A woman stood in the middle of the road with her hands raised, her clothing didn't look like anything sold at the small stalls nearby, the jewelry at her wrists reflecting sunlight elegantly.
Her eyes swept left and right with the expression of someone not accustomed to losing something and not knowing where to direct their anger. People around her stopped, some stepping closer, some moving away.
Two security officers came running from the end of the road, their tactical uniforms clean and tidy, their hands already on their respective weapons before they arrived. "What's happening? What's going on?"
Behind the wall of a stall, a pair of eyes narrowed behind a cloth mask covering from the nose downward. A grey hoodie covered the head and part of the face, and from that position, everything was visible.
Those eyes glanced toward the woman still shouting, then to the two officers who had reached her side, then blinked once before the figure disappeared among the passing crowd.
The figure turned into a narrow alley behind a wall, their steps feeling light and unburdened until ... three steps later.
The figure stopped.
Ahead, blocking the end of that narrow alley, three men stood side by side. Their bodies were large, clearly over 2 meters. Their clothing varied but all three wore the same expression, people who had been waiting quite a while and were not in a good mood.
"We finally meet again." The man in the middle took one step forward, his hand raising a wooden plank that had been hidden behind his back until then. "Don't expect to get away this time."
The other two raised their planks and all three advanced together.
"Pfft! You guys again." The figure didn't step back.
Their head tilted slightly to the right, eyes moving left, right, downward, calculating distance in a very short span of time. Then their body moved left just as the first plank swung, letting the air from the swing pass their shoulder by only a few centimeters.
A heavy impact struck the ground, leaving a wide hole with dust flying up.
The body was small enough and the gap between the three large men's legs was wide enough to pass through with one quick low movement. The figure slipped through underneath before any of the three managed to land another strike.
"What!"
"Damn it!"
"Don't let them get away!"
By the time all three turned around, the figure was already running away at a distance of about four steps behind them.
While glancing back, the figure swung one finger back and forth in a small motion.
Suddenly all three fell at the same time, their legs as if caught on something. They looked down and found their shoelaces tied to each other in a neat knot.
"What? ARRGHH!" The frustrated shouts of all three filled that narrow alley.
"Haha ... see you again, idiots!" That laughter came out, the small sound of a woman making no effort to hold it back.
One of the three sat on the ground with a red face, his hands trying to undo laces tied too neatly to be undone quickly. "No more mercy," he muttered, "now I'm truly furious."
"So what now?" asked another, still trying to stand with feet that were tangled.
The first man snorted. "No other choice." His eyes fixed on the end of the alley where the figure had disappeared. "In this Blackridge, only they can catch a slippery rat like that."
***
The climbing trail on Mount Atmos was not written on any map.
Not because no one had ever climbed it, but because no one felt the need to record it. The mountain was only 700 meters tall, too rocky and steep to attract anyone without a specific reason for passing through.
Old volcanic rock filled its trail from bottom to peak, the edges sharp and uneven, and in some places the trail simply disappeared behind large boulders.
The small-framed figure moved among those rocks like someone who knew every gap by heart.
The grey hoodie was still on, its cap covering the head and part of the face, a cloth mask covering from the nose downward. Their feet made no sound when landing on stone, no gravel shifted, no branch snapped underfoot.
Occasionally the figure stopped behind a tree with a thick trunk, their body still for several seconds, only sensing the flow of air around them. There were no sounds or smells that seemed out of place. Their feet moved again.
A hand reached into the pocket of their coat, fingers feeling around a small cloth pouch inside before tossing it aside carelessly. "Only 200 Virel." Their head gave a small shake. "Dressed that lavishly ... she should have been carrying more money."
The warm spring pool was already visible through the large trees ahead, no bigger than half a rice field plot, but its steam could be felt from ten steps away. A thin mist floated on its surface, contrasting with the cold air at that altitude that made breath appear as white vapor.
The figure stopped at the edge, checking the surroundings once more. Dark, quiet, only the sound of water flowing gently from a crack in the rock on the north side of the pool.
Their shoulders dropped, the tension releasing in one long exhaled breath.
The cloth mask came off first, placed on a flat stone at the edge of the pool. Then the hoodie came down, bright green hair falling to the shoulders, disheveled from a full day of travel.
The woman's skin was as white as bone, her body standing only 160 centimeters tall with two small but still firm breasts. Her head gave one shake and her hair moved aside from her face, revealing ears that were pointed at the tips, longer than human ears with an angle that tilted slightly upward.
***