Title: Getting complicated by the second
Chapter: Creatures of the Night
Summary: AU She didn't expect her life to change that much when she left for work. I mean, so she was a thief but she didn't know that being one would warrant weird mages to come at her nor for Gods to start speaking to her or did it?!
Chapter 1: Creatures of the Night
A/N: Well, I have decided to continue this story so I have revised this chapter abit and have posted it under my other fanfiction account.
Enjoy
As the night watcher rang the midnight bell, a figure waited patiently in the shadows of a nondescript building, near a tavern, known for its brawls, and even better known among the thieves for its drunken men.
They were fools in the very fact, that they even dared to venture out of the tavern after midnight, but to the desperate and drunk, this was not of particular concern, anyway most of them deserved to have their purse lightened by people like us thieves.
In fact we could even be counted as doing society a good turn, by lightening their purses, as it gave them less money to buy that foul drink called beer which would make them senseless beasts and beat their wives, and hopefully the loss of a few coin would keep them sober for a while.
These ignorant fools were so dumb that even if I crossed them in broad daylight the next morning, those poor fools could swear they had never seen my face before.
To be a thief required not only agile fingers, but quick wit and a great deal of luck, which was partly why we worshipped Clow, the god of luck, for if a night watcher caught you stealing, the fate which was worse than death awaited you.
That was why those caught and accused as thieves, would rather commit suicide than go meekly and submit themselves to the punishment set out by the practices of the light magic, the upholders of the law.
Stealing was pretty simple though. All you need is the patience to practice it and before long you wouldn't be worst then being adept at it. For Sakura however, she had talent at it and had pretty much perfected the act slitting a purse within seconds and slipping away under the cover of the shadows, provided by the various dubious alleyways.
However, using the same route of escape is not encouraged, as it could get a person caught before one could say Clow; routine was always best avoided, so she changed the route taken to escape daily. Well, with the whole map of that area practically embedded in her mind, it was easy to slip away.
Keeping well into the shadows, she surveyed the alleyway for a night watcher, she was wearing a worn out hooded cloak and rather grubby boy's clothing, but underneath those filthy pieces of rags was a body, more specifically, of a female.
To hide her obvious feminine hourglass figure, she generally wore baggy clothes if she could help it, to attract less attention, but even her hair color was problematic, as red in itself was attention-grabbing enough, much less long AUBURN hair, so she cut it short altogether.
Anyway, with that kind of hair and those sparkling green eyes… she could make a very pretty wench indeed, but being too proud to sell herself for money, she had resorted to thievery.
She had a talent for it anyway… if people thought she was a boy, it would be easier to get around, and boys had a lot less restrictions as compared to girls, and anyway, Sakura could never imagine myself sitting very demurely, holding a teacup, and that sort of rubbish, which was definitely not the person she wanted to be.
Slipping among the shadows, she knew that the night was her element; it had always seemed to beckon her with their forbidding solitude, so similar to her own, having lost her parents and brother at a young age, it had been long time since she felt love for anything at all.
Each day, she constantly waited in anticipation for darkness to descend upon the land. But don't get her wrong, her love of the night was more of a comrade type of love, as it had saved her skin more than once, when night watchers had came dangerously close to discovering her, the shadows had shielded her from the prying eyes of others…
Crowds had always been her weakest link. She hated to be in spaces without an escape route and crowds closed off a lot of options for a quick getaway. Also she never could stand crowds, they always seemed to look at her accusingly with jeering faces. Noisy, loud and bright spaces confused her and broke her concentration. Moreover, it put her on an edge.
Still, being able to blend into the night had its advantages, for one, even the bravest of the underground criminals balked at the mention of setting foot out of doors in the dark especially at midnight, the dark's king hour.
In the darkness, she found temporary release and freedom from all the troubles that haunted her waking hours; her rage for the unfairness in her family's death, her insatiable hunger…
But, an empty stomach would always keep your mind alert and conscious or so that's what people thought but they never ever did think otherwise did they? Feeling hungry all the time will make one think of being full and there will be little on his or her mind besides that.
In the same way, thievery had affected her life in more than one way, always kept her acutely aware of every movement that others made, every drop of water, and every leaf falling even when one was resting or sleeping.
