What Is Life? Chapter 1: First Meeting, a thief lord fanfic

AN: It's me again. This is my first Thief Lord FF so tell me how I am doing. Disclaimer for all chapters: I do not own the Thief Lord. Cornelia Funke does.

"Calvin, GET OUT!!!" I yell. I run to the computer and start to write a new story.

"Calvin, where are you??" I scream. I run towards an alley. "Calvin!!!!!! Can you hear me???? Calvin!!! Calvin!!!!!!" I start to panic. I climb up a ladder up to a house. I squint. I see a dark figure near the Cannel. "Calvin!!" He turns. I jump off the house and run towards him.

"Brittney!!!!!"

"Don't ever go running away from me ever again, little man."

"Britt? What's that?" I turn to look at what he is pointing at. I pick him up and run away from the thing he was pointing at. My jeans were torn and my top was full of blood, dripping in it. Calvin had torn jeans and a large cut covering his entire back, causing my bloody shirt. "Britt?"

"I don't know. But we are running away from it. "I have never been to Venice, but I seemed to know where I was going. I jump a bin, to run straight into a boy. "Boys are all the same." I mutter before going under.

"Good enough for me." I mutter.

I wake up to find my dog, Stasha, licking me and I was sitting up. "Stai bene Principessa?" I hear a male voice say.

I look at the clock. It is 11:50 already?? "Calvin?"

"What Brittney?"

"Bed." Calvin runs into our room and gets into the bottom bunk. "Night."

"Night."

Stasha paced at the computer. Something wasn't right. Finally she stopped and went to sleep.

Meanwhile, the computer begun to overload.

"Calvin, where are you??" I scream. I just woke up in a place that seemed familiar, but I know I have never been here before. Calvin is here, I can sense it. I run towards an alley. "Calvin!!!!!! Can you hear me???? Calvin!!! Calvin!!!!!!" I start to panic. I climb up a ladder up to a house. I squint. I see a dark figure near the Cannel. "Calvin!!" He turns. I jump off the house and run towards him.

"Brittney!!!!!"

"Don't ever go running away from me ever again, little man."

I wake up to find my dog, Stasha, licking me and I was sitting up. "Stai bene Principessa?" I hear a male voice say. It takes me a minute to turn that into English.

"Sì, sto bene. Do you speak English?" Wait did he say Principessa? As in Princess? Calvin. I look around.

"Yes, I speak English. Are you looking for your brother?" I nod. "Over there."

"Calvin, you okay?"

"Yeah, hit my head hard though." He smiles.

"Sorry about that." I mutter. He rolls his eyes. "Man you're a drama queen." I say.

"I'm a boy."

"Well you could a fooled me." I mumble. I yawn. "What time is it?"

"12." I look at the boy. He has a mask on, like the ones doctors used during the Black Death.

"Where's the rats?? Is the plague back?" I say sarcastically.

"Oh, ha ha ha. I just happen to be the Thief Lord!! Who might you be?"

"Funny, I thought the Thief Lord would be older. I am Principessa and this is Calvin." I say. He tightens his lips. I smile. Then I see his neck. It has purple finger-like bruises on it. I walk up and move his head. "How?" I ask looking at him.

He mutters "Nothing that you need to worry about."

"If someone is abusing a child then you should tell someone." I say softly. I carefully put my hand over the marks. Defiantly an adult's, to large for any child.

"What do you want anyway Thief Lord? You could have run away when you bumped into us." Calvin asked. "Britt?"

I smile at Calvin. "Let's go, he has other business to attend, most likely." I say.

"Where are Mum and Dad?"

"I don't know. But we will find them." Then I say in a quieter tone "Eventually."

"You can stay with my friends!" the boy yells out. I turn. He has taken the mask off. Now I now why he seemed familiar. He was Scipio.

"Where? In an abandoned cinema? There isn't anywhere that is available for us!!" I whisper.

"In a place called the Stella."

When we get there I see a metal door with the words 'No Entry' on them. "Brittney, can I talk to you for a moment?" Scipio pulls me into a corner. "Don't tell anyone that I called you Principessa, please?" I laugh.

"Why, would it ruin your life with these people?" He looks at me. "Cross me heart then." He smiles. "Calvin??" I yell. "Dove è andato, adesso?" I mutter.

"There." I giggle. He has already made friends with Bo. "Everyone, this is Calvin and Brittney."

"Britt." I mutter.

"Bo, Prosper, Riccio, Mosca and Hornet."

"You?" Hornet giggles.

"You forgot to tell her your own name?"

"No!" I nod.

"He did." Hornet cracks. Soon we both are on the floor laughing.

"Scipio." He mutters once we calm down.

