will send a signal to the guards.”

“An alarm system, eh?” Karl lowered himself to look more closely at the lock. Indeed, he spotted a strange symbol on the door which faintly glowed blue.

“Does it use magic?” he asked.

“Of course.”

Karl touched the rune and the glow instantly died.

“Handy. Now stand aside.”

Karl stepped to his left and a small laser-like green ray shot out of Locust’s horn and wrapped around the lock which simply clicked open.

“I somehow doubt that that’s standard Changeling military training.”

“Nah. That’s a story which involves a pissed off pony, a pissed off higher officer of mine and some bottles of alcohol.”

“Sounds like a story you need to tell me sometime, though I can’t imagine how it resulted in learning to pick locks.” Karl replied, opening the now unlocked door and descending the stairs with Locust close behind.

“Okay we need to get to the basement of this place.” The two descended the stairs until they reached the floor marked G, all the while taking painstakingly light steps on the creaky stairs.

Karl and Locust both pressed their ears against the door at the landing before carefully opening it. Karl scanned the area whilst Locust carefully closed the door again as quietly as possible as to not alert anyone.

“Remember Locust; we aren’t here to start a fight. Nobody’s supposed to even realize that we’re here.” Karl whispered.

“Don’t know how that fake tablet is going to fool the scientists, but whatever.”

“Don’t know. As long as I have the real one and they don’t realize they have the fake for a few days, we’re in the clear.” Karl replied before quietly walking down the hallway.

Up ahead, the two saw a sign with something written on it, but they couldn’t read it from this far away.

“Seriously? Torches? Are they *trying* to give this place a creepy atmosphere?” Locust asked rhetorically.

This world confused Karl to no end. These ponies obviously had the technology for lamps, but still lit these tunnels with torches. Perhaps this city did not possess a centre for electricity generation, but if that was the case, how did those other lamps work? Besides, this was clearly an industrialised city. He would think they would have some kind of power plant.

It didn’t matter right now though. All that mattered was that tablet and getting it out of here unseen. By the time Karl had finished with his thoughts, they had walked close enough to read the sign. It said “LABS” with an arrow to the left and “MAIN STORAGE” with an arrow to the right.

“Left it is.” Locust stated, recalling that Max had told him that the tablet had been taken out of storage for lab testing. They reached a double door with another rune lock on it, which was, by a simple touch of Karl’s, deactivated and picked by Locust.

“I am so glad you know that spell. Five days isn’t exactly a good period to teach yourself lock picking, and definitely not with hands like these.” Karl stated as he recalled his attempts with the lock picking set he had been given by Max.

“Yeah, that spell saved my flank a couple times already.” The two sneaked into the lab, only to find that they weren’t the only ones in there. They hid behind a small wall, seeing at least ten guards talking and standing around a weathered tablet on a table. Karl lowered his head and sighted in annoyance at this extremely annoying obstacle.

“Let me guess; that tablet is the one we need, right?” Locust whispered as he caught Karl’s frustrated expression. Karl merely nodded his head in affirmation, whilst he tried to think of a solution to this new problem.

“We need a distraction, something even they cannot ignore.”

“A fire?”

“No; that would attract *too much* attention. Besides, we’re trying to leave behind as little evidence as possible. What about a theft?” Karl replied.

“Oh, and that isn’t going to bring a lot of attention?!”

“It’s going to attract attention, but a different part of the museum. Hear me out: find another lock somewhere nearby with one of those runes on it. If you set it off, those guards’ll hopefully take the bait. When they arrive, disguise yourself as another guard and sneak back here when they aren’t paying attention.”

“It’s not that simple. Those guards have special runes in their armour which I can’t duplicate. In order for that plan to work, we’d have to find a spare set of armour lying around. Even if we found one, the idea’s moot: I can’t morph in this building. I can feel an anti-morphing rune hidden somewhere. Probably installed after the attack on Canterlot when all the ponies started freaking about security.”

“Jeez! What is it with these guys and their runes?! We don’t really have much of a choice though here’s what we’ll do: We find a guard by himself and knock him unconscious. You steal his armour, set off an alarm, and when the rest of the guards show up, put up an act and make sure that you can slip away.”

“That could work if that anti-morphing rune wasn’t active.”

“It doesn’t matter. You just get that armour. Let me take care of that rune. And take this.” Karl said as he handed Locust a small file.

