After a year

MONTY

At last the young thief was rid of the last jewel he had owned. The people he last met couldn't stop swarming about the upcoming party held somewhere in the crown lands this year. Faxe would have preferred to go home and see if they could pay off all the debt, but at a party might his fingers snatch away a money purse here or there? Sage who had no further opinion to take him further obediently did what was expected of him. Still, when they stopped to rest, Faxe took the time to teach the pony some tricks. The animal understood fairly quickly what its owner meant, but in the beginning was looking strangely at the boy, what do you want now? Dragonwatch soon came into view after a few days. Quite a few people still traveled to the city and that enabled the boy thief to quickly grab their money pouch from passers-by when he walked up to his mount. Sage dropped Faxe at an inn and hid most of the valuables he had in the far corner of the stable. Do investigate whether no one could remove a shelf there. When Faxe was sure that everything was properly closed, he stood in front of his horse for a moment and took his head between his hands.'Protect Sage. Let none to our stuff! Only I can take them. Don't even let a mouse through.' Faxe said, looking sternly into the animal's eyes. A gentle breeze signaled that Sage had understood, and the young thief let go of his horse's head with another gentle pat on the head. After that, Faxe made sure that he left the inn reasonably dressed, when he had changed in the rented room. All it took was a nice mask. There were plenty, but most were not to his taste or were too expensive. After walking through the people for a while and taking some money pouches, Faxe found a stand where they had a crow mask. The black feathers that formed a kind of crown at the top gave it something mysterious. the young thief was immediately sold when he saw it and asked for the price. 1 gold coin and 2 silver. It was quite pricey, but that was not interesting for this time. He had to have this mask! So the boy rummaged through the many money pouches until he found the right one, and took it out of his inside pocket and opened it. Oh Eltro! This one was full of gold coins !!! But there were also a few silver in between. Faxe pretended not to be surprised and took the necessary amount from the pouch and gave it to the maternity man and took the mask from him. Then Faxe arched back to the inn's stables to put a few more money pouches in the saddlebags before leaving again, pulling Toward's head with the mask lopsided on his head. On the way he caught two more money pouches which he kept safely in his inside pocket. As she passed through the door, the young thief pushed the mask well and followed the group of people to where they arrived at a large ballroom where groups of people stood when people were dancing. Although you could clearly make the comparison between the rich and the poor in terms of clothing, everyone wore a mask and had fun. It was something about this party that didn't make him feel good at all. Celebrating was fun, that was one thing, but somewhere it felt so different. As if there was no difference between rich and poor ... But still the gap couldn't have been wider. Faxe stood at the edge of the hall, although he had grabbed a drink, but stayed where he was and observed the whole hall. There were plenty of exits, but some rich people seemed not to want to mingle with the common folk, and that bothered the young thief so much. Then Faxe saw an apparition enter the room that seemed all too familiar to him! It was the man he owed so much debt that he could go through the bottom now. For a moment the boy thought that the man recognized him, too, but his masked look passed over him as if he hadn't seen Faxe at all. He was just about to breathe a sigh of relief when a voice pulled him out of his fearful premonition. She spoke to him and it took a moment for the young thief to recognize her. 'Perhaps. It depends I recognize you too? ' came it teasing from his lips and Faxe looked straight into the eyes of the young woman he had met at the inn some time ago. 'How are you doing?' asked Faxe now slightly more polite, but there were still a happy twinkle in his eyes. Calmly awaiting her response, the young thief watched out of the corner of his eye as Desperadio walked into another corridor and disappeared from view. Although the boy hadn't even noticed, now he felt himself relaxed again. That man was dangerous! Fortunately, he had a good distraction in front of him.

