It was dinner in the Windstone household, and once again an argument had sprung up over whether or not Karen should be allowed to go in search of her friend. Finally Karen's father stood up, his face flushed with rage. "You will not go, and that's that! It is too dangerous, and I will not allow a daughter of mine to go out and get herself killed! If necessary, I will hire a gaurd for your door and window to make sure you don't leave."

"Daddy, I have to! Can't you see that? She's my best friend! You can't keep me locked up forever!" Karen crossed her arms angrily.

"Yes, I can! And you are proving that I will have to. You know I already sent a notice to the watch. You can just sit tight and wait for the news. I will NOT let my daughter get herself killed!" Karen's father looked about ready to explode. Her siblings ate silently. "Honey, calm down. You know he's right, dear," Karen's mother said.

"Mother! Why do you always side with him?! No matter what it's about, I never win! You won't even agree to let me go to the local dance without threatening every boy there!"

Karen got up from the table and stormed to her room. The sound of Karen's parents discussing was clearly audible from Karen's room, but as a murmer, the words indistinguishable.

Stalking through her room, she shoved a pair of shoes onto her sisters' side of the room. Muttering to herself, she pulled out a coat and threw it on. Stomping downstairs, she passed the dining room.
"I'm going outside!"
Slamming the door behind her, Karen stalked down the steps. Instantly her father's gaurds grabbed her and hauled her back inside. "Sorry miss, we have orders."

Karen shook off their hands.
"Why can't I go outside? For crying out loud, I don't even have anything with me!"

The guards just said, "We have orders," and took her back inside - where her father instantly sent her to her room. Karen sat in her room, looking out the window. The moon was dark and the stars were bright in the sky. She sighed slowly, and rested her forehead on the sill of the window. "Great."

The next day Karen spent in the garden, two of her fathers' guards watching from the other side. She blew her hair out of her face, grumbling horribly, the sound like bees after honey.

A few hours later, her mother came out and asked her to help with dinner.
"I would have asked your sister, but she's so busy with her new job as the seamstress."

Karen gathered up her skirts. "It's all right, Mother."

---

Eleni Swiftwater was worried. She and Karen had agreed to meet by the big swampoak the day before, and she had neither come nor left a message. Coming to a decision, she strapped on her sword and bow and headed towards the Windstones' house.

---

Karen's father walked into the house. "Well, daughter, have you reconsidered your position?"

Karen looked up. "Daddy, I still feel the need to go find her, but I will think about it." Her mind worked around the problem. Perhaps if she feigned giving in, she could get away...

"Well, you can think about it in your room. Your mother and I need to discuss something."

"Yes Daddy..." Karen went up to her room and pulled out her half woven basket. She worked on it silently, hoping she could get it done quickly.

A sharp crack sounded on Karen's window.She went to the window and opened it. "Eleni?"

Eleni waved from where she was, crouched under a bush near her window. "Why didn't you meet me at the oak yesterday? Is something wrong?"

Karen leaned out the window more. "Daddy's set guards on me. I don't know when I can get away," she whispered.

"Why'd he set his guards on you?" Eleni had slipped closer now, and was fiddling with something at her belt.

"He won't let me go with you. He won't even let me go to market by myself."

"You still haven't told me why."

"He doesn't want me running off saving people. ... And I kind of yelled at him."

Eleni glanced at her. "Who was it you wanted to save?" She began climbing a tree that had a branch about ten feet from Karen's window. Suddenly she froze. "THere's someone else here..."

  'Moron! You'll never become a good theif! The elf noticed you! What am I supposed to do now?!' Thought Arin Chovsen, a theif. The black haired, nervous, girl soon came face to face with the elf.

  "Um...hi?" Arin began nervously. "You see, um, i was just checking this tree for rabid..." she trails off as she looks around for an animal. "RACOON!"

  'Racoon? THAT WAS THE BEST I COULD COME UP WITH?!' She screamed at herself silently and continued with her 'genious' explanation. "You see, i got a letter telling me about it, and i had to come straight away!" Arin reaches into pocket and pulls out letter thing and hands it to Eleni.

 Eleni takes it and reads the title. "Things I want to steal tonight".

  Arin's eyes open wide and laughs one of those stupid laughs. "Um..hehehe, how'd that get there?"

Eleni raised an eyebrow. "I think you are very aware that you are on private property. And this list suggests you were planning on stealing from my friend's family."

Karen leaned out her window, trying to see the girl better. (She's on the second floor.....) "What would you possibly steal from us?"

Arin points at feet where there are only sandels covering them. "Boots are nice. I like boots. Boots are my friend. My feet want BOOTS." She grins happily. "Would it help if I said please?"

