The signal had gone off too soon. It had to have; otherwise Didoozy would not currently be hurtling towards a cliff face without a single trace of an airship in sight. If Tamarty had done her job correctly there would be an airship right here.

Didoozy tried to curse but the air in her chest had been squished out of her, something heavy and cold had smashed into her solar plexus. She made a strange, raspy gasping sort of noise as she nearly wrapped herself around the source of the pain. It was a handrail, pushed into her guts so hard it felt like it was trying to meld into her. But most importantly, it was an airship handrail.

Didoozy was certain the airship had not been there a moment before. Had they started making their ships invisible now? It was just like the Talls to go and make even their airships invisible.

Didoozy pulled herself up and over the railing, landing on the well-polished deck with a quiet thump. She wanted to melt to into a puddle of gasping pain around her bruised sternum but Tamarty hadn't mucked the job up so neither could she.

It should be easy enough to complete her end of the bargain. As long as Edmindy had all the details right, which he usually did, then all she had to do was find the first door on her left down the starboard staircase. It was just like Talls to make fancy names for everything.

If she was fast enough mayhap the Talls wouldn't even notice her. She crept forward, eyes darting back and forth. Every little shadow and creak had her pulse pounding loud in her ears, but she made herself move forward; steady and calm. This was not her first heist, but Talls had a way of appearing out of practically nowhere.

The deck was immaculate but there were still plenty of hiding places fit only for someone of her stature or smaller. It was a matter of muscle memory for her to move from shadow to rigging to doorway in fast little bursts, footfalls silent. She paused only long enough for the shadow of a Tall to pass her by before scurrying her way to the stairwell entrance.

The stairwell was empty as she pushed herself down the opening with her hands braced against the narrow walls. She didn't trust the stairs to keep quite so she used her upper body to propel her downwards, letting her feet touch the edge of a step only when she needed to adjust her hands on the lacquered wooden walls. This method got her to the landing in only a few eyeblinks but it was enough time to allow for the first sound of trouble.

Talls wore thick leather boots that rose all the way to their ridiculously extravagant knee height. 'Really, who needs all that topness to them?' Seemed unsteady to her.

The sound of those boots was impossible for her to mistake. Although Talls varied in their appearances they were all massive, heavy beings. While some had the skills required to move silently most let their shiny boots clip clop across any old surface; a perfect alarm to warn of their approach. No Kin would ever be so loud, not unless it was on purpose anyway.

Didoozy sped up her progress. Either she would beat the boot owners to the door or she wouldn't, but going slow would result in being spotted for sure. The door was just there and beyond it her target. She found herself praying to the Fate of luck that she would have enough time to close the door without being seen.

The door clicked shut behind her. She had made it. 'Sneaky all the way'. She turned to survey her bounty.

She found herself in a posh office with polished brass and shining chrome everywhere. Books lined the walls and a richly polished rainbow wood desk sat in the center of the room. It would probably be in the desk.

She approached the over-sized beauty with more than a hint of reverence and anger. It was exactly like a Tall to cut down a rainbow tree for a desk. It wasn't that a Kin wouldn't do the same but at least her people knew it would bring bad luck without a blessing.

She hesitated at the thought of ill luck, but the desk would have cursed whoever cut the rainbow tree so she would be fine; and she did love a masterfully crafted desk, even if it was too big to be useful.

Whoever had crafted it had seen the beauty of the tree and done little to embellish the natural splendor of the woods many colors. Didoozy circled the desk pushing a chair out of her way. There were three drawers, she reached for the lowest and largest first.

The desk drawer slid on well-oiled metal bars, the internal mechanism escaped her cursory glance and she was tempted to spend her time examining the craftsmanship of the woodworking and engineering that had gone into the desk’s design.

'Job first,' she chided herself as she rolled the drawer open and closed a few more times, relishing the smooth slide of metal on metal. Was there anything better than something that was well made?

'Mayhap what’s in it,' she considered as she finally riffled through the drawer's contents which mostly consisted of blank papers and a few long cylindrical things that she assumed were strange writing implements since they were next to the paper. Didoozy pocketed a few of the writing sticks for inspection later and moved on to the next drawer. This one was much deeper than the first though just as wide. Inside she found a beautiful shiny metal tube with glass caps at either end, it too disappeared into a pocket.

She loved her jacket for exactly this reason, the entire linings had various sized pocked sewn into it. She had even been able to make the pocket out of the same matte blue and black pattern since it had been liberated from a Tall and the scraps left over from taking it in had been plenty sufficient for her alteration.

The next drawer she tried was a long narrow one that stretched the length of the desk. There were glass jars with odd liquids that sparkled and shimmered, and a single shiny green eggfruit. She stuffed the fruit in her mouth and was about to close the drawer when the gloss of one of the papers caught her eye.

