Author's Note:
I was really impressed with all the advice and encouragements I have gotten to continue this!
Danke!
And this is a random question, but how many of you speak German? German is my first language, and English is my second :-)
Lastly, I would like to thank my Beta, Princessa Mia. She awesome at fixing my mistakes XD
Oh and last, last, German words/sentences will be in italics.
Disclaimer: I do not own Die Bücherdiebin /The Book Thief/. Markus Zusak does. All the characters belong to him.
Ich hoffe, es gefällt dir!
Chapter Three
The next time I saw the Book Thief, she was at the side of the Teddy Bear giver.
The sky was a shade lighter than Rudy Steiners hair and the ground was littered with questions. Himmel street was clear. So was Molchimg. The air still reeked of bombs and fire blazed in the distance in Munich.
Bettina Steiner, only young of age and innocent, was the first one to see it. The blazing fire. With a grubby finger pnting forwards, her mouth formed one word softy. "Look."
Jesse Owens looked up, a moment before everyone else did. Smoke rose in a dark cloud in the near distance. His grip on the patchy red toolbox did not falter as he moved in the only way he really knew how to; he ran. He navigated his way to the Amper River, where smoke rose from the trees, which stood tall and proud.
Liesel watched with wide eyes, before passing her bag of books to Rosa who passed the bag onto a young couple. Liesel took after her idiotic friend in a wild race to the place where he had begged her for a kiss after plunging himself into the cold December waters of the Amper.
"Rudy, wait!" Liesel called.
She could see the red tool box bouncing along by its owner, whose hair stood out in the forest, through patches of trees.
Twigs scraped Liesel leg, tearing her tights and leaving cuts in her fair skin.
As they ran, following the red hue and the misty clouds of smoke, they approached a clearing in which a plane sat, creating a trail of smoke and a small fire.
Within twenty meters of the wreckage, Rudy and Liesel ground to a stop.
Trees limbs were scattered everywhere, twisting in unhealthy ways in the dark. Footsteps echoed behind them, a crowd of people gathering behind them.
"Well," Rudy's voice said, turning to Liesel, "should we take a look?"
Together, they weaved their ways through the remainder of trees, gripping each other's hands, guiding each other to me.
A portrait:
Two teenagers, one slightly taller than the other, emerged from the dark depths of the trees, hands clasped together. The girl was panting from chasing after the boy. The boy's hair looked unnatural in the browns, greens, blues and blacks of the forest.
I had just arrived at the scene of Hölle at the same time they found the pilot's pale face and uneven breathing.
Rudy had told Liesel to not come to where he had found the pale face of the pilot. But she was stubborn. She walked through the planes wreakage and stood by him.
"Jesus, Mary and Joseph. He's still alive." Rudy whispered to the dark.
The glow of fire was long gone but smoke still held its place, suffocating the tall trees surrounding the clearing.
Rudy's eyes took in the English pilot. His face was a splotchy brown and a chalk white. His uniform was ruffled and his eyes were chocolate. His chest rose and fell in weird and awkward rhythms.
Liesel appeared at Jesse Owen's side in an instant.
I know you, I thought. You've grown, but I recognize you.
As the sky began to lighten, the lemon haired boy placed a smiling Teddy-bear onto the enemy pilots shoulder. Blood ran down the pilots face as he uttered two words in English to the boy. "Thank you."
"What?" Rudy asked. "Wa hast du gesagt? What did you say?"
The pilot soul was warm and in my arms before he could answer.
The Teddy-bear giver and the Book Thief stood in the small crowd of people that had gathered at the scene.
The both of them were excellent friends. A match made in Himmel.
The Teddy Bear giver and the Book Thief.
Authors note:
Sorry. No fluff. Next chapter will have plentey. Hopefully I can get that posted tomorrow or the next day :)