The Thief of Shagrim

Philosophers and learned men often argued as to whether fate actually existed or not. It was a debate that had been going on for centuries, but Afeek had never thought much about it in the past. Now, however, he began to realise that if it did exist, it had a very twisted sense of humour.

He looked up at the grinning captain and offered a weak, pitiful smile of his own. "Forgive me Effendi," he said. "But I appear to be lost."

Realising that his ploy had failed, miserably, Afeek back-pedalled, turned, and dashed headlong down the passage. The garbled curse and heavy panting from behind told the young Katrin that the Captain had decided to give chase. He sprinted around the corner and continued on past the junction. He realised that he was moving further away from the centre of the Palace, and the Sultan's chambers, but he didn't have an awful lot of choice in the matter.

He risked a glance behind him and smiled as he realised that the bulky guard was falling behind. Not many races were a match for Katrin when it came to speed, and Afeek was an expert in running away. He felt nervous relief wash over him. The captain had had muscles where no normal person had a right to have muscles, and his sword looked sharp enough to cut through marble with barely an effort.

Afeek turned another corner. A number of doors opened off the passage he found himself in and he tried the first one. It opened, and he uttered a thankful prayer to whichever God was listening. Slipping inside, he closed the door behind him and leaned against it, panting heavily. He waited a few minutes and giggled softly when he heard the Captain hurry past, cursing fluently.

When he was sure it was safe, Afeek turned from the door and studied his surroundings. He was in what appeared to be a laboratory of some sort. Strange tubes and glass vials stood on a table in the middle of the room, thin pipes linking many of them. Unhealthy looking black goo bubbled from a number of the tubes, and the smell was worse than an unwashed goblin.

Curious, the young thief moved further in the room. He kept a paw to his mouth and nose, fearing the uncannily evil stench might do him permanent damage otherwise. The smell reminded him of something, but for a moment, he couldn't place it. Then suddenly it hit him. He had once been unofficially invited into the home of an influential mage in the city of Keldabar, and the smell had been very much similar to this one. Perhaps not as deadly or seemingly capable of eating through metal, but it was definitely the same one.

Pleased with himself he picked up a vial of bubbling liquid, and realised instantly, that he had made a bad mistake.

There is a certain point in the life of every young thief when he realises that something strange is happening. As Afeek's hands began to turn scaly and green, he knew that this was one of those times. He dropped the vial and lifted his hands. In addition to the scales, he was also growing several large and extremely dangerous looking claws.

Since his mind had not yet grasped the significance of the situation, Afeek was not afraid. He felt a curious detachment from everything, as though it was not his body that was slowly changing into some kind of lizard. He looked behind him and noted with interest that his long tail had changed into a thick, leathery blob, complete with a number of vicious-looking spikes.

The young Katrin moved across the room to stand in front of a full-length mirror. The change was startling. He face had stretched outwards to form a scaly snout, and a number of yellowed teeth were sticking down over his bottom lip. His ears had gone, and instead, he had been provided with a pair of tiny holes on each side of his head. Surprisingly, these seemed to work better than his other pair ever had. His eyes were huge round orbs, which glowed an ugly, and startling shade of red.

He tried a few experimental facial expressions, all of which seemed to come out like a grimace. Finally beginning to realise his position, Afeek's face fell. Not only did he have to steal a priceless, heavily guarded Sceptre, but he had to do it as scaly, green lizard, who couldn't even manage to smile without making it look like he was going to eat somebody.

Depressed, Afeek dropped into a stool at the edge of the table, and wondered forlornly if they had some kind of clause in the law for idiots. Without a doubt, this had been the worst week of his life, and there was still another two days to go. Could it get any worse? As the door opened slowly, he decided that the bards were right: crime didn't pay!

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