Thief

She watched as the men unloaded the boats. Fresh deliveries from the Floating cluster typically meant food or... rarer treasures. She had never been outside of Serenity, and really had never seen all of the cluster itself. Mostly she stayed in the shadows, her red hair betraying her when she left the southern branches, but not here. At the docks, everyone mixed together into an endless mess of men. Dark colored, light colored, skin or hair, nobody matched at the docks. The only ones that stood out were the Floaters.

Even in Noble's low gravity they were tall and thin and pale. They spent the majority of the time underwater in the gardens under the ocean to the northeast. She tried to remain concealed and still catch a peak at the nearest one, talking to the Harbor Master. She tried to check his neck for the rumored gills, but he was too tall and his iridescent clothing covered most of his neck. They worked in pools of oxygenated water harvesting and maintaining the kelp that Noble used for supplements.

One day she would like to go there, to see if the rumors were real. To view the domed cities popping out of the ocean like bubbles on the surface of a boiling pot.

But not today. Today she needed something specific. Van had chosen her out of all of his other thieves to do this job. She was "the most patient" he had said. It made her proud even now, thinking back on it. Looking at Henry's face was priceless. But she was the most patient. They were all so easily distracted.

She watched as the Harbor Master checked off the last item on the list and shook the Floater's hand. She did not see any thin skinned webbing on his fingers, but maybe she wasn't close enough.

As the Floaters started to pack up their boats, she moved.

Quietly and quickly she slinked along the docks, sneaking along the shadows thrown from the boat until she was right behind a Floater who had been overseeing the delivery. Without stopping her subtle movement, she reached up to his waist and, as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other, uncinched the small pouch that he held near his belt. She scooped it into her shoulder bag and kept moving until she was out of the shadows. And then she simply stood up, turned back to where she had come from and walked to the spot she had been hidden.

Plain as day, a young, red-haired girl just walking across the dock as if coming home from school. And nobody looked twice at her.

Even after the Floater realized that his pouch was gone and chaos swarmed the dock, Floaters and dock men pulling weapons instinctively, she simply walked to the leafy brush alongside the trunk of one of the larger of Serenity's trees...

And disappeared.