"Hey! What do you think you're doing?"

Bitter anger roars throughout my body as I say those words. My friends know every well that it usually takes me a long time to wake up, and even longer if I don't have breakfast. But there are a few things that instantly snap my head into being fully aware and ready for anything.

Glaring at the thief who just took the Atlas and enchanted flint and steel is one of those things.

The thief trembles, taking a slight step back. I'm not wearing armor, but I'm only a few steps from my sword. This person is not getting away, and I'm glad they're not smart enough to have booked it the moment the saw me.

"EVERYONE!" I dash to my sword and then to the thief who now realizes they need to make their exit. "INTRUDER!"

The thief might be a little smarter than I expected, they forced the door to stay jammed open. Whenever I see Olivia I'll ask her to unjam it immediately, don't want another thief to get in. This could just be bait for another thief to get the rest of the treasures.

My heart pounds wildly as I inch closer and closer to the thief. This person sure is fit, but so am I. And I am not letting their greedy little fingers make off with two priceless treasures!

They sprint down downtown, and thankfully everyone gets our of our way. It would be great if a citizen could stop this thief, but they'd properly get hurt. A life is way more important than catching this person.

The gates are closed though, they stay close for a little while after dawn to make sure all monsters are gone. Unfortunately, this thief is smarter than my initial credit, because they turn off to the side with me right behind them. Jumping and swinging up onto the rooftops, and now I also have to begrudgingly admit that this person is agile too.

The thief is running right for the wall now, definitely high enough to clear it. I glance down for a moment at the citizens and the gate, my friends are going to need a faster way through than parkour.

"OPEN THE GATES!"

We jump onto the wall and then right off. I tuck my limbs in for speed, luckily the thief has not yet learned to fight off that instinct, and still roll perfectly safe onto the ground. Now I'm only a couple blocks away from them. Just a wee bit farther and I could snatch them.

But I'm no longer even gaining on them. Whether they sped up, seeing me chase them might have helped that, or I slowed down, I'm just not getting closer anymore. I just need to find one burst of speed that could get me to this thief!

So forcing my body to just burst forward, a fiery strain shooting through my legs,  I tackle the thief. We tumble to the ground, and I learn quite quickly this person puts up one fight. Before we even hit the ground their elbow smashes down onto the top of my head. It didn't do anything, thanks to adrenaline, but it might be sore in the near future.

"Let go of me!" Definitely a feisty female, but her voice sounds really gravely as if she hasn't had any water for awhile. She tires to scramble back to her feet, but that doesn't work well when I refuse to leg go of her legs. And I would've snapped something back if she wasn't getting so close to kicking my face.

My blood boils when she wiggles and squirms out of my grasp. She is not getting away with our treasures! Particularly not the Atlas or flint and steel since those our tools as well! She can't just steal from us!

Knowing I can't hang onto her forever, I let go with my right hand to draw my sword. Grinning slightly when she tumbles into the ground, not prepared for my release. Even if I can't stop her myself, I'm sure my friends aren't far behind.

As she scrambles up, I lunge forward with my sword. My blade slicing her across her back. She screams and falls back down, but I can't exactly feel bad when I know that it's not a fatal blow and she has our treasures.

I jump onto steady feet and approach her. With a furious grunt, Petra's is way more intimidating, she rolls away and draws her sword. We face each other, and I can only see her cold pale green eyes. Despite the distance we just flat out sprinted, she doesn't seem to be tired at all. Or maybe I just can't tell underneath all that black.

There's nothing more I would rather do than just leap out and attack her right now. But as much as I hate to admit it, I probably wouldn't be able to keep up with her. I haven't had breakfast, my stomach is making a point to remind me, and she seems to be pretty dang good at running away from people. Which would be a huge advantage to her. My legs are still alight with pain and are begging me to take it easy.

So I hold my stance, simply starring her down. She freezes just like in the Order Hall and hopefully I'm buying my friends time. And hopefully one of them has a horse or Lukas will have to shoot at her legs.

It's quite interesting how she holds her sword, her hands as far down the handle they can be. That's kinda awkward to swing, she must not be very good at swordsmanship. Just another good thing for me.

Her eyes flicker to the side of me and I lunge at her. Whatever took her attention isn't as important as the fact it took her attention off of me. She gasps and clumsily blocks with her sword, eyes wide in shock and burning with hate at the same time.

I attack at her again, and easily pry the sword from her grasp. The blade twirling away from her hands and digging into the ground away from us. This person really shouldn't have tried stealing from the best fighters in the worlds, she has gone back down into not being very smart.

