Author's Note

Ran into a weird glitch that some how ended up with this particular chapter being deleted while I was correcting it.

I was planning on renaming it but for the sake of awareness this chapter was previously called, "to catch a thief."

Sorry.
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Chapter 7 Gamorra's Article

“Are we talking about Igneous?” a familiar voice asked.

When the company looked they found it was Dramier who had let himself in. He was armored in his usual equipment with both wings fit and ready for combat.

“Dramier,” Dorrorrian hollored. “It's been awhile. I intended to speak to you earlier except Alastoria insisted on stealing me away from you three.”

Dramier took his place on the edge of the bench and said, “We had our own little task to take care of, only I'm done now and knew you two came here.”

“Careful Dramier,” Alastoria warned just before taking another drink. “I don't want to see you too drunk.”

“Daft, I will get as drunk as I want Lady Fearless and I’ll pay it all too.” He signalled for another drink simply by winking at the busser who Dramier had aquanted himself with quite intimately the other day. Yesterday night to be specific. “So what tail have you already? His first hunt, first weapon forge, his greatest duel, first combat mission or what?”

“His first mission,” Dorrorrian answered to which Dramier only respond was a resounding ‘meh’. “‘Meh!?’” Dorrorrian repeated. “Isn't any Falconer’s first mission an excitement for all concerned.”

“Besides the monster in concern,” Alastoria muttered before taking another swig.

Dramier only crossed his hooves and shook his head to show his dismay. “The whole thing seemed contrived is all I’ll say,” he lowly complained. “Because of course the taffing monster had to jump out in our moment of defenceless running us along with our tails between our legs.” Dramier acted as if the beast had personaly insulted him in some way but as Dramier caught both Alastorias and Dorrorrian’s questioning gazes he retorted, “Yes! I’m bitter about getting my wing broken. However it died in the end so what the, hay who am I on about?”

“It healed fine, right?” Dorrorrian asked.

His left wing sprung open in response as he grudgingly sat there. “Can still fly,” he answered. “Was painful though and also kinda demoralising to be hauled all day in a cart. But anyways,” he said waving his wing.

“Yes, but anyways...”

They sat there for a moment taking turns drinking until Dramier asked, “What did I come here for?”

“Where's Igneous?” Alastoria asked.

“I don't know. Either with Raillay sauntering about or playing with a few other colts or filly friends.”

“He does sound like a good Falconer at least. I’d want on my team,” Dorrorian said. “How do you feel about him Dramier?”

He smirked along with a little chuckle and answered, “that lil’ colt sometimes feels like a little brother to me. Same could be said about Raillay too, maybe weave spent too much time around him or he has just got that ‘likeability’ thing going on which reminds me... Did I ever tell you about the time we caught a thief just the two of us?”

“Ugh,” Alastoria exasperated. “You always said you caught a thief but you never explained anything further. Only, ‘we caught a Taffing thief!’”

Dorrorrain allowed himself to silently laugh as Dramier retorted, “It just slips from my mind because every time you ask we’re caught up in some other task.”

“Yea well you got the attention span of a sparrow. I’ll say that much.”

“Hahaha, alright give Dramier some space,” Dorrorrian laughed. It could have been his drunken mind set that made him more laughable or he just genuinely found their interactions to be somewhat entertaining if not funny.

Dramier nodded and after settling himself in he began.

“Ok so Alastoria already told you about Igneous' first hunt right? Well this story takes place just days afterwards when we stayed two villages away from where it all took place. I was on my hooves again albeit with a bandaged wing and diminished social moral amongst my fellow peers and falconers, aside from Igneous of course. This was a trading village with nothing much but shops and households all over the area but this village was more tuned towards farming which is hardly even relevant.”

“Are you going to get to the story,” Alastoria asked impatiently.