"I think I will call you…….. SCIP!!!" I yell.

"Hey that's my nickname for him!!" Bo complains.

"How about we share the nickname?" I ask. He nods.

"Why don't you two come with Prop and me and we will set up your beds?" Hornet asks. When we get away from the main room, I pick up one of the books on the floor. "You're a reader?"

"A big one." I nod.

"Calvin's right." I look in the name part. "Catherina." She whirls around. I giggle. "Can I call you Cat? See if the others find out?" I ask. She giggles and nods.

"From tomorrow." I nod. "Are you an orphan?"

"No. We ran away. Hated home. Parents thought materials where enough to make a child happy." I say. Well it is partly true.

"Right, will they come looking for you?"

"Na, we are from Australia, we 'missed' our flight."

"Well then, I'll leave you to get settled in." Hornet seems nice.

"Britt," Calvin asks. "Are we really going to stay here?"

"Until I can find us a way home." Should I tell him? "Calvin, you now my school books? Well in five of them I wrote stories for FanFiciton, we are in one of them now. Most likely the typed up one." He gasps. "I think I control this story." Calvin stays quiet and soon I hear snoring. I feel eyes on me. I turn. "Did you hear anything?"

"Not really no, just 'I control this story.' What are you some villain?" I laugh.

"Reading too many cartoons have we Scip?"

"No."

"Sure, sure."

"I'm leaving. Tomorrow would you please go and sell the stuff to Barbarossa with Prop and Riccio? You can take Calvin."

"Sure. See ya later." I mumble before turning around.

"Buonanotte." Soon I fall asleep.

"BRITTNEY!!!!!!!!! BRITTNEY!!!!!!!!!! BRITTNEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WAKE UP!!!!!" I hear someone scream.

"Alright, alright I'm up." I moan.

"OUT OF BED!!!"

"Stop screaming!" I yell.

"Well Prop said to get you out before they leave."

"Okay then. Thanks Bo. Tell Prop to give me around five minutes." He skips off. I think that there are two piles of clothes. Soon I am in a dark pair of boot-leg jeans, a shirt with the words "It's Brittney Bitch." on it and a black hoodie. I grab a pair of white sneakers. "I'm coming!" I yell out as I run out.

"Took you long enough."

"Is Calvin coming?"

"Yeah, I'm here." I nod. He is in a blue pair of loose jeans, a shirt that says 'I'm the sexist dude on this planet and a green hoodie. I look down. Blue and green sneakers, how did I know that?? "Let's go." Calvin begins to march off.

I roll my eyes. "Calvin! You don't even know where you are going!!"

"Oh." I laugh. The boys move ahead of Calvin. I put Calvin on my back until we reach the Campo. "More!!"

"No." I say sternly. "Don't touch anything Calvin. This man has a hole in one of his paintings."

"And you know this how??"

"When my parents were here, they had business with Red-head. They told us everything." We walk in.

"Wait in my office." I think this is where Red-beard gives Scipio the job. "I see you have brought in two more little monsters; I hope they don't break anything like your little brother." Calvin looks at me.

"Little? Monsters? One, I am taller than you, hell, Calvin is. So you can't call us little. Two. Monsters?? Aren't they the bad people that stole the lions up on the fountains and churches?" I say. He mutters something I didn't catch.

"What do you have?" Prop puts on a stony face. I see Stasha.

"Why don't you go play with Stasha? This could take a while. Just don't leave the area around the café, and stay away from the 'pigeon man' or a man with a walrus mustache." I ask Calvin. He nods. "See you soon." He runs out. Reddy looks at me. "He has gone to play with my dog." I explain slowly, like he was five. He nods.

"Do you want to tell me what you want for them, or shall I give you my best offer?" He asks. 'Give me your offer.'

Prop and Riccio look at each other. "Give us your best offer." I say. This is taking to long.

"My offer……" Barbarossa paused. He put his fingertips together and closed his eyes. "Well, I admit, there are a couple of quite decent items here this time. So I offer you," he opens his eyes again. "One hundred thousand lire. And I'm doing you a favor here."

Riccio held his breathe. 'Cakes, cakes, cakes.' You could almost hear coming out of his head. But I shook my head. "I think five hundred thousand is a good amount. What do you think Prosper?" Barbarossa goes red. Prop nods.

"Sounds far, Britt." I smile at Prop.

"Have you lost your minds?" he bellowed. "Here I am, making you a generous offer-" I interrupt.