MONTY

She had a good memory, Faxe had to give her that, and a grin played on his lips. Yes the wisps. That was a story that would always stay with him and that he could always bring up to tell again. 'Elayne, the girl who likes to listen to horror stories.' the young thief grinned and listened to the rest of her words. Fortunately, she was doing well and the boy was happy about that. She asked how he was doing. Maybe she was even referring to the jewel he had shown earlier. 'I am doing well too and the jewelry is now in the hands of a nobleman. His daughter wanted to have it. I think it that she is his only child, but it doesn't matter the girl is happy, daddy happy and i am happy. '
Faxe said, smiling softly. He was really happy to get rid of that thing. It had taken some time until a little girl came in and instantly fell in love with the gem. After that the man could no longer refuse. Still, a strange feeling kept creeping over the boy, even if it was nothing more than a nagging thing that had previously lain in the background, but Faxe felt a set of eyes on him but the person in question kept aloof.

MONTY

The quiet sigh in amusement had not escaped him, and Faxe himself had to chuckle. He knew a lot of scary stories to amuse Elyane with. But if she asked for it, the young thief would tell her. The young woman asked what he was up to now. Yes what was he up to? He almost had the debt around. Maybe that there might be a small amount missing, but that was quickly resolved. But the boy did not know how this day would turn out!? 'First I want to wait out for the harvest festival. The last few years I have been too busy to be able to go to it and now I'm as ready as I occasionally still free. Till i go back home and start to seek again for lost juwels.' Faxe said, giving Elayne a playful look. It was something he had certainly not been to for years because he had let work go for pleasure, but perhaps it would have been better that Faxe had not come to the harvest festival this year either. But that continued at the end of this day.
'And yourself? What will you do when the harvest festival is over?' the young thief asked with clear interest. Her clothes were different from his except that Elayne wore a dress, of course. But the texture of the material was also different. Maybe she was a lady of high birth?

MONTY

Elayne told him he had chosen a good year to come to the harvest festival. But whether this was still a good year remained to be seen. Still, Faxe nodded to her words. Until now things had gone well except for the unwanted presence of his debtor. 'I don't know what happened in previous years.' Faxe said and smiled friendly. he shrugged for a moment, because those were things that had eluded him then. His question about what the after party would do was quickly answered. The young lady would also return home, but instead of the Glades as before, she went to Fairview. The young thief had also heard of the crop failure several times, but not only that. In Dorwine terrible house keeping had been done and almost all houses had been razed to the ground. 'Dorwine has also suffered a lot. When I pasted by, many houses were destroyed. I helped a bit before my journey continued, but it didn't help much I'm afraid. It will take months before they will have good habitable houses again. But congratulations on your upcoming wedding. Maybe when I find a beautiful piece of a jewel in the swamp I will polish it up so that it shines as if it were made new and then give it to you for your wedding.' Faxe told her, and the boy got a sympathetic look in his eyes and a similar tone in his voice. He knew what it felt like to be in misery, but that was far from over. Although the young thief seemed to be filthy rich at the moment because of everything he had gathered and sold that he gaint in the 2 years. He stole everything that could fit in his pockets or that he could drive and ride on to a new place far from the well from which he had taken his stolen goods. Faxe shake his head. If this were all over, he never really wanted to steal again. It was something he was actually against doing.

MONTY

She said she was happy that the party was once moved. Faxe could understand that. Normally he didn't travel that far, but since Sage had come into his life, the young thief could travel much farther. So Faxe understood how the poorer people here in Dragonwatch could also feast on the party that was open to everyone. 'Yeah you are right.' the boy admitted and gave her a moment's nod. 'Certainly, war is something terrible.' It was something that Faxe wanted nothing to do with at all. People most affected by it were the victims. Entire families or just their wives, mothers and maybe if you were lucky that your father would be too old to fight, he would be left all alone. But then you had the civilians who lived there in between the war where it would take place. Wherever it might ever happen? The young thief could not imagine that such a battle would be raging at home right now. It made the young man sick and inwardly he shook his mind, but looked again at Elayne who started speaking again after offering her a present he would have to find or at least steal! 'Whatever I find it will be a wonderful asset to you.' Faxe grinned and he listened to what she said next. She hoped for quiet months. Despite the winter. Maybe if everyone stood by their neighbors that everything would be fine? 'I hope so too. Hm ... maybe it would be a difficult winter, but in this way the higher houses would also show their people that they will assist them and open their doors to those who need it if necessary. Certainly in times of failed harvests it will be a much heavier winter. If I can help I will help my fellow people, but that is only if it is in my power.' His words came thoughtfully out of his mouth, yet a thought came to him to tease her for a moment. 'Otherwise, the rich people will have to tighten their belts and I don't just mean the higher houses.' his tone was teasing, but whether Elayne saw it that way was of course the question, despite that his twinkling lights could not stay out of his eyes, although the rest of his face was as seriously as a canvas hammered as into a window .

