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Description
Chapter ll
On a rooftop late at night, a group of people are having a conversation. “We go in and we go out, no delays. It’s that simple, is everyone on the same page?” A large brawny man with red hair says to his team of five. “Yeah, but it doesn’t hurt to have some fun,” Delmira says with a light smile on her face. “Actually it quite literally did last time,” The man retorted with a furrowed brow before continuing, “And besides, we are being sent here for a mission not just to kill people.” After a short pause, he then speaks once more to the whole group. “Unless anyone has anything else to say we should get going.” With that, they
begin rooftop running to their destination.

Delmira and the dragon arrive over in a forest a large distance away from the small town they were in before. The dragon, whose name Delmira learned was Zilla, flings her off of her back before saying in a distorted subharmonic voice, “Okay ride’s over, Now it’s time for us to part ways.” As the dragon prepares to fly off she is interrupted by Delmira who pleads with her, “Wait! I have a proposition to make! I believe we can work as a team.” With a quirked eyebrow and a face of half disbelief, the dragon responds, “I’m still waiting for the part where this sounds like a good idea.” “Just think about it, I can provide you with food so that you don’t need to worry about exposing yourself as a dragon every time you go out for the hunt, and in return you can help me with my mission!” Delmira finishes with a large grin as if she had thought of everything. “Helping you in missions would defeat the purpose of staying hidden.” With this revelation Delmira’s smile soon fades into a pensive face as she tries to come up with a solution. “You can stay within your normal form when we’re in town and I can tell everyone you’re an elf… and my cousin!” Visibly unamused, Zilla turns and walks away without a word. “Well I believe you can pass for an elf!” Delmira says in an attempt to reason with her. “I would sooner be called an imp,” Zilla says as she continues to walk away. “You’re so determined to poke holes in everything!” Delmira says in an annoyed manner. “It’s not my fault there were so many, and besides…you tried to kill me,” Zilla retorts, still determined to walk away. “I thought we were over that,” Delmira says as she hastens her pace in order to keep up with the speedy dragon. “It’s not exactly something you ‘get over’ so quickly,” Zilla replied. “The real problem is that you’re so determined to not let anyone in your life, and that’s okay…I understand that. But I’m not asking for you to be my friend, I’m asking for us to be working partners--It’s completely business.” They both stop and think for a little while before Zilla then breaks the silence, “If our life is in danger I will save myself.” “I understand,” Delmira responds, content with their agreement. “Let’s get something to eat!” Delmira exclaims before they head into the city.

The city they enter is much bigger than the town they were in before. The streets are busy and noisy like the last place but as they continue to walk it becomes clearer that the city they are entering is not just any city but the capital of Ortus--the castle being within their gaze. There are sentinels everywhere, armed with blades, spears, and all sorts of weapons. Upon observing the guards, Zilla begins to have second thoughts about entering the town. Delmira, seeing this, tries to calm her by saying that they’ll be fine and that no one will notice them, but is abruptly cut off as she realizes that the entire block’s attention is already drawn to them (Zilla in particular). “What? She's an elf,” Delmira explains in an attempt to deescalate their situation. Upon noticing the disbelief the crowd has from her statement she attempts to further elaborate. “A dark elf… and my cousin,” They carry on however with everyone’s eyes still following them. The crowd speaking amongst themselves if elves were even real or what that ‘creature’ that was standing amongst them was.

The whole block abruptly halts as something begins to take place. A large crowd gathers around what is revealed to be a public execution. When Delmira enquires about the woman who is about to be executed, a man from the crowd explains that she is one of the king of thieves’ lackeys and probably a witch. To this Delmira asks. “Why a witch?” To this the man just shrugs. There is a short argument whether to execute the woman as they would a thief or a witch but they eventually come to the conclusion that they’ll do both. Right before they can light the hay from under the woman and begin hanging her, she disappears from within their hands. They search everywhere for the woman but all they find where she once stood is a card reading, “Courtesy of the Thief King.” Aggravated, the executioner crumbles the card yelling, “This is what always happens, that’s why we can’t catch any of them!” The crowd disperses and someone within them grumbles, “I don’t know why I even gather here every time this is what always happens—no one ever gets executed.” A few from the crowd stop however as they take notice of Delmira and Zilla, yelling, “Wait, we can execute these two!” Not long after, the crowd takes Delmira’s axe, ties them up, and prepares to burn them.

