Thieves

By Dixxy

Chapter Seven

"You. . . you WHAT!?" Norris said, staring at Dario in shock.

Dario turned away, his whole body quivering as he began to explain himself. "The people of Corinaw are like you said they were- cold hearted and cruel, only concerned about each other and their pure blood." He turned his head. "It's too dangerous to go to Truce just yet, even if we DO have weapons- none of us can use them well enough to stand up to a fully-trained Porre soldier. Porre is even MORE dangerous, and I don't think any of us want to go to Medina or Choras. Corinaw was the only choice, and it was the only way we were going to eat."

"But Dario, stealing is wrong!" said Glenn.

"I know, Glenn, but I had no choice. You could've DIED if I hadn't gotten that Heal from Corinaw- we might've starved if I hadn't taken the food. Trust me, this is the dead last thing I wanted to resort to, but unfortunately, we don't have a hell of a lot of choices right now," said Dario. He made a fist. "Don't you see? We've hit rock bottom. We're lower than dirt. We're homeless, penniless street rats now. We aren't the sons of Devas in the eyes of the people. Norris isn't the son of a respected Porre commander. To these people, we're just another group of lost, lonely kids without a clue as to what to do next."

"We know that, but is stealing really the only thing we have to rely on?" said Norris. "Stealing is a crime in pretty much every village, city, and country in the whole world. To take from someone who worked hard to get where they are and use it for yourself isn't right."

Glenn looked at his brother. "Dario, is this really the only thing we can do?"

"Aye hate to say this, but aye think Dar's right," said Karsh. "Most thieves arena thieves by choice, and we dinnae have a choice, really. It's the only way other than death. We may need to do that for a little while until we git enough money to go back to El Nido and reunite with our folks. Then we can stop."

"Okay, what if we don't get enough money?" said Norris.

"And you have a better idea, Norris?" said Dario. "We're only kids, and as Melchoir said, we could only get dead-end jobs that would NEVER earn enough money for four tickets to El Nido. Karsh, Glenn and I all have family and friends in El Nido that we desperately want to get back to. This could be the only way to get there!"

"But what would your parents and friends say if they knew you got home by stealing!?" said Norris, raising a fist to Dario. "What would your fathers say if they knew their own sons had resorted to STEALING to get by? What about that, Dario? Did you think of that?"
"And we haven't stolen anything BEFORE!?" Dario said back. "If I recall, you're the one who suggested hitching a ride on that merchant boat that landed us in Medina. I don't blame you for what happened last year, but wasn't THAT stealing a ride? We didn't pay anything to get onto that boat!"

"Then why do we not just sneak onto another boat?" said Karsh.

"We've learned that just randomly picking a boat is a bad idea," said Dario. He sat down and motioned for the rest of the group to do so as well. All who were standing complied. "Unless you want to risk walking right back into Ozzie's hands or end up dead in a Choras riot, be my guest. The only safe way to get to El Nido is by getting the money that way. I know it's wrong- we'll find a way to pay everyone back somehow, but for now this is the best we can do."

Dario's friends and brother lowered their heads, thinking this over. Dario gulped. He knew he was willing to do it- he'd already done it once before, anyways. As for the others, they hadn't ever done anything like that for SURVIVAL purposes. This was going to be a tough decision to make.

~

Dario awoke the next morning. Karsh and Norris were gone from the cave, and Glenn was curled up in the corner of the cave, staring at the back wall. The elder brother looked on in curiosity. What was going on with his little brother? Curious, Dario began to creep over to where Glenn was sitting.

"Glenn?"

Slowly, Glenn turned around to look at his brother, tears streaming down his face. "Dario. . . why is all this happening to us!?" he cried. He winced away. "First, Mommy dies, and then I got kidnapped and tortured by Curtis, and then we got sold to the Mystics, and then all those people in Truce got killed, and now we're becoming thieves!? What did we do wrong, Dario?"

Oh shoot, Dario thought. Why didn't I think of this before? Glenn's so young, but he isn't naïve anymore. He's had more thrown at him this past year then most people ever deal with in their entire lifetime. Yet he's only six years old! My little brother was a ticking time-bomb of bottled up emotions just waiting to go off! Dario knelt down next to Glenn and pulled him into a big, bear hug. "We didn't do anything wrong, Glenn- it was just a strange twist of Fate, that's all."

Glenn looked up at Dario, his bottom lip quivering. "Fate. . .? How. . . how. . . how can you be so sure!?" And then he broke. The younger brother began to cry his eyes out, shaking and trembling as he did so. Dario closed his eyes, squeezing him to try and make him feel safer.

