The Thievery Wish by Bugz Rox (children's books read aloud .txt) 📕

I elbowed him in the ribs, hard enough that he let go but not hard enough to injure. I continued making pancakes till someone spoke up.

"Wow, how'd you get Dezzy?" Jessie asked, motioning towards the retriever at my feet.

"We busted a few animal breeding farms a few years back, a female breeder who just had puppies died. She was one of the puppies that was left motherless. She was in the worst shape; hypothermia, starving, abuse. I took her becaue I was not allowed to keep all of them," I replied, still making pancakes, the stack had grown impeccably tall. I ran out of mix and set the pancakes on the table. Grabbing plates for everyone, Mekhi joined. Danny had grabbed the silverware while Zane had grabbed glasses. I went to the fridge and got the milk and OJ out, placing them on the table with everything else.

"Do you guys do this often? 'Cuz you seem pretty coordinated," Carly asked as We went about knowing exactly what we needed to do.

"I came here shortly after my third birthday, to uphold the treaty. Mekhi came when I was nine, he had just turned fifteen, the usual time that they were chosen to be some apprentice or another. He is twenty-three now, we have been doing this for eight years. You get to know what you need to get and what the people around you will get," I said, sitting down with Mekhi, Danny, and Zane. Zane gesured for everyone to grab a seat.

"Why're there so many chairs?" Justin asked.

"I'm old, the Nightees know I'm good at what I do. The only reason Kitten's not seen as better than me is because she's younger and a girl. The used to call her runt because she hardly looked intimidating with her big violet eyes, freckles, and hair down to her waiste. Anyway there are so many chairs because sometimes we have meetings here," He said, shrugging.

"Are you sure it's because she's a girl and not because she has less experience?" Victory asked rudely.

"Oh, I'm sure alright. This girl's got more experience than most of the older of us, I think that would include me. And incase you're wondering, for us, experience doesn't mean you were there, I've been to many of Shad's things, it means you took a rule in it," Zane said, smiling slightly.

"So I have two questions, one did she ever show them that looks can be deceiving, and two you guys seem to be waiting for something to eat," Jessie said. Zane smiled at her.

"Oh yeah, she show'd us all that we had previously underestimated our opponents. One guy, he'd just turned sixteen when she came, his name's Zeke, he was relentless. Always picking on her, calling her runt and weakling, finally she snapped. She showed everyone that she wasn't to be messed with. Wanna tell them what you did, Kitten?" Zane asked.

"I put Zeke on his ass, six of his friends rushed me, six growing teenagers against one little kid that was not even four yet. When the adults came, I was standing amid a pile of groaning bodies all with one thing broken or another, smiling sweetly at the three of his friends that had actually seen how expertly I had grounded Zeke and had not rushed me. All the adults knew was that a disturbance was amoung the apprentices and that there were three teenage boys backing away from a little sweet-looking girl," I said, smiling at the memory.

"Yeah, I happened to be one of the adults that came to the scene. I remember thinking, 'What the hell?' when I saw how carefully these boys were backing away from my apprentice, as well as Zeke and his friends. Everyone of their stories were the same; the boys attacked her, she snuffed them out. One boy actually said, 'Yeah, we came at her, but she's the devil's child!'" Zane asked, smiling, like me, at the memories.

"Okay, and what exactly are you waiting for to eat?" Carly asked.

"We got into the habit of saying something before we eat," Mekhi said, placing one hand palm up and one palm down slightly above the table. I did the same, sliding my palm up hand underneath his palm down one, so the palms of our hands were touching. Zane did the same with my other hand while Mekhi smiled encouragingly at Victory. She slowly slid her hand onto his, holding out her other one to Sam. It only took a few minutes but finally our circle was complete.

"Something good that happened!" Danny said from beide Zane.

"Good idea! I believe everyone has something good to say about something today," I said, smiling down at my Danny-bear. "Zane?"

"Mekhi and you haven't got into a single fight," He said, smiling fondly at us.

"Kitty-Kat's back! With friends!" Danny said. I chuckled.

"Jessie?" I asked.

"I got out of that God-awful prison," She said. I set my sightless eyes on Carly, right next to her twin.

"Ditto." I shook my head.

"No, it has to be from you," I said, frowning.

"I trusted you and found myself in a nice place, surrounded by peace," She said slowly. I nodded and smiled.

"I got some great exercise," Justin said from beside Carly. I grinned at him, he was talking about the nice long walk here.

"I made a new friend," Sam said, directly to Justin's left. He looked at Mekhi who smiled.

