Tale of Our Love // Pucca

Chapter 9

-1998-

"Get out of here, you fiends!"

Three kids were thrown out of a house brimming with scintillating lights and vociferous noises. Out in this moonlit night, these three were the only ones who were wandering the trails of Sooga Village. Everyone else was entertaining themselves in the party inside the house.

The elderly man who threw them out callously slammed the door, and the three kids heard the sound of it being locked. The three kids sighed, being mocked by the blaring noises of the translucent obscurity. Sighing, the three of them sat close to a rangy tree.

The three of them were known as the "Vagabonds", and they are discriminated by almost every adult in the village. The girl, Chief, was the smartest of them all. Clown, a boy, was supposed to be in a circus, but was kicked out due to an illness he was born with; an illness that prevents him from laughing. And Shaman, the eldest, was a magician who no one appreciated.

According to the adults that hated them, they were descendants of people who had something to do with the dark history of Sooga Village, but they didn't even know what Sooga's dark history was.

It came to the point where it just became awful bullying. Except for a few, every adult in the village shunned them like they were trash. They wouldn't invite them to parties, or even give them food. Their existences were always hidden like shadows to the world of light.

"Uuu... I'm starving..." Chief mumbled, holding his stomach as it continued rumbling out of pain.

"What can we do, eh?" Clown asked. "No one ever looks at us, eh..."

Shaman wanted to do something. He was tired of being ignored by the villagers, and he didn't want to see his friends suffering like this, either. After all, he was the eldest in the group. He needed to do something... anything... and then it hit him.

"Hey." Shaman spoke. "How about we steal their food?"

"What?" Chief gasped. "Are you serious? No way! That's wrong...!"

"Well, would you rather starve to death?" Shaman asked them. "No, right?"

"But still..." Chief added. "I feel sorry for them, if we ever do that..."

"Why should you?" Shaman continued asking her. "They never felt pity for us anyway! They just throw us away like were a bunch of nothings to them. So what do you say?"

Both Chief and Clown bit their lips. They really didn't want to do something as immoral as stealing. It was one of the crimes that society doesn't want other people to do. But at the same time, they were tired of being starved just because of their ancestors.

And if stealing was the only way to erase their hunger, then that's what they're going to do. They have to prove to the villagers that they're not people others should mess with. If being ruthless meant the erasure to their discrimination, then that's what they'd do.

"Okay." Chief responded, a confident smile forming itself around her lips. "Let's do it."

And so the Vagabonds became not only thieves, but absolute criminals as well. It was exactly what they wanted. They wanted the entire village to fear them so that they wouldn't be mistreated any longer than they already have.

They began performing crimes almost every now and then, though most of the time, it involves stealing of food. And on one night, they planned to steal from the same house that kicked them out on a party. But then the three of them were caught in a bear trap!

"Oww!!" "Aghh!" "Ehhh?!"

"Looks like I caught the criminals~." A man went outside of the house, the same man who kicked them out. "Who's the winner now, hm~?"