Thief

Ling immediately forgot about his complaints once he saw the stalls around the village. There were a lot of items he hadn't seen before.

There were different colored snacks that many children surrounded these stalls. The women were looking at the stores sellling clothes. He could see the same frills and laces like in his sisters' favorite dresses. But what excited him most was the stores in the small boats. The buyers were also on much smaller boats and they could tour the village more easily.

He wanted to run near the river to see them closer, however, his father was holding his hand tightly, making sure that the child would not be separated to him in this populated area. There were already other clans who arrived before the Mal'it Clan. They were also touring the village while waiting for the other arriving clans and the leaders to finish their meeting.

Once the father and son reached one of the stalls near the riverbank, Ling was able to get his hand free from his father's grip and ran ahead, inserting himself between the gaps of the people buying to reach the front. To take a closer look on this store's products, Ling tiptoed while leaning both of his hands onto the display table. However, he was only able to see the nearby items. This store selling was wooden toys with the nearby display only the small ones.

The shopkeeper noticed that there was a head of hair constantly showing in front of her stall table, jumping up and down to see the display since the table was taller than him. Thinking that it was one of the homeless boys who were stealing from them, she excused herself from the customer she was entertaining and moved to scold the child.

When she got near, she saw that the little boy's face was clean unlike the usual children she encountered. Upon closer inspection the boy's cheek was chubby and red from the wind. His eyes were sparkling even though he could not see most of the items despite being already on tiptoes.

Ling felt that there was someone staring at him. He got startled when he looked up and saw an old lady leaning on the table between them and smiling at him.

'What an adorable child!' the shopkeeper thought.

"Are you lost, little boy? Where are you're parents? You can look at the toys closer with them accompanying you." She smiled brightly at the boy but he didn't answer her. 'Maybe this one was too shy to speak. A lot of the visiting clans often brought children who went out of their village the first time.'

After a while, it was the boy's stomach that uttered a sound, "Growl~"

However, before the smiling shopkeeper offered their treats, a tall shadow blocked her view. "Ling, are you hungry now? It's because you never finished your lunch. What do you want?" he said while turning to look at the store in front of them. "Is there anything light we can have here, auntie?"

Seeing his father, he became lively again, knowing that he could eat now that he was on stable ground. "Father, father, I want that something that smells sweet. I saw another boy eating one. Auntie, do you have that?"

Seeing that it was the father of the boy, the shopkeeper smiled again but was confused why the boy suddenly became lively compared to the shy one before.

After they got their food, the boy waved goodbye while sitting on his father's shoulders, "Thank you, auntie."

Soon, the two reached the main market. There was a cleared space in the middle where many people converged since there was a street show, as was the usual in these types of market to entertain the buyers so they will stay in the market area longer.

A group of girls were dancing with the sound of wind instruments. Another performer was utilizing his 'mist' to add dazzling elements to the performance, adding flower illusions and lights around the dancers. Since it was also the first time that Ling saw this kind of show, he had sparkling eyes while watching.

Not far off, a man was walking behind the audience, not looking at the ongoing show. It was surprising that the people who noticed him took back their gazes after, as if they just saw an illusion. This was because the man was utilizing his 'mist' to turn himself invisible at times to avoid detection of what he was doing.

Because he was sitting on a higher ground in his father's shoulders, Ling was able to see the man's action, "Father, there was someone suspicious there!"

Hearing the child's voice, the surrounding audience then noticed the man. Once many stares where trained on him, the man was unable to hide behind his 'mist' and the things he was holding was also seen.

"Thief!"

Chaos started after that first shout, allowing the thief to run away. The people watching the show checked their things too and some noticed that they have items missing.

"Chase him!" A boy's shout was able to be heard in the following chaos.

"Hold tight, Ling!" Bobo gathered his 'mist' so he could run faster and chased after the thief ahead of the other people.

Seeing that there was someone catching up to him, the man decided to enter the busier part of the town. He was more familiar with the place so he could lose the person chasing after him. His companion was also around and he already gave his signal to ask for help. According to his companion, he also found what he was looking for.

