I awoke in the inn's bed. I pushed the sheets off me, heading to the bathroom.

Once inside, I unclothed. I wanted to bathe for a change, so I turned on the faucet. I put it at a freezing cold temperature and got in once it was full. Goosebumps covered my skin, but it felt nice. It woke me up completely. After bathing for a half an hour, I got out of the tub and drained the water. My skin was cold to the touch. I dried off and left the bathroom.

Flarem was awake, stretching out his limbs. He looked over to me, giving me a slight wave.

"Did you just wake up?"

"Yeah. So, what're we doing today?" Flarem asked, yawning near the end.

"Do you think we should take over the town?"

"We just arrived. We should do something."

"Like what?"

"Can you teach me how to pickpocket?" Flarem questioned, eyes lighting up.

"Are you sure? It's not really necessary. I could just make everyone in town give us their wallets."

"This seems fun, though. If we get caught, everyone's going to die anyway."

"Okay. I might as well teach you."

"Yes!"

I left the room with Flarem, going into the busy streets.

"Let's visit a shop that sells enchanted rings first."

"Do you need to use rings to pickpocket?"

"I did at first. I don't need them anymore. It's good to start with them," I explained, Flarem staring with fascination.

"Okay."

Flarem and I found a jewelry store, which most sell enchanted items along with the normal stuff. Luckily, this store had enchanted rings.

The store had what you'd expect. Lots of display cases filled with sparkling metal.

I nudged Flarem to follow me, and he did. We looked at the enchanted rings, all of which had labels underneath.

"Which ones do I need?"

"Good. There are a good amount of rings that help with this situation."

I looked around in the case. I saw a ring of invisibility, which was silver with an opal. Next to it, a silencing ring, which made it so you couldn't be heard. It was gold with a square-shaped obsidian chunk on it. The final ring that interested me was a ring of deft hands. It was a simple silver ring without any gem.

I called the shopkeeper over. It was an older man with white hair. He had brown pants and a tan long sleeve shirt. The shopkeeper came, so I pointed out what I wanted. The man took the rings out, and I paid for them. Flarem and I left to an alleyway, Flarem bugging me the whole way there to question how to pickpocket, though I tried to shush him so others wouldn't hear. I didn't tell him anything on the streets.

"Here's the rings. Don't put them on yet."

"What's each for?" Flarem asked, holding the sparkling metal. He gazed at each one, feeling the metal and stones.

"Invisibility, silencing your movements, and deft hands. You should do alright with these."

"What do I do once I put them on?"

"You have to try for yourself to learn, but you should go for easy targets. Look for people with loose fitting jewelry or unprotected coin bags. Just look for anything valuable and not focused on. Also, I recommend you hold your breath when you get close. You don't want someone feeling warm air down their neck while you're stealing from them," I explained, trying to think how to do it myself. It'd been a while since I explained it, and I wasn't fully sure how I learned. I just kept trying until it worked.

"Do I have to try to get a feel for it? Will this get easier while I go along?"

"Yeah. The best way is to wing it. I was caught a lot near the beginning, but you get better."

"Okay. I'll try."

"Stay on this street so I can watch. I'm experienced, so I should be able to tell where you'd go. Just be careful. Also, I recommend, for now, to stay away from adventurers and anyone with an on-hand weapon."

"Yep. I'll start now," Flarem eagerly said, slipping on the rings. It made it difficult to tell where he was.

"Oh, yeah. Make sure to hide whatever you take within your clothes so it will turn invisible with the rest of you. I'll go watch."

I traveled onto the street, sitting by the wall. I looked around for easy targets and saw an older man. His pockets were extremely loose on the pants, and a very visible pouch was sticking from it. As I watched the man, the pouch was quickly plucked out, disappearing into thin air. I sighed, as I was nervous Flarem would be discovered on his first try. The man hadn't the slightest intimation of what'd happened.

While I sat, I felt a kick in the leg.

"Nocri, I got a good size pouch of coins. Should I continue?" Flarem whispered, keeping his voice barely audible.

I gave a slight nod.

"We have all day. Go crazy. I'll even join in later. I can go for the harder targets," I muttered, trying to make it look like I was talking to myself by looking down at my legs.

