Rose sat in the Black Thorn Tavern at a table near the fireplace. She slowly slipped on her beer, thinking. It was getting close to that time of the year; the anniversary of Baris's death.

"Rose, run back to Tarm City!" he shouted.

"No!" she shouted back as she sliced off the head of the Stalfos she was fighting. "I'm the General of the Tarm Army! I have to protect the people at all costs!" Both of them took cover behind a rock.

"Protect them by warning them. If we both die, they won't be prepared. If you die here, no will be able to lead the city through the Lost Woods to safety. But if I die here, then you can save more lives."

Tears welled up in Rose's eyes. "You're right. I love you, Baris."

"I love you too. Now go, Rose."

Rose dashed off towards Tarm City, and Baris headed straight for the nearest Stalfos. "Kill her!" She heard a Stalfos scream, and then she felt pain as an arrow pierced her upper left arm. But she didn't stop running until she was certain they weren't following her.

The ranger lifted her left sleeve, looking at the scar there. Doc Garrison easily healed the wound with a Phoenix Tear Potion, but there shouldn't have been scarring. The doctor figured it was just a batch that went slightly wrong, and he kept a close eye on Rose the next few days to make sure there weren't any other undesirable side effects.

"Ouch. Arrow through the arm," she heard Hyneria said. "I sense a battle story."

Rose snorted as she pushed the sleeve back down. "Battle? It was a massacre. My men didn't have a chance. If it wasn't for my husband, who shouldn't have even been with us...." She trailed off, tears starting to form in the corner of her eyes.

"Well, we're five minutes early," Hyneria said hastily, trying to get the memory off of Rose's mind. "How long have you been here?"

"About ten minutes. Thought I'd get a good table."

Hyneria laughed. "All the tables are good tables, Rose, just as long as you have a good drink in front of you. And speak of the devil." A waitress came and delivered a beer to the Sheikah. "Here's a tip, hon," she said joyfully, handing over a twenty rupee piece. "Get yourself something good with it." The waitress smiled and slipped the rupee into a pocket, and then she went to the next table. "Well, the others should be here soon," Hyneria commented, taking a sip from her mug. "Ah, same quality, same price."

The next five minutes were spent by Hyneria teaching Rose some basic Sheikah. Soon, Pyre and Saber should be coming in, and then they could start making plans.

~Pyre walked into the tavern hurriedly, hat askew, and looking back and forth for Rose. When he saw her, he ran forward, and whispered hurriedly. "We have to get out of here. They're-" Then he saw the remnants of tears in the ranger's eyes, and stopped himself. The hylian was surprised, but had no time to spare. Things were getting tricky.

He quickly composed himself, wiping all traces of surprise from his eyes, as quickly as it had appeared, and resumed his sence of urgency. "It seemed the group is more resourceful than we thought. I don't know how, but they already got agents hunting me down. He lifted his dagger from its sheath and slammed it into the table. The fresh blood on the metal was enough for others to tell what he said was true. It looked like things were getting messy.

Promptly, three men came in through the door. Pyre whirled around, and said quietly so only those around him could hear. "Its them." The three men obviously reckonized the same thing, and made there way on a beeline towards their table. The ranger stood in front of his dirk, obscuring it from view, and placed his hand on his scimitar hilt. Getting messy indeed.

As the grunts got in about a five foot range, they drew their weapons. The middle one had a hand axe, while the other two drew daggers. All of them had bloody scores over their bodies, signs of Pyre's previous work. None of them, however, looked happy.

In fact they were already raising their weapons for the kill. Pyre whispered once again. "Get ready."~

"Damn it, you've got to kidding me," Hyneria whispered in Sheikah. Both women stood up as the three men came into the tavern. "I take back what I said earlier," the shorter of the two said in Common. "It's a bad table if no other tables are between us and three pissed off men."

As the grunts drew their weapons, Hyneria whipped out her daggers from behind her back; one had a blue hilt, and the other had a pink hilt. Either the Sheikah woman was color blind, or she just didn't care about matching colors. In one quick motion, she was ready to fight. She glared at the barkeeper, and he decided it was best to keep his distance.

Rose whispered so that only Hyneria and Pyralin could hear her. "I don't want their deaths on my conscience. Aim to knock them out, please."

"I understand," Hyneria whispered back. "That was my plan anyway. You got something else besides a hawk you can turn into?"

"A mythical beast from Tarm, my home country. Mothers would use it to frighten their kids into obeying them. Hyrule definitely needs more owlbear in it." And with that last sentence, Rose transformed into the part bear, part owl monstrosity. Any thoughts of breaking up the fight now left the bartender entirely as Rose let out a terrifying screech.

"If I were you three, I'd surrender," Hyneria said to the three grunts with an air of authority in her voice. "Drop your weapons and the owlbear won't devour your souls."

