"Halt!" The girl, hair tied tight behind her head, brown leather jacket on and brown cloak, called out. "I'm just going to the village to get some supplies." Not worrying about asking to go there, not caring to ask. She swung her pack over her shoulder, some money stashed in there.
She heard grunt in response before walking out the shack, the warm afternoon air hitting her bare skin like waves hit rocks. She walked along the almost disappeared path after years of neglect and went toward the castle not far from where she was. It took a couple of steps for Halt to slam back the wooden shack door as he always did, calling out to her, "Behave yourself." She almost laughed and nodded half-heartedly, without turning around, her cheeks wrinkling at the smirk that grew on her lips.
As she strode past the tapestries of colour and other little miscellaneous trinkets at the Market Town Square, she noticed a stall of food, the smell venturing to her rumbling stomach. She headed towards there, the fruit and vegetables and fresh meat varying in different sizes and colours.
There was a sign in front of the stall saying: "Stealing NOT permitted" she smirked at the sign, glancing either sides of her, the busy people not caring to look in her direction, as she kept heading towards the stall, then when she was in arms reach she turned to the left with the food on her right then slipped her hand out of her plain brown cloak, gripped her hand around an apple and took it hiding it under the cloak.
She moved away in a fast movement, but not too quickly for anyone to look at it as suspicious, after getting away from the stall, she stopped next to a trinket selling stall and took a luscious bite of it with the juice spraying her teeth and gums inside her mouth.
She became consumed by the taste, that she almost didn't notice the grip around her arm, but as the hand tightened she suddenly turned to the attacker. The chocolate brown eyes were the first things she saw, and as her eyes ventured around the features, a boy who came across as around her age, his height seeming quite small at his age had the thought of familiarity pounding at the back of her mind. It took seconds to realise who he was.
It was the boy, Will, who Halt had kept carrying on about. She stared at him with curiosity then realising she was being rude she put her hand out for him to shake and said in a formal tone,
"Hi my name is-"She hesitated trying to think of a name to use.
The girl's stumble on her words made a flush of red drown her features, her life had been bottled up with these moment when she had nothing to answer to her name. An orphan early from birth gave her the gift of no name to call herself. Halt usually just called her Squirt and she was always very isolated from the kids in Castle Redmont, so she never really has worry about things like this. It was Will's turn to stare at her with curiosity. Then as if he had just come out of a trance, shook his head and gestured to the apple.
"You do realise you're not supposed to steal?" The girl caught by surprise of him speaking had completely forgotten about the apple incident which she was still clinging onto in her hand.
"Huh?" She asked, her ability of manners had slipped passed her as her life growing up for the last 15 years with a ranger had seemed to make her words come off as rude and unladylike. Will ignored the misuse of her manners and carried on with his debate. It wasn't really because he saw what she did was wrong, but more out of jealousy that she got away with it.
"Can't you read the sign? It says that stealing is not permitted?" she took note of Will emphasising the word "not" and looked back at the sign he was pointing at and smiled in that way that always got Halt's teeth grinding.
"Well," she started, "it seems I chose not to see the word." she smiled widely at him and he gave a hint of humour in his eyes, and a slight twitch of his mouth turning into a smile, something that seemed to escape from Will usually.
But his smile didn't last long as a voice from behind him called his name. He turned around and she looked at where the voice was and saw a tall muscly figure with a not too happy expression on his face. This doesn't look good; she thought and heard a slight groan from Will.
"Who's that?" She asked and he turned to look at her with alarm written all over his face. He made an effort to avoid eye contact,
"Forget about it, I have to go." The mumbling words rushed out of his mouth before he began to flee, but his body slammed into the girl's, in an effort to stop him.
"What's happening?" She glanced over Will's shoulder the figure becoming excruciating closer with each step. Will then finally lifted his head up, meeting the girl's eyes once again, before turning to look back, mumbling again, but this time the chatter of the square washed the words away.
He turned back to make an escape, but again the girl stopped him, terror was scribbled on Will's face, swallowing loud enough, that he was sure Skandia could hear it.
"Oh for gods of all Hells, run!" He yelled, his voice slightly cracked as he said it, alarm dripping from his voice.
He grabbed her hand and started to run with his hand tightly gripped around hers, knowing she couldn't stop him this way. She glance behind going along with Will, the figure in pursuit of them.
She wanted to stop, knowing Halt's words echoing in her mind screaming at her to stop and confront the pursuer. But by the look of fear that seemed to mask Will's features, she realised she had gotten herself into trouble, which is exactly what she had promised Halt that she wouldn't do.