Delmira whispers to Zilla, “Don’t worry, I have an idea.” To this Zilla replies in a similar volume, “You better have a bright idea or else I am about to transform into a dragon and scorch these people and maybe you next for getting me into this.” Delmira then clears her throat before raising her voice. “If you kill us you will be getting rid of your best chance at catching and executing the Thief King himself!” The people untie them but wonder how they will keep them from running away. They decide that taking Zilla and returning her when the task is complete is the best course of action. Yet before they could grab Zilla, Delmira gives them an alternate solution. “I will hand you Nibbles, so that you will know that we’ll return.” Delmira takes off what appears to be a hair clip, revealing it to be a creature that she would have bite on her hair to hold it. “You would return for this thing?” A man from the crowd asks in disbelief. “His name is Nibbles, take care of him. He eats lint and dandruff and has an eight o’clock curfew.” Delmira says, sad to depart from her long time friend even if for a short while. Without further questioning, they hand them two wanted posters explaining that they captured the Thief King several times but he always escaped and hasn’t been seen in a while but that the young man should be much easier to and he could in turn lead them to the king. They also explain that the Thief King is a foreigner, who has stolen things from all around the world, and that he even has abducted some of the city's homeless children.

As they make distance from the crowd Zilla asks Delmira, “So now we make a run for it, right?” Delmira responds, “We need to bring them the Thief King in order to get Nibbles back.” Disappointed, Zilla says, “So we’re really going through with this.” The two walk on for some time before spotting the man on the poster eating a hotdog. The young man waves at them before realizing they know who he is and making a run for it. He runs behind back alleys and takes shortcuts around the city and before long he loses Delmira who was attempting to tail him. The man hides in a dark alley where he thinks he is safe but as he turns around he sees the piercing cyan eyes of Zilla behind him. She drags him out from the corner before throwing him at Delmira’s feet. “You better tell us where the Thief King is quick because I’m getting very hungry and if you make me wait any longer you may be my next meal,” Zilla threatens the man. The young man attempts to hold his composition but is soon overcome by fear as Zilla brings his face close to her gaping jaws. The man agrees to tell Delmira and Zilla where the Thief King lives but they shut him up as they want him to show them instead.

The man leads them into the sewers where they can’t see anything. They arrive at an area where lights are hung up in the walls, nearing an entrance. The man however pushes a brick that flips the wall, separating him from Delmira and Zilla. Delmira gropes around blindly before saying, “Well, it could be worse.” “I know, that’s what I’m waiting for.” Just as Zilla says this, they hear the sound of wheels turning. Poisonous gas starts flooding into the room. They attempt to hold their breath as they try to find a way out. Zilla becomes frantic and starts clawing at the walls but to no avail. Delmira tells her to ignite the gas by her fire breath. Zilla rejects this idea, saying, “If I do that I will blow up this entire room. I can survive it, but you surely can’t.” “I’ll take my chances. And besides, going out with a bang is better than this.” Delmira says as she braces herself for impact. Zilla reluctantly spits fire into the air, causing a reaction that explodes the room. Delmira awakens, uncovering herself from rubble. She finds that Zilla had covered her, protecting her from the explosion. She carries the unconscious Zilla over her shoulder and walks out of the large hole they blew through the wall. She enters a room where she is surrounded by thieves.

Delmira sees the man they tailed earlier next to the Thief King himself, informing him. The Thief King is a ruggedly handsome man, standing over six feet, with long dark hair and tanned skin. Sitting on a stolen throne from the palace, the Thief King, looking down at them says, “So you’ve been lookin’ all over for me? Wouldn’t be the first. But you don’t look like a sentinel. Are you hired goons? Because if so, I can work out a nice little deal between us.” “I’m not looking to make deals with you. You either hand yourself over to me or I will get you myself.” Delmira says as she rests Zilla down on the floor. “You’re going to fight me with what?” The Thief King says with a smirk on his face. Delmira notices that in an instant he had taken her armor and ax. “Do you really think this will stop me?” Delmira asks with a raised eyebrow as she prepares to engage in combat. “Well you see, I wasn’t really thinking of a fist fight,”
the man says as he pulls out a gun and begins to shoot at her. She weaves around, dodging the bullets before summoning her ax to herself. This catches the Thief King off guard but he nonetheless continues fighting her with an arsenal of stolen weapons from all over the globe: the glove of Midas, the decapafibrillator, the gut-wrencher, the ax-grinder of Dyad, and the Marvillian marbles.

