Thief

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    "Thief!!"
 
    It was the only thing McNair could hear in the distance except for the rustling of grass underneath him, as he already ran far past the sound origin. A mischievous smirk spread across his lips as he felt the soft, slightly wet grass blades pass under his feet. The overwhelming sensation caused by the gem held still in his mouth was tingling, igniting him with an unknown force and power... he couldn't quite grasp it or explain it yet, but his thirst for knowledge was half of the reason why he took that course of action.
 
    That, and the inexplicable feeling that stone was calling to him.
 
    McNair was only worried that this little incident would perhaps keep him from coming back to the black market completely, taken by the fact thieves were killed on the spot by the alley law, specially considering the value of what he had between his lips.
 
    ... What a pity, he could use some 'out of stock' items from the market in future events.
 
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    "You ssssure this iss the right stone?" A tall bipedal, dark green colored wyngro spoke with a shine in his eyes, as his serpentine tongue flickered out of his mouth. His stern expression gave up the seriousness of the situation. "You better not be lying. You know what happensss to liars in my shop."
 
    "I'm 100% positive, do you have any idea how hard it was to get?!" A very tired looking quadruped wyngro dropped an envelope made of brown paper on the dusty counter. He looked stressed; his eyes were unsettled and were close to what one could describe as heavy paranoia, as he checked his surroundings restlessly. "D-d-do you have my money?! I just want to get rid of this!! T-the curse is already getting to me!"
 
    "Be quiet. Yain't getting anything before I check if it'ssss legit." The green one hissed, still holding a heavy bag of gold coins tightly in one of his claws. He then opened the envelope with his free hand and dropped what was inside gently over the store's counter. He analyzed it for a while, completely mesmerized. He went extremely close to it as his nose almost touched the flaming red stone, and he started laughing uncontrollably, almost in a psychotic way.
 
    "Yesss! YESSS! I can FEEL IT! The POWER!!" He flung the bag of gold towards the black quadruped, that caught it quickly with his muzzle. "BE GONE! I have work to do."
 
    "Sheesh, alright... But beware, the curse IS really powerful." The black one said in a muffled tone due to the bag of gold in his mouth, and turned his back to the shop and its owner, quickly being engulfed by the darkness of the night as he went away.
 
    McNair was finishing doing some chores in the shop as he watched the whole commotion... or at least he was pretending to, given it was almost 2 in the morning. He started working in that shady establishment a few weeks ago, being driven by the curiosity to know what kind of artifacts they sold and by the thought of maybe making some powerful allies while he was there.
 
    The dark green wyngro noticed that he was sweeping the floor, and let out a chuckle as he walked past him hurriedly.
 
    "Quit the acting, McNair. I know you want to know what thiss isss." He moved over to a big table that by the state of the wood, one could say he used it to craft potions, poisons and burn-inflicting substances. McNair let out a smirk.
 
    "You know me too well, Mr. Lucius." He dropped the broom he was using, resting it against the wall as he approached. "What is the reason for such a commotion, if I may ask?"
 
    Lucius pondered in silence for a moment if it was sensible to speak to his young apprentice about it. McNair seemed like a wyngling with a promising future and overly curious demeanor when it came to anything relating magic, specially the dark kind, but he didn't feel like he could trust him much, maybe because of his own influence over the kid. He couldn't help but smile, he reminded him of himself in his youth.
 
    "... Hehe, I jussst layed my handss in one of the mosst rare and curiouss objectss I could think of." Lucius dropped the blood-red stone that looked like a ruby encrusted in gold over the table. McNair stared at it with a head tilt, it didn't look too unique except for the value of an average precious stone.
 
    "Why so, mister?" McNair laid his eyes on the stone once more, it was almost hypnotic. He could feel a strange feeling engulfing him as he slowly held out a paw to attempt to touch it, but it was held quickly by one of Lucius's claws as he smirked.
 
    "Nah-ah, not ssso fasst." The dark green wyngro spoke as he picked the stone up with a pair of big tweezers. "Rumorss ssay thiss sstone wass heavily curssed in ancient timess. The consequencesss of direct touch are fairly unpredictable. Many wyngro either died in unexplained waysss or went inssane while using it."
 
    "Oh, I see." McNair stared at the stone with even more curiosity. “So it’s a punishment for your enemies?”
 