MONTY

It was made clear enough that she did not necessarily need a new piece of jewelry. Although they worded it differently, Faxe was pleased with her words and nodded understandingly. So you noticed that there were also rich people who had their thoughts elsewhere than with money and jewelry. The young thief could only support his thoughts in this. It was that he was currently still in need of money himself. He had collected almost all of his debt. It had been difficult and there was a lot of noise, but Faxe was almost rid of that debt. 'Of course, otherwise I will find something else to serve as a wedding gift.' his grin was wide, but friendly. There was always something that could please a woman, no matter how small. But of course it was also about the gesture. It was a nice feeling he had in a conversation, but he couldn't get rid of the nagging feeling. It was as if there was still some heavy pressure around, but just far enough to hit him just not enough. His gaze slid across the room for a moment. It was packed with people, and somewhere far away across the room, Faxe saw the man he blamed on standing talking to other people. 'It has become quite busy. But you only see the pleasure that the citizens have.' He said and nodded towards the room, but listened to her words that Elayne spoke afterwards. The young thief nodded again briefly. Winter was definitely going to be tough. There was almost no food to be found and what people often found she would rather keep for herself.'Yes, that is certainly to be hoped. I have often seen small quarrels among children among poor families about if one of them had found food to keep it for himself. I once tried to teach them how to deal with this, but they ran away because they must have thought I wanted some of the food they found too.' he said, and Faxe shook his head for a moment. All he'd tried to do was help, but that had bounced back as if he'd had bad intentions then. The boy had only just started stealing. He would have caught up with them ease now, but then he couldn't run as fast as he is now. 'That's all we can do now. Hope and pray for everyone that they get through the winter well.' Faxe agreed and that was all they could do. Unless someone needed help you could try to help them, but Elayne understood that too.

MONTY

The young lady accepted his gift, even though it was still out of reach. Faxe might be a thief, but his heart was always in the right place and bigger than you'd expect from a thief, but the boy started to worry every now and then that it might become permanent to steal? But that would be a concern for later. For now, he had to concentrate on getting rid of his debt quickly. Still, the young thief bowed his head slightly to Elayne. When she accepted. But when Faxe pointed out that it was getting busier, she expressed her own surprise. Yes sometimes humans were amazing creatures. Especially because there were very big differences between the types of people. Elayne as far as Faxe could tell from her words, she was nice and would soon be inclined to help others, but the question that stuck him could impossibly to be ask. She had been so nice and kind to him. Then why would he ask to borrow money from her? He had done it with so many others, less success with men than with women. Of course. But it didn't feel right to ask her! 'That would be for the best.' he muttered, scratching his left ear for a moment. Sometimes there were things that lasted only a moment and that was precisely the happiness and peace that lasted only a short time. The misery, grief and calamity were more and too often present. Faxe got cold with the thoughts that plagued him like old memories of asking for money from door to door to help his sick mother get a medicine until he asked the wrong person who forced him to quickly scrape the full amount of money in a short time together. 'It is a pity that there are people who use the weaker people to become richer themselves.' The young thief growled angrily, it was out before he knew it, and was startled from his private thoughts for a moment, but it was only true. Elayne's next words didn't surprise him. The Glades was actually the wettest part of the country, but in fact Faxe hadn't thought long about whether the drought had also caused much suffering? The young thief thought for a moment. The farms that lay within the Glades had looked good as far as the boy could remember. 'I haven't traveled much as a tourist, but from what I can remember, the Glades should have been most lucky to get through the drought. The fields looked good and otherwise I'm not sure. That answer I will owe you until I see you again.' He confessed honestly, and the young thief briefly shrugged. If it was so that the Glades had still been abundant in growing vegetables, grain, and their livestock, could they perhaps divide the remainder to the rest of the land for those who would fall short? Faxe entered a thought. Not that he wanted to become a farmer, but this traveling around and selling things appealed to him. Maybe he should become a trader, but then for food not for juwels? Maybe it would be a good alternative for when he paid off his debt?

