Chapter 1

Roy awoke to the sound of trees rocking in the wind. For a moment, it felt as if he was back home in Lilac, listening to the sounds of the wind from his mothers chimes on the front porch. Except it was quieter out here, and the only sound he could hear were branches snapping against each other near the edge of the forest.

It was a particualarly bright night, the full moon lighting up the field where he stood. The grass around him flowed back and forth, glittering from the lunar light.

Roy had experienced the loveliness of a full moon many times from his years on the road yet it still managed to captivate him every time. He sometimes wondered if he was the only one of his group who could appreciate natures whims. Most people were too caught up in the kings war to really pay attention to what nature was saying.

He called the war that raged on in his homeland, the kingdom of Roheemia, the "kings war" because nobody but the King himself agreed it was a good idea in the first place.

This same war had caused his own brother to leave home years back to join the imperial reserves. It wasn't the most dangerous of work, but they rarely heard from him.

King Beyfor was one of those kings who believed in expansion. Not the most head turning prospect for a king, but King Beyfor had decided he needed to expand into the then peaceful nation of the Sovalians. The Sovalians neighbored Beyfors kingdom, the Kingdom of Roheemia, to the east. Beyfor only wanted to expand into the unclaimed lands of Sovalia, not take over existing towns and cities.

It was in no way an aggressive expansion, but his need for power had tainted his good intentions. When the Sovalians had rejected the idea of Beyfors troops passing through Sovalian land, and attacked out of frustration, the war began. All started by Beyfors need to prove himself and cement his legacy.

At least that's the way Roy saw it.

Roy closed his eyes and took in the night. Another strong gust came through and blew back his shoulder length brown hair. Taking a deep breath, he stretched. Breathing in deep, he could smell the forest.

There was something special about being in a field at night, with the moon shining down on you. It was as if the stars were watching him, and in a way guiding him along as cheesy as it sounded. When he and his two friends Edgar and Cubert traveled at night, the stars guided them in a literal sense. But metaphorically, he had no idea where they were leading him.

Still though, in a strange way he felt a connection with the stars. It was hard to explain.

"Go back to sleep Al," said Edgar, slurring his words from exhaustion.

Born as Alroy Leander, he told most people he met that his name was Roy. Alroy sounded much too old world for his taste.

"Yeah yeah...." said Roy, more to himself than to Ed.

The two had taken to calling each other Al and Ed, when they realized it would make them harder to track if people didn't know their real names. One could argue that two and two wouldn't be hard to put together, but in a way both of them understood this wasn't helping them much. It just made them feel more professional.

Edgar was the loudmouth of the three. A group isn't real without one. You wouldn't think much of him if you saw him. He wore scuffed up, holed up, and tore up clothing. "Who are we trying to impress?" should be tattooed on his chest. He looked like the lowlife street urchun type. Yet his instinct for danger had kept them out of the thicket more times than Roy could count. It wasn't so much that he saw things Roy or Cubert didn't, but that he was skeptical of almost every person they encountered.

He and Edgar had lived in the same village until they were fifteen, a quaint little village called Lilac, in the South. It was customary for the young men to set out on their own at that age, and that's just what he and Edgar had done. Life in the village was calm, quiet. It wasn't fit for two troublemakers like them.

Then there was Cubert, who was the oldest of the group. At seventeen, Cubert had always been more quiet than the other two, allowing them to squabble it out.

Roy and Edgar had liberated him from a tedious job as a farmhand about a year back, when the two had worked as spare farmhands in turn for a few nights sleeping indoors. They didn't know much about him other than that he knew how to keep his mouth shut (or maybe he preferred to) and didn't ask questions. Which meant that they were fast friends.

Cubert always seemed to be thinking, occasionally giving out suggestions and words of wisdom, and just noticing things in general that would never occur to the other two. He was a decent addition to the team.

And that was that. The three of them were the best two bit thieves this side of Roheemia. And lately, every side of Roheemia.

"Did you say something?" said Edgar, rolling back over.

"Nope, go back to sleep." Roy told him, keeping his eyes to the sky.

"That's what I just told you to do!" Edgar said, raising his voice.

"Would you keep it down? One of us is still sleeping!"

"Not anymore." sighed Cubert, sitting up.

"Welp! Since we're all up, we might as well get moving!" said Edgar snootily.

Edgar began getting up, and Cubert watched for a moment still half asleep, probably hoping he would change his mind. When Edgar didn't, Cubert sighed again and lurched to his feet.

Oh well, thought Roy. So much for peace and quiet. "Do we at least have something for breakfast?" he asked.

"Nope, remember that was our whole motivator for tomorrow, er.....today." explained Edgar.

They were running dangerously low on food. It had been a week since their last job, a merchant cart in the previous town, and they were on their way to the next. The stuff they had stolen from the merchant cart was half rotted, so the way they saw it, it wasn't getting bought anyway.

Besides, nobody was going to hire outsiders who roamed into town, especially ones who looked as dirt leggish as them. The stealing was about survival, plain and simple. And as skills went, stealing was their best by far.