Eleni sighed. "What's wrong with buying boots? Why do you want to steal them?"

Alin sighed. "Why do you want to know? After all, I'm a rabid racoon chaser...ok maybe not. Fine. Do you really want to know or are you saying this just to annoy me?" She looks at Eleni suspiciously.

"I wouldn't have asked if I didn't want to know."

"I come from a poor family. Actually, I don't even have a family. I don't know who they are. Never did. I had to make a living somehow and when you are little, people don't hire you for jobs. I started stealing and now I'm so used to it that I can't think of any other way of living." Arin inhaled a huge chunk of air. (She had said all that in one breath). "Can I still have the boots?"

Eleni laughed. "I have a better idea. How about you stay with me for awhile and we see if I can manage to teach you a more legal trade?"

"hmmm...legal...I've heard that word before..." Arin thought hard and then came to the realisation, "It's you know...that...thing!" She sighed. "Ok. I have no clue, but I do like the idea of staying somewhere for a while!" She laughed. "Sure. I accept your offer, but I'm not so sure about this...legal stuff..." Arin paused. "Oh yeah...what's your name?"

Eleni smiled. "Legal means it's not against the law the way stealing and murder is. My name's Eleni."

"So Eleni, Is theft really against the law? Come on, I prefer to call it 'Borrowing without intent of returning'. You make it..sound bad!" Arin says obviously not the normal law abiding citizen. At that moment, she happened to look up at the open window and saw Karen. "Who are you?"

"That's Karen, and I need to rescue her now so that she can rescue someone else. And yes, stealing really is against the law. You're supposed to lose a hand the first time your caught, and your head the third." Eleni started to climb the tree again.

"What about the 10th time...?" Arin began to follow Eleni up the tree only to fall off due to obvious clumsiness. "Gah! That hurt!"

"There isn't a tenth time your caught, by then you're supposed to be dead. Wait a minute, are you saying you've been caught before?!"Eleni looked down at where Arin was sprawled at the foot of the tree.

Arin looks up dazed. "Is that you..." And mumbled some more before snapping out of her daze. "What? Get Caught before?! Nonsense! I am super skilled in theivery! I have never been caught..." She looked at Eleni's expression and saw that her story wasn't bought. "Right. What if I told you I've been caught 10 times, but can escape from any prison I want?" She points at a rock the size of a small mellon and it began to move in the air. Then she closed her fist and the stone dropped. "It's really funny to watch guards get knocked out by dropping things on their head. They have no clue that it is you." She laughed and climbed back up the tree next to Eleni. "I always escaped before they did any of this chopping buissness."

Eleni glanced down with a raised eyebrow. "Magic user, huh?" She moved along the branch until she was as close to Karen's window as she could get, and tossed her one end of a rope. THis was something they'd done a couple of times in the past, there shouldn't be any problems.

Karen grabbed onto the rope and kind of sighed, feeling really stupid. "What do I do with this, Eleni?"

Eleni smiled. "It has been a few years. Tie it to something firm and use it to come across."

Arin watched in silence. Well, almost. They were taking more than 5 minutes so she started buzzing.
"Buzz...buzz...buzz...buzz..." Arin grinned happily while doing so.

Karen nodded. "Oh. Right." She blushed, then tied it to her bedpost, sliding across.

Eleni, after making sure Karen was alright, crossed over to Karen's window. She then untied the rope from the beddpost and leapt for the branch. She didn't land on it, of course, but she caught it with one hand, swung for a moment, then dropped to the ground. "Now then, who was it you said we were going to rescue, Karen?"

"Taraena. She dissapeared nearly two weeks ago, and there's been no trace of her since. I'm really worried Eleni." Karen fidgeted with her tunic absentmindedly.

"Ok...Why don't we go over to my village and sit down and discuss what you know?"

Karen nodded. "All right. But what about her?" She nodded to Arin.

Arin jumped down from her spot in the tree. "My name is Arin. Thank you very much. I just love people talking about me like I wasn't even here.Arin says, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "Forget it. I forgive you." Se paused."Right, where are we going?" She looked at Eleni.

Eleni grinned. "To my village. Karen, you know the way. Arin, follow me!" She turned and started jogging into the forest.

Karen pinned her cloak around her shoulders and looked up at the window before running after Eleni.

Arin pauses to think before she starts running after them. "Wait for me!"

Karen slipped her hood over her face as she ran, hoping that if they chanced on someone, they wouldn't recognize her and tell her father.

---

Lienae Characters

The World of Lienae