Kuro’s whole world was shaking. No, he was shaking. No, Milly was shaking him. Violet was long gone and they were left holding the bag. A bag! That was what Kuro needed. Thoughts spun in Kuro’s head as he felt Milly’s hands leave him while he began to dart across the cart to gather the things they could possibly use to escape.

“What do we do, Kuro? We can’t get caught here!” Milly cried.

Milly covered her mouth while panic began to take over. Crate to crate, Kuro darted grabbing whatever magical items and relics he could find. Surely one of them would help them get out of this situation. It was the first time he had his hands on so many magical items since they were pricey even for most veteran adventurers. Only a handful at the guild, including Sera, used them regularly since the elemental gemstones that powered them drained with each use. Most people used them as a trump card or last resort but now wasn’t the time to think about such things. Kuro took whatever he could lay his hands on and placed them into a sack he found.

“Kuro, please! Say something!” Milly pleaded. “Stop looting and talk to me, please!”

A tug pulled at his heart as time slowed back down. Milly’s eyes shimmered and her face was red. Kuro’s chest ached from the guilt of momentarily abandoning her while lost in thought. It was a strange sight for him to see Milly, who was usually composed, so shaken. He reached his hand out to comfort her, but she slapped it away as the tears she had been holding back finally broke free.

“Wha- What’s wrong?” Kuro asked confused.

“I hate it when people go silent on me…” Milly whimpered. “People used to do that when they were mad and knew how much it hurt me.”

“I’m sorry, it’s just that when I’m focused on something I forget everything that’s all around me.”

“Just talk to me next time…”

“I will. Here’s what I’m thinking.”

Kuro pulled Milly in close and began to whisper. Her tears stopped and were replaced with determination in her eyes. Kuro grinned at his partner’s suggestions, feeling a lightness return to him.

A squad of six shadows emerged from the treeline. They made a formation of armored guards on the outside, while they escorted the three vulnerable unarmed men on the inside. The tension they carried from the forest lowered to a seething rage as they found their way back to the golden glow of their caravan. The man in the middle was especially frustrated with a vein throbbing for all to see on his forehead.

“We’re going to need reinforcements if we’re going to track down that blasted thieving vixen,” cried out the leader.

“What about those adventurers, Captain?” the man on his left asked. “They can’t have gone too far.”

“What about them? They’re nobodies who got caught up in the wrong place at the wrong time. We’ll probably never see them again, but if we do I owe them at least a night in jail if not a beating,” grunted the captain. “Our number one priority is to track down the thief Violet and retrieve the artifact.”

The group approached the camp and drew their weapons on instinct. A lack of greeting put them back on edge and a quick circle around the camp revealed the two guards sleeping on the job. Two swift kicks shocked them awake putting fear in them from the captain’s increasing anger..

“Wha- Captain?” the groggy soldier yelped.

“You lot, go wake up the rest of the squad!” the captain ordered. “Sweep the wagons and take inventory once everyone is up!”

From within, Kuro nodded to Milly. She still wore a conflicted face, but there was no choice but to put their scheme in motion. They pulled their hoods on from their scavenged cloaks and scarves to conceal their identities for what came next. Kuro tapped Milly on the shoulder for both of them to throw their canisters out opposite ends of the covered wagon. Hissing followed the canisters as they sailed through the air and filled the area with a dense fog of smoke. The soldiers outside began coughing and yelling to confirm their locations. Kuro made his way to the back of the wagon to trigger two beams of light while Milly took the bag to the excited Chomper who was spinning around her. With one big leap, Kuro shot out to the back of the wagon bathed in the light taking the attention of all those around.

“AHAHAHAHAHAHA!” Kuro roared as he emerged from the back of the wagon.

The soldiers still coughing gathered around as the captain took charge of the situation. He readied his weapon pointing it at Kuro.

“Stop right there criminal scum! Surrender now and we do this the easy or we can do this the hard way,” the captain ordered while waving his weapon.

“My dear soldiers, I believe introductions are in order,” Kuro responded.

“I don’t care who—”

“Prepare for some trouble!” Kuro yelled out.

“On the double!” Milly responded as she emerged.

“Oh great now there’s two of them,” the captain groaned.

“To pillage and take what we please,” Kuro twirled dramatically.

“To laugh at the laws and do it with ease!” Milly responded mirrored.

“To hoard all the treasures like kings of old!”

“Our banditry story will forever be told!”

“Night!” Kuro declared.

“Nocturne!” Milly proclaimed.

“Team Darkness will ride off into the night!”

“Surrender your gold or prepare to fight!”

“Are you done? So we’re doing this the hard way it seems,” The captain bemoaned with his palm on his face. “Good thing too, I’ve got a night’s worth of stress to work out.”

“Unfortunately, we can’t oblige since we so love our freedom. You’re free to take back the rest of your wagons, this one will be ours! However, we can leave you with this parting gift.”

Milly threw a large array of paper cylinders connected like a tangle of sausages toward the soldiers. The end crackled with a flame before it met the paper tubes and they popped with a fury getting louder and louder. Each tiny explosion joined together to form a chorus that added more smoke and sparks to shower the area. All the soldiers ducked down as Milly and Kuro threw bundle after bundle to fulfill their promised trouble. Once they were out, they jumped back into the wagon. From the other end, Chomper grew in size and jolted their vehicle forward. Kuro turned to see a field full of explosions and smoke drifting on the wind. Among them the captain cut through the fog and chased as far as he could on foot after the wagon before disappearing over the hills.

The wagon shook with each grassy bump Chomper pulled them over. The speed made even the smallest bit of uneven terrain rock the whole wagon shaking the contents within. Kuro grabbed onto Milly’s hand as he pulled them to the driver’s seat one uneven step at a time. Each footfall closer made it clear that if he even let go of Milly’s hand for a second she’d be lost in the rumbling. After some struggle, Kuro made it close enough to the front where he gave Milly one large pull for her to get into the driver’s seat and hold onto the reins that were wrapped around Chomper’s body.

Within moments they made it to the road where they had to make a sizable distance to discourage their pursuers from catching up. It was an excellent chance for Kuro to take the seat next to Milly who greeted him with a triumphant smile. At full speed, Chomper pulled them until the sun began to peek over the eastern horizon on their right. What were once shadowy blots became Imperial symbols on the side of the canvas-covered wagons showing off the bright mixture of light and dark greens. They were now obvious enough to draw the eyes of suspicious onlookers if they crossed them along the road. Milly felt butterflies in her stomach and pulled the reins to the right telling Chomper to jump off the road towards the patch of woods.

Once the road was no longer in sight, Milly let out a long sigh. Birds began to chirp overhead and there was not a howl to be heard. For the first time in a while, a short peace returned to the group. However, now Milly’s face turned bright red as Kuro’s head fell on her shoulder. His breath was slow and relaxed.
“It’d be rude to move now, he worked so hard.” Milly thought.

Without even a thought, her hand moved on its own and patted him on his head. She felt a lightness in her chest she couldn’t quite understand as her fingers ran through his hair. As she took in a deep breath, she slumped in her seat trying to focus on the path ahead.