~One of the dagger-wielding men smirked in the face of the creature, and pumped his arm quickly. It seemed that he was trained enough not to be paralyzed with fear when faced with a surprise. The dagger flew forward at Rose, closing the short gap in no time at all. Pyre could have easily deflected the projectile, but chose to go on the offensive instead.

He ripped his dirk out of the table, and drew his scimitar. Weapons ready, he rushed forward at the now defenseless man and lashed out with the slightly curved blade. The thief showed that he wouldn't be defeated so easily. Out of a concealed sheath, another dagger leapt into his hand, and he blocked the incoming blade, pushing the hylian back. Pyre used this push to roll to the side, and get close to the man with the axe, his real target the entire time.

Now that he was in range, his scimitar slashed out, with real speed this time, cutting into the man's chest. It was a shallow cut, not enough to kill him, but with a swift pommel bash to the face, he was put out of action.

Immediately both of the remaining rogues attacked, but the hylian's weapons were up in a flash, parrying each dagger with ease. At the same time, he managed to look back at Rose and see what had become of the thrown dagger.~

Saber jogged down the dark street, shaken. He still couldn't believe what he had seen. A shapeshifter...? One moment a human, the next a hawk...She could be a very useful ally....

He had sat up against the windmill after the meeting to rest for a bit, hoping to subdue some of the sores he had accrued when he slid down the mountain. Unfortunately, all he succeeded in doing was kinking his neck and sleeping past midnight, and now he rushed to get to the tavern in time.

Each step jarred his sore knees, but as he got warmed up the pain became more bearable. He was nearing the tavern now--he could see the sign, illuminated by the torch on the outside wall. As he slowed down to a brisk walk, he tried to get the kink out of his neck, stretching his head from side to side. He was in the process of doing so when he froze--he saw something.

Looking carefully over his shoulder while still seeming casual, he picked out the three men who were a ways behind him. They seemed to be injured....although they also seemed to be dangerous.

He slid into an alleyway quietly and watched them pass by, taking note of the slash marks on various parts of their bodies--still bleeding, too. Say, didn't Pyre have a dirk...? Fresh wounds....it all adds up. Something went wrong!

He saw them enter the tavern hastily, and groaned. Well, that puts the nail in the proverbial coffin--we've been found out. He unsheathed his saber and followed the wounded trio to the door, but stopping to look inside first.

What he saw shocked him even more than Rose's previous transformation. This form was truly gruesome, although he had to admit it was good to have on his side...He then saw Pyre take down a foe and decided to launch into action himself. He grabbed a half-empty beer off a table, ignoring the protesting customer. He gulped the rest of it down--No sense in wasting perfectly good beer!--and hurled the empty glass at the back of one of the thug's heads, replacing his now-empty hand with his saber's sheath. "Just who may you louts be?!?"

Had Rose tried swinging her arm to stop the dagger as a human, she would've called herself stupid immediately afterwards. But as it was now, she was an owlbear, and owlbears could eat through the pain of a dagger biting into their skin. Well, apparently, they could. After all, owlbears were mythic creatures to Rose. Either way, she was glad that the small scratch didn't stop her from retaliating by rushing towards her attacker, bringing a large paw down upon his head.

As for Hyneria, she slipped into the shadows, watching as Saber's mug rushed towards the third man. Thank the God of Shadows that kid had the sense to finish that beer, she thought as she rushed forward, reappearing into the visible spectrum. She brought the hilt of her pink dagger to the bridge of the man's nose, while the other aimed for the base of the grunt's neck to hit another pressure point. Hopefully, all three blows will hit at the same time and put the man out of commission. The Sheikah had no desire to get hit by a flying glass.

~Pyre watched as the two men on each side of him were simultaneously attacked. Things had gone smoothly. To make sure that each would go down, he spun around, both weapons extended, cutting deep gashes in each man's back. Both of them soon fell to the ground.

The hylian let a small smile cross his face, and he looked up at the bartender, and flipping a blue rupee his way. He looked around at the blood on the floor and the three unconsious men, and his grin became wry. What a mess.

The ranger wiped the blood off his blades, and sheathed them, taking a seat at the table, and looking around at the three others. "Well, that was interesting. I don't know why they attacked me, but it seems probable that they know we're a threat. The question is how?"

Pyre glanced around the tavern edgily. Who knew who was a spy from the group. He was getting quite paranoid after the previous attack. Little did Pyralin know, five more men had just entered the tavern and taken their seats at a table quite close to the group, listening intently. The thieves were much more resourceful than the rangers had thought.

