The next morning the sun was shining bright in the sky as Cara was still fast asleep. Although her peace would not be for long. She was rudely awoken from her pleasant dreams by a loud purposeful knock on her door.

“Gah! Who would bother me this early into the afternoon” Cara rolled over to her other side and put the pillow over her face to shield herself from the daylight that peaked through the window. She thought she could escape the annoyance when another knock, but only this time not from her door but from her bedroom window.

“Hey are you still alive in there!” a high pitched almost singing voice called out, loud enough that the whole street could hear.

Cara recognized the voice! She let out a begrudgingly positive grunt, she was happy her friend had come back, but she wasn’t ready this early to talk to anyone “Go back to the door, I’ll let you in” she mumbled as loud as she could. Although she much rather just go back to bed.

She threw on the clothes she had left next to her bed and shuffled to her front door. Her eyes barely open and hair a mess, she unlocked her door. As soon as the lock clicked her door knob turned and opened towards her.

“Hey why didn’t you let me in sooner! I’ve been knocking for a while now.” Sunny burst through the door. She was much shorter than Cara but that did nothing to lessen her tremendous personality. Sunny’s short blonde hair was pulled back on the sides by two braids and her aquamarine eyes studied Cara with concern. She noticed the mess atop her head and her clothes clearly put on in haste.

Before Cara could even form an answer Sunny walked into the kitchen and began rummaging through the fridge and pantry. “You should probably jump in the shower Cara, I’ll make us some lunch.”

“Thanks, Sunny. That sounds good.” Cara rubbed her eyes and thought nothing about the night’s prior shadow visitor. Yet that would not change the fact that it happened.

Cara sat down to an amazing meal, she was surprised that she had so much food actually in her home to make this.

“So…. now that you are awake and in this realm of the living…” Sunny said in a semi-serious tone that was obvious a favor was about to be the follow up.

“I should have known you would not be this nice for no reason at all.” Cara set down her utensils and motioned for Sunny to continue.

“Well, the trip to Trigo went great! I always love having their honey tarts.” she trailed off lost in her daydream. “But when I got to Tair, well that was good at the start but when we were heading out I realized I had lost the necklace that I was supposed to be saving for my client in Doran! I don’t even know how it happened someone must have stolen it” She looked defeated and turned to face Cara.

“Oh no. Please tell me it wasn’t the tanzanite one” Cara was genuinely concerned. This purchase was going to be enough to make up for the loss of the prior year and then some! The town was relying on it.

“I was able to come up with a reason to come back to town before we had to make the delivery in Doran, but I don’t know what I’m going to do. Being fired would be the least of my concerns about losing this. I’ll be kicked out of the village for sure for this I won’t be able to show my face anywhere again.” Sunny was in a panic now, she paused only a moment in her speaking, still thinking of the punishment that she would .

“No, that can’t happen! There must be something we can do. Put off the delivery until we get another stone?”

Sunny looked at Cara with shame. “Who knows how long that would take, these are so rare and then I’d have to tell them what I did.” she began to panic for a moment blurting out her words. She took a moment and composed herself “ There was one thing I did think of. The whole trip back here I was thinking over every and any way out of this, but… ugh you’re not going to like it..” Sunny explained her idea to Cara.

“You want me to steal it for you?!” Cara was shocked. She would do anything for Sunny, but this was so sudden and quite a lot to ask for. If she were caught it wouldn’t be just Sunny on the line anymore she could also face being kicked out of the only place she had ever known.

“Y-yea! But don’t worry, it’ll be okay! A sapphire is not worth nearly as much, plus those fools in the capital would buy anything shiny, they don’t have the eye to tell the nuanced difference between them.”

It seemed like the rest of her day was a blur. Cara had agreed after every idea she had to fix the problem was shot down. She felt as if everyone around her already knew what she was going to do before she had even done it.

She closed down the shop for the night and again was the only soul in town still outside. She took a moment to look around feeling as if this would be the last time she could take in the peace of her village. All the earth toned walls decorated with bright flowers at nearly every window. She always took her village’s simple beauty for granted. She felt like she was betraying her village.

There was a small alley between the gem store and the florist’s shop next door. She made her way down far enough to be hidden in the shadows. Cara sat there in silence for what felt like ages picturing herself walking home and getting to plop into her nice bed. How she wished that was what she was doing instead of stealing from her own village, but she had to do this for Sunny.

She was sure that she had waited long enough, this was it.