Elmont POV:

I strode through the market way, two of my other soldiers by my side. We all had long cloaks over our armour so that if the thief is here and sees us, he won't be suspicious.

"You two, let's separate to cover more ground. You, that way, and you, over there" I told my other soldiers, and they nodded before walking off in the directions I had ordered.

I paced through the market, my eyes narrowed as I looked all around me, but all I saw were eager sellers, waving their objects in the air for everyone to see, shouting offers and prices of their stuff. I sat down on a abandoned cart, wiping my head. It was tiring to push through the shouting crowd, in my bulky armour, on a warm spring day.

I lifted my head up to watch the crowd, and my eyes were drawn to a lone figure standing by the wall. The figure was wearing a loose, ratty grey top and black trousers, a thin black cloak drawn around their shoulders and the hood up, shadowing the face, making it impossible to see the person. Because of the clothing it was impossible to see the face of the person or guess what gender the person was, but presumably a man, as no woman Elmont had ever met would wear something like that.

The figure stood without moving, like a statue, until they looked around warily, and started walked confidently towards the center of the market. The person's movement was fluid, almost cat-like in a way, and they somehow blended perfectly with the crowd, like they were invisible. No-one else seemed to notice the person, and only my sharp eyes saw the almost unnoticeable movement of the figure when they reached out and grabbed a apple from a basket, before moving onwards.

I waited as the figure moved towards him, staying close to the stalls to steal things, like fruit, clothes, shoes.

I knew I had found my thief.

I waited until I saw the thief steal a pretty scarf from a stall, before sliding their hand under their cloak before sauntering off, walking towards the gate. I smirked, as I tensed to prepare myself for the confrontation, watching the figure.

I waited until the figure passed me, but then I grabbed the figure by the shoulder in a tight grip.

"You are coming with me, thief!" I snarled. The figure froze, but they spun round, cloak flying, and I reeled when I felt a powerful punch in my temple. I loosened my grip in my shock, and the thief wriggled their arm free and ran. I immediately ran after the thief, adrenaline pounding in me, "stop! Thief! Stop!" I shouted, and the crowd turned around, parting when they saw the commotion.

The thief saw a small alleyway that went up to the top of the gates, and hesitated for a second, before dashing up the path, me and now the other two soldiers on the thief's heels.

The thief looked back, the hood of their cloak down to show a masked face, before looking forward and running even faster. The thief suddenly stopped, skidding to a sudden stop. The path along the walls of the castle have stopped, leaving a harsh 50 foot drop off the end of the wall into the moat, leaving them trapped, in between a fatal jump, and us.

I unsheathed my sword, and pointed it to the thief. "You are under arrest and sentenced to death for thievery of the palace and market of Cloister." I stated, proud to have the theft already.

The theft saluted me, before saying in a mocking voice, "sorry, Captain, but I don't intend to be executed today. I still have many things worth stealing, and I can't do that when I'm dead, can I?" And the theft pulled apart their cloak to show all the food and clothing they had stolen from the market place, but my fury grew even more when I saw the ruby necklace from the palace glittering around their neck.

Then the thief did something crazy.

They jumped.

We all gaped for a minute, before rushing forward to see the thief returning to the surface of the water and swimming towards the moat, and then clambering up the side. I gritted my teeth in fury. The theft had escaped right in my grasps, and still with the stolen stuff! And I couldn't do anything about it, because no-one here were archers, therefore we had no choice but the watch the thief escape.

The thief turned towards us, without a doubt grinning all over their face, before cockily waving towards us, then turning and running off into the forest.