Most people by now knew better than to fuck with Esja. She wasn’t called Slyshot for nothing. She wasn’t a former pirate for nothing, neither.
She’d had to relearn all the good perches after they rebuilt the Arch. Hell, she’d had to relearn just about everything, acquire a new office, establish fresh supply lines, find new suppliers, find new _buyers_….
…Esja was not very fond of Sylvari, not after Scarlet.
Esja was not very fond of anyone, to be fair.
Her quarry was a fellow smuggler, one of her suppliers but a shitty one. He’d had the bright idea to sneak in some raptors for Elona, and they had sold like booze at a moot. That part was fine, although Esja tried not to deal in live cargo often. One of the beasts had taken sick though, and he’d dumped it on her and bolted for awhile.
Cost her money. Esja didn’t appreciate anyone costing her money, not by being a lazy, self-centered ass. The only one allowed to be a self-centered ass in her business was, well, her.
A snow leopard knew how to wait for her quarry, and so: there he was. Standing on the docks, hand on his hips, surveying his most recent acquisitions and probably imagining the fat profit he was going to make.
Shame she was going to take it all.
Esja raised her rifle. Sighted. Squeezed the trigger.
—-
Ron screamed and dropped to the ground. It took him several seconds to realize that the only injury he’d sustained was a splinter in his hand, although…something….had split the crotch of his pants.
…something…
He was suddenly lifted in the air by a large, terrifying Norn.
(Esja was not actually that large for her kind, but humans often fail to notice this while being manhandled.)
There weren’t that many dark-skinned Norn thereabouts, really, especially not ones that and had intimidating large rifles on their persons at all times. Her trademark red and orange outfit was also hard to miss. None of the Lionguard nearby moved to defend him.
(She paid well.)
“You’re not under the mistaken assumption that I missed, I hope.”
He managed a garbled no.
“Good. Screw me again and I’ll shoot a little higher next time.” Esja dropped him back to the docks and gestured to the crew behind her. “Let’s unload my stuff, shall we?”
Ron didn’t ask her for payment.
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