The Stolen Ones

The fire swallows the woods and grass upon the land, fire and ashes are everywhere within the reach of the eyes, no screams can be heard but only the cry of the living who lost their loved ones. Not too far away there is a loud cry of a child shouting, a little girl, alone in the middle of a burnt house, her face and clothes were covered in ashes, "Mama! Papa!" she shouts while tears runs on her eyes. And on the other side is a woman who holds her child, they're covered in ashes and her skin on her face and legs is burned, she begs for help but not for her, she held up her child who was unconscious and asked "Ple-please help my son, take him, ta-take him with you!" the woman's eyes are full of fear and tear, that was her last words, and as she collapse, three dwarfs carries the boy and the little girl, and walks away from the place of the burned village.

"And that's how we met both of you hoho! We just took two children in the middle of a burned village, Troi here and Folgor didn't want to leave you two in that situation"

Says by a dwarf with a long brown beard named Grim who's telling a story to the others while refilling his beer.

Then Troi, a dwarf with a blonde hair, and Folgor a bald dwarf with a beard, they nod and drank a ale and they reply.

"Oi we can't leave two orphans in there ya know"

"Yeah, besides we came there to help that time"

And there's a boy teen wearing a black robe with a plain black hair, he speaks while the dwarfs refill their mug of ale.

"Come on Grim, tell me again what happened to my mom I just wanted to-"

Grim puts down his mug with and causes a loud thud on the table interrupting the boy while speaking.

"Your mom didn't make it that time, Troi made some medicines but it's just too late, argh I still remember that woman's face, it's a disaster that your village was burned down"

He said with a straight and serious face while facing to the boy named, Azur.

"You're lucky Azur that your mom saved you, mine was… I-I don't know, all I remember was the fire that time. But I still remember her face, at least"

A girl with a bob cut black hair wearing a robe as same as Azur joins the conversation and stood beside Azur.

After a long night of drinking, finally the silence occurred in their home, the dwarfs are drunk. And as they sleep the two teen humans sneaks out silently on the middle of the night leaving the drunk dwarfs.

These two teenagers are wearing black robes, equipped with armor made of leather and two weapons called cinquedea on their sides, and a belt bag on their waist. As the two sneaks they run through the forest far away from their village. As they reach the destination, they were a little bit of exhausted from their running, they're in the middle of the forest, there's a path connecting to the other villages mainly used by travelers and merchants. Then they collect small stones from the ground and fills up the bag made of thin cloth hidden in their pockets and puts it in the middle of the path and then they hide at the top of a tree nearby the path.

Minutes have passed and they heard a horse running through the path that they are watching.

"Hiyaa!... Whoa! Whoa! What's that?"

"Just a bag, maybe someone dropped it"

Two men in a wagon, one who's holding the horse and one inside. The man inside rushes to the bag to see what's inside of it.

"Eh sir! This is just a bag full of rocks, what shoul-"

The man near the bag noticed a small ball-shaped like object thrown everywhere, a smoke bomb. As the smoke bomb hits the ground, smoke comes out and that part of the forest is now covered with smoke.

"Quick get back here!"

The man in the wagon shouted. Aria and Azur jumps down as the smoke fills up the surrounding, Aria quickly runs in front of the man near the bag and Azur grabs his arms, Aria pulls put a handkerchief with a sleeping herbs called Fizura, and puts the man into sleep.

"Hey! Where are you? I said get back here!"

He hears his friend shouts like a baby, then he raises his lamp and saw his friend lying on the middle of the ground. The horse on the wagon panics along with the man, he tries to calm the horse to avoid that it would run.

"Shh- hello there, you'll be alright we promise"

"Don't worry you'll just sleep for an hour just like your friend there, that's not too long right?"

He heard a voice of a man and a woman hiding in the thick smoke coming from the smoke bomb. He sees the silhouette but they're too fast to see their actual faces and body. And the man jumps down from where he sits.

Aria and Azur quickly hops into the wagon and searches for an item that they will like to steal.

"Look at this, this is the largest wheel of cheese I've seen"

Aria whispers to Azur while holding a wheel of cheese on her hands. Azur nods and covers her mouth telling to keep quiet.

"Yeah shhh-"

They quickly put all the items inside the bag that they keep inside their pockets, and quickly snatch their bag on the road then run away and heads to the direction of their village.

"P-please don't kill me! take what you want! Spare my life I... I'm begging you!"

The man shouts and cries but didn't get a reply. As the smoke disappears, he sees his colleague sleeping in the dirt and the bag in the middle of the path was gone.

His horse finally calmed down, then he looked inside his wagon and noticed that some of his foods and items he's going to sell are missing.

"Oh my… at least they left some goods and spared my life. Tch, those bastard rouges argh I'll never pass through this forest at night again!"

The anger and fear mixed in with the man's emotion. The man carried his sleeping colleague back in the wagon and continues his way through the forest.

And for the two, Azur and Aria succeeds again in one of their plans this night, happily running back with a bag of goods in their back.

"Wohooo! Azur this is some good loot, we got a big cheese and antiques!"

"As we get back please don't make a noise while we celebrate, they'll knew that we sneaked out again hahaha!"

Azur said with a sarcastic voice while throwing the stones in the bag earlier.

"I'll try haha"

Aria replied with a smile on her face.

"Oh right, I forgot to put him into sleep, didn't I?"

"Yeah for sure haha, never mind that at least we got some good load of stuffs here!"

As they came back home, they didn't expect to happen that Grim, Troi and Folgor are awake sitting in the center of the living room waiting for them to come back.

"Oi you two are stealing again? You thought we won't know heh?"

Troi shouts as he stares at those two with his scary face.

"You two should be asleep right? It's not good for you to stay up late wahaha!"

Folgor says while laughing at the two knowing that they will be punished tomorrow.

"Sigh. You two never learn, do you? Tomorrow morning no breakfasts 'kay! We'll start forging no excuses!"

Grim grabs their bags and look for what they stole this time. His eyes widened as he sees what's inside the bag.

"And I'll have this cheese… Tomorrow remember what I said!"

He said with a serious voice, and without hesitation he gave those two a punishment for tomorrow.

"No! my cheese!"

The dwarfs laughed at them and scolded the two of them for an hour before going back to bed. They didn't scold the two for stealing but instead they scold them for what will happen if they get in trouble. The dwarfs let the two get inside their room upstairs and confiscated their bags.

"Those two never learns huh? Argh they should be at least a knight or something since they got the skills"

"It's their life, someday they'll find what suits them… for now let's just let them do what they want, we can scold them and make them help here if they do something stupid again hehe"

"Oi and isn't it good since we got stuffs like food, we're stealing back then too remember hahaha! Good old days"

As the night gets more deeper the dwarfs sleep in the living room while waiting for the sun to rise again. As for the two they'll wait for some exhausting job again tomorrow.

"Hey Aria"

"What's up?"

"I didn't expect that they'll know we sneak out"

"Me too haha, I mean they must notice since we wore our robes earlier when they are drinking"

"probably, I thought they were drunk haha! … So, you ready for the punishment?"

"I should be asking that to you"

"Pfft, hahaha"

"Let's get to sleep, we need to rest for tomorrow they're going to give load of work for us for sure argh. Good night Azur"

"Yeah, good night Aria"

The two rests waiting for tomorrow's shine and endless job. Happily sleeping thinking that tomorrow will going to be fine and smooth just like their plans.