Calvarr Trugery

[sliguy101]

(I'm going to take another shot at making a complete fanfic. This one is about one of the charaters I made up in the Oddworld RPG "The Bounty Hunter." Since the RPG died, and that character still is in the back of my mind, I might as well write a fanfic. I'll try to keep this as updated as I can for the time being. Oh, and take note that I don't know how many Steef years are in a certain age of a human, so when I talk about age I'll always be referring to a normal human age.)

CALVARR TRUGERY
BY SLIGUY101

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-One-

When someone says home, I think of Raville.

When someone says Raville, I think of my gang known as Gutless. They were the only family I really ever had. But they weren't a family by blood to me.

My real parents, I assumed, we're dead. Gone. They were not coming back. But that was one of the hardest facts to face as a kid growing up in a bad society. I like to pretend I have no parents, sometimes. For me, it is a peaceful thought to think. The gang Gutless had raised me for most of my life. I tried my best to become a criminal like they all were, but it didn't work out. I'm surprised they didn't toss me out of Raville because of that. That is what they should have done to me. Back in my childhood, I wasn't all that good at being bad. I had all these mixed feeling about stealing, plundering, and killing innocent people. It was that weakness in my heart that made me fall back. I look back at those days with disappointment. Damn, I always think. Why couldn't I be better? If I would have just fit in with the rest of the people in the gang, could my life turn out for the better or for the worse. Then again, I have no time for history. Looking back at the past is something I hate to do. It is so stupid! All it ever did to me was bring me pain, regret, and sorrow. Perhaps my past would be a little better if I hadn't been in Gutless.

My name is Calvarr Trugery, and I'm a proud Steef who enjoys the art of murder.

Gutless was composed of me and other Steef. We were a small-time gang to the massive public. But to the towns that lie close to Raville, we were their worst nightmare. Gutless was mostly founded by Falpaine. He is the one that basically runs the town of Raville. Somehow, Gutless had overthrown the small population of Raville. However, he doesn't talk about the rampage that veterans of the gang had been a part of. He and the veterans like to keep that personal. Even though he was the leader of Gutless, he apparently still had a heart. Because I was so young back when I was around the gang, me and Falpaine had a special bond between us. He told me stories sometimes about how he used to work for a circus back when Raville was a popular town. Me and him, we were almost like best friends in a way. Not only he was nice, but he was smart, too. He knew how to lead a team, like the way he thinks before he makes decisions. Hey, just because you're running a dangerous gang doesn't mean you don't have to think. Out of all the members of Gutless, Falpaine stood out. Yet it kept me wondering on how a person like him could be a criminal.

The vice president of Gutless was the mean-spirited Steef named Relt Fyrway. To sum him up in very short words, he is a Steef who doesn't care what other people think of him. If people talk trash about him while he is listening, he will kill them. Period. No questions asked. He had a black heart that would need absolutely no love. He was the one that had the dirty tricks up his sleeve and he would not hesitate to use them. In other words, Relt is the biggest badass of Gutless, and probably the biggest badass of any gang by far. Well, maybe not that bad. He is my rival. He always teased me about my height and my flaws. "You're no criminal," he always said, "you're a disgrace to all of Oddworld, whether your a bad guy like me or a pansy like yourself!" It wasn't all sticks and stones back then. Those words he always used on my hurt like steel knives. Even the hardest of hearts couldn't help but sink. Relt Fyrway helped create Gutless by looking for fresh recruits while Falpaine did the brain work for the gang. Relt was a good trainer in the criminal arts who enforced his students to do what is evil and resist all that is good. To most of Gutless, Relt is an important part of the gang. But to me, he was a Steef that I wanted dead at all costs. But I couldn't possibly kill Relt at the time, even if I snuck up on him. His senses are better than normal. It was almost like he had eyes in the back of his head. Even if I did kill Relt Fyrway, I could just think of all the trouble I would be in with the gang. They would abandon me or, even worse, kill me right off the bat. As a child, despite my anger, I obeyed everything he said and tried to do it right so I could avoid another beating from him.

