Beggers Can’t be Choosers

Christian kept his patience. It wasn't like Liam could yell out to check out another area. That would raise red flags and spoil the whole thing. He kept his lean, and listened closely to the footsteps once Liam and his company were passed the point. He waited until he heard talking again, before he made his move.

Christian needed good footing in order to make a leap quiet enough to not cause a glance. He jumped from the supports to the beam holding them up, before he gently braced his feet and hit the ground with hardly a sound. Christian didn't waste any time; he glanced back, the two in the long hall had their backs to him. Christian reached for the sundial, and as he lifted it, he saw the zip-tie attached to the back.

Christian kept the sundial only a few inches above the table. The zip-tie ran in-between the loose space between boards in the table. While it seemed at first it was just something to prevent theft, Christian was skeptical that it was just that. He ducked his head under the table, and saw that under every artifact was a bell braced with a zip-tie. Christian resisted a sigh, before he glanced his head back to the windows. Sophia was watching from somewhere. 

Christian slowly lifted the sundial as far up as it would go without the bell hitting the table and ringing. The zip-tie was braced against the bell, so if he cut it, the bell would ring anyway, even if he caught it. His goal was to expose the zip-tie as much as he could to Sophia, so she understood their threat. He had a few options he was considering for after.

Sophia saw the zip-tie. Not right away, it was small and it took her a couple seconds to realize why Christian was just standing there. She sighed, really they should have seen something like that this coming, apparently these people weren’t as naive as they thought. She quietly slipped off her roof, and ran across the street, along side the meeting hall making sure no one would see her. She came up to the window, she had been using to look into the area that Christian was in. Luckily the windows were the type that could also be opened from the outside, if one knew how to. Which Sophia did, don’t ask her why.

Sophia used her knife to loosen the window, then she pushed it open as slowly and carefully as possible. Then she climbed in. She quickly shut it, glancing down to where Liam was still talking to the leader. Then she made her way over to Christian. She smirked, as she motioned that she would cut the zip-tie and keep the bell from sounding off if he held the Sun Dial still. Since it would be too hard for him too do both.

~~~

Liam was having a hard time getting this guy to show him the door. But at the same time, Liam had no idea if the man wouldnt get go right back in and discover Christian, and now Sophia stealing. He could just see the two over the mans shoulder, but Liam couldn’t risk to long of a glance or it would make him look suspicious, or worse make the man also look.

Christian's plans spanned from a few extremes. Plan one was to cut the tie anyway, take the ring from the bell, and go from there. Probably have to knock out the guy with Liam, and from there they'd bolt before people quite figured out what happened. Plan two was less likely, which was to take a hail mary and see if the table would come straight out from age. He gave Sophia a moment, in case she had something hidden up her sleeves.

Apparently that was the right call, because Sophia came in to join him. Christian didn't like the angle; the window was more public than the skylight, but it was what they had right now, and Christian was willing to go with it. "Hold that bell, tight." Christian whispered, he kept his tone so low that Sophia probably had to listen intently just to understand. It was imperative though, the bell was braced, and they'd have to release it somewhere far away. They didn't even know how loud it would be.

Christian followed her lead still, he took a tight grip on the sundial, and gave Sophia a nod, awaiting her to cut it.

Sophia nodded back, as she bent down under the table so she could see better. The method being used was very simple, but also extremely effective. The ziptie was attached to the sun dial by the lever of the bell. The key would be to catch the lever before it hit the bell. The bell itself was actually screwed into the table, so the only thing she would actually need to hold onto was the lever. Which was thankfully a lot easier than she had imagined.

She grabbed the lever with her right hand, tightly. That way when she cut the zip tie it wouldn’t ring, or if for some reason she couldnt keep the lever still, her hand would act like a buffer and keep the lever from hitting the actual bell. She used her left hand to cut the actual zip tie.

“Done.” She whispered, as she eased the bell down into a position that it wouldn’t go off. Then stood up.

Christian kept his grip on the sundial, and when it became free from it's restraints, he snagged the remnants of the zip-tie and stuffed them into his pockets. Only someone who walked this hall regularly would be able to identify something missing out of the massive assortment, but with a loose zip-tie, that would be an indicator to anybody who came in here. Christian looked to Liam, shining the sundial for a split moment to give him the signal. He gave him and Sophia the signal to circle back, which he was hopeful they'd interpret to meet where they had all first originally separated.

Christian gestured for Sophia to double back through the window before giving a nod of approval. He gave a glance back to the record player. It looked divine, and was giving off all kinds of vibes. Christian kicked himself. Lauren would love that more than anything. But it just could be worth putting the mission, the objective, the sundial, and his teammates at jeopardy. Christian elected to take the high way back. Yes, it was more flashy, but he had to get the skylight closed too. It was another telltale sign of an intruder that needed to be hidden as long as possible.

When all was said and done, he headed back, to where he was hoping his allies were, and if they weren't, where they would be not too long from then.

Liam caught the signal that the sun dial was in their hands now. He just barely managed to catch the second signal due to trying not to seem suspicious by looking around a lot. Liam carried on the conversation until both Christian and Sophia had gotten out of the building, then he graciously talked his way out of the door. The man turned to go back into the hall, Liam knew they only had a short amount of time before they were found out. So he made his way back to where they had originally parted ways.