Dramier continued without acknowledgment, “on this particular day Alastoria and Raillay were off doing there own buisness I took no care in knowing. My business however along with Igneous’ business was a shared business and one given to us by Alastoria herself…

What Draimer and Igneous had set out to do was acquire enough bars to forge a sword in which Alastoria would teach and over see him do. Typically it would take two, maybe three with four being more than enough and since this was an economic village dealing mostly with trading of sorts, Dramier on this particular day wanted to get into the spirit of things by simply bartering for items instead of paying.

One particular item he had was a considerably sharp tooth from the monster they had previously slain which Alastoria dubbed, “the Vacuous Lumbricina,” for great effect in stories. He didn't have any particular interest in collecting monster bits but he did enjoy getting its worth which was his intentions today.

They traveled down many streets lined with vendors selling bottom line fabrics, fragrances and basicly anything one would find very essential in their lives. They rounded the corner peeling away from the chaotic madness of deals and offers, coming more into the industrial area that traded metals, weapons, tools and food. This area was mostly used for a stopping point for trading convoys as well as a quick buy in and sell out for ponies who didn’t intend to stay too long. Business here moved fast and often times one could make a fairly great bargain in their favor.

Igneous and Dramier were fully suited in their falconering equipment albite with Dramier having removed the bladed feathers on his left wing. Other than that he still wore his clawed gauntlets on his forehooves and chest plate strapped to his body. Dramier was doing his part to mentor Igneous on how to get the most for a barter by always pushing the boundaries of the trade in your favor. He wasn’t getting too indepth just really saying the basics.

Now looking around Dramier proceeded, “Okay Igneous we need to find a caravan coming from any mining village, most preferably the one we just came from as it is the closest and we can get the best raw deal.”

“Okay,” he said leading a bit ahead as he looked down another crowded roadway. As Dramier caught up Igneous asked, “Couldn't you just buy the metal instead? You do have a lot of money don’t you?”

“Yea,” he admitted. “I do, but you feel like you let every pony down when you just throw money at the problem. Plus this is how falconers mostly do their bidding anyways so why get in the spirit while we’re still young.” He gave Igneous a pat on the head as he passed while adding, “Honestly it's just more enjoyable to argue . When you break down the essentials of what you need for what you can get, it all gets very technical and it's just something I personally enjoy. It could honestly be my father's blood at work.”

“What would be your mother's part?” Igneous asked more disinterested than anything else as he looked about from shop to shop, and pony to pony.

“Farming,” he answered quieter than usual.

They then wandered around doing their best to ignore prodding vendors as they walked down street after street with no results. They then found it was easier to simply ask where they could find the caravan and one pony kindly answered that there was a group of them on the outskirts of town where, “They always are,” she had said.

Dramier couldn't quite agree with that statement since most villages had roads leading straight to the center and back out again. This method just seemed inefficient, especially for a village dealing with trade.

After a few minutes of taking turns to run and lead the way, they finally found themselves on the outskirts. The carts were lined up next to the river this village fed off of with most of them commuting amongst themselves while others caravans traded with businesses and official looking ponies.

From the bunch Dramier chose one caravan and walked up to what he guessed was the owner or forerunner of the team. Using eye contact to signify and introducing himself and he said, “Hey, I'm interested in buying some iron bars do you happen to have any on or know which of these groups may supplies them?”

“Oh,” the forerunner responded. “Well that would be me. I'm the leader of this group of three. There not here at the moment but all you need to deal with is me.” The forerunner wore only a large pack on his back along with two satchels that hung on each side. Igneous guessed he must've been heavily involved in personal trades given his attire which was the same conclusion Dramier happen to come too.

“Great, great,” Dramier nodded as he chose his next few words to begin the trading proposition.

However the trader started it himself by saying, “So you wanted metals and judging by your equipment you planning on forging a weapon, specifically for this one here?” he asked by pointing to Igneous.

“Yes precisely,” Dramier answered hardly stunned by the stallions insightful knolwedge on their current situation. “We’ve only come for three, how kind are the prices?”

The forerunner pulled a wooden chart from one of his pocketed bags and answered, “Very reasonable I insure, you may have a look.”

