My first reaction was to almost run away by instinct but I managed to suppress it. It's not the first time I am in a similar situation, although it's the first time I am being framed for doing it and I am actually innocent. I know that running away would be the worst way to resolve this, of course, if I could easily escape then it would be a good option. I can overrun the Elder of the village but those guards may be different.
And just a few minutes ago I was saying that I wanted to avoid committing any crime without knowing what I did. Now I know what my crime is. Just the fact of possessing a treasure is a crime in itself. People will naturally want it for themselves, people like this man trying to take the cloak. And they will be willing to do whatever is necessary if they think they will get away with it.
I am just a kid, and my childish voice won't add anything to my credibility, considering that I don't want to use magic to deal with this, then, if I don't play my cards well things will not go nicely.
His height alone doubles mine but he still can't snatch the cloak from me as I grab it firmly.
The guards arrive and rush directly at me. I move left, putting the disgusting man between me and them.
"Stop! This is MY cloak, he is lying-" I say but I am cut short by the man bellowing:
"The brat is the one lying! Apprehend him! Quick! Release my cloak!" He tries to kick me but I easily move to the side.
The guards seize each one, the man, the cloak, and me a moment later.
They are wearing metallic breastplates and helmets above dark green uniforms with sheathed swords hanging from their waist. One of them grabbed me by one arm, an iron grip to make sure I don't try to run away. The framer was restrained too even though he continues to cling to the cloak as if his life depended on it, just as I am doing as well. While the third guard tries to take away the cloak from us, unsuccessfully thus far. Soon enough we all are struggling and shouting.
"Release it! Release it! Release!!!" The framer crazily barked, "we will take it until this is resolved!" A guard said. "Liar!" I shouted to the framer. "Stop struggling boy!" The guard holding my arm pleaded.
People started to gather around to see what was happening. Then, the guard trying to take the cloak started pushing my face away with one hand while pulling with the other. His hand blocking my mouth.
I bit him.
Hard, but not enough as to draw blood.
"Waaaaa!" The guard roared in pain while retracting his hand to his chest. "He bit me!"
"You asked for it brat." The one holding my arms said that and then started to move his hands under my arms, around my sides. An urge to laugh suddenly invaded me, shortly after I started laughing.
He is tickling me!
"Stop! Hahaha." I started twitching around while laughing. I will not let go of the cloak until I am sure I would be able to get it back!
While the guard tickles me the other two started to pull with renewed vigor.
"Hahaha, stop! Haha, stop!" With tears in my eyes and about to piss myself I decided I had enough. I quickly released the cloak with my left hand and elbowed back.
"Ouh!" The guard fell forward, his hands between his legs, and started to roll around.
The pulling continued, by now quite a big crowd formed around us.
"Are you the children here, or am I?" "You brat!!" "Release! Release!!"
I mentally shook my head. Bunch of clowns, all of them.
The guard grabbing the cloak had enough too. "Wait! Wait!!" He shouted and we all stopped struggling—fooling around— for a moment.
"Alright! Both of you, explain what happened." Immediately after he said that the framer and I started talking.
"Shut up! Do not talk at the same time! You go first." He gestured to the framer.
He didn't hesitate to talk. "I was walking around here with the cloak in my arms when suddenly this rat tried to snatch it from my arms and run away but luckily I was holding it firmly and immediately requested help from the guards." The man glared at them, looking genuinely offended.
"What a liar!" I cried, genuinely offended.
"It's your turn, boy."
"This cloak is mine, I was walking with it under my arm when suddenly this man grabbed it and shouted for the guards saying that I was trying to steal it. He is framing me."
"Nonsense!" The framer shouted. We started discussing. But not only us, also the crowd started to voice their opinions.
"I saw the boy carrying the cloak around before!" "No, he must have tried to steal it." "Of course, where would he have gotten it from then?" "He tried to steal it!" "You weren't even here." "Shut up!"
Neither the framer nor I had released it yet, just when I was considering letting go to finish this quicker I suddenly felt movement from the guard that was rolling around on the floor.
