Chapter 8 - Thief!

A silhouetted figure in high heeled boots sauntered their way down a dark, narrow alley, their footsteps loud on the eerily silent night. A jewelled necklace was in their gloved hands; a small snicker left their mouth as they thought how easy it was to steal from Lord Horecraft's home. They then brought down the hood from their cloak to reveal a lady with a heart shaped face. Their heavy black eye shadow around their hazel eyes gave her eyes a more smokey look. Her curly auburn hair flowed around their face and down to her chest. Half of her face was covered with a black mask that she also pulled down to reveal her red painted lips.

As she approached the end of the alley, she placed the chain into her bosom, covered by her dark red corset. The dark cloak then fell back down to cover her frame, the length falling just above her knees, enough leg to show that she was wearing breeches.

She continued walking out onto the busy high street in the village of Birch, her eyes scanned her surroundings vigilantly. Her senses were always on high alert, her ears, eyes, and nose. Her mind was always running, always scheming, she took advantage of any situation, why wouldn't she? She was alone, who else but her did she need to look out for? She did not pity the misfortune of others after her gain, for the people she took advantage of mainly consisted of the rich that did not know the depths of pain or tragedy. This did not mean she was a good person, she never claimed to be, she would still take advantage even if they were poor, for her loyalty was to herself. It was a 'dog-eat-dog-world', and she was always at the top of the food chain.

Suddenly feeling peckish from this morning's efforts, she strolled closer to a stall where a merchant was selling fruits and vegetables. Her hand glided across the surface of the table until it reached one of the many apples stacked loosely in a pile, she swiftly grabbed an apple the moment the merchant had turned his back to talk to a customer. Then walked off taking a bite from the red fruit as she hummed sweetly to herself.

She never spent too long in any particular place, but Birch had been growing on her. It weren't the fact that it was a beautiful place or whether the people were nice, in reality it was because the people here were filthy rich. So rich, that many didn't notice when they had been burgled. Her smile grew on her face before taking another bite from the apple.

She stopped abruptly; her body sensed a change in the air around her; villagers walking by her gave her a double take upon seeing her face. Though their expressions only showed suspicion, like they did not completely comprehend if they recognised her face or not. Her eyes narrowed, something was wrong, had she been compromised?

Her footsteps quickened and she threw away the apple to the side after losing her appetite. Her eyes kept scanning from face to face and she put her hood up, in the hopes of getting the attention off of her. However, this only added 'fuel to the fire', their suspicious gazes growing. She needed to get off of the street.

With that thought she took an abrupt left down an alley, upon entering the narrow street she saw a flier stuck on the side of the building. She pulled it down, aghast, her face was pictured on it, with the words at the top reading- WANTED, and at the bottom there was a reward of 200 gold coins. This was bad, very bad. The only small comfort she felt was that the image only showed half her face, the bottom part covered by her mask. Her hair however still showed, making it unmistakable that it was her, although in this sketch, her hair was the colour of orange, she sighed at the mistake of the artist, her hair was that of a dark red/ brown which was not very common. She huffed before balling up the paper angrily in her fist.

It seemed, that she had to move locations sooner than she wanted. With that thought, she knew where to head to-

"STOP!"

"THIEF!"

She heard a man from behind shout, without even looking behind her she bolted further down the alley, hearing not just one but a few footsteps chasing behind her, their torches lighting up the buildings as they ran. She rolled her eyes, knowing too well that she would lose them in the next few minutes. Sprinting further away she rounded a corner, then another and another, going from alley to alley. Although the sound of footsteps had died down to none, she wanted to take extra precautions seeing as her over cautious self had somehow been seen stealing.

With that in mind, she ran across towards one of the buildings and agilely jumped up grabbing a second story windowpane. With her fingers clinging to the wood and her feet now easily placed against the wall, she moved to her right to grab one of the many beams, before springing up and landing on the rooftop. With her body crouched, her hands gripping the roof edges, she kept her head low as she overlooked the dark streets she had been running through, her eyes caught sight of one of the alleys further back that had a glowing light moving quickly. She raised herself, unbending her knees and started to fluidly run across the rooftop and jumping to another, landing easily. Luckily, the buildings were quite close together, so she continued jumping from one rooftop to the other, before finally making her way back to the edge of the village.

Her eyes scanned her surroundings again, there was no light other than the occasional lamp held against a building. The night was silent again. She jumped from the roof and landed gracefully to the ground, her knees bent, and her hands placed on the ground, she stayed in the crouched position for a moment, her head turning from left to right before standing up casually. In front of her there were some stables with horses next to an outpost, two guards were patrolling the area, while boisterous chatter and laughter was coming out of the building.

Seeing the men standing in front of the stables again, she decided she would use her womanly charms on them, with this thought, she undone her cloak letting it fall to the side revealing her terrific body as she sauntered her way towards them, her hips bouncing from side to side confidently. Immediately, she saw the men relax their grips on their swords, eyes hungry as they looked her up and down.

"Please stand back Miss, we are patrolling" One of them said, as he tried to keep a composed face and averting his eyes from her smooth chest.

"But there is no one about?" She responded, arching an eyebrow, before stepping closer to stand in between the two men "You both look so tense" her voice became husky as she placed both her hands on each of their chests, sliding them up to their necks with a feather light touch.

She saw them gulp before one of them replied,

"Ma'am, we should really be getting back to-"

"Oh, such a shame" She pouted and looked down "I really wanted to have some fun" she said seductively. "Oh well" and within a second both guards made a gurgling sound as blood seeped out from their necks. Her nails had elongated sharply, piercing the skin and coming out the other side of their throats. Their eyes were open wide from shock, the last thing they see before eternal darkness takes them, are a pair of mesmerising hazel eyes. She brought them both to the ground silently as their bodies had turned slack, removing her bloody nails as they decreased back to normal size.

She searched their bodies for their coin purses and a handkerchief which she used to wipe the blood from the ends of her fingers before placing it into her pocket. She hated getting dirty, but it would be better to steal a horse without anyone chasing her. Not wasting any more time, she turned around and walked into the stables. After choosing a brown horse she knew would be fast, she placed a straddle on top before climbing on and trotting out of the entrance. As soon as the horse was on the path, she kicked her legs gently into the side of the animal's belly for it to speed up and start galloping.