He beckoned them out of the traffic of the roadway and over to the larger of his two carts filled with boxes of either tools, resources, metals or food. Setting the chart off to the side of the cart for Dramier to look over, the forerunner jumped atop the cart and said, “We do our best to catalog everything we haul so have a look, each item has its price.”

As he pried open a box Dramier seemed to be impressed with the listings even saying aloud a few items. One of them being spices, another being copper and another being one of very expensive garments. Finding the metal he was looking for he nodded his head and said, “Your words hold true, this is very reasonable.”

As he shifted one box over he said, “Only to compensated by the short travel time. Two more days travel and the prices would double for the effort.” Finding the crate he was looking for he pried it open, becond for Dramier to climb aboard and said, “Naw, you can see the quality of the metal hold just as true. Do you find it to your liking?”

As Igneous sat on the ground as Dramier had instructed he raised his head in an attempt to get a better look at the metal bars. Dramier seemed satisfied with their shine although he did comment, “They look a bit dark.”

“It's still just as strong I insure that.” Using his hoof to scoop one up he added, “The purity is very high, those miners know their craft.” Looking to Dramier he asked, “So how's it for ya. You think you're willing to make a payment.”

“Eh, more like barter,” he said pulling the monster tooth from the folds of his wing. “How’s this hold up?”

The forerunner gave it an intense lookover to gauge whether it was genuine or fabricated. Shaking his head with a condescending smile he answered, “I'm not a monster bit collector I’m materialistic. I like money,” he blatantly stated.

Still holding the monster tooth he reasoned, “But this is worth a small fortune, it could easily buy out this whole waggon-”

“-In the eyes of the right buyer,” he interrupted. “I do not intend on search for some passionate collector. I have a strict trading route that I run daily. There and back there and back, same song same dance day in and day out. Don't think ill of me I just need the money is all.”

“I understand,” he said. “But I will not give up so easily. What can I get you in return for three blocks of iron?”

“What do you mean?”

“I and Igneous are willing to run around this village to find you what you need.”

He laughed a bit. “I'm a simple trader I don't have very much need of anything.”

“Well how about a portable cot for the long nights ahead? Sounds nice really.” Looking to Igneous he asked, “what do you think?”

Nodding his head like Dramier had expected him Igneous answered, “it's a great idea.”

“Yea see we can do it.”

The trader actually seemed to be considering it despite Dramier knowing three bars of iron was not worth a single cot. “It does beat sleeping on the ground most nights.”

“Better than renting a place to sleep too.”

“Alright, alright,” he mumbled giving in. “Now I know the worth of a cot but right now I'm supposed to be watching my cart and frankly I don't wanna get lost in this madness of a village so you got the job.”

“Great we will go now,” he said leaping off the wagon almost tackling Igneous.

“Wait Mr. Charisma,” he called out. “Now I don't want you getting some bottem of the line cot, it's gotta be good quality or I insure or I will not finalize the deal. We’ll be here all day.”

“Right, alright we got it,” he said waving a hoof as he dragged Igneous through a crowd of ponies as they headed back towards the center mass of the village. “Now here is the part that I like,” he said with a smile on his face.

***

Four hours later Igneous sat patently by trying to avoid awkward glances as Dramier continued to beat his head against a wall. Now you think this might be some deal Dramier made that somehow involved publicly humiliation but that only half true. Sure he needed an item to give a pony and in turn take that item to the next, and the next, and the next, and probably five others before he got that damn cot, and in turn, bars of iron as promised.

“Are you done yet?” Igneous whispered out of the corner of his mouth.

“Not quite,” he answered. “I still have my wits,” he mumbled as he knocked his head against the wall two more times before turning hand collapsing to the ground next to Igneous.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa wait…” Dorrorrian interrupted. “Exactly what were the thing you were supposed to get. You can’t just skip that.”

“How am I supposed to know?!” he said throwing his hooves up into the air. “This was like a year ago or something.”

