Thief ~ Part 2 Part two of this story: Home Callidus (for that was his name, or at least that was what he called himself) arrived, unseen, in a dark, narrow alleyway. The smell of damp hung in the air and old, worn, stone buildings pressed in on him on both sides. He felt quite tense - even nervous. He always did while walking through this passage. He pulled a chain which was hanging around his neck over his head. A small, complex key was attached to it. When he reached the end of the alley - which seemed to end in a bare, solid, stacked-stone wall - he carefully selected a particular brick and slid it out of the wall, for behind it there was a tiny, almost invisible slit. He pushed the key through and turned it: clockwise, anticlockwise and clockwise again. A few seconds later there was a deep, low rumbling from the wall and it pushed backwards in on itself, revealing a wide, circular opening in the ground with a ladder on the far side. Callidus retrieved his key, replaced the brick, jumped down into the entrance and began his descent. He became submerged in darkness as the wall rolled back into place. He jumped off when he had reached near the bottom of the ladder and he landed with a 'thud' on cold stone floor. He straightened up and started feeling his way forwards into a pitch-dark tunnel. He felt encased in the passage and so started moving. Quickening his pace, Callidus continued on until he turned a corner. A crack of light could be seen up ahead. Loud, jolly voices soon became louder and clearer as he moved on, and soon he arrived at a battered wooden door, with yellow light trickling through the cracks. Grinning slightly, he pushed open the door. A sudden hush silenced the talking. "Ay! It's only Callidus!" called a voice from the back of the room and the men launched back into conversation. He had arrived back at the den. Back home.