"Release it at once, delinquent!" The guard roared, then lifted me off the ground and started pulling me away strongly while I still held the cloak.
I could feel cold sweat running down my head. If the guard realizes I have some things hidden in the stash and wants to inspect me then everything could go sourly. I have a knife there and so far, I haven't seen anyone armed here apart from the guards, it may be illegal.
"Release this cloth already, both of you or we will do it by force." A guard warned. I could tell that they have been going easy on us, they could have just beaten us to submission since the beginning.
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I reluctantly released my grip on it, however, the guard behind me didn't expect it and was accidentally launched back to the floor along with me, I may or may not elbowed him again while we fell. I got up while the guard rolled around.
"SHUT UP!" A very angry and loud shout come from the crowd, silencing everyone. An old man was breathing heavily while rubbing his glabella in exasperation. "This is ridiculous. I saw the boy walk all the way from the wall with that thing under his arm. Stop fooling around!" He sighed. "Fuckers," he added in a lower tone.
Finally, some sense in this folly.
"Hoaxes! I swear I saw the man walking around with it!" Another man replied.
How could have you seen something that didn't happen? Are you crazy? Do you need your sight checked by a physician?
No, more like he is on it with the framer.
The crowd started to discuss if either I was trying to steal it or not. "Sigh, we will resolve this in the office." The guard, who finally managed to get the cloak under custody —after the framer very reluctantly released it—said, more guards arrived right away to disperse the crowd and those two witnesses were called over too. The guard that I elbowed was replaced by another and just five of them escorted us four to the guards' office, allocated back in the wall.
Once we entered we were left standing in line, a guard between us, while the one with the cloak in custody, that now seemed like the Captain or something, spoke:
"It's not often that a thief claims to be being framed for robbing something he already had."
He then interrogated the witnesses, warning clearly that the liar would be dealt with harshly. Both of them spoke confidently, the old man obviously speaking the truth but the other man seemed sure of himself.
They must think, that man and the framer, that I don't have any proof that this cloak is mine.
The guard Captain asked for our names, residences and other things. My residence was in a village, they didn't ask more. The framer's name is Nicola, it seems.
Then it was my turn to give my version of the facts, I told everything that happened since I crossed the wall. And finally, it was the framer's turn:
"I was walking peacefully on my way to my aunt's house, that is near the wall. I was very happy as just this morning arrived the request I ordered brought, a fur cloak to gift my aunt today that is her birthday, I left my house so excited that I forgot to wrap the gift nicely. On my way after leaving the food market, I saw Lady Judy, Hello Lady Judy, I said to her, then I felt that my aunt's fur cloak was being pulled away. I quickly reacted and gripped it strongly, then I saw this rat there trying to snatch it from me, immediately after that I requested for the guards' help like every citizen should do were they in my situation." He said that in a single go, barely stopping to breathe, no hesitation, no doubt apparent on his face. I wish I could lie with such a straight face like him. However, lying is not necessary this time.
In my way here, I thought of a good way to get out of this. Weren't I thought of a plan I may be considering killing all eight people in this small office and leaving the city. With my mana pool now, casting eight Earth Lance is an easy feat.
Such drastic measures aren't necessary right now, though.
"Both stories seem plausible, if we don't determinate the truth right now then we will make an investigation to corroborate the truth of all statements and by then the punishment to the liar will be a lot harsher." The guard Captain said as he seated on the chair facing us behind the only desk in the room.
The framer seemed confident even after the guard said that.
"I can prove that the cloak is mine right now," I told the guard Captain.
After gesturing me to go on with his chin, I turned to the framer.
"Mister Nicola, you claim that this cloak is yours, right?" I didn't wait for him to reply. "Well, then could you be as kind as to telling me if this backpack is yours as well?" I asked while putting my backpack on the desk. It is heavy.
The backpack has accompanied me for more than two years, needless to say, it was a sorry sight. The straps used to hold it to your shoulders weren't there anymore, instead, it was a creatively made —if I may say it myself— amalgam of plant stems and roots tied together to replace the two straps.
