Name: Calina Pandraes
Age: 23
Short Bio: Like many children who begin life as a street urchin, Calina learned the fine art of pickpocketing at an early age. Even with two living parents, she spent most of her time on her own and on the streets. Her MO was to leave a piece of polished beach glass in place of whatever she nicked from people or vendors. One day she made the same mistake all young rogues make, she stole from the wrong person. In her case it was a member of the local Thieves Guild. The only thing that saved her was the fact that she had managed to get his purse into her own pack before he caught her. He took her to see the guildmaster, who was also quite impressed with her nimble fingers. They offered to make her a member of the guild, with all the protection and benefits that entailed. She readily agreed and has been working for them ever since.
Personality: Witty and charming, she has always had a magnetic charisma. The sad puppy-dog eyes have been working for the past fifteen years and she never hesitates to use them. She likes a good laugh and will try to cheer people up around her.
Description and/or Picture:

Name: Feriah Tunston
Age: 17
Short Bio: Feriah grew up with everything she could have ever wanted; the daughter of a powerful king, but she was never quite content. As an only child, it was inevitable that the burden of the crown would eventually be hers, however, her true and secret passion was sailing. When she's not surrounded by nobles or tutors, she's shut away in her room reading tales of dashing pirates and hidden treasure. Her older brother would tell her stories of his trips to different countries, and she dreamed that one day she would get to travel, hopefully he would let her when he became king. But unfortunately, he died of an illness when she was 16, and she was devastated. Feriah knew that from then on, she would be expected to be a "proper" lady, and sometime in the future, queen.
Personality: She's not the typical "damsel in distress" princess. From when she was just a kid she was taught to ride a horse, swim, and shoot a bow, but when her older brother died, she had to give it up with the expectation that one day she would be queen, and wouldn't need such skills. Now she spends her free time sulking or avoiding her ladies-in-waiting. She hates the constant attention, the daily visits from the court physicians to make sure she's healthy, and most of all, the unending monotony of it all.
Description and/or Picture: Picture's on its' way, but since it's not colored in anyway, she has light blond hair, hazel eyes, and fair skin. She's tall and thin, and overall very princess-y.

Calina was alone at the bar sipping at a mug of Moonflow Wine. The bartender had given her a look when she asked for a mug of the strong liquor, but a gold piece carelessly thrown onto the counter had squelched any objections. She looked again at the wrinkled parchment clutched in her gloved hand and thought about the job she had been hired for. It had been a tough sell -- possibly deadly, but the outcome would make her the richest rogue this side of Thorn Fire Glade. Kidnapping and ransom wasn't her usual M.O. but the target was intriguing. Though she would never admit it, even to herself, that was the main reason she had agreed to take the job. She smoothed the paper out on the bar and looked over the picture again. No turning back now. She thought as she finished her drink and tossed another gold to the Orc behind the bar. She looked at the portrait for another minute before folding it once again and heading up to her room to sleep and prepare for the next day.

She woke early and packed her things. She didn't have much, just enough to fill a satchel. She paid her tab and left the bar, heading in the direction indicated on the map. It led through a small forest that separated the border of this kingdom from the next. She had been given the hand-drawn map by the guildmaster when she accepted the job. His words echoed in her mind, 'Don't fuck this up! You come back with the princess, or you don't come back at all!' She spat. He was a cruel and condescending man, but he paid well and on time. She pulled out the portrait once more and studied the girl's face. She was lovely, and there was something else about her...something Calina couldn't quite put her finger on. There was something in her eyes that said she wasn't just a princess. Lost in her thoughts, Calina was brought back to reality as she stumbled over a root, nearly falling. She caught herself and looked around, making sure she was alone. It wasn't good for a rogue's reputation to be tripping over things. She stopped and looked at the map once more. Walking slowly, she came to the edge of the tree-line that marked the border. Checking both directions to make sure she hadn't been followed, she stepped out of the trees and onto the road that would lead her closer to the castle.

Feriah sighed as sarcastically and loudly as she could with a corset torturing her insides. Her lady's maids had, yet again, wrestled her into it before unleashing her on the poor unsuspecting courtiers and servants. To say she was in a foul mood was an understatement. Currently she was being followed by a particularly annoying prince from a neighboring kingdom, come to seek her hand. She had tried to turn him down gently, as her father had asked her many times to do, but once she began to lose track of how many times he had proposed, she snapped.

"Why will you not listen?" She yelled, turning around to face him. He was handsome, she could admit that much, but he was such a fop. "I will not now, nor never shall I marry you! You're annoying and useless, and if you don't leave my sight this instant I shall harm you in ways unspeakable!"

