Legends of Chima: Corvus Sicarius

Chapter II

Longtooth looked around the forest while his lion friends collected the scrap left over from the battle and threw it into a wagon pulled by a lion tank. The wagon was placed right in the middle of the road, perfect if you don't want anyone to steal anything from it. While two lions on the left side of the wagon carried a broken crocodile speedor, Crawley and another crocodile watched from the shadow of a nearby tree.

Just as the lions threw the speedor into the wagon, the other crocodile sneaked up to it and the lions jumped onto him. After every lion grouped together next to this crocodile, Ripnik swooped in and grabbed Cragger's Vengious.

"I can't believe I have to hire a raven burglar to get my own weapon, what a waste of money." Cragger said as he walked around the throne room while staring at his spear. Ripnik stared at him while smiling.

"Listen, the battle didn't go as planned, but it's not over yet. Do you know where the bears sleep?" Cragger said as he spun the Vengious around.

"What?" Ripnik said.

"I have reasons to believe the bears are hiding some sort of secret room. Can you find it for me? Same pay as the spear job" Cragger said as he showed Ripnik a map of Chima.

"All I did was retrieve your spear, this sounds pretty important." RIpnik said as he grabbed the map and started looking around at the notes Cragger made.

"I don't have that much money left, okay? I don't need to spend the rest of it on you flying around and collecting my things. 8000 credits for the secret bear room, if you find it." Cragger said as he tried to take the map back.

"Are you even sure it exists? Have you ever seen the bears in their natural habitat?" Ripnik asked.

"Fine, you'll get the money either way, but it exists, probably." Cragger said. Ripnik then flew away.

A dark atmosphere filled the entire bar, not being helped by the mass amounts of smoke and the bartender looking around for anyone foolish enough not to bring their own cup. Ripnik sat down in his usual corner after getting his one cup of water and waited for his client. The raven wearing a grey hat and a pipe sat down on the opposite side of him and once again blew smoke into Ripnik's face to establish dominance.

"It's you again.  I still won't do the assassination." Ripnik said after coughing a few times.

"That's not why I'm here. If you don't want to kill your landlord I can't force you, but there is some things I want from the Raven Bank. I know it's the most heavily guarded building in Raven Town, even more than wherever Rawzom lives, but I need a certain piece of paper that is most likely in the paper room, the least guarded area of the bank. You just need to fly to- I shouldn't need to explain this to you, will you do it or not?" The other raven said.

"I think you missed an important detail."

"How about 15 000 credits? It's not as much as the simple assassination I asked you to do, but since you refuse to do that, something which almost every other burglar in this town would gladly accept for that reasonable price, I think this is more than enough for just a piece of paper.

"Why don't you ask those other burglars to do it then?" Ripnik asked. Upon saying this, the other raven leaned towards him.

"Most other burglars are idiots, Ripnik. When your job is hiring these people you truly understand why most ravens tend to be merchants and/or scammers, nobody would do these jobs otherwise, especially if they don't work for reasonable prices such as mine. 15 000 credits is more than enough for this, in fact, it's more reasonable as a price for stealing some object that's almost unguarded, with the only guards being a bunch of lions." The raven said. Ripnik nodded and disappeared through a nearby window first to establish dominance.

The raven landed a few meters from the bears with the map in its hand. After carefully looking at the exact location of the X Cragger drew on it, Ripnik started loudly walking towards the bears, fearing they would wake up if he made noises similar to whispering.

Ripnik then slowly laid Bladvic on his side and pushed the boulder he used to lay on as loudly as he could. He took one final look at the sloth of bears sleeping on the ground before walking through the narrow hole revealed after removing the boulder.

The hall was dark, so Ripnik took out an orb of Chi he had on him to light up the area. After walking for a bit, the raven finally reached the door to the room Cragger hired him to find. After opening the door to the room, Ripnik saw a modified pulse cannon sitting on a table on the opposite side of the room, with multiple pieces of paper scattered around it. The raven then approached the pulse cannon and started reading the pieces of paper. After reading through the first piece of paper, another animal entered through the door.

It was Bozy, a bear.

Ripnik looked over at the bear, trying not to show any fear. The bear stared at him for a few seconds before saying anything.

"Eglor warned us someone would come here without asking." Bozy said as he took a step towards the raven and closed the door behind him.

"Yeah, Eglor asked me to come here, i didn't ask because I didn't want to wake anybody up!" Ripnik said as he laughed a bit.

"Why would he send a raven to come here? Aren't you on the side of the crocodiles?" Bozy asked as he took another step forward.

"Hey, just because I'm a raven doesn't mean I work for the crocodiles. Besides, they pay us to help them. Not me though." Ripnik said.

"Okay. What are you doing here then?" Bozy asked as he took a step backwards.

"Oh, I just came here to pick this up. You know, transportation?" Ripnik said as he tried to lift the pulse cannon.

"Really? Because Eglor told us to attack any raven we see here, that includes you." Bozy said and started running towards Ripnik.

Ripnik, after successfully lifting the pulse cannon, tried hitting Bozy with it, but the bear just grabbed it and carefully placed it on the ground. He then tried punching the raven, to which the raven replied by flying into the air and landing a few meters away from him. The bear then ran up to Ripnik once again, and in response the raven once again flew up into the air, except this time Bozy grabbed Ripnik's leg and threw him into the wall, then grabbed his head and smashed it into the same wall. The raven then hit the bear with its wing, punched the bear in the stomach and ran across the room to the pulse cannon. After about a second, the bear started chasing the raven while it tried inserting a Chi orb into some hole, and just as it came close to it, Ripnik pressed a button on the pulse cannon and the cannon activated.

A few seconds had passed of Ripnik laying on the ground facing the wall on the opposite side of the blast when he decided to open his eyes. The cannon burned a giant hole through the ground, and the daylight was visible once again. Bozy was nowhere to be seen.