The Thief King traps Delmira’s ax in the ax-grinder of Dyad and attempts to gnaw through her weapon but much to the thief’s surprise, he finds his own weapon breaks instead. The Thief King hurriedly puts on the glove of Midas and touches Delmira’s hand, transforming it to gold. Seeing that she cannot move her fingers, Delmira punches the Thief King with her transmutated fist. Just then, Zilla wakes up and begins fighting the Thief King’s men, preventing them from aiding their leader. The Thief King charges at Zilla with the gut-wrencher but she throws one of his own men in its way, causing the henchman to suffer an unsightly end in her stead. The Thief King tells Delmira to stop fighting as he holds the decapafibrillator to Zilla’s chest. Delmira stops fighting before Zilla says, “You have the wrong person, I’m not really the hostage type.” After saying this she opens her mouth wide and aims to bite his shoulder. The man however instantaneously disappears and reappears next to Delmira. Using this to his advantage, he aims his gun point blank to Delmira’s head, saying, “Goodbye.” Before pulling the trigger. Delmira dodges the bullet and swings her axe at the man’s neck but he again reappears elsewhere. “Don’t kick yourself, what you perceive as speed is actually teleportation—and it hasn’t failed me yet,” The Thief King explains as he shows off the Marvillian marbles that give him this ability. “Well there’s a first for everything,” Zilla says as she snatches the item out of his hand before Delmira remarks, “I bet this is the first time you got something stolen out of your hands!” The Thief King, visibly unamused by this recent turn of events, gives them a warning, “I’m not interested in killing you, there’s nothin’ for me to gain from that. Just leave your valuables and be on your merry way before this has to get any uglier.” After a short pause of waiting, he sees that they choose to remain there, “Can’t say I didn’t warn ya” The Thief King then orders his men to fire.

Zilla uses the Marvillian marbles and teleports around the place, slashing at his men with her claws. Delmira ricochets their bullets back at them with her ax. As more men prepare to come in, Zilla pounces on the Thief King telling him to call his men off. He does so before attempting to make an offer, “You can turn me in and we’ll split the profits, how’s that sound, huh?” To this Zilla responds, “I don’t know, I believe your wanted poster says dead or alive and it looks far more tempting to bring you in dead.” In a panic the Thief King pleads. “Please don’t eat me! I have a wife and kids,” Zilla raises an eyebrow in disbelief. “Well I am planning to at least…Look, I’m a valuable asset. I’ll owe you one! Look, I take care of the kids that Ortus ‘forgets’ to. If you kill me, who will take care of them?! I’ll turn my life around, just let me live! I’ll fake my death or something, please!” The Thief King begs.

Zilla turns from him to have a private discussion with Delmira on this case. “What do you think?” Zilla asks Delmira, to which Delmira responds, “Well if we can solve this issue without bloodshed I think we should.” As Delmira finishes her sentence they see some of the kids the Thief King was talking about enter the room. With a heavy sigh Zilla warns him, “For your sake you better straighten up because I’m hungry and a sewer rat like you doesn’t sound so bad for dinner.” She then drops the Thief King, who scrambles onto his feet. “One more thing,” Delmira says before continuing. “I’ll be keeping this if you don’t mind,” Delmira adds as she holds the Marvillian marble in her hand. “Fine, but I should tell ya’, they only can teleport one person so don’t go trying to teleport you and your dragon friend anywhere because it’s not happening,” The Thief King explains as he dusts himself off. “So what are we gonna’ do?” he asks. “We’re going to need your coat.” Delmira says with a smirk on her face. “And we are going to need your blood…your real blood,” Zilla adds before continuing, “Hey, it’s not for my pleasure—well not completely. It needs to be your real blood in case this is further investigated” The Thief Kings sighs, his head dipping low as he says, “Yeah, especially with those bloodhound guys around.” Delmira and Zilla are confused at the Thief King's statement prompting the Thief King to realize that they had no clue as to what he was talking about. “Forget I said anything, let’s just get on with this shall we?”
As they prepare to leave, a bandaged Thief King says to them, “I have lost my way a little, but I assure you I’m not a bad person—I’ve just made a lot of really bad mistakes. I will find my way again, I promise.”

