Sword and Staff

One

"Ah, sorry!" A young girl shouted as she ran through the back alley of a street, nearly bumping into a few people. Her shoes made a loud clicking noise as they hit against the stone that made up the ground, giving her position away to anyone close, including the guards that had been chasing her for a few minutes now.

"Get back here!" one of them yelled, and she quickly ducked in through a food stall, nearly knocking over a few pots and the like. She also nearly knocked over the stall's owner as she ran past them.

Eventually, she had run out of places to hide and in a desperate attempt to escape she ran into the woods that sat right up against the northwest area of the village. Now out of breath, she sat down against a thick oak tree.

"Whew..." she sighed and closed her eyes. She'd been running for a good 15 minutes now and her heart was basically exploding out of her chest. "What did I even do to them..." She knew exactly what she did. Since she was little, she made a habit out of stealing. Food or items, it didn't matter. She had grown up on the streets with her family, but her mother had grown too sick, and her father had grown too feeble. Thus she had to do the work to support them.

It's in the past. Nothing that should be thought about now, she thought to herself. Still, it bugged her. She couldn't help feeling a bit guilty no matter how hard she tried to not think about it.

I guess feeling bad about it is better than not feeling bad about it... maybe somed-

Her thoughts of self pity were cut short by someone suddenly grabbing her and picking her up by the back of her collar, choking her as she was lifted up into the air.

"Found the little bastard!"

She froze in place and stared up at the man who had caught her; it was one of the guards. 'I'm so done for-' She thought to herself, but then...

Everything faded to white, and suddenly she was back to sitting on the ground. "Wh-what the hell was that...?" She said out loud, out of breath... somehow... somehow. It felt so real! "I'm going crazy, I must be... I must be." Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a glint of light and instinctively jumped back, out of reach of the armored arm that was attempting to grab her by the back of her collar.

"Oi!" The guard shouted angrily and started to move forward towards her quickly, reaching for her again.

"Get away from me!" The young girl yelled and scampered to her feet, running as fast as her feet could carry her.