"So, to buisness." The hylian took out the map once again and spread it out over the table, pointing at the warehouses that they were targeting. "This is our target. Who knows how well guarded they are, but I'm not expecting easy entry. Is there some way we can get in without being seen?" Pyre looked to the thief to answer the question, but left it open ended. Any plan was better than no plan.~

Rose melted back into her normal self and rummaged in her pack for some rope. Once she found it, she helped Hyneria tie up the three men, making sure the knots were tight. Perhaps a little too tight, but they certainly wouldn't have to worry about lost of limb. The Sheikah went over to the bartender and gave him a twenty rupee piece to complement Pyre's five rupees. "Go to the local guard house and ask for Sir Aestas and his men," she instructed. "He'll take care of these men." The bartender nodded, rushing out of the tavern; he certainly wasn't going to argue with someone who was friends with a woman who could turn into strange beasts.

"Undoubtedly the warehouses are guarded," Hyneria replied to the young Hylian's statement in low tones. "But our targets they are not. If we can take out the leaders and the next in command, the group will disband. We should head to the office building."

"And if one of the leaders is in the warehouse?" Rose inquired. "Certainly they would check in on their goods?"

Hyneria smiled. "I was hoping you would say that. We should team up more often, Shifter. Anywho, we'll hit the warehouse first, though I suggest stealth for that part. Getting in will be tricky, but there's a sky roof over these warehouses to let in some natural light. Rose, think you can get us up there?"

Rose nodded. "A dragon should be large enough to carry all three of you up there."

"Good."

"Hyneria, glad to see you're okay," a man's voice from behind the Sheikah said.

She turned around and grinned. "Of course I am, Aestas," she replied, obviously not worried about addressing the armored Hylian formally. "Look," she continued, her tones lower and more serious, "My friends here and I are going after a group of crime lords. I want to try to bring them to you alive, but we may have to kill them all. Don't give me that look, Rose. Anywho, these three men here somehow got wind of what we're trying to do, and we had to rough them up some."

Sir Aestas nodded his head. "I see. Well, I wish you luck. I want you back in one piece, is that understood, Ikana?"

"Of course." While Sir Aestas and two of his men took away the unconscious grunts, Hyneria continued. "Where were we? Oh, yes, Rose was going to turn into a dragon and carry us onto the roof top of the nearest warehouse."

"There's more than one?" Rose interrupted.

The Sheikah nodded. "There are several, and all of them are connected by tunnels. I'm thinking there should at least be a leader per warehouse. We enter the first warehouse by roof, and the others by tunnel. Unless anyone else have any better plans?" She glanced over at Pyre and Saber.

Saber mulled over the plan for a few seconds before responding. "I do." He simply stated, and brushed his dried, dusty hair out of his eye. "These thieves aren't stupid. We've seen that already. I highly doubt they would leave the sole point of entrance unwatched, especially since they somehow know that we are coming. If they see anything, they're sure to raise the alarm, then we'll have the whole place after us--not something I look forward to. We need something to direct their gaze away from the skylight long enough for us to slip in. A distraction, put simply. As for what that distraction could be...I'm really not too sure. I would like to say that a dragon would prove a large enough cause to abandon the skylight," He glanced over at Rose before continuing.

"However, I honestly can't see how that wouldn't tip them off to the possibility that it's a ruse. No, we need something that seems casual and likely for that area....Although honestly, I have no clue as to what that may be...Infiltration, I suppose, could be useful in this case." He looked over at the unconscious grunts as they were taken away down the street. "Wait a second...they will be expecting their scouts back, won't they...? Or at least, one scout would be enough...However, this scout would have to resemble one of the men we just defeated...One person to say the job was done so they ease up on security...." He looked again at Rose, this time with a smirk. "You feeling up to it?"

~Pyre listened to what Saber said. It was a good plan. Easy and mostly foolproof. Or it would have been if the other thieves hadn't been sitting at the table next to them. The only woman at the table snapped her fingers and muttered something under her breath, casting a communication spell. The hylian's eyes flashed in that direction, but Pyralin dind't see anything out of the ordinary.

He turned back to the group. "It shouldn't be too hard for you Rose. A little shape changing, and bam. Unfortunately, then we don't have someone to fly us up there." Pyre turned to Saber, "You were doing some climbing earlier, and it shouldn't be too hard to scale a building. I'd have no problem. You up to it?"

All the while, the hylian pondered. It seemed that nothing could go wrong, but why had those thieves attacked. How could they possibly know that the newcomers in town were defiinitly a threat to the organization. What the hell was going on.

Shaking off his suspisions, he began to study the map once more, listening for Saber's response. It seemed like they would be doing quite a lot of warehouse jumping in the near future.~

Saber groaned as Pyre mentioned his foolish endeavour he had made not more than a few hours ago. "I suppose...you could call that climbing, but to me it was more like wrestling a grizzly bear. With your feet!" He sighed and looked over at Rose once again as he rubbed his elbow.