“This file holds all the information about this place. Guard patrols, their routes, everything. You take down an easy guard not too far from this section, but far enough that I’ll have some time grabbing that tablet. I’ll make sure that rune is taken care of. We will meet back in this room.” Karl said, pointing at a small storage room not too far from their current position.

“Yeah, sure, got it. Good luck with that rune.”

“Yeah, you with that guard.”

With that said, both headed to their own objectives.

****

Karl could feel the sting of the rune’s magic since entering the museum, but he hadn’t actually known what it was until Locust told him. It seemed to radiate from the rough centre of the museum.

Adler really wasn’t kidding when he said that the pony guards around here were just for show, but he wasn’t complaining. Karl had only really seen them around the Nāga tablet. Other than some vague talking he’d heard from across the building, there was no sign that any others were actually here.

Karl made his way to the central dome. He didn’t notice anything too special about it. Underneath the dome stood a giant statue of an alicorn. Based on its clothing (if you could call it that) he identified the alicorn as the white bitch known as Princess Celestia.

The Celestia statue was smiling down at him with a motherly smile, which only made Karl angrier. It looked nearly identical to the one she had given him on his first evening in this place. He also noticed a small tell-tale faint blue glow of a rune on the back of the statue’s head.

“How am I supposed to get up there?” Karl wondered aloud.

Surely there must be some way to get there. After all unicorns needed to get there to recharge the rune. He decided to walk around the statue to see if he found any way to reach the rune. He walked completely around the giant statue, but found nothing until the small reception desk in front of the statue caught his attention.

Behind the desk, he saw a small wooden hatch in the floor, not sure what purpose it served, he decided to investigate.
‘Can’t hurt to try.’ he thought.

The hatch was locked, but seeing as he didn’t really need to make it look like an accident, he simply pulled the old wooden hatch out of the lock. He saw a very dimly lit narrow tunnel leading underneath the statue.

“Well, fuck. That doesn’t look like any place made for someone with my body frame.”

After he put his backpack out of sight, Karl entered the narrow tunnel praying that to whatever god wanted to hear him that he wouldn’t get stuck in this tunnel. He also contemplated the fact that he didn’t notice any security runes on the hatch. They had the damn things everywhere except the door that led to a major security point.

‘If a unicorn can add magic to a rune, surely a disgruntled one could remove it. Whoever put this door here is either incredibly naïve or these ponies really are that unwilling to commit a crime.”

He slowly, but surely crawled his way all the way up through the tunnel cursing the ponies who build that tunnel with every possible curse his mind could come up with.

****
Locust was carefully and silently making his way through the empty corridors, scanning for anyling. He didn’t really like Karl’s distraction plan, but it was better than nothing, and it wasn’t like he could come up with anything better. He didn’t even know why Karl needed that thing in the first place.

He recalled that Karl had mentioned some Diamond Dogs, so Locust figured that he was either in debt, hired or allied with them.

Given Karl’s tales of his exploits, he doubted that he owed them: if anything, the dogs were in debt to *him*. Karl didn’t seem motivated by material gains, so the possibility that he was working as a hired goon was also unlikely. That only left the latter option.

As unlikely as it sounded, Locust had to conclude that Karl was doing this purely out of loyalty. This was another strange aspect of Karl’s character that he had noted: if he was telling the truth, he simply wandered out of the Everfree and started working with the Diamond Dogs (Locust got the impression that Karl was leaving something out of that story, though). Hell, the minute he met Karl and told him that he’d been part of the attack on Canterlot, he’d stuck by him ever since.

Locust carefully scanned the area before taking out the map Karl had given him. He checked if he was on the right spot or not and after making sure it was the right spot Locust decided to hide behind a statue that stood in a niche setting up a good ambush for the guard that was supposed to pass by.

****

Karl had finally managed to get to what he assumed was straight under the ass of that bitch’s statue. He fucking hated this. Not only did he need to climb all the way up in a narrow tunnel straight to the head, he needed to get back as well! That last thought was discouraging. He had considered just climbing down, but there was no guarantee that he could do it without attracting attention.

This museum was so fucked up. In the basement they used torches and up here they used lamps? Why not just use lamps everywhere?! He started climbing again, continuing to curse.

****

‘This was so bucking boring!!!’ thought Locust.

