Street Rat.
In the darkness of the night, a man is waiting in the middle of the cold desert alongside his loyal horse. A bunch of sand lifts in the air, announcing the arriving of another individual into the scene.
The individual arrives and descends from his horse. "Hello…"
"Did you get it?" The man interrupted.
"Wow, rude…"
"…"
The thief could feel the deathly glare that the other one was giving to him from under his robe. "S-Sorry."
"Did you get it?" The man asked with an annoyed and threatening tune in his voice.
"I had to cut some heads off, but I got it!" The thief said proudly as he raised the half of the so wished, golden butterfly.
The hand of the man stretched out to grab it, but the thief put it away before he could reached it.
"Ah, ah, ah! The treasure, if you don't-!" The man was cut off when he felt how the half of the golden butterfly was snatched from his hand.
The little parrot fly towards his master, with the other half in his claws. The loyal bird placed the golden piece into his master's hand and then positioned itself into his right shoulder.
"Trust me, my clumsy partner. You will get what you want." The man pulled back his robe from his head, revealing his face to the thief. An old man, with some grey hair starting to creep into his short beard and. A scar passing under his patched eye. The man retrieved the other half of the butterfly from his pocket and grabbed it in the other hand.
The thief look amazed at the two halves in the man's hands.
The man slowly put them together.
The golden butterfly began to shine in a golden light. Its wings began to flutter as it flew off the man's hands. It flew around him before starting to fly at full speed deep into the desert.
"Quick! Follow it!" The man yelled as he rode his horse and began to chase its prey.
The thief rode his horse and started to follow the man.
The butterfly was flying too fast for them to catch up with it. The only thing guiding them was the way of golden light that the butterfly was leaving behind.
"Faster!" The man yelled to his horse as they were approaching to their target.
The golden butterfly divided once again before putting itself into a big pile of sand that was waiting for the two pieces to bring it back to life.
The big pile of sand started to move, taking his true form.
The horse of the thief fled from the place, leaving his master behind.
The horse of the man in the tunic stayed there by its master's side.
The cave finally finished its transformation, revealing itself as a giant Manticore head made out of sand. The giant Manticore head opened its mouth, letting out some of the golden light from the inside.
"After all these years, The Cave of Wonders…" The man told to himself, amazed.
"N-No way! It is real!" The thief exclaimed amazed by the giant Manticore head.
The man took the thief by his clothes. "Go in there! Bring me the lamp! You can have everything else, but the lamp is mine!" He let go his clothes.
The thief grinned in ambition as he walked towards the entrance while rubbing his hands. As soon as he put a foot in the cave, a roar came out of it, pushing the thief back into the desert sand.
"Who dares to disturb my slumber?" The giant Manticore head asked, a little anger present in its voice.
"I-It is I, just a poor thief…" The thief said nervously while bowing to the cave.
The cave gave him a quick glance. "For your own sake, hear my sacred words. Here, there will be no one more worth to go deep inside as the Diamond in the Rough…"
The man in the robe and his parrot exchanged a confused look.
The thief, also confused by the ancient cave's words, look at the man behind him to get an answer.
"What are you waiting for? Go!" The man ordered the thief.
The thief gulped, before heading back to the caves entrance. The thief give a quick look to the inside of the cave.
The golden tongue of the cave became stairs, waiting for the thief to descend from them.
The thief nervously step inside, waiting for the worst.
…
But nothing happened…
…
"GROAR!" The cave roared in full anger.
The thief, scared by the roar of the sand beast, tried to run out from the cave.
But the cave was fast enough to close aggressively his giant mouth, ending with the thief's life with his sharp sand fangs. A bunch of sand was raised by the impact of the bite before the cave returned slowly to his pile sand form. "Search for the Diamond in the Rough…" The cave's voice stated before vanishing within the night.
The two halves of the golden butterfly fell to the sand as they lost their bright golden glow.
The man gave a disappointed look at the pile of sand where the thief was now resting in peace.
The parrot seemed a little pissed off. Too little too pissed off. "I can't believe this! After all those years we spent into trying to find two dang pieces of gold! Now we have to go again to try to find a Diamond in the Roof?!"
"…Rough." The man corrected him.
"Whatever!" The parrot started to fly around the area where the cave was while whining and complaining.
"You should calm down…"
"I am calmed!" The parrot shouted. "Why do you think I am not freaking calmed?!" The parrot shouted as it was surrounded by a great amount of flames, burning down the disguise and revealing his true self. A phoenix.
