Chapter 3: Chapter 3: Of a Thief

Saint Martha would have boldly and recklessly thrown herself into danger, for sure! Gabi hadn’t even finished thinking before breaking into a sprint and chasing after that intruder. Was that really the most appropriate response? No, not at all! In fact, the Prologue itself took great lengths to highlight how irresponsible Saint Martha was in that regard, detailing all the ways life had punished her for such lack of foresight.

Still, to Gabi it really made sense; if she wanted to be like Saint Martha, she had to go through the same struggles and make the same mistakes, right? It was all in the book!

Even if her legs still felt wobbly and weak, the little girl forced herself to run faster into the forest, her bare feet cracking dry leaves and sticks as she followed the trail that her unknown observer had left behind. 

There were hints all around: from the already crushed leaves to the footprints left on the still-wet mud under the trees… Gabi felt confident, because she knew that finding that person who was leaving those footprints would be quite easy at this pace!

But… what would she do when she finally got there?

The girl blinked a few times, her legs slowing down. She didn’t even have a plan! In fact, she didn’t exactly have a reason to chase this person either… She just heard someone in the forest nearby and decided that the right idea was to run them down… but why?

Her pace slowed even further as she rubbed under her chin. What was she doing now, anyways? Was she treating all this like some sort of game? This was serious business, it was her plan for redemption! 

Stupid little Gabi, when will you learn? This is why people tell you to think before doing things!

She didn’t even notice as she fully stopped, smacking both of her cheeks at once. Right! She wasn’t supposed to think, was she? Oh, blazing Saints, what was she doing?!

—

Bohllin’s breath was so harsh, he could feel it scraping out of his lungs like sandpaper. His fists trembled from fear and frustration as he ran as fast as his short legs could, going deeper into the woods while doing his best to ignore the footsteps following him.

He didn’t dare turn around, because he knew exactly what he would find when he did: that strange human, the one who saw him! The one with the odd, scary eyes that pierced straight into his soul. 

The elf tried his best to stop his own curiosity from getting the best of him as he clung to the advice of his beloved nanna… When going out to explore, she had told him to be careful and to never ever let himself be seen by humans. 

“Humans”, she had said, “are cruel, hateful creatures. They take pleasure in humiliating our kind, stabbing your heart with cold and mocking lies while throwing stones at your face.” 

It had all sounded like prejudiced, stubborn folk tales to Bohllin back in the day. How could humans be that bad? There was a time when the little elf just couldn’t wrap his head on that idea, and he simply dismissed it as hyperbole. Life had proven, time and again, that his nanna’s fears had been justified.

Any time they had to visit a city on their never-ending journey. It really didn’t matter where or which one; even if they tried to go around without making a fuss, the guards themselves always found some excuse to give them trouble… then the citizens would hear of their presence. 

The mobs were the true horror of any city, because humans were rarely alone. Once one found something to pick on, it would soon gather as many others as it could, like hungry rats. And just like vermin, the humans would surround them; they would throw all sorts of rotten food at them, call them names, spit on their faces…

They demanded the elves leave while making retreat as hard as possible.

Bohllin still remembered the first time he got beaten by a group of children, when he tried to go and ask for a bit of water for the caravan. He didn’t remember their words, had done his best not to let them sting or linger in his memory… but he still remembered how hard he cried in his nanna’s arms.

Why, why did they hate him? Why did they hate all of his family? Nanna never answered, she always avoided the topic and told  him it was ‘best not to dwell on their delusion’.

After all, this was all about to end. 

It was not something unique to Bohllin’s family, but all elves in Jericho had heard the call. Nay, all demihumans seemed to be of a similar mind! They were all packing up more than they had ever packed before, preparing for the longest journey of their lives. The last journey. The caravan trail away from the lands of the Humans, into the safety of the Gods’ lands…

But the Fates had tricked them again. His family’s cart had broken down and they were trapped in this Goddess-forsaken forest, while the rest of the caravan simply continued on, too desperate to wait for one family.

So here he was, trying to sneak in and steal like the filthy rat those humans already thought he was, chased by an odd gremlin of a human-child with eyes wild as a dead man’s…

Speaking of her… was she still following him?

Bohllin had been so focused on running and lamenting his fate that he hadn’t noticed when the sounds of the chase stopped. The girl… had she given up? Humans were great runners, but their attention spans were remarkably short. Maybe she just got tired and left!

With his hope slowly flickering back to life, the young elfling peered around to see only the thick forest.

His feet continued forward as his eyes stared behind him, oblivious to the mud puddle he was about to step in, one far deeper than one could tell from a mere glance…

—

Gabi had gotten into a heated discussion with herself. Ugh, this always happened when she tried to think! Shaking her head from one side to another, in her mind she could hear two voices yelling at each other. Both were her thoughts but, at the same time, neither of them felt like her… One was angry that the intruder had gotten away thanks to her dumb tendency to try and think, while the other argued that she had only started chasing because of that exact tendency! 

A third, quieter yet still present voice, had manifested to point out that she was quite hungry and she really should go and snatch a bit of leftover bread after the mass was done.

She was about to slap that third voice quiet when a sudden, loud crash seemed to shake the entire forest… at least as far as Gabi’s nerves were concerned. The sound was actually relatively tame, a mere “bonk!” on a tree, but it was loud enough for her to notice and for birds around her to fly away in fear. A loud, foreign curse followed soon after.