They enter into the city and meet once more with the crowd, giving them the Thief King’s blood-stained replica of his crown. In return for their services, the city people give Nibbles back to Delmira and the reward money. Delmira and Zilla walk away and begin conversing, Delmira starting the conversation by asking, “Do you really eat people?” Zilla answers, “No, but with enough encouragement I will bite them.” Delmira then apologizes for getting Zilla involved in this ordeal. After a short silence Delmira then breaks the silence saying, “Let’s go get something to eat.” They begin leaving the city when Delmira feels something brush past her. Delmira checks her bag and sees that the Thief King took a share of the bounty and left a card saying, “I’m not one to get all mushy but you helped me realize something that I hadn’t in a long time. Well, til’ next time. Signed Edmond. Ps. I took back my short distance Marvillian marble back and gave you my mid distance Marvillian marble instead. Hope you don't mind, bye.” Delmira checks her bag and finds the different marble he was talking about. Zilla finds a card in her hand having Edmond’s phone number, a scribbled winking face, and a short message reading, “so I can hear your voice again, mon bijou.” Zilla raises an eyebrow and rolls her eyes before walking on.

Delmira heads to a restaurant where she orders the whole menu multiple times over. This causes people including the cashier to give her weird judgmental looks. She leaves with the mountain of food and heads into the forest where Zilla is, “Just as I promised, here’s our food!” Delmira says with a wide grin from cheek to cheek as she places the food down. After the meal, they both lay down while experiencing food coma. Delmira notices Zilla has grown noticeably more rotund, resembling a pile of marshmallows and weighing no less than a very well-fed hippopotamus. Delmira looks at Zilla with confusion on her face, Zilla then feels the need to explain, saying, “I burn it off quick.”

A long distance away from where Delmira and Zilla are, a man of robust frame and red hair stands in a throne room. “Go complete your first command!” The king says on his throne before the other man replies, “Consider it done High King! Delmira will meet her end at my blade.”

First Chapter

Description
Chapter ll
On a rooftop late at night, a group of people are having a conversation. “We go in and we go out, no delays. It’s that simple, is everyone on the same page?” A large brawny man with red hair says to his team of five. “Yeah, but it doesn’t hurt to have some fun,” Delmira says with a light smile on her face. “Actually it quite literally did last time,” The man retorted with a furrowed brow before continuing, “And besides, we are being sent here for a mission not just to kill people.” After a short pause, he then speaks once more to the whole group. “Unless anyone has anything else to say we should get going.” With that, they
begin rooftop running to their destination.

Delmira and the dragon arrive over in a forest a large distance away from the small town they were in before. The dragon, whose name Delmira learned was Zilla, flings her off of her back before saying in a distorted subharmonic voice, “Okay ride’s over, Now it’s time for us to part ways.” As the dragon prepares to fly off she is interrupted by Delmira who pleads with her, “Wait! I have a proposition to make! I believe we can work as a team.” With a quirked eyebrow and a face of half disbelief, the dragon responds, “I’m still waiting for the part where this sounds like a good idea.” “Just think about it, I can provide you with food so that you don’t need to worry about exposing yourself as a dragon every time you go out for the hunt, and in return you can help me with my mission!” Delmira finishes with a large grin as if she had thought of everything. “Helping you in missions would defeat the purpose of staying hidden.” With this revelation Delmira’s smile soon fades into a pensive face as she tries to come up with a solution. “You can stay within your normal form when we’re in town and I can tell everyone you’re an elf… and my cousin!” Visibly unamused, Zilla turns and walks away without a word. “Well I believe you can pass for an elf!” Delmira says in an attempt to reason with her. “I would sooner be called an imp,” Zilla says as she continues to walk away. “You’re so determined to poke holes in everything!” Delmira says in an annoyed manner. “It’s not my fault there were so many, and besides…you tried to kill me,” Zilla retorts, still determined to walk away. “I thought we were over that,” Delmira says as she hastens her pace in order to keep up with the speedy dragon. “It’s not exactly something you ‘get over’ so quickly,” Zilla replied. “The real problem is that you’re so determined to not let anyone in your life, and that’s okay…I understand that. But I’m not asking for you to be my friend, I’m asking for us to be working partners--It’s completely business.” They both stop and think for a little while before Zilla then breaks the silence, “If our life is in danger I will save myself.” “I understand,” Delmira responds, content with their agreement. “Let’s get something to eat!” Delmira exclaims before they head into the city.

