Her crop was a miscellany // open+joining // when all was said and done

[vellichor]

Oh, there was another one. It seemed she was drawing a crowd. "Technically, I wasn't looking for anything," the girl stated with a light smile tugging at her lips (was that even the word to use for her mouth anymore? A beak didn't technically have any lips). At the second statement, she barely suppressed laughter. No, Daphne wasn't much of a fighter. She'd never been very strong, even when she was human. She'd always been unusually short and skinny for her age. She could do some damage with a knife, maybe, but her movements were clumsy and anyone with any skill would be able to catch her easily. However, there was also a reason she'd taken to thieving when times had been hard for her family. Even in her human form, she'd been as a shadow. Silent and out of sight.

It was a skill that aided her well in the Otherworld and in her old home, when she'd raided stagecoaches on a regular basis with other children who decided to take matters into their own hands. Daphne had been the oldest and therefore led them all and she was the one that came up with the plans, that found the little places no one would look, that seemed to gather information no one else could possibly have. Her strategy was simple enough. No one suspected a little girl and, while she never hurt anyone, it was easy to get information. She cleaned up a little, gave a nice smile to any nobles that passed through and asked when she'd be able to see their horses and she'd get their time of departure. From there, she found a nice spot in the road (a different one each time, if they attacked at the same spot or at the same time, someone would realize they were related) and they get into different positions. The first time had been the most difficult because they had to throw rocks at the coaches to get them to stop. Eventually, though, they stole some of the nicer clothes and each time they'd have someone dress up in it and stand out in the road. Any respectable person would stop. Then any respectable person would get robbed for all they were worth.

It'd all worked out fairly well for her and such skills had served her well in the Otherworld but now she didn't know what to think of all of it. The stealing hadn't bothered her when she'd been doing it for her family. She'd been taking care of them. For the Otherworld, she'd been told it was the same situation. All the things she did were to take care of her new family there. Now, though, after what she'd seen, she wasn't so sure about that. It was hard to tell what was true and what'd been a lie there. While she'd been the oldest in her band of thieves, she'd been the youngest and smallest Caretaker by far. Most of the Caretakers were adults but she was different. They'd use her to fit into little spots, to get information an adult might not share with another grownup, and even to shape stories and change the minds of influential people. She'd been a valuable asset and she thought that she'd done it all for her family. Now she wondered if she'd been the one to doom them. "Besides, if that's true, then you also know that size and strength isn't all that matters in a fight. The trick to fighting is to be smart enough to never get in one. If no one sees you, there's not much of a fight at all. Technically, you don't even have to be smart. You just need to be clever, which I think is much easier."