The Thief Who Stole His Heart

"Ruutu"

As he trudged his way through an old, dirty city, Jahseh rubbed his shoulder. He still felt it from how hard he hit that guy earlier. The wanderer didn't assume there would be people out this early. Dawn had just broken as he was thinking this, in fact. Did that man have a home? He looked quite run down. Jahseh has always been concerned about other people, but he wasn't always allowed to show it, that with him being a sellsword and all. He lived somewhat of an odd life. It was not what you'd expect from a society like this, anyways.

Jahseh was running out of energy, so he decided to stop in at a bar to get some food and drink. However when he arrived there, the door was still locked, so he had to wait. He decided to lean up against a post outside the front of the building, and look up at the sky. He sometimes wondered if what the people of the towns always said was true, that there were gods that watched over the civilization, and that they judged everything you did to determine whether or not you go to Paratiisi, or paradise, after your end. Jahseh didn't necessarily believe all of what settlers believed, but he did however become intrigued by it.

Just as he had started to really zone out, he heard and felt something clinking in his pocket, and his blood went cold. He turned around quickly, and burst out in anger.

"Who did that!?" He shouted, but as he turned around, no one was there. Immediately he felt his pockets and satchels, and realized there definitely was something missing all of a sudden. And it just so happened that the item that was missing was the most important to him—and the most valuable. "Fuck!" Jahseh made his way behind the building, to see something move and disappear all at once. He decided to follow it.

As he followed the glimpses of someone running away behind buildings, he followed, and it led him far throughout the city. The movement drew him through a marketplace, a housing area, all the way to a hole in the ground, covered by stones and wooden planks to make it look like a sewage drain. Clever....

Whether he should follow the person all the way down or not was the real question. Who knows what could happen down there. There would be no guards down there, and there could be hundreds of people ready to ambush him. Was it worth it? After a long moment of thinking, Jahseh decided to take the chance and climb his way down into the hole.

The only problem was, it was just a hole... or so he thought. Jahseh looked around for something that would indicate this was more than he thought, but the answer was below him. It was a trap door covered in hay and leaves, along with some loosened dirt from the hole itself.

Forming a grip on some weeds growing down the side of the hole, he used a hammer to break the lock on the trapdoor and open it. Who would have thought? If you don't have the skill to pick locks, or you're in a situation where you can't, just break the lock!

Slowly, Jahseh let himself down from the weeds and climbed down the ladder beneath the trapdoor. But as soon as he climbed down, he was presented with a figure in a mask. It only showed his eyes, which glared at him.
"You took something very valuable from me. It means everything to my heritage and where I cane from. I–" Jahseh was cut off by the person in the mask.

"Didn't anyone ever tell you that thieves don't care about personal value? They are supposed to find the most valuable thing in monetary value, and take it. Then they fence it for a higher price than it's worth. Uh I-" The person shut up after this, as another figure walked up, wearing an identical mask.

"Redd, why are you spilling all our information to this idiot who happened to follow your ice-brained ass down here?" The guy shoved 'Redd' out of the way and stood face to face with Jahseh. "I believe my friend here was trying to say get out. Or we will do more than just rob you of your precious things."

Jahseh's blood went cold at what this man said. What would they plan to do with him if he didn't just leave now? However there were only two of them, he could likely fight them off if he executed a plan correctly.

"Look, I don't think you get it, I've been wandering my whole life, this is the only connection I have to my family." He took a step away from the figure that stood nearly even to him, ready to draw his sword at any moment.

"And I don't think you get it... The poverty we've been living in has been going on for years. Decades even. I hardly have enough food for my dinner." Redd spoke up from the background, only to be shut up again by who seemed to be his leader or overseer.

"Redd, silence. Feelings are not a part of a thief's work. So shut up, and be a good dog." The man spoke harshly to Redd, who winced at being called a dog. "In fact you almost got caught today, how about I take your find, because you can't seem to perform correctly these days?"

Jahseh really was contemplating just leaving at this moment, but something about this didn't seem like some simple thieves. It seemed like these two men were actually having a problem.

"Um... I'm a sellsword, a mercenary. It's how I make my coin as I travel from city to city. If I could have my chain back, maybe that could be your payment to me? In other words, I'm working for free. And any coin I get in the next week, that will be yours." Jahseh attempted to persuade the two thieves into accepting this, which surprisingly went over better than he'd expected.

"Make it three weeks, and you've got yourself a deal. And remember, all of the coin will be ours. But since you'll need to stay alive in these next three weeks, you will be coming with me. I'll make sure you eat. For right now, Redd, give him his precious relic back, and take him to the quarters. Who knows, if you do this right, maybe you can sleep here tonight." The man just laughed and walked away, not letting any argument of the deal take place. In less than a moment he had completely disappeared.

Redd approached Jahseh, rummaging through a satchel before pulling out the chain that he stole. Thinking hard, Jahseh took it from him, making sure it was indeed his relic and not something else. This was unnecessary though, as he was honestly given his necklace back.

"Sorry about the trouble..." Redd muttered underneath his breath before turning around to lead Jahseh to the living quarters. Even under the city looked like it had been ravaged by a herd of angry mammoths. "What use will a guild of thieves have for a mercenary anyways?" In the hallway, Redd turned around, and Jahseh hadn't noticed he stopped, so he ran into him. There was no space in between them, and Redd wasn't able to hold any kind of eye contact, and almost jumped away. "Sorry..." He muttered under his breath again, before taking his mask off and looking up at Jahseh again. It was the same guy he had ran into earlier that morning.

"Wait... I ran into you earlier! Was this... did you just want to get back at me or something!?"