The city they enter is much bigger than the town they were in before. The streets are busy and noisy like the last place but as they continue to walk it becomes clearer that the city they are entering is not just any city but the capital of Ortus--the castle being within their gaze. There are sentinels everywhere, armed with blades, spears, and all sorts of weapons. Upon observing the guards, Zilla begins to have second thoughts about entering the town. Delmira, seeing this, tries to calm her by saying that they’ll be fine and that no one will notice them, but is abruptly cut off as she realizes that the entire block’s attention is already drawn to them (Zilla in particular). “What? She's an elf,” Delmira explains in an attempt to deescalate their situation. Upon noticing the disbelief the crowd has from her statement she attempts to further elaborate. “A dark elf… and my cousin,” They carry on however with everyone’s eyes still following them. The crowd speaking amongst themselves if elves were even real or what that ‘creature’ that was standing amongst them was.

The whole block abruptly halts as something begins to take place. A large crowd gathers around what is revealed to be a public execution. When Delmira enquires about the woman who is about to be executed, a man from the crowd explains that she is one of the king of thieves’ lackeys and probably a witch. To this Delmira asks. “Why a witch?” To this the man just shrugs. There is a short argument whether to execute the woman as they would a thief or a witch but they eventually come to the conclusion that they’ll do both. Right before they can light the hay from under the woman and begin hanging her, she disappears from within their hands. They search everywhere for the woman but all they find where she once stood is a card reading, “Courtesy of the Thief King.” Aggravated, the executioner crumbles the card yelling, “This is what always happens, that’s why we can’t catch any of them!” The crowd disperses and someone within them grumbles, “I don’t know why I even gather here every time this is what always happens—no one ever gets executed.” A few from the crowd stop however as they take notice of Delmira and Zilla, yelling, “Wait, we can execute these two!” Not long after, the crowd takes Delmira’s axe, ties them up, and prepares to burn them.

Delmira whispers to Zilla, “Don’t worry, I have an idea.” To this Zilla replies in a similar volume, “You better have a bright idea or else I am about to transform into a dragon and scorch these people and maybe you next for getting me into this.” Delmira then clears her throat before raising her voice. “If you kill us you will be getting rid of your best chance at catching and executing the Thief King himself!” The people untie them but wonder how they will keep them from running away. They decide that taking Zilla and returning her when the task is complete is the best course of action. Yet before they could grab Zilla, Delmira gives them an alternate solution. “I will hand you Nibbles, so that you will know that we’ll return.” Delmira takes off what appears to be a hair clip, revealing it to be a creature that she would have bite on her hair to hold it. “You would return for this thing?” A man from the crowd asks in disbelief. “His name is Nibbles, take care of him. He eats lint and dandruff and has an eight o’clock curfew.” Delmira says, sad to depart from her long time friend even if for a short while. Without further questioning, they hand them two wanted posters explaining that they captured the Thief King several times but he always escaped and hasn’t been seen in a while but that the young man should be much easier to and he could in turn lead them to the king. They also explain that the Thief King is a foreigner, who has stolen things from all around the world, and that he even has abducted some of the city's homeless children.

As they make distance from the crowd Zilla asks Delmira, “So now we make a run for it, right?” Delmira responds, “We need to bring them the Thief King in order to get Nibbles back.” Disappointed, Zilla says, “So we’re really going through with this.” The two walk on for some time before spotting the man on the poster eating a hotdog. The young man waves at them before realizing they know who he is and making a run for it. He runs behind back alleys and takes shortcuts around the city and before long he loses Delmira who was attempting to tail him. The man hides in a dark alley where he thinks he is safe but as he turns around he sees the piercing cyan eyes of Zilla behind him. She drags him out from the corner before throwing him at Delmira’s feet. “You better tell us where the Thief King is quick because I’m getting very hungry and if you make me wait any longer you may be my next meal,” Zilla threatens the man. The young man attempts to hold his composition but is soon overcome by fear as Zilla brings his face close to her gaping jaws. The man agrees to tell Delmira and Zilla where the Thief King lives but they shut him up as they want him to show them instead.