She had almost missed it, yet there it was, just as Edmindy had described, an Amulet of Opening. She tugged the stiff rectangular amulet from the drawer, the cloth necklace it was attached to catching on one of the bottles and toppling it. The tiny cork popped off spilling a shining opalescent liquid across the bottom of the drawer.

She pulled the necklace over her head, tucking the amulet under her shirt and shoved the drawer close. Now that she had retrieved the object she needed it occurred to her that she had taken much longer in this room than she should have.

If she didn't get off the ship soon it could dock with her still aboard. Edmindy had been very clear about how little time she had, the ship was headed for the Tall city and if it made it there before Didoozy escaped things would get much more complicated.

She was half way to the door where the glittering shine of a glass box caught her eye. It was nestled between two thick tombs, its lid a delicate array of sharp points.

Her next step went wide, dragging her towards the box, she just needed to see what was in it. Something that shiny must hold good loot and the others would be happier if she brought them something unexpected along with the amulet.

She had to stretch up on the tips of her toes to reach the box and when she tried to pry the lid up it refused to move. She dragged the box down, holding it in one hand so she could check it for a latch. Finding none she glanced at the door. She needed to leave.

The boxes sharp edges made it too pokey to shove into one of her many pockets so she did the next best thing. She moved one of her heaviest iron rings to her middle finger, a smoothly polished round band so narrow it couldn't go past her second knuckle. One side of the ring was raised above the band and flattened into the shape of a triangle, the Kins symbol for the Fates.

She curled her finger, placing the flattened side of the ring against the glass top of the box. With a quick jerk she lifted then smashed her small hand, ring first, into the lid shattering it. A small sliver of glass cut open the side of her hand, spilling little red droplet onto the broken box

A shrill siren that made the inside of her head ache with each heartbeat began the moment the glass broke, distracting her from the slight pain of the cut. Didoozy shuffled one finger through the glass shards to find a pearl nestled into the soft fabric at the base of the box. She dropped the box and slipped the pearl into a pocket.

‘Probably shouldn’t have done that,’ she thought as the siren blared. Head throbbing at the awful noise Didoozy tried to stumble her way to the door. The sound made her eyes go hazy around the edges. She shook her head, trying to free it of the daze the sound was putting her in. She had gotten this far, done the job, now to survive it.

She tried to focus and reach for the doorknob but it was already turned beneath her fingers. The door swung inwards, and she had to jump back to avoid getting smacked with it. There in the open doorway stood a Tall, her cool onyx features contorted in confusion. She was thinner than most of the other Talls, her uniform tight against her narrow frame. The uniform’s typical cut outs showed windows of dark skin ornamented with the telltale tattoos that marked all of her kind.

Her sharp jawline began to clench as her small dark almond shaped eyes drifted downward to Didoozy's face. A snarl parted her lips to reveal pearl white, flat omnivore teeth. Didoozy marveled at the woman's beauty, she was very symmetrical. Even her pointed ears looked almost the exact same height, their tips nearly even with the two small white horns that curled delicately over inky black hair. A third eye tattoos wept a single white line that ran down the center of her broad nose, across her bow shaped lips to dip below her delicate chin. 

All of this Didoozy noted with no small awe as she darted between the woman's legs, ducking and trying her best to avoid shoving her shoulder into the other woman's crotch. She might be short but it was still a challenge to slide through such tight quarters, even with such a well waxed floor.

‘I feel like I just missed an opportunity to make a terrible joke…’ the depressing notion almost made her turn back but she had no good one-liners in mind so instead she retrieved a handful of poppers from one of her larger pant pockets. The pants were Kin crafted but she had added a few extra pockets over the years. The poppers were loud and bright but were unlikely to cause lasting damage, which was a pity. She tossed the handful behind her as she ran down the hallway, wishing she had something with more bang; but the other’s had taken her explosives before they sent her on this mission.

She could hear the thundering cry of "Thief!" but any response that might have followed was lost as the poppers went off. Behind her the hallway was filled with green and orange smoke, bright flashes of light and a rolling crackle punctuated by the occasional boom.

Poppers were more of an art than a science and no two ever went off quite the same way, which meant the confusing display of colors and sounds continued its erratic belches even as Didoozy took the oversized stairs two at a time, using the railing to haul herself up. She was across the deck in a flash, not bothering to hide this time.

The railing was ahead of her, freedom within sight. She could make it, using her momentum to haul herself up, vaulting her small body over the chin height obstacle. She pushed herself into the vault with all her might, her mass clearing the ship, pulling her over the side to freedom. Her hands left the railing, her entire body in open air; when she felt the firm grasp of a hand around her wrist.