"Another one of your disguises burned up… Great…" The man said with a sarcastic tone.
"I don't care about that dang custom right now! Right now, I care about this!" The angry fire bird fly towards him while showing his master the two halves of the golden butterfly.
"Be patient, Phiasgo. All will come into its due time."
"And that will be…?"
"Soon… But first, we have to find that so called, Diamond in the Rough…"
…
"STOP THE THIEF!" A woman yelled as the thief ran away from the multitude.
The guards started their chase behind the thief before this one got stopped by another guard that got in his way and pushed him into the ground.
"Let me go!" The thief yelled as he struggled.
The guard tied up his wrists and lifted him onto his feet. "Say that to the Sultan. You dirty street rat!" The guard shouted before him and the other guards, dragged him into the palace.
"NOOO!" The thief yelled before the doors of the palace closed behind him and the guards.
"See? That's why we need to get a job! To get gold to pay for our food and don't end up like him!" The young browned haired boy told to his loyal puppy while watching the whole scene from behind a wall.
The little puppy let out a whine before his stomach rumbled.
"I know you are hungry, I am hungry too… But maybe, there would be something good this time in the trash jar." The boy got his hand inside the trash jar just to get the only thing from the inside, the bones of a fish.
The pup whine once again as his stomach rumbled.
The boy's stomach rumbled alongside his loyal partner's belly. He let out a sigh. "Alright… We are stealing… again…"
The little pup got excited by the words. He loved to steal things.
"But first…" The boy took a perfectly straight stick from the ground. "We need a plan!"
The dog reacted confused before it could even figure out what was about to come.
"We have to take the advantage.
Take just what we need,
Something that can get us well feed."
The boy pointed at the puppy in front of him with the stick.
"Remember, just what we need,
Something good to eat,
Don't try to take away any deed."
The little puppy nodded happily with the head.
The shouts and yells of the multitude could be heard from the other side of the wall.
"Riffraff, Street Rat, Vandal, Take That!"
The expression on the boy's face changed to a worried one.
"We just need a little snack, pup.
We don't need to get attacked, pup!
I can't get help of any other friends,
But with you I can escape all the threats!"
The poor boy exclaimed happily as he got outside their hiding spot.
A group of girls approached them, it was Brittney and her friends.
"Look, it's the boy they call Safe Rat!
Because he doesn't want to get a single scratch!"
Brittney got in front of him with a mocky smile.
"I don't even know what he is good at."
Brittney hit the nose of the boy with her finger.
The young thief walked away from them, followed by their laughter.
"Eat to live, and steal to eat
Guess we have no other choice."
The boy and his dog went into the great bazaar and got quickly over the tents.
"Jumping through the tents,
Alongside my loyal pet,
Searching for a safe bet."
The boy faced his dog.
"We'll take just what we need,
Don't try anything odd,
Don't try to steal any gold!"
The dog rolled his eyes and nodded.
"Get him, vandal!"
"Monster!"
"Scandal!"
"Let just get this over…
We don't want to end like that Lobster."
The giant Lobster with the stolen food ran through the tents, the boy and the pup followed him with the look before resuming their way.
"Eat to live, steal to eat,
It's what you got without a job!"
"Fresh fish! Buy here your fresh fish!" The seller shouted, trying to call out the attention of some customers in the great bazaar. He succeeded.
"Well take just what we need."
"Vandal!"
"Something to get us feed."
"Thief!"
"We don't need any jewelry!"
"Stop him!"
"Let us distract them all!"
The boy jumped into the fish tent, leaving his puppy into the tent next to it.
"Scandal!"
"Gotta just get the right aiming,
With the very right timing,
All he gotta do is fall!"
From above his vending tent, the young boy threw a rock right to the Lobster's head.
The rock travel fast towards the monster and hit him hard on the head, making him lose the balance, falling into the ground.
"Gotcha!" The guards yelled as they surrounded the monster.
"What was that?" The fresh fish seller asked himself while focusing on the scene.
From behind him, a single red laser cut off a rope that had some fishes tied to it.
Before the fishes could touch the ground, the boy slide from bellow the tent and catch all of them, sliding his way back to the back of the tent as soon as he had the fishes in his hands.
The puppy reunite with his master in a dark alley that was very familiar for the both of them.
"Nice shot there, your aim is getting better!" The master congratulated the little pup as he gave it a pet on the head. "Now what about if we cook these?" The boy retrieved some sticks from behind an old jar that was lying there.
