Kappi

He took a deep breath and shook out his hands, then grabbed the mainspring winder and the mainspring, looking it over carefully to make sure it had no flaws. Satisfied it looked strong he started to slowly wind it. This, for whatever reason, was the part he always had issue with. Whether he wound it too fast, not fast enough, the spring was bad, or any number of other reasons that he failed to get the spring just right. Sadly this time was no different. As he was winding the spring got bound and snapped. He frowned and set the winder down. 

“So many times..just can not seem to get that quite right the first time.” He shakes his head and leans out seeing the broken piece on the floor. He shakes his head again then pulls the other piece from the winder and loads up another spring. He had planned for this and gotten quite a few extras. He smirked and even chuckled as he started again, this time taking even more care than the last. His extra care pays off, as this time it winds perfectly. He snaps it into the barrel and begins carefully closing it up and as he gets the barrel closed he actually jumps a bit on his stool, his tail wagging happily. He had been trying to complete this entire project for sometime, and had wanted to give it to her for even longer. 

The train of wheels came next and that was tricky for a completely different reason than the mainspring. Having to balance all the wheels simultaneously before installing the bridges, it was like the circus performer balancing all the spinning plates. He gets the center wheel placed then the bridge just to hold things together. The escape wheel comes next then comes the balancing act. Keeping the escape and other two wheels he was about to place in their pivots. It took him a few tries, having to attempt to place the bridge then remove everything to start again, trying the bridge again then starting again. He had to take a moment to take a few breaths and then, finally, everything fell into place. As soon as they do his tail begins wagging just as it had earlier. He knew it would only be a matter of time, as long as he kept at it.

He continued working, constructing, greasing, dropping parts into their perfect little places. Which would have been amazing had it happened. In actuality, he broke several parts, lost a few others and had to wipe away much more grease than he should have ever used.Eventually though, after many long hours of relentless work on his part, he drops the balance in and watches the watch come to life. Seeing that, made it all worth it. His tail wagging so hard it would have knocked over anyone in its path. In fact he had to take several moments to calm down because he was shaking. He had watched her construct many watches, helped build several with her right there. But seeing this come to life knowing it was all him..it was such a different feeling all together. He got everything locked down and set aside, after watching it tick away for several minutes of course, and pulled the case over to look at.

She was jolted awake to find herself barely clinging to a large section of wood that looked like what used to be the hull of a ship. Her eyes went wide and she scrambled to keep herself afloat, eventually pulling herself up onto the floating debris. She was trembling, bad, bad enough it was difficult to keep a hold on the small hand hold she found and she was unsure if it was the cold or the fear she felt that was the cause. Slowly she scanned her surroundings. Water. Everywhere. How did she even get here? The last thing she remembered…She winced as that searing pain came roaring back, again starting in the base of her skull. A few hopeless tears began to stream down her face as she looked around again, the sheer terror of so much uncertainty hitting her all at once. She barely knew who she was and had no idea where she was, when she was, how she got here, or how she was going to even survive.

Then she saw it, land. It was distant but it was there. She started crying all over again, tears of relief. She might actually make it long enough to ask those questions all over again. But..but how was she going to get to the island? She couldn’t swim that distance….did she even know how to swim? There had to be a way..an escape raft..no, whatever ship she had been on was in pieces there was no way it survived. She looked out through red, puffy eyes, scanning her surroundings again. Nothing. There was nothing but debris from the ship, however she even got on board. She could see clothes, luggage and…goblin who were not as lucky as she was. She covered her mouth with her hand, gasping loudly before she collapsed back to the wood beneath her. She would not survive this…there was no way to get to shore, no one to help her..she was going to die right there on the oce…

“NO! NO YOU WILL NOT! IT WILL NOT BE ALLOWED!!” That  voice in her head again..the searing pain again! This time she did cry out, hands grabbing at her head, hitting it against the wood several times. Shaking, screaming, the darkness creeping in from all sides until..nothing. There was no more pain, no more stinging from her red and puffy eyes. No more sun beating down on her face or ocean splashing at her. There was nothing.

Suddenly she was moving, but it was not her doing the moving. A strong arm wrapped around her waist and hoists her up off the blasted out hull she had been floating on. She could hear sounds..voices? That creeping feeling crawled up from the base of her skull again, sending shivers all throughout…but her body did not shake. Why was she not…she starts moving, but it wasn’t her. Her hand raised, she could hear deep voices yelling for her to stop, that they were there to help. Her hand opened, as did her eyes, enough to see a light..then everything went black yet again. 

Each box had the details in it for the next job. Though Kappi had learned early on that Draven was not sharing the whole truth each time. As if some kind of sadistic test to make sure that Kappi truly was back and that his skills were still as sharp as ever. The first, telling him the target had gone to Vol’dun when they had, in fact, fled to Kul Tiras. Another gave him the wrong target, informing him it was an entirely different race. Another, incorrect description. Each and every one, more frustrating than the last. Though, once he knew that there was misinformation somewhere, he started picking up on the tricks and he was able to discern which piece of info was false. He just wished the packages would stop arriving, but that was in the works. 

Kappi stared at the most recent arrival that sat on his desk. A package about the size and shape of a hat box, wrapped in the same black paper as always and a bright red bow tied around it. The moment Kappi had seen it he had pushed it across his desk but it was not something he could push away for long. He would have to look at it’s contents, look at what the Farmer had in store for him next. At least Attzi had convinced him to bring her with him on all of these jobs. It had helped far more than Kappi ever knew it would and was amazing to have someone with him that he trusted with his life. He sighed heavily and sat up in his chair, finally reaching for the cursed package. The time had come that he finally had to look at it, he could not put it off any longer. He slips a dagger from his belt and flips it over, slicing along the seam of the box before putting it away. He had gotten over the caution long ago that any of these would be booby-traped. Even if all this was Draven simply screwing with him, these jobs still needed done and they always got them done quickly.

Inside was the normal contents. A small cake with the same color scheme of the box, a dossier with information about the job and a smaller box that usually had another small part that would help him make the picture whole. He flipped the folder open and started scanning the papers. The target was a mage this time. He sighed heavily and rubbed at his temples, mages were not an easy catch. Though this one seemed like he could be. His name was Bozabeck and it seemed he was very proud of his skills. Could get him to start showing off, could doubt his abilities to get him riled up and willing to be by himself. There was also that off chance Attzi knew him. He flipped another page and continued reading looking for where this ‘Beck’ had last been seen and where they could start sending people to search. As he was reading down another page of the information, looking for that tiny clue to tell him just what part of the information was false, there was a knock on his office door. He stopped reading and glanced up to find Attzi standing in the doorway with lunch in her hands. He smiled and flipped the dossier closed, pushing it to the side, but as she saw it a heavy frown set in.

“Monthly package arrived.” She said flatly as she approached the desk, setting several containers on it.

He nods and sighs. “That it has. Could use your help, love. Looks like a mage this time, maybe you know them.” He motioned towards the dossier for her to see, but she did not grab it right away. Instead she pushed it aside and offered him one of the containers with a smile. “Could be! Right now though, ya gonna sit right there and enjoy ya lunch with me.” She says very matter-of-factly, pulling up a chair, sitting next to him and smiling.