Fateful Encounter

A young boy, looking about 10 years of age, sat hidden in a tree. From his perch on one of the lower branches he gazed at the busy market streets below. He was vigilant, scanning the crowd, giving each individual traveler a scrutinizing once over, looking for the perfect target. Someone who didn’t look weary from visiting multiple stands, ensuring their pocket was still full. They also needed to be less-than-alert, someone not paying attention to their surroundings. They also couldn’t look look strong, or fast. Getting caught and hurt were not a part of this boy’s plans. He would prefer finding someone who looked like they had more than enough coins to spare, but at this point anyone would do.

It was not long until he spotted a suitable traveler, meaning weak and vulnerable, was found. It was a young woman, maybe 20. She was a woman, so there was only so strong she could be, and the way she paid absolutely no attention to anything around her made her the perfect target. Her hair color really stood out in the crowd, but the boy had no doubt that his well trained eyes would’ve found her even without the help.

The boy stretched, cracked his knuckles, and licked his lips. He shifted on the branch, gripped his hands tightly on his makeshift watchtower, and then slipped off the side. He held on to the branch as he dangled until gently letting himself fall the last 4 feet, knocking up a small dust cloud as he hit the ground.

After brushing some of the dirt off his tattered pants, he stalked into the crowd. He was shorter than any adult there, so telling where she was by sight was not a reliable option, but he knew the general area and direction the woman was headed in. Finding her took next to no effort.

As he made visual contact with her he noticed something he couldn’t see from the tree. She had a sword. The sheath didn’t look too impressive or intimidating. The weapon looked more for show than actual use. She most likely carried it to ward off any potential muggers, slave traders, or anyone else who would do her harm.

Something like a target having a sword, or a weapon of any kind, would normally convince the boy to pick another purse to pluck. However, the last several days with no food made him a little more daring and determined.

He paced himself behind his target so she wouldn’t notice his steps as he approached her, softly biting his lower lip in concentration. After becoming comfortable with the pace she was walking in, he picked up just slightly. He slowly gained on her until he came within arms length of her.

Just before he reached out for the small pouch tied to her belt, she turned to look at him.

My heart almost jumped out of my chest as we locked eyes! I felt my eyes bulge and my teeth snap together as I braced myself... How did she know I was there? I my legs turned to jelly as I stumbled backwards, tripping over my own feet. Even after falling back on my butt, I still couldn't pull my eyes away from hers. It felt like I was caught under a spell!

Her eyes were deep, like bottomless pools of piercing blue. It felt like nothing I had was mine anymore, like my whole life was out in the open. Like it was all just an open book, hers to skim if she so chose. She had very long pure white hair, too. It just seemed strange before, but now the way her hair reached down to her belt as she towered over me made her seem scary... It makes her look like demon, waiting to rip my soul from my body! Her clothes weren't as scary, though. They made her look like a normal person. They weren't all fancy, and they didn't feel like they belonged to a dangerous person. They were in bad shape, but were pretty good compared to what I wore.

I don't know how long we just stayed there, the white haired statue over the paralyzed mouse, but she eventually closed her eyes. She turned and left me, continued on her way as if I was nothing more than a curious stray cat that kept her attention for only a moment.

How had she known I was behind her? My technique was flawless! Or, at least flawless enough to get behind someone without them knowing... and I had done it so perfectly! My breath was silent, my steps soundless, my shadow behind me, and my pace matched hers perfectly! I hadn't even begun to lift my hand for her coin pouch before she caught me... and she did nothing.

I finally felt confident enough to stand back up. I dust off my pants and look to her. She walked... it's hard to describe, but watching her walk made me think I was watching an illusion. The way she walked made her seem like she wasn't even really there; her pure hair gliding softly behind her, giving a ghostly feel to her unusual walk.

I half-way expected her to turn back around and take a running slash at me with her sword. She did not... she had also known what I was planning to do, to steal from her. She HAD to have known. But she just... left. Why? This world has never before forgotten my punishment for even the slightest mistakes, and it often seemed to like punishing me for nothing at all, so why? Why show mercy, why now? Why not the day I was born? Why not when I was left alone in this town by parents whose faces I can't even remember for reasons I was never told? Why not when I was taken in by this town's orphanage, by the cruel man with the sword? Why now, with something as small as a simple purse snatch from a random traveler?

She finally fell out of sight, into the town and lost in the lightly crowded dirt roads. I let loose a breath of relief, one I only barely realized I was holding, and brushed off my pants again. Or, what if this was just another punishment? She had a sword, one she was in every right by the laws of this town to use on me, yet she never even grabbed the handle. What if my life is meant to drag on as long as miserably possible? Yeah... that makes sense.

