Tales of the Travellers

3

Many years later, Charms and Cameron escaped the orphanage, not by being adopted, nobody wanted to own a smart-mouthed little girl and a boy attacked by a Shade, or at least not together, and the two refused to be separated.

They never intended on leaving until they were forced to, but the owners of the orphanage were going to sell Charms to psychologists and Cameron to scientists for a gold coin. Apparently, Charms was expected to be a manipulator because of who her mother was, and Cameron being a Silver Tongue was a rare sight.

Forming some sort of alliance, the two went from the world of orphans into the world of casinos and gamblers. And they only went up from there, until they were nothing more than self-trained manipulators and thieves.

Charms didn't know when it happened, but one day she just woke up with this wider understanding. Something in her mind could suddenly read eyes, read what people were thinking, what they wanted her to say or do, or what she needed to say and do to get their attention.

It even worked on Cameron oddly enough as they grew older.

Cameron found out his skill was a temporary Silver-Tongue, the ability to make things come out of stories and live in the real world for a time before going back. Cameron often exploited people from stories or even items to get from place to place in the real world or to flee from authorities.

The Shades had even earned their keep to cruise along with the duo, often masking them in the shadows from stalkers and helping to hide their true selves without hurting them, without even leaving a mark like the original one did.

This was their new life. But this new life they had made for themselves, while it was a comfortable one, while neither complained and often enjoyed what they did, it made them selfish for only themselves. In their eyes and mind they came before anybody else and they would climb over anybody to reach what they wanted.

Tonight's prized gem; Cassino Charlie's golden handled walking stick, jewelled watch and expensive room tastes.

The casino was alive with noise, almost headache inducing. It was full of seizure worthy lights that flashed their mainly crimson colours into the eyes of any who were brave, or foolish, enough to entre. There were isles of casino machines each armed with a dazed gamble feeding coin after coin of their wealth into them without a second thought in the world.

Charms sat on one of the golden coloured seats by the bar. Everything in this particular casino screamed wealth and fortune, only the big wigs ever came to these types, so picking one person was never a matter of if they were promising, but it was who had the biggest promise to keep.

Charms, being fourteen, was underage and rather young looking. Cameron was in a similar situation, but passed off as an adult due to his height. Charms scanned the room for him, her hands running over her crimson red dress as she searched. She found him at one of the gambling tables.

There were several throughout the room, some you needed a certain amount of money to be a part of, some were private to only certain people and others were just for public use.

This little system often helped Charms and Cameron in their heists. Generally, the more private the tables were, the more money they had or the more they had to offer.

Charms' neck felt itchy from the gold and pearl necklace she was wearing, she was scratching at it, but she was still smiling as Cameron was forced to wear a black tuxedo type uniform with a red bowtie. He smiled to the people and made sure to keep the façade of a casino worker, but behind his eyes, under the smile, Charms could see he wanted to crawl under a table and hide from everyone.