“Just let Dramier get back to the story.”

“I was just asking, Nvrmd…” he said slurring through another cup.

“Anyway…”

“So what's the plan now?” Igneous asked beside his fellow falconer who continued to moan and sulk in frustration.

With indignation he answered, “we’re gonna trade away this taffing tooth, take everything elts to the former and finally get that damn taffing cot for that yewling TRADER!!!”

“My poor little ears,” he jokingly whined as he folded his ears against his head with his hooves.

“I'm sorry Igneous,” he apologised.

For a few moments they sat there not knowing what to do even as ponies eyed the odd sight of two armored falconers looking null in the head. Finally Igneous suggested, “Why don't we just pay for the iron?” Dramier didn’t bother answering. “I mean it's much easier. Right?”

“Well,” he sighed. “I told you already Igneous. When you just throw money at the problem you feel like you let the world down.” He held the tooth in his hoof and added, “I mean, I said I was going to commit to this bartering thing...”

“But look at us,” Igneous said. “We’ve gotten nothing accomplished and the only thing we’ve gathered was an itinerary of destinations we’ll eventually have to deal with once we make the base trade. I'm also hungry.”

He sighed and said, “Even though your right... I’m hungry too lil’ hunter.” Giving one last thought he said, “Okay here's the deal. Come closer,” he said beckoning Igneous over. “Okay I'm going to tell you a secret and Alastoria and Raillay are not to know. You got that.” Igneous nodded his head and he continued. “Okay well they think I never give in to commitment but today I really couldn’t be asked. So since they can’t, and have no way of knowing, your just gonna say we got the stuff with no further explanation. You got that?”

“Yea I got it,” he said.

“Good,” he said rustling his main as he stood up. “Here let's go.” As they stood up and walked down the street Dramier swiped up an IOU form at a vendor as they passed by. He then handed it to Igneous’ magical grip and together they begin filling it out as they went on their way.

“So wait…” Alastoria said taking her turn to interrupt. “Why was it important that I didn't know you gave into insolence?”

“Eh, my wing was broken, my spirit was down, terrible confidence too. I just didn't really want any more room for peer disappointment… If you understand.”

“I don't…”

“Anyways!!!”

Ten minutes later they found themselves back on the outskirts of the village were the convoys had been were as they noticed some had gone and some had arrived were as their trader stayed as promised and again he was knocking about on his cart not really doing much. When he laid eyes on the two falconers Dramier said, “Alright you win, take my money just give me the iron bars.”

“Daft!” he exclaimed as he hopped down from his cart, “I was really looking forward to getting that cot.”

“Just by the damn thing with the IOU,” he said as he threw the flaccid paper at him.

He shied away from the attack but soon retrieved it from the air and after briefly looking over it he said, “right then, might as well.” Climbing back onto the cart he uncovered the box setting the paper aside and said, “We sold the rest, I only saved the three for you. I’m a bit disappointed to be honest.” Taking the lid off he beheld three bars of iron. “There they are,” he said.

“What are you doing?” Igneous asked.

“Just a moment Igneous,” Dramier said paying no attention.

“Hey, stop!” he yelled.

“What me?” Dramier asked in confusion. He glancing back only see the paper was missing with Igneous chasing after an earth pony in a dead run down the street as Igneous shouted ‘stop thief.’

“Daft!” Dramier yelled as he took off after the two.

“Nahahaha,” the trader bellowed seeing now as the deal was essentially off. “Good luck getting your bars now, heheha this is priceless.”

Dramier then hesitated and turned to the forerunner and yelled, “Hold on to those bars or I swear…”

“Alright boss, it's all you, hehe.”

“Daft, Hey! Stay on em Igneous!” Dramier shouted as he did his best to push past crowds of ponies in pursuit of the two more nimbler ones.

