The Month of Hiding (August) Age 9

Week 1

"Here's the deal, kid," Hannah said. I sighed with relief—she was finally giving me her answer. She's been pacing back and forth all week, wondering what she was going to do with me. My funds from Garin had run out, so she forced the Ruki owner to board me for free. Still, that wasn't that wasn't the only thing that worried me. There's been no update from Kayley yet, which could be both a good or bad sign. Either way, I have no idea what's happening back home.

"What?" I asked eagerly.

"I have to be honest here: I don't trust you. For all I know, you could be working for Masila and trying to trap me." Before I could protest, she said, "But I don't trust a lot of my clients either, yet I give them my services anyway. Then again, none of them have asked for my help for free."

"Your point is?"

"My point is that you have to prove that you really are Kanrik's apprentice. That you won't stab me in the back the first time I turn it."

"And how am I supposed to do that?" I asked.

She gave me a cheeky smile. "You good with tests, sweetheart? I'll be giving you some for a few weeks. If you can convince me, I'll help."

"Hey, that's not fair!" I exclaimed. "Nobody at home knows where I am, and I have to get back fast! I can't just sit around here jotting stuff on paper."

"You should've thought of that before you ran away," she said matter-of-factly. "Besides, my tests aren't like that. They're much more…interesting."

"Interesting how?" I said suspiciously.

"How would you like a trip to the Pirate Caves?" She said it like it's something every kid would dream about, but honestly, I don't do creepy coves. And based on that gleam in her eye, it would probably be really dangerous. But I couldn't refuse, that was for sure. She's like the only chance the Thieves' Guild has for surviving.

But you'd think that an explorer would take a few hours, tops, to get ready for somewhere she'd been in thousands of times. But nooo, Hannah needed another week. I wondered if Kanrik had to wait such a long time when he asked for her help ages ago. I'm willing to bet that he was as bored as I am. But I guess she had a reason, which she showed me today when I complained.

"Kid, do you know how many things I need just in case something goes wrong?" She snapped. "At night-time, it gets freezing cold, so I gotta bring my coat, boots, and all that. And by day, it's stiflingly hot."

"It's not that bad," I said dismissively.

She snorted. "Little know-it-all, aren't you? Take off your jacket."

"What? I never take off my jacket!" I said.

"That explains it," she said. Quick as a flash, she had it off me. And somehow, though it didn't make sense, the temperature became boiling. I could barely breathe. Grabbing my jacket back and putting it on, the fabric suddenly caused me to feel cooler.

"Woah."

"It's magic," Hannah explained. "I realized that on the trip to the Ice Caves with Kanrik. He didn't even need to wear a coat. In those days, the style was a hood, and all who wore it never felt too hot or too cold. Now it's jackets." She shook her head. "You thieves hate guards so much, but that's where you got the idea from, ya know? The highest, upper class guards had armor that's weather resistant, and an old copycat guild leader decided to make it available for all thieves. You could learn from your enemies."

"Hey," I said. "I don't hate guards."

"Of course you don't," she said sarcastically. "Is that supposed to win me over? I haven't met one of you that don't have a grudge on the guards."

"No, seriously," I said. "I have a friend who's one."

"What? Now I know you're joking. As if Kanrik would ever allow that."

"It did give me an awful lot of trouble at first," I admitted. "But it was okay in the end—and it was really worth it."

She raised her eyebrows. "And how did you get Kanrik to agree?"

"Um…" I didn't want to tell her that I agreed to spy on Brynn. I'm still not sure with that part myself. When I thought about it, it made me feel really guilty; as if I was lying to two people that trusted me. It's kind of like I postponed a decision; one day, I'd probably have to choose her or the Guild. But I wasn't ready to face that yet…I have too many problems.

Hannah must have seen my confused face, because she said, "It's okay. We'll save that story for better times, alright?"

"Thanks," I said, relieved. But after a few more minutes of her folding clothes, I was back in a bored stupor again.

Week 2

That went well.

We had to hike for a day to reach a summit. Even with my jacket I was sweating; and the annoying little petpetpets who bit me and made me itch didn't help. Loads of times, I was tempted to turn back. But Hannah had her eyes on me the whole time, and I had a feeling that persistence was a part of her test. Besides, she told me that Kanrik did the same thing in the Lost Desert. If he could do it, I was pretty sure I could too.

Until we actually went in. It was scary there. I'm not usually afraid of the dark, but it was pitch black and I couldn't see one foot in front of me. Hannah, though, skipped in as though it was her second home and grabbed a fiery torch in the corner. She smiled when she saw me hesitate. "You coming, kid? Don't worry, you could still back out."