Bobo was aware that the chase will be difficult now that they entered the residential area with the houses and stalls closer together. He was also worried since he had his son with him but Ling looked like he was enjoying the chase with him shouting the directions to instruct him where the thief went.

The area they entered still had many stalls and people buying. To run away faster, the thief kept pushing the people aside, garnering further chaos in the place. Bobo was able to dart in between the gaps made by the shoved people, however, he still had to stop at times when other people blocked his way. This made the gap between the two men to not close in despite the chasing one having much strength.

Once they reached a less populated area, Bobo was relieved at first, until he noticed that there were more abandoned houses in this place. If the thief entered one of the darker rooms, he might lose him.

Back to the child, he also noticed the new dilemma. His dilemma. Ling did not want to distract his father but he saw that there was a chance that they would enter one of the abandoned houses. His father was tall, taller than some of the doorways and this was his problem.

Despite readying himself to duck, Ling still experienced what he was dreading. Once they were near another doorway, Bobo knew that he might lose the thief this time since the room was too dark so he exerted more 'mist' to move faster.

Bobo managed to catch the thief in that instant before the man could hide his presence using the darkness. Unfortunately for the boy, he bumped his head on the doorway. He still held on his father's hair to avoid falling off but the doorway was still on his forehead's way and his father did not seem to notice this problem.

Feeling like he wanted to cry because of the pain as well as this misfortune, Ling still resigned himself for a bad fall. He exerted his 'mist' to somehow soften it, wrapped his legs around his father's neck and closed his eyes to wait.

Well, it should be obvious what happened after. Ling bumped hard on his father's back but his father became distracted by the legs wrapped around his neck.

Consequently, the thief's companion came, saw that his friend was caught so he threw a rock on the catcher's back to distract him. When Ling opened his eyes to check his situation, he saw that a rock was hurtling to him. With tears in his eyes, he managed to divert the direction of the rock like what he did during trainings. Instead of it directly hitting his face, the rock lightly grazed his forehead, managing to give him a scratch which produced a few drops of blood.

"Sh*t!" The man who threw the rock was of course feeling guilty. He didn't want to injure the child.

Seeing his companion hesistating even though their chaser was distracted, the other man shouted while escaping to his friend's direction to pull him away, "Magna, run!"

"B-but I hit the boy, Wakan!" The two were running away now but Magna was turning his head back to see the situation he made.

"J-just run!"

These two should not have worried about being caught by Bobo at this time. When he was able to steady himself after being strangled by his own son, he saw that his son was actually bleeding.

Everything after that first bump happened in a few seconds. Not caring about the thieves, Bobo was now distracted by the thought of his wife's anger if something happened to his son again.

"Ling!"

The boy was lying on his back on the ground because his father was afraid to move him. Knowing that his wound was already healed, Ling tried to sit up while wiping the blood on his forehead.

"N-no, don't move yet. I'll call a healer."

"Father," the boy sighed, "we have to chase after the thieves. I'm fine now, see? But what about those people who had their things stolen?"

The fathet stopped his frantic looking around after hearing his son's reasonable statement. He knew his son was as stubnorn as his wife so he tried to think of a reason to stop the chase. "I also want to catch them... Um, but we don't know where they went."

"Don't worry, father. I can sense the same 'mist' from the stone that hit me to the direction where they went."

Seeing the determined look on the small face, Bobo resigned himself to another chase. "Ok, but to avoid your bumping your head again, maybe you can just ride piggy-back?"

Ling hated riding like that. He could not properly see what was in front of them, not able to point on where he wanted to go and his father's beard kept scratching his arms. "No, I'll walk. I'm not a baby anymore and it looked like the thieves stopped in a house not far off."

After his father nodded, the two walked to the direction indicated by the boy. He was smiling since he was the one leading in this pursuit of justice but frowned when they reached the house. A huge clump of 'haze' was surrounding it, like a lot of deaths and suffering were waiting for them inside.