Night. Darkness. The moon was but a sliver in the sky, barely bringing any light. My partner and I quietly crept about, careful to avoid any prying eyes. She led the way, being more familiar with the area than I was. We had dressed in dark clothing, with scarves to cover our faces just in case someone else was around this late. Because of this, it was sometimes hard to spot my partner. This wasn’t helped by her also being a tiny thing, barely coming up to my chest in height. She could dart around at night so quickly, it was almost impossible to see her sometimes. 

We were thieves, out on another routine job. That night, we had been hired to rob a wealthy merchant, stealing from his treasury. The guy who hired us also wanted us to grab a special book from the merchant’s wares. It wasn’t the main job, but he promised a bonus if we got it for him. I don’t ask questions, I just take the jobs and do what’s needed.

The target house was coming up, as confirmed by my partner giving me the signal. It was a pretty nice place. Merchants always buy the good homes, after all. I stood watch as she began to pick the door lock. I could hear her mumbling under her breath. She does that when she’s working a lock like that. Always saying things like “This is an old thing,” “Damn fancy locks can’t protect you greedy assholes,” “Fucking broke it.” 

Oh wait, that last one was actually her. She was holding a broken lockpick in her clawed hand. 

“Got any others?” I asked. She looked up with scorn in her eyes, as if insulted I’d even asked. She simply pulled out another from inside her shirt and resumed her work. 

Meanwhile, I heard footsteps approaching our position. I urged her to hurry up, as the sound was getting closer and closer. I could see a dark shape of a man heading out way, but the lock was no closer to being finished. Just when I thought we screwed up, the dark figure shambled into view. It was a drunken old man, stumbling to find his feet. His beard and tunic were stained with who knows how many kinds of liquids. I could smell his breath from where I stood. The man nearly fell a few times as he made his way towards us. 

He took one look at us; me, standing with my back against the wall; my partner, crouching at the door, lockpick in hand as she jiggled with the locked door. The man gave me a toothless smile and shambled on. I watched as he faded around a corner, but his heavy footsteps lingered on, slowly getting further away. By the time silence returned, I heard a familiar clink. The lock was open. 

We slipped inside the house. It was dark in there. Nothing we weren’t used to, though. My eyes quickly adjusted, and soon saw the greed before us. Expensive lamps. Obscenely priced paintings and little statuettes. High end furniture the likes of which I’d never consider buying. That shit was never as comfortable as it was priced. Everything in the room was worth more than this job would pay. 

A hissing noise from my right alerted me to my partner. She found a door she expected the treasury to be in. I followed after her, noticing her short tail swaying excitedly as she examined the room beyond. I stood behind her, easily able to see above her head as I looked in. Gold! Jewels! Coins from various countries in different chests! The guy who hired us only wanted a certain amount, but we would definitely be skimming some extra for ourselves. Not like this fat merchant bastard would miss it. 

We had to be careful of what we took, though. We only brought enough bags to fit what the client wanted. Everything else would go in our pockets. And that would make noise as we headed back to the rendezvous. We started gathering for the job first, pouring in coins and gold by the dozens. We filled the bags before we could blink. 

In no time flat, we had two bags filled with this guy’s shit. We’d already decided beforehand I’d be the one to look for this book the client wanted. I patted my partner’s shoulder, letting her know I was off, and then left to go searching. While a nice home, it was smaller than one would think of a merchant. Maybe the guy got this place at a good price? 

Who cares.

The guy didn’t have family, so there wasn’t that to worry about. I did find his bedroom. Expensive shit in there, too. The bed had some rather nice silk sheets. I kinda wanted to rip them up just to fuck with this fat bastard. He snored like a bear roars, damn near deafening once the door was open. I left him to sleep in peace as I kept my search up.

The book in question was some old book of religious hymns and whatnot. No clue why the client wanted it. But hey, not my call. He was willing to shell out more money to just have the bloody thing. Who was I to deny extra pay? Anyway, he said I’d know it when I saw it. It was supposed to be blue leather, with a silver snake on the front, forming a circle as it ate its own tail. 

Fucking weird religious artists and their dumbass designs. 

Whatever, I thought. Time to get busy.

I searched every room in the hallway. No luck. I searched high, and I searched low. Still nothing. I was getting annoyed, debating if the extra pay was really worth this nonsense. I tried the bastard’s bedroom, creeping in quiet and slow. 