Her limbs shake with rage as she glares at me before flat out sprinting behind her. I go after her, but I'm a good few blocks away and she didn't seem as tired as I was. I know the terrain better than her, but that's the only advantage I have right now.

The air whooshes and she screams the next moment, crashing down and skidding on the grass. I point my sword at her as she clutches her leg that has just received an arrow implantation. Still can't feel too bad when she broke in and took our stuff. I can feel bad after we get the Atlas and flint and steel back.

"Okay, hand them over." I hear a hiss from behind her mask, and I roll my eyes. What does this person want me to say? Something like sorry for attacking you after you stole our stuff, please forgive me?

"I'd rather suffer than give these to you." Such vile and hate in her scratchy voice, I can't exactly recognize who she might be to have such a grudge. But I don't remember anyone, maybe besides Hadrian and Mevia, who hates me so much.

Scowling, I flex my fingers and get a tighter grip on my sword. "Okay pal, but you stole from us so don't bother pretending to be a victim when we attacked you. Now you should realize you don't have any options that work out for you if you continue to be so irritating and stubborn."

"That's putting it nicely." I don't glance up at Petra's voice, but I'm happy she's here now too. "You have definitely earned your spot in a prison, but maybe a dungeon would be better if you don't hand over our treasures this instant."

With her dull green eyes seething with rage, she removes one hand from her leg and to her pocket. Where she tosses the Atlas and enchanted flint and steel to the ground. Since Petra has her sword drawn now too, I do snap my gaze over to the powerful artifacts. Satisfied when Lukas bends down to pick them up.

Although I'm lacking two of my friends right now. Where could Axel and Olivia be right now? They seriously can't have been distracted by anything after I shouted intruder.

Lukas, noticing my confused stare, looks at me as he readies another arrow. "Olivia paused to close the door and Axel's scavenging the town making sure there aren't any other thieves. Although he did seem pretty excited at the notion of blowing one up if he did find one."

Petra snorts, roughly grabbing an arm of the thief and hoisting her up. "Well I got one right here for him. I wouldn't mind a TNT blast making her soar."

"This is just like the Order." The sneer doesn't work so well with her gravely voice, but if her anger means she can walk back to town without help, I'm fine with it. "The selfless heroes fall away once there's nothing noble for them to do."

"Hey!" Petra gets behind her and jabs her in the back, the hiss of pain quite loud. "Don't go calling shots about nobility thief! We'll treat intruders however we like!"

We shamble along back to Beacontown, I still have my sword out to her. "If I were you, I'd remain silent. Wouldn't want Petra to get angry at you now, your basically at her mercy."

Some growl comes behind her mask, but that just makes Petra grin and prod her again with Miss Butter. Another hiss of pain when the tip of her sword makes contact with the cut I gave her, she really shouldn't keep making us mad if she wants to be able to use her back.

Lukas flashes me a worried look, but I shrug to it. I'm all for helping people and giving them another chance, but she has not asked for helped or has any indictor that she wouldn't kill us immediately if we let her go. I'm not going to help that, especially not the person who must have had some reason to take two of our treasures.

So with the muttered string of curses every few seconds, we make our way back through the gates of Beacontown. Axel, with a small crowd not too far behind him, eagerly jogs up to us.

"So this is the filthy little thief then?"

"You have no right to-"

I poke her with my sword this time. "Don't you dare go on about talking about rights when you stole from us. Stay silent prisoner."

Another growl and curse words flow from behind the mask. But otherwise it's a silent trip back into the Order Hall. We do have a prison, it was built in case we ever caught some bandits that were around these parts, and she'll have the title of being the only prisoner. Lucky for her.

Citizens booing and scoffing at her when they pass. It isn't too loud, it has that breathlessly vibe to it. But their disgust at her is quite evident. I'm sure no one here likes anything about her now, and I can guarantee that she's going to be stuck within Beacontown for a long time.

We crawl through town, Petra's smirk never fading away for a second. Lukas seems a bit more worried, for the thief or for why she stole for us I can't tell. Axel just keeping smiling, and whenever it fades he would look around and it would spark right back up. I'm not going to be surprised if he's thinking about strapping TNT to her.

Olivia runs up to us as we pass the beacons. "I knew you guys would catch him! Come on, I've got the cell all prepared for a user."