    “Not exactly.” Lucius smiled. McNair seemed confused. “The cursse iss merely a vesssel of a great power. Rumorss ssay that if you manage to overpower it with sstrong willpower, the stone shall obey you as itss masster, and your abilitiess are enhanced.”
 
    “Ohh, is that so?”
 
    McNair’s eyes lit up with a creepy excitement, a smirk spreading across his lips. The greedy feeling was clearly taking over him, and Lucius seemed to notice. The dark green wyngro let out a mocking laughter as he saved the stone inside a box, locking it right up and keeping the key.
 
    “Don't have ssstupid ideass, boy. A child like you would never be able to handle such a thing.” He carried the box as McNair stared at him with an unamused, cold look. “Now go to ssleep. We have work to do tomorrow.”
 
    As offended as the purple wyngro was with that  statement, he didn't let it pass to his expression. In fact, he just smiled.
 
    “Of course, what was I thinking?” He turned his back to Lucius, walking away to his dorm room. “Have a good night, mister.”
 
    As a matter of fact, McNair could barely sleep that night as he thought about that stone. It was so… Mysterious. So beautiful. The more challenging it sounded to deal with, the more he wanted it. Of course, the promising thought of great power also tickled his desire.
 
    The next days went by and he still couldn't take the stone out of his head. Lucius seemed to make some tests and work on a fair amount of research every night before he locked the gem in the same box. McNair wanted to be the one doing that… He envied his mentor, he wanted to be in his place. This feeling was feeding his determination as he schemed a way to get to the gem, no matter what it took.
 
    Then one night, with everything well planned, he was able to find the key with difficulty as Lucius was fast asleep.
 
    McNair could barely hold his excitement as he fit the key in the box hole. Turning it with an almost obsessive smile, he stared at the inside.
 
    The gem was there, so beautifully guarded and resting gently against the velvet lining. He took it in his soft paws and felt how warm it was, and heard… Whispers…
 
    "̶͏̬̰̪T̴͙̝̼̜̯͉̤͘͞a̸̩̟̺̥̖̼̼͡ͅk̡͎e̸̛̫̦͇͎̘̕ ̵̮̤͈̯̹͎̟̘͘͢m̸͏̝̥͕̗̤̬͞e̜"̹̻̥̭̬͉͜͠
 
    His heart raced as he stared at the stone in shock. Was it part of the curse? Was he becoming insane? The stone couldn't have spoken to him, could it?
 
    “̴̙͇̖̖̟̬̯̀́T̵̯͓ͅA̹̞̪͍̘͜͟͞Ķ҉͍̘̘̬̙͉E̖̳ ̳̝̱̰̪̞͘͜M̸̰̪͟E͏̰̱̱͚̼̣͙ͅ”̴͚̥̭͇͓͕̀͘
 
    It demanded louder this time. He felt a crippling fear of disobeying, his hair went up and he didn't think twice. He took the gem in his mouth and ran towards the exit with a weird determination, the adrenaline rush barely made his feel his feet burning as he didn't look back.
 
    Lucius must have set up an alarm in case of theft, because soon after he stepped outside the loud, ear ripping noise of multiple cats meowing at the same time kept repeating over and over. McNair ran fast as a bullet towards his planned hideout, unexpectedly not feeling very tired. He was far away from the alley and into the forest when he heard their yelling once more.
 
    “Thief!!”
 
    __________________________________
 
 
    The exhausted purple wyngro dashed quickly inside the chosen cave, he couldn’t see a palm in front of his nose inside and it was barely lit by moonlight. He let his tired body fall on the cold rocky ground as he panted, sweat running across his face. It didn’t take long for him to regain his breath and considering how much he ran, that was quite the doing. He couldn’t help but laugh at himself with the memories of what just happened. The adrenaline was still burning in his body.
 
    He took his precious gem in his acid green paws and admired it. All his now… he liked that feeling. Somehow he felt that it enjoyed being with him most as well.
 
    “You’ll make a beautiful necktie.” He mused, and saved it between his front legs, curling up to sleep.

    That night however, was filled with nightmares.

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Woot hey guys, finally finished McNair's accessory story! 8D Technically the only part of his accessory that is meaningful is the gem, I'll show the proper necktie later on with some more upgrades. uvu

I had a blast making this story for sure, I hope you enjoyed it! Also on a side note, McNair isn't much of a thief actually. It only happens when he obsess over something, as you can see here.

McNair is mine~

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