Then there was Yulup. Not much can describe him. He's big, bulky, and stupid. Even I could outsmart him in a fight. Aside from his intellect, this Steef is a beast. In fact, that was his nickname. Most of the others in Gutless call him “The Beast” because of his size. But when I was a kid, I was so stupid that I didn't even get the joke. When the members of Gutless fight alongside him during their criminal raids, they always make sure he doesn't get in trouble with a smart guy. If that happened, he would be slaughtered for sure. Believe it or not, brains can beat Yulup, even if he is tough. Again, Yulup had teased me about my height, but then again he teased everybody else as well since he was way too bulky.

Rumpet and Temor Hilow we're brothers in Gutless, and they we're one of those non-veterans like me. They seemed to always be up to mischief no matter where they were. The Hilow brothers we're also huge fun-seekers. Oh, the things they'll do just to kill some time. The brothers also we're robbers back before they stumbled into Raville, soon joining Gutless. Ask them to steal something, they'd get it and even make fun out of it in the best possible ways. Rumpet and Temor we're clowns...crazy and dangerous clowns.

The last member of Gutless was a fairly older Steef whom we called Silent Bone. He was the oldest of the gang, older than Falpaine. From what we assumed, Silent Bone was at one time a Native. He came to us in bruises and bloodstained clothes. We accepted him into our gang for the time being. He was desperate, after all. The problem with Silent Bone is that he doesn't speak, hence the name. He knew how to say certain words and we know that he had learned to write, but he just never talked. All he would do when we talked to him is nod, shake his head, make gestures, and even write messages in the dirt or with rocks. Why did he do this? We really didn't know why. Silent Bone was a mysterious character, more than any of us were. We actually kept him, and I was surprised. Falpaine and the other gang members had shortly figured out that he was a superior killer and murderer. In fact, he was the best damn killer Gutless had ever seen.

Relt claimed that, during this one criminal raid at some town, that he saw Silent Bone sneaking up on a citizen. Relt turned his back for one second, turned back around, and saw that the citizen was dead without a single sound, courtesy of Silent Bone. Best of all, he didn't have a single piece of weaponry on him. How he mastered this skill of fist-fighting is beyond all of us at Gutless. Silent Bone didn't take much pride in murdering others. He most likely considers it a casual hobby. Needless to say, Relt had got himself a new friend when Silent Bone came along.

Gutless always had a normal way of doing the business of crime. All we did was set up a schedule of the cities we would hit. Attack this today, plunder that tomorrow. I didn't go on any of these criminal raids on small towns. Relt says that I wouldn't be prepared until I was at least eighteen. Hell, I probably won't go even if I was eighteen at the time. All I would do was screw up things.

What Gutless basically did during their raids was that they killed innocent victims and stole goods such as food, water, weapons, and anything else that was in the town. To do this, the gang members could be armed or unarmed. Most of them choose to have a weapon, but Silent Bone always fought with his bare hands. We had weaponry such as crossbows, knives, daggers, chains, poles, and sticks. We even had poison to go with the daggers. In Gutless, poison is vital, and the members had always learned from Falpaine about the herbs to make many different kinds of poison. There was an instant poison, long-term poison, deathly poison, and even a poison that paralyzes the skin, leaving your victim frozen and helpless. Falpaine had mastered this dark art, and has passed his teachings onto other people for many years.

In a nutshell, this was Gutless. The family that had raised me at some point in my lifetime. I still call them a family, despite the fact that they're not related to me. All the members had bad habits of lying, stealing, and slaughtering innocent citizens. Would my life had been better without them? What if I had no family or caretakers? All I would do was wander Oddworld, desperately looking for a way to survive. I would search, run, and even kill to keep myself alive. Yes, that is the life for me. I wouldn't need Gutless. All I would need is myself, and a place to wander aimlessly until I die. That is what I want. No...it is what I need.


