I Have the Power!

Part Two

Kyle awoke the next morning feeling like he hadn't slept at all. There were only two beds in the room, and it was just figures that he'd be the one sleeping on the floor. Lonnie had taken one bed, and Kyle and Rogelio had to fight over who got the other one. They'd tried being civil about it at first, but it had devolved into a kind of wrestling match, (which, naturally, Rogelio won.)

The other two were still sleeping comfortably, despite the sunlight which was creeping over the horizon. Imp was up and about, though. Kyle wasn't sure that he ever slept.

"Mourning, Imp," Kyle said groggily, rubbing the sleep from his aching eyes. "Wanna go for a walk?"

Imp shifted its gaze from the window to Kyle. It blinked, then let out a screech and flew over to him, perching itself on his shoulder. Kyle smiled at him. He really wasn't as bad as Lonnie made him out to be.

The two of them walked out through the main room past the lady at the desk, who was busy styling her makeup in her handheld mirror. She called out to them as they passed her without looking up. "Enjoy yourselves, puppies."

The air smelled hot and dusty. Despite the recent magic bloom all over Etheria, this place seemed somewhat devoid of life. (Well, aside from the people.) There were only a few people up and about. It seemed like a slow start was normal in this place, much unlike Sweet Bee's country had been. That place had been like a hive of activity. That had been the last place they had looked for work, but Imp had caused too much trouble there and they had been forced to leave.

There the streets had been practically alive with magic, but here there didn't seem to be much of it anywhere, at least not that Kyle could see. The main trade here seemed to be in tourist attraction. Apparently it was a very popular place for people to stop by, majorly due to their prince's power. People were lining up to get their fortunes told by him, and he was lining his pockets with their money. But according to the inn lady, Prince Peekablue was nowhere to be found.

Where had he gone, though? And why? Didn't he have responsibilities here? Kyle supposed it didn't really Matter to him, aside from the damper it placed on their job prospects. Still, usually royalty didn't just go missing unless something bad had happened.

Kyle decided he'd rather not think about it. He glanced up and down the streets, examining the various shops and stalls and trying to pick out ones that looked like they might promise work. He was passing by an alleyway, (there seemed to be a lot of those in this city,) when Imp began to screech from his shoulder.

"What is it buddy?" Kyle asked, looking up at the small creature. It pointed into the alleyway and screeched again. Kyle narrowed his eyes, trying to see into the shadows. There seemed to be two people in the alleyway, and they looked like they were having some kind of argument.

"Looks like there's people over there," Kyle said. Imp shrieked and flew towards the to in the alleyway. "Hey wait!" Kyle started after the small creature, hopping to stop it before it caused any trouble.

The two people in the alleyway looked up as the winged creature dove straight towards them. Kyle swore helplessly as he watched Imp dive under the cloak of one of the two strangers and fly back out the other way, bearing two heavy sacks of what could only be money.

"Imp! Hey, come back here!" Kyle shouted, but it did no good. The creature was gone and out of sight before Kyle could do anything to stop him. Kyle should have expected Imp to do this. It was this tendency to steal from others that had gotten them into so much trouble before. He would have to talk to Imp latter.

Right then he had a bigger problem. The stranger who had been robbed was fuming, and looked like they might want to run him through. "Hey, yew," the stranger growled. A woman's voice. So the cloaked stranger was a woman. In Kyle's opinion, that fact made his situation even worse.

"Um..." Kyle said, trying to come up with some kind of apology.

"So, then, is that little creep a friend of yewrs?" The girl grabbed his shirt front. "Are the two of yew thieves?"

"I-I'm really sorry. He does this from time to time. It's a bad habit of his," Kyle squeaked wetting his lips. Behind the woman, Kyle could see the other stranger trying to inch away.

"Yew, stay where yew are," the woman shouted over her shoulder, not even looking. "I'm not done with yew yet."

The other stranger stopped moving, standing completely still and looking vastly uncomfortable.

"Yew were saying?" The woman asked Kyle, pinning him with a death stare. Kyle was starting to think she might kill him over the stolen money. She had quite the deadly looking sword slung over her shoulder.

"I can pay you back. How much did he take?" Kyle silently prayed the imp hadn't taken as much as it looked like he had.

"Two-hundred bits, plus some change." The girl raised an eyebrow as if to say, 'you're really going to pay me back?'

Crap. Kyle didn't have that much money to give her.

"Well?" the girl asked, eyebrow still raised. "Yew gonna cough up? Bet yew don't have the money, do yew?"

"Maybe I could pay you back some other way?" Kyle asked, hopefully.

The girl shook her head. "Naw, forget it. I'll just get it back from the Imp myself later. Yew don't seem like a bad guy, yew're just a wimp. That's all."

That kind of stung, but Kyle wasn't going to correct her now. At least she hadn't stuck him with that sword. That had been a real worry. How great it was to be alive.