He’d been waiting in the same spot for a good ten minutes already, and this niche only allowed extremely limited movement. Just when he was about to blow a gasket, he heard some hoofsteps pass nearby, followed by a lone white unicorn guard. The Changeling quietly exited the niche, preparing a stun spell whilst sneaking up on the unsuspecting pony. He unleashed the slimy green magic beam, which hit the unicorn straight in the back of his head, instantly knocking him out. He lifted the unicorn in an aura of green. He undressed the unicorn, breaking the spell which gave all unicorn guards the same white color of coat. The unicorn appeared to have a brown coat and a dark black mane with a black shield as cutiemark. He quickly threw on the armour, which caused his normal black chitin to turn white, but his insectoid wings and Swiss-cheesed body were still obvious. He quickly hid the guard’s unconscious form in the niche.

“Let’s see if Karl managed to deactivate that rune.” Locust wondered as he tried to morph into the unicorn guard.

****

Karl finally reached the head of the statue and saw the rune. It looked like a small pyramid covered in smaller symbols. He simply touched it with his right claw and saw the glow disappear.

“Bye-bye morph suppression.”

Karl sighed in relief as he laid back on his stomach to get back in the way too narrow tunnel.

“Here we go again.” he grumbled, irritated, before crawling in the tunnel again.

****

Locust was glad to see himself bursting out in green flames and transforming into an exact copy of the unconscious guard. After letting out a little mental cheer, he scanned the area to be certain noling was there before heading towards the meeting point.

****

Karl was not happy. He calculated that it had taken him about twenty to twenty-five minutes to get in and out of those blasted tunnels. He quickly made his way to the meeting point.

When he opened the door he saw a white unicorn guard looking at him, but before he could do anything more than take a defensive stance, the guard spoke with Locust’s voice.

“Hey, hey! Back it down; it’s me!”

Karl relaxed.

“White looks good on you.”

“Ha ha. Now come on. Let’s get the tablet and the get the hell out of here.”

“Don’t forget the distraction. Look for a rune on something around here, then break into it.” Karl said as he took the map out of Locust saddle bag. “I’ll wait here until those guards take the bait, then I’ll slip into the lab and switch the tablets.”

“Alright, what happens then?”

“Well, we escape. We’ll both have to find our own way out, so we’ll meet back up in the alley behind the museum. From there we can sneak down into the sewer. It’ll be nasty as hell, but it’s the only sure way to get out without being seen.”

“Okay. Good luck, man.”

“Yeah, you be safe.”

Locust gave him a small smile before walking off, and so the waiting game started. A little while later the alarm sounded, followed by the sound of a door opening and ponies running towards the alarm.

‘Idiots.’ Karl thought as he exited his hiding spot after making sure the ponies were out of sight.

He sneaked into the labs and saw only one pony left patrolling around the room. Well, “patrolling” was a loose term. It was more like loafing around with his back to both the door and the tablet. If that guard had been working for him, Karl would have bitchslapped him. What a dope! Instead of paying attention to what he was supposed to guard, he was distracted by… is that pornography?! The guy had his eyes glued to porno mag in the middle of a high alert situation!

Hey, whatever made his job easier.

Karl didn’t waste any more time and started sneaking up to the table where the tablet was resting. After quickly looking around for those alarm runes, he made sure the switching of tablets happened as fast as possible.

The guard was still occupied with his “literature”, so Karl exited the lab as quickly as he entered it. He hurried towards the roof, hearing the muffled shouts of the guards. He raced up the stairs, across the roof, down the ladder and onto the streets as quick as possible.

An armourless Locust was already waiting on him, but still in pony form.

“I hope you got what you needed, because it’s time to make our grand escape through the sewers.”

“Yes, what a grand escape.” Karl replied sarcastically, heaving a cover off of the sewer-hole.

Locust jumped down first and Karl followed him, after which he replaced the cover.

****

Titus the Diamond Dog was sitting on the terrace of a pub located in the seedier city districts. He was patiently waiting on Karl as Max had told him.

Titus was not the most handsome of dogs: his coat was a dull grey and a big scar was visible on his upper left arm. He was also missing a couple of teeth and a chunk of his right ear. Although considering he had served for nearly five years as a centurion in the Diamond Dog legions and then another two as camp prefect, he wasn’t doing too badly.

