Prelude to Eternity - Chapter 10 (part two)
Cahra smiled. "So your most dangerous moment wasn't even as a thief. Just as a kid who wanted to get in to see naked girls running around on a screen."
Xicanti smiled back. "Yup. That was it, really. Other than guard dogs chasin' me around an' nearly fallin' off of buildings I was climbin', nothin' else life threatening really happened. That I can mention, that is." An involuntary shudder passed through him as he thought of the things that happened to young boys on the street. "But that's not real important. You wanna to learn how to be a thief, an' another important part of thievery is fighting." He shrugged out of his bandoleers. "That's why I brought these. I can use pretty much any weapon, but these're my favorites. They're the only ones I actually own, too." The young thief held them out to Cahra for her to inspect.
The girl took them gently. "They're beautiful," she whispered as she gently pulled one from its scabbard. "They must have cost a fortune!" As she remembered to whom she was talking, Cahra blushed and added quickly, "Sorry. I guess they're stolen?"
Xicanti nodded. "When I was eight. They were the most beautiful things I'd ever seen, so I knew I had to have 'em. I guess I felt kinda sorry about it afterwards. It looked like their old owner really loved 'em. They were one of those things that you see and know should belong to you, right away, though. You ever get that?" Cahra shook her head. "It's a weird feeling. I'm don't know if it's a good one or a bad one. It's there, though, an' it happened to me when I saw my knives."
The girl was evidently unsure of what to say. I guess she's just got an idea of the sort of person I am, Xicanti thought. I wouldn't be too happy either, if I were her.
Cahra, it seemed, found it easiest to change the subject. "How well can you throw?" she asked.
Not wanting to brag, yet eager to display his prowess, Xicanti replied, "Let's just say I've never found anyone who could beat me." There, that doesn't sound too conceited! he thought proudly.
"Could you hit anything anyone asked you to?" the girl queried. She seemed to be really and truly interested in the knives, which Xicanti was quite pleased with.
The young thief shrugged. "Pretty much," he replied. "Unless it was somethin' like a fly, that'd move when it saw the knife comin'. Then I might miss." He shrugged again. "You wanna see?"
Cahra nodded vigorously. "Very much!" she exclaimed, her interest apparent. "Can you hit..." She paused to look about the room, searching for some small item she could ask him to throw at. "...the word 'the' on that red book over there?"
Xicanti could feel his face turning red as he was forced to reply, "I could if I knew which word it was, but you see... well, what I mean is... I never really learned -" The young thief cut off his stuttering and burst out, "I can't read!"
Cahra looked equally embarrassed. "I'm sorry," she said quietly. "I didn't realize - "
"It's okay," Xicanti cut her off. "I never really needed to read before. If I wanted to hear a story, just came here, or got my pal Shar to tell me one. Thieves get taught how to count and add an' stuff, so they know how much what they stole's worth, but no one bothers with reading."
Cahra still didn't look too comfortable. "It must be a terrible life," she whispered.
Xicanti let out a short laugh at this. "Terrible? No, bein' a thief's great, for the most part! You're free to wander around wherever you please, do whatever you please, an' talk to whoever you please! If I didn't have that, I wouldn't be here right now!" As an afterthought, he added, "I'd still kinda like to be able to do some of the other stuff, though. Like read."
Cahra looked at him thoughtfully for a moment. "Do you want me to teach you?" she offered. "It shouldn't be too hard, if you really want to learn."
Xicanti hadn't expected such an offer. "Would you?" he asked.
Cahra nodded. "Of course! I said I would, so I will if you want me to. Do you?"
The young thief nodded. "Very much! Just say what you want in exchange."
"Why would I want something in exchange? You're my friend, and I want to help you." She looked back up at the red book on the shelf, then said, "Well, maybe if I showed you the word, and you got it, we could call that payment."
Xicanti nodded his agreement, and so Cahra showed him the word. Effortlessly, the young thief whipped out a knife and hurled it at the word Cahra had pointed out. It struck the 'H', quivering slightly from the impact.
Cahra looked over at her friend with amazement. "How do you do that so well?" she wondered. "It seems like it must be really hard."
"It was at first, but I got used to it after the first few days."
"Days! How did you manage to learn so fast?"
"I had good teachers. All the old fogies in Shar's tavern were pretty good, an' they showed me different ways to throw that worked. I just combined the throws an' made one of my own. It always works for me, but other people seem to think it's tough"
"I wonder why that could be?" Cahra scratched her head, then reached over to scratch Odin's. The splotchy dog was just awakening, and seemed to find the knife in the book quite intriguing.
:Good shot!: the dog complimented the thief. Having had his say, he plopped his head down and went back to sleep.
The girl smiled at the creature. "He does that a lot," she told Xicanti. "Sleeping is one of his favorite activities, but he doesn't want to miss what's going on outside of his own mind. He often wakes up just when something he considers interesting is going to happen, observes it, and goes back to sleep." She scratched the dog's head once more, then got to her feet.
"I'd better start teaching you how to read now, if we want to have enough time for it. Maybe once you get tired of it, you can teach me more about those knives."
At Xicanti's nod of agreement, they began their lesson.