This backpack is not something a normal person would use, but something they would treat as trash right away.
"Of course not, that backpack isn't mine." He replied.
I asked if the contents of the backpack were his too, he replied that how he would know what was even there.
"Alright let me show you all what is inside." I opened the buttons and untied a cord. Inside were just two empty little bags, that used to have bread, and a big animal hide crudely tied closed to hold something there like a normal bag would. I took it out and put it on the side of the backpack then moved it carefully as to not spill its contents and show just the top of the inside.
Inside the 'bag' is an assortment of claws, teeth, fangs, horns, scales, and many other kinds of animals' parts. They couldn’t see them.
The important thing right now weren't those parts, though.
"Do you all see it, right?" I gestured to the interior part of the animal hide, it was the same fur than the exterior of the cloak has. This piece of fur is way smaller than the cloak, that is long enough as to get to my ankle, you could even say that the cloak is too big for me.
The guard Captain stood up and compared the fur at the top of the bag with the cloak in his hands, he returned it to me and glared at the framer.
He visibly paled and then said: "Uh, I suddenly don't feel very well."
I couldn’t help but roll my eyes.
"Throw him to prison, one month." The guard Captain said. "Jim, make the report." He ordered to another guard.
"Just a month?" I said before thinking.
The guard Captain chuckled. "Aren't you a little ruthless? You wouldn't endure even a couple of days there, even though we are a little bland in punishing small crimes don't underestimate the prison, did you know that in Mastan the penalty for stealing is having your hands amputated?"
His eyes moved to my bag "Anyway boy, what is in the bag?" He raised an eyebrow. What envy.
I have no reason to lie. "Animals' parts." The guards exchanged glances, even the guard Captain eyes lit up.
"Show us." He said.
"Something like that is irrelevant," I shook my head, "I am going to sell them to the Merchants Guild on behalf of a friend."
The guard Captain went back to his seat. "Is that so? All that is yours friend property? The cloak too?"
I nodded. "Yes, he hunted all those animals himself, told me to sell them to the Merchants Guild at whatever price they offer and that later he looks for me." This is the story I was going to tell in the Merchant Guild but I suppose it works here too.
"I see..." He was thinking, then he glanced at the witness that swore he saw the man walking with the cloak in his hands. "Right, you go to prison too, shut up, I don't care you may have seen it wrong, five days in prison, that is it, Jim, you make the report."
"I can go then?" I asked.
"Yes, you two can go now. Just don't cause any more problems." The guard Captain sighed and I left the office with the old man.
After leaving I turned to him and thanked him for talking in my behalf. He just laughed it off.
"This... I am going to the Merchants Guild but I actually still don't know where it is located."
"I see, I see. I will tell, just keep going the same way you were heading, right before arriving at the food market there is a red-bricked building, that is the one." He said, bade me farewells, and left. Just like that.
What a strange old man, definitively different to the old people back in town. They all were always deadly serious.
I made my way back to the main road, this time with a frown on my face and with purpose behind my strides. This time, I felt like I fitted pretty well in the atmosphere of the place.
Soon enough after walking a while through the road I started to hear some shouts:
"Fresh cabbages! Fresh cabbages!" "Pork stew, cheap and hot!" "Come! Come to eat!" "Cooked Boom rabbit's meat!" "Fresher cabbages here!!"
Quickly enough the shops and workshops changed to stalls of food, then a building at my right side caught my attention. A red-bricked building that stands out a lot among all the wooden buildings around.
I walked to its front and gave a relieved sigh. Not because I was closer to achieving my ultimate goal but because the gates were open. Were they closed and I knocked when I was supposed to just push them open, I would be really embarrassed.
Now I realize how tired I feel after the incident a while ago. I glance up to see the position of the Sun, had I not hidden my clock I would have checked it instead.
It still isn't mid-day and I already feel tired, what a joke.
I step into the Merchants Guild.