Although I performed in the daylight, I was a thief in the night time. It was the job of the Gilshalon to gather... reparations, as Hyunwoo had put it. We took anything from fruits to jewelry, and clothing to other edibles. We gathered what we could and made our leave before daybreak. Some call it greedy, buy we called it survival. Our group elder Heonji, an old woman of around sixty would split us up into groups of two to four depending on what it was we were after. I was teamed up with Minri, an Eagle Animus, Saejin, a Python Animus and Seoyeon, a Leopard Animus. Together we would be breaking into a butcher shop and carrying back as much as we could. Afterwards we'd come back and make our way into one of the boutiques and take what we could. This was going to all take place in the Dawn and Twilight districts of Avingal. After the debriefing, all the Gilshalons shifted and we each headed off into two large groups. One headed for the Twilight district and the other to the Dawn district. The group I was in headed to the Dawn District, and quickly shrunk as each team went off to its specific destination.

This had to be done in animal form to reduce the risk of being caught. Saejin slithered ahead tasting the air and using her unique vision to sort out different forms that we may not be able to see or sense, for all we knew the butcher was up and about chopping away for tomorrow’s market. When she let us know the coast was clear inside the shop we had Minri soar above to check for the Night-Watch guards,

 ‘All clear’ she said. Gilshalon have the ability to communicate telepathically with one another in Animus form, a godsend on missions like these. With the area scan complete we now had to find our way in. There wasn't any dirt around so I couldn't dig us under, but there was a gap between the door and the floor and I knew I had found our way in.

‘Saejin look,’ I nosed and pawed lightly at the door. ‘Slither under, shift and unlock it from the inside.’ she hissed in agreement and went to work. Within minutes I could hear the door unlock the inside and open. We were in. I was expecting to see blond curls, but Saejin was already back as a python and making her way to our target. Seoyeon immediately went for the huge rack of ribs that had yet to be cut in half. Before she could lunge to grab it, Minri came in gripping a large potato sack. It would take some maneuvering but if done right, we could fill the sack up with the majority of our 'loot' and not risk dirtying the meat any more than it had to be. It would be so much easier to just shift and do things as humans but Heonji would always check to see if the telepathic connection with each of us was open. We got lucky when we didn't get caught having Saejin open the door in human form. Our elder always said there may be a time where we have no choice but to stay in Animus form for long periods of time, this was our version of survival training.

‘Jinnie get in the sack to weigh it down while I fly up to keep it open, Seoyeon you drag the meat over here and slide it in. Make sure the arc of the ribs is facing the ground to make  a tunnel so Jinnie can just slither out.’ Minri added with a flap of her wings.

While they worked on that I nosed around to see what else I could find. I immediately smelled sausage links, and I looked up to find a long rope of them wrapped around a hook. I glanced back to see how everything was progressing and they had almost done it. At this point Saejin was getting ready to slither out. When all was said and done I called Minri over and told her to grab a hold of the links while I held the sack upright so she could just drop them in. Scampering over to the sack I got behind and on top of it, grabbing the lip of it and with some effort pulled it upright. It didn't take long for Minri to bring the links over to the sack and she dropped them in.

I decided it would be best to leave the sack leaning upright so I pulled it back till I was against the wall and moved to the front of it to push the rack of ribs into a slant so it would stay. At that point I notice about a third of the ribs poked out of the potato sack. This was going to be tricky to carry all the way back, but I knew we'd figure out a way. I heard a low feline growl behind me and turned to see Seoyeon with a whole turkey in . Stepping out of her way I made my way to the cooling chambers in the back. Seoyeon and I were the only ones who could stand to be back there without the adverse effects from being in the cold. I nosed what seemed to be pork shoulder, because it was one of the few things in there that didn't have a thin coating of ice on it and with some effort and thrashing about I pried it off of the meat hook. I brought it out to the main room and was about to make my way over to the sack to dump it in.

It was then I noticed we had left the front door open. Panic set in as I saw a long human shadow which was cast by the bright moon. It was coming from the left which meant it was coming from the plaza. Night-Watch Guard. I ran quickly and got behind the door and pushed it shut as quickly and as quietly as I could. Everyone looked confused at what I was doing.

‘Night-Watch!’ I telepathically screamed and everyone scattered to hide. Seoyeon hid under a table, Saejin went under a counter and Minri hind in plain sight, dangling upside down off of a meat hook to let us know when the coast was clear. I sat by the door after quickly placing my pork shoulder into the sack, but freaked when I heard footsteps and hid under a chair nearby. I saw the silhouette of the man peeking in the window to see if anything was out of place or if any activity was going on. My heart stopped when he came to the door which I noticed just then was still slightly ajar.

My eyes widened and I pushed myself further under the chair until I was up against the wall. ‘Nobody move a muscle! He is coming in.’

