You can't beat dirt!

There I was, strutting down the halls of the base after hitting it off well with the boss. That’s when I noticed my two buds having a chat, you knew I had to call out to them.

“Hey, you guys!”

Rat and Steve turned to see me excited over my first gig, Rat ran over to see what the big deal was.

“You seem awfully happy, Thief, considering that the boss just shot you down.”

“Ha! So that’s how you feel about me! Well sorry to let you down bub, but this lowly grunt just got placed on the raid coming in a few days!”

“WHAT!?!”

Rat, honest to god, seems shocked that they let me in on the action. He’s lucky that he’s my little buddy, otherwise I would’ve punted his small ass across this hall. Steve gives a light chuckle and walks on over.

“Told you that if it were the boss he’d let him in on the action. Moe has always been a bit of a gambler.”

“Well I guess I learn something new everyday. Still, I didn’t think the boss would let Thief join something so important for a first job.”

At least Steve has faith in me, that said I chat with the gang a bit in secret about the job details.

“Wait a minute! Steve, you’re in on this too!”

“Rich said he was gonna reach out to see if I can get trusted with more high-grade tasks besides guard duty.”

“You hear that Rat! We’re leveling up in this joint, you better follow suit or you’re gonna get left behind!”

“Heh, I’m already three steps ahead of you!”

“Huh!?!”

Wait, so Rat’s been up to something under the wraps and I didn’t notice. Damn It, as a thief I should be ashamed. I forgot Rule #17 of being a thief, a true thief keeps their trump cards concealed until the last moment! I respect your game Rat, you must be a fellow practitioner of the rules! Despite getting thrown off by my discovery of Rat’s secret plans, Steve manages to get my attention again.

“Still, it’s amazing to know that you were able to hook Moe with your ambitions.”

“Hey! I did more than just share my ambitions! I made them all laugh too!”

“So the main drawing point was your ambition?”

“Urk...!?!”

As expected of Mannerless Steve, he has no tact with bringing up people’s shortcomings. He doesn’t even address the higher-ups, like Rich and the boss, with proper titles. Just where did this guy come from? Well I guess I can’t leave his question unanswered.

“Well it doesn’t matter in the end, yeah my ambitions sealed the deal! It was a shoe in from the moment I mentioned the four great thieves.”

Rat looked puzzled for a moment, as for Steve he thought about it and then sighed.

“Oh those guys again, I really don’t understand why you’re interested in those guys. Although that Valen guy sounded like a real man.”

“Of course a lovable brute like you would look up to a tyrant like him, but my favorite is way better!”

“Oh, and who would that be?”

“Easy its-”

Before I could finish, I remembered that the boss gave me a task.

“OH CRAP! Sorry Steve, we’ll have to save the discussion for later. Right now I have to go visit Mitch, the boss told me to get some equipment from him in preparation for the raid!”

“Oh, no worries. I should probably get my stuff in order to.”

“Alright then, I'll talk to you later.”

Just before I left Steve, Rat jumped on my back as if to hitch a ride.

“What the hell are you doing?”

“Well don’t just stand there, get going!”

“Huh?”

“We’re going to the same place!”

“HUH!?!?!”

I then carried Rat all the way to Mitch’s room, while in a daze.

****

A short later, me and Rat stood in front of Mitch’s room. Mitch, or rather Lamp Lighter Mitch, Is the team’s pyro expert. However, in his down time, he was also the team’s handy man. He made sure that most things we had were maintained and didn’t need fixing. Although, I don’t know why Rat brought me outside to grab some rocks and some dirt before coming to see him.

“Uh, Rat?”

“Yeah”

“Why did I need to bring all this crap?”

“Oh, trust me, you’ll be thanking me soon.”

Rat walks up to the door and starts knocking like a mad man. I could hear a commotion inside the room. Soon enough I could hear a voice coming from the inside.

“S***! WHO THE HELL IS THAT!”

“Hey Dork! It’s me, open up!”

“Oh midgey it’s you, come in(ya’ little asshole).”

Rat motions me to open the door and I obliged. Inside is a room that I can only describe as a inventors paradise, if it’s cluttered and filled with scrap that is. In the middle I see a man around 5.5 feet, his eyes were hazel, and he also had burgundy hair with a goatee to match. He wore a dark red muscle shirt and some baggy dark brown pants(don’t forget the brown shoes). He threw his slug hammer over his shoulder, and pulled his goggles above his eyes.

“Who the hell is this guy?”

“Sup Mitch, you still want to argue that you lack dwarven heritage?”

“Oh Thief, sharp tongued as ever I see?”

Mitch has a habit of forgetting people or things he finds irrelevant. I’m surprised the boss even took him under our banner. Can he really be of help to me?

“So Rat, why are you here?”

“I came to borrow your lab again.”

“Oh? Do you pray tell, what you are up to?”

“Check it!”

Rat pulls out a plump sack from the back of his wolf pelt, and undoes the sack. Out pops a solid round bear turd, which surprisely is odorless. I couldn’t help but question what I’m witnessing?

“Is that bear s***?”

“WOAH, hold it right there!”

“Huh?”

