They raced down one dark alley after another, turning left and right until Jayden had no sense of where he was or even where the ocean might be, having left it long behind.

He was getting tired. He knew his pace was slowing. But at least it felt like they had distanced themselves from their pursuers.

Just as Jayden was beginning to wonder if the running all over town was ever going to end, the bandit stopped at a set of stairs. He tugged Jayden up the stairs, down a corridor and into a small, windowless room.

Jayden looked for the closest flat surface he could collapse on. A desk and chair sat in one corner and a bed in the other. The bandit sat in the chair, so Jayden slumped down on the bed.

He was exhausted. He had been planning to have a sleep after his dinner all those hours ago. Now he could barely think straight. And after all that exercise, he was feeling hungry again.

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Despite his empty stomach's protests, sleep quickly started to take him. His eyes started to close when he awakened with a shock.

The bandit had begun to unravel his head wrappings, revealing long locks of auburn hair and a pretty face.

"You're...", Jayden's tired and shocked brain struggled to finish the sentence.

"... a woman", the bandit completed with a grin, in a feminine voice.

"But you sounded completely different. You had a man's voice!"

"You mean, 'How do I talk like this'", the bandit replied in a gravelly voice, grinning again. "Practice! If the target doesn't even know what your gender is, it makes it that much harder for them to track you down."

"So what kind of thief are you then?"

"Hang on a second bucko, I think you've got a few questions to answer first!”