The man leads them into the sewers where they can’t see anything. They arrive at an area where lights are hung up in the walls, nearing an entrance. The man however pushes a brick that flips the wall, separating him from Delmira and Zilla. Delmira gropes around blindly before saying, “Well, it could be worse.” “I know, that’s what I’m waiting for.” Just as Zilla says this, they hear the sound of wheels turning. Poisonous gas starts flooding into the room. They attempt to hold their breath as they try to find a way out. Zilla becomes frantic and starts clawing at the walls but to no avail. Delmira tells her to ignite the gas by her fire breath. Zilla rejects this idea, saying, “If I do that I will blow up this entire room. I can survive it, but you surely can’t.” “I’ll take my chances. And besides, going out with a bang is better than this.” Delmira says as she braces herself for impact. Zilla reluctantly spits fire into the air, causing a reaction that explodes the room. Delmira awakens, uncovering herself from rubble. She finds that Zilla had covered her, protecting her from the explosion. She carries the unconscious Zilla over her shoulder and walks out of the large hole they blew through the wall. She enters a room where she is surrounded by thieves.

Delmira sees the man they tailed earlier next to the Thief King himself, informing him. The Thief King is a ruggedly handsome man, standing over six feet, with long dark hair and tanned skin. Sitting on a stolen throne from the palace, the Thief King, looking down at them says, “So you’ve been lookin’ all over for me? Wouldn’t be the first. But you don’t look like a sentinel. Are you hired goons? Because if so, I can work out a nice little deal between us.” “I’m not looking to make deals with you. You either hand yourself over to me or I will get you myself.” Delmira says as she rests Zilla down on the floor. “You’re going to fight me with what?” The Thief King says with a smirk on his face. Delmira notices that in an instant he had taken her armor and ax. “Do you really think this will stop me?” Delmira asks with a raised eyebrow as she prepares to engage in combat. “Well you see, I wasn’t really thinking of a fist fight,”
the man says as he pulls out a gun and begins to shoot at her. She weaves around, dodging the bullets before summoning her ax to herself. This catches the Thief King off guard but he nonetheless continues fighting her with an arsenal of stolen weapons from all over the globe: the glove of Midas, the decapafibrillator, the gut-wrencher, the ax-grinder of Dyad, and the Marvillian marbles.

The Thief King traps Delmira’s ax in the ax-grinder of Dyad and attempts to gnaw through her weapon but much to the thief’s surprise, he finds his own weapon breaks instead. The Thief King hurriedly puts on the glove of Midas and touches Delmira’s hand, transforming it to gold. Seeing that she cannot move her fingers, Delmira punches the Thief King with her transmutated fist. Just then, Zilla wakes up and begins fighting the Thief King’s men, preventing them from aiding their leader. The Thief King charges at Zilla with the gut-wrencher but she throws one of his own men in its way, causing the henchman to suffer an unsightly end in her stead. The Thief King tells Delmira to stop fighting as he holds the decapafibrillator to Zilla’s chest. Delmira stops fighting before Zilla says, “You have the wrong person, I’m not really the hostage type.” After saying this she opens her mouth wide and aims to bite his shoulder. The man however instantaneously disappears and reappears next to Delmira. Using this to his advantage, he aims his gun point blank to Delmira’s head, saying, “Goodbye.” Before pulling the trigger. Delmira dodges the bullet and swings her axe at the man’s neck but he again reappears elsewhere. “Don’t kick yourself, what you perceive as speed is actually teleportation—and it hasn’t failed me yet,” The Thief King explains as he shows off the Marvillian marbles that give him this ability. “Well there’s a first for everything,” Zilla says as she snatches the item out of his hand before Delmira remarks, “I bet this is the first time you got something stolen out of your hands!” The Thief King, visibly unamused by this recent turn of events, gives them a warning, “I’m not interested in killing you, there’s nothin’ for me to gain from that. Just leave your valuables and be on your merry way before this has to get any uglier.” After a short pause of waiting, he sees that they choose to remain there, “Can’t say I didn’t warn ya” The Thief King then orders his men to fire.