More strings of curses burst from the mask, I'm so sorry for the mom who had to deal with this attitude. It seems unbearable, always snapping and hissing even when she's very clearly aware that angering her isn't the best plant of action this thief can take. She's in our custody, she should be using some more manners right about now. 

I smile at Olivia. "Her actually, and can you go explain everything to the citizens? They're a bit on edge."

She grins too and bows to me. "Of course, mayor Jesse."

Rolling my eyes she walks off. Any other time I would go along with the teasing, but there's a thief I have to keep an eye on. All of the Order likes to make poke fun at me for helping everyone so often that I've earned the teasing title of 'mayor', but it's just a fun thing to do.

We descend down a staircase, no one wanted to look at a prison so it was built underground. My nose immediately crinkles, we generally only throw people in for a few days if quarrels become too threatening. This place is made entirely out of stone, but moss is now growing and rotting in here.

"What a nice place, the Order sure-" Her own strangled grunt of pain cuts herself off. I just shake my head, when is she going to learn that insulting us is just not the way to go?

I see the cell Olivia prepared, and open it up for the thief. She hesitates, and Petra gladly pushes her in. She staggers in, clearly limping on the leg with an arrow through it. There's a moment where I do feel a drop of pity, but then she growls and glares at us and that drop goes away.

Petra is about to slam the door shut, playing out her bad cop side, but I stop her. Her eyebrows furrow together when I enter the cell, I still have my sword out though. I doubt she'll be attacking me.

"Against the wall, hands up." With another string of curses aimed at us, I'm beginning to think that's the only thing she likes to say, she follows my command. Petra sees what I'm doing and smiles as she checks her pockets, the bad cop really coming out.

Petra starts handing me things, an iron pickaxe, some pumpkin pie, and a bow with some arrows. For a few more seconds Petra thoroughly makes sure she didn't leave anything, before taking a step back from her.

"Okay convict." Petra's the best at intimidating, everyone knows she's it. So I just walk out and let her do her thing. "Try anything funny and I'm going to make this cell look like paradise when I'm through with you."

"So having my back sliced and an arrow in my leg is paradise? You're all corrupt twisted villains!"

Petra glares at her. "Keep that up and you won't have to do anything funny to get that treatment."

I gesture for Petra to come out of the cell, and lock the door shut.  "We'll be back with a healing potion and to interrogate you. We won't attack you anymore if you don't make us feel threatened."

She grunts, rage seeping out of her pasty green eyes. Another drop of pity falls into me, but I turn and walk away with Lukas and Petra. I briefly wonder where Axel is, but just assume that he's with Olivia or something.

My nose thanks me once we walk back out under the sky, a chunk of that thief's punishment will just be enduring the smell. I glance towards the downtown area, but ultimately turn to head back to the Order Hall.

Part of my brain is bickering at me to go help the citizens, a pull in my bones to go ease their minds. But Olivia, and probably Axel, are taking care of that. I don't always have to be the one making sure everyone is alright despite what that irritating little voice says.

"Well, are we not going to talk about it?" I roll my eyes at Petra, my thoughts still a cluttered mess in my head as I now try to think about two things at once.

"Easy Petra." Satisfied that I do have to open the door, Olivia must have fixed it, I turn to the warrior. "Just give me moment to calm down, I've been doing all this on an empty stomach."

She grunts and we enter back into the Treasure Hall. Lukas goes to set the treasures back on their pedestals, and I think nothing of it and continue towards the kitchen. But then I think about it when I notice him just starring through the corner of my eye.

"Lukas? You coming?"

He turns his head to me, and it just now strikes me how quiet he's been. His eyes glazed over in thought and crinkles all over his face as thoughts zoom around in his head. Lukas has definitely been analyzing this entire situation as Petra and I lock down the thief.

Refraining a sigh, I get the feeling breakfast might not be happening, I turn all the way to him. "What's on your mind Lukas?"

"I just-" His face screws up in frustration, thoughts travelling faster to find answers to his questions. "This person clearly has some history with us. But for the life of me I just can't figure it out."

Petra snots, clearly not inclined to be thinking about this. "And what's this important question about some dirty thief?"

"Who is she?"

****

Random thoughts leading into multipart oneshots! Yay! So sorry for the cliffhanger, but the second part will eventually come as I think about this some more.

Although the time sucking abyss of school has started, and oneshots are harder to produce. I still plan to do them, but it might take more time unless inspiration glues me to my laptop. But unlike my actual stories, I have no drafts to publish should I be unable to write.

So yeah, that's all from me! Until next time!