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Finally in Prontera, the two siblings were amazed by the amount of people present. The city seemed to be bustling with activity. Many merchants were camped around the center of Prontera trying to sell their merchandise. Myria stared in awe at all the available gems and goodies that were for sale. Aeron's mouth watered when he saw the stalls full of food and water.

"Isn't this just wonderful?" cried Myria.

Aeron nodded and then shouted back, "Let's go sell our junk! We'll need to find a merchant or one of the main stores."

Myria agreed and they walked off in search of a merchant willing to accept their junk items. Not finding anyone, they ventured into a store and found that it was nearly empty. The cool interior of the store gave them a chance to really relax. Walking up to the store clerk, they took out all their junk and asked if they were willing to buy it. The store clerk smiled and merely nodded. With the deal successfully done, they walked off to find the Prontera Inn.

Just as they were walking out of the store, an old woman cried out in alarm and looked wildly around. Crying, she pushed through the doors and stumbled out. The two siblings ran after the old woman, curious about what had set the woman off. Following her, they found her sitting on the steps of a nearby building crying. Many people were gathered around her now, and Aeron and Myria had to push their way through. Amongst her cries, the two heard the words, "...stolen. All...zennies, stolen. ...Thieves!"

Feeling sorry for the old woman, Aeron walked forward to lend out a hand. Myria helped to comfort the woman and promised to get the zennies back. Aeron agreed and the two led the old woman off to a quiet corner of the street. After the woman was relatively calmed down, the two asked questions of the woman.

"I remember I had my bag of zennies with me when I was buying ice cream for a small child. He was very nice about it. Thanked me. I still had the bag of zennies with me when I entered the items shop. Afterwards, when I went to pay for my items, I couldn't find my zennies anymore." The woman sobbed bitterly after her account of the day.

Thinking, Aeron asked, "Did anyone bump into you or touch you?"

Trying to remember, the old woman wrinkled her forehead in concentration. "I think a small boy was standing near me and when I turned around, I bumped into him. That's it."

"Do you remember what that boy looked like?" asked Myria.

The woman nodded and described the boy as being around thirteen years old, with blue short hair and a bandana wrapped around his head. The two acknowledged this and asked the woman to rest at the Inn, while they go forth and try to find the thief that took her money.

Meanwhile, crouched in a dark corner, Wen laughed and talked quietly with another boy.
"Boy was that woman stupid. She bumped into me and I took it right out of her pocket. It's a good thing I work fast."
The other boy smiled sadly and looked at the melting ice cream in his hand. The woman had been kind enough to buy him an ice cream. He felt sad that Wen had decided to take her money. She was so nice to him.
"Are you sure it's right that we should take zennies from her?" he asked.
"Look Tye. If you're soft, you don't get any zennies okay?"
Tye looked at the blue haired boy. Even though Wen sounded tough, he was really very soft. Tye knew that ever since Wen was a baby, his father would beat him and stealing food became a habit for Wen. Overtime, Wen grew to hate anyone who it good in life. What could Tye do? He couldn't persuade Wen to stop stealing and it seemed cruel to take the zennies from the woman who was so kind to him.

Before Tye could say anything, Wen suddenly looked angry. Taking a handful of zennies from the bag, he stuffed it into his pockets and threw the rest down onto the ground.

"Look, if you're too soft to do this, you might as well leave."

Turning around, Wen stomped off and looked for another victim. Making sure that he was far enough from Tye, Wen let a drop of tear drop before, wiping hastily the trace of a tear from his eyes. Feeling miserable, he looked at the zennies in his pocket. The woman was nice to Tye, so what? Maybe she just wanted to take Tye home and sell him off to some old creep. Who could have known?

Turning a corner, he suddenly came face to face with a red haired man. The man looked at him curiously. Before the man could stop him, Wen fled and ran to hide behind a statue. Looking up, he saw a girl looking through her purse. Counting the zennies in her hand, she threw the zennies back into her purse and tied it loosely to her garment. Smiling, Wen ran up to the girl and grabbed her hand. Shaking it, he looked up with tearful eyes. The girl looked surprised as she looked down at the boy. Even though she was only a few years older than him, Wen knew that something about her made her look soft, innocent almost. The red haired girl looked concerned when she noticed his tears and faced him completely.

"What is it? Is something wrong?"

Wen nodded and shook the tears from his eyes. Trying to remember everything that his old man did to him, Wen let the slightest hint of sorrow enter his voice when he looked up to the girl and answered,

"Someone's following me. He's really tall and he looks strong. I think he's going to kidnap me."

Pointing towards the direction of the red haired man, Wen turned around and grabbed her garment. The purse was in his grasp when suddenly he felt a hard grip on his hands. Looking up, he was surprised to find that the red haired man was standing in front of him.

"Myria. I think we got the thief." Said the red haired man.

The girl looked down at Wen and sighed. She looked disappointed and saddened.

"Their getting so young these days. I almost fell for his trap when I looked into his sad eyes."

Wen was angry now. It was all a trap! They had wanted to catch him in the action!

"Boy, I order you to give back the zennies that you stole from that kindly old woman."

Wen laughed at the man. "What are you going to do if I don't do that?"

The man looked at the red haired girl named Myria and then back at him. Pulling him back up the street, they crossed the center of Prontera and were headed south. Struggling, Wen tried to get away but the man's grip was too strong and in the process of struggling, he began to hurt his own arm.

"Where are we going?" he shouted.

The nearby people looked at him, while the man merely smiled and said, "We're going to the Prontera Kafra personnel. They'll be able to tell us what we should do to you." Panicking, Wen cried out in pain as he wrenched his arm trying to set himself free. Suddenly he saw Tye running towards him. Wen was about to warn Tye when Tye suddenly dropped to the ground in front of the man. "Please. Please don't take him away. He's the only friend I have. Here. Here's the rest of the zennies." Dropping the bag of zennies, Tye grabbed onto Wen's free hand and held on. Looking at his friend, Wen felt something inside of him break. Suspecting it was his heart; Wen squeezed Tye's hand and smiled back. "Thank you." He mouthed and emptied his pockets.

After taking the zennies back to the old woman, Wen apologized and looked at Tye, who was still crying. Hitting him softly on the head, Wen laughed. "Don't worry Tye. I won't leave you."
But when he tried to walk away with Tye, Aeron stopped him.

Anger boiled within Wen. "You promised you would let me go once I apologized and gave back the zennies!"
Tye broke in and agreed. "Yeah you promised!"

The two thieves struggled against Aeron's grip. For a young novice, he was stronger than they had thought. "Myria. What do you think we should do?"

Myria was busy staring off into the distance and didn't hear Aeron talking. "Myria!"
"Oh sorry Aeron. I've been thinking. Why don't we go to Izlude?"
"Izlude? Why?"
"Well, I've seen you look at the knight's recruiting posters and I know you want to become a knight. So why not go to Izlude and join? We can still look for mother and father. You'll just be stronger and you'll have the aid of your guild. What do you think?"
Smiling, Aeron nodded and looked off into the distance. Finally he agreed with Myria. He looked down at the two boys and said, "You're going to take us to Izlude. After we get to Izlude, I'll set you two free." The boys looked at each other and silently agreed. These two would go to Izlude alright...