~~~

Sophia had been the first to show up. She waited anxiously, for a couple minutes. She hated being the first one to show up like this during a mission like this. It made her feel like something might have happened. But alas, not more than five minutes later she spotted Christian. Then for about ten minutes after Christian reached her, they waited in silence for for Liam to catch up. Yes, the silence was awkward.

Christian did the usual checks once he was on the roof; made sure no one was on a vantage point, listened for movements and voices, and when he was in the clear, he hopped off. He made sure not to sneak back to the spot. He tucked around some buildings, leaving himself a distance from the longhouse, before he popped out. He'd rather be seen twice than only once; otherwise the second the sundial goes missing, it's his fault. Being seen twice makes him a visitor, and although they'd figure it out sooner or later, each moment they didn't was good for him.

He'd made it back where they would all meet up, and Sophia was already there. He'd taken the chance to pop some pain killers before he made it into her line of sight. Christian didn't give her much acknowledgement. He took the moment to evaluate the sundial, rather than keep the moment a waste. He took care to keep his back to the settlement. They realistically wouldn't be seen here, but he thought it was better safe than sorry. The amount of gears on it was insane. Just holding it let out pulses of power through his veins. He could feel his cuffs vibrate in their case. The sundial was for sure what they were looking for.

Once Liam showed up, Christian put his hand between the three of them with the sundial. "Give them an hour or so to realize it's gone, give them another to figure out it was me or you." He referred to Liam. "Give them one more to confirm we're all together." Christian concluded. "Then a final hour to realize we've been on the road since they found out the sundial was gone." Christian tucked the sundial in his gear for safety, before he began to head to the car. The sooner, the better.

Liam caught up quickly, after finally being able to ditch the leader in front of some other town building. He was the last one to arrive at the rendezvous point, and after listening to Christian speak Liam’s only comment had been, “It’s a lot smaller than I thought it was going to be...”

Now they’d been walking for about five hours, and were only a little over half way back to the car. It felt nice to be heading home, course they weren’t completely done yet, anything was possible in the next three hours it would take too get to the car. But the hard part was technically over. They had the sun dial, finally.

The walk was cold and long, and Christian found himself, again, thankful for the Quebecian blood. Not to mention they had the sun, which meant they had more warmth, vision, and direction. The way Christian saw it was that it was a win for them, despite the long trek home. When they made it back, Christian wanted a long nap before he was back to work, but he knew often that those luxuries were long lost on Centurions. Even Liam and Sophia probably wouldn't get time off after getting back from this quest.

Christian was comfortable with the silence, which is what ensued for most of their time. When there was talking, it was almost entirely Sophia and Liam to one another, and Christian only ever made a point to say something if it was relevant to their trail home. The drive from Alaska to California was the easy part, but as long as they made it to the Canadian border, Christian was positive they'd have no problems after that besides the lingering silence.

The trio had been crossing up a slippery slope near a ledge and shallow cliff. When Christian suddenly gathered the initiative to glance up at an angle. He didn't even realize what he was looking at at first, with the white slimey fur at a distance. Then he recognized the thing, it looked exactly like one of the snow trolls from the pit they'd seen the night before. It had been holding a massive rock, and it hurled it in their direction. 

"...Rock, duck!" Christian got out, making a dive of his own out of the way. The slope they were on literally vibrated as the rock made contact with it. Christian could feel himself sliding towards a ledge. He looked back to the troll, who was rushing them. Before he could make a plan, three more came from the other side. Christian struck at one, making a lucky strike on the side of it's face, before he got a clean stab in it's head.

One grabbed him, lifting him up. Christian was frustrated at the lack of effort this thing exhibited, as though Christian was a snack or something. The legacy dug in his pocket. He wasn't sure he'd survive the incoming fall, let alone the sundial. He grabbed it, before yelling "Liam!" He chucked the artifact forward towards the Centurion of Cohort One. He'd rather die without the dial, so that the quest could still be finished.

Sophia ducked when she heard Christian call duck. The boulder sailed right over her head, and had been inches away from actually hitting her. When she stood up again, she was met with a charging troll coming right at her. Pulling her knife out, she charged right back at it, jumping up, she kicked both her feet at it, just barely pushing it away. Then stabbed her knife down into its head. She smirked as she turned to help the others.

