Sunday Stories: Theft
Never before had Ayraka city been in such chaos. Word had traveled fast throughout the city, causing the crowds to gather in specific areas of the city in confusion and curiosity. The worst of which was in the ports district, where everything had taken place. With a crowd of at least five dozen people, all of which were kicking and screaming at one another. The guards alone had enough trouble as it was today, but this only made it worse as their numbers were extremely limited at the particular moment. Which only made the struggle far worse as they tried to restrain this crowd.
It was to no avail though, for the harder they tried, the more riled up the crowd became. Which seemed to create a domino effect within the guard, making them try even harder to contain the rambunctious civilians as best they could without causing them direct harm. They panicked however as a few of the civilians jumped right on the nearest one, a large dragon no less, whom was a recruit no less.
“Please!” he shouted, “All I’m asking you is to calm down and step back!” Unfortunately for him though, this only made the crowd even more rambunctious, even borderline violent as one of them took a swing on him. This made the dragon panic just a little bit more, making him want to actually use a little bit of his magic to further restrain the crowd. Actually turning to a superior, only to have this one shake her head to deny the request.
“We have to de-escalate the situation...not make it worse,” the lioness mouthed, “No violence from us. It’s the General’s rules.” He just nodded, returning his attention back to the crowd. What was he going to do? They needed to investigate the theft, but the crowd was so densely packed in the area and uncooperative that they were likely to even lose precious evidence over the course of the next few minutes.
With only five guards on this job too, the situation seemed utterly hopeless, that was until along with three full-fledged knights came Elvera with a rather serious look on her face. Though initially everyone seemed to ignore her arrival, when she finally made her presence known, everything changed. It was startling just how quickly it happened too, especially with something so simple as her just clearing her throat and raising her hand up before everyone.
Though there were a few that still made a few hushed whispers and seemed to resist just a little, they fell in line out of simple respect for the General, realizing full well what her very presence meant. What were they to actually do aside from this anyhow? She was absolutely frightening on many levels, while they did indeed both love and respect her, the seriousness of the situation was expressed in just how quickly everything had gone quiet. It was actually extremely impressive to the recruit as he watched on. Just wondering how she did that so easily.
“I do apologize for the inconvenience and all the problems today,” Elvera said very politely, “I understand that many of you are confused and stressed out about the recent string of burglaries, but I assure you we are working as hard as we can to catch this thief.” This seemed to cause a bit of an uproar in the crowd as several questioned her words. Yet, she didn’t even flinch. Instead giving a very small gesture for most of everyone to quiet down.
“Why haven’t you caught them yet?!” an elf from the crowd roared, “You normally catch thieves within a day! It’s been a week!”
“Those were inexperienced thieves,” she explained, “According to the information I’ve received, this thief seems to have a rather unique ability. Not only that, but they’re fairly experienced too...making it a bit more difficult to pin them down.”
“Do you have any leads?” another from the crowd called out, this one from closer to the center. It was a bit tricky to actually answer this one too, she actually needed to step back and think for a few moments, considering all the evidence she had gathered. What did she have exactly though? Looking back on it, she didn’t recall any significant evidence at any of the recent scenes. Which made answering all the more difficult as she thought longer on it.
“Unfortunately...no...all we know is, this person has a unique ability to cloak themselves essentially,” she explained, “Almost like a chameleon and that they’re targeting more valuable items, such as jewelry. Especially family heirlooms. Though they’ve always struck at night...” There was a brief pause in her words as one of the knights returned to her side, having slipped away prior to investigate. As she arrived, the phoenix whispered something to Elvera. “What...really?” she asked, appearing a tiny bit hesitant.
“Yes...we’re certain of it,” she muttered, “But we left them untouched so you can see them with your own eyes.”
“Very well, hold on,” she said, returning her attention to the crowd before her. “New evidence has just come in from the most recent robbery. If you all could be patient with us and cooperate, I’m certain we could find just who is behind all of this.” she stated, “Now if all of you could return to your homes...except for those of you that had their home broken into of course.” This request seemed a bit unusual initially, but virtually everyone seemed to comply almost immediately, as several individuals of various races remained behind.
“What do you want us to do?” The dragon recruit inquired, turning to his boss. Whom by this time was giving a few small orders to the guards and her knights at the same time before turning off to the dragon.
“That much should actually be obvious,” Elvera said, rather annoyed with everything. “I want you to question everyone here. Get as much information and then report to Captain Azaylia.”
“Yessir!” the dragon saluted as Elvera walked away, slowly shaking her head.
‘Recruits...’ she thought, leaving everyone to their vices. All the while being shown the way to the most recent house hit. It was a very small house too, just off the port district itself. Inexpensive, but still fairly well put together, it was cordoned off with some yellow police tape and a few bright orange traffic cones as well as a few signs.
This was actually a rather depressing sight to behold too as Elvera could imagine herself living in this place if she hadn’t been the General. With a heavy sigh, she climbed over the cones and tape and into the crime scene where a number of detectives were scowering the area, along with a few of the guards and knights.
What stuck out the most though was the fact that this place seemed a bit sloppier on the inside than the out. While it was still fairly tidy, evidence seemed just about everywhere, marked with white tape. What was more interesting however, was what Azaylia had whispered to her. They were just about everywhere, off the side of the couch and it made her smile as she approached. Finally, a break in the case as she knelt down near the small circles marking some dragon scales.
While the scales themselves appeared to have been recently shed, having lost quite a bit of color, it actually did still help the overall case as she could just barely make out the color. Pink. That wasn’t too common of a color among dragons. Lifting them from the marked area, a sinister smile spread across her face as everything began to click in her mind. It was here she gained a rough idea of where to look. Especially considering a family of phoenixes lived in this house.