The Rose

Chapter Five: The Rose

     There were no lessons the rest of the night after I finished the flower dungeon ( which is apparently what these people called the bee room of death) but as soon as the sun went down C was ripping the sheets off my bed and throwing things at me yelling " GET UP YOU LAZY BUM! A THIEF NEVER SLEEPS!" Groaning because of my sore limbs I crawled out of bed. I had fallen asleep in the clothes I had worn in the dungeon and they were all wrinkley. C tossed something dark in my face. " What is this?" I asked  holding up the shirt and pants. " Your uniform. Get dressed quickly. we have work to do" I squeezed into the tight leather pants and shirt. " Why so small?" I asked. "So you dont have to worry about anything but your skin when you go on a job. A stray cuff or pantleg could be stepped on or cu=aught on a elaborate purse and all is lost." She stared out my window at the moon which was full tonight. After what seemed like an hour, she suddenly turned around and stalked out the door and my training began.

     Throughout the next few months, C tought me everything I needed to know about being a thief. There were many different trials including a water dungeon, a fire trap dungeon, and a dungeon with scary looking vines that moved on their own. There was also a LOT of training when C found out that living with Jackson didn't mean that you ran three miles around the castle and did fifty pushups on your knuckles so we started that right away. There was training for just about everything. Holding your breath underwater for five minutes, ( which by C's standards was worse than a child) fighting with w sword and knife for an hour, evading fire and water traps, running ( the worst part) and moving unseen in the shadows ( which was my favorite part even though when ever i thought i got the hang of it C would come up behind me and put a knife to my throat which I would then have to get out of. Every sunrise I would collapse in my bed, with barely enough energy to change into my night clothes. 

     Three months after I had first " washed up" ( As my fellow thieves say) on the village shores, I was running around the village, on my third lap, when a dark shadow pass me by. C was usually training with her friends or cunsaulting with her father about this time. I continued jogging as if nothing happened but I kept a weary eye out. There was no other incident but when I came back to my room, there was a blood red rose resting on my pillow.