
“Mom!” The young Kiamara raced up to her mother, holding two books in her mouth with a huge smile on her face. “Mom! Watch this!” She was so exited to show her mother the trick that she was about to perform that she didn't even notice her mother didn't cast her a glance.
She set the two huge books down on the ground with a ‘thud’, then she used her nuzzle to flip one of the books on her head. After a few seconds of trying to get the first book to balance, she flipped the next one on top of the first book. Grinning to herself, she turned around to face her mother.
“See, mom? I did it!” Victoria exclaimed happily. She had been working on that trick for a while now, just to show her mom, who she was sure would be proud.
“Uh-huh,” Her mother nodded, but didn't look up from whatever she was doing. “That’s great. Go do something else, Victoria.”
Not even a glance? Using her formal name? Victoria felt her tail drop unwillingly, but she wouldn't give up. She was going to get noticed. Her parents would notice her. Help her. Do something. Even if it meant being someone she wasn't.
Victoria straightened her posture, making herself look more posh. She silently recalled all the things her mother and father had told her; tail down, but not dragging, ears pricked, chin up and never show emotion. Using the things that she learned, she silently walked out of the room, not even bothering to glance at her mom.
She walked out into the eerie hallway that connected her room to her parents, and finally allowed her facade to drop. Gritting her teeth she stomped down the hallways to her room, muttering things like, “Go bother someone else? I’ll show her!”
She yanked open the door, then slammed it shut, not even hearing someone yelling on the other side of the hallway. Not that she cared; it was probably just her father or someone like that.
What’s he going to do, shove soap in my mouth? Victoria the sighed, took a deep breath, and forced herself to calm down. Slowly, and much more calmly, she walked over to her bed and jumped climbed onto the bed,rolling onto her stomach, happily embracing the softy, plush covers. Her tail dropped over the other side of the bed as she shifted onto her back, staring at the ceiling. This bed that she’s had for years seemed like the only thing that accepted her with open arms. Or where they posts?
The young girl almost found herself laughing. Was this bed really the only thing that accepted her in this awful house? An inanimate object that had no feelings or emotions? But at the moment, she didn’t really care, just glad that something had accepted her.
Why couldn’t her parents just like her? Why couldn’t they just let her be her and not someone that she wasn’t? She just wanted someone to love her more than her friends could.
That night she decided to try a different approach. If her parents didn’t do anything while she was being good, then what would they do if she were being bad? A grin found her way onto her normally stoic face. Victoria is gone now, she’s not going to be seen anymore, instead, Recon is going to cause chaos all over this house.
It started with the stealing. Simple things like her mother’s favorite fruit, or a nice moss bedding. She would then run back to her room, laughing all the way. It felt good, she felt as if she were finally free. Running wild all over the mansion? It was a lot more fun than it sounded.
The more that time past, the more stuff she stole and the more worried her parents were getting. They kept thinking that there was a burglar in the house and talked about hiring someone to watch the house. Recon’s eyes widened, guards? Wasn’t a butler enough? But she wasn’t scared, no. She was exited. To her, the guards were just another challenge that needed to be overcome.
A few days later, and a whole lot more stuff disappeared. Things like vases in the halls, unique plants, and other expensive things. The threat of guards became less and less of just a discussion and more of an actual movement to stop whatever was happening to them.
Recon loved the whole thing. During the day, when her parents were around, she was Victoria, the sweet, proper and posh kiamara who was terrified of the burglaries, but at night she was Recon, the very problem everyone wanted to stop.
She was about to go out the next night when Recon actually stopped and thought about what she was doing. She knew it was bad, that was the point, but why was she actually doing this? Was it just to spite her parents? Or was it because she felt alone? Afraid? Her ears flattened. No, she wasn’t afraid. She just needed to do this, to get their attention.
After the young heir was finished getting dressed, she quietly snuck out of her room, avoiding the spots in the hallway where the moonlight shimmered through the windows. She glanced out the window and felt a soft smile come onto her face. A full moon, huh? They were supposed to be pretty lucky.