"How often can you use your ability? Will you be able to fly us up there and then transform into a thug, or will that be too taxing? Remember, we could find ourselves in the middle of a brawl, and it wouldn't do to have you tired. It's up to you."

As he waited for a reply, he cast a glance over his shoulder at the table behind them. He didn't feel comfortable for some reason...Maybe they shouldn't be discussing this in such an open place, after all, there had been men sent after them earlier, and there's always the chance there were still some hostiles around...

Hyneria looked stunned when Saber mentioned his plan, but she quickly smiled. "Nice thinking kid," she said. "I can honestly say I wouldn't have thought of that."

Rose listened to the second plan and Saber’s questions. “There is no limit to how many times a day I can shape shift,” she finally answered. “But it does get tiring if I go from form to form without rest in between, especially after large forms, like a dragon. If you guys really want a lift up to the roof, then you would have to wait for a while until I’m ready to shift forms again. However, if you want to get this over with sooner, then you would have to climb the warehouse yourself. How large are these warehouses, Hyneria?”

“Kind of large, but they’re not too high. Only one story, so it shouldn’t be too hard to climb. I think you can make it, Saber.” The Sheikah’s voice radiated confidence.

However, Rose was frowning. “I just got a bad feeling that either way we approach this, it’s not going to work the way we want. Those three guys from earlier are making me really uneasy about this; it tells me they know we’re coming. Maybe it’ll just be better to burst in.”

Hyneria thought for a while. “That is a good possibility, and I’m surprised I didn’t think about it. I can see how they’ll most likely have the upper hand, so the question is where are they going to expect us to enter? Because the way to even the odds some is to strike where they least expect it, cliché as that may sound. Thoughts anyone?”

OOC: Ugh, sorry, Pabru, I know we were discussing about how to enter stealthily, but I'm starting to see how it's not going to go quite as planned.

OOC: Oh, did I ruin something? I'm sorry....dangit....

IC: Saber listened to the description of the warehouses. One story....sure....that could work.... "We want you to be at your best for the main objective, so I suppose we could climb ourselves." He cast another anxious glance at the table behind him. His Nomadic Awareness was still nagging him, even though he couldn't see anything wrong....

"This is getting hard....We have three choices, and if we make the wrong one it could be the end of us all...but we can't tell which one is the right one unless we know what they are expecting...." As he spoke the last sentence, it hit him. He knew how to make it at least a little bit safer. "So then. I think the best thing to do would be to hit the closest warehouse head-on, full out assault. No questions. We take the front entrance, we can have Rose act as their scout so they aren't on edge, then jump out and ambush them once they lower their guard."

He looked at each of them in turn and winked, making sure his face wasn't viewable to anyone at the table behind him. "Does everyone agree?" He asked, raising his eyebrows and looking very slightly in the direction of the strangers.

~Pyre was still deliberating with himself. "An all out frontal attack is indeed tempting, and it might well be easier when taking the first warehouse, but that'll make everything else so hard. Rose can infiltrate the compound with her shapeshifting while we climb up the warehouse and slip in the through the sun roof. I think stealth is our greatest ally. Once we get in, we can take them out one at a time until we're noticed and then comence with the rest of Saber's plan"

The hylian looked back down at the map. He pointed towards the nearest warehouse. "This is the closest one, and the edge of complex. Here is the front of the warehouse, where Rose in disguise will enter. She'll then try to get as many as possible to leave the warehouse." Pyre looked up at the ranger. "Say there's a disturbance or something, and lead them away, then come back and help clean up."

He pointed back at the warehouse. "This is the side where Saber and I will climb up and reach the roof. We'll enter through the opening at the top, and take out as many of the guards as possible without being noticed. When they we us, all out attack, like Saber said. Hopefully none will escape, and while they're losing, Rose can betray them and seal it. Simple, but it might not go quite that smoothly."

He looked around at the faces of the others. "I think that's a pretty good combination of all our plans. Anyone have anything else to add, I know it's far from perfect."~

The human and the Sheikah sat there, thinking things through while the two Hylians talked. Once they are done, Hyneria spoke up, the usual cheeriness in her voice absent. "It's a hard task, no matter what. No plan is failproof and or easy, and thinking so will lead to carelessness and most likely death on our part. Even if we get most of the grunts out of one warehouse, there will still be more in the next warehouse, and more after that one. But I guess one less warehouse full of henchmen is better one more warehouse full of henchmen," she commented, her cheerfulness returning. "We'll try it your way, kid. What kind of disturbance do you want Rose to report? That is, if Rose is up to the plan." She glanced over at woman.

Rose nodded. "You better tell me what to say now. I won't be able to come up with something on the spot."