After the defeat of the Diamond Dog Confederacy in the Third Gemstone War, Equestria had forced the thinning of DDC military ranks. By this, they meant copious layoffs, putting the Confederacy in a state of depression soon after. He was one of those guys who lost their jobs, and was since incapable of finding another (legitimate) one.

It wasn’t that he lacked education! He could speak three languages; Dogium, Nazja and Equestrian. He was an experienced fighter and a good organizer, but there was simply way too little work back in the confederacy, and no-one else was willing to hire Diamond Dogs at the time.

Sure, by now he probably would find some work again, but honestly; what was the point? At this point, he wanted nothing more than to subvert the Pony system as much as possible. His current job had a greater chance of letting him have that than any other.

Thus a man whose dignitas was extremely important and had fought in many battles as a Confederacy loyalist was here as a cog in yet another ordinary heist. He would complain about this being degrading and against his character, but after he’d done this for so many years he kind of lost the will to complain about it.

He saw the nearby sewer lid move and then Karl crawled out, followed by that Changeling partner of his.

****

Karl was glad that he was finally breathing some fresh air again. By no means was the outside air clean, but it was a step up from the dank sewer air he had been breathing for about half an hour. He saw some people look at him strangely before just going back to whatever they were doing. Everyone, that is, except a dull grey-coated Diamond Dog which Karl recognized as his contact from the photo in Max’s file.

The dog approached them

“And?” he said in a gruff voice.

“Mission successful.”

“Good. Follow me, both of you.” the Dog ordered before walking off again.

Karl sighed, but complied after quickly putting the sewer lid back. Nobody said a word during the walk, which took about fifteen minutes. They arrived outside of a brothel and entered the alley next to it.

“Let me look at it.” Titus ordered and Karl silently handed him.

After looking it over, Titus merely nodded before giving it back to Karl and walking deeper into the alley. They arrived by a back entrance where two sturdy dogs with metal bats were standing on guard. Titus said something to them which neither Karl nor Locust could understand. The dogs merely nodded and allowed them to pass through.

Once inside, the air was thicker and had some kind of aroma in it. Something like church incense. The Dog lead them through a backstage area, including the corridor with the dress rooms where a couple of women (both a variation of the humanoid cats like Karl had seen at the mercenary centre) with extremely little of body concealment eyed them curiously.

They passed by quickly though, and finally stood in front of what Karl guessed was the manager’s office. The grey Dog merely motioned them to go first. The office was obviously meant to be more of the “I don’t come in this room much, so I just put here what is absolutely necessary” kind of room, as the only thing in it was a desk with Max behind it, three chairs in front of it and two bookshelves on the right wall.

“Do you have the artifact?”

‘Straight to the point.’ Karl thought.

“Yes, here.”

He took the tablet and carefully handed it to Max with his left claw, who studied it intensely.

“Good job. I am glad that my trust in you was not misplaced.”

“You said before that you had two things you needed help with and that you would tell me about the second thing once I got the tablet.”

“Eager to get to work?”

“No. I just want to spend as little time as possible working jobs that are likely to get me thrown in jail. Not that I would actually care that much, but it would be an unpleasant diversion from my plans.”

“Very well. Follow me.” Max replied, standing up, completely unfazed by Karl’s bluntness.

Karl was slightly surprised that Max just ignored his tone, but didn’t complain. He, Titus and Locust followed Max once again in utter silence. Max seemed bent on letting nothing on about this second job until they reached whatever destination he had in mind.

They headed over to a storage room. Dressing room? He honestly couldn’t tell. It could have been another dressing room, but there were no girls in there, in any case. At least that’s what Karl thought at first, but he soon noticed there was a medium sized indoor pool.
The pool was not in the floor, but rather looked like an aquarium in which one would put lobsters, only many times bigger, and in it laid the slumbering form of the Nāga woman he had met before.

“Karl and uh… your name?”

“Locust.”

“Karl and Locust, meet my own personal guest. From what I’ve managed to understand, her name is Saqatuwa. I think it translates over to “tree blossom” or something like that. Nazja isn’t the easiest language to understand. I apologize that she is not capable of greeting you, but let’s just say she is busy sleeping of her intoxication.”

Both Karl and Locust looked questioningly, first at each other then at Max.