Liam dove out of the way, it was concerning the way that the rock landed and shook the slope they had been walking on. Avalanches were a thing to be worried about on a slope like this. Liam had just stabbed a troll through the chest when Christian yelled his name, he turned to find the sun dial being thrown right at him. Liam caught it, slipped it into his bag then ran forward to try and help Christian. He glanced over to Sophia, maybe she was closer, but she wasn't even though she was definitely running towards them.

The one troll was a problem enough. He took note of the massive leather collar on it, and he began to piece together that these were pets to the people of that settlement. It made sense in his head. How much work they could do, the thousands of pounds they could lift, and the fierce illusion of territory they would give to enemy monsters. Snow trolls were the answers to how a civilization of mist-passers could possibly exist in Alaska. Christian saw more coming his way, but he kept his focus on the sundial until it was in Roman hands again. Once it was, he could finally breathe again.

Christian used his feet to pry the grip the troll had on him away, with some success. He then bit into the scaly, thick, slimy hand. He wanted to hurl, but it was necessary. A beastly roar came from the troll that had him. His plan worked; but it worked too well, when the troll took his bitten hand, with Christian in it, and whipped it off the ledge. Christian flew down, probably at half to terminal velocity, before he luckily hit an icy ledge off of the side of their cliff. Although he was alive, Christian wouldn't have described himself as lucky.

The fall was brutal enough, Christian was sure it would catch up to him eventually. The impact was brutal, and he was praying his spine was still in tact. He could feel jagged ice digging straight through his skin and flesh. But for now he ran on adrenaline. He saw two of the trolls climbing down to him. He had an idea, it meant he'd die, but he figured it was worth it as long as the trolls died first.

Liam cursed at himself, he hadn't made it over in time to stop the troll from throwing Christian across the slope and over the edge. Liam quickly stabbed the ice troll through the back, straight through its heart then ran for the ledge he had seen Christian fall off of. Two trolls had already beaten him to climbing down, and the only thing the centurion could think of doing that might work was jumping for it. He was going to regret it, it was going to hurt a lot. For him, and Christian, but mostly for the trolls so the plan as solid as it was going to get. He took out both his swords, and jumped off the ledge. He had definitely had better ideas...

Liam looked down as he fell, he would fall directly in between the two trolls. He smirked, they were climbing just close enough that if Liam extended both his arms out from his sides, he could stab each of the trolls through their heads using his swords. He did just that, the only issue was he didn't know where they were all going to land just yet. Luckily the ledge that Christian was on was small, and the two dead trolls fell right past the ledge, landing somewhere far below them.

Liam just managed to break his own fall, and ended up half falling half sliding down the cliff side. He landed next to Christian. "Hey." He said.

~~~

Sophia had stabbed a third troll in the face, when out of the corner of her eye she watched Christian get tossed over the ledge and then watch Liam choose to jump over the side. She sighed, she was sure both of them were probably now dead. Rowan was going to kill her for letting her brother die, stupidly. And Aspen was going to haunt her ass for the rest of her life, then when Sophia finally died at a very old age, Aspen would probably greet her by killing her. Ok, so she was being dramatic, but Rowan would NOT be happy, and neither would her sister if she were still alive.

The youngest of the group stabbed the last troll in the throat, then ran after them.

Christian reached down for his folding knife. He was nearly saddened by how much he was about to dull it, but he didn't think that the sharpness of his knife would be what Pluto would judge him for. The two trolls were coming, and Christian wouldn't be able to win a close-quarters call in his state. He needed a few minutes to walk this off, and hopefully let the bleeding stop. He'd happily die finishing the mission instead though. He got to his knees, quickly working against the chunks of ice that connected this ledge and the cliff. Christian hacked and slashed with the knife, determined to take these two assholes down with him, until suddenly there was a loud thud.

Christian found himself heavily breathing as the adrenaline and determination wore off, and he was no longer in a suicidal trance. "Hey." He managed to reply after what had been probably a solid fifteen seconds of just breathing. It had been an experience and a half for Christian, and he felt worse having gone for it. The blunt trauma and cuts would go away, but not the memories. He made it back to his feet. If anything, he hated the abundance of vulnerability that he felt right now. Christian knelt down to the collar, and ripped it from the troll.


"Not to be ungrateful, but, the sundial was more important." Christian insisted. He hurt all over from that throw. But he didn't want the pain to go away. He wanted to remember what they'd done to him, so he didn't forgive too easily. "I wanted to live. Thank you." Christian said. He hated swallowing his pride to thank him. It was quite possibly harder to do than standing was after the throw. "I think the car's a trap. And I think I want to get even with these assholes."

Liam stood up, carefully. He had landed a bit harder then he had planned, but was otherwise completely fine. “The sundial is perfectly safe.” Liam answered, but he figured Christian was swallowing a lot of pride and probably more by thanking him, so he just nodded. It’s not like Liam had actually expected it anyway. He did agree, their car was definitely going to be a trap. “Yeah, but before we get even... we should probably get back up there.” Liam said, pointing up to where they had both fallen from.

Though Liam had to give these people credit, for just average humans. They managed to tame a ton of monsters and get them to do their bidding, it was actually pretty ingenious, if not also just as sick and twisted. “You ok? Think you can manage to climb back up?” Liam asked, switching his thoughts back to their current situation.

Christian did what he'd been taught when he first got in the Legion. He evaluated his wounds, and felt blessed that, at least as it appeared, there were no broken bones. "Yeah, I think I will." Christian told Liam in regards to climbing. He almost wondered if he even believed himself. There was snow below, but they'd break their legs, best case scenario, if they jumped. So Christian toughened up. It was times like this that he had to remind himself he was a Centurion. He had to always give it his best. Even if it was the worst idea ever.

His climbing was sluggish, far slower than Liam's, and was a joke compared to how he could normally climb. But Christian bared his teeth and made the effort to keep going. After what was probably only a few minutes, but felt like hours, Christian pawed his way to the top, where Liam and Sophia were.

"I have an idea, if you're in." He hastily announced.

Liam climbed to the top easily enough, though it was hard to find good enough rocks to grip at some points. He glanced down at Christian a couple times. When he finally pulled himself up onto the top, he was met by Sophia who looked mostly unscathed, except for the troll blood that was in her hair. He took a moment to catch his breath. "Whats the idea?" He asked, standing up and brushing the snow off himself.