"Okay guys", said Edgar rolling out the small map, "we need to be in and out of this place FAST. I don't like the looks we've been getting the past few times we went into town...."

"We weren't getting looks, it's all in your head." said Roy, rolling his eyes.

Edgar was the planner of the group, not that their little heists needed much planning. It was pretty much a "get in and get out before anyone sees your face" sort of plan usually. Being the most paranoid of the three, planning came naturally to him. He had backup plans for days in case anything ever went wrong.

"Hey that guy was eyeballing me big time! And did you see the lady rush off after we asked her for directions? I really don't want to jinx us but....anyone else thinking we have a bounty on us?"

Cubert and Roy laughed. The idea that the three of them had a bounty on their heads was a subtle hilarity. They never stole anything high value, only food and sometimes a shirt off a clothes line. Nobody was going to waste their gold by placing a bounty on petty thieves.

"Have you ever thought it's because you haven't bathed in a month?" said Roy.

"I'm not kidding guys. I know we haven't taken a lot but it's adding up. Think about how many towns we've went through these past few months."

The group fell silent in thought for a moment, and Edgar smelled himself casually, lurching his head back up fast enough to give himself whiplash.

"Anyway check this out," he continued, "as luck would have it this map tells us pretty much everything about the next village. What the security is like, number of villagers, gold....."

Edgars voice began to trail off and he started looking very closely at the map, reading silently.

"What?" asked Roy, but Edgar raised a finger.

Cubert was looking at them both, out of his trance.

The moon had almost dissapeared, leaving the field at its darkest before the sun came up.

Edgar struck a match and hovered it over the map. He cursed under his breath and put out the match.

"Damn guys, this aint a town. It's a city."

Cubert and Roy groaned. Cities were a totally different dynamic. The risk certainly outweighed the reward. The amount of guards would be triple what they normally ran into. Plus cities had a curfew, meaning they wouldn't be able to run after they took whatever it is they happened to take. Nobody was allowed in or out after dark.

Roy snatched the map.

"Are you sure this is a city?" he asked, lighting another match.

Roy found the city on the map, a place called Dimwell, and was surprised to see a thick red circle around the place. Not only did it say how many guards there were in the city, but it also showed where they were posted. An X was drawn near the center, and next to it a large sum was written. It was an amount, most likely gold.The X must be the cities bank. If Roy didn't know better he'd say whoever drew this map was planning their own heist.

"Hey Edgar, maybe we should rob this bank." said Roy jokingly, showing Edgar the X.

"Whoa! I didn't even notice that before! Look at all the gold they have there!" said Edgar.

The two laughed and continued looking at the map.

Cubert had come up behind them and was looking at the map himself. "Edgar...." he said, "....where did you get that map?"

"I did the old bump and grab", explained Edgar, "the guy was weird looking. Real shady."

Roy looked up at Cubert who had stepped away and looked to be thinking. When Roy asked what was wrong, Cubert just waved him off and continued packing.

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Within a few hours the trio was outside of Dimwell, and since the sun had come up during their journey, they were permitted to enter. The city was massive, with great walls scaling at least eighty feet in the air. Whoever had drawn that map must have had a serious reconassaince team to be able to locate every guards movement patterns.

It was still early morning, so the farmhands and shopkeepers were all up and about the town, going on about their tasks, mindlessly slogging from one point to the next.

The streets were paved smooth, a much appreciated change from the uneven dirty roads the gang were so accustomed to.

Homes with chimneys exuded aromas of different meals being prepared all at once. The smells made all three of the boys stomachs grumble, as if there were a creaky ship pulling into port.

"I've never seen anything like this...." said Roy, staring up and around.

Edgar slapped him on the shoulder. "Knock it off! Act like you belong!"

"Hey! As if you look anything but homeless!" yelled Roy.

Before the two could start their inevitable brawl in the middle of the street, Cubert tapped them both on the arm, and they looked up to see a column of guards heading their way. Leading them was a mustached commander, whom despite his lack of impressive stature, carried himself with an air of dignity. He stopped at Roy and Edgar who stared at him, waiting for him to say something.

He just kept staring.

So they kept staring as well.

Finally, at the thirty second mark, the man shook his head and smiled. "Nobody has ever made me break the silence before."

"Huh?" said Edgar.

"It's a little game I like to play with new people I see. I guess you two beat me."

Roy nodded slowly, highly confused. "Yeah, in our line of work it's important to keep your eye on the prize."

Edgars head snapped to Roy.

"Oh? What type of work would that be?" said the man.

"Errr....we....sheep?" Edgar scrambled.

Roy and Cubert held their breath.

"Sheep huh," said the man, "I used to live on a sheep farm. My uncles. I tried to ride one when I was little. Hit my head on a fence post..." The man became distant and appeared to be recalling this memory with a degree of scorn.

Roy could feel Edgar getting antsy. "Sir, are we in trouble?"

The man laughed. "No, of course not. My men and I have been tasked with locating a roving gang outside the city. I merely wanted to warn you in case you planned on traveling out."