Who were the ones that drove her to thievery, who else but the night watchers and all those who practiced light magic- supposedly the magic that could save the world, and set it free! Or so they say, free! As if!
It was at these moments that rage threatened to overwhelm her; Anger was dangerous, if it was hot anger, it could engulf you, and leave you exhausted, however if it was a cold anger… that was another matter altogether. Cold anger was left the person conscious of his actions and made him calculating. It cleared one's mind and made a person reason things out calmly; cold anger was by far the deadlier of the two.
Caught in her dangerous web of thoughts, she almost missed the man she was waiting all night long for, the ideal drunk, easy to make a move on.
Narrowing her eyes at him, she scrutinized him carefully; even though he seemed very drunk, staggering and stumbling, not even able to walk in a straight line but his movements were too consistent, even mechanical, she could almost predict where he would lumber to next.
A drunken man's actions, however, would definitely be very random and awkward, thus it was easily recognizable. But, this man was acting a bit…strange.
Sakura's eyes caught the glint of a dagger hidden cleverly among the folds of his cloak and congratulated herself silently thanking the gods for her having sharper eyes than most, or cat's eyes they said, the same haunting emerald green as the witch's cat, if not she would never have spotted the dagger until it was too late like when it was plunged into my stomach or something decidedly unpleasant to her.
Sighing mentally, she wondered idly why Lady Fate was so determined to see her fail today, or maybe it was because she hadn't offered enough incense to Clow the god of luck.
However she didn't dare to let this man go. She had been starving for a week now and desperately needed to eat, no matter how great the risk.
She even dared bet every cent of her money that the hilt of the dagger was made of pure gold. The alluring glint of gold was once again seen under the cloak reflected by the pale moonlight, and her eyes could just make out the finely woven material of his clothes, which could fetch at least a gold noble in the market.
Reaching into her pocket, she opened a packet almost furtively She had never used it to rob a drunken man, it was too much of a waste of good money, but this man seemed a tad bit too suspicious. 'Better to be safe than sorry' was one of her many mottos in life, and her mottos had not failed her yet.
If this venture was successful, she could probably live a month with some decent food at least, and get some new clothes. The lucrative offer was just too tempting and Sakura was never ever good at resisting temptation.
As she grab a handful of pepper, she whispered a simple "Good luck to you" to the drunken man as she had a particularly bad experience because when someone throws pepper directly into the eyes, it would hurt like hell, and took a long time to wash out.
Clutching the handful of pepper in one hand and a knife in the other, she made her way purposefully towards her target and as soon as she got as close as possible to the target, without alerting him of her presence, she shouted "Hey there you Baka!"
The man lifted his head face startled at the audacity of the person and in that split second she realized that he was not even drunk at all. His eyes where clear, and it took her yet another moment to register that before flinging the pepper into his face, and cutting the strings of his pouch in one smooth motion.
The man clutched his face in pain however he reacted so quickly, considering the amount of pepper she had thrown into his face, that she only just manage to dodge his blow and sprint off into the dark alleyways.
As she turned into yet another dark alleyway, she allowed herself a small smile as she weighed the pouch in her hands. But then those clear shocking amber eyes flashed in her mind. He looked so surprised; he whose chestnut curls framed his face and felt her conscience twinge at his gasp of pain.
However with the money pouch weighing pleasantly in her hands, all traces of guilt disappeared as quickly as they had appeared, leaving her alone to muse upon the fact that the guy was rich, very rich and that he wouldn't miss the money. Well, not much.
"Damn that boy!" growled Syaoran, as his eyes watered relentlessly, he tried to wipe the pepper away but to no avail.
"It also doesn't help matters that that little boy was able to lift money off me, the Darkness' heir bested by a mere boy, and a small one at that, what will people think? I'm so done for. A little boy! AaaaarghH! Why when I find him, I'm going to kill that idiot boy, how dare he! Who does that bug think he is, challenging me…? When I find him, I'm going to have a whole series of torture timetable set out for him, and suck his strength out from him bit by bit, and make sure he stays conscious while feeling, and knowing his strength is being sucked out of his body.'
However he was rudely disturbed from his angry tirade of words with an amused voice drifting from behind him 'Why, the oh so great Darkness' heir, do you just look rather amusing shrieking your head off like that.'
