Thieves
By Dixxy
Chapter One
"Well, aye think it's pretty safe ta say this sucks," Karsh commented dryly. Now that Curtis had captured them, the four boys were locked in on of the many Porre prison cells. None of them doubted that Commander Curtis would be paying them a visit before the day was through, but none of them knew what would happen AFTER that visit. "Now what do we do?"
Norris sat curled in a ball in one of the corners of their prison cell. "Well, I don't know what he's going to do to you, but I know I'll be in HUGE trouble," he said. "I'm a traitor! He can't possibly see me as anything more than scum anymore. But like I see him any differently," he spat. "I might even be executed for this."
"But you're just a kid like us," said Glenn. He was sitting by his older brother, looking at his new friend in worry. Kill him? But Norris is one of them! And he's that Curtis man's son! They wouldn't kill him. Or, would they? He reached his hand back up to the wound on his face. Then again, they didn't have any trouble hurting me and I'm a little kid. But kill him? "Why would he kill you?"
"Because he committed treason, and treason is a crime often punishable by death," said Dario. "It's a serious crime, Glenn. If one of the Dragoons was giving information to Porre and the General found out about it he'd probably have that Dragoon executed, too. That information could make a huge difference in who wins a war. It doesn't matter if Norris is a kid or not- in the eyes of the Porre military he's dangerous and they will likely kill him, just as he said."
"But he wasn't giving us information," said Glenn.
"Yeah, but he was helping us git ye out of here, Glenn," said Karsh. "That's still treason. Ye were a prisoner that they were goin' ta use to git ta yer father. He almost ruined a plan." He looked at Norris, a sad look in his eyes. "Ahm correct, right?" The Porre boy nodded.
"They're right, Glenn. By the end of the week I'd either be a head shorter, torn limb from limb, or swinging from the gallows," said Norris. "Or maybe they'll line me up in front of a firing squad." He sighed heavily. He looked at his three comrades. "I'm sorry I couldn't help you guys escape."
"And we're sorry we got you into trouble, Norris, but don't worry- we can find a way out of here," said Dario. He looked at Glenn with a slight grin on his face and a twinkle in his eyes. "I think we all learned just how effective the security is here if a five year old can make a jail break. All we have to do is bide our time and wait for the right moment to strike."
"But how much time da we have ta bide?" asked Karsh.
"Not much," said Norris.
"Then we have to act fast, that's all," said Dario. He looked around the cell. Metal bars, a cot, his friends, his little brother, and lots of grayish bricks. Nothing he could work with that they could see. "We've got to come up with a plan. There's no way we're going to die this young. We're going to survive this, we're all going to Guardia, and we can go to Termina. Karsh and I can teach you and Glenn how to use whatever weapons you guys want to use, and I'm sure our dads will help out." He smiled at Norris. "We'll find you a place to live, Norris. Maybe Radius will take you in- he isn't married, but when I was little he was always my parents' first choice for a baby-sitter."
"You'd do that for me?" asked Norris.
"We're all in this together," said Karsh. "That means yer in it, too."
Dario nodded. "You did us a great favor by getting us in here at all. The least we can do is try to get you a place to live from now on. I'm sure that under the circumstances you'll do just fine in Termina. With a little help I'm sure you could handle a sword or an ax just as well as Karsh or I can. All we have to do now is get out of here and get our buts back to El Nido."
"How?" asked Glenn.
"I'm still working on that part," Dario said dryly.
Karsh knelt down on the floor and dug his hands into his pockets. "Well, let's try ta pool our resources together. Everyone, empty yer pockets. Maybe we ken find something worth using. What ye might think is useless, someone else might find a use fer," he said. Seeing that maybe he had a good idea, the four boys huddled together as they began to empty their pockets.
"All right, I have exactly fifty gold pieces and my slingshot. Oh, and a piece of gum," said Norris. He frowned. "I'm sorry, guys, I don't have much to help. Yeah, the money and the slight shot might help a little after we're free but. . . I really don't know if any of this is going to help us get out of the cell."
"Twenty gold pieces, a few Tablets, a Capsule, a few attack elements ah borrowed from Radius but dinnae know how to use, an old candy bar and a yo-yo," said Karsh. Dario shot him a look when his purple haired friend had mentioned the elements. "Okay, so e doesn't know ah borrowed them. Once we git back to Termina ahll give 'em back to 'im before ye 'ave a conniption, Dario, all right?"
Dario sighed, looking over his pile. "My mother's pendant, a few GravityBlows THAT WERE NOT STOLEN FROM ONE OF MY ELDERS, a pocket knife, and an old tournament form," he said. "The knife and the elements might be useful. I heard the General say that a lot of the Porre soldiers are White innate, and where I'm Black innate this could be a big help as long as they don't use any PhotonRays or Meteorites on me." He looked up at Norris. "He was correct, wasn't he, Norris?"