Then I'd fail the test. I just shook my head without speaking and moved on. Since I couldn't see in the dark, I tripped. She looked at me with new respect, and helpfully stayed in front of me so I wouldn't fall again. Or maybe so that she can avoid the burning glares I've been giving her because she didn't warn me about the slickness.

We traveled deeper and deeper, and I was getting bored. "So, this is where explorers go? I think being a thief is more exciting."

"Just wait and see, sweetheart," she said, grinning. She had a surprise for me, I knew. Then the zombies came.

Okay, you would freak out too if a bunch of undead creatures came at you with a stick. They were all grey and crumbling, and some had eyes missing. Worse, they all had hideous grins, as if I was I was going to give them my brains as a present. I recoiled and hid behind Hannah, but she just brushed them aside with the torch. "Shoo! Shoo! Back where you came from!" The zombies whimpered and flew back.

I couldn't believe it was that easy. I had a feeling that loads of explorers could have gone inside, but only Hannah had been brave enough to stick around when those guys showed up. But it didn't matter. "I failed, didn't I? Was that the test?"

She looked at me in surprise. "Of course not. That was my first reaction, too. And besides, even if it was a test you would have passed, anyway. The most I could hope for is that you wouldn't bolt for the exit. And it was very amusing, anyway."

"Ha ha," I grumbled. "You could've warned me."

"I could have," she agreed. "But look on the bright side. Now there are only the traps to dodge."

"Traps?"

"There are automatic ones," she said. "And there are the ones you have to step on. Be sure to avoid the latter, and watch your step."

"In the dark?"

"Yep."

"Gee, thanks," I said. "Is that all?"

"Avoid getting cursed," she said as an afterthought. I rolled my eyes. "Oh, here we are," she announced, stopping. "This is a series of traps, and you have to be really fast to escape them."

"How do you know?"

"It's kind of obvious, if you know where to look," she said, pointing to the ceiling. I gasped. There were cave drawings of stick neopets getting speared, twisted, gored, burnt, sliced into tiny pieces, and just plain dying painfully. "You'd be surprised how little anyone glimpses upwards."

"Uh, yeah," I said.

"Stand back," she told me. Then she ran straight into the traps. If there's one thing I have to say about Hannah, it's that she has guts; she did this in a blink of an eye. And none of the weapons could get to her. But one thing bothered me, though; the trail of traps led her farther and farther away from me. She had the torch. If she got too far, then I'd be left with complete darkness.

I was forced to watch as the speck of light grew smaller and smaller. I guess the trail was really long; or at least seemed to be, from what I could see. But finally, it stopped. I was glad, because it was really dim. Then I heard a sound. It was yelling—not the scared kind, it was the I-want-to-tell-you-something-but-I'm-really-far-away kind. "What?" I shouted. Then suddenly, the speck of light started moving again, farther and farther away. I was pretty sure that it was the end of the traps; Hannah was leaving without me. "Hannah!" I screamed. "Hannah!" But she had already disappeared.

I tried not to panic. Was this part of the test; don't freak out and stay calm? Or was it don't die? I couldn't stay here. It was horrible, and it felt like the walls were closing in on me. Then a thought struck me. Was she actually expecting me to go to the other side without light? It looked like it. Sweet Fyora, I was going to die.

Suck it up, stupid, I heard a voice in my head. To my shock, I realized it was Kayley's. Though it wasn't real, it sounded a lot like it. Great, I was going to die and get berated for it. Idiot! Stop thinking you're going to die. That's the first step to when things go wrong. I so didn't let you take my place for nothing!

As crazy as that sounded, my conscience was right (I figured that's what it was). I tried to remember all my training. If I'm ever in the dark and light wasn't an option, I had to rely on my other senses; smelling, hearing, feeling, tasting, and the weird sixth one that I had whenever Mom was serving asparagus for dinner. I charged.

The first thing I heard was panging—Jacques taught me that was the sound of something being launched. I ducked, and felt something whoosh above my head. Instantly, something slithery tried to strangle me. I did my first stupid reaction: I bit it. I can tell you, it tasted gross. It squealed and ran, and I realized that it could be my ticket out of here: it knew how things worked. I managed to follow it by smelling its foul scent and crawling (it was much safer that way). Then I got stopped by a pit, where I nearly fell to my death. That wasn't a problem. I crept towards the walls and climbed against it, trying to ignoring the snapping jaws of whatever it was below.

There was a lot more traps, but that's all I could remember. It was like a madhouse, a never-ending nightmare, and I knew I needed to get out as soon as possible. Then the darkness changed to dimness. I saw a light in front of me, and I quickly ran to it, panting. Hannah was there—she had a shocked expression on her face. "Why'd you leave me?" I demanded.

