Drunkard's Tip

Living in the slums was hard, to say the least. The constant watching your back, making sure you hadn't lost your last coins to a pickpocket while on the crowded mains streets, and for the truly desperate having to do rather unsavory things just to fed yourself till tomorrow. And what did people turn to when things got hard and they wanted to get away for a while? Alcohol of course!! While anyone could drink it anywhere, there was only one place to do it safely, without having to worry about not having your clothes on your back when you woke. And that was at the inn.

Yern, down on his luck like almost every other day couldn't afford alcohol, and even if he could was only 16. Not that people cared if children drank. He decided he would come here to get something to fill his stomach and laugh at the idiocy of the drunkard in the Riverside Inn. Of course he thought they were idiots, why would they blow their money instead of saving it and trying to leave this horrible place. He sat down at a small circular table in the corner of the inn. A few minutes later a waiter came to the table.

" What can I get you today?" the young woman with brown hair asked.

" One fried rat, please." Yern said holding out the three bronze coins he was so used to paying.

" Your food will be out in a few minutes." the woman said, taking the coins and walking away.

About a minute passed and a few older men who were drinking a few tables away from Yern started to get louder until he could clearly hear their conversation.

"Hahaa, you actually got fired for being a drunk!" one of the men laughed pointing at the man across the table from him. " I told you to stop showing up drunk, you're lucky they didn't beat you" he continued now in a more serious voice.

" Man, you lost a good job, all you had to do was watch for any hooligans stupid enough to try something and beat em down." another man spoke, shaking his head. By now Yern's food had arrived. He forced down the rat as he listened to the now interesting conversation. This guy was guarding something and was fired. Maybe it was left unguarded now. "They'll probably have another guard by the morning, Marrow runs a tight ship." the man said, receiving a sharp look from the other two men at the table.

Done with his terrible meal and hearing all he needed to hear, he left the inn back into the dangerous and dirty slums of the Nishan Kingdom. ' If there isn't anyone there, I can get money to last me for a while. Hell, if there's just one guard I could take him.' he thought, hopefully he could finally do something to change his daily struggle. Robbing the place wasn't the problem for Yern, since six he'd been stealing and doing whatever he thought was necessary for him to survive after his parents left him here in the slums. The problem was who he was robbing. Marrow was one of the biggest gang leaders in their district, with close to thirty people under his command. 

What else was he supposed to do, continue living off petty jobs and eating fried rats? No, Yern wasn't going to keep living like this, if you could call it living. If he pulled this off he could probably move districts and live a cushioned life until he saved enough to leave the slums. That sounded nice to Yern, a normal life in the city away from the filth and crime of this place. Maybe even start a family some day. He decided he would do it, he had nothing to lose and much to gain.

He knew where Marrow's stash house was , as he had thought about robbing it before, though the idea of multiple guards scared him out of it. The streets were now mainly empty as it was getting later into the night and staying out too late was dangerous. Well for people who didn't involve themselves in crime it was dangerous, but with a decent enough reputation no one would mess with you. Yern's reputation was a mixed one, when he was younger he was a notorious thief, but a known theft isn't a good one. So in the past few years he took guard jobs that included fighting, many he won which gave him a good rep. 

He started towards the stash house and after a quick ten minute walk he was just around the corner from it. While the second district was mainly small shacks thrown together in rows, this streets had actual houses on it. Even if they were extremely small. Turning the corner, a small knife in his hand he saw the stash house. The house had no windows, like most houses in the slums and a door that was nearly falling off the hinges. Seeing no guards on the porch or anywhere around the house, he made his way to the broken door and entered the house.

In the house he still didn't see anyone, at least in the room that he was in. Moving to check the room in the back of the house, he felt his leg hit something. He looked down to see a bat falling towards the ground. In a desperate attempt to stop it, he threw out his foot but only made it worse, causing the bat to hit the ground and continue rolling, ruining his attempt at stealth.

"What was that? Jet, that you?" a man's voice called from the back room, foot steps accompanying the words. Quickly Yern slipped into the room closest to the door and waited until the man was closer. 'Fuck! I gotta kill him. He can't see me' Yern thought, cursing his choice of weapon. Yern took a small peek back out the door and the man was now in front of the fallen bat facing away from Yern. Moving as fast as he could Yern came out of the room and stab the man in his neck and held his mouth to stop him from making too much noise. After a while the man stopped struggling and eventually died from his blood lose. " Your life won't be wasted " Yern said aloud before pulling his body into the room he hid in before. ' Now time for the goodies' he thought heading towards the back room.