Novel Full Chapter 1961 A Night On Watch
Chapter 1961: Chapter 1961 A Night On Watch
— Kat —
Dinner that evening wasn’t so much ’dinner’ as it was ’grab a bunch of food from a market stall to have later’. Hedera was mostly satisfied with her large lunch, Kat barely needed to eat and Lily was tiny. Though they did make sure to get a variety of things, and Steel was even willing to hand over some money so that they could get meat for Lily to chew on. It was a nice gesture even if Kat had no real idea of what the money was worth. Unlike everywhere else these guys didn’t use orbs for currency. Which made sense considering they had an infinite supply.
Still, they got ready to set up and Lily had her dinner then everyone got in position. Hedera chose the best vantage point. The top of a three story building with a large but likely non-functional chimney on account of how clean it was. Hedera made sure she was mostly hidden behind the construction and lay down and around it to peak over at the recharge station.
Kat had to go with a slightly less ideal spot. A two story building on the opposite end to Hedera with essentially no cover. Kat got around this by very carefully turning most of her body into water and dispersing it across the roof. This left her as, essentially, a set of shoulders and her head. It was an odd profile and the roof wasn’t slanted so Kat could just sit there with a bit of debris around her and be mostly fine. She was back one line of houses from the recharger and it was fairly dark. Plus, what were they really going to think if they saw her?
Kat was more concerned with the fact that she would eventually need to breathe but for now it didn’t seem to be an issue. Perhaps not having lungs magically meant you didn’t need to breathe? Kat didn’t know but there was no worries for the start of the stakeout anyway. Not from her anyway.
Lily was much more worried, and it was making it hard to sleep. She’d positioned herself in one of the few trees inside the compound, watching the main ’door’ to the recharge station. There wasn’t a door there of course, it was just an open doorway with nothing blocking it, but it was the most obvious entrance. Plus, it let her monitor the recharge station directly, so that if they made it inside some other way then she could spot them… as soon as they woke up anyway.
With everyone in position they simply waited. A few minor things of note happened. A few animals got close to the barrier and they were watched carefully. Lily was after all, able to transform and that was a standard ability for beastkin. On the other hand… not many of those animals were inside and Kat had never seen a bird beastkin. Many of these birds would run straight into the invisible wall surrounding the place, giving you a clear idea of where it was. They’d then squawk angrily, as if it was the walls fault that they were a problem.
While this was happening, Kat was learning something interesting. Firstly, yes she DID need to breathe when she was just a head… but when she transformed into water fully to sneak away in case anyone was watching… she found herself no longer in need of oxygen when she reformed.
*Ok that’s interesting. Is it just that I was able to absorb sufficient oxygen while I was made up of water, or did completing the transformation change something? Or is it that the parts of my body still around were reset? Did it cost any extra demonic energy? I didn’t even notice if so… but then again I just transformed, moved a bit, and transformed back. That wouldn’t have taken much anyway. Weird though.*
[I don’t know if I should be happy or not.]
*Well why not?*
[The fact you had to test this at all! …AND and it has also occurred to me that now you know this works and is actually relatively safe you’re going to make use of it more often. I really would rather you WEREN’T a floating head Kat.]
*That gives me a great idea for scaring people!*
[KAT NO]
*Look! Lily it would be an amazing Halloween costume! I could like, ride on your shoulder or maybe one of those dinner carts. If the rest of my body was made up of water and hidden somewhere wen could scare the shit out of people on Halloween.*
[Ok that would be funny… but I really don’t think it’s appropriate.]
*Is it really inappropriate or do you just not want to participate?*
[Both? Though perhaps Sylvie could be interested.]
*Callisto would definitely be interested.*
[Yeah, I agree, and I was hoping you wouldn’t realise that part.]
*How? It seems pretty obvious.*
[I don’t know but I was hoping.]
Sadly for the pair, this was the most interesting thing to happen for the next few hours. Lily went to sleep not long after, Kat rotated between being a disembodied head and water, Hedera watched from her perch on high and nothing important happened. The streets were deserted and the animals seemed to have learnt from the early idiots… though the occasional bird would test that theory.
It was at the tail end of one in the morning, not that the girls knew that, when someone started to walk down the street. Kat immediately readied herself, gathering her water a bit closer to her so she could reform quickly while carefully keeping her thoughts from Lily so as not to wake her with the sudden shift to alertness.
Hedera, being much better trained and with far more practice being on watched simply readied herself mentally. She didn’t shift at all. If one were to look at her, they would think she was actually a statue. Even still, just like Kat, she could react in a moment. They were all waiting for the person to start breaking in…
Except they just kept walking. Down the street, then around a corner… and after that they disappeared amongst the houses. They were just… gone. Kat carefully kept her eyes peeled, trusting her true sight to let her know of any illusions that had shown up but… it was nothing. That person was either a scout, or just… not involved in the process at all. The guards on the corners had reacted, so it was clear they could see them as well… but it was mostly just them glancing over, confirming the person was just walking by and then moving on.
The two awake relaxed after a bit… but that wasn’t the last time somebody would walk past during the night. There were even a couple groups. Every time one would show up they would ready themselves for the break in… and nothing would happen. There were even a few sneaky looking groups in darker colours but nothing came of that. Well… nothing that they saw anyway.
There was one group with black beanies you could barely see cut-out eyeholes on them alongside long black and grey clothes to help break up the sight at night. They also had a few bats between them and one had what looked like a pair of wire cutters. Kat and Hedera both made extra sure to memorise their faces… but once again, they weren’t the culprits they were looking for right here.
Kat even went so far as to gently wake Lily up when the group with the masks disappeared, just in case they had a secret tunnel they were using to get in or something like that. Sure Steel probably would’ve found such a thing… but they were so obviously criminals that something had to be going on. Though… now that Kat thought about it. It was somewhat odd that the guards hadn’t noticed.
*Were they invisible? Did you see them?*
[Kat you waited until they were gone to wake me up. All you told me to do was to make sure they weren’t sneaking in from underground. I didn’t even try to catch a glimpse of them down the street they were heading down and if I check your memories I see what you saw. How am I supposed to know?]
*Sorry. I… hmm… I guess we’re going to have to make a not of it and check with Hedera in the morning. If she saw them then that means these guards might be on the take… and if she didn’t someone in the group is either casting illusions or has an enchanted item to do it for them. Even if we didn’t catch the group we’re looking for Steel will probably be happy with this.*
[I suppose you’re not wrong. Do you think I should go back to sleep or try to stay up?]
*Get some more sleep in I suppose. I don’t think we’re going to run into trouble too soon.* And Kat was correct. Soon the light started to shine dimly into the city and more and more people started to fill the streets. The window for the thieves had closed and nothing had been touched.