Prompt #9

The Prompt: All you ever need to know in life: don’t get caught.

It was this Reya reminded herself as she passed by the baker’s stand in the market place. There were too many guards around, one of them would spot her for sure. She couldn’t risk even grabbing a single loaf or roll. One of them would see.

She passed by, basket tucked under her arm and head ducked low. It wouldn’t do for one of them to see her. Being recognized would lead to being caught. Hardly anyone looked twice at a small ten year old walking the streets, but get too close to a cart and they’d notice for sure. Being branded a thief would get her arrested.

Don’t get caught.

Reya dumped the rocks out of her basket when she returned to her family’s small home. Her mother was out as she often was, even at this early hour of the morning and Reya turned to her two younger siblings who were huddled in the corner.

Asa, still only four, was in her bedclothes from the night before. Claro who was two years older had managed to dress himself, but the shirt was too large. Hanging down past his knees it looked more like a dress than anything else.

Reya sighed as she looked at the two of them. They were all small for their ages, underfed and used to looking after themselves. “Didya get somethin’ fer us?” Claro asked, eyeing the basket hungrily.

Reya drew the basket close to her body. She didn’t want them to see how empty it was. She hadn’t been able to bring back anything, not even some bread or rotten vegetables. The guards at the market had tripled and the last week’s pickings had been lean.

“I-” She began before laying eyes on Asa. Asa’s fist was in her mouth, hungrily sucking on it with wide eyes. Reya’s voice caught in her throat. She couldn’t let her baby sister go hungry. Not when she looked like that. “I’ll be back,” she promised, stumbling backwards out the door. She had to find something, no matter the cost.

Don’t get caught.

It was the mantra she’d been taught years ago when she was hardly Asa’s age. Jian taught her everything she knew. He’d been four years older, the same difference in age as she and Claro. He’d been the one to show her how to steal and put food on the table for her family.

He would have advised her not to return to the market.

Don’t get caught.

“Jian isn’t here,” she muttered to herself as she hurried down the dusty road. He’d disappeared one day, went out and never came back home. Everyone assumed he ran away to the capital to look for a better life and Reya promised herself never to forgive him. He should have been there, helping her feed Claro and Asa.

But he wasn’t. He wasn’t there and she had to do this. With every instinct screaming to stop what she was doing, Reya entered the marketplace again. This time she twitched, feeling as though every guard and vendor would know her face after having been there only an hour before.

No one said a word, but Reya felt watched. She pushed the feeling away and continued down the road to the lesser watched carts. There had to be something easy within reach, some roots or a loaf of bread. Anything.

Don’t get caught.

Finally she reached the baker’s cart. His back was turned, dealing with a customer who had coins to pay with. It almost seemed too easy. Before she could stop herself, Reya reached out and grabbed a small loaf situated in the shadows. It wasn’t very large, the type of thing she’d have bought if she had the money to buy things.

She slid the loaf under the cloth of her basket and turned to dart away, running into something hard and solid in front of her.

The guard gripped her arm tightly before she could dart off and Reya flinched in fear. She’d never had a run in with a guard before. Once a shopkeeper had seen her run off with some of his food, but never a guard.

She bit her lip to keep from screaming. It would only draw more attention to what was happening and she didn’t need everyone to see her taken in.

“Filthy little thief, think you wouldn’t get caught?” Reya struggled against him, but it was no use. The guard was easily three times her size.

“Let me go!” Her only hope was that he would take pity on her- or more likely feel too lazy to turn her in to the magistrate.

“You oughta get a hand lopped off for that one, mongrel,” he said, his voice low and cruel. None of the passerby’s took notice of the two of them in the road. Thieves were arrested all the time, it did them no good to intervene. “Mayhap you’ll get a kind magistrate who’ll give you your druthers,” the guard continued, causing a shiver to go down Reya’s spine. “Which hand do you need more? The right or the left?”

Startled, Reya glanced up and met the guard’s eyes. She stared in shock at his face. It was Jian. A slightly aged Jian, but it was Jian nonetheless. Jian’s blue eyes and fair hair, Jian’s crooked tooth, Jian’s-

But the guard was too old to be Jian. He was at least in his early twenties, Jian was only four years older than her. And he wouldn’t ever be a guard. Ever.

Don’t get caught.

When Reya blinked, the guard’s face was different. He still had blue eyes and fair hair, but his cheekbones were different. His tooth wasn’t crooked. In fact, he bore little resemblance to Jian at all. Jian always had a smile on his face, ready to charm anyone, though he was always serious when it came to stealing.

Don’t get caught.

It had been her mantra. It was the one promise Jian made her keep. Whatever you do, don’t get caught. She’d let him down. Let everyone down. Claro and Asa were expecting her back home, they needed her back home. If anything happened to them it would be her fault.

Don’t get caught.