Ghost Rider

CHAPTER XXV: Deal

"Rider, is that you?"

"R-Restrund?"

"Rider, that is you! What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same question." I countered, placing my hand on my hip, like an unimpressed older sister.

"This island is one of my trading posts. Your turn to spill."

"My saddle got wrecked in a fire, so I came to the nearest village to have another one made."

"What? The great and mighty Rider can't make her own saddle?" Restrund queried exasperatedly, feigning surprise.

I sighed, "Yes, I'm sure I could make my own saddle if I wanted, but I'm kind of on a tight schedule, here. Besides I don't have the right tools anyway."

"What kind of tight schedule?"

"The none-of-your-business tight schedule." I smirked.

"What's with you and secrets all of the time?"

"It's like the money you 'accidentally' keep finding; I like to keep 'em, and not tell anyone about it."

"Very funny. And for your information, I do find money all the time. You see, the trick is to know where to look."

"Like in some innocent bystander's satchel?" I rhetorically questioned.

Restrund just playfully rolled his eyes. Even though he'd never admit to it, I knew he dabbled in the refined, and exact art of pickpocketing.

"Got anything to trade me that you think I might like?" I queried.

"Possibly." Restrund stroked his beard. "I've got a proposition for ya. I know your out here on your own, so you need some form of income, grabbing things, not that you couldn't take things off of the boats your gonna raid, but you would be surprised how useful this skill comes in handy in your line fo work." He rambled, deep in his own whirlwind of incoming, and out going thoughts. 

"Just tell me what it is already Restrund, your making me antsy."

"pickpocketing. I want teach you how to pickpocket."

"Ah, so you do admit that you don't just "find" your stuff." I smirked, air quoting with my fingers.

"No, I do find things, it's like I said, I know where to look."

" I see".

"How about you grab me anything that might possibly be valuable on any of your nightly raids, and in the meantime, I teach you how to pickpocket. Deal?"

He spit in his hand, and offered it to me.

I shrugged, spit in mine, and held it out too.

"Deal."

We shook.

"How long until you have to leave?"

"My saddle will be done in roughly an hour, but I can stay until dark."

"That should be enough time to give you your first lesson."

"Who's our victim?" I inquired, mischievously rubbing my hands together.

"Me."

"Wait, what?"

"If you wanna learn how to pickpocket, you should practice on someone who won't try to kill you; probably." He smirked.

I smirked back.

"Alright, first trick to pickpocketing is distraction. Try to bump into them, or something. Basically, make a lot of physical contact; enough to distract them from the small physical contact; which will be your hand slipping into pockets."

"What about satchels? The only way your going to ever snatch one of those, is if the person has drunk himself halfway to Valhalla."

"You don't usually want the bag. You just want what's inside it, right? So the trick is, to slice the bottom open with a dagger, while pretending to trip, or something. It would be wise to have another satchel on your person, for the contents of the bag to fall into; it can be rather messy if you just try to catch coins in the palm of your hand; Noisy too."

I nodded, soaking in all of this useful information.
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After an hour of trying to pickpocket Restrund, I finally got it. It took a great deal of effort, but was totally worth it.

"Nice job Rider, I'll buy you a ginger ale for you success, and then you move on to other people."

"Actually, It should be me buying you a drink, seeing as I have your money." I smirked, dangling his money bag tauntingly from my fingers.

He just playfully rolled his eyes.

"Alright, I get it, you can pickpocket. Now let's see how you do with someone who isn't giving you some slack." He stated, a playful glint in his eyes.

My moth dropped. "You knew I had your money this whole time?!"

"I had an idea." He chuckled. "You know, your enjoying this way too much for a self-righteous Valkaydan."

"Yeah well, I'm not a Valkaydan anymore. I left, and I can probably never go back; and even if I wanted to, it would never be the same." I replied, kicking a stone with the toe of my shoe.

"Isn't their motto 'protect others who can't protect themselves'?"

"Again, I'm not a Valkaydan anymore. I'm helping myself this time. Besides, I've got some serious shit going on in my life, that I need to figure out first. I mean, I've got a brother I never knew about, a father whom  I've never met, and I'm from a place I've never been to. I need to find them first; because maybe when I find them, and discover my true origins, I can figure out who I really am, and who I'm supposed to be."

"Wow, that was a little too deep for me. Why don't we get that ale now?"

"Sounds good to me."
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"So I was thinking," Restrund began, slamming his empty wooden mug on the table.

"That's dangerous." I interrupted.

"That you could live with me."

"Aren't you a little old for me?" I joked.

"I'm serious. Why don't you live with me on my ship? It's a fairly good size, and I'm sure it can fit one more person, and a dragon on board."

"Restrund, lets not get ahead of ourselves. Don't forget that I not only have a personal vendetta against Krom, and Viggo Grimborn, but I also need to find my brother, therefore I'll be following your brilliant plan of attacking dragon hunter ships, ports, and bases, until he notices and comes looking for me."

"Yes, yes, I have not forgotten. But I was thinking, you could help me with trading, and could see the world. Maybe even finding both your brother, and the Grimborns. Think about all the things you could learn. Think about all that I could teach you. You could always attack dragon hunter ships while we're in the area."

I sighed. He had a point; I could learn a lot, see the rest of the archipelago(I didn't get out much when I was a Valkaydan), and hunt for the Grimborns at the same time. It seemed like a pretty good deal to me. Besides, I needed somewhere to stay, now that my cave is rather uninhabitable at the moment.

"Alright, why not? But tomorrow, not tonight."

"What's tonight?"

"I'll tell you later. Now let's go pickpocket some strangers."

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   Hey guys! Sorry it took me SOO long to update, school has been saying me down like crazy, i've had a lot of SAT and ACT  practice tests I've had to take, but anyway, I hope you enjoy! If you have any questions, or just wanna PM me for the fun of it, you know how! I'm already working on the second chapter, so hopefully it'll take a lot less time to update. :)