[Just as a quick note, Ronald is holding onto Zzan's arm very hard. Next time try to write up a reaction for that!]

"Arright great." She flashed him the thumbs up sign and whistled, before melting into the crowd. Randal looked around for the whistler and then went back to searching for Griff.

A few seconds later, a tiny pair of hands had cut the strings of his purse. Randal noticed the difference in weight. He turned and roared, forgetting about Zzan completely. He let go, chasing after the other urchin that had stolen his money and screaming bloody murder.

The girl who had offered to help appeared again and grabbed Zzan's arm, "C'mon then. This way. M'names Marigold by the by."

She pulled him through the crowd into a series of alleys that Zzan wouldn't have recognized. "Almost there!" Marigold crowed cheerfully and lead him to a set of stairs that lead to the top floor of an abandoned building. It looked as if people were living there. There were little treasures scattered all over the barren room. Pillows seemed to serve as beds, and scattered bits of food were nestled away in different places.

"Welcome t'the cave! Are ye attatched t'anyone, by th'way? Asides from th'man what was manhandlin' ye?"

Far away in the corner, a small bundle of rags stirred. It seemed to flinch, then rise, gradually metaphorosing into a skinny boy. He rubbed his eyes, which only served to move the dirt on his face around a bite more. The skin around his eyes was almost black from fatigue.

"Marigold?" He asked, sounding young and tired. "What're you doing here this time of day?"

Normally Urchin had work too but it seemed he was short on materials, so he'd stayed in instead. He was going to leave in the afternoon and get started once the supplies were in.

"Who's this?" He asked, still blinking and sleepy.

"Marigold, eh?" Zzan made sure to remember that name as he followed the girl down the streets. As they got deeper, Zzan started to notice things he hadn't seen around there before, foreign street passages he hadn't explored before. Where was this girl taking him?

As they arrived to the building, Zzan did a quick examine of the outside of it. It was pretty old and run down but still looked like people were living in it.



The room seemed somehow comforting to him. Like it was home. When asked if he had any parents, Zzan looked away but turned back to answer her. "No I'm not and that man before was just some old geezer after me. Ruined some of his beer on the dock and he got mad ya see." Zzan noticed the kid in the corner waking up and wondered who else could be there.

"We got comp'ny is what." Marigold said in what seemed like an unnecessarily severe voice. Urchin was dead meat, and they all knew it. They tried to avoid him like one would avoid the mug plague. It didn't help that Urchin himself seemed to know of his own fate.

If Marigold could have put her feelings into words, she would have said looking into Urchin's eyes was like looking at death, and then seeing your reflection in it. As it was, she generally just described Urchin as 'stupid lugger' and 'best be avoidin' that chap in th'corner, he's a looby'.



"Yeah ye'd at least've lost an ear for that. People in Old Rose like their beer, kid. Donchu know nothin'? Wachername?"

Marigold's eyes were looking brighter by the minute. She had a plan.

Zzan was a bit embarrassed. "Yeah, I noticed that when he was throwing me around in a rage. Glad to be rid of him. My name's Zzan...Who's the kid in the corner?" As Marigold's eyes widened, Zzan's curiosity increased. What was this girl thinking? He probably was going to find out soon enough.

Urchin curled in on himself a little. It was no news to him that Marigold didn't particularly like him but he saw no need to anatgonise her further. All his attempts at niceness seemed to worsen the situation, though he did not want to be aggressive instead.

He chose not to speak to Zzan, instead deciding to watch him without saying anything. It was slightly creepy. Urchin's eyes were big and hollow, appearing almost sunken next to the dark circles that ringed them. He was like a puppet, slumped and boneless and hardly blinking.

"Him? He don't matter. You don't wanna know. Just avoid him." Marigold didn't even try to lower her voice. She knew Urchin was watching, she just didn't care.

"So look, thing is, you owe us. We just saved your hide, back there. An' I got a job for you."

Zzan didn't know why she was acting like that toward the kid but right now that didn't matter. "A job? Like what?" Zzan was interested in what she was saying but at the same time concerned. "If it's anything dangerous count me out. It was tough enough just trying to get away from one adult." Zzan shifted his body a bit and started talking again in a more relaxed tone. "However, if there's anything in it for me I might just do it."

"Yeah well looks like you don't got a choice, innit?" Marigold said, suddenly quite fierce. "This is Old Rose. You en't got no place to be that's not dangerous. So I guess you could say what's in it for you is I don't carve yer face up." And suddenly there was a small little knife in her hands that looked more as if it should have been used for opening boxes than as a weapon. She pointed it straight at Zzan's stomach, all the merriment she'd exuded before lost.

Marigold wasn't the leader of her band for nothing.

Zzan could see the girl wasn't joking now. He had a knife of his own in his pocket. However, he wasn't sure it would be of any help, he wasn't to good with it anyways. "Hey now, no need for that. Whatever it is you want my help with it must be important." Zzan stepped back a bit. "Ok, I'll listen to what you have to say." Zzan readied his hand, just in case he did have to use his dagger.

It was like Zzan had said magic words. "Yeah arright." Marigold said, back to friendly. The knife was gone. Zzan couldn't see when or where she'd stowed it.

"So look, I gotter get notice of when it's at, but when I do, I'll tell you an' you'll hope right along. We're doin' a house raid. Usual business, 'cept half my crew is off during Loshis cos they hate the rain so we need as many people as we can get. It'll be plenty easy, don't even worry about it." There was something a little too innocent about Marigold's expression.

Zzan listened in carefully. It seemed harder than what she made it sound. But then something struck Zzan's mind. What if the people were home? They would have to abort the entire mission and leave. "What if there are people in the house?" Zzan became a bit uneasy. "If there are you would need a distraction perhaps, something I'm quiet good at. If that were to happen, I want a bigger end of the deal then." If Zzan was going on this "mission", he wanted to make sure he got something out of it all. "Also you said some were gone because of Loshis. Besides the kid over there, who else is left?" Zzan folded his arms and waited for an answer.

"Ah..." Marigold seemed hesitant, "No we got that taken care of. I gotter friend what says he'll take care of gettin' the people out of the house. For awhile, at least. We'd have ter be quick." She scratched her nose and wiped her hand off on her long brown coat.

"Lessee... There's Nim...Worms, Aggy, Renee, Jill, Beth, Trevor, Sarah, Sam, Connor....aaand me. And him." She jerked her head towards the skinny boy.

"They're all out doin' rounds right now." Her hand was going in her pocket and taking out a small rolled up cigar while the other one was rummaging about in her other pocket for matches.

Zzan pondered what he had heard. He did have to pay her back for helping him but with that many people did she really need his help? She had plenty of people she could use. Though Zzan did need to get his hands on some more food. Pickpocketing hadn't given him anything good lately and he needed more food.

"Alright I'll help ya. But I want something good out of it for helping ya. After that I'm done." Zzan stopped a bit and then continued, "Also when are we going to do this mission?" Zzan saw her take out the cigar and became interested. "You smoke? Ya sure that's good fer ya?"

"Yeah shore. You get ter keep your ears." Marigold said, sucking on the cigar and blowing out of the corner of her mouth. Obviously this Zzan character wasn't very bright. She had just said he didn't really have a choice. Or rather, that his choice was between going into the house or getting an ear cut off.

"Erm couple weeks mebbe. Not too soon. You kin stay here but ye'll have ter do rounds with the rest o'the crew." Another puff, and then an incredulous pause, "Well it isn't bad for me."

At least, she didn't think so. She liked smoking, anyway. It was fun to spit smoke out and watch it curl in the air.