I stayed seated by the wall, relaxing in the sunlight. The heat felt nice, but after a little while, I retreated into the shadowy areas of the wall.

I looked around to see the how Flarem was doing. He was a natural. I was surprised by how good he was doing. I even saw a dagger disappear off someone, though I told him not to take from people with weapons.

I grew bored, so I decided to join in. I didn't need to use any enchanted items at this point in my thieving career. I blended into the crowd, looking down to further hide my presence.

I saw a woman with a large satchel. She kept it close to her side. She wore a short floral patterned dress. Her long blond hair was slightly entangled in the metal attached to the strap of the satchel. If I moved the satchel slightly too much, it would pull her hair and I'd be caught.

I walked beside her at the same pace. I mirrored her but kept my face low. It was a busy street, so it didn't seem weird how close I was. I quickly swiped in and out of the bag, then slowed down to move in with the rest of the crowd.

I looked at what I grabbed. It was a good size sack of coins. It had a small piece of paper in the bag, but I didn't feel the need to read it at the time. I tucked the sack away in my clothes.

I stole a few more items, then strolled back to the wall. Everything was going surprisingly well. I looked around for Flarem, and when I located a floating necklace, I stared directly at the invisible carrier to get him to come over. I traveled into the dark alleyway, waiting for Flarem.

Flarem materialized in front of me, the opal ring in his hand. He took off the other two and put all three rings in his pocket.

"How'd you do?"

"I think I did pretty well. The rings made it way easier. I'll go over the items when I get back to the inn."

While he talked, I was standing next to him. I wanted to mess with him, so I quickly snuck my hand into his pocket, pulling out the three rings. I put them into my own pocket. He hadn't noticed.

"You did pretty well. Now, we just need to make it so you notice when you're getting pickpocketed."

"What do you mean?"

I took the rings out and showed them to him. He stared at the rings, flabbergasted. I had a smirk on my face.

"When did you do that?!"

"When you were saying that you did well."

"You really are a demon," Flarem muttered, looking defeated.

"Thanks."

"Have you been pickpocketed?"

"Of course. It happened when I was a beginner thief. A fellow thief saw me stealing from someone, and he decided to take from me," I recalled, thinking back to the bastard. He was in his late thirties, and he stole from a teenager.

"I thought thieves had some kind of understanding with each other."

"The unspoken rule is that you don't rat someone out. It's perfectly fine to steal from each other."

"Great group of people.."

"We're criminals, so what do you expect?"

"Touché. Besides, who am I to judge? We're demons," Flarem murmured.

"I'm a demon and a thief. It's a double whammy. I guess you're now, too."

"Oh, yeah... We should head back to the inn, now. I want to check out what we got."

"Yeah. I think I got some good stuff, though I wasn't out long."

Flarem and I traveled back to the room, and I collapsed on my bed. Flarem hid a lot of stolen goods in his pants, which was surprising as I couldn't tell. He took his pants off, coins rolling onto the floor. He shook the goods from his pants, putting them back on later.

I got off the bed, shaking out my own clothes. Different necklaces and pouches fell out. I started comparing with Flarem.

"You did great for your first time. You should count up the gold and silver coins."

"You were out for less time, and you managed to get better stuff... You got so many necklaces. How could you gather that many?!"

"Experience. Also, this one woman was wearing excessive amounts of jewelry, and I couldn't resist. I'm astonished that she didn't notice. I stole about half her load," I gloated, Flarem looking in disbelief.

"I would never risk taking that much. I took one thing per person."

"That's because you're the sensible one. I do whatever I please and follow my urges."

"I'm going to start counting up the coins. You should do the same so we can compare," Flarem told, separating the goods from the coins in his pile.

"Okay."

I started pouring out the pouches of coins on the bed, when I noticed the pouch I stole from the floral dressed woman. The paper flew out, so I reached out to grab it from the air.

"What's that paper, Nocri?"

"It's from one of the pouches. I'll see what it says."

I unraveled the paper and nodded my head in disbelief.

"Crap! She looks different from before. I can't believe she grew out her hair. Looks like she's still at it."