~~~

"Let's hear it then." Sophia said, she eyed both of them. Neither looked like they were seriously wounded, which was a good thing cause Sophia wasn't too great at healing blunt force trauma.

Christian's wrists felt more shaken than the rest of him, and after his wrists, his spine. It was like his bones were still vibrating from that awful fall. It'd have been one thing if he slipped, but that troll propelled him. "I was gonna take the ledge down, kill the trolls with me." Christian explained, putting the foundations of the idea out front for the pair to think about. "I recognize the glimmer." Christian pulled out the collar from the troll, it had tags like a dog, but instead of a name it had assignment. It read "North Pin" on it, and Christian was sure the others were beginning to figure it out too by now.

"They're not fighters." Christian said. "The fact is, all it would take is one angry person to take down their whole settlement." Christian elaborated. "We hit these pins, not even with our weapons. We bring the snow down on them, take them down without risking another scratch. Then we tell them how it is." Christian put down the plan forward with some outright angst. Bringing down avalanches on monsters in itself wasn't wrong, but Christian wasn't thinking of the moral logistics at this point either way.

Sophia thought for a moment, "yeah but what would be the point? We already got what we came for. Also it'll be way to hard to find every single one of those pins." It wasn't that she was against the idea, but what was the point in it if they already got what they had come for. Also the idea of leaving her cohort with Davis any longer than she needed to made her very nervous.

"How would we find all the pins? We know one must be to the north of the settlement, we could probably assume a south, east, and west pin also... but whose to say they're all in areas where we can cause an avalanche. Avalanches are unpredictable, there's no safe way to cause one." Liam asked, then sort of answered his own question. He was actually down with the idea of getting rid of the monsters. He just didn't think avalanches was the smartest idea.

"The car's a trap." Christian said. "I'd rather be the one springing a trap than walking into one." Christian knew that much better than before, considering a foot wider, and he'd be dead. Christian's anger didn't submerge back under the surface. He kept his calm, but on the inside, he was no longer willing to let them think they could toy with Rome and get away with it without consequences. Roman consequences, at that.

"The way I see it, it has to be the smell, right?" Christian explained. "The presence of trolls around isn't enough to deter the others, the smell would have to be consistent. The four gotta be, what, a mile out, at most?" Christian inquired. "I'll do it myself." Christian offered. He pulled out the keys, if either wanted them. If he was being honest, it wasn't like skipping the 40 plus hour awkward drive wouldn't be the worst thing.

"Don't look at me, I can't drive yet." Sophia said, watching as Christian held out the keys to the car. "Besides, like you said, the car's a trap. I'm in, I just want to know why." She added, she'd much rather spring whatever trap is at the car and just leave. But maybe taking down the defenses around the village was the smart thing to do, even if it wasn't really in their instructions to do so.

~~~

Liam didn't say anything, he had never said he wasn't down for fucking shit up in the first place. "But like, we should probably find all the pits first before we do anything." He said, not acknowledging the keys in Christian's hand.