The scammer leapt to their feet, shocked, spluttering, and dropping gold nuggets all over the place. In response, Em winked, gave them a cheeky two-finger salute, and strolled away without another word, leaving a raging fire, a stuttering silvertooth scammer, and a street full of people screaming at the fire behind them. On the ground, the golden nuggets began to unfurl and crawl away. All along, they had been painted stone-shelled snails. The scammer screamed in rage. Fire and smoke rose, screams echoed, and snails slimily slunk along. A scene of complete and utter chaos. It was to be expected, considering who was walking away from it.
Of course, it didn’t take long at all for some to call the policing guards on the blond kid with scrappy clothes and a club hanging from their belt who’d just publicly destroyed personal property and committed major fraud. Which meant that Em spent the next ten minutes skidding down alleyways and climbing up rooftops to avoid the watchful eyes of the noble’s justice thugs.
For some reason, the policing guards were oddly persistent today. Had Em been committing street fraud too often, lately? Maybe that was it. There was probably a high warrant out for their arrest today. Whatever–it would be gone in a week as always, lost to the records of rampant street theft and violence. Still, for today, they’d need to lie low. After about fifteen minutes of jumping roof to roof to try and throw the guards, Em stole sideways into a little shop off Fifth and Hurls, crouching down beneath the window and peering out with narrowed eyes.
“Fucking delinquent…” One of the guards’ voices carried muffled through the window as he passed. Em rolled their eyes. It took every ounce of their self control to not stick their head out the window and retort with “I can’t take you seriously when you’re both bald AND wearing that ugly blue uniform, prick!” Thankfully, they managed to hold back (just barely), and the guards moved on down the street.
Em sighed in relief. Whew. That had been cutting it a little too close. They frowned in thought, dark eyebrows furrowing. Had they stolen from anyone particularly high-up recently? That would easily result in a higher bounty…Hmmm. Maybe last week? They had vandalized a middle-end jewel bartering shop near Third Street…That might have been it. The closer you got to the Inner City, the more policing guards there were, and the more nobles were out and about. Someone with real money could have reported them…
Stolen novel; please report.
“Excuse me.”
Em jumped–and promptly bashed their head on the base of the windowsill, nearly cracking the wood in half.
“Shit! Fuck!” They grunted, holding their head and tumbling onto the ground in a ball. They looked up, vision blurring, to see a feminine figure dressed in all violet standing over them. Even with their blurry vision, they could see two dark, red eyes peering down at them disdainfully.
Glaring slightly down at them was a tall young woman, perhaps in her early twenties. Her dark lips were curled into a slight scowl of annoyance, and her thin arms were crossed over her equally thin chest. When she spoke, her voice was cold and uninterested:
“Are you going to purchase anything?”
Em rubbed their eyes a few times, and the woman standing over them came into focus: tall, thin, and with thick, lavender hair braided all the way past her waist. Deep brown skin and those strange red eyes. The woman’s face was harsh, but Em couldn’t help but blush. Damn. Beautiful and cold. Not really Em’s type…at least, they wouldn’t have thought so. The butterflies in their stomach said differently.
Meanwhile, the woman looked disdainfully down on Em, failing to notice the blush in their cheeks. What she saw was a scrappily-clothed scrawny-looking street rat–twenty years old, maybe, littered with scars and bruises from fights. Androgynous. Slightly dirty. She resisted the urge to roll her eyes and shoo the street rat out, instead waiting impatiently for a response.
“U-Um…Hey,” said the street rat, running a hand through their flaxen-blonde hair and grinning.
The woman quirked an eyebrow, unimpressed. “Hello. Are you going to purchase something?”