Sala Nyland, chief factor of the Kuzenko Company is getting ready for a day. Most of the staff is standing around outside the building, talking, but not doing much of anything. The two guards, the night guard and the day guard both, are blocking the door and making sure nobody enters.
"What's going on?
"Sorry, Sala, but you've got to come in here. We've had some kind of intruder. Only.. well, you'd better see for yourself."
The first floor looks normal. The front desk is fine, and Sala lets herself be lead to the back stairs, heading upwards to the second floor. The floor seems a bit dirty, but there's nothing obviously wrong with the place.
The second floor is full of horse. One of the stable horses somehow got out of its stall and climbed the stairs. That's weird. But then she makes a survey of the rest of the room.
One of the corners is full of straw. Somehow, unattended, the horse went only on the straw, leaving most of the floor clean. The rest of the walls are blocked off by furniture.
All the desks are sideways, with paper strapped to the top of each one. The papers are covered garish ink stains, or.. as she bends over to examine them more closely, thick crude brush strokes. Upon turning around, she comes face-to-face with the horse.
"..Is that an inkbrush? Did someone teach the horse to paint?"
"Not my place to speculate, ma'am. But it sure seems like it."
"Anything stolen? Anything else wrong?"
"I'm not sure, but the books are all here, all put away square. That's just a lot of scrap paper. As for anything else wrong, well, you haven't seen the third floor yet. With the other horse."
That was a long day, thinks Sala. "Although.. it could have been worse. Somehow the horses knew where they were supposed to do their business, and someone bothered to pack up enough food and water with them to keep them happy. Anyone bright enough to cause that mess wouldn't have had to be so neat about it. Still, that took a lot of cleaning. And I'm going to find out who did it."
"So, do you have any leads?" says the man across the table from her.
"Not a one. It was too skilled to be a local kid, and I can't imagine why an adventurer or one of our rivals would do something so weird. Not to mention how.. there weren't any forced windows and the guard would have seen someone entering or leaving. I mean, there's always magic.. so I'll check in at the temple and see if anyone powerful showed up in town."
At that, she trails off. She's spotted the bird that was hiding below the table as he crawls around the edge and climbs the tablecloth.
"It was me. I did it."
"What? Why?"
"Well, I need a job."
Sala Nyland, chief factor of the Kuzenko Company is getting ready for a day. Most of the staff is standing around outside the building, talking, but not doing much of anything. The two guards, the night guard and the day guard both, are blocking the door and making sure nobody enters.
"What's going on?
"Sorry, Sala, but you've got to come in here. We've had some kind of intruder. Only.. well, you'd better see for yourself."
The first floor looks normal. The front desk is fine, and Sala lets herself be lead to the back stairs, heading upwards to the second floor. The floor seems a bit dirty, but there's nothing obviously wrong with the place.
The second floor is full of horse. One of the stable horses somehow got out of its stall and climbed the stairs. That's weird. But then she makes a survey of the rest of the room.
One of the corners is full of straw. Somehow, unattended, the horse went only on the straw, leaving most of the floor clean. The rest of the walls are blocked off by furniture.
All the desks are sideways, with paper strapped to the top of each one. The papers are covered garish ink stains, or.. as she bends over to examine them more closely, thick crude brush strokes. Upon turning around, she comes face-to-face with the horse.
"..Is that an inkbrush? Did someone teach the horse to paint?"
"Not my place to speculate, ma'am. But it sure seems like it."
"Anything stolen? Anything else wrong?"
"I'm not sure, but the books are all here, all put away square. That's just a lot of scrap paper. As for anything else wrong, well, you haven't seen the third floor yet. With the other horse."
That was a long day, thinks Sala. "Although.. it could have been worse. Somehow the horses knew where they were supposed to do their business, and someone bothered to pack up enough food and water with them to keep them happy. Anyone bright enough to cause that mess wouldn't have had to be so neat about it. Still, that took a lot of cleaning. And I'm going to find out who did it."
"So, do you have any leads?" says the man across the table from her.
"Not a one. It was too skilled to be a local kid, and I can't imagine why an adventurer or one of our rivals would do something so weird. Not to mention how.. there weren't any forced windows and the guard would have seen someone entering or leaving. I mean, there's always magic.. so I'll check in at the temple and see if anyone powerful showed up in town."
At that, she trails off. She's spotted the bird that was hiding below the table as he crawls around the edge and climbs the tablecloth.
"It was me. I did it."
"What? Why?"
"Well, I need a job."
