::FL:: Food Raiding

It was rough, being an Ebony Serpent crew member, with our no-nonsense captain and her team of hardened pirates. There were a few of us from the runelands to make up for some losses that the crew had had on a raid or two lately, but the majority of her crew was those veteran pirates who could kill a man by looking at him.
Not to say that they were all terrible people, just somewhat frightening at first. In fact, some of them were quite friendly, it was just hard to be outgoing in a place where the people would just as soon skin you alive as eat breakfast with you. If you could call the citrus-ey gruel breakfast, that is. We newbies were still remembering the proper food of the city and it was quite honestly making my fingers itch to steal some proper meat for once.
Maybe it’s a test… I thought to myself as I stared at bowl sitting in front of me, Maybe I need to steal some meat from the town…prove my worth as a pirate…Or maybe if I do that my hand will be cut off and served to me at the next meal if I don’t share. I shuddered, desiring my hands to stay connected to my body much more than a delicious bit of meat. “Doesn’t really leave much choice then…” I mumble out loud, grabbing the attention of Dera and Madi, who are sitting across from me.
“You ok Lizzie?” Dera asks, concerned. Her sister wears the same face, as if they’re worried that I’ve sprung a third wing or something.
“Ya I’m fine,” I reply abruptly, then, lowering my voice, “I’m just hungry for something more than this junk here yknow? I can’t live on something that’ll barely take care of scurvy! I need meat.” I had leaned over the table as I was speaking, and now settled back into my spot, waiting for their reaction. Madi seemed to be nodding in agreement, but then a pensive look settled onto her face.
“How are you going to get the meat? I don’t want to steal it from the Captain or the others in her favor so…”
“I never said I had to have meat that’s already on the ship! We’re pirates now. With the chimeras that we have we can just go right into town and just steal whatever we want, provided we don’t get caught, maybe we could even do it on our own. Or we could wait for those merchant ships to get nearby, but to tell you the truth I don’t think my stomach would let me wait that long. So, are the other leaders of the Hoard willing to help out? Or am I doing this on my own. I’d at least bring Static along, since she has seemed to take to the crew fairly well and would be more than willing to help me out I’m sure.” My tail was sweeping back and forth across the floorboards of the mess hall behind me, me not having realized that it had started moving.
The two sisters, Alpha and Omega, exchanged glances and did that whole sister telepathy thing and then turned back to me and nodded. “When do you want to head out?” asked Dera, “Because you know we should really ask the Captain for permission for this sort of thing.”
“As soon as possible and I’ll ask the Quartermaster instead, since the Captain is too busy to be trifled with such small matters as a few crew members going out again and raiding the town. I don’t want to piss her off for bothering her with something so insignificant.” I shuddered, the thought of her rage enough to make my fur prickle. Some of the senior crew had strange scars on their faces that none of the new recruits were brave enough to ask about, but the rumor was that the Captain had a special lipstick that she would put on that if she kissed you, your skin would burn like acid had been splashed on it until enough water was run over it and unfortunately fresh water was a precious commodity so there was the double agony of having your burning wound washed clean with salt water. It was no wonder the scars were so nasty, if the rumor was true.
After managing to secure the day of looting with the Quartermaster, who really didn’t seem to care that much so long as we brought back something for the Captain and crew, we met back up on the deck of the ship. “You guys good to shimmy down the side of the ship into the dingy or should I carry you to shore?” Both sisters looked at me almost offended before climbing down as fast as I had seen some of the senior crew do it. I chuckled, shrugged, and flapped down to the little dingy and managed to make it there just as they did. Perching on the tip of the boat, I let them get the oars ready before Static and I take off, intending to lead the way to a more secret location where the Police (or Underground) wouldn’t catch us immediately or, if we were discovered, we could have Static use her electric magic to stun them so we could get away. The docks were pretty much on lockdown after the initial raid, which is why the Captain had decided that we should move the ship out to sea a bit so that they wouldn’t be able to stage a counterattack as easily.
Getting to shore was a breeze, at least for me and Static, and when Madi and Dera managed to row to the spot where I was at I helped them beach the dingy, then hide it with some plants found nearby. It wasn’t that big of a deal if it was located, since I was certain that the Captain had more than the one dingy, but I didn’t want to be the one to have to tell her that any part of her ship shape ship was missing or destroyed.
After making sure that the dingy was as well hidden as we could possibly manage, we headed into town. I had to make sure that my face and tail were hidden as they were pretty distinctive, but my wings were just going to be out in the open. I would not deal with them being restricted by something like a cloak. Dera and Madi were fine, since they were mostly human in appearance, so they could be a bit bolder in their actions. And Static wasn’t about to cover up herself either so she was going to just stay a little bit away from the group so as to attract attention away from us. Not that that bugged her, since she still hadn’t quite warmed up to me.
We worked out a good system though with our chimeras missing, still on the boat or at home. Making sure we stuck to side streets and alleyways, Static would walk ahead and signal with a slight burst of electricity into our feet that the coast was clear of Underground members and Runeland City Police and if it wasn’t then she’d take care of the problem, sometimes calling for my claws. As we walked past affluent members of the city Madi and Dera would pick their pockets as Static and I distracted them with our unnatural bits and her electricity. We eventually managed to get to the marketplace in City Center and I couldn’t help but drool a bit at the displays of food in the vendors’ stalls. There were too many people here with too few places to hide for our hide and stun tactics, so we had to be especially careful here.
Before heading into the hustle and bustle of the center, we conversed about what exactly our plan was. After a bit of deliberation, we decided to split up into two groups. Madi and Dera would be together in one group and would attempt to shoplift some goodies for Havanna, and then Static and I would try intimidation tactics to bully a shopowner or two into giving us “promotional” “samples”. That much decided, we went ahead and split off to go do some dirty work.

