THE TRICKSTER ━ PETER PAN

ONE

CHAPTER ONE | A DEAL WITH THE DEVIL, OR DARK ONE

"Hey, stop!" A middle-aged man yelled, earning the attention from all the other people around him who stopped doing their daily routines and looked at him. "Thief! He stole my Gold!"

The few people around him gasped dramatically and started looking around, their eyes filling with terror when they saw the hooded figure quickly running away from them. A few buff men immediately came in action and started running after the thief.

The thief noticed and started running towards the darker parts of the woods, the part where nobody was allowed to come. It was rumored to have all kinds of dangerous laying around in it. They didn't know what was in there, but every single time somebody went in there, they would not return.

One man stopped running, which caused the other three men to bump into him. Mouth agape, as they stared at the dark woods. None of them went in there, and nobody in the village could blame them. Those woods would make even the most fearless of men frightened.

"What are you doing?" The man who just had been robbed said in anger and stomped over to the four men. His hands were resting on his hips, not bothering to hide his anger. "He stole my gold, get him."

One of the men spoke up, shaking his head as he did so and said, "We are not going in there. You know what they say about these woods."

Another one started to participate in the conversation, "And it was your gold that was stolen, sir. So why don't you do something about it?"

The man shook his head and gulped.

"And besides, the thief is already as good as dead." One of the villagers said to the crowd. There were a couple of hums in agreement before everybody started to mind their own business again.

The robbed man sighed in defeat and started walking back to his house, thinking about how he was going to tell this to his wife.

******

Naomi chuckled as she looked at the large pouch that was in her hand, today was a good day. She managed to grab some eatable berries from the forest, an expensive necklace from some rich woman and now this extremely large pouch full of gold.

Her mischievous smirk widened when she realized that the four men weren't running after her anymore. She slowed down her pace when she arrived at a small clearing in the so called dangerous woods.

A small cottage was seen through the dark trees, her cottage. She pulled down the hood that was covering her face from sight and walked to the cottage. Putting her newfound treasures on the table and hung her cloak on a small coat rack that was placed in the corner.

Naomi ate one of the berries before counting the gold, it was more than expected so, maybe she was finally able to buy a whole bread instead of a small piece of it. She smiled a small smile and placed it back on the wooden table, her attention was caught by the necklace she stole from the lady.