Searching for. . . . . something (open)

Cairo sighed as she sat down on an empty barrel that had been conveniently upended in the alley-way she was pacing through. She'd spent the last five hours searching for someone, anyone, that knew who it was she was looking for. Not that even she herself knew who or even what she was looking for. Finding her father was always lingering on the edge of her mind but knowing that she wasn't human deterred her from that path. There was also the possibility of joining a pirate crew but her lack of fighting abilities and her fear of heights made that near impossible. The next thing that crossed her mind was the possibility of her being followed, her ears picked up on a somewhat familiar set of heartbeats and ducked back into the shadows as people who seemed to have a high authority walked by. Those people were just patrolling the streets and she knew there was nothing about them that could harm her but there was just a sense, a gut feeling, that she was being followed. Cairo dismissed it as paranoia - the feeling had been following her since before she had even entered the city. It didn't help that instead of walking about in the daylight as she should be she had been lurking around in the shadows.

Cairo sank down the wall to sit on the not-so-clean ground. She sat there, picking at a loaf of bread, just waiting for something to happen.

The Keep was as busy as ever, life bustled by to and fro as people went about their lives. Traders hawked their wears, sailors unloading and loading cargo at the docks shouted warnings and instructions to one another as they worked. Those who had finished their work made their way toward the streets where they'd mix and mingle with all the other colorful inhabitants of Twin Keep. Some of these sailors were good honest men, traders and their ilk, others were pirates. With the alliance between the Steva nation and the pirate bands the place was often crawling with the underhanded thieves, yet there  was little trouble among the towns. The people of the nation and he pirate had an understanding, stealing and killing was not allowed within Steva's borders, even pirates would be charged with such crimes, they were expected the act some what honestly on Steva's land. In tern the government turned a blind eye to the smuggling and other businesses the pirates ran. It wasn't an ideal partnership in any means, but they managed somehow, the need to survive was a powerful thing.

Some of these pirates belonged to the nefarious pirate ship The Stargazer, a rather unassuming ship that had docked earlier that morning. Among those men who had disembarked was the captain. After leaving strict instructions to the party assigned to remain with the ship, Trey eagerly disappeared into the crowd. After a time of wandering, as he often did, he noticed a certain woman sticking to the shadows before vanishing in the back alleyways. His eyes narrowed as a dark shadow followed after her. Casually he left he busy street and entered the alleyway the woman had entered. Keeping a safe distance from the stranger he silently followed, he wasn't entirely sure why he felt at unease, but that shadow hadn't left him with a very good feeling. So he resorted to stalking the girl until he was certain there was nothing wrong. If it turned out his instincts were right, he'd be close enough to lend a helping hand, if he was wrong and she wasn't in any danger he could quietly slip away without her ever knowing he was there.

Cairo paused, her head bowed, listening to the nearing footsteps. There was a young man, not any older she was, and an older man farther behind him. Neither seemed to intend malice but both were trying not to be discovered. The younger one sounded quite familliar though, the elder stalker was a stranger. Cairo sighed audibly as she stood up and put her bread back into her satchel. Keeping her gaze lowered she walked in the opposite direction of the two men and hid further down the alley where the two would inevitably pass by in front of her. As the younger man passed by she reached out to grab the coller of his poorly tailored shirt. Keeping a calm and collected visage she barely noticed as her finely stitched repairs to her youngest brother's shirt protested to the strain.

"I thought, Peyson, that you were supposed to have stayed home out of trouble. Do our parents know you're out here? Or did you run off to follow me without telling anyone? No, forget I asked, you're going straight home anyways."

Cairo released her brother's shirt before it could rip, sighing as he struggled to keep his balance. The other person didn't seem to be leaving, so Cairo called out to him too.

"And you, what are you skulking about in the shadows for? No one is going to kill you. And if you thought you could be some sort of vigilante and slip off unnoticed you were horribly mistaken. I can hear every move you're making."