Thieves
Chapter 6 - Revelation
The next morning, Sis awoke with a stiff neck. It had gotten much colder over the night and the little fox felt it in every bone, so he didn't hesitate to get up when he couldn't sleep any more. It wasn't just the cold that let him get up always before his human companion, it had to do with the time he was still a slave. He was woken early in the morning, worked all day long and got to sleep only at nightfall. So sleep was a valuable time to rest. Getting to sleep for as long as he wanted for once was really calming and relaxing, and not having to work until total exhaustion felt as if he had finally arrived in freedom.
He rolled up the blanket and tossed it on top of the backpack, than went for Jack who awoke with quite a headache, according to his grumbling. But he seemed sober enough. The human put on his cloth, telling the fox that he was going to get some supplies for the trip they were going on that night. It wouldn't be anything special, Jack said, because he would stock up some more stuff in the next town when he could make the gemstones, he still had, to money.
Jack didn't speak of anything that had happened last night, so Sis supposed he couldn't remember. He had been quite drunk last night so it wasn't surprising. Anyway, since the human didn't brought up the subject Sis decided to not mention it as well and just forget about it. After all, who knows how long Jack has been on the road without a girl? And while he was drunk he couldn't control himself. Actually it happens pretty often, especially in these regions, that under certain 'influences' humans mistake the gender of other species, where female and male look alike. Maybe Jack even had a thing for 'short ones'? Whoever, the differences between male and female foxes aren't that small. Especially not when you've known said fox for a couple of days.
Sis pushed the thoughts from his mind. Meanwhile Jack had dressed and hung over his bag. He told the fox he'd bring something for breakfast and reminded him to stay quiet, before he left the room.
***
The first step outside told Jack that it has gotten colder over the night and that it would very soon get freezing cold outside, when the winter finally settles in. It had again snowed during the night. In one or two weeks, at the most, the side roads would become impassable if it kept getting colder at this rate.
The way to Kononoano should be manageable for him and the fox, he thought, but it would be an exhausting trip. And he had to make sure not to run out of money till they reached St. Curson to sell the gemstones he still had. If it comes hard to hard he could get rid of them in Kononoano, but he didn't know a fence there so he'd take a big risk. If he could at least save enough to stay a night in Kononoano, they could make it.
So after he filled up the waterskins at the well, he decided to get some supplies - without paying. The bakery was his first stop. Of course you can't just steal from a baker, this guys are carefully watching their goods. It's just naturel if you sell something everyone needs every day. A bakery that's constantly stolen from won't stay for long in the business.
However, he didn't have to steal from the bakery. A little breakfast for him and the fox was cheap enough and carrying some baked goods with you, while stealing in another store, made for a good excuse when you leaf without buying something. You'd just be someone on a shopping tour.
The next stop was the grocery store. The grocery in Eesten was quite small but held some shelves to cover the human. The keeper, of course, kept an eye on him, so he knew he had to use some tricks.
For a while he wandered around the hardware section, inspecting some metal hooks here, shaking a box of nails there. While he did so he scanned the store for some good opportunities, and just as another customer entered, he found one. Just like the shopkeeper he turned his neck to look at the person and just in that second swung his arm back and grabbed a bag of dried beans, which quickly disappeared in his bag. Not quite a star menu but easy to cook and healthy.
He wandered for the other side of the store, a quick glance across the shelf and he had found his route. Luckily the customer was a woman who apparently seemed to know the keeper, so he was distracted for a moment. Jack duked down behind the shelf and stuffed two packs of noodles into his bag, than came back up and held a glass of pickled cucumbers which he inspected for a moment, mostly to see through the glass whether the shopkeeper had noticed something, and put it back. Noodles made for good supplies, durable, light and easy to make. Especially in the winter, when the ground is covered with snow, so you don't need to waste drinking water.
He made his way along the shelf and raised, with his left hand, a jar of marmalade for the keeper to see. With his right hand he took one of the sausages and pushed it in his pocket. He put the jar down and went for the very edge of the shelf, just before the corridor where he would be within the vision of the man behind the counter.
He opened his bag before he bowed down and, in a flash, placed three apples in it, than closed the bag again and lifted up with a fourth apple in his hand. He waved towards the man, with the apple in his hand, to signal him he'd pay for it, and then bit into it.
The woman meanwhile had finished her shopping, just a small paper bag of some vegetables. Jack stepped into the corridor, where he couldn't steal anything without getting caught, and took one of the far bigger sausages from its hook, than approached the shopkeeper.
"This and a pack of Lucky Lucks, please," he said as he laid the sausage on the counter and gestured for a pack of cigarettes behind the man.
As the man turned, Jack quickly grabbed into a big jar of dried meat and stuffed some of the lumps into the pocket of his jacket. It was the same pocket he kept his money in, so when the man turned back, Jack only pulled two coins from it.
"Would that be all, sir?" the man asked.
Jack nodded, placed the money on the counter and stored the cigarettes in his breast pocket. If he would just leave now, he would make himself suspicious, so he asked the keeper for an advice, "Oh by the way, can you tell me the way to the guards' quarters?" What better way to look like an upright citizen, than to ask for the guards themselves?
"Sure," the man pointed outside his store to follow the street to the right, "second street left, all the way to the end and you can already see it."
"Thanks man," he took the sausage from the counter and after the man had said his goodbye, Jack left the shop.
