Fate's Gambit: A Half-Blood's Odyssey

Chapter V: Enter a New Thief

There are no unlocked windows so I'm forced to use the back door. I attempt to pick the lock, but the door is already unlocked. So gracious of the residents. The back door opens to a kitchen. A quick snoop around the kitchen turns up no results so I move on to the next room, the living room. Odd, there's nothing of value in here either. From the looks of it, it seems like only one person lives here. There are implications of a failed marriage all over the place. Over on one of the walls, there's a neat fireplace. The coldness of the ash inside of it tells me it hasn't been used in quite some time, yet it's been recently disturbed somehow.

The house is only one floor, which means everything is close by. I make my way to a bathroom and snoop around inside. Nothing. Next, over to a hallway closet. Nothing. Now, I'm in a spare bedroom. Surprise! There's nothing, not even in the closet. What kind of a joke is being played here? How does whoever lives here not have a single item of value?

The final stop is the master bedroom, where the man who lives here is sound asleep. By now, I'm heated. I haven't found a single shiny thing in this entire place. There's a set of keys on the dresser on the other side of the room, but those won't sell for a thing.

I put my hands on my hips and try to think of where else I could check for valuables. I sneak over to the nightstand next to the bed and filter through it for anything, turning up nothing instead. I check the master bathroom for something and turn up nothing as well.

Back in the center of the room, I put my hands on my hips and impatiently tap the floor with my foot. At that moment, I hear a faint rustling sound come from somewhere nearby. A closet. I completely missed that when I originally came in here. I head over to it, praying that I find something in there that I can take back to The Underground with me. The door is slightly opened, so it must've been an air current against the hanging clothes that caused the rustling.

The one perk of being half-blood of the feline variety is that I can see better in the dark than anyone else. I look over everything in the closet. The coats, the jackets, the shirts, the pair of eyes staring back at me, the shoes on the fl- Eyes?

Almost entirely hidden behind the sets of clothes, a pair of glowing eyes meet my gaze. I reach my hand out to move the clothes so I can get a better look at what owns those eyes. Without warning, it jumps out at me, throwing me off balance and making me fall back.

A human figure looms over me. Their attention is toward the bed, then they take off out the door. I look up and behind me and the man who lives here is perked up in bed, startled. I quickly jump to my feet and dash out of the room in pursuit of whoever just lept out at me. When I catch up to them, they're stuck trying to climb up through the chimney, kicking up and spreading ash everywhere as they finally slide right on up the chimney.

I run out the back door and around to the side of the house where this mysterious figure has just dropped from the roof. With how they've just escaped through the chimney, and the size of the bag they're carrying, one could assume they're Santa Claus. The only problem is, they're much too short and much too thin, definitely not anywhere close to what Santa is described to be. Their back is turned to the streetlight so the light goes around them, shadowing their face and somewhat blinding me.

Swiftly, they turn around and jump the fence, taking off down the street. The final pieces of the puzzle start getting put together. The ash in the fireplace was disturbed because that's how the mystery person got into the house in the first place. That mystery person is also the reason I couldn't find anything, either. They had already taken everything.

I jump the fence and take off after them. It doesn't take long to catch up. I guess speed is another perk of being part feline. I extend my hand out to grab the bag thrown over their shoulder, but the mystery person makes a sharp turn, escaping my grasp. I follow them into the woods outside of Ironhaven, where they still manage to keep a distance. Instinctively, I lean forward onto all fours, which moves me faster than running as a biped.