The Fruit Thief

No one noticed the fruit thief when he entered.

"Do you come from the north?" the customer asked, "In fact, that's a northern accent I am certain". The sounds of the busy marketplace chattered like a swarm of bees.

"No," The vendor roughly said, "However, these berries do. These are good quality. Five large berries for three coins."

"LOOK AT THIS FILTHY CRAP!" The customer pointed at the berries. "Is this a jape? Did your parents ever teach about cleaning fruit? Look at how much dirt is in it! Five of those are worth one coin at most. Take it or no deal."

"Fuck you. If you are going to complain about my berries, leave and I will find a competent customer!"

The customer rolled his eyes. "Okay, and don't pretend I am a fool." The vendor watched as the angry customer left his stall.

What a bastard, he thought. He looked down to the four crates of goldenberries on his stall. I could not see a fucking single bit of dirt in them. It was Edmund's second day selling the berries in a city marketplace. It was the busiest and largest marketplace the vendor had been to. However, the customers so far have been picky about his berries. but that didn't stop his determination to sell them. Edmund knew he had to sell the berries. Every berry sold matters. His farm was dealing with a bad harvest.

But the customer was partially right. Even though Edmund was born in the city, he had lived in the north of the kingdom for most of his life.

Life was much happier back then. Living in a small cottage next to a village, he remembered his wife and son clearly. Edmund missed being a father, teaching his son, Arthur, all the things Edmund learnt from his father, from lighting a fire to making a rabbit trap. The boy was a quick learner compared to the other children at the age of 5. Edmund was especially proud of his son, and he even made him a small gift - a wooden token, carved with a bear. But it was lost in the fire. He sighed. Nothing I can do about it.

Since the fire burned down their home, with his son and wife with it, Edmund was miserable. He missed everything from his old life, but he knew he had to move on, continuing to grow and sell fruit. Edmund was so distracted thinking that he barely saw a lone boy approaching his stall.

"Hello kid. Where are your parents?" the vendor said, gaining back his attention.

The boy remained silent, his face emotionless. He looked at the berries. He grabbed two berries with one hand.

"You want those berries? Two for a single coin." the vendor said, watching the boy observing the fruit. What the heck is he doing here though? Edmund thought, he is like eight or nine? Ten?

Suddenly, the boy bit into a berry. The vendor turned furious.

"Kiddo, you have to pay for that! Give me the other berry! I am not letting you have another one if you aren't going to pay up!" The boy ignored him, instead opting to eat his second berry. The man continued as he walked towards the kid. "Where are your manners? Who are you even? Some troublemaker?"

The boy smiled and said, "I am the fruit thief." He grabbed a crate of berries and ran off.

The vendor ran after him. "Thief thief!" That brat. The thief's nimble body raced out to the crowd. Shortly, the vendor could not see the boy. "Go catch him!" he shouted. However, the crowd ignored him, and it was too late.

The fruit thief sat under a tree. It was a hill, high enough to glimpse the marketplace below. He was still impressed by the size of the city. He spat. It was also an ugly city. The lifeless vegetation covered over the hideous stone walls, and the mucky alleyways tainted the beauty of the city's buildings.

The boy bit into his prize. He hasn't eaten these in ages! And it also tasted good as he remembered back at home. The fruit thief was upset that a lot of the berries fell on the floor as he tried to escape from the vendor, but a few were still left. Perhaps sprinting with a wooden crate was not the greatest idea.

But, he chuckled. The vendor's surprised face when I bit into a berry. No regret there. He felt no pity for the vendors. If they did care about their fruit so much, they should try harder on catching me. He chuckled again. All the stall keepers and guards gave up on catching him after his first week. Only a few naive people try to catch him nowadays. But of course, none of them have been successful. They always gave up after a few days. Just not worth catching him inside the capital city in the kingdom, he guessed.

He chewed down the last berry left in the crate. The vendor's face was familiar though. The boy reflected on it for a moment.

Then he realized that he did not care. He decided to take a nap.

That's him. Edmund saw the thief below the tree. The boy was fast enough for the man, but not wise enough to notice that he left a trail of fallen berries just right behind him. He hoped he could get the berries back (the crate worthed about two hundred coins, he estimated), but he knew that there was a high possibility that it was too late.

Edmund walked up the hill, holding a spear with his right hand. Convenient, he thought as he saw the boy napping. He walked up to the boy's small body and slapped the boy's cheeks.

"Wake up, boy!" he said in a loud voice.

The boy opened his eyes. His eyes widened as Edmund lifted his spear towards him. The boy was still.

"Where are the berries?" The man grabbed the boy's arm and pulled him up. "Where are the berries?"

The boy attempted to get out of the man's hands, but the man's hands were too strong. The man's spear slowly approached the boy's neck. "There there!" the boy said. He pointed behind Edmund. Edmund turned around, seeing an empty crate on its side on the ground. The boy ate them all. He felt a sudden urge to punch the boy. When he was about to turn back to the boy, suddenly, the boy broke out from the man's hand in surprise and started sprinting. Fuck, the man thought. The man hurried to catch up to the boy, trying to outpace him. He heard his heart beating as he climbed down the hill to the boy. His feat started aching, and the man felt his energy draining away.

Edmund slowed down and watched as the fruit thief came out of sight. Dang it, he thought. He should have been more cautious. The man sighed.

As Edmund was walking back to the marketplace, he returned to the spot where the thief was napping. He stared at the empty crate in displeasure before an object next to the tree caught his eye.

Edmund crouched down, finding the piece of wood. A wooden coin or token to be more specific. Edmund lifted it and glanced at it closely. There it was. The carving of the bear. The token that he gave to his son.

It haunted him. Did the thief savage it from the ashes? Or is the thief my son? Edmund tried to remember the thief's face, but it was blurry.

It doesn't matter, the thief is gone, he thought. He dropped the token and turned away towards the city.

Still, he felt something missing, looking at the city from the hill. He turned back and gazed at the coin sitting from the ground.