"Glenn. . . it's okay. . . it's okay. . ."

"NO IT'S NOT!" said Glenn, throwing his brother back as he continued to stare at him through tear-stained eyes. "I. . . I don't wanna talk to you anymore! I don't even want to see you anymore! You did a bad thing! Daddy told us stealing was wrong, and here you just did that! You stole! You're a thief! I can't trust you anymore! I can't! I can't trust you!" The young child stood up, looking at his brother with cold eyes that Dario didn't think a small child was capable of even having.

"Glenn-"

"LEAVE ME ALONE!!!" Glenn screamed before running off into the woods.

"GLENN, WAIT!" Dario cried, running after his brother.

"NO!" Glenn called back. "I can't! I can't!"

"Glenn, don't be an idiot! You'll never survive on your own!" said Dario.

"I'm not an idiot!"

"Please, don't run away! You could get hurt!"

"No! I won't do it! I won't!"

"GET BACK HERE! GLENN!" Dario cried, continuing to persue his younger brother. Unfortunately, Glenn was smaller and faster than his older brother. The younger brother slipped through spaces in the trees Dario could only walk around, all the while not responding to his brother's desperate calls. Even so, Dario refused to give up on his pursuit. Don't be an idiot Glenn! You can't survive out here on your own! Please! Come back! If you don't come back, you might never see Termina again!!!

Until he lost him.

Dario looked around frantically. "Glenn!" he screamed. "Glenn, please, come back! Glenn! GLENN!!! COME BACK!!! PLEASE!!! DON'T GO!!! I DON'T WANT YOU TO GET HURT!!! COME BACK!!!" Dario fell to his knees and began to scream. "GLEEENNNNNNNNN!!!!!"

~

"Still no sign of 'im, Dar," said Karsh. Shortly after Dario had lost Glenn, Karsh and Norris had found him screaming in the woods. Karsh and Dario were back at the cave they currently called home while Norris was out searching the woods for the youngest member of the group. The elder brother was sitting next to Karsh, staring out into the woods anxiously.

"Is he going to be okay?" asked Dario. "Oh, why did he run away? Why oh why-"

"Dinnae blame yerself- ye did what ye had ta do," said Karsh. "He's been through a lot- he just panicked, tha's all." He looked outside. "Ay'm sure Nor will find him, or he'll come back on is own, Dar. He's a wee one, after all- he knows he kinna survive on is own yet."

"You think so?"

Karsh nodded. "Tha is, provided something doesn't get him first."

"No! Don't say that!" Dario said, looking at Karsh in desperation. "He's going to be okay!"

"Ay'm sure e will be!" said Karsh. "Yer brother's a slippery one, tha's for sure."

Dario settled back, but never took his eyes off the entrance to the cave. "I hope so," he said. He pulled his knees to his chest and hugged them, slowly rocking back and forth on his heels. "Karsh, I don't know what I'll do if he doesn't come back. He's my little brother- what if he gets hurt, or worse? What is Curtis of all people finds him!?"

"Ay dinnae think Curtis is gonna find 'im- Nor'll track 'im down before anythin' happens to 'im," said Karsh. "Until then, aye got somethin' aye hope'll cheer ye up a least a wee bit." The purple haired youth produced a small, red velvet sack with two gold ropes tying the mouth closed. He tossed it to Dario. "Nor and aye got it from a street vendor in Truce when 'e wasn't looking."

Dario looked at Karsh in amazement. "You actually. . .?"

"Yer right- it IS the only way until we save up enough to git home," said Karsh. "An if yer gonna do it, then so will aye. Nor has the same idea- e came up with the idea of us taking tha, ye know." He looked out towards the mouth of the cave again, sighing heavily. "'e'll come back eventually, Dar. Aye know e will."

"I hope you're right. But what's taking him so long?"
"'e needs time to thin this over," said Karsh. He placed a hand on his best friend's shoulder and have him a reassuring grin and wink. "An e's been through a la. 'e probably just lost it a wee bit back there, tha's all- he'll come back soon enough. Just have some faith in the lad and before ye know it, he'll be back here with us."

"I just feel like I'm forcing him to steal," said Dario.

"Maybe ye are, maybe ye aren't- in the end, e as the right to say 'no'."

Dario sighed. "I suppose you're right. . ."

~

Several days passed, and there was still no sign of Glenn since he ran away. The boys had only stopped searching long enough to get food and eat it, but no matter how far they searched, the younger brother could not be found. Dario was getting progressively more and more worried about him, fearing the worse had happened to him. Norris and Karsh tried to convince him otherwise, but it was no use- Dario had become convinced that Glenn was dead or worse.