"Yeah. SO generous that next time we come all of this will be ten times the amount you gave us." I turn to look outside. Prop looks at me. "The statue that you sold to Barbarossa over there? IT has two more zeros at the end. We want 5 hundred thousand. Or we leave for Bella's. They said they would give us six hundred thousand yesterday. Let's go see if they will today." Prop and I gather the things. I look at Barbarossa when I go to grab the sugar tongs. He grabs it as soon as my hand touches it. His on top of mine. "Can I please take these?" I ask.

"Fine, I will give you six hundred thousand. But you all are to smart for my taste." We give him the stuff and he passes the money to me. I count it and check if it is real. I nod. "Wait!!" He yells as we turn to leave. "I have a client who would like to, say, fetch something for him. My client wants it badly. As far as I have gathered, the item is here, in
Venice. Should be child's play for-" Barbarossa twists his face into a scornful smile. "-someone who likes to call himself the thief lord, shouldn't it?"

Prop didn't answer. I wonder how would Reddy here would be like when he found out the 'Thief Lord' was the same age as us, about a head taller then him.

"I'll tell him." I say looking at Prop.

"Excellent. I will need his response as soon as possible. My client will set up a meeting after that." Barbarossa looks out the window. "He also has promised the payment will be very generous. He has promised me that."

"Generous, in fake money." I mumble.

"What was that?"

"Nothing." I smile. We turn to leave. When we get inside. "CALVIN!!!" Calvin comes running up. "Why don't you and Riccio go get some cakes over there? I need to talk to Prop." They turn and run to the cake shop.

We walk till we get to an alley. I push him in. "Look over there. See the man that walks like a bull-dog? He is after you and Bo. You're aunt sent him after you." I say. Prop pales. "If I go get Calvin and Riccio and met you here, we can go catch a vaporetto." He nods. I run to the cake shop. "We have to go. Hurry up!" I call in to Calvin.

"Si, grazie signora! We are we going?" Riccio asks.

"This way." We pick up speed. "Come on!!" We run and jump into a boat. I look at Victor and show him my middle finger. He looks at us and walks off. "Victor Getz, private detective. Looks for lost handbags, suitcases, dogs, lizards and now, ran-away children. He almost got you Riccio, didn't he?" Riccio nods. "But he isn't really that fast." I conclude. We get off the next stop. "The rest probably think we took the money and have done a runner. And the boat trip hasn't made our trip any quicker." I sigh. "Come on. Calvin." He jumps on my back and we start to walk. "Stasha!!!!!!" she comes running away from the Cannel. I like how she always follows and I don't need to be worried. I look around. "Crap. In here." We run into an alley. Esther and Max walk past. Prosper looks at me. I walk in front of him when they look in the alley, Riccio smiles. "Gods Riccio, you need to see a dentist!!" I say.

"Do not."

"Do too."

"Do not." They left. "Quick thinking."

"Well, your teeth were enough to scare them away." I say.

"Why thank you!" I roll my eyes and I run outside. I look. No one here. Quickly we run to the Stella.

"BRITT!!!!!"

"How is my favorite little man Bo?"

"I'm good."

"No I mean Stasha!!!!" Bo frowns. "Did you believe me Bo? Stasha is a girl!!!" Bo giggles.

"How much?" Hornet asks.

"Six hundred thousand. Britt handled it quite well." I blush at Riccios comment.

"It wasn't that hard." I say.

"Yeah, well Scip will be happy that you managed to get THAT much out of him. SIX times the original offer."

"Prop, you could have done better." I say. "Cat and Bo think so."

"Scusi but WHO???" Mosca asks.

"Cat and Bo." I answer. Hornet looks at me and starts to giggle. "What time is it?"

"Three. Scipio will be coming at nine."

"Hopefully." Hornet mumbles. I laugh.

"Is he always late?"

"Pretty much." I roll my eyes.

"Britt, can I talk to you?" Calvin asks.

"Sure."

"Britt. Everything here seams to be like to movie and book. What if-?"

"They have collided because we came here!!" I think. "That means that the merry-go-round does exist. And that it slims the chances of stopping-" I think. If the two worlds have formed into one this slims down the chance of stopping Scipio getting on the –merry-go-round. I sigh. No wonder Prop, Bo and Scip looked the same. They we're the movies version where the others were the book one. "I'm going out for a walk." Hornet looks at me. "Alone." I say then I leave. I walk past Scipio's house. I hear screaming and Scipio runs right into me. I look at him and then I look around him. He pales. I look at his neck. Fresh bruises are forming. "Your father did this?" I ask, pressing lightly. Definitely a male's fingerprints. Right over the old ones. "When?"

"Just then." He sighs. I look at him.

