Spark of Darkness
Chapter two – Run for Your Life, Ready or Not
Akeifa – sometimes called BaKuRa – ran along like a tornado on legs. He liked running. Running like the wind, running like there was someone after him, running like he was free as a bird, running into people – oopsie, was that your purse, your ring, your pretty? Running was fun. And he was good at it. Giggling as little boys are allowed to do, he dodged across a road, through a lady's legs, and was far away before she even noticed her skirts were ruffled. He moved out of the way quickly before the street-seller noticed his apple was gone, threw it as he ran to the kid who was sitting across the road. He practically flew through the streets and alleyways, knowing them like the back of his hand.
Outside of his home quarter of the town, he was no one. No one noticed him when he was there, and everyone noticed when he'd passed.
He was, in fact, going somewhere specific. Over at the other side of town, but closer to the centre than home was. His own little hideout. A place where he could play Priests and Thieves with his friends. A game that was played by rich and by poor, those in the town of Kuru Eruna had turned it on its head; the aim of the game was to outwit the priests and trick the Pharaoh. For Akeifa's games, however, there were often two Pharaohs. He said it was because it wasn't fair that the Pharaoh got all the power. So, in his games, if there were enough of his gang allowed out, One of the boys would play the Pharaoh in charge of the Priests and Akeifa would almost always play the Pharaoh in charge of the Thieves.
Unfortunately, this time he was disappointed. There were only five others waiting for him there. Hardly enough for a ten-a-side game. Three boys and two girls. One of the boys was a couple of years older than him, and the one who most often played the Pharaoh-in-charge-of-the-Priests. He had a stuffy attitude and liked rules a lot, but wasn't afraid to do something out of line if it helped his friends. The other two were both younger; one with a continual snotty nose and the other was a blowhard and a liar who sucked up to anyone who seemed to have more power than him. One of the girls was his age while the other just under a year younger than him. Both were also friends with either one of his sisters or one of his sisters' friends.
"I wanna play Pharaoh this time."
The snotty-nosed boy was whining again.
"We're not playing that game, stupid," the Pharaoh of Thieves said with impatience and not a little disappointment.
"Why not?"
"Not enough players."
"Why not?"
"Because I say so." It was a term he'd heard his father use, and it had always worked for him.
"Then what are we going to play?" This time it was one of the girls asking. Rebecca, as her name was, didn't look much of a Rebecca. She was his age and dressed like a boy. Her hair, although short, was loose and open around her shoulders. Her name had been given to her because her mother had taken a strange fancy to the so-called exoticness of the Hebrews' names.
Everyone stared at Akeifa.
"What BaKuRa wanna play?"
Akeifa crossed his arms and glared at the little girl who had dared to use his father's pet name for him. The little girl squeaked and hid behind the ten-year-old. He smirked, not liking it when people called him that. Then he grinned, his posture changing in moments from accusing to prideful.
"Hide and seek!"
There was an instant clamour about who would get to be the seeker this time around. Out of everybody, only Akeifa himself didn't want to seek – a thief always had to be able to hide well, and only yesterday had he discovered the very best hiding spot in the whole town. No one would find him there.
When it was finally decided that the snot-nosed kid was going to be the one looking for them and he started to count, the others were off and gone.
The five of them scattered to the winds. Some to houses, some to roofs. Some to pots and some to carpets. And one in particular to a hideaway, a secret place only he knew about.
None of them could have known about the troops only hours away, at their head the brother of the very Pharaoh himself.
Akeifa, sometimes called BaKuRa, had forgotten that his father had even mentioned troops, only that he wasn't to go out of the town.
Only that he wasn't about to get caught.
He's so cute when he's little and all innocent like.