"Eric, Gale, do you two know what's going on lately? At first, I only thought I was imagining it, so I didn't say anything, but the guards have been increasing in our territory recently!"
"I don't know, leader, but they almost got me today actually. It is getting dangerous!"
"Idiot, that's because you are slow, I tell you every time to be a little bit more careful. But... I may have an idea, Alex. I couldn't see it clearly, but there was some kid that I know wasn't from our territory."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, he was stealing stuff."
"Hey, do you mean that redhead?"
"What do you mean, Gardos?"
"Ahh, I saw that kid a few days ago. Couldn't really make out anything, only the red hair. Was acting a little suspicious but disappeared pretty fast without doing much, so I didn't think much about it until now. Sorry leader, I probably should have reported that."
"Now that you say that, I think that could be the person we are looking for."
"It's ok. Jayden do you know anything?"
"Nothing to report, boss! I would never overlook something like this!"
"Forsten?"
The last person who wasn't speaking until now shook his head.
"Hm, our territory is big enough for us six and even when Kyle was still with us, so it shouldn't be such a big problem... But we still have to talk to that kid thats trespassing our territory. But why would the guards increase then? Still, you saw that person, Gale, how did he look?"
"I'm not sure if it's a he or she, they were really fast, so I couldn't see much, but Gardos is right about the red hair. But..."
"Say it! What are you thinking Gale?"
"Well, that person seemed to have experience, with stealing I mean. In that case, they should also know that this is our territory."
"Out with it, what do you want to say?"
"Maybe, they are deliberately over-stealing in our territory."
"So you think that someone is attacking us?"
"Maybe."
"Ok, red hair, that pretty rare. Keep a lookout and if you find a kid with red hair, deal with them on the spot or drag them here if you can't be sure. But that can wait till tomorrow, now its time to eat and then sleep!"
....
It was early morning. In the past, Alice would still be sleeping, but right now, sleeping long was the least of her worries.
A few days ago, Alice had sneaked in the city during the night. There may have been only a limited number of roads that lead into the city that were all controlled by guards, but the city didn't have any walls, so she had an easy time to get in in the dark.
Still, even after she had gotten in, she got found quickly and was chased around by guards for half the night. In the end, she got completely lost and hid in a small backyard. But she woke up soon, getting almost caught by the owner. She wasn't sure what would happen when she got caught, but Alice was sure that they would throw her out of Harborton, which was the name of this harbor city, at the very least. And probably not very gently.
At that moment she heard a voice:
"Did you find her?"
"No, but she can't be far if she is still in our territory!"
"True, but don't let her get away again!"
At first, Alice thought she only had to evade the guards, so she got by barely by stealing food and sleeping on the street. But two days ago, a group of children, roughly around her own age, had started to chase her as well. They were claiming that she had ‚invaded their territory' and that they would punish her.
Hearing their voices, Alices quickly left the backyard she had been using as a sleeping-place and started running away. She instinctively knew that it would be even worse then being caught by the guards if those children found her.
....
It hadn't been long since they had found out about the existence of the thief. But they hadn't made much progress catching him ever since. Quite opposite even, much to Alex resentment, they had to decrease the amount of food and money they stole each day to prevent the guards from increasing further.
The thief, on the other hand, didn't stop, proving Gale to be right.
Alex had already long since the suspicion that another group was responsible for this. This was a very dangerous tactic for both parties and only worked on smaller territories well, but it wasn't unheard of. If other groups were to directly try and take over a territory it would often end with severe injuries and even deaths on both sides, while surrounding parties would become very cautious and even hostile towards the attacking party. This was a trick that was sometimes used to prevent that. You only needed one thief of high skill and could ‚smoke out' a territory by making use of the city guard this way. Afterward, the surrounding groups would share the now empty territory.
*shwi shwi shwiiii*
Hearing the sharp whistle, Alex stopped his thoughts for a moment. Two short, one long. Someone had found the target.
Alex looked around for a moment and immediately found what he was looking for. He grabbed a window sill, put his foot into a crack in the wall, grabbed a slightly protruding stone with his other hand, and just like that, he swiftly scaled the wall and stood on the rooftop after not even half a minute.
*shwiiiiuuuuuuuiiiiiiiiii shwi shwi*
Listening to the call again, Alex confirmed the direction, it came from Eric's position. The two short ones at the end meant that the thieve was coming in Alex direction.
With clearly trained movements, Alex started running fast towards Eric's position, jumping from roof to roof while avoiding those that weren't safe or were dead ends.
Under normal conditions, they would avoid doing this as it would incite the anger of those that lived there and was to attention-grabbing, but right now he had to to be fast while evading the guards, so this was the best available option.
He got quickly closer to the boundary of their territory, it seemed like the thief was trying to get away.
....
Alice was running as fast as she could, she had to as one of the children had found her. The guy that was coming after her, wasn't very fast and normally she could outrun him without any problems, but she was definitely not in her best form. So even though he was rather slow, he stubbornly managed to keep up with her while releasing weird whistles.
Making an effort, Alice sped up a little while taking many turns trying to lose him.
Suddenly, a boy came running around a corner in front of her.
"Oh, that staff looks expensive!"
The boy didn't even hesitate and, before Alice could react, punched her in the face. Because they were both running towards each other at fast speeds, the punch packed quite a bit of power, making her lose consciousness immediately.