(Tell me what you think! It isn't perfect, but it looks good to me so far.)

[Zozo the Zrilufet]

Looks awesome, it tells us about the guys life and stuffs....Bleh, I dunno what to say.

[sliguy101]

-Two-
(In this chapter, I'm going to finally get to the main story. Enjoy!)

It was a clear morning, and I was about twelve years old at the time. I must've slept in, because after I got out of my dumpster that I called a bedroom, nobody was anywhere. I checked all the alleys. Nobody. I looked in all the buildings. Nobody. Gutless must've been out on a raid, at the moment. But then, I felt an arm grab my shoulder strongly. I let out a yelp in fear, and then looked behind me. I simply just saw a Steef chuckling to himself. It was Falpaine. After he was done laughing, he finally spoke.

“Hey there, Calvarr.” He said. “Good to see you're awake. Did the guys keep you up last night?”

I simply rubbed my eyes lightly. “You know they did.” I replied. “They kept throwing rocks at my dumpster. They even rocked the thing back and forth for an hour! Those bastards have some nerve.”

“Calm down, Cal. Boys will be boys.” Falpaine lightly patted my back. I became tranquil after that. “Come on inside my office. We can talk in there.”

I simply followed him, trying to keep myself awake at the same time. Falpaine spent most of his time in the old Raville Town Hall. To most of the gang, Raville Town Hall looked like a train wreck. All the windows we're broken, the inside was infested with cobwebs, almost all of the floorboards creaked when you'd step on them, and there was dust on almost everything. Falpaine looked at the Town Hall in a much more different way. He always said that it had a hidden beauty to it. To him, it was like a home. It was a place where he could simply think. Even Relt sort of liked the place. But me and the other people in Gutless didn't really like it. We all thought it was a strange place for a hangout.

I finally entered Falpaine's office, with him right behind me. It turns out that his office actually looked somewhat like an office, being inside Raville Town Hall and all. The room was large in size and had zero windows. The office was also filled with busted furniture, old books, and other ancient crap. Besides all the junk in there, the office had a normal-sized desk where Falpaine worked on plans of attack. The plans were pilled high in stacks of crusty, yellow papers, along with some simple knives sitting around his desk. Sometimes he would makes plans with Relt, but not too often either way. The odd thing was that Falpaine usually doesn't go on the raids that he planned in the first place. I'd say half of the days he will go, and half of those other days he would stay. Maybe it was because he wanted to babysit me or something. If I were left alone while the rest of Gutless raided, I would be fine. I like to be alone, after all. Perhaps Falpaine is just too scared that I'll run off or something. He can be a lot like a father, at certain points.

“Have a seat.” He said to me. I sat down on one of the busted sofas. It may not have felt stabilized, but I found it better than sitting on the hard, dusty ground. Falpaine sat down in his wooden chair next to his desk and sighed. Then he said, “I had to wake my ass up hours before sunrise, this morning. Relt and the Hilow brothers told me that they wanted an early morning raid. 'That I could do,' I replied. Unfortunately, as you know, they forgot already that we had an early morning raid. So what do they do? They decide to have a party! I wasn't even a part of the party as you were. When I tried to go to sleep, I could still hear them through the Town Hall walls!” As I could tell, Falpaine wasn't very happy, at the moment. He swiftly grabbed one of his knives on his desk and jammed it into the wood of the desk. I jumped slightly, making my heart beat fast for a second. “Sometimes they can be so absent-minded.” Falpaine said.

I couldn't have agreed more with him. Gutless was keeping me up by shaking the dumpster and throwing rocks at my dumpster, leaving some long-lasting dents on it. Falpaine also couldn't get any rest. That's probably why he stayed with me and decided not to go in the early raid. “Falpaine,” I asked, “are you always mad at Relt, Yulup, and everybody else?” He had simply sighed after I said that.