He actually hadn't any business with the guards, but they made for a good alibi if one of the shops got behind his trick. He could just say he was with the guard while the shop got robbed. Of course this could also go the wrong way, if he came along one guardsman that took his job serious enough to look into his bag. But he had gotten out of similar situations often enough. He'd just have to look for the right kind of guard, lazy, bored, naive enough to believe him. The only purpose he had to talk to a guard at all was to get some information. Some information about a certain fox.
***
That day was boring. Pure boring.
Since Jack had left, the fox hasn't had anything to do. He had to stay quiet, he couldn't go outside and the human had left him with nothing to do. Since the bed was free now, Sis plunged himself onto it and dozed some. After a night on the floor the warm soft bed felt nice and he almost - almost - regretted that he had persisted on sleeping on the floor. He could have dozed off into sleep again, but when they were to go to bed early today to start off in the middle of the night, it wasn't particularly smart to sleep the entire day. Despite that, hunger kept him awake anyway.
"How long does it take him to do these errands?" he asked himself aloud.
The fox didn't know how long the human had been gone yet, maybe an hour, maybe one and a half? He sat on the edge of the bed to wait some more minutes, then stood up to take a look out of the window, but despite the back corner of the neighbouring building and the snow covered little grove that lay at the edge of the town there wasn't much to see. His footprints under the window however, were masked by the newly fallen snow that night.
He looked lazily around the room. Bored. There was just nothing to do here, so he went for the door to see if he could hear something.
Nothing. It was completely silent outside. Sis waited for a moment, but he couldn't make out anything, not even some noises from downstairs. So he thought he could take the risk to take a look outside, and opened the door slowly. He peered through the slit with his eye, still nothing.
He opened the door further and peeked his head through. It was just a small corridor, doors to a number of rooms on either side and a staircase at the end.
His curiosity, to investigate further, might have won, were it not for the fact that he knew where he would go, in case he got detected. So he went back and closed the door behind him. It couldn't be long any more for Jack to return now, so he sat back on the bed and waited.
It took him like another two hours or so though.
"What took you so long this time?" the fox asked as the door closed behind Jack.
The human took his bag and placed it on the small table, than addressed the fox in an unreadable calm tone, "Calm down, killer."
Sis were about to take a step back when he froze on that last word.
"So I take it, it's true then," Jack continued after he probably saw the fox's answer on his face.
'How could he know?' Sis asked himself as he was about to take another step back, but then didn't. He put his guard up and decided to play it cool for now, "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Oh, c'mon now, foxy. Enough of that game already," he said with a knowing smile on his face, "Tell me the truth now," he demanded, "You've been lying enough about that to me, don't you think?"
Sis glared at the human with a grim face, he wasn't coming out of this, this time. He could either tell him or get out of here. But in the middle of the day that would bear a huge risk. On the other side though, Jack wasn't ripping his head off right away, despite obviously knowing. If this turned out the wrong way, he could still get out of here, the fox thought. "I... didn't plan on doing so."
"See? Now we're getting to it," the man said in a still calm voice as he went for the bed and sat upon it. He gestured next to himself for the fox to take a seat, "Tell me what happened."
Sis let out a sigh and took the offered seat, "It was on the day I escaped." Jack didn't comment on that, he just gave the fox some time to find his words. "I've been bought to the Dolemans a few months ago and ever since, I was looking for a way to get out of there. I had no chance to get out of the slave camp in Eesonon, I've tried.... multiple times," he let his head hung for a moment before he continued, "One day I found a pattern: two overseers were always sharing a drink in the afternoon, when they were on the shift together. During that moment the far side of the workspace in the woods, where we were cutting firewood, was unwatched. Only for like five minutes or ten. I just had to get to that point to get a head start on them. Even if they were following me and even if they would have caught me, I'd have had a chance. And I wasn't going to let that opportunity slip."
Both of them were silent for a moment, "And what happened then?" Jack asked in a low voice.
"I waited three fucking weeks for that opportunity!" the fox raised his voice, knowing what had append next, "I waited for my chance," he continued calmer, "and took one of the axes with me. And then suddenly out of nowhere one of the overseers from the estate came by." Sis shook his head and let out a bitter laugh, "Honestly, don't ask me where that ass came from."
"However," the fox went one, "He saw me run away from my workspace. With an axe in the paw. I still had a good few minutes before the two others would even notice I were off, but if he would alarm them, I'd have the whole fucking pack behind my tail. So I attacked him. I sprung at him and hit that thing right into his face," he gestured the attack with his right hand, while he explained it.
"When I looked back," he said in a natural tone, "I knew he was dead. And then I just run for all I was worth."
Jack was silent for some time, and at length put a hand on the fox's shoulder, "See, It's better to let it out, isn't it?" he said in a sympathetic voice.
"So you're not angry that I am a murderer and that I haven't told you?" the fox asked honestly curious.
"No," Jack took his arm from Sis' shoulders and waved with it, "I can understand that. In a situation like that it's either you or them."
"It's not that simple!" Sis rose his voice, "Don't act like this is nothing! I KILLED that guard! He had a WIFE and KIDS! I KNEW of that!"
Jack put a hand gently on the fox's back, "Hey," he said softly, "that's not your fault. THEY did all those things to you, and THEY knew the risks of their job." Jack started to circle his hand in a slow motion over Sis' back, "There's nothing you have to be ashamed of, Sis. You defended your life."
"Easy for you to say."
"I've been there myself, too, once or twice," Jack answered and gave the fox a pat on the back, "Again, it's either you or them. It isn't always fair or pleasant but it's the world we live in."