I licked my lips, rubbed my eyes a little, and dusted my pants one last time. I'm finding something to eat. If my life has to last as long as it can, then I'm tired of messing around. I'm going for one of the food stands! I've been out here for hours already, for several days, and I haven't had a single successful grab! I'll starve to death if I don't get something soon, and so far this world hasn't given me anything. If I'm going to get something, I'm going to have to take it for myself!

Well... even though that's what I thought, I'm still a bit hesitant: I hadn't tried a food stand before now for a reason. The merchants here had signs on their stands. “Ten Copper Coins For Thieves!” So, if anyone is seen stealing from any stand, there is a reward for the person who catches the thief (some of the prices are different, but there’s a sign on every table). A reward like that isn't very much, but the costumer’s seem more than willing to go out of their way to chase down a thief, even though in this town the only real thieves were people like me. It doesn’t matter to them, though; they don't go easy on kids around here.

I looked around the market, scoping out the most vulnerable food stands. There were four of them, four food vendors that looked even a tiny bit possible to try. One table had nine people, two had ten people, and the last one had eleven people around it. I chose the table with eleven people crowding it.

I've never tried to steal from a table that had less than fifteen people on it, because the more people crowded the easier it was to steal from, but I'm not letting my life walk all over me anymore! I will get food from this stand, and I will survive!

I blended into the crowd from the neighboring table, and looked over the food. There wasn't much I could go for, but there was one piece of bread that was just begging to be swiped... it was sitting by the edge of the table, almost like it was set aside just for me. I would normally think twice about something this easy to steal, as it might be a trap, but I just really don't care anymore.

The bread was small, about twice the size of an orange, but it would definitely fill me up! It would keep away my hunger for a few hours, and I would be able to make it another few days: plenty of time for me to find another traveler to steal from.

I looked to the merchant, the one at the food stand I was going to steal from. He was old, probably 30 something, kinda fat, with a round and hairy face. Even though he had a thick beard and mustache, his eyebrows were very, very thin, so thin it made me wonder if he had the top half of his face switched out with another person. His face was all greasy, too. Greasy looking sweat shone on his face from his forehead to his second chin. His head hair was brown, moving up and to the left slightly so it looked a little like a brown bush after getting caught in the middle of a tornado. He was busy arguing prices with a few costumers, leaving me and the bread completely out of view. I took a deep breath... actually getting the bread was going to take all of my skill and more luck than life had ever blessed me with. It wasn't just the funny looking man; if one of the other costumer’s saw me, I was caught.

I crept through the crowd, making it within an arms length of the bread. I glanced up and saw the merchant was still arguing about prices. No one else had noticed me either. I moved my hand... I reached for it, trying to move fast enough to grab it before they noticed, but not so fast that they saw me from the corner of their eye.

I felt the bread, the crisp, soft feeling of the crust. My fingers tight around it, I pulled back to run, but I felt a sweaty, slimy, meaty claw wrap itself around my wrist! It was the merchant, he had seen me!

“Thief!” he shouts, yanking me over to the side of his table. It hurt, his grip tightening and crushing me painfully; I could do nothing but wince, but even then my face didn't show much. I couldn't see it, but I'm sure if someone just saw my face they would have thought I was simply sitting in an uncomfortable spot.

“You thought I didn’t notice you, boy!?” he yells, a fleck of spit wetting my face. His breath smells awful, like rotting meat. “Huh?” he yelled after I said nothing, shaking me around by my wrist. My stomach slams into the table; it really hurt, but my face stayed in its forced 'nothing' expression. “I saw you hawking my table from over there! I see everything! I smelled you the minute you stepped foot in this market!”

I kept silent. My face still perfectly relaxed, besides the slight wince and the slight painful curl of my lip I could feel forcing itself on my face. He got angry, angry at me for not being frightened like he wanted. It was fine, though. Even though he's angry, I won't be beaten as badly as I would if I showed pain and fear. “I’ll teach you what happens to dirty thieves!” he hollers before cocking his fist back.

I tensed and closed my eyes to brace myself. The hit would be heavy, and it would hurt. I was sure of that, ready for that. But, instead of feeling pain, I only heard a soft noise… a soft 'clasp'ing type noise.

“What the hell are you doing!?” I heard him shout at someone... someone that wasn't me. I opened my eyes. I don't understand... I closed my eyes again and rubbed them with my free hand. Maybe I was just seeing things... I opened my eyes again, but the image stayed. The white haired woman with the sword was standing there; she had her hand placed carefully over the merchant’s fist, holding him from punching me.