As she watched him blanch and turn tail, she sighed again. No doubt she would be lectured once again on the importance of behaving like a lady, and sent to bed without her dinner. Rubbing her forehead with regret, she continues to walk to the library, desperate for peace and quiet. It had taken nearly an hour to lose her maids, and she had no desire to have them find her once they hear of the verbal mistreatment she gave the prince.

After several close calls involving hiding behind musty old tapestries, Feriah makes it to the library, then spends a great deal of her time picking out a book. Once she finds one, she makes her way to her hiding place; a gap in between a bookcase that for some reason was in front of a bay window. She reaches around to her back and carefully loosens the laces on her corset, then sits down with her back against the glass and opens her book, imagining herself as the terrifying pirate captain.

After some time, she hears her maids calling for her in the main area of the library, and she cringes. If they find her hiding place, she won't have a moment of peace until she can find a new one. Waiting until they were on the other side of the room, she sneaks out of her little cubby and walks to the end of the bookcase. "I'm here, you can stop panicking now." Her senior lady looked at her and shook her head, used to the princess disappearing for hours. "Your Highness, you are late for your tutors. If you miss your lessons again, your father will be most displeased." Feriah cringes, the image of her father's face turning purple from all the yelling was not one she would soon forget. "Well, then, lead the way," she says, offering up her hands like a prisoner to be shackled.

Calina made her way easily into the town surrounding the castle. It was a quiet town that had been built around the castle. The palace itself was at the top of a hill overlooking the kingdom, it's banners flying. She chewed her lip, trying to decide the best way to proceed. As she walked towards the castle she nicked an apple from a fruit stand. The owner didn't notice and as soon as he was out of earshot she bit into the juicy fruit. She frowned, wiping juice from her chin. The way she saw it, there were two way to proceed: either she tried to somehow insert herself into the castle, posing as a tutor or something, or she waited until dark and employed her cat burglar skills. The first option seemed like a lot of work and she wasn't sure she had any skills a princess could use. So it looked like she had a couple hours before she could do anything useful.

She spent the remainder of the afternoon in a bar, collecting information on the royal family. They had lost their son, the prince, just last year, leaving the princess as the only heir to the throne. The people seemed to like the princess, but there was also concern with her unwillingness to take a husband and produce her own heir. Calina was easily bored by politics, but much more interested in the princess's life before her brother's death. Riding, shooting, swimming; she almost seemed human! The more she learned about the princess, the more she wanted to learn, and she almost lost her chance to scope out the castle before the sun went down.

She left the tavern and stealthily made her way to the castle itself. It was surrounded by thick, stone battlements, but she was no stranger to scaling those. Which she did. She dropped into the courtyard and tucked herself behind a shrubbery so as to scan the grounds for guards. The kingdom must have felt secure, because she only counted three patrols; this would be an advantage. Along with the map and portrait, she had been given a rough floor plan of the castle itself. It indicated that the princess's room was in the top of the eastern tower. Calina easily made her way to the base of the tower and examined it. Scaling it would require her specialized equipment. It was dark now, the full moon rising over the land. She paused for a moment to watch it bathe the kingdom in a soft silver light. It was little wonder why they had built the castle here, it was a perfect location. Abandoning her rapture, Calina dug into her bag and began to focus on the task at hand.

Inside her bag was one of her most prized possessions: a set of immovable rods. She had saved for years to afford these beauties! She gently removed them from their velvet-lined box and cradled them in her hands. There were four of them; two for her hands and two for her feet. She took the first one and positioned it in the air next to the tower. She pressed the button and gave it a couple test tugs. It held firm, floating in mid-air. She smiled and set the second on in the same fashion. Then she began to climb, releasing and attaching the rods much like a ladder, until she reached what she assumed to be the princess's bedroom. She crouched on the sill and replaced the rods in their box before silently pushing the window open and slipping inside, silent as a shadow.

Having spent the rest of her day being lectured by her tutors, yelled at by her father, poked and prodded by the physician, then poked and prodded some more by her ladies, Feriah was ready to pass out by the time she finally got back to her room. A few minutes were spent on struggling her way out of her horribly restrictive clothes. Once she was free of them, they were unceremoniously tossed on the floor in a corner. She knew her ladies wouldn't approve, but there was a reason they had no part in her undressing anymore. With a long suffering groan, she flops very ungracefully into the chair in front of her desk, pulling open a drawer to look for a candle. Once she finds one she puts it in the candelabra and fumbles around trying to light it with a stick from her fire.

Suddenly she jumps, dropping the smoldering stick, and swears in a very un-princessly way. She sticks her fingers in her mouth and kicks the stick back into the fire, still grumbling. A servant quietly knocks on her door, and she shouts irritably, "I'm fine, leave me alone! Go drink ale, or whatever it is you peasants do!" Instantly she realizes that, as the future queen that probably wasn't the wisest thing to say, but she just sighs and sits back down, resolving to apologize in the morning. Giving her hand a good shake, she pulls a book out of her desk, and settles in to read a rousing tale of adventure, daydreaming of having one of her own someday.

