"Quick! Marisa, you take the vase. It's bound to be worth some coins at least."

"Some wooden nickels, I'd say... It's disgusting. How can people have things like.. this in their houses? As decoration? Stupid if you ask my opinion." Red shook his head at her remark.

"Nobody's asking your opinion. Shut up and start looting." Marisa sighed and put the vase in her bag. Then she walked over to a luxurious divan. She picked something up from the divan.

"Ooh... Seems like the master of the house had a lady friend as a guest..." Red turned to look at her.

"Oh, put them away. No one is going to pay for a corset, no matter how pretty it looks. It's most likely his wife's anyways." Marisa straightened the corset and thought for a bit.

"The lady... Isn't she a skinny prude that goes around the town looking all fake-important and wearing nothing but gray and black?" Red grunted something.

"I knew it. Not hers then.."

"Look, wear it yourself if you want, but you're wasting good night-time! Get to work!" Marisa put the corset away and looked around for something to loot. She spied a valuable looking painting and proceeded next to it. Red eyed her suspiciously and pointed out in a hushed voice, that they couldn't carry that big of a painting around. Marisa ignored him and examined the painting closer. It was a vivid, red portrait of a dog. She blinked and shrugging lifted the corner to peek behind the painting. She let out a small cry of victory drawing Red's fed up attention back to her.

"What now!?", he whispered annoyed.

"No, no. You just gotta come and have a look at this." When Red made no move towards her, she directed a sweet, big-eyed, pleading puppy-look at him. Though Red couldn't see her in the mere light of but one candle, he could well picture what Marisa was trying. Angry, he stomped, quietly, next to Marisa.

"Lookie here.." Marisa pushed the painting and it turned noiselessly on its hidden hinges. Red grinned as he saw what was behind the painting.

"A secret safe imbedded on the wall... Clever work girl. You may become something yet", he nodded to Marisa.

"Can you get it open?", she asked him.

"Are you a bratty little girl?", he smiled wickedly at himself.

"No, I'm not..", Marisa tried to put in, but Red was already working on the safe and ignored her. Marisa frowned, but left Red in privacy and scoured the dim room in hopes of seeing something worth gold coins. Unfortunately, there were only trinkets there and not even pretty enough for silver. Looked like they'll have to settle for brass this time. She sighed.

Suddenly her ears caught an unwelcome noise.

"Red...", she tried to get his attention, but Red was still busy with the safe and disregarded her.

"Red...! Someone is coming...! Hurry up!" Red stopped and listened for a while. He heard the occasional creaks and squeaks of a person that tries to sneak silently, but doing a poor job on it. He cursed.

"I'm almost done with this baby over here! Marisa, go and take care of the poor bastard, whoever they are." Shocked, she turned to look at him.

"I can't do such! It would be brutal.."

"Shut up girl! When I tell you to do something, you don't start arguing, but do so! Now go!" Marisa seemed terrified, but didn't object further. She sneaked without making a sound like someone who is used to being just a faint shade in the black night. Her heart pounding, she headed for the slightly ajar oaken door. She peered in to the hall behind the door and saw a bald old man in a white nightdress, holding a lit candle in his hand and edging towards the door and the room. She felt frightened and her head was utterly empty of any ideas on what to do. Breathing heavily, she quickly inspected any nearby objects that could be useful. A copper candelabrum grabbed her shaken observation and as having no better ideas, she snatched it.

She waited for the old man to reach the door. She rose the candelabrum ready for a strike, when someone called, apparently, the old man.

"Alfred? Dear? What are you doing in there?" The man answered just outside the door; "Oh, Ruth, love. I think I heard some noises coming from the room."

"Alfred, what nonsense! Honey, you come back to bed right now. There is no one in there."

"But, my love..."

"No buts! Come on now."

"Oh all right, honey. If you insist." The man squeaked away and Marisa sighed deeply with relief. Resting against the door, she gradually lowered the candelabrum and quietly placed it back on the decorative table it was on.

"Red? They're gone..", but then Red twitched and cheered in a soft voice. Marisa hurried next to him.

"What's in there, Red?" All tensed up, he reached into the open safe and handled something inside. He then slowly brought out his hand with a prize in his hand.

"This is what I've been dreaming about..." His eyes gleamed as he affectionately stroked a marvellous, shining large gem. Marisa's eyes widened with amazement and her mouth dropped open. They both stared at the grand gem mesmerised at its beauty.

"Red... It's .. just .. beautiful", she whispered in awed voice. Red settled for nodding at her.

"We.. We must take care of this baby. It's not safe to be in here. That someone could come back. Let's go!" Marisa nodded and they tightened their hold of their bags. Red gently put the fabulous gem in his bag. They slipped out of the house with a mighty trophy with them.

* * * * * "I hate you, you know that, don't you?" Marisa paced around the small rented room of a somewhat more unreliable inn. Just the right place for thieves like them.

"How could I have known...?", Red sighed tiredly. He looked exhausted to Marisa's eyes, but she was much too angry with him to give him a break.

"O great master of thieves! The lord of all robbing, who always gets the best 'prizes', is so clever to take a magically enchanted gem! And not even nicely enchanted, but... You have gotten us in the worst trouble ever! That gem will do nothing but bad for us. And it's all your fault."

"Well you didn't object much either!", he snapped. "Instead of blabbing about how 'useless' I am, you could try to think something to do." Marisa halted and turned to look Red, who was sitting next to the table. The gem was right in front of him.

"Me? Think of something?", she snorted. "Since when I was suppose to do anything else than steal stuff for you? Weren't you suppose to be the one with brains? Haven't you said a thousand times that I'm bratty little girl, who knows nothing?!"

