Lost Destinies

↳ 07: Never Agree To Fight A Beast (Unless You're Getting Paid)

"Another beautiful day being a fugitive from the law," Claude said, grinning as he tugged on his signature white silk gloves, eyes surveying the landscape before him.

"Beautiful for me, though I can't say the same for you," Lindsay responded next to him, her lips twisted into a haughty smirk. "You look like a mole rat who hasn't bathed in weeks."

Claude took great offense to this, self-consciously smoothing his hair. Minerva rolled her eyes at their antics and Ramona's lips quirked upward.

The village sprawled out before them was bustling with life, people wrapped in traditional white Snow shawls pushing carts and offering trades: a bushel of apples for three bales of hay, a bag of coins for a handful of jewels. Ramona had forgotten how poor South Snow was. Everyone had donkeys in lieu of horses, bartered personal items instead of pawning. Snow fell in thin flakes, the wind calm but frigid. Ramona pulled her worn brown cloak tighter around herself—the only item of clothing she had without holes cut out of the back. They didn't approve of fairies here, or half-fairies, or whatever the heck she was. She tugged the hood over her head to cover her hair for good measure. Bear tossed the large tarp over their van, which was parked behind an abandoned old monastery and would hopefully be mostly concealed by the trees.

"We can't stay in Snow long," Ramona reminded everyone, her expression guarded as her mind ran through the possibilities of police tracking them down, or worse, the royal guard being sent after them. She couldn't eliminate anything, however far-fetched it might seem considering the six of them were merely a band of traveling thieves (which was not a rarity anywhere in Fairytaletopia). "Surely the Central royals will start sending people after us."

Lindsay frowned. "I think you overestimate the competency of the Snow government."

"Could be entirely true. But I don't like to underestimate spite or grudges." She fingered the earrings she nearly always wore; small silver studs shaped like swans. Her gaze flicked to Minerva but she quickly glanced away again, choosing to pretend ignorance of Minerva's skeptical scrutiny, undoubtedly not buying the calm act. There was no way any of them could be calm after the events of the last few days, but that was her job, her responsibility. If Ramona couldn't pretend everything was fine, then none of them could. "We need to stock up, which means we need to split up. Steal what you can, buy what you can't. Stay out of trouble—" she spun on her toes to shoot Claude a pointed look— "I'm talking to you, Clo. Don't mess with anyone bigger than you. We're not going to be here for much longer than an hour or two, because it's freezing. Kapeesh?"

"I'll take care of weapons," Penny offered, sliding her knives into concealed pockets in her clothes. "Incident yesterday made me want to try out archery."

"Works for me." Ramona glanced at Baby Bear. "Food?"

He gave her a thumbs-up and a big smile. He was in a considerably better mood now that he was fully human again. "On it."

Lindsay draped an arm around Minerva's shoulders, pulling her close and grinning. "I could use some food too. Minerva and I will see what we can find—won't we, Minerva?"

She grumbled something unintelligible, but didn't resist as Lindsay practically dragged her in the direction of the market. Claude had scrunched up his face and was mouthing Ramona mockingly: Stay out of trouble—I'm talking to you, Clo. Bear saluted to Penny and ducked toward the nearest crowd in the opposite direction as the girls had gone. Neither Penny nor Claude had noticed Ramona leave, but as they glanced around, it appeared she had already vanished into the hordes of Snow citizens trudging through the narrow streets.

"When do you want to meet back here?" asked Penny in that stoic voice of hers, tossing a brown winter wrap over her shoulders and flexing her ankles, her eyes already roaming the streets for potential targets.