Thankfully, Static had an eye for the meeker shopkeepers and so we shamelessly targeted those first.
“Hey there,” I grin wickedly as I stride up to the stall, “Do you know who we are?” The shopkeeper looks confused, but starts to slowly shake his head before I gesture to the ocean and lean in closer. “We’re members of the Ebony Serpent crew and if you knew what was best for you you’d go ahead and give us some of that meat you have there.”
He looked like he was about to protest, but then Static held up her hand and started crackling her electricity and the shopkeeper stopped in his tracks. “Just let us go quietly and we won’t hurt you. Your life is more important than some unimportant money right?”
Obviously conflicted, he nods, and then asks, “H-how much do you need…?” His look of concern pangs a chord in my heart, but Static then takes over and, in broken English, demands almost all of the meat in his stall. When he hesitates she lets a spark jump from her fingertip to his arm.
“Now,” she stated plainly, and he began to load up the food into a large bag. Once he finished, we grabbed the bag and headed to the next few stalls, where the same sort of thing happened, with success each time.
However, after about the fifth shop, people started noticing what was going on and I gestured to Static that we should get out of there. We could meet up with Madi and Dera at the planned meeting place, and dodge Police and others who would bear us ill will.

We only had to wait a few minutes before the sisters showed up, pockets full of JR and grins on their faces. “Looks like you were just as successful as us!” Dera said, “Now let’s get outta here before anyone else notices. We were almost noticed a few times and Madi had to do a little bit of distracting shapechanging.” I nod and we scurry back through Sector 1 of the city, Static leading the way.
Nobody even noticed us hurrying through the city, as it seemed that everybody was busy just then. It wasn’t long until we got back to our dingy and loaded it up. Pushing the dingy into the water, I waved to Madi and Dera and flew back to the ship with Static, munching on a bit of meat as I landed.
“You bring anything besides that scrap? Crew’s hungry and Havanna needs that cash,” the Quartermaster seemed disappointed, but then I explained that it was all on the dingy coming back and his mood improved. “Well it sounds like you did good work today. Keep it up.”