The Alchemist’s Milk Maidens

Chapter 1, The Last Mark

Janet awakes at the crackling of her fire, barely alive. She tosses more sticks in and shivers the early morning cold off. She reaches into into a bag at her side and pulls out a thick piece of paper, a poster, a wanted poster with her on it. Being a bandit has been very lucrative for her up until now.

“They could’ve done a better job with my face.” she says while looking at the poster. Ever since she left the orphanage she has spent years perfecting her trade. Fast and slick hands for picking locks and pockets, strong legs from constantly running and jumping from trees and roof tops and eyes that became sharp in the night. Constantly teetering on the edge of starvation and malnourished have done nothing for her figure except keeping her light on her feet which she takes advantage of.

But sometimes she finds herself disillusioned thinking what if things were different. She has robbed many people over the years many of the women she would rob would have well endowed full figures complimented with child bearing hips. Many healers have told her to be careful when she’s forced to sell her body that she in far from healthy enough to become pregnant.

She gets angry but knows they’re right, she tells herself the right mark will come one day. She fantasizes living in warm manor house. Maids and butlers at her side catering her every whim, eating delectable food and sleeping in a bed of down.

She shakes her head and regains focus, the sun is barely peaking over the horizon. She hears the the all too familiar rattle of a carriage. She stomps out the fire and readies her gear, her next mark is on its way.

“This next one I know, will be the one.”

Sometime passes. On a tree branch she watches the carriage rumble closer. One horse, and two men at the front, a driver and a guard based on the armor he is wearing. She reaches into her satchel and pulls out a small bundle of cloth. Wrapped inside the bundle is a fine powder she bought from a fence. This powder is supposed to make people fall asleep when they inhale it.

She tested it last night by inhaling a small pinch of it. The full amount should have the two men out in seconds. She ties the bundle to the tip of an arrow and steadies her aim.