Honour/Honor

Chapter one

Sorry that this is a very short chapter...

Nicholas ran with the guards hot on his heels. Their metal armour clanking as they raced after him, but they were not fast enough to catch the long-legged young man. Nicholas quickly scaled over the tall cobblestone gateway that kept the king's courtyard from the rest of town. Landing with a roll, He scampered up and out towards town, the guards behind trying to squeeze through a small wooden door. Hoping to lose the king's men, Nicholas zigzagged down road intersections and out into the dark forest. Still sprinting, Nicholas advanced farther and farther into the forest, only stopping when he was sure he had lost his pursuers. With a long stride and a hurried pace, Nicholas set off away from Innervale and deeper into the appropriately named forest of Vale.

It took him a couple days, but Nicholas finally reached the small outlaw outpost called Racers. As he walked inside, all conversation ceased, and a few awed murmurs arose from his fellow outlaws. Nicholas waved to his young friend James, and then walked straight to the bar counter and dumped out the jewels he had taken, from right under the king's big fat nose.

"I have something for you Raggar," Nicholas called out to the old hag seated in the corner. Her tired aged eyes opened and instantly brightened at the sight of the rare and precious jewels on the counter ahead of her. Quickly scooping the jewels into a pouch she wore hidden in her cloak, she handed Nicholas three large vials of a deep green liquid.

"Thank you Raggar," Nicholas said, placing each vial carefully into his warm winter cloak. When he was a boy, Nicholas could think of nothing better than owning a pile of jewels, but now he knew there was something better: fairies' magic.

Taking a gulp of deep green liquid, Nicholas, clothes and all, transformed into a sleek, handsome stallion, and galloped off into the forest just to enjoy the feeling of running as a horse again. Seeing as he only took one large gulp, Nicholas would only be a horse for mere minutes, but that was enough to get him riled up. As the potion wore off, Nicholas shifted back into the tall handsome young thief, with a lopsided smile, that he was.

The potion would really help, if he drank a whole vial of it he could shift to look and even sound like someone else for a whole hour. That's how he had stolen from the king, pretending to be a snobby chamberlain was enough to get him into the treasury, and back out into the courtyard before the potion wore off and he was exposed for the treasonous crook that he really was.