Yothana: A Thief's Quest

Chapter One

Author's Note: This is something I've been thinking of doing for a long time. An original story. I've been working on this for a couple of months trying to get a good feel for how I want this story to go. Hopefully, it receives well.

With this first chapter coming out, I'll now be able to fully focus on the next chapter of The Wendigo. Please let me know what you all think of this first chapter, depending on how well it does after a week or two, I may or may not continue to write this in tandem with my other story.

Until next time.

Late at night in the less than glorious village of Millstone, lurked a man in the shadows. He crept through the night, peeking through the windows of the rundown homes, looking for his target.

House after house he searched, his earth colored eyes peering into darkness for what he wanted. Eventually, he looked into a window of a bedroom, seeing a woman and her husband sleeping soundly in their bed. The man looked to the left of the couple's bed on their nightstand to see what he had been searching for all night: jewelry.

He quietly and slowly opened the bedroom window, making sure that it didn't make so much as a creak while he did so. After opening it just wide enough for him to climb inside, he did just that, slinking into the room as stealthily as possible.

Staying light on his toes, he snuck across the room, tip-toeing around the foot of the bed to reach the necklace and two rings left so carelessly out in the open. He slipped the valuables into a small sack and made to creep back out of the home.

Just as he stepped in front of the window, the wooden floorboard beneath his foot creaked, making his heart drop as he completely froze in place. He slowly turned his head back towards the couple, seeing that they had not so much as stirred in their slumber. He internally let out a sigh of relief as he turned his head back around. He took one more step and felt the floorboard beneath him instantly snap with a loud crack, making his foot and a portion of his leg plummet through the floor.

He involuntarily yelped, soon after cursing in his head as he heard the man in the bed cough himself awake.

"Wha.. who the hell are you?!" The man shouted, his voice scratchy and gruff. The thief grunted as he tried to free his leg from wood.

"All this expensive gold..." he said through grunts and heavy breaths, "and you can't afford a better floor?!" He interrogated the couple.

"Thief!" The woman began shrieking as she hopped up from her bed and made a beeline for the bedroom door. "Thief!"

Said thief finally freed his leg from the floor and pulled himself to his feet. He glanced behind him to see the old man charging him with a rusty dagger. Not wanting to be on the receiving end of the dagger, the thief swung the window completely open before diving out of it.

He tucked into a roll and got to feet. He looked to the right to already see a group of the town's guards rushing towards him, swords and pikes drawn. The thief's eyes widened as he instantly spun on his feet and began running in the opposite direction.

He tore across the gravelly road, the gravel and rocks crushing and crackling beneath his worn boots. He could hear the several pairs of louder and much heavier footsteps of the guards behind him. He remained calm enough, given the situation, as he knew he'd have no problem out running them.

He rounded a corner to duck into a narrow alleyway, seeing that it led to a dead end. He also noticed that a stack of crates resided at the end of the alley, conveniently making an impromptu staircase that would help him scale the wall and escape.

He leapt up onto the first crate and quickly began to scale the rest, leaving the guards on the ground below. After climbing the crates, he perched himself on top of the wall and faced the guards. With the bright and full moon right behind him, he gave the guards a taunting two fingered salute. He chuckled to himself as he turned and hopped down to the ground below.