Pookie heaved a sigh.

“We’ve gone over this before, little sister. First of all, we don’t have the manpower to do real bodyguard work. To do the job right, it takes at least a six person team to guard someone around the clock. You keep forgetting that we’d have to sleep sometime.”

“But Guido and Nunzio guard Skeeve as a two man team.” Spyder insisted stubbornly.

“From what I understand, They were assigned to Skeeve by Don Bruce primarily as an honor guard.” Pookie said. “Besides, there are a lot more people on the team watching over Skeeve than just Guido and Nunzio.”

“But…”

“…And even if we were to hire on as a token show force, believe me, you wouldn’t like it.” Pookie continued. “Remember, we’re female, and like it or not that influences the people who hire us. Believe me, the kind of swell headed, self-centered celebrity types who hire female body guards are primarily looking for arm candy.

The pay might look good, but they’re not really people you want to hang around for any length of time. Usually, by the end of the job, you’re ready to kill them yourself.”

“So what is it exactly that adventurers do?” Spyder said.

Her green companion took a long swallow from he flagon.

“If you scrape away the bardic lyrics and all the escapist literature romantics, what it all boils down to is that basically adventurers are either thieves or killers…or both.”

Spyder leaned back and blinked.

“How’s that again?”

“Look at it close.” Pookie shrugged. “If you’re going after a treasure or artifact, it means you’re taking it away from someone who think’s it’s theirs…even if they stole it themselves originally. That’s stealing. Even if you’re unearthing or re-discovering a long lost item, by law it belongs to whoever’s property it is that you’re on at the time. If you don’t hand it over and maybe settle for a reward, if you try to smuggle it out without admitting you’ve found anything, that’s still stealing.”