“There are some times where I am angry at them,” he replied, “but I couldn't possibly stay mad at them. It was only for one night, after all.” I then asked why he let Gutless even have a party in the first place. He simply shook his head. “I didn't know they were even having a bonanza.” He admitted. “Even if they were, they should have consulted me first. Now I am simply worried about Gutless. Relt came to me this morning looking pretty tired. I asked if he should call this early raid off. He said no, despite his tiredness. He said, 'I haven't missed a criminal raid in three years, now, and I don't plan do miss this one!' He must've been cranky. I'm just worried that the members of Gutless will all be too limp to succeed. We are striking one of the slightly bigger towns after all, which can be a little risky.” Falpaine browsed one of his papers for a moment. “All that Relt and the Hilow brothers wanted was to do something different...I guess they got what they asked for.”

I smiled at Falpaine. What a good Steef, and a good friend. “Can I go get some more rest?” I asked. “I'm a little bored and I could use another nap.”

Falpaine grinned lightly at me. “Sure, kid.” He replied. “Just don't oversleep on me.”

I walked out of Raville Town Hall and got back into my dumpster bedroom. In there, I was surrounded by darkness, away from Gutless for a while. It felt nice to not have Relt Fyrway around, due to the fact that he bugs me. I put my hands across my chest like I lying in a coffin and shut my eyes for about a minute. That was when some thoughts came through my head.

I thought about how Falpaine said that he sometimes doesn't like Gutless. He doesn't like how they disobey him and try to seek fun without his permission. He had to take more charge in the gang. As I studied over the years I was in the gang, Falpaine didn't take up a lot of responsibility other than him writing down attack plans on papers. Maybe it was his fault that he didn't like the own gang that he had created. Maybe Relt should just had been the leader, I thought. His first act would most likely be to toss me straight out of Raville. I could just imagine that scene, and it was quite the scary one. Without Gutless, I am simply hopeless. I would become dehydrated in the desert surrounding Raville. I would starve. I would die. In the gang, I haven't learned survival skills. Not anybody in Gutless knows that stuff! All they know is the art of taking things that aren't theirs and killing with deadly weapons and poison. Then again, that was what most Steef gangs, small-time or big-time, would know.

I wanted to see myself in a home. A home where I had a mother and a father, and maybe even brothers and sisters. Then I could've just grown up to be a normal, healthy Steef with no problems. There would be no Gutless. There would be no crime. I want to see myself in a caring and loving village with people that are nice. People with good habits. It would be the perfect life. But the tough truth is that village has burnt to the ground in fire and ashes, and it is now ruled by a band of thieves, criminals, and trouble-making vigilantes. There is no happy ending to that story. All that is there is ruins and darkness, just like the inside of my dumpster.

I closed my eyes and slowly went to sleep. I hoped that that day I would wake up somewhere else besides Raville. Somewhere I could be safe, and I could get a life and be away from Gutless. I wanted my freedom to be a good person. I want to be free, just like the natives escaping from the tyranny of the Industrial companies of the Glukkons. If only I could be like them, even if it was only for a stinking minute.

[skillyaslig]

Oh, thats good Sliguy101!

[sliguy101]

-Three-

I only got two additional hours of sleep. That was when I woke up and heard chattering noises outside of my dumpster. Gutless must've been back, and I could've sworn that they sounded pretty happy. The raid must've been another success. But this didn't feel like an average victory. Something special had happened, and I wanted to know what.

I went out of my dumpster to take a look. There was all of Gutless, standing in the alley next to my dumpster. There was Falpaine, Relt, Yulup, Rumpet and Temor Hilow, and Silent Bone all standing together. They had come back with more goods. But what really caught my eye in the pile of stolen loot were the weapons. When I saw what was in that weapon pile, my eyes had shimmered like diamonds.

