Second Star To The Right

Preface

A hooded figure walked through the streets of the village and moved swiftly through the crowd pickpocketing people as they went by. They stole a loaf of bread when the baker wasn’t looking, hiding the bread in their cloak they made their way out of the crowd. They made their way to a small home deep into the forest by a small stream and lowered their hood to reveal a young woman by the age of seventeen.

She opened the door and was greeted with the scent of rum. It was a usual occurrence in the home so she was not surprised, she closed the door behind her and tried to get to her room without being seen. Unfortunately, she had no such luck seeing as her uncle’s newest plaything ran straight into her as she was walking to bring the man another bottle of rum. The bottle slipped out of the older woman’s hands and crashed to the ground, causing the man to turn to face them. He was furious.

“You women are worthless! You’re only good for a screw and even then that’s debatable!” He shouted as he raised his fist prepared to hit the woman. The teen moved in front of her to take the blow, she may not know the woman but she wasn’t going to let her be beaten for an accident. The force knocked her to the ground causing her to drop the bread, the man picked it up and looked at it in disgust. “This is the best you could do?”

“It’s all I could take without drawing attention to myself and getting caught.” She stated looking him in the eyes. He growled and kicked her roughly in the stomach before tossing it onto the table, he grabbed the older woman and they stumbled into her uncle’s bedroom. She heard the door close and she slowly got up off the floor and made her way to her room, closing it behind her she made her way to the bed. She took off her cloak before throwing it onto her bed and set down her bag full of stolen goods.

She could hear noises come from her uncle’s room letting her know that he won’t barge into her room for a while. She dumped the bag and sorted through it, there were a few coins that she could use for herself and a bit of food she managed to steal out of a few baskets. She put the coins into a pouch that was filled with coins that she had stolen before and managed to hide. She put the little bit of food into a bag that was hidden under her bed, the noise coming from her uncle’s room stopped causing the girl to quickly toss the coins into the bag as well before she kicked it under the bed.

She waited for a moment in case he were to burst in and when he didn’t she let out a sigh of relief. She sat down and pulled off her boots, her feet were sore from dodging guards and walking throughout the entire village. It didn’t help that her uncle’s home was so far away, not that he cared as long as she came home with whatever he took from her. It angered her to no end, she planned to leave for good soon. She had enough money to pay for a room at an inn for a few days until she could get a job and food to last her that long if she was careful. She laid down and exhaustion washed over her quickly sending her to sleep.

~~~~

She woke up early in the morning in an attempt to avoid her uncle, she slipped on new clothes and her worn boots. Her uncle wasn’t always this way, he used to be her best friend and partner in crime until her parents died. Her mother was his twin sister and her father was his best friend, when they died he took it hard eventually led to him losing his job causing him to turn to drinking. She was seven when they died, they were attacked during a robbery. Her family never had much, but they were happy nonetheless and any money that they had left over they usually used it for holidays as well as spoil their daughter to the best of their ability. 

She slipped out of the house quietly with the coins and food that she had stolen in a bag with a few articles of clothing. She was leaving today and she was not coming back, she made her way through the village as people began to set up their booths. She debated on staying at an inn here and risking her uncle finding her or going over to the next village, she went with the latter. She bought a few more things she would need deciding not to risk it with there being so little people out and she could get the freshest batch of pastries. She made her down the road and spent most of the day walking, she eventually stopped when she heard a twig snap. She heard a bit of rustling behind her, but didn’t have to turn around to know who it was.