Chapter 12: Thief

My head hurt so bad. All I can think about is how much my head hurts despite the sounds of clanging metal and explosions in the background.

I blink, exhausted and feel myself being pulled. I look up and I spy a woman over me, she's sweating profusely and her eyes keep darting to the sides.

Suddenly she threw me aside and brought her arm up just as a man with a spear landed atop her, pushing against the transparent blue shield she'd produced from nowhere.

She screams and tosses him off, morphing a spear- no, a javelin from the shield, and shooting it into the shoulder of her attacker. He didn't seem to care.

I blink again and all I feel is a heavy bopping. My surroundings had changed and I'm still lying down, I feel the feet of the people seated above me on my sides and the breeze of the night wash over me.

Two men are seated on my left and two women on my right, including the woman from before. She looks really banged up, more so than before. At least she isn't being attacked.

"Uh…I..." I try to speak, introduce myself and maybe even thank her but it seems that is beyond me. She looks down at me and scowls, mouthing something very angry to the men on the left.

Disappointed, I blink again. This time I'm woken by the force of my fall onto the floor. I groan and peel my eyes open at the two who'd tossed me. It's the two men from before, they huff a bit out of breath. Standing over me, the younger one by the left speaks and at last I can hear what they're saying.

"We shouldn't just leave him here." He complains to the one beside him. This is awfully familiar.

"Where do you want us to leave him then?" the other grunts, finding his young counterparts struggles amusing.

"I mean, we can't take him with us but at least if we're leaving him by the street, we should help him out a bit."

"We saved his life, if we hadn't interfered when we did, he'd be part of the Cult of Phien by now."

"Just leave something." The young man takes of his coat and tosses it over me. It's warm and smells like copper, but that's probably from all the blood.

The older man grunts, coming down to me and stuffing something in my hand. Idly, I feel around it.

"Yeah, that's right. I've gifted you one silver tokus. If we ever meet again, I suggest you thank me profusely."

The two turn around and leave, my eye follows them until it lands on a sort of vehicle. A cart with a large bottom for goods and passengers, the two hop into the back and their rider whips the strange two-legged horse like animal into action, pulling them away.

"What the…"

***

When I wake up the sun assaults my eyes. I pull myself up and squint around, I'm at the edge of a village, above my head is a sign post that said Ioina Village.

Another village then. Hopefully the people here aren't drones like the ones in Arak village. My head still hurt, the pain is familiar and reminds me that I hadn't walked here. I was brought here.

By who though? Those men, that woman, who were they? I shake my head but it only aggravates the ache so I stop and scrub out the gunk from my eyes instead. I get to my feet and have to pick up the coat that falls off me as I do.

Right, I was gifted a few things. The coat from the young man and the silver…coin. It's gone.

"Fuck!" I check my pocket frantically for the leather pouch from Arak village but that too is gone. "Just my fucking luck!" I kick at the post and instantly regret it. I had no shoes.

I stifle the pain with more anger at the world and I pull the coat over myself, groaning in pain and anger as I make my way into the village proper.

The village isn't unlike Arak, well, in many ways it is. For one there is a larger opening not inhabited by anything except grass and dirt, ahead is the actual village.

As I approach I see the similarity with Arak, the houses were the same build but instead of being all aligned and having only one stand, there is a bit of variety, even as I walk I have to step over several stand-ins, where people just set up shop without an actual…shop. Just a mat and their goods.

Some did this right outside their own houses- it's easy to tell- but many took to the spaces between the houses, like an alleyway market.

The markets aren't the alleyways only inhabitant though, there were many, many beggars. Some greet me and at first, I feel repulsed by the audacity until I realize I look just like them. Haven't bathed in weeks, held a strong stench of dirt poor and looked the part as well with my thorn up clothes.

I need to get a bathe, a meal and some actual clothes.

I spy the kindest looking person in the market, a middle-aged soft looking woman. There was something odd about her but I couldn't put a pin on it. Still I approach her at her stall, she's one of the few to afford a stand of sorts, the others just sat on the floor.

I eye her fruits, there's a red, shiny apple sitting in a comfortable stack. My stomach growls and she lifts her eyes to me, but pulls them away a second after, leaving no doubt in me that she saw just another beggar.

I silently curse myself for not eating that sheep and moving on. I bite my lip and hold in my frustrations. There is no taking back bad decisions.

"Excuse me, Ma'am?" I call out. She holds onto a thin cloth, proactively ignoring me for its rather interesting shade of brown. "Ma'am, please could you spare me an apple?" It wasn't all I needed but hopefully it's the least I could ask for.

"That'll be a single copper tokus, if you want the big ones that'll be two copper tokus."

She said all this without looking my way, like she didn't expect me to pull out even copper fillings from my pockets. Of course, she would be right.

"Ah, I'm new in town and I don't have any tokus on me." Tokus seems to be the name of the widely accepted currency, "I would really appreciate it if you would help me out."

"And I would really appreciate it if you would-!" there's a fury in her eyes as she finally looks up at me, ready to shoo me away with her rag. "Wait. You're new in the village?"

"Yes." I answer quickly. If it bought me any favours, I'd likely admit to anything. "I woke up at the front just a few minutes ago, I'm coming from Arak village."

"Arak village…" there's a bit of fear in her eyes now, but her shoulders droop and she looks relieved as she remembers something, "Ah, yes. The Following finally burned down that cluster of evil. You must be a victim of the Cult. The Following must have saved you."

"The Following? You mean those men, the ones that gave me this coat?"

"Ah, they gifted you something." She looks a lot less disgusted by my presence now, "Yes, those men. They are the adjudicators of the law of Anera, they are our protectors and yours too. You are doubly indebted to them as they saved your soul and gifted you as well. Such luck."

She takes on a dreamy almost envious look at me, like she wishes she'd been the one to be saved. "I was gifted two things actually. A coat and a silver coin but when I woke the coin as well as all my valuables were gone. If you could please…"

"Fine." She waves me away. "Take an apple and choose wisely as I offer only one. As for your belongings and the gift, I am saddened to say those are long gone by now, many thieves roam our streets."

I thank her profusely, picking up a large apple evidently worth two coppers and start off on my way. I knew what I had to do next and how to get it done. If I was truly the victim of a theft then I had a witness. Anselm.

However, I couldn't cast a spell out on the open street. Well, I could but I don't want to find out the hard way what the policy on magic is here, especially magic that flirts with the dead.

Ahead, past the end of the alley there was an open field, with a river too. Perhaps the same river from Arak. I head there hoping it isn't filthy.