The Tales of Hattie and Atlas

The Eye of the Criminal

 I woke up to the feeling of a sandpaper tongue licking at my face.
"Bee! Will you stop, I'm getting up!" I exclaimed, pushing the ball of ginger fluff off my face. He was only a kitten still, his bright green eyes full of excitement – even if it was six in the morning. Cats didn't seem to care about lie ins.
I carried on pushing him off as he tried to stick his tongue in my ear, he was definitely a persistent one. Why he was trying to wake me up, I didn't know. He knew how to get food if he was hungry, I had made him a food depositing contraption, and taught him how to use it - so it couldn't be that.
"I'm coming, just give me a moment," I responded sleepily, gently pushing him off my face and pulling up my weary body. I straightened up my night gown and pulled my arms through the silky robe which hung next to my bed. My house appeared rickety, but it was never going to fall down. I built it myself out of scrap metal and wood, my skills in creating definitely came in handy and I managed to build myself a rather impressive house out of limited resources. Big-headed of me, I know, but I was extremely proud of it. My house had three levels: right at the top was my bedroom, it was a reasonably sized room, full of books and quirky little things I had created. The second floor was the main living floor, there was a kitchen, bathroom and living room which all connected to the hallway where the stairs were. Down the stairs was the first floor which was my shop and studio. Even though my passion was creating inventions, my main method of making money was selling jewellery that I crafted from old clockwork and metal. My house was in the middle of the town and I was definitely lucky to have started up a business in such a prime spot. I had managed to buy the plot of land fairly cheap as the old building was rotting and falling down. With the help of some friends I managed to pull down the old building and create my own.
I made my way down the stairs to the second floor, yawning as I wandered into the kitchen.
"Good morning sleepyhead," Atlas looked up from the daily newspaper and pushed his circle glasses up his nose.
"I'm not even going to ask how and why you're in my house at six AM," I responded with an eye roll, used to his strange appearances in the mornings.
"Hattie, you gave me a set of spare keys about three months ago," he chuckled "and also we're in for a treat today, come see this." Atlas dropped the newspaper on the table and flicked to the back section of advertisements – outlined in red was a short piece of writing:

A precious possession has been stolen from The Captain's Armatures down by the docks. Any eye witnesses who were present when the event occurred on Saturday night are encouraged to come down to the police station and report their version of events. All help is welcomed.

I scanned the piece of text then looked up to see Atlas wiggling his eyebrows.
"Feel like closing up the shop for the day and going on a mission?" he suggested, a twinkle of excitement in his eye. Atlas was always ready for adventure, which was ironic considering his name. He did work almost like a giant map, he seemed to know his way round the world like he had created it. If there ever was a time that we went somewhere new, you could see him scribbling little drawings in his notebook. I never knew what he did with those drawings, but he seemed to find them useful in his own way, so I never questioned it.
"I haven't sold anything good in ages, today might be the day..." I trailed off, not too sure of where I was going with my point.
"Who knows, maybe we could offer up the criminal for a cash reward," Atlas winked, as if he would stand up to the police.
"Says the person who tries their utmost to stop criminals from even going to prison," I snorted.
"No, I just think that people need to be shown the right path, not just left in a cell,"

I shook my head at him, getting up from the table and making myself some breakfast. Once Atlas had an idea in his mind, you couldn't change it. He was a man set in his ways once his head was in the game.
"Come on... I even brought my cart with me so we could head down after breakfast," he pouted at me, his eyes the size of plates.
"Fine, we can go. Try not to burst a blood vessel on the way there though... Jeez."