“She’s not drunk in the way you think. You see, these Nāgas are good with magic. Their females in particular are skilled sorceress, whilst the males focus more on physical traits. Most of the Nāga females have four arms. Across all species and subspecies, the ones with two arms are considered to be of a higher class. I’ve yet to figure out the correlation, but it seems to have something to do with the fact that they more closely resemble the Nāgas’ purported ancient ancestors.

Either way, it’s obvious that they have better control over magic than typical Nāgas, and often times specialize in healing magic since it requires more precision and skill than most other types. It is thus quite logical for these to be quite valuable to Nāga society.”

Karl and Locust nodded that they understood.

“The Nāgas have a lot of control over the sea, so the pirates are smarter than to make them angry. Unfortunately for this beautiful girl, the Equestrian navy is a whole other matter.”

“Wait, what do ponies have to gain by kidnapping a Nāga?”

“A hostage, mister Karl. The organization with which I am allied is called the Union of the Snake, an organization that, in Equestrian eyes, is one of the most powerful terrorist cells currently active. Although I find the term “resistance organization” a more appropriate title. You have most certainly already heard of their most recent project: the unrest in Ironhoof.”

“What’s up with that anyway? The Equestrian military has a strong grip on that area. Just how long do you think tey can keep it up?” Locust said.

“I don’t know about their exact plans. All I know is that the Nāga support them, and with her as a hostage the Equestrians hope to put pressure on the Nāgas to forsake their alliance.”

“But seeing as she ended up on the slave market I guess that didn’t work out so well.”

“The ponies were overconfident. The Union does not take these kinds of things lightly and completely destroyed the pony ship that transported her, but since she was under the influence of all kinds of drugs (the same drugs responsible for her current state), she somehow fell in the hands of slavers. How that happened, I doubt even she knows, and the rest of the story you already know. We are lucky that the kidnapping wasn’t exactly something that the general public was supposed to know about, so tracking her down will be nearly impossible.”

“That explains the girl. What’s the story behind the tablet?”

“I am not exactly sure. All I know is that the tablet is the reason behind the sudden hostilities of the Skôkak. I have no clue what they want to do with it though, perhaps the girl can help when she has one of her clear moments again.”

“Does she *really* still have drugs in her system? It’s been at least a week since you… bought her.” Karl questioned, as it did sound a ridiculous long time for drugs to stay active.

“Those are very nasty magically enhanced chemicals! Whoever captured her paid big bucks for them. You can’t just stop giving them to her immediately: it would cause her to crash, and hard. The only way to do it is to gradually taper the dosage. I have no idea why they designed them that way. Maybe to motivate slaves to stay, or else risk death.”

“Alright. You’ve explained the situation. Now tell me the second job.”

“You need to get her to Ironhoof.”

Well, there went Karl’s hopes for minimal difficulties on his journey.

“And how am I supposed to do that?”

“We’ll hire protection for a transport. You can help defend that transport easily, no?”

“I guess…” Karl lamely replied unsure of just what to say.

“Good. So you and your Changeling friend keep an eye on her and everyone will be happy. Titus will accompany you: he’s one of the few that speak Nazja in this city.”

This seemed to be as surprising to the dull grey Dog as it was to Karl and Locust.

“I suggest you two go back and go about your regular business. Meanwhile, Titus and I will try and see if our guest can tell us what the text on that tablet means. If your help is required I’ll send for you.”

“I can read most of it, but it’s written in some kind of riddle. Jeez, what is it with these ancient cultures and their riddles? Hopefully she understands it.” Titus added.

“Alright. Until next time.” Karl said, still somewhat frustrated by the situation, before turning around and taking his leave, followed by Locust.

****

“I don’t know about this Karl.” said Locust uneasily. “It feels like we’re getting into something big. Something that could turn right the hell around and bite us in the ass if we aren’t really careful.”

“Yeah, but who cares. It’s just a job. And maybe the rewards are finally getting bigger.”

“I have no clue what you’re looking for Karl, but I trust your judgment. I’m going to see this through with you.”

“Thanks Locust.”

Author's Note

Hello again everybody!

I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I also hope that everyone of you that is still going to school managed to settle in with the rest of the class.

Once again if you like the story show some support and I will keep on adding chapters.

Also if you feel like it put in a comment about which show Karl had it if you know.

Author: TheShadowOfZama
Editor: Vlasislas32