Scouting and Discovery

Walking through an alleyway, Ava looked up and saw that the sun was starting to set. Pulling up her shirt a little to hide her face, Ava lowered her head and sped up. She would have to be there before sundown, or else she wouldn't have time to scout the location.

A while back, perhaps a month ago, Ava had coincidently discovered one of the Rat's hiding spots, located in a small hidden room nearby the walls that surrounded the 'rich' district of town. Of course, where the room was situated was no where near the main areas where Bosbody and the true powers of the village lived, but near the fringe areas of the district, where empty houses and declining prodigals lived.

Although the houses were still made out of fine stone, and voluptuous statues adorned the marbled walls, an aura of desolation and decay stank up the area, and it remained for the most part deserted, leaving it a nearly perfect hiding spot for the rat. To be honest, Ava had to give him props for that, had she not noticed him scurrying home under the cover of the night while intoxicated, she wouldn't have known the rat lived here at all, instead assuming, like most everyone else, that he lived in the slums near where he dealt out information and missions, or in one of townhouses in the rich district, having bought a spot in his illicit trades with Bosbody.

Hugging close to the wall, Ava stopped after counting that she had passed seven rooftops, knowing that the Rat's hiding hole was nearby. As for where exactly, she wasn't entirely sure, as she hadn't dared to get too close while the Rat was still inside, and at the time she hadn't had any feud with him, and had no reason to go out of her way to aggravate the man.

Birds die for food, and men die for wealth. She didn't need wealth. Just enough to live was fine.

Scanning the wall, she eventually found a small nook that resembled a door frame after tracing the wall, pausing for a moment, she memorized the generation location before continuing to walk alongside the wall, taking care not to touch anything in the near vicinity of the door, much less try to open it.

After walking forward another hundred steps or so, and confirming that there weren't any more suspicious spots, Ava circled back around, keeping some distance away from the door, as well as keeping a wary eye out for any passersby, or more problematically the rat. Although the Rat generally speaking worked in the daytime, leaving his subordinates to operate at night, the man was known to have an erratic personality and whereabouts, which in the past had saved him the trouble of dealing with many aggravated and revenge seeking fools.

Of course, Ava supposed, she was no different today. Confirming that no one was nearby, Ava circled around to a spot about a hundred meters away from the door where she had identified the wall was worse for wear, and vines had overgrown the top of the wall, leaving ample footholds and notches. Making her way up the wall, she sighed with relief seeing that the opposite side of the wall was about the same, leaving it safe to scale down. After all, although this part of the district was dilapidated, everything had been made to a high standard, including the heights of the walls.

Although she could risk jumping down, even ignoring the risk of the fall itself, and any possible injuries she might incur, she had to consider the potential sound she might make dropping down, and the possibility of being discovered.

Making her way down the wall safely, Ava followed the wall again, tracing her way back to where the door was hidden on the other side, discovering a small stone structure, that Ava assumed was an abandoned guardhouse. Presumably they had originally intended to make another grand entrance for the district here, but had eventually given up on the idea realizing they neither had the funding, nor the population to expand the rich district further, eventually only leaving the main entrance on the other side of the area.

Looking at the vines that grew up the side of the small structure, and the dilapidated and abandoned villas in the vicinity, Ava once again couldn't help but give a thumbs up to the Rat's ability to find hiding places. Who knew when he had discovered this forgotten guardhouse, and much less managed to renovate it to create a hidden entrance through the wall.

As for the fate of the workers who had helped the Rat complete the construction…

Ava couldn't help but look at the small growth of flowers that grew conspicuously against the empty base of the wall. Considering the Rat's personality, there was no possibility the workers had come to a good end.

Turning her head away, Ava quickly circled around the small stone structure, looking for another entrance. The Rat would likely return soon, she had to make haste. If she had to fight the man in a head on confrontation, her chances of coming out on top were negligible.

Eventually, on the opposite end from where she had approached, Ava found two sealed up entrances that looked like they had been intended to be a window and a door. Frowning, she couldn't help but acknowledge the Rat's construction once again. Indeed, there was no way the Rat would leave such an obvious entryway. Although this place was abandoned, there was always a possibility of some rich whelp running to this desolate area in excitement. If they could simply open a door and find the Rat's hiding spot, the Rat would be in quite a dilemma, wouldn't he be?

No matter if he chose to relocate, or to kill the whelp, in the end he could only abandon this well built safe house. Thus, such a rudimentary mistake would not be made. A sealed box was still the safest.

But in the end, it wasn't possible for the room to be entirely sealed. After all, from Ava's guesses, the Rat slept here, if the room was entirely sealed, with only the small slit on the hidden door, there wouldn't be enough airflow for the Rat to breath. Looking up, Ava saw what looked to be a small chimney. Turning to the corner where the wall and the guardhouse met, Ava found a few footholds and quickly made her way to the top of the structure, looking warily at the sharp nails scattered across the roof, and the few vermin carcasses that had long since rotted away.

Luckily for Ava, perhaps due to carelessness, or perhaps due to fear of being too conspicuous, the small chimney wasn't barred up or grated, with only a few nails piercing out out of the sides of the chimney. Doing her best to pry off a few that were within reach, Ava gritted her teeth and tested to see if she could fit inside the small chimney. If she couldn't she would immediately turn tail and leave the village at once.