The Thief's Key

Chapter 2

I rolled over on the straw mattress that the farmers had given me to "sleep" on. I had to get that horse. I was dead meat if I didn't steal it, I was sure of it. I was tempted to kick the quilt I was using off and barge into the farmer's room and take the keys just like that. Maybe I would shock them enough and they wouldn't follow after for a while.

But I doubted that they would just sit there watching me steal a prized horse, so I carefully slipped out of the bed and over to my door. I was in the other room down the hall (my hypothesis had been right) and I was straight across from the room with the keys.

This was frustrating. Often as a thief, you encounter many obstacles that force you to become clever. People like to make it difficult to steal things. Like putting their valuables under lock and key. Or having guards. Or guard dogs. Thieves never get the easy jobs. Or the safe ones.

I yawned, tired. Shambling across the floor, I made it back to my little bed, laid down, and devised a plan. A plan that would hopefully keep me safe.

Before the farmer had found me in the bush, he had growled something about how the horse thieves get him up every night. Whether that was true or not, I hoped that it was true. I needed one to show up for my best plan to work.

All of the sudden, a peculiar noise wafted to my ears and I perked up. It sounded like...

I propped myself up with my elbows and turned my head, watching as a (presumable) thief quietly cut the glass window and set it on the ground outside.

I hit my pillow, heart pounding, and hoped that he hadn't seen me awake.

The thief carefully climbed through the window and into the room, lowering himself to the ground slowly. He must have been wearing shoes of a superbly soft material because his footsteps were nearly silent. He hesitated, and then crept around my bed and over to the door, where he bent over and grabbed the knob.

He just stood there, leaning over the knob. I knew what he was doing.

Slowly, I heard the knob give a soft click and the door opened a sliver. The thief slipped through the doorway, but he didn't close the door. Smart. I thought. Closing the door would risk waking either me or the farmers. And leaving it open made it easier to escape.

The thief was all the way in the hall now, working on the farmer's locked door. The thief was trying his best to be quiet.

I slipped out of my bed and tip-toed across the room, right next to the open door. I stood beside the door frame, lying in wait, hoping.

This thief seemed smart; break into the room closest to the room with the quarry. Breaking directly into the bedroom would run the risk of being caught earlier. The thief wore quiet shoes and he was very careful. I hoped that he would be successful. Then I could steal the keys from him as he came back through this room.

I peaked out into the hall. The thief was closing the farmer's door with the keys in hand. He was fast and silent. Impressive.

I hid again and waited. The thief was excellent. How was I supposed to steal the keys from him?

Padding like a cat over to my door, he came. Equally cat-like, I was in the shadows, waiting to pounce. He slunk through the doorway and I lunged for his hands.

I caught him by surprise, but he kept a firm grim on the keys.

"Shh!" he said. "Go... go back to bed. It's... okay? Bah. What am I..." He wrestled my hands from his wrists, but I latched right back on.

And then I did something childish. I bit the hand that was holding the keys. He gave a shout and the keys went soaring. They landed on the straw mattress and I dove for them, leaving the thief to tend to his wound.

I secured the keys, but hesitated. What now? I couldn't escape through the door, the thief was there.

An idea struck me and I bolted for the window just as the thief regained manliness. He had cut the entire pane out somehow, I noticed, as I climbed through. I landed on the dry grass and made a beeline for the barn.

Fifth try was a charm and I unlocked the barn door, closing it behind me. It didn't take me long to find the Silver Pearl; he was tall, lean, and metallic. His mane was silky smooth and without a single snarl.

I grabbed the lock hanging from his door and turned it upside down to find the keyhole. It wasn't there.

Simply wasn't.

"What?!" I said, horrified. Was there some sort of special way to get this open? Did I have to break it? I guess I could try to break one of the stall walls down. Nope. Not a chance. My twelve-year-old-girl legs could not do that.

I frantically searched the keyring (which had a record-breaking amount of keys) for something unusual. As I flipped through the keys, I happened upon the small, dark-grey metal rod. It was about the size of my pinky finger and the thickness of my thumb. Could this be it? Just a plain metal rod?

I decided to whack the lock with it. Maybe it possessed magic, like a magic key.

I slammed it down on the lock and nothing happened. I began to tremble with fear. The farmer would be there soon and he wouldn't be happy to find me trying to steal his horse.

I took a deep breath, attempting to calm myself. I pressed the bar vertically on the flat bottom of the lock, wondering if I had to put it where a lock would normally go. That didn't work so I switched to horizontal.

The lock popped open.

The Silver Pearl stomped his hooves and nickered as I stepped into his stall. He was good natured and didn't hurt me, but he seemed nervous. He could sense my anxiety.

"Do you want to go on an adventure, boy?" I asked in a kind and happy voice. I tried to feel less anxious so he would calm down a bit.

I knocked his grain bucket over and stepped onto it.

"Here goes nothing," I muttered, and I grabbed the horse's mane, hoisting myself onto his back. I had to grip his sides with my legs because he had a small back and his gleaming fur was very silky.

He moved forward and out of his stall. I guided him with my legs over to the barn door where I leaned down and opened it. The farmer was storming across the yard and when he saw me on the Silver Pearl, he shouted and ran toward me.

This sudden movement startled the metallic horse and he bolted. I would have fallen off if I hadn't had my hands so tightly woven into his mane. I sat low in his back, urging the steed to get out of there faster. I didn't want to get caught.

In the panic of our escape, the Silver Pearl turned down the road in the wrong direction. I tried to get him to go back and turn left, but he was set on his path.

I let him take me, not wanting to break whatever trust he might have had for me. He wasn't bucking me off... yet.