𝙵𝚕𝚘𝚠𝚎𝚛𝚜 || 𝐏𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐏𝐚𝐧 𝐎𝐔𝐀𝐓

❀𝟷

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐎𝐍𝐄: 𝙼𝚢𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚢 𝙷𝚎𝚕𝚙𝚎𝚛

The wind rushing past every corner she turned pushed the brown hood of her cloak off the top of her head, letting rusted copper locks tumble past her shoulders and fly behind her head as she ran like her life depended on in; because it did.

With each turn she narrowly passed debris from local farmers that couldn't be bothered to sweep up their left hay strains and sacks of wheat grain, as well as clumps of fire wood closely guarded by woven ropes. The streets cluttered with ladies washing lines hanging from one window to the next and hustling fathers tricking others for money, providing no sort of help to the young woman dashing by.

A town she was not familiar with was not the ideal place to be but she had no other option, it was easier to hide in a town then in open forest or field. She snuck quick glances behind her, allowing her to estimate how much time she had left before the man would catch up to her. She had spotted a relatively small alleyway she could run through to get out of sight quickly and sprinted for it, running into the entrance of its mouth before colliding with something or someone.

"Gah!" She lost her balance for a second before regaining it quickly and looking up at whatever she hit, it was indeed a someone not a something. A boy a few inches taller than her, dusty light brown hair and envy green eyes that lit up in the warm light stood in front of her with his hands on her shoulders, he looked to be about 18. He gazed down at her shocked at the sudden impact and how now he had an unknown girl in his arms, she averted eye contact to glance worryingly at the entrance of the alleyway.

"Ouch-"

"I'm so sorry sir! I didn't mean to run into you, you see I'm in a bit of a hurry and didn't see you." She apologised to the boy in front of her, she was clearly out of breath and anxious about something behind her. The boy raised his eye brow at her tenseness and became curious about what was happening.

"Are you okay love? Where you running from somewhere?" The boy asked her, his hands on either side of her shoulders and looking behind her briefly. Before she answered, she peaked out of the alleyway entrance to try and spot the man chasing her. Not being able to spot him she turned around to face the boy again, not wanting to explain everything to a complete stranger, she gave him a heavily edited response.

"Yes I am being chased by someone and need to find a place to hide until he's gone. Again sorry for bumping into you." She quickly gave him a rundown on her situation and got to the point, he nodded in understanding and turned around to the rather empty space behind him.

"I know a good spot, come with me." He offered his hand towards the girl which she took, it was her best option at that moment; and if it went south she would just punch him in the face and run away. They both dashed down the alleyway and behind one of the main housing buildings, making quick turns around corners and ducking under broken archways. They came to a stop in a distant narrow street on the opposite side of town, taking a minute to catch their breaths before continuing to his hiding place.

The boy poked his head out of the corner into another crowd of people and back into the street to face the girl,

"So what does this guy look like exactly?" He once again looked out into the crowd to see any suspicious men looking around, she following his lead and looking out of the street.

"He's very similar looking to a rat, snout and everything except he's rather tall." The boy breathed out a laugh at her description but in an odd way knew exactly what he would look like, sighing in relief when there wasn't a rat man in sight.

"No rodent man here, but lets keep moving incase he-"

"Shit! He's coming!" The girl ducked back around into the street as the boy bolted back down the way they came holding her hand making sure he didn't leave her behind. After all, this was way more interesting than what he was previously supposed to do.

The two ran down chipped stone stairs into a more dirt part of the town, he led them towards a fenced off building with a cracked open back door. He jumped the fence and waited until the girl had made it over before he made a break for the back door, opening it quickly and letting both kids inside. The door shut behind them and everything went silent, both of them covering their mouths and standing still with their hands now separated.

A crack in the wooden door allowed the boy to peer out into the open area outside without being seen by the rat man, their breaths steadying enough to take their hands off their mouths. The boy turned around and grinned at the sight of no one outside, turning around to look at his company.

"Nothing, he's not there." She sighed in relief at his observation and smirked at their success, now taking the time to look at their surroundings. It looked to be a storage room for basic tools like shovels and such which were spread out on the few shelves this room had, but also a dumping ground for bags of gravel that were yet to be sold.

"How'd you know to come here?" She breathed out, he turned to her briefly before deciding to tell her.

"It's a good hiding spot for when I steal, not many people come down here anymore." She nodded, she didn't find it hard to believe that many kids had to resort to stealing things when most of the towns around here were poor; she just happened to hide in the one she hadn't been to.

It had been a couple minutes since they had seen the guy so he decided to open the door, both of them walking out while scanning the outdoors. When the coast was clear, the boy turned to look at the girl and really have a look at her.

She had back long copper hair that looked strawberry blonde hair in direct sunlight, the locks bounced off her shoulders framing her face nicely. She wore an off the shoulder tan dress falling just below her knees with a deep green corset tying in at the waist. When she looked at him, he saw her light hazel eyes staring thankfully into his. He shook off the feeling of his heart picking up and placed his hand on his hip.

"Well glad we out ran that guy."

"Thank you so much for helping me back there, it means a lot." She thanked the boy for helping her, a grateful smile sitting on her lips as she spoke. The boy grinned but shook his head a bit, her smile faltered which made her think of another way to give him her thanks. Looking down she saw the two gold pinky rings she was wearing and slid one off of her left hand before holding it out to the boy.

"Here have this, it's the least I can give you for going through all that trouble." The boy picked up the ring and examined it, he smiled at it and then to her, he didn't expect a gift afterwards but if she insisted then why deny free stuff?

"It's a bit small but maybe it will sell for something." She thought about what he could do with the ring but stopped in her thoughts when she saw him slide it down a twine chain he was wearing and putting it around his neck.

"Nah, I think I'll keep it. Today was fun anyway, no trouble really. Besides it was better than walking around town doing nothing." She laughed at his reasoning before looking up at the sky and realising how late it was getting.

"Again thank you for helping me but I've got to go now!" She jogged up to the fence and hopped over it, making sure to turn and blow the boy a kiss before fully running off. He watched her descent to who knows where as his heart beat to the rhythm of her footsteps.

A smile tugged the corners of his mouth as he thought about the goodbye they just shared, the thought being ruined when he realised he had forgot to ask her name. He internally deadpanned at his idiocy while staring at the spot she once occupied, wondering if he'd ever see her again.

Maybe, if he got lucky.