The Rogue Rider (An Inheritance Fanfiction)

Chapter 16: A Poisoned Dagger

Hedarth was a busy city, especially considering how isolated it was, being on the other side of the Hadarac desert to the empire. It was a primarily dwarven outpost, once used for trade with the elves, but now it was used as a travel stop for people either arriving or leaving Alageasia. Ragin had never personally been to the city, as it was so far away from the Empire, and not many targets bothered to travel out so far. Besides, most of his jobs were primarily human targeted. Not many humans, rich humans that is, lived so far from the capitol.

The dragon riders had landed on the outskirts of the city, far away from the crowded streets of eager travellers. That didn't stop them from being noticed however, and it wasn't long before hundreds of curious people had made their way over to the riders. Most simply watched, trying to get a glimpse of the amazing creatures that were dragons. Others were a bit bolder and approached them, asking questions of interest.

Akaysha was a bit nervous of the crowd. She had never been around so many people before and Ragin could feel her constantly fidgeting, shuffling her wings, moving her tail, scratching the ground with her claws. All her life she had been hiding from the world, and here she was now, more visible than any of the dragons around her. Greens, blues, browns and yellows were rather common colours amongst dragons, but her starry midnight scales were quite the attention grabber. Ragin kept people from coming too close with a glare that would stop a heart.

"So you don't like people," stated Freya with a slight grin as she looked down at the thief laying against Akaysha's side.

"Not especially. I can be quite charming when I want to but in general not many people are smart enough to be honoured with my voice," Ragin replied so seriously it was obvious he was joking.

"Unless you are tricking them into allowing you to rob them?" she raised her eyebrow.

"I think you are finally beginning to understand me," he said.

He had a rather strange relationship with Freya. They had begun to talk far more often since their first quip five days ago. It was an interesting experience for Ragin, considering he had known her for a while now but had never really seen her personally. Usually he stayed quite far away from anyone he had gone to effort to get information on, but now he was finally able to get to know the person. At times it was a little awkward, as she would let slip information he already knew and he was forced to pretend he didn't.

"Well what would you usually be doing in a crowd like this?" she asked.

"Following someone, most likely. You would be surprising how easy it is to slip a hand into someone's pocket when there are hundreds of people just milling around," he said.

"I don't doubt it. But most people at least have the honour not to."

"Most people are idiots. I don't see your point," he shrugged.

"You know, with an attitude like that you won't get many friends."

"That is true, but the friends I do get will be far closer than what most people experience with 'friends'."

"Aargh... you are impossible."

As they day went on the crowd dwindled until Ragin could once again think clearly. While he was more used to crowds than Akaysha was, he was usually in the midst of one, not the attention of one. Usually, during his outings, the larger the crowd the better. It meant less people were at home, and it was so much harder to pick out an individual amongst a crowd.

'Well, that was an interesting experience,' said Akaysha as the sun began to set in the horizon.

'Yes. How are you feeling?' he asked as he piled a number of logs of wood onto their fire.