"Please let me in!" I begged the guard standing on post, "the Sanctuary is the only safe place for me, please let me in!" the guard's heavy gaze shifted downwards a fraction to look me square in the eyes.
"Jade Brown you are not permitted to enter as you have not paid the full amount of 100 gold pieces per m-," I cut him off, "but I'm only fourteen, a child!". He pointed the spear he was armed with level to my stomach, "then leave now, child, and you may be spared from the Keeper's wrath."
I swallowed my retort and left, head held high, holding my dignity in tatters. Fury boiled under the surface of my skin.
I never asked for this.
I was struggling, there was no doubt about it. My clothes were dirty, ripped and grass-stained, bags under my eyes and my muscles aching from constantly running and hiding from those who refused to take me in or even attempt to understand. After being pushed into the corner of crime by the so-called 'good' royal family I had to steal to survive. What I stole I sold on the black market, not the safest place for someone like me. Often I would have to give away what I have just to be allowed to live.
As I trudged down the main street, bustling with many people across the globe seeking the royals, I looked up and saw, to my horror, my face plastered on a billboard.
Jade Brown is wanted for the assassination of Royal Army General Wilfred Lumbread, theft of Crown jewels and other smaller acts of pick-pocketing around the Capital City Eldgate. 1,000,000 gold pieces to be awarded to those who capture her, alive and brought to the palace.
I swore underneath my breath and kept my face turned down to the cobblestone street. Moving against the crowd I searched my memory for a place that I could stay, even if only just for a night. As I stumble my way against the surge of human bodies my mind floats to a dusty attic above a furniture store a few blocks down. Next problem was how to get there unseen.
The way I looked didn't help the situation either. My skin tanned and sun damaged from long days without shade or shelter. My hair aqua blue. Don't ask why I don't know; I never dyed it.
Guards almost appeared to float through the masses, their tall bear-skin hats sitting above the crowd for all to see. They searched under hoods and top hats, each hoping to be the one to find me, and the glory and money that comes with me. The whole criminal package just waiting to be spotted.
I spun around a soldier, staying in his blind-spot. Nobody gave a second glance in my direction except a toddler who upon sighting me tugged on the beige fabric of her mother's pants, her gaze never leaving mine. Busted by a child, pathetic. I quickly duck out of her vision. A thud followed by a throbbing pain spreads from my chest out. A wall? Not possible. Without lifting my gaze I knew that I had royally messed up this time. A guard, a hairsbreadth away from me, looked down at me as if all I was to him a mosquito he was going squash. In an instant, I had elbowed him in the stomach and scrambled my way towards the city walls. I didn't think it through, sometimes I wish that I let the guard take me.