Thief

Chapter 2 | 7 years before

"Serra? Where are you at?" I say as I look around the halls. "Serra..?"

She usually runs straight to me whenever I call for her but this time she didn't come. "Serra? Stop playing around, where are you?" I continue looking throughout the orphanage for her asking other if they had seen her. I didn't get an answer until I asked Ms.Helgath. "Have you seen Serra today Ms.H?"

She turned around and smiled a warm smile to me, "I'm sorry Little One, I haven't seen Serra. Maybe she went outside to play in the yard?"

"Oh! I hadn't thought of that... Thank you Ms.Helgath!" I say excitedly as I run out of the door and outside. 'Of course she would be outside, She loved it whenever it was getting close to dark' I thought to myself walking around looking in the bushes for her. 

"Serra?!" I yell out as I make my way around the building. "Serra? It's almost time to come inside for dinner..."

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Looking throughout the cell beside me I see that it is still completely empty. Had he completely disappeared from sight... Or had he never existed in the first place. No, He had to exist because he responded to what the guard had said. Even more so the guard had responded to Him. 

"Smitty, are you there?" I say aloud through the hole in the wall.

Silence is what was returned to me.

"Great, now I'm going crazy, thinking that there was an old man in the cell next to me."

"That doesn't sound too healthy. Maybe you should get that checked out." I hear Smitty say through the hole. "That or maybe you are completely healthy and you shouldn't get it looked at. It's hard to get something looked at when it doesn't exist."

"Hey! How did you just disappear like that? What are you some sort of magician?" I yell at him angrily. 

He laughs for about fifteen seconds before speaking "Well, actually, I prefer the term 'Momwowthf' which means Magical Old Man Who Only Wants To Have Fun, but yes I suppose I could be called a Magician. If I was a girl I could be called a Witch or Magical Mistress... If I was an Orc I would be Cal-" He stops talking as I cut him off.

"Alright, alright, I get it... But that still doesn't explain to me why you are in jail in the cell next to me. You disappeared before answering my question." As I say this he messes with his beard.

"Don't recall that. But the reason that I am in jail is because I got bored and set my house on fire."

"You're kidding." He has to be joking. There is no way someone would just set a house on... fire.

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"I'm up here J!" Serra yells from on top of the roof. I should have known she was there.

Quickly I make my way up to the roof and sit down by her.

"You really scared me Serra, I looked everywhere for you... I was scared you got adopted and left me here alone."

"Aww..." She put her arm around me and gave me a side hug. "Do you really think that I would leave you here alone... I told you if I ever had to leave here, you would be coming with me."

I smiled and watched the sunset sitting beside her.

"Oh It's almost time for dinner, Ms.H wanted me to find you and tell you that too..."

She doesn't respond to me, looking out at the horizon.

"Serra? Did you hear me?" I say to her as she blinks a few times.

"Huh? Dinner, right. Let's go inside and eat" She says as she takes my hand and helps me down onto the small terrace below and we hop into an open window heading to the mess hall to go and eat.

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After dinner Serra and I had returned to the rooftop and sat just looking over the rest of the village, each light of the candles in each house slowly coming on one by one, soon turning the village from dark to giving off a warm glow.

The smell of the blacksmith pouring water over the coals in his forge for the night soon came followed by the smell of incense from the religious fold who sat in the middle of town surrounding a statue of the God of Life "Amarin".

I didn't speak because I didn't want to ruin the soothing silence that filled the air, bringing a sense of calming to Serra and I. The wind was blowing playing the whispering tune that now filled my ears, I laid myself against the thatched roof and looked up so I could see as the stars slowly made their own appearance in the sky. 'I don't want this to ever end' I think to myself as my eyes slowly droop down.

As they close I immediately fall asleep and begin dreaming. I dreamt of the idea of having a family again. Killion, Serra and I all sitting around Mama's rocking chair as she read us a story from a worn leather book, telling us of a knight's adventure to get to a princess locked away by an evil witch, guarded by a ferocious monstrosity. Papa coming home from a long day of working in the quarry and the three of us all getting up and running to him giving him a big hug.

"J! Wake up!" I hear Serra say as i quickly open my eyes and see smoke coming out of the windows below us. "Get up, get up, we have to get down!" Her voice sounds uneven as she speaks.

I quickly get up holding her hand. "What happened?" I yell slightly as she looks to me.

"I, I don't know but we have to get down, now!" She says looking over the edge to the soft grass below and a few feet beyond the the iron spiked fence. "Be careful when you jump alright." She says as she helps lower me down to make the drop a few feet less and I drop and land on the grass roughly.

"I'm alright!" I yell up to her as she nods. 

Down on the ground I see that the upper floor of the orphanage is in flames. 

"Serra hurry up and get down!" I yell up to her my voice fiercely showing worry.

My heart completely stopped as she jumped from the rooftop.

Landing on the fence.

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