Hunting fox

A young boy was walking through the crowd of people in the market, he had a very small and scrawny body build for a boy twelve years of age. Most people didn't even realize that he was there, and even if someone saw him, their eyes wouldn't dwell on him for long, almost as if he didn't exist in the first place. In his hand, the boy was hiding a very small but sharp blade.

As soon as the boy saw an opportunity in front of him, his hand shot forward and cut the leather cord that fixed the small purse to the belt. While the boy hid the purse under the rags he called his clothes, he already changed directions. A few moments later, when he was already about fifty meters away, did he hear a loud: "Fuck!", somewhere behind him.

"kikiki!", the young boy snickered silently. It had been a far-to-long time in his opinion since he could enjoy himself this much, there wasn't anything more fun than taking away the money of those arrogant shits that had anything they could want but still wanted more, while they weren't even allowed to eat their waste.

There were only two things he regretted, first that this would be over in a few days. The area had become pretty dangerous lately and if he kept it up for about two more days, the raid was guaranteed to happen. The other thing he regretted, was that almost none of his spoils ended the up in the hands of his brothers and sisters. They had to give it all away to those hateful wolves as 'protection fee', as they called it.

Realizing that he had already surpassed today's quota, the boy made his way back towards his own territory, always staying inside the crowds to make sure no one noticed him.

"Well well, like always, just as fast as your ugly!", the boy got greeted as soon as he returned.

"Hah, who are you calling ugly! I'm the most beautiful guy in the kingdom!"

"Then are you so good at hiding that you even have a mantra?"

"You should know that this face is just a disguise to hide my true beauty!"

"Then take it off, show me how beautiful you really are!"

"I can't do that! I don't want my friends to suddenly treat me like a god! I got bored of that a long time ago, that's why I put it on in the first place!"

"Dream on Dick! Anyway, what about the quota?"

"Obviously fulfilled plus a little extra for my brothers and sister!", the boy called Dick answered while taking out several small pouches that were hidden under his clothes.

Giving the stolen goods to the other boy, Dick asked: "Can you take these off my hands for now? I still need to take care of the stores!"

"OK, but be careful, and keep some mana for an emergency!"

"I'm not stupid! I will be back!"

...

The second part of Dicks quota was much more troublesome than the first. And that was because he had to steal from stores and stalls in the market while making sure that as many people as possible would complain to the guards. For that, he needed to fulfill two criteria. The first wasn't a big problem, he just had to steal from as many different stalls as possible.

The other criterium was much more troublesome in comparison. The owner had to notice the theft. To achieve that, he could choose between two methods. The first one was to let them catch him in the act, but if someone were to grab him, it would mean his end. But with the risk being high and the much more important reason, at least to him, that it would go against his pride, he could only choose the second way.

And that was to steal something that was worth much. He had to steal something of so high value that the shopowner would realize that he was missing something, and for that, a few apples were far from enough.

The first thing he had to do was to carefully scout every possible target, which had already become very few when compared to the beginning. No one in their right mind would leave their valuable wares out in the open with a thief like him rampaging around.

But alas, there were always some fools. On the other hand, since a few days ago he had seen more and more shops that had actually tried to make traps. Some of which were so painfully obvious that not even a rabbit would get caught. He had actually already stolen several such 'baits' without getting noticed, sadly he never had the chance to see the reactions when they realized what happened.

He had already on his pickpocketing spree looked around for a little and identified a few possible targets, half of which were obviously traps. And even with the other half did he have to be careful.

As he did every time until now, his next step was scouting out all possible targets. He had already taken seven of his targets out of consideration, after realizing that the risk involved was just too high and was checking out the eighth item on his list.

After scouting out the position of the item, the behavior of the stall owner, the possibility of traps and several other important factors, he finally realized that he had found his first target for the day.

Just as he was waiting for a chance when no one was looking, Dick suddenly got a bad feeling. Following his instincts, he hid in the next best crowd and took a look at his surroundings.

And he was proven right, one of the vultures had almost seen him. Those situations had become quite regular since a few days ago. Thinking that he could just come back later, he left to take a look at the next target.

Just as he was on his way, he came about one of the targets he had previously excluded since the risk that the shop clerk would see him was too high. Just that, exactly that person wasn't there at this moment.

As fast as he could, he calculated the risks and decided to take his chance before the clerk came back.

The items were two silver hair ornaments with several glass pearls embedded. Although there had been three of them when he saw them at first, it didn't matter much, even one of them was worth a sizeable amount of money.

Checking one last time, he still couldn't find any possible risk and snatched the two ornaments away in one smooth movement.

When he suddenly heard the sound of wood hitting wood somewhere above his head, the only thing he could think of was: "Oh shit!"