"I think I found people that actually care," Victory said quietly, we all stared at her until Zane spoke.

"Everyone here cares," He said firmly.

"I got my little sister back, and learned that I'll never be cut out to be a thief after all so I renewed my hope with piracy," Mekhi spoke with a goofy smile, making us laugh out any remaining tension from Victory's confession. My turn.

"I enlarged my family," I said, looking at all of them, including Victory who stared back, surprised.

 We moved to the living room, sending Danny off to bed. Zane soon got to business, where would we all be?

"Okay, so plans for this week; your friends can go and leave and hopefully not get caught by the police, while Mekhi, Shad, and I start out for the Signing. That way we have a descent camp spot, your friends are free, and everyone is over all happy. That sound good?" Zane said, ticking everything off his fingers as he went.

"No, where S goes, we go," Jessie said, dead serious. "To the Signing?" She nodded, "With us?" Again she nodded. "Do you even know what the Signingis about?"

"It's about world peace between people that are often heard but not seen," Justin said into the sudden silence after Zane's question.

"You did your homework," He grumbled.

"Not really, S explained it pretty badly when we asked her about it, can you give us a better explaination?" Sam asked.

"How much did she tell you?"

"She told us that the Signing had stopped the war between four peoples that were hidden in plain sight. She also said that the Signing was made possible because three of the four peoples agreed to sharea child that didn't have blood from anyone. Thus stopping the war and making enemies and friends of thedifferent clans in each people. There was also something about the fourth nation being brought in by default."Justin replied, summing up what I had told them. 

"Yes, and did she tell you that when the child accepted to be shared, many people have begun to want that child dead because they lay to gain something if the war happens? We've held it off with the Signing for fifteenyears, how much longer until someone gets in a lucky shot and our treaties all fall apart?" Zane said.

"Lay off, Zane, I have not been killed yet," I told them angrilly. 

"No, not yet, but Raziuli got pretty close," I paled at the mention of Raziuli, shuddering as the memoryof standing over his grinning lifeless body went thru my mind.

"Damn Zane! Can you be any more of an ass!?!" Mekhi yelled, wrapping his arms around me and glaring at our mentor. Justin, Sam, the Twins, and Victory sat looking between the three of us, me and Mekhi cuddling on the couch, Zane looking lost. 

"I'm sorry, Kitten, I lost my temper. I don't want to end up losing you," Zane said, looking at the ground. 

"Papa? What'd you do to Kitty-Kat?" Danny asked, crawling between Mekhi and I. He was apparentlystill tired as he didn't even keep his eyes open for the answer.

"Okay, what's with the derogative cat names?" Victory asked.

"Do you even know what the word 'derogative' means?" I ased, sighing.

"I'm serious," She said, "What gives?" 

"If you must know, I have never really liked water. I can swim, I would be stupid if I could not, what with who I am, but I really, really hate the stuff. So, that became something I lived by, everyone knows I fear the water but they also know I can shove that fear into the passenger seat to get the job done," I replied. 

"Why would you tell people something you fear if there are people that want you dead?" Victory asked incrediously. 

"It would have been too hard to hide, being as I have spent a good deal of time on a ship, cats fear water,when I was little a man used to call me his Little Kitten, the name just kind of stuck. Everyone started calling me some variation of Kitten. Zane, are we going with the Bandit?" I directed the last part at Zane. 

"Do you want to?" He asked warily. I nodded, a smile lighting up my face. "Well then, who exactly is going?" 

"I don't know about Tweedle Dee and Dum, and the extras, but I'm not that good at dodging the heat, so I'm in," Victory said, I burst out laughing, the high pitched sound startling her, "What?" 

"If you were so good at dodging the pigs, you would not have been in that jail, so I am asuming that means none of you guys are very good at it," I said, still giggling. 

"She has a point, that'd make a lot of sense," Mekhi said. 

"If she's so good at it, how'd she get caught?" Victory asked.

"I was hounding out at the Underground's Overground, sleeping, you know, the usual, when I heard sirens, told everyone to get out, and stayed back to find the police trying to pick up a six year old girl. I stopped them, takingthe heat from the girl to the imposing tall person with weapons strapped across their back," I said, shrugging.

"Underground's Overground? So is that like aboveground where we are now? Or is the Underground not really underground? Someone explain this please!" Victory said from the doorway where she'd been lounging.

"The Underground is the thieves' hangout, it is litterally under the ground. There are two ways to get in, both of which you'd need to have a thieves' guild thief with you. One is a family gravehouse for the first thief, awesome place really, who would think to look in a person's grave when it is not even known the were