"Ye know, maybe e's just hiding from us," said Karsh. The three boys were standing around in the woods, still trying to search for Glenn. "From wha Dar said, Glenn was pretty mad at 'im- if aye was mad at my brother, aye might of done the same thing. Fer all we know, he could be watching us as we speak."

"I doubt that somehow," said Norris. He had his hands on his hips and was looking around the woods with mild interest. "Glenn isn't a stupid kid- he's bound to figure out that running away isn't going to get him anywhere. I don't blame him for not wanting to be a thief, but unfortunately Curtis hasn't given us much choice in that matter. Think about it- he's the source of all our problems, save the captain who sold us to the Mystics last year. Even so, would we have been sold if he hadn't kidnapped Glenn?"

Dario sighed heavily. "I just hope he's all right-"

"Dario! DARIO!"

Dario paused, looking up and around. The sound of the young voice could be heard, the crunching of leaves accompanying the small voice. Excited, the older of Garai's sons turned to see his younger brother running towards him, eyes wide and teary. "Glenn!"

"DARIO!" Glenn threw himself into his brother's arms, sobbing hysterically. Dario fell to his knees, taking his brother with him. "I'm sorry. . . I'm sorry. . . I shouldn't have run away. . . I was scared. . . I didn't know what I was doing. . . I was confused. . . I AM confused. . . oh Dario! It was horrible! I didn't want to be alone!"

"Where we ye, lad?" asked Karsh.

Glenn sniffed. "A cave. But a wolf and her babies were there already and I just barely got away," he said. "I spent the last few hours in a tree- the wolf was barking at me and wanted to eat me and it was really scary! I didn't wanna hurt her babies! I just wanted a safe place to stay!" He looked at his brother. "Dario. . . why am I so confused?"

"You've been dealt more shocks to your system then most men three or four times your age have ever been given," said Norris, bending down to Glenn's level. "You were suppressing all your emotions from the past year and Dario stealing just caused them to explode into a fit of fury, that's all. You had an emotional breakdown and needed time by yourself. No big deal."

"We aren't mad at ye, lad," said Karsh, ruffling Glenn's hair.

Glenn looked up at his friends and brother. "I've decided I want to help."

Dario looked at Glenn in surprise. "You want to steal with us?" Glenn nodded solemnly, looking very serious for a boy his age. "But you do realize that this isn't a game, right?" Another nod. Dario stood, helping his brother to his feet as well. "All right. We're all going to have a long talk about this tonight at dinner, okay?"

"Okay," said Glenn.

~

"Is thieving going to make us bad people?" Glenn asked. The dinner for that night was a stew that Karsh and Dario had thrown together with some meat and vegetables they'd gotten from a small village known as Dorino, which was just to the north of Fiona's Forest (where they had just "moved" into). Their camp for the night was in an abandoned cathedral that Norris said used to be a shrine to Fiona and the mysterious creature that had helped rebuild the forest.

Glenn had yet to steal anything, which was something Dario was mildly happy with. Even if it was for survival reasons, he still felt a twinge of guilt every time he took something. Is the guilt going to fade after time passes, or will it only get worse and worse? he wondered absently as he slowly stirred his stew. I'm afraid that if we start going down this past we won't be able to turn back.

"Aye dinnae think so- under these circumstances, it's understandable," said Karsh. "Na to the people we steal from, but it'll be understandable to our parents when we git home. Aye wouldnae worry about it, Glenn- we'll all be fine. As long as we dinnae steal from someone even poorer than us, we should be all right."

"You think so?" said Norris. Karsh nodded, taking another spoonful of the soup. Norris crossed his legs and sighed. "Well, in the very least we should be in El Nido soon enough and we can all just forget about this, right? It'll be behind us. We can all grow up to be Dragoons to fight Porre and help the people of Truce, Choras, and the other towns around here."

"Yeah!" said Glenn. "Dario and I will be just like our daddy!"

"And ay'll make ye all look like a bunch 'a sissies!" said Karsh.

"Hey!" said Dario, laughing. He grinned cockily. "You know I'd make the better Dragoon! I'm the son of the Legendary Garai and the descendant of the great Sir Glenn of Guardia. MY family has the Einlanzer- YOUR family has a blacksmith hammer. I'd say a legendary artifact is worth a little more."

"MY family served as blacksmiths for the rulers of Guardia before yer Sir Glenn was even born!"

"MY dad was the leader of the Devas!"

