Chapter Five: Thievery

It wasn't long for Seth and Luke to stop where they're at and started to take a break from running. They sat down a few feet away from the road and decided to have something to eat. They each grabbed a slice of ham and placed it on two pieces of bread and made it like a sandwich.

"Hey, how much farther til we reach Oured?" Asked Seth while eating his sandwich.

"I don't know. We'll probably know when we get there." Replied Luke as he took a bite from his sandwich as well.

Just then Luke stops eating and checks his surroundings. Seth looked at him and notices that something's bothering him.

"What's wrong?"

"We're being watched."

"Again?" Seth asked while he was standing up slowly drawing out his Gala sword. "Is it them again? The soldiers from Arson?"

"No I don't think so. Come on, this way."

Seth follows Luke as he takes him away from their stuff. Just then a few feet away, a masked figure from the trees found the opportunity to take their stuff away. He jumps off one of the branches and lands on the ground. Then cautiously looks inside Seth and Luke's bags. In it was a week's worth of food, a book for Luke to read and the letter Gorrum gave to them before they left. He wasted no time taking their stuff and bolting out of there. But Luke notices her and starts yelling at her.

"Hey hold it!" cried Luke as he chases after her. "Come back here you thief"

Seth realizes that the thief has their bags and one of them was the letter Gorrum gave him to deliver to Oured. He knows that the thief can't get away; otherwise they won't be able to deliver the message to Lord Neto.

"Come on Luke we gotta run faster!" cried Seth as he starts to run faster.

Just then the thief throws in a smoke bomb, which then deludes Seth and Luke's sight causing them to stop where they are. Once the smoke disappears, the thief is gone.

"Where'd he go?" asked Luke.

"Shoot. We lost him." Said Seth, knowing that the thief got away.

The thief looks back to see if they're still chasing them; and when he sees that Seth and Luke aren't following them, he starts to slow down. Just then the thief bumps into a thug who stops the thief in its tracks.

"Hey watch yourself punk." Said the man.

"Sorry." Said the thief trying to keep moving but gets stopped by another thug.

"Say, whatcha doing here all by yourself?" said the other thug as he is up to no good.

"Uhh I have to get going. Important stuff. So can you please let me pass?" asked the thief.

"Really? Well ain't that a fact. We got some important stuff to do too." Said the thug who then picks him up by the shirt. "Like making sure that you punks don't mess with us!"

The thief knew immediately he was in trouble and started to scream trying to see if anyone can hear his call. The thugs started covering their ears and it was too much for them to handle. Seth and Luke heard the scream from a distance. They looked at each other knowing that it could be the thief.

"This way come on." Said Seth as he heads towards the source.

They both raced toward the scene, eventually catching up to their thief who is got his hands full at the moment. They noticed two thugs are ganging up on him and decided to help the thief out.

"Hey what do you two are doing?" Asked Luke as he starts to join in the fray.

"You two protect him?" asked one of the thugs.

Just then the thief kicks one of the thugs who is keeping him captive and joins Luke and Seth. The thug gets back up on his feet, knowing that him and his partner are now going to have to fight them.

"Why you little son of a…" the thug starts to charge and attack the retreating thief but Luke steps in and fights the thug. Soon after the other one joins in trying to help out his partner but Seth comes in and attacks him and fighting broke out. Seth was facing one thug and Luke was facing the other. The thief stood in the distance as the four men started to fight.

The fighting took a while, as both sides don't want to give up. Almost every single punch, kick they threw was either blocked or dodged. But soon after Seth and Luke got the upper hand as they threw in a series of kicks and punches they learned a while back when they were training at the beach. The thugs were pushed back as they both landed on the ground hard. One of the thugs got some broken ribs, lost teeth, and a black eye; while the other one received loose teeth, a broken and bloody nose, and several cracked ribs. They were shocked, as they couldn't believe that two kids, like Seth and Luke, defeated them.

"Grr…don't think you've won just yet, it's only the beginning." Said one of the thugs as he retreats.

"Yeah, we'll get you guys, and we're gonna get you good." Said the other as he retreats as well.

Seth and Luke were victorious but they were exhausted from the fight. The thief, who stayed to watch the fight because it was exciting, slowly stepped away from them and try to flee; but Luke caught him just when he was about to turn around.

"Oh no you don't. You're not going to get away from us" says Luke as he grabs him from the arm. The thief tries to break free from his grip but it was no use.

"So, I guess it's time to reveal the man behind the mask eh?" says Seth as he starts to take off his mask.

When he took off the mask, they were shocked. The thief wasn't a man, but a girl. She had white skin, dark brown hair, light blue eyes, and was about a year younger than them. But the one thing that truly shocked them was that they were outrun and outsmarted by her.

"Shocked huh" said the thief. As she grinned when they realized that their thief was actually a girl.

"Yeah…" said Luke as he was in much disbelief as Seth was. "Who would've thought we were outrun and outsmarted by a girl like you"

"Hehe, I know. I get that a lot so don't worry. Now can you please let me go? I promise I won't run from you guys, since you saved me back there."

"Well how can we be sure? You'd be the kind of girl who would escape the moment the opportunity came," said Seth as he retrieves his and Luke's bags.

"Look, I'm really sorry that I took your stuff; and I thought to make it up, you guys can stay with me for a while. You need a place to stay right?"

Seth looked at each other for a moment. They both noticed that the sun started to come down and darkness started to crept the sky.

"Alright we'll take your offer," says Luke as he lets go of her.

"Finally, well we should get going, night's coming and it get really dangerous during the night. Follow me, and do try to keep up." Says the girl as she starts to head to her house.

"Don't worry, we'll follow you miss…"

"Oneto. Sam Oneto." Says Sam as she starts to head towards her house.