Chapter 45 Settling In (1/1)
Madeleine led them back through the street the three of them had traveled down previously. While Jack made a point of gingerly avoiding stepping on the large, furry carcasses of the slain gnolls, Rose and Madeleine walked over them like lumpy throw rugs. For some reason, this made Jack feel really uncomfortable, even in spite of his efforts to remind himself that these same creatures had been trying to kill the three of them only a few minutes earlier.
When they reached the corner of the street as it turned right, Madeleine stopped and looked around for a moment, before fixating her eyes on the door of a small shopfront that sat just inside an alleyway on the left side of the street just past the turn.
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”This one.” She said, pointing to the painted green door set into the brick of the alley wall. Above the doorway hung a small wooden sign that swayed gently on two thin chains, painted with a rudimentary picture of what looked like bread.
Leading the other two to the door, Rose twisted the handle and pushed, but the door only rattled slightly in the frame.
”It's locked, Mads. We'll have to try somewhere else.” Rose said, turning towards the other two and shaking her head.
Madeleine just sighed, and put down the sack she was carrying. Reaching inside it, she rummaged around for a moment in its clinking contents until she emerged with a small leather pouch. Without saying a word to either of them, she walked over to the door, sat down in front of it, and untied the leather string wrapped around the pouch. As it rolled out, Jack could see it was filled with a variety of small bent pieces of metal in numerous shapes and sizes. He recognized as lockpicks from the numerous games he'd used them to break into NPC houses for loot.
Jack looked back and forth to the two of them.
”Uhm, are we supposed to be doing something like this?” He asked.
Madeleine just turned and looked at him with one of her blank expressions, staring at him just long enough to make him incredibly uncomfortable.
”Allllright, sorry I said anything.” Jack said, raising his eyebrows and exhaling before he leaned against the left side of the alleyway and waited for her to do whatever she was going to do.
Madeleine peered into the keyhole for a moment, before looking down and contemplating the picks. After a moment's deliberation, she fished out two of the tools from the pouch, and set to work fiddling with them inside the lock with a very determined look on her face. Jack wanted to laugh at the way she stuck her tongue out the side of her mouth as she did so, but thought better of it.
After a moment or two of jimmying the picks inside the keyhole, there was a faint audible click from the door, and Madeleine leaned forward to push the door open with her head. The green wooden door swung gently inwards with a faint creak of old wood and unlubricated metal.
Madeleine looked at Jack.
”After you.” She said.
Jack looked at her, then over to Rose, who just shrugged again, and walked into the darkened interior of the shop front. Not wanting to be left out, Jack just sighed, and followed her in. After a moment, Madeleine had packed her thieve's tools away inside their pouch, wound them up, and stuffed them back in the large lumpy sack she had been carrying. Slinging the bag over her shoulder, she followed the two of them inside, pulling the wooden green door closed behind them with a faint metallic click.