The Thieves' Challenge

"Since when you do steal prised possessions, and then ransom them off?" I hissed at the thief.

"Since stealing eggs and putting them on the black market got many a thief out of the business. We're just a bunch of honest thieves— we blatantly steal stuff, and then make you pay us to get it back. It's a simple method, but it makes a lot of money if you steal the right stuff. Now do I get my 500 gems or not?" The thief spoke, smooth-talking his way into the gems he so desired.

"I'll pay, I'll pay... No, wait. I CAN'T pay. Father's got all of our money tied up in a bank account, and without the bankers around, I can't access any of it. I'm virtually penniless." I looked over at the thief, trying to do my best impression of a tear-moistened, helpless draconic damsel. If there is such a thing.

"Too bad. Back when many a poor dragon had to bargain for gems, they were usually just to be found lying around— then again, the treasuries were busted open by whatever was conquering, and they'd scattered the gems. I believe this time the fairies were a little smarter and decided that the gems were best tied up in the treasury. You'll just have to go there and get them yourself."

"Can't that red one you were traveling with handle the job?" The thief cocked his head at me.

"Ouch! Bad move. Say... maybe you can trade. These boots are too cumbersome for me to use. And I'd much rather fly around this area than run around it. Maybe you could get me an airplane."

"Not a passenger jet— just a single-seater airplane. The elder folk used to tell me they could do some wonderous flying in those things."

"I'll try to get one..." I sighed and headed off in the direction towards the well. Toki perched on my shoulder.

"That's not the problem. What IS the problem is that the plane he's talking about is only found in timed flights. You know... the ones where there's less umbra pressure, so it's easier to fly?"

"I remember those... real weird, actually. The fairies there are red, but they adopted a few 'punk' garnishes... to each her own, I suppose. So why is finding an airplane going to be a problem?"

"I've already graduated from those arenas— now they won't let me back in because I might knock a hatchling out of the way and hurt it." I sighed. "I don't think they have those planes at the Beats..."

"Yeah, but without flying, there's no way I can get the plane... and I can't dismount off of my vehicle to get them. Regulations and all."

"We'll figure out something... now go in the well. I'll be in your backpack in case there's any males there." Toki spoke, diving in and closing the strap. I rolled my eyes and jumped in, flapping my wings for a soft landing. I looked around the bottom of the well to see if anything was there, and when there wasn't, I ran into the 'Wild Arena' portal.

A few seconds of high umbra flying, and I was on the racing platform. True to what Toki had feared, there was a male at the platform, except he had on a black mage suit. He looked at me, slightly shocked. "Oh!" He jerked up a bit. "Welcome to Wild Arena.You want to try out the Beat?"

"Just a little smoke chase..." He pointed over to the watery arena, where I could see smoke pouring out from certain points. "You need to go through all twenty pillars of smoke. Each time you go through a pillar, three seconds will be added to your time budget. You start with a time budget of thirty seconds. Am I clear on that?" I nodded. "Very well. Your vechicle for this round is a boat. Once you start the boat, the time budget will begin to count down. If you lose your budget, you lose this round." He pointed to the small motorboat moored to the platform. I jumped in and checked the rudder controls. He looked over, unmoored my boat, and with a touch of his hand on the motor...

"Yi!" I shouted as I tried to make sure I could steer the thing on a full throttle. I went up the first ramp, and saw one pillar of smoke on the end of it, as well as a second pillar on a stone column. I spread my wings out and hoped I could get enough wind to stay up in the air and reach that pillar.

With a bit of luck, a good motor, and Toki screaming directions from the backpack whenever we were out of the male's hearing range, I managed to get all the pillars. I stopped at the platform, getting my accomplishment checked off by the fairie, who was obviously bored. I looked over at him. "Isn't there a second challenge in the Beat? Or was I just supposed to sputter around in a converted rowboat?"

"Just 'sputter,' as you so put it..." He yawned. "That is, unless someone wants you put you up to a battle."

"Why not? I can't do much else... I just hope I can get a plane out of them..." I looked over the arena wall, noting a small single-seater plane fly over it and stop at the platform. "That one! Ask him if he wants to play."

"I'll do what I can, Dragon..." He walked over to the pilot as soon as he'd landed his plane and jumped onto the platform. I was a little surprised to find out it was another thief— but then again, what else could it have been?