He led her to the courtyard and stopped, they were both panting for breath and she saw Will scanning his surroundings then in a sudden movement, turned back to her with his hand still holding hers he looked down at their hands before venturing his eyes back to her own. He quickly let go realising the inconvenient compromise
"Sorry." he mumbled, rubbing his neck, now scanning all over, eyes wide, as there for, noticed that in his mumble, the alarm still lingered there.
"Who is it?" She kept her voice in a determined tone, her hand rolling into a tight fist. They both looked back at the entrance where they had come to see if the big muscled boy was still following. He became into focus, close enough to reach them in a fast sprint in seconds. As they realised he was gaining on them Will grabbed her arm this time, making a point to ignore the girl's question.
"How good are you at climbing trees." The words sprang out of his mouth as they stopped in front of a tree standing in the middle of the familiar castle courtyard.
"I asked first." The girl answered, her eye brows arching together on a furrow, her dark pools watching the impatient look switching back and forth from the pursuing boy and the stubborn girl.
"Do you enjoy being stubborn? Maybe you'll enjoy it when you watch me get beaten up as well." The girl kept her stance, before replying.
"Again with the questions, you don't answer mine, I don't answer yours, two way road here, buddy." Making sure to emphasise on the last word, her eyes never dropping her glare. Will shrugged, his fear becoming harder and harder for him to maintain in his words, the figure metres away.
"Hmm, so that's a yes?" The rhetorical question barely finished before Will's arms wrapped around her body, lifting her to the parting branches not far from the ground before climbing himself.
The girl began to argue but then Will's words cut off her own. "You got yourself into this mess, now you pay the price." But before the girl could reply, Will quickly added, "please." The single word egged her to carry on, the bulky boy becoming not more than a metre away.
In quick and light movements, the rough barks rubbed against her calloused hands, swinging from branch to branch, fluently keep up her pace to give Will room to climb as well. And to the girl's satisfaction found that after glancing down every couple of seconds, he managed to keep up.
The big boy stood watching, his light eyebrows furrowing together, creasing his forehead.
"What a wimp!" The boy yelled, his hands wrapped around his mouth, amplifying the yell. Then looking next to Will at the girl, began to smirk evilly, before adding, "it's hard to believe that you could actually be chatting up girls, Willy boy?" The boy shouted out, emphasising the cruel nickname, before laughing humourlessly. "Sorry," the big boy continued, this time toward the girl who sat to the side of tree next to Will. "I must've interrupted your escape plan when I came along." A bark of laughed broke out of the boy's voice, while the girl frowned at his words.
Will turned red with anger at the last comment and yelled back trying to maintain his anger.
"Go and laugh at your own jokes somewhere else Horace!" Horace smiled grimly another nasty remark climbing into his mind.
"And leave you alone with her, now that's just torture!" The girl stared at Horace with a look of disgust drowning her features, she knew his kind, all too well.
"What's your name, pretty lady?" Horace asked, his eyebrows raised as his eyes scanned her body. He slightly frowned at her clothing, only noticing it now as quite unladylike and started to wonder if lady was the right word to describe her. Although he seemed to notice her prettiness behind her unusual appearance. The girl on the other hand became flustered at the question.
"It's not an interesting one." The coldness dripped from her voice in reply.
Horace jerked his head back in reply, taking note of her tone. "This pretty girl doesn't like what I have to say?"
"This pretty girl," the girl began in emphasis of the despicable nickname, "doesn't like you at all."
Horace watched her, a line forming at his forehead, as he frowned.
"Why don't you come down here and say that, girl." All trace of humour seeming to have been drowned in a new expression.
"Gladly," she huffed without hesitation. She slipped through the branches almost without a sound, before thumping loudly on the ground. Horace, taken aback from the girl who took up his offer unexpectedly.
The flustered expression written in the features of the boy made a ghost of a smile crinkle her face.
"I don't like you at all." The slow, and threatening tone that escaped with the words that came out of her mouth brought an unexpected chill to run up Horace spine. Taking a bold move, Horace latched onto the only thing that proved weakness so far, in this first and most likely last conversation between the two.
"What's your name?" Horace spoke, fake confidence flavouring his tone. The words got caught in the lump of the girl's throat. The hesitation answered Horace's question.
"You don't have a name do you?" The confidence became to rise in his voice, as the lump refused to budge in the girl's throat. It happened every time, the perfect reminder for being an orphan.
"Looks like no names have to stick together, right?" The humourless, nasty tone to decorate his voice. He went to walk away, a smirk curling his lips.
A pang of realisation hit her that he would just walk away, getting away with the words left lingering behind him. Anger drowned the memory of Halt's warning this morning, and balled her fist up without a second thought before shoving it against the arrogant boy's cheekbone.