I was seven years old. Father had just started a meeting with his friends in the family hall, so I was stuck in my room, to read my books and learn how to be the Ambry line's heir in the kingdom of Slom. Absolutely boring. I was the youngest in line, why did I have to train for it if my elder brother Drisbane would be house patriarch till I was 60?

I looked out my window, where the full moon lit up the night sky. I sighed, wishing I could go outside, but Father said it was too dangerous now. I couldn't see why not. If the King had a problem, why did it have to interrupt my play time? Oh well, I guessed I was safe in my room anyway, even if I couldn't play with my Ambry cousins.

"Don't be screamin' now," a young girl wearing a simple tunic, jerkin, and a coil of rope chirped with her Scottish accent as she held a knife to my neck. She was perched on the left of my window sill, and I was so busy looking at the moon, I didn't see her. I didn't scream. I held my hands up.

"How'd you get up here?" I asked her. I couldn't help being impressed. She must have gotten past the guards at the gate, at least. "How'd you scale the wall?"

She shrugged, smiling, as she flipped her silvery hair. Her purple eyes looked right into mine, and she said, "A girl has her ways. Now, your money, and any valuable trinkets you have."

I smiled back and shrugged too. "You think a seven year old kid would have money? And I don't have jewels. If you want, you can have my wooden sword though."

She looked disappointed. "They told me the Ambry line was rich!"

"Maybe you're just stupid," I teased. "We are, but the money obviously wouldn't be with a kid."

"Ah! I know how ta get the money!" she brightened up, and jumped into my room, getting behind me and holding me in a grapple, the knife pressed to my neck. "'I'm sure they'd pay handsomely for the youngest heir to the Ambry line."

"H-hey," I said nervously as she cheerfully dragged me down the hall to where the meeting was. "You sure?"

She laughed, and it was a cute laugh, short, but very amused. I liked it. "You're cute...what's your name? Ambry?"

"Banehallow," I volunteered. "Banehallow Ambry. You know, if you're just a creative thief who's desperate and hungry, I could just bring you food. It's not like I'm starving."

She snorted derisively. "Food? I have problems with tha' sometimes, but mostly it's about the money. I wanna raise an army. Be queen. Rule. Queen Luna. That's me."

"You're dreaming awfully big for a seven year old," I commented.

"Like you're not, noble," she smirked as we stopped in front of the meeting hall. "Go on, knock."

Before I could knock, shouting echoed from inside the room, and she pulled me into a corner, a small alcove, hiding. She looked scared, as if she'd heard something I didn't. A second after, the door burst open, and a catlike humanoid, the size of an adult man, followed by a smaller one, fled the room, their feet carrying them fast away from the hall. He wore simple garments, but his belt carried odd bottles, and viciously sharp shurikens. The younger one carried similar things, but he also carried a blade. Guards poured from the hall, and so did many nobles, my father included, in hot pursuit with swords. We were totally ignored.

She was breathing hard, and her eyes looked wild. "What's wrong?" I asked her.

"Soruq..." was all she said, as she shook with fear and dropped her knife. I picked it up, and she didn't even seem scared of that as she left the alcove and ran as fast as she could towards my room. I followed her, and she locked the door and window after I came in, the panic evident in her face.

"Luna, what's going on?" I demanded as she tried to hide in the closet, but found she was too big.

"You've never heard of him?" she asked incredulously.

"Obviously!"

"He's a bounty hunter. He's legendary, and terrifying. It's said he will kill ANYONE for the right price, and tha' no one could stop him. They say by the time you realize he's there, it's too late. His target is dead. Someone put a price on the head of one of the nobles in that room."

"Good thing it wasn't my dad."

She nodded her agreement.

"But why are you so scared? Wouldn't he target important people, like kings, and generals?"

"I'm scared because he's generally indiscriminating," she shivered involuntarily. "If you're in his way, he will kill you."

"Well, it doesn't look like you're getting your money tonight," I sighed. "They'll have locked down the estate trying to catch him."

"They won't," she promised. "He'll be halfway to his client by now."

"Who was the smaller one he was with?"

"They're just rumors, but I heard he took an apprentice. Adopted the child like his own. Apparently, he runs bounty hunts with his master now."

"Anyway, it looks like you're stuck here tonight," I pointed out the window, looking down. Guards traveled in squads of three, their eyes looking left and right, jabbing into bushes with their spears at random. Luna sighed and sank against the wall, folding her arms and getting ready to sleep.

"This heist was a disaster," she muttered distastefully. "I got nothing."

"Nothing? How about a new friend?" I smiled as I threw her a pillow and a blanket, and pulled the covers up, then blew the candle out, wondering if she knew I saw the look of pleasant surprise on her face. "Thanks for saving me, Luna."