No sooner had I warned them, the door swung open. My heart froze and I felt like a deer in the headlights. The sound of his steps seemed to be much louder than they actually were thanks to my Senses being on overdrive. My golden eyes darted around to where the man was walking and how close he was to Seoyeon under the table. He wouldn't spot me in the dark shadow cast by the chair; my dark fur would assure that. I heard him mutter about the carelessness of the butcher and how easy he made it for the thieves and Mongrels to pick everything clean. Then something happened that made me almost die on spot.

He had stepped on the tip of Seoyeon's tail, which made her flinch and jump slightly causing her to turn her attention to the perpetrating foot. She let loose a low growl inaudible to humans, but I heard it loud and clear.

‘Don't do it Seoyeon.’ I warned in a desperate tone. He stood there for what seemed like forever and then he moved off, causing everyone to collectively exhale. I didn't realize I was holding my breath, let alone everyone else. He walked back towards the door, tilted the wooden plank that was fastened to the door  at an angle that when he slammed it shut it would fall into place and lock it. The theory was pretty cool but the process took a few tries, when he had succeeded we waited a few minutes more till Minri fluttered on down, she had moved to the top of a shelf before he opened the door.

‘We need to get out of here. Now.’ she said ruffling her feathers, and I couldn't agree more. Saejin slithered out shortly after, followed by an irritated Seoyeon, swishing her tail and growling.

‘It took every ounce of willpower I had in me to not swipe and gouge his leg.’ I pressed my ears back in sympathy.

‘I know it did but I am grateful you held back.’ I turned my attention to the sack by the door and whimpered in slight frustration. ‘How are we supposed to do this?’ Everyone’s attention was on the sack now.

‘First we need to get the door open, which is simple enough.’ Seoyeon demonstrated by getting up on her hind legs and using her nose to slide the wooden plank up and then pulling back on the metal pieces which held the wood in place to open it. With that accomplished I wracked my brain for a solution to our bigger problem. I came up with a farfetched but better than nothing plan.

‘Saejin can you coil yourself around the top part of the sack to keep the meat from falling out?’ she hissed and did it with a bit of trouble. ‘Hmm, okay Seoyeon can you stand next to the sack so I let it lean on you?’ she got into place and with a small tug the sack leaned against Seoyeon's side. I crawled underneath the slant and stood up so it was place evenly and horizontally on our backs. So far so good.

‘Okay Minri do your thing and get on top of the sack, grip it with your talons and try to lift it as high as you can without lifting it entirely off our backs.’ She got into place and we started to maneuver outside but we had forgotten about the door. Once outside I asked Minri if she could do what the guard did to the door and pull the handle with her talons as hard as she could. She obliged but after three tries it proved to be too hard so we settled with shutting the door as far as it could go and making our way back to the caravan. We had already wasted a lot of time trying to avoid getting caught by the Night-Watch Guard, which meant we would not be able to go back and do our second round of looting. Heonji was not going to be pleased.

I had to admit we looked like the only odd bunch of animals, and anyone watching us through curtained windows would have sworn the ale or the dinner they had messed with their head. I mean a wolf, a snow leopard, an eagle and a python working together at all? That was farfetched enough, but we took it to that whole new level of ‘witch work.’ I could see it now, oh what a scandal that would be. Slowly but surely we made our way to the Caravan with our bounty held tight in claw and coil. Everyone had already made their way back and shifted but Heonji was still a silver Fennec fox and even from a few yards away I could hear her irritated and hostile growls which weren’t exactly intimidating, but were very foreboding about the nagging to come. Once we had reached the food wagon we dropped our bounty by a Laborer’s foot  and shifted.

No sooner had we done so did we get attacked by an onslaught of angry words. “What took you delinquents so long? Fooling around on the job? Or were you being greedy and gorging yourself on the food out of your own selfish desires.” At this point I could feel Seoyeon and Saejin back up behind Minri and myself. Although they were just a bit more aggressive in their Animus form, the reality was Saejin and Seoyeon were shy and sweet. They were definitely some of the easiest to intimidate. I turned my attention from them back to the rambling old goat. “I knew putting Carnivores such as yourselves to deal with the butcher shop was a bad idea, and another thing-”She was cut off by Jinki.

“Enough Heonji, did you see exactly what these four brought to us?” He pointed to the table where the meat was set out for proper preparation. Only, that whole table was covered with our meat. Sausage links, ham, the giant rib rack, the pork shoulder, a whole chicken, a whole turkey and a few lamb chops. I didn’t realize how much was put in there. The only thing I was responsible for was the pork shoulder, and the only thing I knew Minri could carry was the sausage links and maybe the lamb chops. Saejin was pretty much out of commission due to her lack of limbs, but she is the one that got us in and prevented the meat from falling out the sack, so she did more than her share. That left only Seoyeon. All the other stuff that was in there was all Seoyeon’s doing and I planned on giving credit where credit was due. I looked over at the naggy old goat (I sometimes wondered why the Animus Deities gave her the form of a fox instead of a goat) and saw her face growing red with embarrassment even through the tan and leathery wrinkles. I took this opportunity to rub it in how one of the most carnivorous of our team was actually the one who brought in the most bounty.