They had guns. Guns! They weren't those old-fashioned guns, those were industrial guns, like the ones that sligs had, only not attached to their pants! How did they find those in a town near Raville? Falpaine stood staring at the guns like he was impressed, in a way. Relt, Yulup, Rumpet and Temor held the weapons smiling with glee. The only one that didn't look too happy was Silent Bone. He was never a fan of weapons, and I bet that he despised guns. He must think that the true way to fight is to use your fists. He wrote a message in the dirt once saying that only a fool would put trust in his life to a weapon. Gutless must not have cared about his messages, anyways. He simply wandered away from the group and threw some small rocks at the broken-down buildings.

“Where shall we store these?” Falpaine asked.

“Can I store those?” Yulup asked.

“We wouldn't trust you to store a single knife!” Rumpet remarked. Temor nodded in agreement.

“I can store these.” Relt replied seriously. “We got a shack that is in good condition that I can watch over.”

“Then it is decided.” Falpaine said.

The members of Gutless were too busy with the guns that they practically tossed everything else aside. I looked through the pile and found nothing to my interest. The guns in the pile were like finding golden bars inside a junkyard. I saw Relt walking to the shack with the advanced weaponry, so I decided to catch up to him to chat for a while. Lately, I've been trying to befriend Relt, but it hasn't really been working. I ran up to him, and he noticed me before he even saw me. He was carrying the guns plus the boxes of ammo out to the shack for storage.

“Heya, Cal.” Relt had said in his dark and shady voice. It sometimes spooked me a little bit. “Did you sleep well last night?”

“Very funny.” I replied. “Where'd you find those guns in that one town?”

It seemed almost as though Relt was eager to tell me how he and Gutless found them. “We found them in a town called Hebington. We were capturing citizens and killing the law enforcement people there. It was all just an average raid...until we came into this one empty shop. We found this suspicious-looking floorboard, and decided to open it up. When we came down, that was when we found these. They were all sitting there for no reason, and these were industrial guns with mechanical parts! We didn't even know that your casual Steef town would steal these. So, we stole the already-stolen guns and took these back into Raville.”

Me and Relt arrived at the shack and opened the door. It wasn't very spacious but it could store the guns and ammo. “We will use these eventually, but for now will just put them somewhere. I was told by Falpaine that we could use these to take down one of those even bigger towns. Who knows? Maybe one day you'll use one of these.”

I wanted to laugh myself silly after he said that, but I didn't. Me use a gun? I couldn't even kill a person with a knife at that age! It was a silly thought to think. Relt was pretty happy, at that moment. Guns will give us a huge advantage over the law. Ever since Gutless was first formed we had never used guns before. Now he have the real deal. Mechanical guns and fresh ammunition. But then I became curious, and then I asked Relt a question.

“Relt,” I said, “we here at Gutless have never used or even held a gun before. How to you expect to learn how to use one and how to put the bullets in and how to do all those other things?”

Relt had pondered the question for a mere five seconds. “Well, I can always learn how.” He replied. “Then I could teach everybody else. Honestly, Calvarr. How hard can using a gun be? All you do is load, aim, and shoot the kill.”

For no apparent reason, Relt pushed me down onto the ground. He put a small grin on his face while I got up. He asked me if I had been studying about the basic herbs of poison. When I said yes, he replied, “be ready, pretty soon. Falpaine is gonna quiz you on poison today. If you pass, good for you. If you fail, you're sitting through all his lessons all over again. I'm going to the Town Hall to wind down a bit. Later...twerp.” Then he simply walked away into Raville Town Hall.

When I was strolling around Raville, I found Yulup talking to the Hilow brothers for some reason.

“I could've stored those guns.” Yulup said shyly.

“Mmmmm.” Rumpet hummed. “Nope! I much rather prefer Relt watching them.”

“We couldn't watch them either, Rumpet.” Temor added. “Be easy on the big guy, will you? We would be too tempted to steal them.” Temor picked up a rock and tossed it up and down for a while. “Even Calvarr would do a better job than you, Yulup!” Temor simply chuckled as the thought.

Yulup growled, hideously. “Calvarr is no smarter than I. At least I could maul him in hand-to-hand, no weapons battle!”

“Really?” Asked Rumpet. “In that case, why don't you prove it right now?”