"Don't yell. You'll draw unwanted attention", Red went back to sighing.

"Idiot." They both were quiet for a while, Marisa stubbornly staring at some darkish stain on the floor, Red looking at the gem and stroking it always once in a while.

".... We could.. keep it", Red wondered out loud. Marisa turned quickly around to see if he's serious. Red seemed dazed about the gem and unfortunately quite serious as well. She was about to exclaim something to him, when a thought came to her head. She decided to agree with him.

"... Yeah. We could... Are you sure?", she carefully asked. Suddenly Red leaped furiously up from his chair.

"You be quiet, girl! You just shut up and forget about anything. I will take care of everything. I am surer than ever.. I make the decisions here. Go to bed and sleep. We have much to do at morning", he said, his face gone red. Marisa sheepishly went to her bed and laid down on it. She closed her eyes with an image of Red sitting on the chair and stroking the gem affectionately in her mind.

* * * * * Marisa opened her sleepy eyes. Slowly, she rose up from her bed and looked for Red. He wasn't in the room. Marisa wondered this, finding it rather pleasant, and then made her way to the window. She pushed the drapes away and energetic sunlight greeted her good morning. It was early midday and a fairly beautiful day too. Still, there was something sinister in the air.

Marisa grabbed her cloak and left their room.







Second version







At night it's dark. That is natural. The only light at night is one made by humans, usually fire. Torches, lanterns and the usual sort. City streets often have lamps, so that people can see where they're going at night, if for some reason they're out at late hours. In summer they're almost unnecessary, because the days are long, and the nights only vaguely dark. In winter, most naturally, the lamps are lit often at early afternoon, because the sun sets so quickly. Extra light also comes from torches or lamps set on the walls of guildhouses. Perhaps someone is late at work at their workshop and faint light spills out of the windows. Then there are places that are without light almost completely... homes. Well, if the owner of the house is rich, there's most likely some torches lighting way for guards, but most places are dark. And then there's those houses that don't belong to poor people, but not exactly rich either... Sweetly unguarded, unlit, perfect, for a pair thieving opportunists.
     Very much like that house right over there...



In the darkness of the night two faint shadows have no difficulty to blend in with surroundings. Swiftly and quickly they move, unnoticed by city guards or random passers-by, and even if someone were to notice, they would simply ignore all. That was wise in a city like this. The shadows preferred to keep things that way; even the guards walked away most of the time (of course, guards are usually somewhat slow to learn good manners, so sometimes accidents happened).
     Two invisible shadows approached a wall surrounding a house. It wasn't very high, only about waist-high fence, though build from heavy-seeming large stones. You could tell it was very new for there was no moss growing on the stones. As a matter of fact, it had been constructed only four days ago. The shadows did not stop to admire the fence, but jumped right over it and vanished into the house.
     One room in the downstairs was particularly large. There was a divan of unrecognizable colour, a black desk, supposedly mahogany, tables and cabinets, and a fireplace. Items or different size and shape were scattered over the tables. The desk was covered in papers, many of them blank and slightly crumpled. Ridiculously oversized paintings hang on the walls. Most of them had a dog or several in them. A large green plant had been pushed into a corner, where it wasn't on the way and could easily be forgotten. The plant looked limp, like it was dying. A burly shadow approached the table and shoved some papers aside to see if anything interesting was under them. There wasn't. A more slender shadow went to the divan and picked something up.
     "Ooh.. looks like the master of the house had a lady friend as a guest..." The gross shadow by the table turned to peer at her.
     "Put it away, Marisa. No one is going to pay anything for a corset. It's most likely his wife's anyway." The slim shadow, Marisa, straightened the corset in her hands and thought for a bit.
     "The lady... isn't she a skinny prude who goes around the town looking all oh-so-important?" The large shadow muttered something.
     "I knew it, Red. Not hers then."
     "For ... Look, wear it yourself or put it away. You're wasting time!" Marisa shrugged and dropped the corset on the divan. She turned to look around the room, searching for anything valuable to loot. Things did not look good. Even if they scavenged the place from all items, they wouldn't gain many coins from selling them. She spied one of the paintings, and went closer to it. As she examined the picture (it was a small, flat-faced dog painted completely in red tones), Red eyed her suspiciously. He pointed out in hushed voice that it was too big to carry around. Marisa ignored him and tentatively pushed a fingertip inside a tiny crack between the frame and wall.
Yes, definitely a lot of open space there. She seized the painting by its sides and wrenched it carefully to right. It didn't budge. She tried again and wrenched the painting to left. A soft click came from behind the painting, and it turned on hidden hinges to reveal a safe imbedded on the wall.
     "Jackpot", she grinned wickedly. Red turned her way abruptedly, about to snap her to shut up, but caught sight of the safe. The next moment he was beside to her, shoving her out of the way.
     "Not bad girl.. you may become something yet. This is exactly what I was looking for."
     "And I found it... Can you get it open?"
     "Are you a stupid little girl?", Red chuckled quietly at his little joke.
     "No, I'm not.." Marisa tried to put in, but Red was already ignoring her completely and concentrating on the safe. Marisa sighed and begun to circle around the room, trying to find anything worth thieving, but frankly it was simply no use. The room was full of fancy little things, but none of them were worth much more than a wooden nickle or two. It was going to be a lousy night if the safe prooved to be equal to the room's contents.
     A stronger click and one nearly silent triumphant shout indicated otherwise. Marisa rushed to get a look inside the safe as well. Red had froze to stare something inside the safe which she couldn't see on account of Red standing right in front of it.
     "What's in there? C'mon, is it valuable? Is there anything in there? What is it?"
     "... the most beautiful jewel I've ever seen...", he whispered nearly silently.