Her intruder!

Quieting down all voices in her head, Gabi trotted in the sound’s direction until she found the source: some sort of small child. Wearing brightly green rags, he was currently upside down against a big oak’s trunk with his legs dangling above his dazed, pale face. Those pointy ears were the clear mark of a demihuman…

As Gabi took one step closer, the child’s eyes immediately darted to her. With nimble speed he rolled onto his belly, his hand reaching to his belt to hold… nothing? The elf’s face did that thing that faces sometimes do when they’re very scared, getting all pale and tense as he kept looking at her. Even as his hands patted around his belt, like he was searching for something, he still didn’t take his eyes off Gabi.

Meanwhile, Gabrielle had noticed something glimmering in a puddle of muddy water.

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She casually picked the metallic thing up, thinking it a rock or something,  but no! It was a knife! A very thin, shiny knife with a wooden handle, maybe some sort of butter knife or an arming dagger? Gabi did not know much about weapons, but as she examined the blade in the light of the autumn sun, she quickly determined: it was indeed, a very nice looking knife.

—

The elf paled even further. Oh no, she had a weapon now! His weapon! The knife his nanna gave him during his tenth cycle, the symbol of his coming of age! And now, it was also his demise… This was it, it was all over. He would be stabbed, skinned… the kid would probably cut his ears off and then show them around as a sort of hunting trophy or something. Confronted with death at such a young age, Bohllin accepted his defeat almost immediately. He shook with the effort of holding back his tears as he offered one last prayer to the gods.

“Oh Mother Moon looking after your children, please forgive this one for straying from your path, that he won't be able to join in your great journey to the promised lands where all your people will finally feel your embrace once more…”

Bohllin stopped speaking, squeezed his eyes shut, and braced for the pain… but it never arrived.

Confused, he opened a single eye. Did the child leave to go get others for her hunt?

No. She was still there, just… sitting down, her legs crossed, a lost look in her strange eyes, a face devoid of all emotion… the redheaded human was just staring – at him.

—

“Excuse me… were you praying?” Gabi spoke up as she noticed she was being looked at.

The elf blinked twice before answering, “...Yes? I was.”

“Oh.”

There was a long moment of silence, wind blowing between the two of them, before Gabi spoke again. “Am I interrupting you?”

The boy’s ears were slowly perking up as he seemed to grow more confused with each word she spoke.  “...No…?”

“Oh. Good.” She nodded twice, before taking the knife on her hands by the blade, and offering it back to him, “Is this yours? You dropped it.”

—

Bohllin looked at the knife, and then back at the child… What was her game? Was this some sort of joke? A sick machination to get his guard down, only to then crush his hopes once more? He looked into the girl’s eyes, uncanny as they were… and it took a bit of effort, but he started to find some emotion in them.

Her expression bore no signs of feeling, but those eyes were surprisingly telling… and he found no malice in them. Only curiosity, the same as he had felt so long ago.

So, Bohllin chose to take a leap of faith, and slowly reached to take his knife back.

“Thank you…” he mumbled, putting the knife back on his belt. It was a bit loose, his nanna had been right. He really should have just put it in his pocket. “Are you… not going to attack me?”

—

Was she going to attack him? Not really. Saint Martha did jump right to battle with anyone who wronged her, but this elfling had not done a single thing to her, or anyone that she knew of! He was minding his own business, as far as she had seen.

Seriously, what was she even doing?

“No,” Gabi decided to make it official and just shake her head, “I just wanted to know who was there.”

—

“Oh! Well…” Bohllin rubbed behind his neck, properly sitting down against the tree. This was odd, a bit uncomfortable, but maybe he could reason with this human – as much of an oxymoron as that might be. “My name is Bohllin, and uh… I just….” He couldn’t just admit to his thieving intentions! Quick as lightning, he made up a lie. “...I just wanted to ask for some tools– but I got spooked.”

He quickly realized his mistake; he’d just called her scary to her face! Humans were extremely prideful and very easy to insult, and Bohllin stammered on his words to try  and correct himself, but Gabrielle just nodded as if it was natural.

“I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking,” she admitted, sounding strangely unsure about the statement. “What do you need the tools for?”

More questions, and Bohllin was not ready to answer any of them. He was rapidly realizing that he was simply not a good enough talker to navigate this situation; it was time to run away.

“Oh no, no, it’s nothing. Do not worry,” he said, slowly trying to get up. “I’ll just, uh, go somewhere el– ouch!”

As soon as he tried to lean on his left leg to stand up, a searing pain made him wince and sit right back down. Looking down on it, he could see his foot was pointing to the right a bit too much. Actually, it was bent in a completely wrong direction – sprained at least, hopefully not broken.

He was trapped.

With a nervous swallow, he looked back at the girl. She didn’t really seem to understand the desperate turn this had taken for him, but she followed where he’d been looking and that bent foot was plenty obvious, even for her.

“Need a hand?”

Bohllin frowned, trying once more to get up just to make sure he really couldn’t get up on his own. Unluckily for him, he still couldn’t put weight on that ankle. So, with fear in his heart as he slowly resigned himself to his fate, the elf finally muttered his response.

“...Yes. Please.”

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