The Outlaw and the Den

1 - Stealin'

It wasn't the first time Merrys had stolen something in her life. If she had been bothered to keep a running tally, she was sure it would be well into the hundreds by now, but she didn't particularly care to be reminded about it.

She was a thief; a common criminal surviving on pickpocketing the rich and stupid, and sleight-of-hand tricks. She'd learnt what to look for in all of her years of thieving. An opportunity is what you make it, Merrys, that's what had been drilled into her head since childhood by her grandmother. Though she doubted stealing was what her grandmother had meant. Still, it was market day, and an opportunity to steal had arisen.

And she was going to take it.

For around an hour, Merrys had been crouched in a shrub that was big enough to hide her head if she squatted low enough, and she could just about see the strip of market stalls that lined the edge of Aryth's village square. She had spent a few minutes earlier in the day, before she came to reside in a shrub, scouting around the area, though she knew it like the back of her hand by now: the village square was a huge, open space centred with a small clocktower, various shops and businesses lining the edges. The market was set up a little way in, uniform stalls standing a few feet in front of the shops. Only one side of the village square was void of buildings, entirely blocked off by a line of thick hedges and bushes that rose up and eventually became part of the forest that surrounded Aryth.

There were four exits in each corner of the square that led off to the rest of the village. One led towards the local school and the largest part of Aryth, where the majority of houses and lodgings were. It was the busiest part of town, beyond the market, and Merrys knew that trouble lurked there – too easy to be seen. The next was a dirt path that led away from the (slightly) cleaner centre of town and towards the poverty-ridden housing districts called the Outskirts, simply because it was on the outskirts of the village. The Outskirts were a possibility, always crowded with people and Merrys could guarantee that she would find a friendly face that would harbour a criminal until things died down. Of course, she also faced the chance that a not-so-friendly face would sell her out for a few coins from the guards that could follow her.

The third exit led to the rest of the houses and was home to the vast majority of taverns and slightly more expensive shops as the road they sat on led out of the village, towards the next town over. Though Aryth wasn't anyone's first choice of a visit, they had enough travellers and soldiers pass through that they had set up the best trade on that road.

Merrys surveyed the final and, most likely, safest route. It was made up of rickety stone steps that led up to a patch of land belonging to an old farmer. The steps were a few metres away from the market and dangerously steep, but if she could climb up them quick enough, the farm on the hillside was essentially deserted. The farmer was isolated enough to be a hermit, and the land was large enough and thick with overgrown weeds and trees that she could easily conceal herself, if need be. It was also next to the forest, another way of escape.

Merrys crossed her fingers in a silent prayer that she did not need one of the four escape routes. Her regular route would be to walk casually down the school road and cut through between buildings until she reached her house, far away from the dead centre of the village.

Whether Merrys and her family ate tonight or not would all depend on her skills as a thief. And too often they had gone hungry thanks to the king and his taxes. She did not intend to go without supper tonight. It was why she had spent longer planning than usual, longer scouting out the area, longer sizing up her opponent. So long, in fact, her head began to ache and her limbs were sore from incessant use.

The clocktower chimed five o'clock. The market packed up and closed for the week in an hour. She didn't have long. She had spent enough time in the bushes, sizing up the stalls directly in front of her.