She didn't say anything for a long moment... she just stared at the merchant with the same look she had on when I saw her earlier, a completely blank expression. Soon enough, though, she turned her sharp, all seeing eyes to me, looking right through me again. But this time it felt like she felt understood me more than before, when it felt like she was just watching me. Before I even noticed she moved, she had reached down and took the bread from my still trapped hand. She squished it slightly, like she was testing a wet sponge, before looking back at the merchant.

“Yeah, this little punk tried to steal from me!”

She nodded. She pulled her hand off of his fist and reached into the small purse tied to her belt, pulling out a silver coin.

“What are you doing?” the merchant asked, becoming more confused than angry. I just watched, too aware to be confused.

She reached over to his table and grabbed another, larger loaf of bread. She then held the two loafs up before placing the silver coin down on his table.

“Are… are you buying what he stole?” he asked, looking like he couldn't believe what was happening. “You’re bailing this little thief out?” The woman just nodded again. The merchant looked down to the silver coin shining on his table. A silver coin was worth a lot here. Why would she pay that much to save me?

He thought about it for only an instant before the slimy meat claw holding my wrist let go and swiped the coin off the table, almost too fast for a meat claw. I jolted away from him, at least two meaty arms away. “Alright…” he said, tucking the coin safely into a hidden pocket on the inside of his shirt. “But don’t let me catch you here again,” he snarled, pointing a threatening finger at the me. It wiggled slightly, looking like I’d imagine a living sausage.

He looked back to the woman who saved me. “I don’t really understand why you would want to help him, but it's your money. I won't be complainin' if you give it to me.” When the woman didn’t respond, she just stared at him, her expression still entirely blank, he shook his head. “What, can't you speak? Are you deaf? Mute?”

What did he call her... Mu? What's that? I don't think I've ever heard that word before.

The woman just bowed, then turning her back on the merchant to look at me. We just stared at each other for a few seconds. What did she want? Why does she keep showing up? Before I could really think about it, she handed me a loaf of bread, the big one she had taken from the table.

I took the bread, I held it tight to my chest with both hands, and watched her walk away for the second time today. I don’t... I can't understand; why? I was one second away from an unforgiving beating, my punishment for being noticed, but more importantly I was saved from being noticed. I would have been on watch for at least three days, there is no way I would have been able to get any food without a miracle. I would have certainly gone through several more unbearable nights, my stomach in crippling pain as it ate from my body to keep itself alive. But this woman... this woman that only knew me because I had tried to steal from her, had just saved my life. She had given up a silver coin, and she did it for me. I realized my mouth was open while I watched her, and I closed it. She had protected me, and she had saved me. She started to fall out of sight for the second time this day when I felt myself move forward awkwardly, like my body was made out of steel and straw. “W-wait!” I shouted after her, taking a bite from the bread she had given me. It had made it a little harder to move, as my stomach was forced to stretch around the bread. “Wait!” I shouted again through a mouthful of bread. I swallowed, and decided to stop eating before she was gone, probably forever this time. My slow and stiff shuffle forward quickly turned into a run, and my voice got louder with no food to get in its way. “Wait, wait!”

I don't think she slowed down, but she was only walking. I caught up to her soon enough.

“Thank you lady!” My hunger almost forgotten, lost in the possibility of making a friend in a world of enemies. “My name’s Hiro! What’s yours?”

She glanced down to me, moving her head as slightly as possible so I only caught the very corner of her eye, but she said nothing. Her face was still, as calm and blank as it always seemed to be. “… Don’t you have a name?”

She just blinked once, watching me curiously, looking like a woman that was just watching a stray puppy as she tried to figure out what it wanted. “You really don’t have a name? Wow… I’ve never heard of anyone who didn’t have a name before…” as I said those words, I begun to wonder. I looked to the sky with my hand on my chin. “Or maybe I’ve never heard of them BECAUSE they have no name…”

I thought about it for a moment. I often hear people whispering about different people, like the bandit who was challenging the emperor, or the woman who could talk to animals, but they always had names. What if they didn't have names? Would they still be talked about? Or, maybe the people talking about them made up names for those with none. In that case...

“Is it okay if I make up a name for you? It feels really weird talking to a person with no name.”

She stared at me. I couldn't tell what she was thinking, but she nodded after a few seconds.

“Alright! Well… let’s see… I could call you… no, that won’t work…” There were a couple I could use. Eye Book, after how she looks at people, Ghost, after how she walks, Snow Hair, after her hair, Cat, after how softly she moves, but none of them seemed to fit. I wanted her to have a special name, one no one else anywhere had. 

“Oh!” I finally found one! It was what that merchant had said earlier. “How about Mu? That’s a pretty cool word, and it sounds pretty fun as a name, right?”

