To The Top

Chapter 2 (Julius Pov)

I stroll down an  aisle of market stalls, all of them brightly colored in diferent shades of the rainbow. I walk up to a stall selling apples and  many other fruit in rickety woooden display cases. The person behind the counter (which is sadly just an elevated wooden board) and while he's busy arguing with a customer, I sneak an apple from the display. I bite in to and rush away before he can catch me, and i bask in self glory that no one had seen or caught me stealing. Little did I know, someone had seen me after all.

"Hey! Come back here you bastard!" shouted a gruff voice behind me. I turn around to see a man in his mid-60's running after me, sweating like crazy and wearing a uniform with the king's crest on it, which means he's a guard. I take another bite of the apple, and I sprint off. I skillfully  enter and round a bend on a 3 way intersection, but the path that I intended on taking was blocked by another guard, this time skinny, lean and, unfortunetely, fast. I take off down the 3rd and only street left for me to run from the guards.  

I crouch behind an abandoned shed at the edge of town, panting. The houses end here, and the forest begins on either sides of the road and starts completely half  a kilometer ahead. I peek around the edge, and see the two guards sitting on the ground a dozen of meters back. I quickly duck back into cover, since one was turning his head towards me. A few minutes pass, and another guard walks by me, but doesn't even give a shit that I exist. He greets the two guards and I hear the rounder one say in his gruff,  scratchy voice "Hey, Bob, Have ye seen a kid round here wearing a red jacket? Stole an apple earlier.".  Bob replies in a surprisingly high voice "Ye, he was crouched down behind that shed round there,". I hear footsteps coming towards me, and with the little strength i have left, I dash off once more, narrowly avoiding the second guards grasp. But Bob, the third guard, catches up to me easily, since he hasn't been running through town for half a day. He reaches for me, and I realize i have only one choice. I steer myself towards the edge of the road and leap into the forest.