She stared at me. "I said that I was going to turn off the traps. Didn't you hear me? When I got there, I was unable to because it seemed that somebody was still using it."

"So I did all of that for nothing?" I asked in disbelief.

"Not for nothing," she said. "That was…impressive. You have treasure-hunting material in you, kid." That made me feel a little better. She gave me a small smile. "Look, there's no more problems from here to there. That was probably pretty traumatic, so we'll slow down a bit, okay?" I wasn't going to complain, and like she said, we got there without a hitch. And besides, "there" surprised me.

It was a treasure cave. Golden neopoints and dubloons lined the entrance, along with precious metals and jewelry. Crystals were even growing off of walls! It was a thief's paradise, and I had the sudden urge to stuff everything I could in my pockets. But I felt Hannah's burning eyes against me. So, this was the test. "Let's walk to the end of the cave, shall we?" She said. I knew I wasn't supposed to nick anything.

It was harder than I thought. I mean, this was enough gold to make even Queen Fyora look poor. Just one would secure me for the rest of my life. And suddenly, I'm angry at Hannah. Why hasn't she given anyone this? There was a lot of poor people who could use it in Brightvale, and I bet there were loads more in Krawk Island. Judging from the way she looked, she didn't even use it. What was wrong with her? Besides, those coins were so shiny….

I restrained myself. If I wanted the Guild to live, I couldn't take even a single penny. I stared straight ahead, trying not to goggle at anything. Finally, we reached the end. Hannah breathed out and smiled. "Again, I'm impressed. It's not everyday a thief could do that—walk through a whole hall without stealing anything."

"How do you know I didn't? I could have whipped something down my pocket without you noticing."

"Because that treasure's cursed," she answered. I gawked at her. "It's true! If you had taken even one thing you'd be covered with rashes for as long as you kept it. Believe me, I tried." She scratched her arm subconsciously, as if recalling a distant memory. "I would've given it to charity, but I didn't want homeless kids to be scratching themselves blind."

"Oh," I said. "I thought you were just being greedy."

"Back at you, kid," she said. "I guess some things did change in the Thieves' Guild. Kanrik left me on a ledge to die while getting this enchanted coffin."

"He's the one who thought us not to abandon each other." It was true. Ever so often he'd come to the classroom and give a long lecture on how you shouldn't stab each other on the back. Usually I'd resist any kind of rules, but that one was okay (besides, if I did I'd have to listen to another one of his lectures again). "Can we go now?" I said, changing the subject. "This cave gives me the creeps."

"And here I thought you'd be a good treasure-hunter," she said, laughing. "Okay, hon, if you'll just step this way-"

I stepped onto a trap. Hannah paled suddenly. She grabbed my hand and started running. At first I didn't know what for; then I saw that rocks were falling right behind us. We sped up, us racing to the exit. Then this gigantic, circular stone landed in front of that, and it started rolling towards us. We had to run again, this time in the opposite direction. But there was no way we could outrun it.

Then I glimpsed at a nearby nook at the end of the passage. I could definitely get there myself, but I wasn't sure I could with Hannah. Well, I had to. Taking the lead this time (to her surprise) I pulled us both to the nook. The rock closed us in, trapping us.

There was only silence for awhile. And then Hannah exhaled—and started giggling. That giggling turned to full-blown guffaws, and suddenly she was laughing her head off. "What's so funny?" I said.

"Nothing, really," she said, wiping a tear from her eye. "But there're sometimes when you just have to laugh, you know."

"Like being trapped in a cave?"

"Especially when you're trapped in a cave," she said. "And besides, at least we're alive, right?"

"Well, yeah," I said. "But for how long?"

"Relax," she said breezily. "I brought loads of food." And then suddenly, I had that tingling sixth sense; she pulled out asparagus. That's how I knew we had to get out of there as soon as possible.

Week 3

The nook led to another cave, one that Hannah didn't explore yet. We'd been going around it for days, trying to find an exit, and living nothing but asparagus. It was torture. Guard cells, I could cope with. I knew that there was always, always a way to escape. But this is nature's design, and suddenly I'm not so sure. I hated feeling trapped.

Hannah did, too. Besides that she blamed herself for having brought me here: I was just a kid, and I couldn't have been expected to handle this sort of pressure. Then I pointed out that I hadn't been expected to run away on my teacher's best friend's boat and try some last-ditch scheme to save the Guild. She shut up then.

But neither of us could deny that we were slowly dying. Our food supplies were running out, and we had to ration it. Each day we woke up in darkness; and night was whenever we felt like we couldn't take another step. I was also worried for a different reason: there was no moonlight in there. I couldn't contact Kayley or receive any of her messages.