It wasn’t as if Igneous needed to be told twice as he bolted after the thief staying close his track, occasionally catching glances of the paper the thief held between his teeth. The convict rarely risked glancing over his shoulders but the few times he did he only found the armored colt hot on his trail in an unrelenting pursuit.

Igneous followed closely by as he was led between crowds, under legs, over crates to the point where they eventually found themselves running along the hay thatched rooftops of buildings. Igneous didn’t care about the fall as his nimble legs carried him over the sloping rooftops not missing a step, refusing to slip until he chased the thief to an end where he stood looking to the allies below.

“Ya robbed a falconer!” Igneous shouted as he approached from behind. “What was running through your head?”

Still clutching the paper in her teeth the thief turned around to where Igneous found the thief was a filly. She frantically glanced left, right and above before her gaze fell upon the approaching armored colt.

“Where are you going to go now?” Igneous questioned as he withdrew his shield leaving in its place. He didn’t inend on hurting her he just wanted the IOU. “Well?”

Shifting the parchment between her lips she answered, “Down.” And with a wink she fell backwards off the roof and disappeared from sight. Igneous ran up to the edge thinking he might find and injured earth pony only to see her running down the alleyway after landing on sack piles of grain.

“Igneous!” Dramier shouted from the streets to his Igneous left.

“It okay!” he reassured as he took a step back. “I got her!” Doing as she did he dropped below landing chest first on the sacks of grain. Quickly picking himself up he bolted after the retreating thief as she ran over obstacles the fenced off, box filled alley way provided.

To his observation he found this was a storage area where they kept wooden crates in nice piles and to his dismay some of the ponies that managed it hounded Igneous for barging through but as he looked on he saw the thief climb up a mountain of boxes only to jump over the fencing that kept them in. Doing the same he quickly summited the crates and jumped.

In an instant he came crashing down on a wooden table, only to bounce off and be dispensed to the road. Picking himself up from the fall he could only glance before dodging out of the way of a speeding cart as it surged through the streets. It was a close call but one Igneous wasn’t going to gawk at.

As he began to survey the crowded area he found that he had lost his target. That older filly had given him the slip and not the one with the written statment. Frantically Igneous becane to twist and turn doing his best to locate her in the surrounding area but the truth was already setting in. She was long gone.

“Igneous!” Dramier called. “Igneous where'd you go!?”

“I’m over here!” he answered as he continued to peer down the streets and alleyways.

Dramier quickly caught up to him coming to a skidding stop. “Dafted thief got away right?”

With one more alleyway check he nodded in submission. “She did. So now what?” Igneous asked not bothering to look around. “We write another?”

“Igneous why are you so willing to just give up? You think I’m just going to let that little yewl get away?”

“What if she is just hungry?” Igneous had to admit he’d been in this position before only the main difference was he haddn’t had to deal with Falconers.

“What if?” he scoffed obviously frustrated with the little fiend. Leading Igneous to a secluded corner away from traffic he asked, “since when did you start second thinking yourself?”

“When I had the chance to second guess the circumstances,” he answered. “I mean you did say your very wealthy so…”

“‘So…’” he imitated.

“We,” he began as he thought. “Lets… just take it as a hard loss and just write another IOU.”

He shook his head, “that not fun Igneous, why you gotta let the world down like that.”

“Well I mean,” he took a slight look around only to see every pony present not paying them any attention. “Nopony seems to really care. It's not like a petty robbery is a mass effect.”

“Yea but if we just let this little thief go then sooner or later they start stealing bigger stuff, great stuff. Entire houses disappear, livestock, actual stocks and before you know it there breaking acquaintances out of the royal keep because of some long ago debt the felt they should have repaid at that particular moment.”

“Gee… That's awfully prophetic.”

“Ah, get over yourself Igneous were gonna do this, and we're gonna send her to safeguard.” He then leaned down and whispered, “So tell me, you're small you're clever, if you were a thief what would you do? Where would you go?”

Igneous then appeared to think for a second but it was only for a second before he answered, “I would steal what I need and go to my safe hidey place.”

