Sam ran down the corridor as fast as he could, looking back over his shoulder periodically, a large grin on his face. They had seen him, but he always got away, Kay always said that he would help him no matter what but this was his own mess. He had to clean it up alone or they would hurt Mira, and he could not let that happen to her he had just gotten her to agree to marry him.

His lungs started to hurt his breathing going shallow, his legs were screaming at him to stop and the pounding in his head only increased he couldn’t think straight like this he needed to get away. The thrill of the hunt boiled in his blood, he laughed and picked up speed running down the familiar streets quickly and quietly disturbing nothing in his path. His chasers were not so lucky he could hear the silent curses as they bruised one part or another, or ran into some poor person that happened to be in the way. He had grown up in this city and had been doing ok on his own, for a while. Until one day when he had happened to rip off the wrong person, he hadn’t known who the guy was but apparently, it spelled trouble. Next thing he knew he had been running for his life, and ran right out of the city.

He had wandered around for months from town to town doing odd things here and there, nothing big. He avoided anything that would end in him noticed by anyone, and at night, he would return to his street habits. Filching a thing here or there at night then move to the next town before anyone could point a finger at him. The few coins he had were from pawning his stolen goods off. He had Ran into Kay doing just that, He had tried to filch Kay’s ruby pendant Hawk-eye while he had been sleeping. Well, no one steals from a gypsy not cause of the consequences (which are grave most times) but because it’s impossible to do. They are masters at everything. Sam should have gotten a thief’s death any other gypsy would have killed him but Kay had seen something there. Thus, the boy thief Mikeal had quickly become the young man Sam under his tutelage.

He finally found the thing he had been looking for he pressed against the wall in the shadows and fiddled at the tiny stone until it gave and pushed inward. Once he had finally hit it right a portion of the wall slid back to reveal an utterly black hole the size of a scrawny teenager. He quickly squeezed inside then pushed the lever to retract the wall again. Praying to Akelah that they were far enough behind they hadn’t seen or heard what he did. Now that he had a moment to catch his breath, he slid down the wall to the floor ungracefully. Since he’d stopped his whole body was reminding him he hadn’t run like that in a long time, and he wasn’t a graceless kid anymore. He gulped in the dusty air like he would never get to breathe again. “Well if they find me, I certainly won’t be alive to anyways. That didn’t matter to him as long as Mira was safe.” He thought.

“How had they managed to find him?” When Kay took him in to become a part of the gypsy family, they had changed his name. He looked completely different, the scrawny preadolescence blonde hair brown eye boy he had been was gone. He couldn’t be any more different if he tried, His blonde hair had turned into a dark blonde with red woven into every strand, the hours under the sun had turned him a dark tan and his brown eyes had become golden yellow. He had muscle everywhere not the big brawny kind but strong lean whipcord muscles that were unnoticeable at first but they were there.

Well Kay and the gang should be out looking for him they had a strict code, they all met at dusk and it was more than a few hours after that in fact if he had to guess he would say it was closer to dawn. He sat quietly listening to the sounds going on outside waiting for a break where he could slip back out into the street. He looked down at the thing he was had been ordered politely to steal earlier that day, when Regale’s thugs had found him. The crown of the king sat there glittering in the moonlight it hit the cloth bag slung across his chest. Well, what he had done was a capital offense he would never be able to come back here now on pain of death besides there would be a war definitely not a place to raise kids in. But if Mira was okay it would all be worth it.

He closed the bag pulled the lever and then squeezed gingerly through the too-small hole in the wall, pushed the button to go back out then scampered lightly into the street. He just hoped when he got home Mira, Kay and the rest of the crew would understand and still welcome him home. He trotted down the empty street, to the exotic ladies house Regale’s thugs used and walked inside. A girl approached him as soon as he was in the door offering his services, he went to send the girl away than thought better of it. He grabbed the girls arm and she battered her heavily coated eyes at him coyly. He gave her some money the thug’s description and told her to go straight to them with the satchel. Then just to be cautious he told her they would pay her handsomely if she didn’t look inside. The girl ran off with a greedy look on her face, and Sam turned on his heel satisfied they would get it and walked out the door into the morning sunrise, already feeling better about his day, now to just go home to Mira