The boy had spiky blond hair, cheap clothes, and no shoes. He was also hanging from his knees from a branch in Aqua's garden. He had been sitting on it a moment ago, probably, but he'd just swung down in front of Aqua's face, grinning like a demon.

She didn't scream, though. If she'd screamed, a lot of things would have been different.

"Hello," she said.

"Hi, princess!"

"Why are you in my tree?"

"Because I'm a theeEE!" Thud. Now the boy had soil in his hair. He popped to his feet as though nothing had happened. "Eheh. Because I'm a thief."

Princess Aqua had never met a thief, but she was fairly sure they weren't scruffy, clumsy, and ten. "Oh? What were you stealing up there? There's no fruit yet, and we haven't any golden bird's nests or diamond squirrels."

"I was stealing the tree!"

Aqua looked at the thirty foot pear tree, and then at the scrawny kid. "You're not a very good thief, are you?"

"No, look. I bet you haven't climbed this tree to the top yet, right?"

"Of course not."

"Well, there ya go! No matter what, I'll always be the guy who climbed your tree before you did."

"Princesses," Aqua informed the urchin haughtily, "do not climb trees."

"Then what's the point of having 'em?"

This was so silly that Aqua couldn't think of an answer. "What's your name, thief?"

"I'm Ven," he said, pronouncing it like it was a senator's name. "Good to meet you, Princess Aqua." The bow was completely wrong. Ven looked like a very dirty wading bird, and he nearly fell down again.

"Your Highness?"

"Oh!" Aqua spun around. It was that young officer who'd just joined the guard. He was nice enough, but come to think of it, even a boy who probably wasn't a real thief would not be allowed in the imperial gardens.

He came under the shade of the tree, clanking in his polished armor, gladius slung at his side. "Your Highness? Were you speaking to someone?"

Aqua looked behind her. The garden was quite empty of thieves. "Not really, Triari Terra. I suppose I was talking to the birds." She giggled - she had practiced that giggle, it stopped all sorts of boring questions from old noblemen at parties.

"Oh, of course, Highness," the soldier said. He looked, annoyingly, like he was hiding a smile. He had no right to smirk at a princess. Anyway, he wasn't all that many years older than her. "Sorry to disturb you." He tapped his gauntlet to his breastplate in salute, and went back to his post.

Aqua smiled disarmingly at him until he was gone, then spun around to look for Ven. Really, she did not need so many guards about all the time, but when she brought it up Father would only say "It is a dark world, little raindrop," and the next day the guards were there all the same.

Ven, on the other hand, had vanished completely. She looked up, but he was not in his stolen tree, either, though where else he might have gone she didn't know. She could almost believe he was a thief.

No, wait. A bare foot had left a clear print in the soil below the tree. Aqua frowned at it for a moment, then leaned over and brushed it away. She looked up, trying to see where the boy had gone, but all she saw was the trees, the wall of the garden, and the distant lines of the skyscrapers against the grey sky.