Bounty-ful

Upon landing on the roof, Ephraim aimed his gun at the form of the fallen figure and advanced cautiously, looking to see where his previous shots had struck.

Thea looked around, but Aurelia was nowhere to be found. The bookkeeper was missing as well, which was either a good sign or a very bad one.

***

Kestrel took as much of a run as she could and leaped to the other building, stumbling when she overshot and nearly bumping into Ephraim. She could see immediately that the assassin wasn't about to go anywhere of his own power. He'd taken one bullet just below his right shoulderblade, which explained why he'd stopped climbing. Kestrel couldn't see the other bullet hole, but from the amount of blood pooling under him, that shot had probably hit somewhere too.

Ephraim approached the assassin with his revolver pointed him. "Assuming he's human, he's either dead, or will be soon." he said, before firing the buckshot into back of the fallen form's head, blowing a large hole in it.

Thea called up to the others, "our companion has vanished, as has the assassin's target...I would suggest we find them with all haste..."

Kestrel winced at the sound of Ephraim's gun and the blood splatter that followed. She struggled internally for a moment as to whether or not she should look at the mess. Part of her said that there was no need to look at something you knew you weren't going to like. A bigger part of her, the one that had grown stronger over the last couple of months, said that she was responsible for this. She was the one who took the commission, she was the one who pursued the assassin, she was supposed to be in charge. And that meant that she needed to start learning to live with what happened when she ran into a target that wasn't wanted alive. She looked, and with a good deal of willpower, her stomach heaved but didn't eject its contents. She turned to Ephraim.

"Let's go find Aurelia."

Not hearing any reply from the rooftop, Thea turned into her fox form and began tracking Aurelia from where they had last seen her.

Ephraim nodded, holstering his gun. Looking around, he spoke to Kestrel. "Do you know where she might have gone? A secret bolthole, or rendezvous point, perhaps?"

Kestrel shrugged.

"We just got into town, really. I don't think there's anywhere she thought I'd know well enough to find without her. She knows the city fine, though."

The scent led Thea to an alley so clogged with garbage that Aurelia's scent disappeared completely. Based on the trail to the alley, Thea suspected that Aurelia had done that on purpose.

Ephraim mulled this over for a moment. "All right" he said after a moment, shrugging, "let's head back to the ship for now. At this hour, that seems as likely as anywhere."

Thea returned to where she has left the others and changed back into the form she has worn at the beginning of this little adventure. She assumed that Aurelia had her reasons for disappearing, and she would be found when she wanted to be found. Thea would let the others know of her findings when they got down to the street.

Thea quickly caught up to Ephraim and Kestrel.

"Any sign of her?" Kestrel asked hopefully, "Otherwise, we'll have to head back to the ship."

"She appears to have purposefully strayed into an alley that would disorient me and thus cause me to lose her scent. It appears she has intentionally vanished." Thea told the others, sounding a bit concerned.

Kestrel laughed.

"If she did anything on purpose, I'm sure she's fine. Let's get back to the ship."

Kestrel then proceeded to get them all lost twice on the way back. So much for being a leader, she thought ruefully.

Thea smiled each time they got lost, but refrained from teasing Kestrel again so soon...she didn't want to upset her so soon after they had met. Her concern for Aurelia had disappeared after speaking with the others, and she was content to follow along while taking in their surroundings.

It was a good 45 minutes before the three arrived back at the ship. Kestrel stepped aboard and paused, holding a hand up.

"I think there's someone there," she whispered.

Thea shifted into her fox form and tried to catch the scent of the person inside.

In the meantime, Ephraim drew his revolver, checked that it was loaded, flipped off the safety, and readed it. "Do you want to go in first, or shall I?" Ephraim asked in a whisper.

Among the scents of the group from earlier, there was a different human scent that seemed familiar to Thea, though she didn't know who it belonged to.

Kestrel rubbed her temples.

"I'll go in first, since it's my ship and all. You come in behind and just yell my name when you want me to get out of your line of fire."

Ephraim tipped his hat to his captain. "Aye aye" he said, falling back into the shadows to cover her.

Kestrel opted to use the handle and open the door normally. She would have been tempted to break it down if not for the knowledge that she'd be the one fixing it--Aurelia had informed her early on that she didn't do carpentry.

There was a jittery man sitting at the table who jumped out of his chair and ran for the door to the bunks.

"I knew they'd find me!" he shrieked.

Hearing the squeal, Ephraim leaned in to check the contents of the room.

Ephraim recognized the man as the rather timid bookkeeper they had been sent to protect. He was staring at the group with a look of terror.

"Please don't kill me!"

"Oh, in the name of..." Ephraim sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "We're not here to kill you; that was the other guy."

The bookkeeper calmed down visibly.

"Oh."

Kestrel frowned.

"What are you doing on my ship, anyways?"

"The white-haired lady brought me here. She was a little... intense. I think she's lying down now."

"And she couldn't have left us a note or something because...?" Ephraim asked of the space in front of him.