collection of snowflakes (entries for snowflakes competition)

the snowflake of steampunk

 

 running to an adventure

I ran through the alleys between the buildings of Berrywich. I looked behind me and saw no robots running behind me. A dreadful feeling rose inside me as I pressed the casket, that I had to steal for one of my clients for a great amount of money, against my chest. That couldn't be a good sign. There are supposed to be a group of robots trying to catch me. Always when they didn't, I knew that something was wrong. Those robots were always eager to catch me, the princess of thieves or that were the names that people gave because they hadn't a clue who I really was . It doesn't matter if they have a put together a trap for me or if somewhere in the city is something wrong, there would be something wrong. I ran a little bit slower, not much, but enough for me to look what was before me, trying not to get catch because of some trap. They would know who I was and then they would bring me back home. To my mother with her high expectations, my father who would look at me with disappointment in his brown eyes and my- I really hope- ex-fiancé, who I had left behind, standing by the altar. I shook my head. I shouldn't think about it, that was my old life, something from the past. The girl I was back them wasn't there anymore. I looked behind me again, still no robots running behind me, yelling with their robotic voices that I should give up and that I'm just a  little street sparrow and that they will catch me, but they never did.

'You won't get away, princess of thieves.' I looked behind me and saw a few robots running, some were well flying after me. A big cloud of steam floated behind them as they tried to catch me. I started to run as hard as I could, trying to reach the next corner. I looked behind me again. They were coming to close for my liking. When I reached the corner, the robots weren't too far behind me  and I quickly got in the rather small alley, I knew that was there- after an year of living here I knew every little alley in the city.  It was big enough for me to fit, but too small for those stupid robots to fit in, but I didn't knew for sure because I knew that many inventors wanted to be the one that had built the robot that had catch me. Lucky for me, none of the robots had seen me running in the corner and they ran past it. I let out an sigh of relief and walked to my destination.

I walked through the alleys and quiet streets of the city until I reached the Professor Windsor park. It was called that way because the house of professor Windsor stood there a long time ago . He was a mad scientist and when I say he was mad, he truly was mad. There are some stories that he was so mad that once he attacked a statue of some Socialite because according to the professor the statue followed him with his eyes, but he was also one of the people that helped the first airship flying into the sky. Sadly while he was working on a project, he accidentally blew his house up.

Before I walked to the bench were I had agreed to meet my client or someone he had sent, I pulled the cloth- that I used to cover my face whenever I went out to steal something for one of my clients, so that no one could know who I was and put me in jail or bring me back to my parents- of my head, so that my black curls appeared and replaced it for an hat and a goggle, that I had found somewhere . I walked to the bench. I'd already seen the man that my clients had sent. I sat next to him. I put the bag with the casket on the floor. He waited twenty-five seconds before he stood up, picked up the bag with the casket and walked away. I waited for some time and took the bag with the money with me. I looked inside disappointed by what I saw. 'The bastard.' I whispered. 'He had given me less money, then that we agreed on. I groaned. The next time he wanted my service, I wouldn't help him. This was the fourth time. I groaned again and went to the bakery to buy two loaves of bread and after that I walked to my home.

I walked into the poorest quarter of the city and the home of many street sparrows or as some maybe preferred to call us scrappy survivor. If I think about it I rather have them- the other citizens-  calling us scrappy survivor because that's what we do surviving. In this part of the city you hardly saw some of the fancy gadgets, you sometimes saw someone with some old goggle, but something like the bicycle I had a long time ago. The most people couldn't  afford something like that. Like I already said we survive, often by stealing something, but what we steal are always things like food, soap and other things like that. Things we need and not what we want.