"Well, yeah, most of them are, but they aren't ALL White innate- I'm sure not," said Norris. "Curtis and his friends are all different innate colors. Curtis is Yellow like me, Marty is Blue, Jack is Green, Dennis is Black and Aaron is Red. They're part of a specialty division because of the unique properties they carry. I think it's called the Black Wind or something like that."
"That's useful to know," said Dario. He turned to Glenn. "Glenn?"
"I have a crayon, a piece of a Viper Churro, a few rocks, a piece of lint, a gold piece, and- hey! It's the key to the other cell I was in! I forget I had it," said Glenn. All three of his companions looked at him. He pouted, holding it up. "But I don't know if it'll work on this cell and I didn't want to give that false hope Daddy talks about."
Norris smiled. "All of the keys work on all of the cells if I remember correctly."
Karsh burst out laughing. "YES! WE'RE HOME FREE!"
"SHH!" Dario hissed. He took the key from Glenn. "We wait until nightfall, then we sneak out of here and try to find a way out of the city before we get caught again, all right? Put everything back into your pockets. We can't let them know we're planning something, you hear me?" The boys began to grab miscellaneous items that had been on the floor, stuffing them back into their pockets. By the time the last gold coin was in Karsh's pocket, they heard a door open and close.
"Hello boys."
"What a pleasant surprise," Karsh spat sarcastically.
"Shut up, kid," Curtis retorted. He looked in on his prisoners, shaking his head. Two lower ranking soldiers were flanking his sides, each holding long, dangerous looking rifles. He stared at Norris. "I'm very disappointed in your, Norris. One day you could have been a fine commander in the army. But look at yourself. You threw your life away to try and save these El Nido brats."
"These 'El Nido brats' are my friends. What you're doing is wrong," said Norris. "You just can't see that because all you've ever cared about is war and power. Admit it, Curtis- you hate peace. You can't stand the quiet and you're not happy unless you're fighting or hurting someone."
"Now that isn't true and you know it you little spawn," he said. "I worked hard to make a good life for you and your mother and THIS is how you repay me? My own son. My own son is a traitor to the Porre military. Do you know how that makes me feel? To know that my own flesh and blood went against his country?"
"You have feelings, ye monster?" Karsh snapped, rushing up to the bars.
"I wasn't speaking to you!" Curtis snapped. "Oh, you and your two little buddies are going to suffer quite a bit. At least my boy's suffering will be over tomorrow at sunrise." He turned to his son. "Out of kindness I asked the executioner to make it quick and painless. Traitor or not, you're still my son and I don't want you to suffer."
Norris' face took on an expressionless mood. He was going to die, and he was accepting it.
"You're a bad man!" Glenn cried out.
"Oh, how cute, the little pip squeak is trying to stand up for the traitor," said Curtis. He grinned maliciously. "I'm going to have a LOT of fun with you, little one. You might not like it quite as much but I'm going to enjoy breaking you. You won't be so defiant after that. And neither will the other two."
"I hope yer corpse rots," Karsh sneered.
"Same to you. Farewell, brats," said Curtis. "I need to makes plans." With that, he and his escorts left, leaving the boys will a sudden decrease in self esteem, but a very much increased desire to escape from their prison. They all jumped at the sound of the door leading out of the prison wing as it slammed shut, and began to wait.
"We have to leave NOW," said Dario. "If we don't, they're going to kill Norris."
"Right," said Karsh. He turned to Norris. "Ye'd better have really good navigational skills, because if ye don't, we'll all be screwed. Ye hear me? All of our lives are in yer hands, Norris." He smiled, putting a hand on the Porre boy's shoulder. "Dinnae worry. Ah have faith in ye."
"Thank you," said Norris. With a resounding click, the door was open and the boys were free to exit their cell. Once outside, Norris began to lead them down the other end of the hallway in a brisk jog. "C'mon, this way. I'm pretty sure this leads to the navel base."
"Navel base? You mean like boats?" asked Dario.
"Exactly. It doubles as a dock for merchant ships. We can't risk going straight to Guardia from here right now, so we're going to try and hop a ship out of here. If we're lucky the ship will bring us to Truce, or, better yet, El Nido," said Norris. "Merchants are neutral and aren't citizens of any country. If anything they're part of their own nation of sorts."
"So if we end up on a merchant ship we'll have no idea where we're going but we'll be safe," said Dario.
"Exactly," said Norris.
"Perfect," said Karsh. "We could git lost."
"Would you rather be dead?" asked Dario.
". . . ye got a point thar, Dario."