She looked down at me strange, her fast twisting a little. It was the first time I had seen her expression change, so I must have picked a good name! I'm glad! After another moment of looking at me, she nodded twice.

“Alright! Nice to meet you Mu!” I lifted up the bread that she had given me, and started eating again. It didn't take me longer than 5 seconds to wolf down a good portion of it. After I had gotten a bit more in my stomach, I shoved the bread into my shirt and shot my hand out to her. We should shake hands, it's what people do when they meet under good terms, right?

Her hand started to move towards mine, but about halfway she stopped. She looked down at her sword, and her hand that she reached out gripped the handle. I took half a step back, getting ready to run. Was this finally it? The moment she would slash me? Her eyes started dancing around, like she was thinking about many things at once. After she finally seemed to decide on something, she nodded to her sword. She looked back up to me for only an instant before she took off running. Her eyes... the first time I saw them, they looked curious. They second time I saw them, they looked like they understood. But this time, they looked like they were sorry. Like they were apologizing to me for something that happened. She... didn't want to run from me...

“W-Wait!” I cried out when I realized it. She didn't want to leave me... and I didn't want to be left alone. Suddenly my feet started moving, running, hurrying in the direction of my new friend. I kept going faster until I was running full-speed towards her, running faster towards something then I had ever run from anything.

You don't want to follow her, a woman's voice called, the words echoing through my head without ever being spoken. It was strange, but if it had to be explained, it was like hearing, feeling, and seeing something break and instantly knowing nothing was broken.

“What?” I asked the voice, out of breath as I ran. I looked around a little, knowing I wouldn't see the voice, and I noticed that we had made it out of the crowded market street. We were now in the slums, where the cheap hotels and brothels set up shop. I looked towards Mu again, just in time to see her white hair disappear into an alley. I followed her.

As I turned into the dark, narrow alley, I saw nothing. There was a knocked over trash can, some trash sprinkled across the ground, and a broken wooden crate, but no Mu. There was a thirty foot wall on the end of the alley, so I knew there was no way she could have gotten out. I looked around again and took a step into the alley. “Mu?” I called, taking another step into the darkness.

Turn back, the voice spoke again, leave now, for your own good.

“Who are you?” I was confused, I had never heard a voiceless voice before. “Why do you want me to go away?”

This woman will bring you nothing but pain, nothing but tragedy, she's nothing but evil. Turn back now, it's for your own good.

I felt my teeth clench together. I don't know who this voice is, or why it was saying what it was saying, but it's making me angry. “What do you know about pain?!” I shouted into the nothingness, my voice rising with my anger. “I don't know who you are, but you don't know anything! Mu is the first person to ever be my friend! The first person who ever helped me! The first person I ever met that hasn't thrown things at me, or called me names, or hurt me!” I stopped, looking down to the dirt. My legs felt weak again. I clenched my fists and my teeth to the point where it hurt. “How can a person like that be evil?” I asked, this time my voice was low, barely above a whisper.

The voice didn't answer me... it was completely silent as I stood there. I'm not leaving without an answer! Almost a minute had passed, and I thought the voice had left, but then I heard a noise. A soft noise, what sounded like a foot step, echoed lightly through the alley. I looked up, and saw Mu walking towards me! She didn't say anything, and her face was still expressionless.

She stopped walking directly in front of me. We stared at each other again, but only for a few seconds this time. Then she walked around me, and out of the alley, out onto the dirt road. I couldn't believe it... had she left me? Did she want nothing more to do with me?

Are you coming, or am I no longer your friend? The voice called again. I jumped a little, I didn't expect to hear it again, and turned to look at Mu. My new friend... she was standing at the mouth of the alley, waiting for me! I caught her eye, and I understand now. That voice, the voiceless voice, it was hers! I don't know how, but she can talk to me without talking! That's so cool! I felt myself smile wide, all of my teeth showing as I ran up to her side. I've never felt this before... this, kinda restricting feeling in my chest, but it makes me so happy that I feel like it's about to explode from my chest! Is this what being happy was like? I never thought someone like me could feel this.

And so, Hiro and Mu continued down the long road. Hiro was the happiest he'd ever been. And though Hiro wasn’t able to see it, Mu was happy as well. The scene was serene, and it didn't look like anything could interfere... that is, until Mu noticed three dangerous presences up on the roof. Three of them, glaring murderous hate down upon her and her new friend.

Author's Note

stuff. i write it, you read it, you write about it, i read about it.

Reviews

[shadow night]

good job i was hooked for once. bravo. i will be expecting more from you. cant wait for the next chapter. the characters are wonderfull and well described. you descriptions are amazing....

[Fell]

wow I really love this. you have great description, and your characters just really come alive! you will definitely be hearing more from me :)

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