The dog barked happily in agreement as the boy put down the sticks. The dog shot a pair of lasers from its eyes and started the little campfire with the sticks.
"Nice job!" The boy put a pair of fishes on a sick and started slowly cook them with the fire.
…
The pup and the boy finished eating a pair of fishes.
The pup walked to the remaining pair of fishes and was about to bite one before his master stopped it.
"No, Junior." The boy grabbed the pair of fishes and put them inside a little leather bag he had. "These are for tomorrow."
The puppy whine and looked at his master, asking for another fish.
The boy look sad at his loyal partner, he was about to give the fish the pup was asking for, before he listened to reason. "No, sorry, but no. This are for us to eat tomorrow! I don't want to be stealing so often."
The little dog let out a light growl.
"Oh, come on! Don't be like…"
Some music that was coming from the streets called their attention.
"What's that?" The boy walked towards the street followed by his little pup.
The trumpets and drums could be heard in the streets of Echo Creek, announcing the arrival of another prince to the town.
The prince was making his way to the palace while riding his Warnicorn. Both of them decorated with jewelry and gold.
"Look, another prince has arrived to the town!" The skinny teenager told to his chubby friend on his side.
"Maybe this one will get the chick! I mean, the princess Jackie." The chubby one added.
From behind them, the poor boy was watching the prince as he was approaching to the big doors of the palace.
"Hey, Safe Rat!" A voice called out for him. "What are you doing here?"
The boy sighed annoyed by the child's presence. "What do you want, Jeremy?"
"Nooothing, I just thought it would be funny to come here and chat with you." He said with a mocky tone and a little grin in his face.
"What are you pla-"
"Hey, what's that?!"
"What's what?" The boy turned around to find nothing.
Before he could react, Jeremy kicked him towards the street, right in the middle of the way of the prince.
"Hey, get out of my way!"
"S-Sorry, I-!"
"I said, get out of my way!" The prince yelled as he retrieved a whip and prepared it to hit the poor unfortunate boy with it.
But the boy dodged the hit, not even knowing how he did that.
The prince tried to hit the street rat with his whip numerous times, failing in every single one of them. "How dare you?!" The prince yelled angered.
"S-Sorry, I am just going to go now…" The boy walked towards the multitude to get out of the street, but the prince grabbed him by his vest before he could.
"Don't worry, I can help you to get to the place where you belong!" The prince yelled to his face before throwing him into a pool of mud that was lying in the other side of the street.
The brown haired boy landed roughly into the mud, splashing all around him. "Oww…" The boy said softly while rubbing his head.
Everyone laughed at the poor victim of the prince. Everyone except a little angry pup.
"There we go!" The prince exclaimed, proud of himself.
A little angry bark called his attention, it was Junior, he was barking angrily at the prince and his Warnicorn, trying to protect his friend's name.
"Another, one?"
The pup continue barking.
The prince sighed, annoyed. "For the last time…" The prince prepared his whip once more. "Get out of my way!"
The pup was about to shot his laser at the whip, but stopped in the spot when someone got in front of him, protecting him from the whip. His master.
The boy was kneeled in front of his loyal pup, clutching his teeth in pain.
The dog gave a sad look at him before being carried in his arms.
The boy ran away with his pup in arms and tears of pain in his eyes.
"Finally, about time I got rid of that street rat. Isn't that right?"
The multitude laughed in agreement as the prince resumed his way.
From behind a wall near the entrance, the boy finally managed to calm his pain and his friend.
The pup let out some cries.
"Hey, thanks for trying to defend me back there, but you know the rules. No lasers in public, alright?" The boy said as he petted the head of his pet.
The dog just gave him a sad look.
"Let's go home for today…"
…
Walking alone in the darkness of the night, the boy and the pup were returning back home.
"Safe Rat, Street Rat…
That is false…"
The boy started to climb the stairs of an abandoned and almost destroyed building.
"If they look from up close…
They won't see just a poor boy…"
The boy said while arriving to the almost destroyed top room of the building, looking at what they called home. He let out a single chuckle.
"What a joke…"
The boy leave the sleeping puppy in his little pillow.
"They will find, more inside of… me…"
The boy look at Echo Creek through the big hole on the wall and sighed.
"Someday, things will change… I will get a job to get lots of gold, and I will buy ourselves a nice house in the town, and we won't need to worry about anything ever again…"
…