"MY da could kick yer da's ass!"

"No, MY dad would run circles around YOUR dad!!"

Norris coughed as Glenn looked at him in confusion. "Parental one-upmanship."

~

Next chapter we should see some more details on actual thefts. SHOULD see. I can't promise the best for the next chapter- it'll be the acid test to see how well I write scenes where the little band of thieves are actually doing what they do best- well, thieving, you know? So, make sure you review the next chapter and give me any advice you think would help even in the least bit. Lena, I'll be looking for your review (^_^).

Alba: What? You didn't think it would be Dario? To me, Dario seems to be the leader of the group. Karsh is the goof. Norris does a lot of the planning for some of the bigger "jobs" later in the fic as they gain more experience. Glenn is a sort-of free spirit and uses his unique charm as part of his thieving style later on. Norris, eh? Hmm, why Nor? Yes, that pretty much sums up Pierre. Ah, that's what I thought, but I wasn't sure. And as a final comment. . . BLONDE, BLONDE, BLONDE, BLONDE, BLONDE, BLONDE, BLONDE, BLONDE, BLONDE, BLONDE, BLONDE, BLONDE, BLONDE, BLONDE, BLONDE, BLONDE, BLONDE, BLONDE, BLONDE, BLONDE, BLONDE, BLONDE, BLONDE, BLONDE, BLONDE, BLONDE. . .

Tami: Aw, thanks! No, Ronin Warriors isn't a video game. It's an Animé about five teenage boys who have these powerful, magical armors. They each represent some sort of a element (fire, light, water, earth, and air) and fight against a demon named Talpa, his four Dark Warlords (who each represent a season), and the Evil Dynasty. It originally aired in syndication during the summer of 1995, was shown briefly on the Sci-Fi Channel during 1996, and was later brought to Cartoon Network in 1999 as part of the Toonami lineup. It was canceled May of 2000, then brought back, then canceled again. Recently, BANDAI Entertainment picked it up and is releasing it to DVD. As for the second question, I guess I like Serge and Kid, though I don't know if I'll do the cliché Kirge type story where they look for each other. I actually have a kind of funny idea for a story that focuses both on Kirge AND Gleena in the same package. Hmm. . . I also kinda like Pip and the other "little ones". I feel real bad for Fargo a lot, though he usually doesn't have a major role in my fics. And I like Grobyc- or at least I'll like him after the next story in the Curtis-ghost trilogy gets off the ground. . . *grins evilly*

Lena: That was creativity on my part. Chrono Cross didn't get too much into the development of most of the characters- Serge, Kid, Lynx, and Harle were the main focus. However, Dario, Riddel, and Karsh's love triangle received a lot of attention, as did the situation with Fargo and his family. There's really a LOT left to the imagination. Woo. . . Lena's swearing. Well. . . yeah, the El Nido chapter got a little repetitive, but I just wanted to emphasize those feelings. The last chapter. . . eh. . . just how DO you portray a town of inbred hicks, anyways? As you can see, Glenn was a little effected this chapter- he has the occasional emotional crash every few chapters or so for the next several fic "years". Still, the way I see his behavior is him trying to hold onto his innocence as tightly as he can- bottling it up, so to speak. Maybe a little afraid to let it show. I'm still playing around with their characterization, though. Yes, poor parents (except Curtis- ever seen the cockroach trap Will Ferrel "advertised" on SNL? They should do that to Curtis). Yeah, that happens a lot over the years, especially as more people get involved. We'll try, I suppose.

Uftaki: Yeah, they were mean. But that's the last of the Corinaw people, though I'm not against one of the boys having a fling with a Corinaw girl much later in the fic, just to tick them all off. Yes, their stealing is a little on the desperate side at first, but eventually it gets better. You know that you're now the 4th person to put their two cents into that argument over Glenn's hair color? I still say BLONDE myself.

GabbyGirl: Nothing wrong with a new computer. You? Crazed lunatic? Well, I just answer the questions/comments in the reviews based on how I'm feeling and the actual context of the review. Believe me, I've had crazier. You'd swear some of my RW readers are made of rubber with how much they all bounce. I kid you not- they BOUNCE. Hey, trust me, I want to update- I must update, because I always update around the time Alba does, and Alba left a really EVIL cliffhanger in her story.

Rikku-oh-ki: Yup it does. Yes, I'm sure I can find FY stuff- I looked a few times, but until I actually get the nerve to purchase it, I haven't little to go on.

IluvRikku12: He isn't naughty! Just desperate! For now J .

Yukari: . . .

~Dixxy