Calytrix's Journey

Part XXVI: Little Thieves I

 "We finally reached the exit!" I said with a louder tone than usual because I couldn't hold my excitement.

I made my first footstep to the Ba-prince Frederik's kingdom. In his country, I wasn't a wanted person anymore. Nothing happened after I left Rheya's castle but I was nervous the whole time. I kept thinking about how somebody would figure out the connection and take me back to her. No matter what kind of place this was I'd surely have a better time than at Rheya's place.

A natural fog spread all over and I wasn't able to survey my surroundings. Even the fire spirit couldn't disperse the fog with its flames. The natural occurrence was too heavy and strong to dissolve easily.

The path we walked upon were dirty patches of grass. According to the map, the main road wasn't too far away and it was supposed to be paved but I didn't want to search for in the fog. Once it dissolves it will be easy to find the main path.

"After we meet prince Frederik and strike a deal I was thinking of finding a settlement," I said "Beyond this kingdom lies a small town near a bunch of small mountain waterfalls. Despite its small size, the people are active in their trades and I could surely find work there to keep me busy. The scenery of that place is beautiful. I could build a small house there ."

The fire spirit which was silently floating in front of me silently listened.

"My knowledge of that place is all based on books but I've got a feeling it will be exactly as I described," I continued.

As we were walking I felt that something hit me from behind. I stopped my movements and slightly jumped from shock. The fire spirit didn't notice anything and it continued to float ahead of me.

I reached towards the impact point which was my bag and noticed that it strangely felt a lot lighter. Too light. Something was wrong. Very wrong. I was standing in the same spot and opened my bag to see that my money pouch was gone. That...was the worst kind of disaster that could happen. I felt that a sudden cold overcome me as I checked the bag again but not a single gold coin was to be found. Did I drop money along the way? Impossible...that impact just now must be the cause.

Could this be the kind of hit and run robbery I read about in funny novels? I looked around me and on my left a saw a small black-haired figure running away.

"Wait!" I yelled.

The small black-haired person didn't say anything but started to run away faster and I followed after him.

"Wait! That's my money!" I yelled again.

The dirty looking little boy looked in my direction for a second and run even faster. It was such a short period of time so that I wasn't able to take a proper look at his face. I couldn't keep up with him and he got lost in the fog.

"I'm sure you'll manage miss," he said somewhere from the fog.

"I won't," I cried out the truth."I need it."

I ran left and right trying to find the boy but he was nowhere to be found anymore. What do I do now? As I run distressed I bumped into someone. 

Caught you! 

I thought it was the culprit because I closed my eyes upon the impact but it was the fire spirit. It danced around in a confusing way after seeing my sad face. I held back my tears but my feelings were still visible.

"I just got robbed,"I said.

The spirit snuggled to my right cheek to comfort me.

"Without any money, I won't be able to afford a place to stay for the night," I said.