"Non vi preoccupate, I won't tell." I whisper. "Any where else?" He slowly pulls up his pant legs, takes off his jacket and loosens a few buttons. He has purple bruises everywhere. A few scars. He must have had a few broken bones. "Your father did this??" He nods. I think. "If he hurts you again, come over to the Stella. I can heal it." He nods and smiles. "Oh no, here he comes again." I run off. I climb over the wall just in time to see Scipio being pushed into his room. I put a finger to my lips. He nods. I jump down and run to the tree. I climb up it until I am behind a branch and I can see the people from Rome.

"When I separated Scipio's-" He said his name with hate. "Mother he started acting up. He is a pain and when his uncle comes tomorrow he will be taught proper manners and how to act responsibly. He will not even leave this house." When he turns and walks to the window I see someone I never wanted to see hear. My father.

I climbed up the tree till I am standing right in front of Scipio. "My father's down there please don't say anything about me ion front of him." I whisper. If I am an orphan, there has to be a reason why. "Your fathers coming." I run behind another branch.

"Scipio!!! What are you doing?"

"Lying down?" 'Slap!' I look around the branch. He is on the floor. His eyes say hide. I hear kicks and punches and slaps. Each time, I think about how Scipio must think life is hell. It is. For him at the moment. I hear the door close. "He's gone." I climb down.

"Oh my!!!" I gasp. He has blood dripping down onto the floor. "That's it. You're outta here." I pick him up and run to the balcony. "Ready?" We get on the tree and we run to the wall. I get myself on the top. I hold my hand out to Scipio. He has never looked so pale. "Let's go." He grabs it and jumps. I swing him over and hold him there. "I'm going to let go, can you land safely?" Yes he does this every night. But not like this. He nods. I let go and he lands safely. I jump. I land without a sound. "Let's go." We run to allies. "Oh crap. It's Victor. He is looking for Bo." We run further into the alley. "He knows me. We should leave." I mutter. I grab a ladder and place it up against the wall. "Go." I say as I look around. He goes up and starts to cough up blood. We have to hurry. Victor has caught up. I kick him in the face and he falls down. We are half way up. "Hurry, the snoop is coming back up!" He runs up the ladder. When I get up I look at Scipio and then down at the ladder. He looks confused. I roll my eyes and walk over. Victor is half way up now. I lie down on the roof and take the handles. Victor looks at me.

"Don't you DARE!!" He says. I raise my eyebrows then I push the ladder down. I get up and walk over to Scipio.

"Did he hit your stomach?" He nods and starts to cough up blood again. I reach for my phone. "I stole it off your father when he wasn't looking. I took another one and gave it to Hornet." I call the number.

"Hello?'

"Hornet, Scipio has been hurt. We are on the roof by Casa Voterlini. If you see Victor, then you know that we are close by. Just remember, roof, Casa Voterlini, around five blocks away from Casa Massimo."

"Be there in a few. Bring my first aid kit?"

"And three bottles of water. Not from the Cannel." I add.

"See you soon."

I lie Scipio down. He has a temperature. "Hornet is going to be here soon." I say. I check over his wounds. While I am at it I think about Katara from Avatar. If this really is my story then I can imagine I can heal with the water. Then again, I could be the 'Avatar.' That would be very useful. I think about me being a pro at all the elements while we wait for Hornet.

"BRITT!!!" I hear Hornet scream. I run to the edge.

"Don't scream like that, I thought the snoop had you!!" I yell down.

"The ladders gone!!" I think.

"Throw the water up!!" She chucks it in the air. I concentrate and soon the water is around my hand. "First Aid!!" She throws that up and I get an air bubble around it and make it float up to me. "Stay there!!" I walk over to Scipio. I put the water in the first aid. Not the smartest thing, but oh well. "Swallow." I give him an aspirin. When he swallows I fell to see if the water is in his stomach. When it was I slowly begin to heal it. He gasps. "Does it hurt?" he nods. I smile when the water evaporates into nothing. "Done. Let's work on the outer ones." I cover his neck in water and soon it begins to glow a bright bluely-purple. Soon all of the bruises fade. I stop all the cuts from bleeding by add pressure. "There. Done." I say, packing up.

"Hey!! I can walk!!!" He yells. I roll my eyes. I look down. We are a far way away from another house, far enough that we can't risk jumping. And me being new at the 'controlling the elements' so I don't want to risk floating with the air bubble, that and it would attract attention. I look at Hornet.

"Go find rope or something" I yell down.

"Kay!!!!" She runs off.

"Britt?" Scipio asks. "What is life?"

TRNASLATIONS:

Dove è andato, adesso? Where has he gone, now?

Buonanotte. Goodnight.

Non vi preoccupate. Don't worry.

Principessa. Princess

Stai bene? Are you alright?

Sì, sto bene. Do you speak English? I'm alright, Do you speak English?