Ah-ha!

Right on the bedside table, there was the book. I went in nice and easy, making sure not to make a sound. Not even a breath. Suddenly, a floorboard creaked. I topped in place. The fat guy made a whimpering noise and rolled onto his side, facing away from me. Taking the cue, I swiped the book and made my way out. 

Score!

The extra pay was gonna be really good for plenty of fun nights for my partner and me.

I came back to the main room to find it empty. No dark clothed tiny woman. No hint of where she could have gone. Did this bitch just leave me?

No. No, she wouldn’t do that. We’d been working together for years now. I had to calm down. She wasn’t like that. I had to trust her. She’d been good to me so far. We’d never had an incident of betrayal between us. Besides, I liked her too much. And I knew she felt the same. It’s why we spent the day after every successful job in bed for hours on end. This job would be no different. I just needed to figure out where the little spitfire went.

While lost in thought, I saw a flash of movement out of the corner or my eye, and then a weight jumped upon my back, nearly sending me to the floor. My little partner let out a small giggle and clenched her thighs together around my waist, whispering right into my ear that if I carried her the rest of the way, she’d give me a handsome reward. I could feel my lower brain reacting to the promise.

We left that merchant’s home without a sound. The added weight to my back did little to me. I was used to holding her, though usually it was up against a wall after the two of us had had a slight too many drinks. Regardless, I directed us through alleyways and dark neighborhoods, avoiding eyesight. It was much too late for normal people, and the party types were all secluded inside, music and loud voices coming from beyond windows and doors. Eventually, I got us outside the town proper, and onto an old road. 

The rendezvous point was an abandoned graveyard on the edge of town. It was a rather desolate place. I suppose that’s just how these places are for the most part. No one wants to spend time around corpses, right? Well, I knew one guy who did, but he liked them for...personal reasons. The graves were unmaintained, moss and weeds growing rampant all over the place. Broken headstones and smashed marble littered the grounds. I set down my diminutive companion, and we both removed our scarves, confident we were now far enough away from civilization the secrecy no longer mattered. 

As my friend pulled her scarf down around her neck, I saw moonlight glance off pale blue scales. She yawned then, opening her maw wide, presenting her sharp teeth for all the world to see, and hidden within her mouth was a forked tongue. I had vivid knowledge just how flexible that tongue was. As she stretched, I sensed a presence coming from behind our position. 

The client strolled up from behind a small statue. He was a young man. Someone you’d imagine would be an up-and-coming businessman. His amber eyes cut through you to the bone, as if he was looking at you as a piece of meat, not as a person. I never liked guys like that. Those kind always make the most ruthless merchants, willing to sell their own mother just for a profit. I had no idea what such a man would want to hire us for. But, like I always did, I took the job without question.

“Do you have the gold?” he asked, his voice harsh and quick. We wordlessly handed over the two bags of goodies we pilfered. The man looked through them with an odd delight, like a child receiving candy. He dug an arm into the bags, rummaging around through each one, looking for something. He looked up at us, his eyes almost golden in the moonlight now. “Where’s the book?” 

I held up my hands in mock surrender. “Aw, ya got us. We thought ya might forget.” 

His brows furrowed in pure anger. “Do you have it or not?” 

“Oh, calm down, ya big baby,” exclaimed my little friend. “We got your dumb little book right here.” She pulled out the book from beneath her shirt. Little fiend must have swiped it off me while riding my back. She extended her arm, offering the odd book to the client, who snatched it away immediately. 

I rolled my eyes. “So, about that bonus…” 

He snapped his gaze to me. That stare sent a shiver up my spine. Letting out a huff, he pulled a small pouch from his side, tossing it my way. “The full payment and bonus for the book is in there,” he said. 

Before I could catch it, my companion reached her clawed little hand up and grabbed it out the air. I shrugged my shoulders and let her inspect the coins. 

“Knowing dirty thieves like you, you probably swiped some extra for yourselves,” said the strange young businessman. 

“We ain’t saint,” I said bluntly. 

With our transaction complete, I pulled my partner by the shoulder, dragging her back out of the graveyard. I didn’t really wish to be near that screwball client anymore, anyway. Gave me the creeps. 

When we got home, we shared a warm meal, followed by a quiet night of sleep.