That shut him up quickly enough and he turned to glare at Eriol. Smirking, Eriol continued, 'Okay so chill, don't get all high and mighty with me. err… we'll be able to find that boy, and you can get your revenge later.' Calming down a little, Syaoran, cleared the last of the pepper from his eyes with magic, and demanded angrily, "Oi! Did you see which way the boy went?"
Seeing the nervous look on Eriol's face, he said in a dangerously low voice 'Don't tell me you…" he snarled.
'Hehheh, well you see, the boy was running so fast and I didnt…'
'And why didn't you stop him?" Syaoran interrupted impatiently.
Eriol smiled sardonically and replied "Eh? Why didn't I? Well, for one, I was in shock that you of all people would get bested by a normal human being and well, another is that I didn't feel like helping you anyway."
Frowning angrily, he muttered dangerously, "Eriol…I'm warning you. Don't push me."
"Me? Push you? I would never! What made you think that? I'm hurt!" exclaimed Eriol with an innocence expression. "Well, aren't you going after the boy? The trail's getting cold my dear cousin."
"Sod off Eriol. I'm angry enough without your meddling. Let's go."
Leaping onto the rooftop simultaneously, they paused and the shadows around them seemed to shudder and collect around them before materializing into wings. Both unfurled in its full majesty, as a certain amber-eyed figure took off, circling a few rounds, searching for his quarry.
Eriol frowned at Syaoran's recklessness. Sighing in defeat, he cast a silencing spell over both of them before taking off after Syaoran. Wincing slightly as the spell depleted a portion of reserves, he joined Syaoran in the search.
Breaking into a slightly sweat, Sakura slowed down her pace. Keeping to the safety of the shadows, she fingered the pouch full of money and smirked. Oh! She just can't wait till she reach her den and then she will be safe enough to open the pouch and laugh gleefully like a child.
Reaching the outskirts of the city slums, Sakura kept her muscles tense to sprint as fast as possible should danger approach. One did not go about here without a care. Only the foolish and the stupidest did that.
Just then, something tingled at the back of her mind. Danger overwhelming her mind, she reacted stupidly and turned around, exposing her most vulnerable side of her body.
She caught sight of a human figure with black wings rushing towards her and flinched. He swooped down on her and caught her by the shirt's front and tried to lift her but her shirt tore and she slipped out of his hold.
Lying on the ground, Sakura was in a daze. 'What was happening? Why was she being attacked? She hadn't done anything to warrant a mage's anger!" A whoosh of wings brought her back to reality and she scrambled to her feet. Ducking down, she just managed to avoid another attack and dashed into the alleyways where it would be hard for him to get to her.
A gust of wind was all the warning she had got before she was knocked to the ground with an 'oof', all the wind rushing out of her. How did he manage to fit in here? Why does the alley way seem bigger than usual? Wincing to her feet, she crouched in defense and prepared herself. But it was all forgotten when she saw her attacker to be the amber eyed man.
"Hah! I can't seem to decide which is more hilarious, the thought that a girl bested the Oh so mighty Darkness' king or Syaoran's face when he found out that the boy he was chasing was in fact a girl! This is so hilarious. The Gods will love this!" drawled Eriol as he made a perfect landing on the ground.
The girl they were chasing glanced at Eriol but returned her gaze trained on Syaoran.
"Are you done talking shit Eriol?" growled Syaoran. At this, Sakura flinched slightly, her eyes narrowing and muscles tensing. Her fingers ran lightly on the bricks as if looking for something. Maybe she was trying to finding her way out.
Interesting. It's would be a waste to kill her but she signed her death papers the moment she stole his pouch and bested him. Besides, he had been looking for an outlet for his anger and who was he to pass up on such a chance?
"You did a very stupid thing when you threw pepper at me and stole my wallet," continued Syaoran almost conversationally. Sakura froze at his voice, fingers stopping in their tracks.
"I'm going to kill you don't worry but before I do that, I will do this-" as Syaoran reached out with his magic and prodded into the girl's mind, intending to find her strength and steal it all but before he could do that, he encountered a barrier and his spell backlashed on him…
Revised- 22/11/2007