Recon hurried around the house, looking for the vault where her parents kept an enormous amount of money. It would be her biggest mission yet, and she was practically shaking from excitement.
She spotted a guard right outside the entrance and she stopped to watch him. Recon had this night all planned out, she would sneak in when the hallway guard switched with the vault guard, then run out with the money. It wasn’t the best plan, she knew that already, but she didn’t have any other plan.
She heard the soft paw steps of the approaching guard and she flattened herself to the floor, out of sight. There was talking, then someone laughed. She then heard the squeaking of a chair and she assumed that both guards were about to go patrol the hallways right outside the vault.
Perfect.
As quiet as possible, Recon snuck towards the vault. The guards weren’t in sight. Recon almost laughed at how perfect this was! This was going to be her best and most easy theft. There was no way anyone could mess this up.
Of course, she didn’t know how wrong she was.
Recon didn’t see it coming until it hit her in the face. Literally. She glared at nothing when she allowed herself to make a loud ‘ufftp!’ noise when she hit the ground hard. Looking over her shoulder, she saw a small trip wire that she didn’t she before. This mistake might’ve just cost her dearly.
All the young Kiamara could do was try and get her paw free, while hoping the guards didn’t’ notice the disturbance. She inwardly cursed when she heard the thumping of paws and someone yelling. How, how could someone have luck this bad? It was just insulting.
“It’s the thief!” One of them shouted.
“We got ‘em!” The other replied happily.
A body slammed into hers, successfully pinning her to the ground. Recon sighed, this wasn’t supposed to happen. How could she have let herself fall for such a foolish mistake?
Apparently, one of the guards was thinking the same thing because he laughed and said, “How could a master thief fall for such a stupid tripwire?” Recon would be lying if her spirits weren’t lifted when the guard said ‘master’.
“What should we do with him?” Her. She was a female, not a male. The guard on top of Recon said with a voice that made Recon’s stomach drop.
“We can’t tell the Master and mistress until the morning,” The other guard reasoned, calling Recon’s mother and father ‘Master and mistress’. “But we can tie ‘em up for the night and make sure ‘e can’t do anything.”
“Or you could let me go.” Recon tried to use blind reasoning, hoping the guards were stupid enough to fall for it. Both of them laughed in her face and Recon took that answer as a ‘no’.
The guard on top of her finally decided to get off her, but he still pinned her paws to the ground. “Well, well, well, what do we have here?”
He reached over and tried to pull off her mask. Oh no. Oh no. She couldn’t let them know if was her! Both guards would recognize her! But the mask came off anyway, and Recon's fur flowed freely once again.
The young girl gave a weak smile at the two dumbstruck guards. “Hey, boys.”
“The heiress?!” Both exclaimed as one and back away quickly. “What are you doing?”
“Would you believe I was getting a late night snack?” It was the best thing she could come up with other then, ‘let me go or else’. Maybe she could still weasel her way out of this. The guards gave her a look that said ‘what do you think?’ Yeah, Recon didn’t think so.
“Please let me go!” The heiress threw herself on the ground in a desperate attempt to reason with the guards. She looked up at them with her puppy dog eyes. “I promise I won’t do it again.” Empty promise, but whatever, as long as they’d let her go.
“Oi, oi.” One of the guards said, looking away from Recon and her puppy-dog eyes. “Stop doing that.”
“Please?” Her puppy dog eyes intensified and she even let out a pitiful noise.
The other guard threw his paws up in the air, surrendering. “Fine! We’ll let you go if you promise that you won’t do this again.”
“I promise mister!” Not.
The guard went to untangle her paw and untie her other limbs. Once she was free, Recon happily hugged the guard before racing off. She called over her shoulder, “Please don’t tell mom and dad!” before disappearing from sight.
The next day, the vault was open and empty and Recon was nowhere in sight. At least, until the next night.