~
Norris was right in saying that there was a dock nearby, as the boys soon found themselves outside near Porre's harbor. And what a place it was! Karsh, Dario, and Glenn all found themselves dumbfounded at the sheer size of the trade center of the city they were trapped in. The dockyard at Termina could, at best, dock seven merchant ships and a few rowboats. This dock looked like it could hold at least quadruple that amount! Crates of all shapes and sizes littered the wooden dock, and both sailors and soldiers patrolled the docks. Several giant military boats loomed over the water, dwarfing the merchant ships docked beside them.
All in all, they should have been home free, but disappointment was becoming a fast friend. There was yet ANOTHER obstacle in their way. With dozens of armed Porre soldiers walking around, then the boys would have been able to stow away onto one of the merchants with much greater ease.
"Soldiers?" asked Karsh. "Now what da we do?"
"Sneak around them, I guess," said Norris. "I doubt they know I'm a traitor as of yet so we could risk bumping into a few, but I can't say that word hasn't spread yet. There are a lot of people in this facility, many of them cooks and servants who love to spread gossip. Knowing that one of the Black Wind's own offspring betrayed Porre would be the best piece of dirt that they could get their hands on."
"Okay, we dinnae want them to see us at all, especially if they recognize Norris," said Karsh. He looked around, trying to judge their situation. "This is gonna be tricky. We can't just waltz around here like we own tha place. But we'll find a way ta do this without loosing our heads."
"But there's so many of them," Dario noted.
Glenn was walked a few paces ahead of the rest of the small group of boys. "Maybe we could hide in one of those really big boxes," he said. The other three looked at the five year old. "If we get lucky then maybe the box will go on a ship and leave Porre. If we're in the box we'll leave Porre, too!"
Norris looked at Dario with a wide grin on his face. "You know that Glenn's a genius?"
Karsh held his hands palm up, looking at each hand in turn in mock confusion. "Glenn, genius. Genius, Glenn." He threw his hands into the air, shaking his head. Dario and Norris looked at the purple haired youth in question. "Nope. Ahm sorry, Norris, but ah just dinnae see the connection."
"Hey! Looks who's talking!"
"Not now," Dario said. "Let's find a crate that's getting shipped out, get inside, and hope for the best. Everyone, stick together. We're all in this together and no one is going to get left behind." He put his hand out, and, somewhat awkwardly, the four boys formed a four-way handshake. Once they pulled away from each other, they began to search for their crate.
~
Yay! They escaped! And are on their way to El Nido, right? Right?
If you think they're going to El Nido, then you don't know my writing style very well now do you?
Alba: And you most certainly were! The new twist is the whole purpose of this story- the current protagonists as well, as two others, grow up to be thieves, and I may even decide to give them a name that starts with "Radical" and ends with "Dreamers", but that is a definite MAYBE. Not a YES, not a NO, a MAYBE. And believe me- I WILL be toying with a lot of the characters. As of now, *counts on fingers* at least playable characters will be played with in some way or another as well as a handful of some non-playable characters such as Dario. Yes, reviews do help out the writer, now don't they? Karsh is cool, and so is Norris. I imagine those two will get into lots of trouble.
Tami: Close, but no cigar- Alba got in just before you did. Really? Predictions of utter greatness for this fic? Ooo. . . there goes my ego. Heh. . . I just like to have stuff on hand so I CAN update often- I update every few days to allow lots of reviews to come in because I'm a review junkie.
Harle is the best: Thanks! And none was taken!
Iluvrikku12: You're welcome.
Uftaki: Thanks. Well, I think we can see that Porre has really crappy security policies and that they can all escape easily. But you're right- they aren't out of the forest yet. Quite frankly is Curtis can bring harm to another kid, I think he'd have no problem beating his own kid.
Miso14: Glad you're happy about that! Hey, there's nothing wrong with dark fics- I like dark stuff as long as it deals with the supernatural or internal conflicts. Yes, a lot should happen, I just need to come up with more ideas. Dominating the CC category? Really? Wow. Yes, this is the fate/altered one. Lunar is a good game and worth the time- Kingdom Hearts!? I don't even have a PS2! WAH! I WANNA PS2!!! I WANNA PLAY KINGDOM HEARTS!!!
Yukari: Mmm. . . I'd like to glomp Dario and Glenn, too. . . but alas, Cye would be jealous (my husband at a site called "Bishounen Realm" that gives out marriage certificates). Leena (probably) isn't in this one- if she is in this one, it won't turn into a Gleena fic what-so-ever.
Fuu: Thanks. Not a Gleena fan? *shrugs* Oh well. And Karsh/Orlha isn't a huge, huge theme in my stories, and probably won't be in this one. Though, with the whole Orlha thing, just about anyone is better than Doc. I don't like Doc almost as much as I don't like Korcha, and we all know how I feel about Disgusting Red Speedo Boy. Okay, maybe there is a worse thing that Doc/Orlha. . . Korcha/Orlha OR Pierre/Orlha. Geez, I'm making poor Orlha sound like a slut here.
Next chapter coming out soon!
~Dixxy