“Actually, most of that stuff on that table there was Seoyeon’s doing.” Attention was immediately this skittish and small form of a girl who immediately hunched to try and hide herself from all the staring eyes. She was definitely nervous and although she actually did something good, she swore she was going to get some sort of punishment for doing what she did.

 “Umm…” was all she managed to squeak out. Jinki approached her.

“Is this true Seoyeon?” She blushed and nodded slowly. Jinki smiled and he hugged her tightly and thanked her. In that moment I saw something I had never noticed before. The look in Seoyeon’s eyes, the tension in her body, and the overall air about her changed the minute she came into Jinki’s brief embrace. Her body relaxed and the expression on her face was that of a secret happiness only she understood. Then it hit me. Seoyeon was in love with Jinki. This was not good. Not good at all. If Hyunwoo found out about this... Hell if he even caught wind of the possibility, there would be severe punishment to be had, and I feared what it might be and what would happen to Seoyeon. That being said, I wasn't the type to meddle in the affairs of others even under these necessary circumstances, but I was definitely going to zero in on this budding issue before it got from innocent to ugly. Even after the brief moment my gaze was still affixed to Seoyeon. I tuned the world out and just focused on her.

Her expression dropped back to its normal wallflower status and that's when I concluded she only had a confidence boost when she was around Jinki. I stared off into the distance when she moved out of my vision totally. Was I missing something here? I shook my head to break my concentration on the subject and I tuned into the world around me. “And that is why she would be an excellent candidate for the Poison Gypsies.”

 Wait...what? I hated when I would zone out and miss something important, and I had just caught the last phrases of Ooptuk Hyunwoo statement, along with an array of contrasting expressions. Jinki seemed tense, Seoyeon, Minri and pretty much the rest of the Gilshalon looked upset, scared and bewildered all at once. Heonji looked a bit too conniving and pleased about whatever was proposed, and that's what actually set alarm bells going off in my head.

“E-Excuse me Ooptuk Hyunwoo...” I stammered. All eyes now turned to me. “Uh... Who exactly would be a great candidate for the Poison Gypsies?” I blushed out of embarrassment because I was the only one who had not heard what he said.

He gave me a semi cold stare. I could tell he was just a bit annoyed that well one, I wasn't paying attention to him speak, and two, He had to repeat himself. One thing about Hyunwoo was that he really hated having to repeat himself, especially to the likes of a Gilshalon.

“I said,” and he put heavy emphasis on that part “Seoyeon is an exceptional gatherer. Her temperament, breed and ability to work is exactly why I think she would make an excellent addition to the Poison Gypsy Clan.” Now my expression matched that of my kin. The Poison Gypsies were a feral and mean bunch, ruthless even. This was due to their large numbers and inability to feed themselves often. They had few Gilshalon, and that was because they often killed them in Animus form and bound them before their bodies could do the Ante Mortem Shift.

It literally translates to the Shift before death. As your body shuts down for good in Animus form, the magic within turns you into a human in one final burst of power before escaping the body. They prevented this by plugging up the nasal passages and mouth to prevent the magic from leaving the body, and then they bind the body in unnatural positions like a hog tie to name one, to prevent the shift from happening as the magic literally explodes from within , ripping through and tearing off the top layer of skin, fur, feathers or scales. It's gruesome and disgusting. Another thing about the Poison Gypsies is that unlike us, they weren't nomadic and in fact were one of the five stationary Clans.

I couldn't comprehend exactly how our Ooptuk could even suggest such a barbaric and unbelievable idea. “Why would you even think about sending Seoyeon to such a place…Ooptuk Hyunwoo?” I spoke softly and hesitantly, here I was questioning our leader. “They'd eat her alive... Literally. And on top of that, we'd be losing a great asset to our Tribe's survival. So why would you want to even consider giving her up?” I could feel the tension spike up in the air. It was a bold move, even if in a regular conversation it would seem innocent enough. However, we functioned in a hierarchy system. A pecking order, if you will, and this was definitely a step out of my boundaries. An Ooptuk’s word was final and was rarely ever up for question or debate unless he asked for feedback... Which he rarely ever did.

He stared at me for a long time and the longer he stared, the thicker the air became and harder it became to breathe. After what seemed like hours in my mind, he spoke “The poison Gypsies, as feral as they may be, are Gypsies none the less, and one of the biggest tribes out there if not the biggest. As an Ooptuk it is my job to not only look out for the needs of my clan, but to help other clans when they are in dire need.” His words were quipped and cold. It was a tone that exuded an unchanging mind and a set decision. Seoyeon was going to be with us no longer.