A Little Birdie Named Jay (The Volumes of Blue- Vol. 1) #Wattys2016

Chapter 1: In Which Glass is Priceless

    Jay Levensque was a thief.
    The crowded streets jingled obliviously underneath her, with the noise of the wares the merchants had to offer and the heavy coins of her future victims. Jay smirked under her trade mark disguise, a royal blue scarf that covered her copper hair and most of the sun-kissed skin. Beads of watery sweat plastered her scarf to her forehead due to the temporary sun that graced the tundra for its regretfully short summer. A cotton shirt and trousers shielded the rest of her from the unforgivable sun.
Taking advantage of the exotically warm weather, the inhabitants of Azaliea, and traders across the Kingdom of Levinase, explored the chaotic streets of the summer fair while it lasted. Which wouldn't last long considering that summer lasted a few short, blazing weeks before the Aeolus sent the frozen winds of the North. These winters coated the bumpy, cobblestone streets with snow and ice, allowing only the large caribou and their riders to speedily make it from place to place.
The year-round winters also protected Azaliea and most of Levinase against the Southern Suadians. They were known as fierce human creatures by rumor that thrived in the hot, twisting sands of the Beruban Desert. Unstoppable and highly intelligent. However, it was said that even the smallest chill would extinguish the burning flame that made up their souls. The saving grace of fragile Levinase.
    The winters had one evil however, it "cleaned-up" the streets of "pristine" Azaliea. The many unlucky souls that became homeless during this time ended up frozen dead and dragged away to a rumored place called the Pit, where low ranked nobodies were tossed in together and burned to ashes once a year. To the luckier parts of Azaliea, the winter brought a long season of hunting and also festivals, in honor of the King.
Thinking about the "King" brought a sneer to Jay's lips. The King had no right to rule. He cared for nothing of the inhabitants of the kingdom unless they were particularly rich or pretty. While the Royal family and the nobles rolled in riches, the disheveled peasants rotted away in cold, wood, cramped apartments that had questionable integrity. However, the King's father had been quite different.
His father, the old King, transformed Azaliea, and most of Levinase, into gleaming streets where poverty was extinct. He also made Levinase's technology surpass all surrounding kingdoms. They even surpassed the Pelinacs, supreme in navigation and widely known across all of Cajan for their navy. But as all good people do, he passed six years before Jay was conceived.
Now, however, the foolish son wasted away the white cities of Levinase and a great Divide had been built in each city separating the nobles' home from the rest of the population, using, of course, the poorer of the two's money. The number of those left out in the cold has also increased, and with each incurring year, the Pit would need to become bigger, to hold all the dead that stained the King's hands red.
Jay snapped out of her daydream as she heard a loud tinkling of a particularly heavy purse. Its owner was a loud, makeup-caked woman, struggling to keep her bulky dress hoops from crashing into the jewelry stands that held fake jewels; sparklingly temptingly to those who were unable to tell the real thing from fragile glass. It also lured in those that did not realize fifteen klangs were a ridiculous amount for the fraud.
Sliding down a convenient pipe to the ground, Jay casually weaved into the crowd, her scarf covering everything except for her hazel eyes, allowing anyone who did happen to catch her red-handed to not be able to recognize her.
    Hazel eyes locked on her target, who happened to stop at one of the rip-off jewelry stands, Jay drifted through the crowd in a random pattern and ended up behind her target's back, swiping at the purses chain with her dagger until...
Jay was jostled from behind and slammed into the flabby woman, the woman pushing over racks of "priceless jewels", all shattering and alerting everyone within ear-shot of Jay's presence. Exposed, Jay grabbed her fallen dagger, tripping through the crowd to the nearest alley. Behind her, the woman she crashed into wailed as guards searched around for the fleet-footed, blue-shawled girl. Jay, still in shock, scaled up an abandoned clay building as a young teenage guard spotted her and informed his colleagues of her escape.
Successfully escaped, now on the rickety roofs of the torn city, Jay surrendered to her legs and sat against an old pigeon coop, her breath and heart pounding against her ribs as the adrenaline died down from her close call. In her line of work, once you get caught there is no chance of survival. You either die or live, but, everyone eventually dies, no matter how good you are. Ripping off her scarf, Jay breathed in the stuffy air of summer, still recovering from her dash. She then twitched her lip up.
She got the purse.

Jay spent the rest of her adrenaline-filled day pick-pocketing nobles, obnoxious merchants, and guards with ill-gotten gold. By the end of the day, the copper-haired girl had enough stolen jewelry, golden klangs, silver pelons, and bronze slavoons to afford next month's rent and a cheap drink at the Rusty Tusk. She even had enough to buy cold weather gear that would keep her and her little brother, Ellion, warm throughout the harsh winters. But why buy that when she could just steal from the coat rooms at rich bars!
Grabbing onto the ledge under her, Jay twisted down and swung into the shabby, worn oak room that she called home.