As soon as the fairie explained the problem, the thief responded quickly. "She wants to battle for my plane? Well, not to sound rude, but exactly what does SHE have to put up if she loses?"

"I'll check..." the male grabbed my arm and looked inside of my backpack. He blinked. "What's this... all right, dragon, I'm taking this female fairie under—"

I swiveled around, Toki shutting my backpack before I could lose anything in the water. "Over my dead body, you —"

"Can I put that in writing?" The fairie smirked, pulling out his pen and getting a new sheet of paper.

"Okay. Conditions of battle between one aerial thief and Djari: Battle will be contained to the Flight section of Wild—"

The fairie glared at me, erasing his work. "Battle will be contained to the Beat section of Wild Arena. The vehicles for battle are..." And so forth. It was a bunch of legal stuff that I never paid much attention to, and I think I had actually fallen asleep standing up. I'm sure of that, because he shook me awake a few minutes later. "Djari... wake up. You have to sign the contract before the battle."

"Okay, okay... Let me see it." I looked at the contract attached to the clipboard, and balked.

Conditions of Battle
between
Aerial Thief and Djari

Battle will be contained to the Beat section of Wild Arena. The vehicles for battle are motorboats, and additonal implements for usage are rockets, floating bombs, TNT barrels, and 'ramp stickies'.

Wagers

If Djari should win, the thief will turn over the title and possesion of one single-seating airplane (in good condition).

If the Aerial Thief should win, Djari's possessions will be turned over to the authorities, and Djari herself will be executed and prepared for trophy usage, as requested by the Aerial Thief.

Signatures

Party One: Aerial Thief
Party Two: _____________________
Authoritive witness:______Hore'Lizam_____

"WHEN did I agree to this?!?" I looked at the fairie like he had been breathing swamp gas. " I never agreed to this... 'turned over to authories?' 'prepared for trophy usage?' How did this get written?"

"You did say 'over your dead body'... and you didn't reject any of the terms." The thief countered.

"I was asleep!" I looked back at the fairie. "What's your name? Hore'Lizam? Listen, Hore— I'm not about to sign this!"

"It's not like you mess up and you're automatically dead. Any battle document with a life included in the wager is considered a duel and, unless you die during the events, none of your belongings will be confiscated and you will not be executed until you have completed two more battles and lost both times. That is, if you lose the original battle. If you win the first time, you don't have to do any further battles. Have I made myself clear?" He spoke. I nodded. "Good. Now sign that document and let's get this over with."

I signed the document, and Hore'Lizam put up the clipboard on a walled side of the platform. He then picked out a few starry objects out of his orb and he threw them around the beat with the same accuracy as any good hunter. I saw four ramps have gateways at the top, each gateway containing a different object for usage. The remaining ramps were left untouched.

"Battle continues until someone scores five points. If you hit your opponent, you gain one point. If you're hit by your own implement, you lose one point. Now, thief, take your boat and go over to that far ramp with the red smoke." The thief left with his boat, which I noticed had a red stripe on it. Hore'Lizam turned to me.I stepped into my boat, a looked to see a green stripe on it. "Your starting ramp is the ramp with the green smoke." I looked over to the ramp, a noticed the smoke coming out, I sputtered over to it. Hore hovered over to the middle of the Beat, with his clipboard in hand and an airhorn on a belt. "Ready... set..."

I jump-started the motor and shot over the ramp, steering the boat as well as I could. I aimed for tthe ramp with a pale tan splat in the gateway. I went through it. As soon as I went up the next ramp, I noticed that the splat had landed on the ramp I'd just gone up, and covered the ramp like glue. I looked at it quizzically.

Toki jumped out of my backpack and sat in my lap. "That's a ramp sticky. Next person to go up that ramp is stuck to the spot for five seconds, which is usually enough time to hit them with a rocket."

I nodded, and watched the thief as I saw him drop a bomb off the ramp. I swerved into the ramp to prevent hitting the bomb. Toki grinned. I looked at her as I sped out of the thief's way. "And I bet that was a floating bomb." She nodded. "You know, the only reason I'm agreeing to this is because I think I can beat him..." I turned around and went up a ramp. I saw the thief coming through the waterway.

