Sunrise

It was still early in the morning, but Alice was already awake. She had never realized this before when she still lived in her little village, but she had a very light sleep. Back then, it never mattered much as it was always very silent if not for the occasional animal cry from the forest, but now that she was in Harborton, she easily awoke when people started their daily activities even before dawn.

A slight breeze blew in her face, carrying the faint scent of the sea, but also the stink of a big city.

*achoo*

Alice sneezed, she still wasn't accustomed to this smell that was almost as bad as the one wafting around Michaels village all year round, luckily, it was still a little better than that.

With the breeze also came the cold air from the sea, sending a shiver all over Alice body. Normally, she wouldn't feel such a breeze in this city, but right now, she was sitting on top of a roof, looking towards the sea and waiting for the first sun of the day.

Alice once again combed her hair with her hand, she just couldn't get used to this feeling. She had always been proud of her beautiful, long hair and didn't cave in for a few days, but Gale finally convinced her yesterday to cut it short as it was already beyond saving. Since then her head had been feeling strangely light and cold.

„So you were up here!"

Turning towards the voice, Alice answered:

„Morning Alex."

„Good morning to you too. But you know, I still can't really believe it. I mean, it has only been three days, and now look at you, you look as good as new! Ah! Look!"

Hearing Alex exclamation, Alice looked towards the sea once again, and not a moment too late.

As the sun slowly rose and peeked out from behind the horizon, it created a truly magical scene as the first light of the day reflected on the countless waves of the endless ocean.

Not in her entire life had Alice ever seen such a beautiful sunrise. And for the first time did Alice think that she understood what the old storyteller had meant when he said that your best story is always your own. If she had tried to describe this sight before, she could have only used the words of someone else without really understanding what they meant, but now, even though it would be impossible for her to describe what she saw in even a million words, and even if others wouldn't completely understand what she wanted to convey, she herself would understand and could try her best to find the right words.

„It's beautiful, isn't it?"

„Mmh, it is. I wanted to thank you, for helping me."

„No problem, every one of us had that kind of time in their lives if there weren't someone to help us at that time no one of us would be here right now. But I still can't believe it, you still looked more dead than alive a few days ago, and it's not like you ate more than any of us. How come you look more healthy than the rest of us?"

Not waiting for Alice to answer his question, he continued:

„Come, let's go down and wake the others up, we still have a thief to catch!"

Following Alex, Alice slowly climbed down from the roof. Thinking back to a few days ago, Alice couldn't help but thank them with all her heart once again, for giving her the chance to get back her fate.

...

When Alice opened her eyes, she saw three young boys standing in front of her, and another three a little more in the back. they were all around her age.

Then the boy in the middle said:

„Hey, what's your name?"

He looked to be the oldest of the three, had brown hair and brown eyes. The clothes he wore were dirty and torn, but that wasn't anything special. Instead, through the torn parts and the short sleeves, Alice could see countless scars covering his body, as if there wasn't a single place left unhurt besides his face and hands.

„Alice.", she answered, after all, what reason was there for her to lie?

„My name is Alex, I'm the leader here, not that that has a big meaning. The other two are Eric and Gale, they are brothers. The three in the back are Gardos, Jayden and Forster."

Alex pointed at the other five boys one after another while introducing them. Even though Eric looked younger than Alex, it wasn't by much. He had dirty blonde hair and a rather broad build, although not as much as Michael. Though his face sported a wide grin that made him look like a simple-minded fool, his eyes gave off the impression of a wild animal, savage and able to see what a human could not.

It wasn't as if Alice had never been in a fight before, but thanks to her ancient blood she had never lost and it happened only very rarely that some kid dared to challenge her.

When she saw Eric's eyes, she knew instantly that she couldn't win against him. He was the type that wouldn't stop fighting until either his body gave out or he won.

The boy on Alex left side was Gale. He looked even younger than Alice and had the same hair and eyes as his brother. But besides that and his gender, he was completely opposite from his brother.

His build was very small for his age and looked very slim, as if he hadn't eaten in days, making him actually look very sick. But what he lacked in brawns, he made up in brains. The way he looked at Alice as if he could read her very thoughts gave Alice the shivers.

Alice couldn't make out as much detail about the other three boys as they stood in the back, but while Gardos seemed rather average and Jayden had a slight air of arrogance around him that made Alice wonder where he could get that from, the one that interested her the most was the last boy.

The boy named Forster looked to be at least two years older than Alex, by far the oldest in the group. But the way he sat in the back corner of the small room as if he didn't even belong to the group gave Alice to think and the way he almost seemed to look through her body and even the wall behind her made it seem as if he didn't even realize that she was there.

But what intrigued her the most about him was the long scar on his throat, it didn't look like the kind of wound anyone should be able to survive.