Covered In Mud

"Hey! Stop right there!"

The young girl covered in dirt and mud was running at top speed down the alley way completely ignoring the booming loud voice behind her.

"Hey! Stop! I said stop!"

While approaching the next alley, she jumped and continued running on the wall for a few seconds in order to keep her current momentum going while making the turn. Her plan was to run around the whole building to return to the main street and cross it to continue fleeing on the other side.

She had used this technique many times before and it always succeeded. Making the last turn before her chaser made it to the first gave the illusion that she had instead fled further into the convoluted alleyways of the city, instead of going right back to the main road.

She didn't actually know how they could be as stupid as they were to not try a different approach when chasing her. But she wasn't about to complain as it meant more food for her and her little sister.

That's tight, Alexis was a food stall thief, as well as, a sixteen-year-old girl with long brown hair that she kept in a braided ponytail. Although, since she and her sister had not had the chance to bath since leaving their village a few months ago, her hair was currently a mess along with her ripped and torn outfit.

The caked-on dirt and grime they both had to deal with due to the only shelter they had been able to find, an abandoned horse stable on the edge of the city, greatly reduced their otherwise heaven defying beauty.

After running for thirty minutes without a break in order to ensure no one found her, Alexis entered stealthily into the horse stable where her sister was currently resting. Alexis's little sister, Sara, was her twin and they looked very much alike considering they liked to use the same hair style. However, even though they looked almost identical, Sara didn't come close to having the athletic ability that Alexis had. Therefore, because she was unable to make it to the city's main road without collapsing due to a lack of energy, she mainly just stayed behind going over in her head what she could remember of her spells.

"Hey, I got us some food." Alexis said whilst handing Sara's share to her. It was some melon bread that had been freshly made when it was first stolen.

"Thanks, but how long do we have to live like this?" Sara complained.

"Until we can figure out how to make money…" Alexis replied with a regretful sigh.

To explain how they ended up in this situation, one would have to start back when they were still living in the village, they were born in.

A few months prior, the family of four were at home with the twins' parents contently watching their daughters training. Alexis was busy swinging her trusted sword at a dummy she had created herself while Sara focused on her books as she was trying to learn a new magic spell.

Due to their different interests, one could see that Alexis was very athletic thanks to her sword training whilst Sara's focus on magic caused her to not build up much stamina. But when they worked together, they covered for the others weaknesses.

Just as the two genius daughters were about to wrap up their training for the day to head to bed thanks to their parent suggestion, something that would change the young girls lives forever was about to happen.

"Come out hand over Sara and Alexis, or prepare for the consequences." A loud booming voice had suddenly been heard coming form the front of the house.

The person standing in front of the twin's house after belting out his warning was none other than Brex, the current village head. He had recently become the new village head only a few days before when his father, the previous village head, had died of a mysterious illness.

And now, without his father preventing him from doing the things he wanted to do, he was now here to take ownership of the most beautiful girls in the village. He even bribed the guards he brought along with him that he would find girls for them as well if they helped.

"Alexis, Sara, take the horse and head directly south through the forest. There is a trail at some point that leads to the main road that will take you directly to Pendragon City. Show the guards our family emblem and they will help you. Wait there for us. Ok." Their father whispered to them with great worry.

"But…" the two hesitated.

"Quick, listen to your father, there isn't time. We will be fine." Their mother urged.

And so, they stealthily got on the family's horse and sneaked through the forest behind their house reluctantly.

On their way to Pendragon City, another unfortunate turn of events occurred. While galloping at full speed a wolf with scars on its face suddenly appeared on the road in front of them. This caused their horse to get spooked and he ended up throwing both Alexis and Sara off his back straight into mud before running away on his own.

Now, on their own, the two had to take care of the wolf by themselves. Luckily for them, they were the best of teams. Sara used a magic spell to boost Alexis's speed and strength while Alexis drew her sword and slashed at the woof giving him another new cut on his face.

Woofie immediately became sad that he was hit in the face by a sword for the nth time and turned tail to run. He decided he would avoid humans with swords from now on.

After watching the wolf run away, the two sighed in relief only to realize something important. Their horse was long gone along with the only possession that they had brought with them that depicted their family emblem. They had, in an attempt to keep it safe, kept it in a make shift bag hanging from his saddle.

Due to leaving in a rush, they had only been able to bring the one item depicting their family emblem…

So, there they were, walking the rest of the way to the city covered in mud without any money or their emblem. When they made it to the city gates, the guards were appalled by the state they were in and told them to shoo away. Unable to prove who they were without their emblem, the two decided to sneak in to the city at night.

Luckily for them, they found a way inside the city when the guard's rotations didn't line up perfectly by scaling the wall which was only possible by their teamwork once again. But no matter where they went, no one wanted to help two kids covered in mud. They ended up coming across the abounded horse stable and started camping out there to wait for their parents. But they never showed up.

Back to the present, Alexis woke up early in the morning as she needed to travel to the city center in order to reappropriate some food. She took one last look at her sisters beautiful sleeping face before heading out.

Once again, she was planning to go with her tried and true tactic like every other time and slowly made her way to the to the location of the market at the cities center. Having enjoyed the melon bread from yesterday she wanted to get some it again and made it her target.

Once she got near the City Center, Alexis started slowly creeping her way to the melon bread stall the same way she had done the day before and in the last second before the stall owner was going to turn around after helping a customer, she made her move grabbing same melon bread.

"Hey, not you again, get back here! Stop!"

Of course, she wasn't able to get away with out being seen and a chase ensued.

The only problem was that this time when she got to the part of her tactic where she usually knew she would getaway for sure, something unusual happened.

As Alexis was running full speed and exited back to the main road per her usual plan, instead of a free path to the other side of the main road like usual, she crashed into a girl with black hair wearing leather armor allowing the stall owner to see her and catch up.