38 The next step

The two girls stood in front of a certain small house.

Alice knocked on the door, but as she had expected, no one answered. It was no wonder, the sun stood still almost in its peak after all. At such a time, it was no that her teacher wasn't at home.

Right, she didn't know what she should do now, so she wanted to ask the only adult that would be willing to help her that she knew. Risa, her teacher.

She had first thought to look for her inside the tavern, but then she thought that she didn't want to bother her teacher when she was working. So instead, she went to the house where she lived.

Since then, the two girls had already waited for almost two hours. In that time, they had been caught by the guards almost two times and even one of the bears had found them and only left after Alice explained the situation thoroughly.

After they almost got caught by a guard once again, Alice decided that they couldn't take the risk anymore. She hadn't expected to make use of it so soon, but true to what she learned in the last week, Alice took a good look at the house. Of course, they weren't in the slums, so the walls and roof were all completely fine.

Next, she checked the door. It was locked with a simple wood-lock system were you had to put a wooden plaque into the slot, then the latch would get pushed up and you could open the door. She had learned that these locks weren't that hard to break open and neither were they strong.

They were only meant to deter opportunity thieves and even Alice could break it open with a strong kick or with the simple metal hook they had given her for her work. But the first would be too loud and attract the guards, while the other way would take her to long. And in the first place, she didn't want to damage the possessions of her teacher.

Looking around a bit more, she found a small window only a little bit under the roof. She jumped up and grabbed the edge of the roof with one hand, the other trying to open the wooden shutters. Of course, these too were held shut by a latch on the inside.

Taking out the metal hook, she put it through the small space in between the shutters, pushed up the latch and opened the window. Putting the hook between her lips, Alice crawled through the window and entered the house.

No five minutes after she started looking for a way inside, Alice opened the door from the inside and let Amy in.

"This... Okay?"

Alice didn't know what to say, of course, this was definitely not okay. Normally, she wouldn't do something like this, but right now she didn't really have a choice.

"Yeah, I'm sure my teacher won't be angry about this. But don't touch anything, just sit down over there."

She didn't want Amy to worry.

They sat down together on the ground, their backs against the wall opposite to the door where she would see it instantly when her teacher came back.

Although that had been her plan, it didn't take long for her to doze off. It was really no wonder, the last week had completely tired her out in body and mind, and now that she had found a place where she felt safe and could finally relax, her body took what it needed.

***

"And here I was wondering who my visitors were, but its only my disciple. Oi, Alice, wake up!", the beautiful woman said while she gave Alice a few lights slaps on the cheeks.

"Uhmm... Hmmm? Ah! Teacher! This... Urgh, I'm sorry!"

"It's okay, I was worried, but it seems like you got through this whole ordeal without getting captured. But right now I'm not teaching you, so call me Risa, ok? By the way, who is that cute girl in your arms?"

"Ah, that's Amy! I met her when the raid happened and we have been together since then. You know..."

Alice continued to tell Risa everything that happened since the raid, how she felt about it and how she had no idea what to do now. During that time, they had sat down by the table, and Amy who was still sleeping was now lying on the single bed.

"So that's why you came to me. But I think what you did was very brave of you. Most other people would have just abandoned Amy at that point, no, most wouldn't have even helped her in the first place. And even then would they have left after that."

"No, I was just... I..."

"Well, you two can stay here for this night, but after that, you will have to find a new place, and one that's close to here as well or you wouldn't be able to continue your lessons. In that case, you would have to stay here in the northern territories, but the Cats would be a problem, you would always have to cross at least through one of the other territories.

The Foxes should be an even bigger problem with what happened between you and them. Of course, there are the Slum Rats in the west, but there is actually no big difference between there and the other slums. So you could either return to your old group or join the bears. Not being in any group would work as well, but I don't think that you can do that while helping Amy.

To be honest, in my opinion, it would probably be best to join the bears. Especially since they work together with an orphanage and you should be able to give Amy to them if you join them.

Well, this is all only from an objective standpoint and I guess you want to return to those guys as well. You did say that they are like family to you, didn't you? In the end, you have to decide by yourself.", Risa stated the different possibilities Alice had.

"I... I don't know... *sniff*", Alice said, tears rolling down her cheeks.

"Ahh, sorry... I was insensitive... Come here, give me a hug! Sleep for now and think about it tomorrow again, how does that sound?"

"Y... *hick* Yes..."

Risa lifted Alice up while she was still hugging her and put her down on the bed beside Amy. Now that there were two small girls inside, there was almost no place for her left. She placed the chair beside the bed, sitting there, she held the crying girl's hand, going through her hair with the other every now and then. Like that, Risa waited until the girl had finally fallen asleep.

"Ahh... I was never good at these kinda things.", the beautiful woman whispered silently as to not wake up the girl.