On one of our long walks, I slipped. I thought I'd fall to my doom for sure, but Hannah quickly grabbed my hand. "Be careful, Hanso," she warned. One good thing was that she finally started using my name. "Kanrik himself nearly toppled over once."

Just for the sake of something to talk, I said, "How did I slip? I was fine a few seconds ago."

I was expecting that she'd say I was tired, or it was dark, or something. Anyway, they all true. So she surprised me by saying, "You probably slipped on some moss. It's pretty common around these caves."

Moss. A different voice popped in my head: Caylis's. Where there's moss, there's water. Where there's water, there's a way. A way out, did she mean? I knew there was an underwater river or something here somewhere. I'd been hearing the rushing sound for a few days, but Hannah had this magic refilling water-bottle, so we never had to go there. Suddenly, I began to go towards the noise.

"Hanso!" Hannah shouted. "What in Neopia are you doing?"

I ignored her and kept running, right to the river's mouth. I should've known. Water had to get out somewhere, right? "Hey, Hannah! I just found our escape route."

"What? Where?" She asked. I pointed to the river's mouth.

"If we swim long enough, I'm pretty sure the current will push us out of here."

"But for how long?" She said doubtfully. "It could be hours, and the maximum I can hold my breath is ten minutes. And how about you?"

"Oh." I wracked my brain, but all I could do was sigh. "I guess we'll just have to try. This is probably the only way out we're going to find."

"We could keep looking," she suggested weakly. We both shook our heads at the same time. Neither of us could take much more of this; even her, who'd practically lived in caves her whole life. "On the count of three, then? One, two, three!" We jumped.

At first I thought I'd killed us. We floundered helplessly, as the current propelled us forwards towards the river mouth. I narrowly missed some very pointy rocks. My lungs burned for air. In fact, the only thing that probably kept me from panicking was that Hannah was still gripping my hand tightly. Then a dim light appeared above us, and suddenly we found ourselves spiraling out via waterfall.

I broke surface first, and then her. I flailed a little- I never did get over that river incident- but Hannah grabbed me and swam me to the nearest dock. She smiled. "Good job, kid. And you didn't even leave me to die on a ledge!" We both laughed, a little hysterically.

That night, as Hannah was telling her new cave-in story, I crept outside to catch some moonbeams. The rock showed me Kayley instantly. "Where were you?" She cried. "I've been beeping for three whole nights straight!"

Before I could answer, I saw Hannah step outside. She saw the rock, but she was far from Kayley's vantage point. Apparently, she heard what Kayley said, and made shushing motions at me. I wondered why, but I said, "Um, I kind of got a little side-tracked."

"A little side-tracked? Where were you? Where are you?"

Hannah made shushing motions again. "Um…I can't really say right now. I'll tell you when I get back, okay?"

Kayley narrowed her eyes suspiciously, but didn't press. "Okay, I've had some news. There's been another brawl—but it wasn't started by thieves," she said quickly. "Not exactly. Remember your old friend, Ebony?"

I winced. "Yeah."

"We took the kids to the park today. I took Timmy," she added. "I figured that since it's been awhile, they'd leave us alone. But I was wrong. They had weapons: real weapons. None of us older kids didn't know how to react, and by the time we did, the pipsqueaks have run out to the square with the rich group chasing after them."

"What happened then?" I asked.

"That's guard territory, Hanso," she reminded me. "I was pretty sure that they'd catch us pretty quickly if we stepped out there."

"So you left them alone?" I cried.

"No! I'm not that heartless," she said. "We called their parents and Kanrik, and soon they were there fighting them off. Charlie, by the way, was away on a family visit, and Hazel was locked in the shed by her brother. And no, I did not rescue her. Bad enough that I had to look after thieves' children, I wasn't about to look after a bunch of rich kids too."
..

"And I bet Ebony got off the hook again," I said bitterly.

"Actually, no," she said. "He got caught and sent to jail."

"Who caught him?" I questioned.

She rolled her eyes. "Do you even have to ask?"

"Brynn?"

"Duh. And her friend, that Viola girl, too. Apparently she had no qualms about arresting her own brother. She's tougher than I thought. Anyway, the kids were fine and we left when their parents were comforting them. Kanrik had a word with Brynn before he left, to keep up that whole spy thing since you aren't here." She looked worried. "Hanso, you have to come back soon whether you failed or not. I think he's going to do something rash soon. Like attack Masila's home base."

"What? He found it?"

"They practically shoved the locations in our faces, wanting us to find them."