"One point for green!" I heard Hore'Lizam shout as I went up the next ramp. I looked behind me once I could get the chance, and saw that I'd submerged the thief's boat long enough for it to count as a hit. I smirked, and headed up the rocket ramp. I came off of the ramp with a big bulge in my mouth. I blinked.

Toki smirked. "Exactly how else are you going to light it? Now wait until he gets in your sights, and then shoot it at him." I nodded, and waited until he'd just gotten into my sights, off of one ramp. I stayed out of his splash range, and then fired at him. The rocket spiraled, and it hit the thief.

I had such a big grin on my face that I almost didn't even note the thief picking up a TNT barrel. He dropped it off on one ramp, and I had to skid off of the ramp to avoid hitting it. Before I could relax from dodging the barrel, I realized I'd landed on the same ramp I'd put the sticky on. "Oh..." I cursed at myself as I tried to jar myself loose from the sticky.

I saw the thief coming in with a rocket in one hand. I gave the ship full throttle, rocked it out of the glue, and..

"YES!" I hissed as I got free of the sticky. The rocket whizzed by harmlessly and made sparks on the Beat walls. I picked up a floating bomb and tossed it out onto the waters— and just in front of the thief's path.

BOOM!.... BLAT! "Three points for green, one point for red!"

"WOAH!" I hit the water hard after I'd hit another floating bomb— one the thief must have dropped.. I must have looked a little dazed, all things considered. Toki glared at me, having been thrown off the boat.

"Don't let your guard drop, Djari... The last thing we need is a crunch situat—"

"What the!" I looked around and saw that I'd been hit by a rocket— with tail burn to boot. I stopped moving the boat, just long enough to position myself in front of a ramp with a TNT barrel. I moved out of the way once I saw the thief come by again.

Toki looked behind to see if he hit it. "No good. he went off the ramp and missed."

"I should've known he'd do that..." I said as I aimed for one ramp. I as soon as I went off it, I realized my mistake and tried to shift to the left. Unfortunately, you can't steer in midair.

"DJARI!" Toki hissed at me. "I'm not about to get captured just because you went shaky at the rudder!" Toki grew to full size and grabbed the handle, trying to take control.

"I was doing fine before I hit that floating bomb... now will you let me handle this?!" I tried to take control back from Djari, but we went up a ramp... and weren't looking enough to dodge the TNT barrel.

Toki immediately jerked up, went back to her small-size, and hid in my backpack. I almost could have sworn I heard her praying in there. I sighed and grabbed the rudder, being especially careful now. One more hit and I'd lose this battle. More importantly, the fact I'd taken four hits in under a minute meant that my boat didn't have much left to it. I saw two large holes in the bottom of my boat, and I had a feeling the only reason I wasn't sinking was that the motor was working, and that was making the boat work like a hydrofoil. Another hit and I wouldn't have a boat to battle in. I looked around for a weapons ramp. I needed a weapons ramp to salvage this situation!

I sped up the Rocket ramp and soon cleared it, trying to keep quiet so the rocket wouldn't fall out of my mouth. In other words, I had to silently curse at myself for letting that thief get the better of me so easily. I looked around for him... got him in my sights... and fired! I couldn't hear the rocket explode over the water. I did hear the rest.

I grinned, turning before I raced up one ramp to get out of the thief's way. I kept cutting him off at the weapons ramps, which was always a good thing; the last thing I needed going into this was dealing with an armed thief. I went up the TNT ramp, and got a wonderful idea. I saw the thief turning to head for the Sticky ramp, so I cut him off and forced him to go up the one of the normal ramps. I swerved around it, which gave him the approtunity to tailgate me. I went up one ramp, tossed my barrel over my head before he could react, and—

BOOOM... BLAT! BLAT! BLAT! "Green wins by a one-point margin!" Hore'Lizam shouted as he returned to the racing platform. I tried to slow down to approach the pier, but I soon realized I was right about my hydrofoil theory— the boat couldn't support itself. I had to flap my way over to the pier to get the boat there. As soon as I'd moored the boat, I climbed onto the platform and took a breather. Hore blinked. "You're just lucky I can fix that easily enough, dragon. You're even luckier that the motor wasn't damaged, or you've have automatically lost the match."