"Roving gang?" said Roy. They hadn't seen anyone on their way in.

"Indeed," said the man, "we've gotten this report constantly over the past few months from multiple sources near Dimwell. The commander sends my unit out, we look around for the day, yet we never find anyone...or anything." The man was looking at their clothing now.

"Sheep. You know, they're dirty animals..." said Roy.

"I see..." said the man. "...AND agree."

Edgar began nudging Roy and Cubert along. "We should really get going, sir!"

"Ah, certainly," said the man, turning as they went around him, "I'm sorry to have kept you. I'm Captain Hoss by the way, forgive my manners."

Roy pulled against Edgar, halting the group. "I'm Roy," he said, extending his hand and shaking Captain Hoss's. "This is Edgar and that's Cubert."

Hoss nodded to each of them as they were introduced. "Good to meet you three. Also I would check in with Gordahl in the refugee district, his daughter does the washing up for my unit for a fee. Maybe give her some business? Actually that's her over there!" He pointed to a girl up the road a ways, who waved to him. Hoss waved back cheerily.

"Will do, Hoss." said Roy, glancing between him and the girl.

"Farewell then," said Hoss.

And with that, he and his men marched away.

Roy had never encountered a guard like that before. He was stunned by how pleasant the man was, especially considering how they must look.

As soon as they were out of earshot Edgar flipped out. "Perfect! Now a captain of the guard knows our faces AND our names!" he said, then hushed his voice, "and if anything goes missing we're prime suspects."

"Relax Edgar," said Roy, "we'll get cleaned up, then scope the place out. No big deal."

"It was already a longshot. We might as well leave."

"You heard the captain, there's some gang or whatever out there. If he's right then we'll be safer in the city. And besides, did you see how many men he had with him? There's going to be less patrols on the street tonight." He raised his eyebrows at Edgar, probing a positive attitude from him.

Edgar groaned.

"It's fine," said Roy walking further along, "let's just take a look around."

Watching Roy walk away, Edgar suddenly turned to Cubert. "What do you think?" he asked. Cubert merely shrugged and began to follow in Roys footsteps.

After roaming the city for a few hours, Roy discovered that they were indeed out of their element here. Townsfolk were different than village ones. For one thing, towns were much louder. The people here mostly worked indoors and in comfort, as opposed to the mandatory labors of small village living. Naturally this meant everyone was much cleaner. And snootier.

"Hey there sir!" said Edgar to a passerby, a tall and proud looking man. He passed Edgar without even glancing his way.

"What's his problem?" said Edgar, crossing his arms.

"You look like a beggar," said Cubert.

Edgar scoffed. "I wasn't gonna ask for much!"

Roy brushed at his filthy shirt nonchalantly as the city dwellers bustled past, occasionally staring at the three with dismay and slight disgust. Edgar played with his hair. Cubert stared at his shoes.

After standing on the street corner for a bit not knowing what to do next, Edgar began walking across the street. Roy and Cubert followed.

"I can't take this anymore!" said Edgar, dunking his head into a water basin. A surprising amount of dirt washed off his hair as he waded his face through it, his head still underwater.

Roy and Cubert looked at each other, shrugged, and did the same.

By the time they were done, the water had turned light brown. Whoevers water this was, it was ruined now. Although their clothes were still filthy, Roy felt better.

"You know that water is for the horses."

The three turned to see a girl watching them, no older than fifteen. Her brownish blonde hair was tied back, and her clothing was made of a cheaper material that suggested she had little more than they did. Still, the boys shifted uncomfortably now that a girl was present. She was standing under an awning, slightly above them on a porch. Her hands gripped the railing as she peered down at them. "You guys were with Hoss at the gate, right? I thought you might be coming over." she said, sweeping a stray wisp of hair away from her eye.

Roy stepped forward. "Yeah, you're Gordahls daughter? He said you could help us get cleaned up." he said, gesturing to his clothing with one hand and the other rubbing absently at the back of his neck.

"Yeah, my name is Lyra. And that shouldn't be a problem," she said with a smile, "if Hoss trusts you that's good enough for me. Believe it or not he's a pretty good judge of character."

"Yeah he actually seems alright," said Roy, "we're not really used to that."

"I know what you mean," said Lyra, her tone becoming grim, "the commander of the garrison is very different."

"Different how?" said Edgar, speaking up for the first time.

Lyra looked at him, then back at Roy. "He's just-"

"An asshole?" said Edgar.

Lyra laughed. "Simply put...yes."

There was something about this girl that Roy trusted. She seemed sincere.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Lyra. I'm Roy, this is Edgar, and the tall quiet guy is Cubert."

"Roy, Edgar, and Cubert. Got it. Nice to meet you." She started to walk, motioning for them to follow.

"Looks like we made a friend." said Edgar, a faint note of distrust in his voice.

Roy wasn't surprised by Edgars reaction, but he turned to Cubert in case he might actually be missing something. He was watching the girl walk away, but caught Roys eye. He gave a nod, signaling the all clear.

Two out of three was good enough.