“What are you looking at?”

A man growls angrily at me staring,

“What is your problem?”

“He’s new here,” Lyra interjects trying to diffuse the situation

“What do you mean by that?” The man says suspiciously

“Umm, nothing, we’ll be on our way!”

The man eyes us dubiously as we continue on

“Kage, you need to stop staring at people, you’ll get us into trouble,”

“I was trying to see what he was doing,”

“Well not here,

This new settlement is different.”

“Different?”

“Unlike everyone here who is just trying to get by, the ones here are interested in money and pleasures,”

“Where do they get the money from, or even some of these items?” I question looking around at various vendors we pass,

“The person in charge here also runs a guild of thieves, they operate topside, gathering supplies for us,

They’re actually the reason”-

-“Hey stop you thief!” A voice shouts, commanding our attention

Ahead a little man is being chased by a lanky man

“Hey that’s Pinoki!” Lyra points

Spotting us the little man runs our way,

“Boss!” he pants grabbing my right hand, “I’ve been looking all over for you!”

“Ahh!” I exclaim pulling my hand feeling a painful surge,

“What did yo-”

“-Are you his boss!? the man chasing Pinoki catches up

“N-”

“-He is,” Pinoki loudly talks over me

“What you have to say to me say it to my boss as well,”

“You awful liar!” Lyra inputs

“You have no boss!”

“Shut up girl!” Pinoki rasps

“Just because you hate me doesn’t mean you are allowed to call me a liar!

You spiteful girl!”

“I’ll freeze you to death how about that for spiteful!” Lyra threats

“Hey!” The man still stands in front of us angrily

“I don’t care about this little squabble between you

I just want my magic stone that he stole,” pointing to Pinoki

“Give it back!”

“My that’s a pretty awful accusation!” Pinoki gasps mockingly

“I am afraid to tell you that you have got the wrong person,

I’m no thief.”

“Show me everything you have then!” The man demands, “all of you!”

“Hah!” Lyra snorts, “I think not, why would I help him steal anything,

Try to search me, I’ll freeze you to death!”

“Err, the both of them will be just fine,” the man gestures to Pinoki and I

~~

“See nothing!” Pinoki gloats after we’d emptied all pockets and showed our pouches

The man scratches his head frustratedly, “I was sure it was you,”

“Oh, that’s too bad,” Pinoki sings

“If this is any consolation, I don’t hold it against you for randomly chasing me,

As a matter fact,”

Pinoki hands the man a gold coin from my stolen pouch,

“Take this as my sympathies,”

“You are good person,” the man thanks him gratefully

“I thought it was you, when I saw you running,

I apologize.”

The man leaves while Pinoki smiles at us cheerfully

“Whew! got out of that one easily,” he grins, “you guys came at the right time,”

Lyra grabs him by the collar dragging him in tow

“One, give Kage his pouch of money back,

Two, give back whatever you stole back to that man,

And three stop being a thieving scoundrel, or I’ll pummel you into the ground!”

“Ow, ow, ow!”, he struggles, “you’re hurting!

I was going to give Kage his wallet back, I was just borrowing it see?”

He dangles my pouch in his hand,

“As a reward for helping me out of this situation,” Pinoki patronizes, “here you go,”

“I didn’t actually care much for this anyway,” I say taking it back, “it’s not even originally mine”

Lyra frowns at me, “Aren’t you going to smack him around a bit?”

“I don’t think we should resort to violence,” Pinoki states slipping out of her grip,

“Now, since I gave you back your pouch, my umm, item I slipped to you, I want it back”

“What item? You never gave me anything,”

“Don’t play dumb, I slipped it in your hand when I bumped into you”

I do remember feeling a slight shock when he grabbed my hand, the strange device there was an empty slot at the top of it, he must’ve slipped something in,

“You mean this?” I say showing him, rested in a slot below my knuckle a dark blue stone glimmers slightly,

“Yes, good you had it , now take out I want back,”

“It won’t budge,” I say fidgeting with the device

“Let me see,” Pinoki grabs roughly, the device lets out a surge shocking us both

“Ahh! What the hell was that!?”

“I don’t think it can be removed” Lyra observes,

“You don’t say” Pinoki grumbles rubbing his hand

“What a waste of time, I was going to sell that!

You have to help me get another one then,”

“Not our problem,” Lyra chortles,

Turning to me Pinoki implores, “help me this once? it’s the least you can do for taking my magic stone.”

“Your stone!-” Lyra begins

“-I’m listening Pinoki, what do want me to do?”