“That’s the perfect piece of bear S*** I’ve seen in a while! Form, solidity, texture, and not to mention its odorless! Meaning inside is a fragrance bomb, its perfect materials for...!”

Rat and Mitch both look like their gonna jump together in unison.

““A STINK BOMB!!!!””

“A stink bomb, Rat’s gonna make a stink bomb?”

“You’d be surprised, this little rascal comes in sometimes and ask for advice on how to make the weirdest stuff. Didn’t think he’d have the balls to get something like this though, call me impressed.”

No way, while I thought Rat was just being a free rider in our community, turns out Rat was working under Mitch’s tutelage. So Steve is a student of Rich and Rat is a student of Mitch. What about me? I don’t have any masters, do I? You know what, I don’t need any of that! Rule #5 of being a thief, no one is your master except the ground beneath you! Only the streets can claim me, I’m the scum of the earth! Bring it on world!

“Hey, why do you look like you’re having an existential crisis?”

Mitch was staring at me while I was having my moment, crap the last thing I want is for the resident engineer to think I’m weird.

“Just taking in how awesome and cozy this place is, that’s right! What a cool spot to work in!”

“This place is a S***hole”

“Eep!”

“Not to mention, I hate boot lickers more than anything else in the world.”

“Gak!”

Mitch is more loose-lipped than Steve, but he has a point. I’m not here to be buddy buddy with him, I got a job to do!

“Alright then Mitch, I need some supplies to get me through the bandit raid coming up. Do I have your support!”

“Finally, some business. Do you have the materials?”

“Materials?”

I looked puzzled for a moment, I had to bring the materials before coming here?

“Yeah bucko, I’m not gonna waste my time with a guy that doesn’t even have crap to build with.”

“Don’t worry boss, this guy has the goods. Right Thief?”

“The goods...Oh! You want these right!”

I pulled out two sacks, one full of small stones and the other filled with dirt. Mitch took the two and checked the merchandise.

“The stones are a little on the small side, but big enough, and the dirt. It’s in perfect quality to be processed.”

“Processed?”

“Yeah, let me show you!”

I follow Mitch and Rat joins behind. He gives me a little wink, and I give him a smile and nod. This little bastard, he got me set up so I wouldn’t waste my time and piss Mitch off. Consider your past transgressions forgiven Rat, that and he gave me a boon. I’ve got a feeling that Mitch is about to show me his secret, and as spoken in Rule #8 of being a thief you should always learn whatever you can, from wherever you can. As I follow Mitch, he leads me over to a red pot.

“Is that a pot?”

“Yep, now toss the dirt in.”

“Uh, okay?”

I’m still perplexed as to how this is gonna help me, and that’s when I noticed something. The pot begin to vibrate, after a minute of that it came to a stop.

“What the hell!”

“Ha! Your reactions to my inventions always humor me, how about you press your hand on it.”

“Press my hand- ON THE POT!”

I was hesitant at first but nothing ventured, nothing gained. I touched the pot and was surprised to find out it was warm. I began to notice the light steam coming off of it. I could hear Rat’s snickers based on my reaction, and Mitch gave a hearty chuckle.

“So what do you think?”

“Dude, how did the pot’s temperature rise so quickly? WAIT,SCRATCH THAT! What about the dirt I threw in!”

“That’s the beauty of innovation at work, to answer your question take a look at this.”

Mitch brought over a blue pot, he dipped his hand in and pulled out a bundle of its contents. It was sand! He let it pour out his hand and back into the blue pot.

“What the red pot does is vibrate the dirt and use heat to process it into sand. The blue pot cools it and adds a little oomph to it. What do you think cool right!”

“Lilith’s Tits! You just blew my f***ing mind! I don’t know why I’d need sand though?”

“Heh, one of a bandits most versatile tools is a good smokescreen, henceforth you got pocket sand. As for the stones, I’ll have them processed for your second piece of equipment soon.”

“Nice!”

Mitch really knows his stuff, he isn’t the clutter dwelling cave man I thought he was. After a short chat I began to leave, but not before giving Mitch some last words.

“You’re a pretty cool guy Mitch, I’m honestly surprised you’re here in a place like this. If you ever retire from the biz, you should be a handy man. Peeps would love ya!”

“A handy man aye, how is that any different from what I do here!”

We both shared a laugh, and with that me and Rat left Mitch’s place.

****

It’s quiet now that midgey and his friend left, but still why did he say that.

“*sigh* I know you meant no harm, but why’d you say I don’t belong here. You think I don’t know that?”

I went back to work on scraping the old prototype, I took the pot and smashed it with my hammer. Making sure to snag the drained mana stone from the fragments and pieces. I can’t help but stare at the stone, and remember how things used to be.

“...It’s been ten years, and I still haven’t forgotten. I’ll never forget how he betrayed me, and took my research. As well as, ten years since she died…”

It hurts to remember those days, days like those when I was at my happiest and also my lowest. Now I need a drink, I guess I’ll clean this mess up and do just that. However, that guy does leave me wondering. If I could go back, could things be different? Could I save her?

...No, she’s dead, no matter what happens now. I can never go back.