Yulup cracked his knuckles. “Where is the little runt, anyways?”

“Uh oh.” I said silently. I sneaked away from them without making a single sound. I wasn't in the mood for fighting, now. In fact, I wasn't in the mood for fighting at all, that day. I couldn't win against a brute like Yulup, even if he was the dumbest member of Gutless. He could pin my face to the ground and suffocate me in a matter of seconds. Even if I did win against him, what would it prove? Congratulations! You proved that you are stronger than Yulup! Big whoop. If I won against Relt, though, maybe that would prove something.

I saw Silent Bone sitting still in the shade. Relt says that after he finishes a fight, he sits somewhere so he could do some kind of meditation. He thought it was freakish. That's only because Relt throws a celebration to his victories. Maybe Silent Bone worked in a different way. Perhaps he feels the pain of the victims he killed. There must have been some part of his brain that made him so sad when he took a life. I was spying on him once when I was younger. He was standing inside what used to be a general store. He was standing in a dark corner with his head looking towards the ground. I had no idea what was happening back then, but he was actually hitting himself. He lunged his fist towards his face, smacked his head on the hard, wooden ground, and other things that could injure himself. He didn't even grunt or scream. But I had seen tears run down his face during that moment. It shocked me, and that picture had been hammered into my mind when it happened. I didn't dare talk about it to anybody else. I kept it to myself.

I walked towards Silent Bone, but before I could say hello he gestured his hand towards me, signifying that I should stop. I went into a dead freeze. Silent Bone was the kind of person that could easily bring a small chill down your spine. He wrote a message into the dirt with his finger. Not now, it said.

“Okay.” I quietly said. Silent Bone erased his message as I slowly walked away from him. That Steef sure does like to be alone, especially when he is trying to think about things.

The excitement winded down after about an hour. Everything was then back to the way it was. All the members of Gutless simply socialized, play cards, and got into fights with one another, except for Silent Bone. He just still sat there in the shade, drifting away into his mind. I wandered around Raville Town Hall to take a short look at it, when suddenly I heard voices from one of the cracks in the building. I recognized those voices immediately. They were the voices of Falpaine and Relt. I assumed that they we're in one of the smaller rooms of the town hall, trying to have a private conversation. As curious as I was, I decided to listen in.

When I heard Falpaine say my name, I was dying to know what they were talking about.

(Not my best chapter, but I'm just having a small lack of creativity because of tiredness, at the moment.)

[Venks]

Pretty nice stuff, though I always imagine that Steefs are an endangered species on the brink of extinction.

[sliguy101]

Thanks. Next chapter will be up in a couple of days.

[sliguy101]

-Four-

I listened closely through the crack on Raville Town Hall to hear precisely what Falpaine and Relt were talking about. I heard my name in the conversation, but I didn't know why my name had come up in the first place. One thing was for sure, though. It was either something good, or something bad. I tried not to look through the crack. I would be at risk in revealing myself, if I did. The only time when I take risks is when I absolutely have to. I started listening in closely as the chat became more clear.

“I see potential in the boy.” Falpaine stated. “Calvarr seems more like an assassin than a robber.”

“Calvarr's fighting skills are very sub-par, Falpaine.” Relt replied. “I've seen Cal do his daily fighting practices everyday, and it just doesn't look good. In fact, they are rather weak. The boy needs to toughen up and gain some brawn. All he is getting is the brains, and those brains are coming from you.”

“Why not tutor the boy? It is vital that he thinks before he strikes.” Remarked Falpaine.

“What difference does it make?” Asked Relt. “You spot the target and kill the target. It is the simple art of striking. To do the rest in fighting, you must not only know the skills of battle, but you must use them properly.”