After several minutes of reading the same line over and over, Feriah leans her head back and looks out the window.

I wish you were here, Brother. You actually wanted to be king, and you had such grand plans, she thinks, trying to keep the tears from welling up. He had died so suddenly that her mother and father had been far too overprotective of her since, afraid that she, too, would succumb to disease. The kingdom had been wracked with civil war some decades earlier, and it was her father's greatest fear that he would be the king to send his country back into turmoil. Thinking about her brother inevitably led her to think about how relaxed her life had been before his death. Her life had been full of all sorts of activities that proper ladies frowned upon, but she never cared. As long as her father allowed her to do as she pleased, she didn't care what was said about her. Sometimes she envied the noblemen and their lives, though. They were allowed to sail away and explore, or fight wars; something she didn't particularly want to do, but why couldn't she if she wanted to?

With the thought of gender equality and the typical teenager attitude of how unfair life is, she glares at the wall, unaware of her window being opened and someone entering her room. Feriah gets up out of her chair when she feels the cool breeze, whispering, "I'm sure that window was closed earlier." With a mental shrug, she closes it, thinking it was probably time for her to get some sleep.

The princess was awake when she made her way through the window. She let out a silent sigh when it was clear she hadn't been spotted. She watched with some curiosity as the girl readied herself for bed. Calina took stock of the room from her place behind the thick and voluminous curtains. She frowned as her eyes lit on the pile of clothes in the corner, and suddenly it occurred to her that the princess was alone. The princess was alone. This never happened! She looked around the room suspiciously, expecting to see a maid or a guard or someone lurking in one of the corners. But sure enough, she and the princess were alone.

She waited another twenty minutes until she was reasonably sure the princess was asleep. She left her hiding place and began to explore the room, silent as an owl. The room was lavish, but there was a careless and lived-in feeling about it that didn't seem like royalty. She made her way to the desk and picked up the book the girl had been reading. She carried it to the window, glancing at the princess to make sure she was still sleeping. By the light of the moon, Calina cracked open the book and read a passage on the marked page: The dashing captain barked orders to his men as he bravely stared down the leviathan. The sea roared and roiled, washing over the deck and sweeping a few unwary men into the briny deep. But the captain would not be shaken. He would see the monster dead, even if he went down with it... A sound from the bed startled her and she snapped the book shut, ducking into a shadow.

"Lady Midia?" The princess mumbles, awoken from her light sleep by what she thought to be one of her ladies sneaking into her room to clean up her mess. She raises herself halfway off her bed, looking around the room. Seeing nothing, she falls onto her back and promptly rolls over, curling her body around a pillow. Feriah was now completely awake, and rather annoyed that one of her ladies had tried to sneak into her room while she was asleep. She was notorious throughout the palace's staff as an incredibly light sleeper after throwing the clean chamber pot left in her room one night at a maid's head. The maid had been terrified, but she didn't know that the princess wasn't even trying to hit her, just scare her enough to keep the servants from coming back into her room.

Feriah sighs mournfully, knowing she won't be going back to sleep any time soon, and resigns herself to get up. After all, she did have an assignment from one of her tutors requiring her to write out what she would do if presented with several distinctly different legal issues. She had struggled her entire lesson with one in particular; "Two noblemen come to you, each claiming to have the rights to a certain strip of land between their duchies. To whom do you side with and why? Her first reply, which had earned her a stinging rap on the knuckles with her tutor's cane, had gone something along the lines of "let them fight over it, why do I care?"

So she gets out of bed, stretches very slowly and yawns before trudging to the fireplace to light another small stick and light her candle. Now being able to see, she unrolls some parchment and unstoppers a bottle of ink, then rests her chin on her left hand and sighs. Unfortunately, the only thing that flows from her quill are little doodles, a sight her tutors had long since grown used to.

Calina stood stock-still behind the curtains, not believing her stroke of luck! Against all odds, the princess sat alone in her room. It was now or never...Calina pulled a strip of gag cloth from her pack along with a cloth bag to act as a blindfold. She would have to move quickly, before the princess had time to call for help. Silent as a shadow, she slipped from behind the velvet and crossed the floor with the speed of a cat. In a flash she wrapped the gag around the girl's mouth and pulled the bag over her head. Next, she pulled the silk rope from her belt pouch and skillfully pinned the princess's limbs together. With a rush of adrenalin, she hoisted the girl over her shoulder and heads for the window.

Looking down at the ground, it is clear she can't go down the way she came up. But, always the resourceful one, she anchors one of her rods and ties another length of rope to it. Wrapping her feet and holding on with one hand, she begins to slide down the rope, wriggling princess in tow.