MONTY

Elayne was also shocked by the angry and bitter note in his words. Yes, he was himself a living proof of how the people who were richer than him had used his innocence and naivety to get a large sum from him after the boy borrowed an amount of money from them. Faxe had been forced to steal as a result, something the young thief had previously only done at home when his mother had baked cookies, but could a child now resist the tastiest baked goods from their mothers? None at all ... The young woman said it would be an ideal world if none of the stronger exploited the weaker. A faint smile played on his lips and Faxe bowed his head for a moment. "That would be nice." he spoke in a half whisper. But it had been more to herself that for Elayne she didn't need to know about his past. This lady had very different concerns than him to worry about and worry more for herself. "All we can do is try to be there for those people before they fall prey to people like that." this time his words were point to her, Faxe knew it was impossible to be the everywhere at wons. That would be an impossible task. When the young thief Elayne had half answered, the young woman replied that she would like to hear if the young man would know the answer. Then the young thief nodded and felt more relieved. There were certainly times with some people especially like Elayne where Faxe would almost fall out of his role, but always recovered in time. Although some would often arouse their curiosity.

MONTY

Certainly, that's why Faxe also stayed 3 days longer in Dorwine to help. Her approval made the young thief nod again at her words. As soon as he was done scraping up the amount due, he might go to Dorwine with his mother for longer to roll up their sleeves and lend a hand to the people there, but that still had to wait. "Maybe if I have time, I will stay longer in Dorwine to help the people there." Faxe said and looked again at the people in the room who was now having more fun than he could ever have for now. It was not easy to steal under time pressure. Often especially for bigger things, the young thief needed good planning, otherwise you would have been noticed or you would have overlooked another mistake. Bagging and jewelry robbery was less troublesome. But that was going to take just as long to resell each piece of jewelry. Stealing pure and only money was again more difficult, but every now and then he managed to grab away a car with a chest of coins on it. By adding strong sleeping herbs to a barrel of wine, which he playing having a lot of trouble with moved it and the men of the coins wagon wanted to help him. Rather with emptying the barrel than laying it on the wagon and transporting. Which was actually the intention so Faxe could steel the chest of gold, but sometimes the plan sometimes failed and the men just kept going. Elanye asked him if the young thief had already signed up for the scavenger hunt they would be having later that night. 'Of course I did that right away. I'm pretty good at scavenger hunts. ” he grinned teasingly and chuckled softly, but this was going to be a whole different scavenger hunt than he'd ever been on. or actually his first in this way.

MONTY

The young woman opposite him immediately enthusiastically responded . Yes he would as soon as he got his guilt together and could shove that Desperadio under his big hooked nose. But for now the boy couldn't think about it. Anything could go wrong until he had left the city behind and sat down to check everything at home to be sure of the amount! "Wouldn't that be everyone who is in need of help?" he said, turning back to Elayne. The man who would to marry her was fortunate in that she was not only beautiful in everything she wore, but was also sweet and more open-minded than some of the women he'd met, except for his mother of course. In that respect she looked a lot like the lady before him although she looked completely different and older.
Elayne told him she signed herself up too, but she wasn't sure she was good at quests because she'd done it once and then she had to quit the quest because fighting dragons. Faxe had heard about it more than he had seen one himself, but that didn't mean others hadn't seen dragons. 'Wow really? I have heard enough stories about dragons, but never have I seen one myself, not a young dragon to an adult dragon. Are they really as big as they say, bigger than the biggest houses? ” suddenly super fanatic, the young thief started to ask her questions. When it came to dragons, the young man was almost always there first. Just not to miss any of it.