“It is more than just that, Relt. You must keep your mind in the right place when in combat. If a killer simply attacks his prey with reckless blows, it won't work. They may be strong, but they are simply not prepared. Yulup is a prime example. He is strong and tough like a hard, stone wall. But his attacks are merely unprepared and idiotic. I've always tried to remind him about thinking, but his mind is just too dinky to even grasp that type of knowledge. I want Calvarr to be wise about his battles, but I still want him to know the arts of combat. That is where you come in. If you would just take these lessons and break them down into smaller steps, perhaps he can actually get something more out of your teachings.”

There was a slight pause after Falpaine had said that. I heard a long, tired sigh from Relt. “Cal knows his poisons better than he knows his knives and daggers.” He said.

“It is true.” Falpaine replied. “I've been teaching him about the art of poison and its uses. If I were to show him a herb, he could name it within seconds. The same thing would happen if I showed him a vial full of a mysterious poison. Calvarr would even tell me the ingredients. Let's face it, he has a lot of time on his hands so that he can study poisons.”

Relt had sighed once again. “Perhaps there have been some flaws in my teachings. I taught everybody in the gang how to fight, including you. Silent Bone is the only one who fights his own mysterious way. But teaching Calvarr has been a challenge. He is only so young, after all. But to me, I think it makes absolutely no difference. I learned to use my fists and my blade when I six, and I drew my first blood when I nine. Calvarr is twelve and he has hardly conquered both.”

“I think it is time we try something different.” Falpaine remarked.

“What do you have in mind?” Relt asked.

“It may sound strange at first, but I think I know somebody that can help the boy. I know a trainer outside of town who goes by the name of Harlow. I knew him when I was in my younger years. He's a very superb teacher. He'll teach Calvarr about stealth, fighting, and much more. He's distant though. Harlow is way outside of Raville, but I think it is worth a try. Believe me, Relt. I'm not saying you're a bad teacher, but I think Harlow can help the boy improve. Harlow was once a famous assassin, by the way.”

“I like your idea, Falpaine.” Relt replied. “After all, it would nice to have that rascal out of here for a while.”

“Plans must be made, though. I'll have to talk to him and set up a date or two. Once we can get this whole thing figured out, Calvarr should be ready. It'll be hard for me to tell the boy about this, though. I assume that it shall be hard for him to be away from Gutless at his age. But who knows? Maybe Harlow will say no, and he can stay here. I'll make preparations to leave for his lair in about a week. I'll be gone for a few days, so I'll count on you to keep Gutless in shape. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes, master.” Relt replied royally.

“Very good.” Falpaine remarked. “Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a poison test will Calvarr. Go get him for me, please.”

I heard Relt say yes, and then I heard footsteps signifying that both Falpaine and Relt had left the room.

From what I heard, things we're going to get really strange around Raville for a while. To be honest, I wasn't really surprised about this. Falpaine wants to send me to a trainer far from Raville. I could be away from Gutless, which is something I've been wanting for a long, long time. Falpaine said that this Harlow guy can help me. Heck, I'd prefer him over Relt any day of the week. This guy is also an ex-assassin. It was more of the assassin's life for me. I didn't want to bust into a bank and start threatening people and demanding moolah out of the bank. It was just too aggressive. For some odd reason, I had the urge to kill silently and secretly. Also, once the deed is done, I can collect my pay from the people that hired me. It was a nice and clean way to earn moolah, despite the killings. There is also a good chance that I won't end up on a wanted poster. From what I hear, most assassins live a double life. The clean, casual, and normal life and the killing life. That would be my ultimate paradise.

I ran into Relt when he came out of Raville Town Hall. He told me to report to Falpaine for my poison test. This was gonna be easy. Just as Relt said, I know my poisons better than I know my daggers. But after this test, I was going to have a very serious talk with Falpaine. He is going to have a lot of explaining to do about the conversation that I overheard.

(Sorry if this one is a little shorter than the other chapters.)

[Venks]

I really like your story don't get me wrong. Its just that the only Odd thing about it is that the main characters are Steefs and instead of money they steal moolah. It just comes off so real, to me Silent Bone is the only interesting character becuase of what he could possibly be.

To sum it all up, is your story going to get Odd?