“So what she needed was money,” Dramier stated.

“Or just food,” he reminded.

“Then she would have stolen some bred genius.”

“Well why steal and run away day after day when you could just buy like a hundred over the course of a month.”

Dramier looked disappointedly at Igneous and said, “Igneous stop talking sense and let's go find this thief.”

“We shouldn't have to go find her Dramier.”

“What do you mean Igneous?”

“Well she stole an IOU and in order to collect the money it first has to be sent to the capital to make a withdraw, and since she is hungry she may have pre ordered her food for the next few days with that IOU.”

“So…”

“We go hit up the celestial delivery system and look for any outsourced IOUs, find ours and trace it back to the shop where she solicited it to. We then have ourselves camp out waiting for her to come by and eat and there! We got our thief.”

“Oh wait so Igneous was the clever bird in this story and not the adult stallion he was intrusted with,” Alastoria condescendingly remarked.

With a grudgingly look on his face Lindestic said, “I mean, I would have thought of it eventually.”

“So what happened next Dramier,” Dorrorrain asked as he wiped a smile from his muzzle. “I'm mildly intrigued.”

“Well we did go to the delivery service thing and after riffling through all the racks we finally found our transaction on its way out. Thankfully the pegasus said he knew where it came from and we found it was a trolley serving baked bread.

“However I had some integrity to uphold so we bought the iron bars and we then gave them to you Alastoria to work with later however I will say is that night when we were supposed to be sleeping… well, me and the Igneous…”

“You snuck out did you?”

A grin spread across Dramiers face and he answered, “You know me too well Alastoria. Anyways we did and we camped out all night even as there was no pony their and early in the morning when the village was just starting to wake up. Ponies were starting to go about doing their taffing business, we hid out looking inconspicuous as two armored ponies could be by the natural law of duplicity. And that little thief came, oh she came alright…”

Half mindedly sitting around Igneous took a second look although by this point it was probably well over his fortieth check. Again that check yielded randy ponies going about their day getting yelled at by vendors wanting them to buy their rubbish.

“I’m really tired Dramier,” Igneous complained how much longer are we going to wait?”

“Igneous colt I thought you already eased into falconer time.”

“That's just another word for waking up early,” he protested.

“May be, but its trademarked and a falconer take what a falconer can get. I’m not going to say early birdy.”

Igneous didn’t bring himself to remark so he just took another bite of his sandwich Dramier had gotten him while they waited. It was a good enough sandwich with toasted bread and freshly cooked chicken and lettuce. He would have liked to enjoy it more but just as Igneous was about to take another bite Dramier tapped him on the forehead and said, “Hey look alive, I think I see her.”

Igneous didn’t have time to look as he was immediately torn away from his sandwich and underneath the table were the vale of the quilt hid their heads but not their lower bodies. “How is this any more inconspicuous?” he whispered over the sound of trotting hooves.

“Quiet and look,” he said pointing past the crowded sidewalk. Brushing aside the quilt Dramier let Igneous get a view for himself. True to Dramiers word there she was getting some pre ordered bred served on a flat tray that she carried in her mouth to a neighboring table opposite of the stand to the falconers.

Huddling Igneous closer he sat him down and held up both hooves. “Alright gameplan. Igneous you cut around the street and attack from the side and I will hit her up front.” He demonstrated this by holding up one hoof and curving the other around until it smashed into the other.

“What,” he asked perplexed. “With my sword?!”

“Of course not Igneous,” he answered looking down on him. “Just tackle the filly.” Looking back out from under the table he lowly announced, “Okay Igneous get into position and be ready to move.”

“Okay what's the signal?” he asked.

“What? There is none. You got one minute, now Go!” he said pushing him out from under the table into the middle of the street to the surprise of a few unsuspecting passersby seeing a fully armored colt jump out of nowhere.

He quickly apologized and began moving covertly around the target ignoring the odd glances he received from pretty much every pony there that happened to be walking by. Thankfully she hadn't noticed for the time and was still enjoying her fresh baked bread.