Zilla uses the Marvillian marbles and teleports around the place, slashing at his men with her claws. Delmira ricochets their bullets back at them with her ax. As more men prepare to come in, Zilla pounces on the Thief King telling him to call his men off. He does so before attempting to make an offer, “You can turn me in and we’ll split the profits, how’s that sound, huh?” To this Zilla responds, “I don’t know, I believe your wanted poster says dead or alive and it looks far more tempting to bring you in dead.” In a panic the Thief King pleads. “Please don’t eat me! I have a wife and kids,” Zilla raises an eyebrow in disbelief. “Well I am planning to at least…Look, I’m a valuable asset. I’ll owe you one! Look, I take care of the kids that Ortus ‘forgets’ to. If you kill me, who will take care of them?! I’ll turn my life around, just let me live! I’ll fake my death or something, please!” The Thief King begs.

Zilla turns from him to have a private discussion with Delmira on this case. “What do you think?” Zilla asks Delmira, to which Delmira responds, “Well if we can solve this issue without bloodshed I think we should.” As Delmira finishes her sentence they see some of the kids the Thief King was talking about enter the room. With a heavy sigh Zilla warns him, “For your sake you better straighten up because I’m hungry and a sewer rat like you doesn’t sound so bad for dinner.” She then drops the Thief King, who scrambles onto his feet. “One more thing,” Delmira says before continuing. “I’ll be keeping this if you don’t mind,” Delmira adds as she holds the Marvillian marble in her hand. “Fine, but I should tell ya’, they only can teleport one person so don’t go trying to teleport you and your dragon friend anywhere because it’s not happening,” The Thief King explains as he dusts himself off. “So what are we gonna’ do?” he asks. “We’re going to need your coat.” Delmira says with a smirk on her face. “And we are going to need your blood…your real blood,” Zilla adds before continuing, “Hey, it’s not for my pleasure—well not completely. It needs to be your real blood in case this is further investigated” The Thief Kings sighs, his head dipping low as he says, “Yeah, especially with those bloodhound guys around.” Delmira and Zilla are confused at the Thief King's statement prompting the Thief King to realize that they had no clue as to what he was talking about. “Forget I said anything, let’s just get on with this shall we?”
As they prepare to leave, a bandaged Thief King says to them, “I have lost my way a little, but I assure you I’m not a bad person—I’ve just made a lot of really bad mistakes. I will find my way again, I promise.”

They enter into the city and meet once more with the crowd, giving them the Thief King’s blood-stained replica of his crown. In return for their services, the city people give Nibbles back to Delmira and the reward money. Delmira and Zilla walk away and begin conversing, Delmira starting the conversation by asking, “Do you really eat people?” Zilla answers, “No, but with enough encouragement I will bite them.” Delmira then apologizes for getting Zilla involved in this ordeal. After a short silence Delmira then breaks the silence saying, “Let’s go get something to eat.” They begin leaving the city when Delmira feels something brush past her. Delmira checks her bag and sees that the Thief King took a share of the bounty and left a card saying, “I’m not one to get all mushy but you helped me realize something that I hadn’t in a long time. Well, til’ next time. Signed Edmond. Ps. I took back my short distance Marvillian marble back and gave you my mid distance Marvillian marble instead. Hope you don't mind, bye.” Delmira checks her bag and finds the different marble he was talking about. Zilla finds a card in her hand having Edmond’s phone number, a scribbled winking face, and a short message reading, “so I can hear your voice again, mon bijou.” Zilla raises an eyebrow and rolls her eyes before walking on.

Delmira heads to a restaurant where she orders the whole menu multiple times over. This causes people including the cashier to give her weird judgmental looks. She leaves with the mountain of food and heads into the forest where Zilla is, “Just as I promised, here’s our food!” Delmira says with a wide grin from cheek to cheek as she places the food down. After the meal, they both lay down while experiencing food coma. Delmira notices Zilla has grown noticeably more rotund, resembling a pile of marshmallows and weighing no less than a very well-fed hippopotamus. Delmira looks at Zilla with confusion on her face, Zilla then feels the need to explain, saying, “I burn it off quick.”

A long distance away from where Delmira and Zilla are, a man of robust frame and red hair stands in a throne room. “Go complete your first command!” The king says on his throne before the other man replies, “Consider it done High King! Delmira will meet her end at my blade.”

First Chapter