The Wanderers [Old Version]

The Wanderers

Dreadful glass shatters, as the clock strikes three.

"Run!", I screamed to Nico as I sprinted through the dark alley. The cold water that dripped from pipes and formed puddles, splashed up my legs as I ran through them. Nico followed me closely as we ran. A man in a fancy suit began to chase after us but eventually stopped.

We rounded the corner and ran across the street, almost bumping into several people. Finally we came to the next alley, where our small, trashed home was. We hopped down into the open manhole and shut it behind us.

Again, the cold sewer water splashed my legs as we dropped into it. We were able to catch our breath now. Nico put his hand on my shoulder, breathing heavily, "Get anything?"

"Yeah. Two coin purses. You?"

"Got one."

"Let's hope it's enough."

We walked in silence through the old sewer. Rats and bugs scrambled away as we stepped into the light of the flares we placed. When we reached home, everyone was doing what they normally did. Petra and Clara sat on the old couch we had found, reading old newspapers from the Old World and Draco sat at the makeshift table, carving wood with his knife. Nico took the two coin purses I had got and went to go count the coin.

I'm Rain. Not sure why my parents named me this, I actually hate getting wet. Might be because of my name. Might not. But as you may be able to tell, I'm a thief. We're all thieves. We're a bunch of misfit teenagers, living together, struggling to survive. We range ages 15-17, Clara being the youngest, Draco the oldest. I'm 16, and Nico is also 16, but a few months older than me. Petra is also 15.

Petra's parents disowned her after her first robbery. She was caught and sent off to an all girl school. She escaped within a week.

Clara simply chose to run away from home. She came from a rich family, but hated the idea of living the easy life as others struggled to survive.

Nico and Draco are brothers. I've known them since I was young. They've never spoke of their parents, so I can't tell you what happened to them. But I assume they were killed or simply disowned them.

Now we get to my parents. They're dead. I don't know how. I don't have many memories of them. Most I remember is my dad yelling at me and hitting me with a belt after I stole coins from him while he slept. I didn't know any better, I was young. And I saw a shiny gold thing in his pocket. I was simply investigating. I don't remember anything else. I don't even remember a funeral, if there was one. I just remember one day hearing that my parents had been murdered, I was very young at the time. I didn't know what they meant. But after a few days of not seeing my parents I figured it out. They weren't coming back. I was at an orphanage for a while, but ran away after a year or so. I didn't think it through and had to live on the streets as a result. I've been on them ever since.

We live in the kingdom of Lightstone, ruled by King Tyrian and Queen Linae. They have a 15 year old daughter too, Princess Bryn. She never goes out into the public much, but when she does, she reminds me that truly beautiful people actually live in this wretched kingdom. Makes me wish I was a prince.

None of us have very good relationships with our parents, but we're not bad kids. It just happens that when you end up raising yourself, you tend to end up on the wrong side of the law. Now not only are we thieves, we're wanted thieves, which makes our job that much harder. If we're caught, it's an automatic execution. We each have at least a 10,000 coin bounty on our heads. But as far as we know, we're only wanted in this kingdom. Miles upon miles lie between us and the next kingdom, but we've been stealing money in hopes to reach it.