"So what's so wrong about attacking it?"

She shook her head. "It's bad, Hanso. They outnumber us ten to one, and the Guild can't survive another war anyway. We're still recovering from the one with Kanrik against Galem ages ago. Most thieves there are the ones Kanrik thought he could trust. He's getting a bit panicky now, you know. Get back soon, okay?"

"Okay," I promised. She zapped out.

"So it really is bad," Hannah murmured.

"Yeah," I said. "Kanrik needs help."

For a moment, she stared at her toes. Then she looked up, and there was a fiery determination in her face. "I'll do it."

Week 4

We went to the harbor this morning and found out that the next ship to Brightvale left later that day. I was so nervous I didn't mind sitting in the docks to wait for it, but Hannah insisted we go around. "You've only seen that shoddy old inn," she said, smiling. "The locals definitely won't want you to get the impression that Krawk Island's all like that."

And I had to admit, it was pretty cool, though it was kind of different from what I was used to. Though Brightvale's square was like the heart of the kingdom, was still that constant shush from scholars who were studying outside. Here shopkeepers were yelling out what goods they were selling, and it was all just a flurry of bright colors instead of green. Kids were laughing and chasing each other on the streets. The only thing I didn't like was the strong smell of Koi.

"Nice, huh?" Hannah said fondly. "Oh look, there's the Smuggler's Cove, the supposedly 'secret' hideout of the pirates. Seriously, they can't get more obvious. But don't underestimate them. Once I tried going inside just for fun- it was a cave, after all- and only with Garin's help I managed to get out again. Most of them are worse than zombies, I can tell you that."

"Cool," I agreed.

"Pirate flags!" Somebody screamed, holding a tiny one up. "Get your pirate flags over here, made from the fabric of the Twisted Mermaid, Golden Dubloon and Big King Kelpbeard!" A little kid was playing with his and waving it like crazy.

"You can't honestly want one!" Hannah said, looking at where I was staring.

"I don't," I said. "But there's this little kid I take care of- Timmy- I bet he'd love one. Nearly went mad when I gave him a teddy." Then I had an idea. I grinned. "Wanna see how well I can steal?" Before she can stop me, I snatched one and put it in my pocket.

The shopkeeper didn't even turn around.

"Huh. That was actually good," she commented. "I can see why Kanrik chose you as an apprentice. Good thief, good loyalty, good sense of truth, good heart." She bit her lip, suddenly looking guilty. "Look, kid, I think I owe you an apology. It was wrong of me to put you in danger by leading you in that cave."

"Don't worry about it," I replied. "I've faced worse. And I'm in danger 24/7."

"But it was still wrong," she said. "And I think you should know the reason. I told you that Kanrik betrayed me before, right? He left me to die with a cursed tattoo. Wait, that came out wrong. I mean, he left me with a cursed tattoo to die." She lifted her sleeve up, showing me the marking the shape of a red eye. I had this weird feeling that it was watching me. "I just didn't wan t that to happen again, you know?"

"I know," I said.

"But you saved me life in there, and I'm not letting that debt go underpaid. And the last time I saw Kanrik, we parted on good terms anyway. So I'm going to do anything and everything I can to help—but you'll have to trust me when I say I know what I'm doing."

"Okay," I said.

"Point is," she flinched as she said this, "I'm not coming with you to Brightvale."

"What!" I cried. "But after I did all that-"

"I'll come eventually, kid," she said. "There's no doubt about it. But staying put for awhile would be best for…a plan that I have in mind. And I have a job for you, too: Don't tell anyone about this."

"About what?" I asked blankly.

"How you traveled to Krawk Island," she answered. "How you met me. The cave, the test, everything: keep mum about it, even to that friend of yours in the necklace. Okay?"

"But-"

"Okay?" She said more firmly.

I sighed disgustedly, but nodded. "Fine. But how will you know where the Thieves' Guild is? Where will you stay when you get there?"

"Let's just say…I have a few fans in Brightvale, too. I'm pretty sure they'll be more than happy to let me stay. And as for the location, well, I'll figure it out. I promise."

The ship's horn blew, and I had to go. I insulted myself in my head. I should have figured it out when Hannah wasn't bringing any clothes. "Bye, Hannah," I said morosely.

"Bye, kid," she said, giving me a last hug. "There's a saying that pirates have: Fair winds until we meet again."

"When will that be?" I asked. I thought about that poem that Jacques used as a code. That must have been what he was feeling: kind of a finality, a good-bye. I really hate good-byes. I especially hated it when I remembered the poem's last verse:

Ope,—for endless bliss, or pain;

Then, shall we all meet again.

But all Hannah said was, "Soon."