Seeing a small group had congregated in just between him and her Igneous used the cover to move up on her position slowly crawling with his chest plate pressed and scrapping up against the floor as he eased his way forward.

Then the group of ponies then took notice of his actions and began to brake away from their conversation to stare at him but when they did they left a large gap in the middle making his presents perfectly viewable to the filly who paused mid chew with bread stuffed in her cheak to stare at the familiar falconer.

Igneous blushed in his embarrassment and in his stupor he muttered, “hi.”

“H-hello,” she awkwardly replied.

But before she could take action and leg it right on out of there, Dramier came barreling in knocking all four seats over as well as table while taking thief down to the ground were as she scream in panic as she was overcome with overwhelming force. She wiggled around and clamped down on his bandaged unarmed wing causing Dramier to screech in pain. As a result his grasp weakened and she was able to crawl out from under him.

She began to dart across the road but Igneous intercepted her path with a shield held up to his face as he commanded her to stop. Not wanting to comply she quickly ran left were as she ran into the chest of a big, muscular, armored pony which stopped her in her tracks.

Looking up to see a heavily scarred mare looking down on her with indignation immediately took any sense of flight out of the young filly and she just sat there, staring, staring at the scars that lined all her muscles and the strength she possessed.

Not taking her eyes off the filly Alastoria asked in a low voice, “What is going on here?”

“We caught a thief,” Dramier grunted after picking himself up off the ground but still grimacing at his bitten, broken wing.

“A thief?” she questioned looking back down to the filly. Emphasizing her distaste for the profession she slowly drew her leftmost blade letting the little filly catch the full beauty of its sharp edge as she flashed it closely by her face. As Alastoria held the blade in her magical grip she asked, “You will not cause any more problems and you will come with us.”

Startled and still stunned she only managed to utter, “y-yes…”

“Okay, okay, okay,” Alastoria said after Dramier finished his part of the story. “So now I know how it came to that.”

“Why do you have to act so intimidating to mitigate minor threats all the time?” Dorrorrain asked. “You did it to Igneous…”

“You did the same thing to Igneous?” asked Dramier this time.

She shook her head, “No, with Igneous I actually attacked him with the blade.”

“Yea, even after Igneous said he wanted to be a falconer.”

“I think you're a little mental Alastoria. Gee, you weren't that harsh with me when I became a falconer.”

“Only because you shoveled your sob story down my throat when you asked.”

“What,” Dorrorrain asked as yet another grin spread across his face.

“I did not,” he protested.

“Yea, he even cried too.”

“I did not!” he exclaimed, but to his disappointment he could hear the silenced laughs of the every bystander who happened to be drinking and overhearing their conversation. “Alastoria why you always gotta hound me like that.”

“It comes without effort.”

“Think me a fool, but I am your best peganier you ever had.”

“Alright!” Dorrorrain said fanning both his hooves in between the two to break up the passive aggressive tone. “How did this thief end up.”

Dramier cleared his throat but Alastoria was the first to say, “We took her to a temporary holding place were as Dramier asked her question he already knew the answers too, like why she stole the paper and if she had parents, which she did not sadly.”

“Yea while I was questioning her I asked why she resign to stealing things and she answered, ‘it's all part of my complicated back story,’” Dramier said doing his best to imitate a little filly. “So then I said, ‘well just add all this to the complicated character arch.’”

“Thats nice,” Dorrorrain said. “But what happened to her?”

“She was supposed to be picked up by the keepers the next day to be taken to safeguard for a few weeks till they could find an orphanage but she broke out the following night by what Igneous suggested to be a sympathiser of all other things.”

Dorrorrain took a drink. “Still, you caught a thief…”

“So what did Igneous learn from all of it?” Alastoria asked.

There was a long pause from Dramier before he answered, “...I don't know.”

Another long pause of them just sitting there before Dorrorrian broke the silence by saying, “well that was kind of pointless then.”