Chapter One:
Thievery by the New Moon

A dark figure crept along the parapet of the castle; its head turned quickly side to side as it watched for guards. The castle was nestled cozily in between two mountains. It stood nearly three-hundred and fifty feet tall with spires that stretched toward the sky, trying to pull the stars down to it. Though the castle had outer walls, this shadow had bypassed them by some feat unknown. The moon was new, only a small amount of light shone upon the surroundings. A shadow passed above the figure, but it paid the dark manifestation no heed. The being of night slunk over to the wall and lowered itself down onto the windowsill below, swearing as it almost lost its balance and tumbled into the dark rocky abyss below. The figure slowly removed a dagger from its sleeve. The weapon had a round blood-red ruby in its pommel that shone faintly, even without the light of the moon upon it. Wedging the blade under the hinges of the window, the shadow slowly lifted out the glass.

It flinched as the glass fell forward and shattered into several pieces on the floor. Quickly flinging itself into the room, the shadow looked for a decent hiding place in case the commotion had attracted any attention. All this shadow needed now was more troubles. It was cutting it close as it was. A faint whisper of “whoopsie” escaped the figure’s lips as it examined the broken glass on the floor. Putting this minor destruction behind them, the being began to take in its surroundings. And there in the soft orange torchlight a little more of their appearance was revealed.

The girl stood just slightly over five feet tall. Her entire figure was clad in a black outfit. A loose fitting shirt, gloves, and tight pants with boots melded into one black covering across this shadow girl’s figure. A cloth covered the top half of her face and head with eyeholes cut into it for obvious reasons. Her shoulder length brown hair tumbled from beneath the dark cover to form a muddy veil upon her shoulders. The girl wore several bags around her waist and a couple strapped over her shoulders. She crossed her arms over her chest as a small smirk crept upon her uncovered mouth, giving her an air of confidence.

The smirk disappeared quickly as the sounds of moving chain mail and loud speech echoed in the corridor near the door of the room. Taking advantage of the first hiding place she noticed, the girl sped over to a tapestry on the side of the room by the door. The tapestry depicted a knight being eaten by a serpent while bloody hoards of corpses were lying around it. How pleasant, the girl thought. She was just sliding behind the terrible scene as two guards dressed in festival garments colored red and blue walked into the room. The girl held her breath as they searched it.

“Now lookie here,” said the one guard to the other, “what do you make of this?” He motioned to the glass on the floor.

“Hard to say, but it looks like trouble,” replied the other.

“Maybe it was one of them magical fairies.” The girl had to stop herself from laughing out loud. Her? A fairy? Not very likely.  She peered out slightly from behind the tapestry. The one guard was now over by the window, his head leaned way out of it. Probably looking for fairies, mused the girl. The other guard was kneeling down by the broken glass studying it as if the shards were going to move and spell out some sort of answer for him. You keep at that, the girl thought as she seized the opportunity to get out of the room. She crept through the door, which the guards had left open and dashed silently down the passage.

She approached two very large doors at the end of the corridor. This must be the place, she reasoned. Opening the door a crack, she realized that this was not in fact where she was trying to go. Inside, several lords and vassals sat making merriment over a large banquet. As the girls luck would have it, the host chose the moment she looked in to rise and begin his speech.

“My friends,” he began raising his glass of spirits, “I have been given a great honor by our most generous king!” At this he motioned to a man who was sitting on his left, but actually occupied the center seat of the table. He rose and was saluted with applause. He then shook the speaker’s hand and returned to his seated position, all the while a bored look smattered across his visage.

“So that’s—,” the girl muttered, but was cut off as the applause died and the host continued.

“I now have the honor to be the keeper of the Royal Coronation Crown!” he declared. This too was met with much cheering and foot-stomping.

As much fun as this is, the girl reflected, I really must be going.

The girl passed several more rooms before she finally reached her destination, she hoped: the room that she hoped held the castle’s treasures. The door was mahogany and was inlaid with gold. It was sealed with a large menacing-looking lock made out of iron. This bore the face of a serpent, much like the one from the tapestry. The girl studied the lock for a few moments, taking it into her hands and looking into the keyhole. She then reached into one of the numerous bags she carried and drew out what would seem to the casual examiner a ring of keys. On closer inspection though, one would find not keys on the ring, but pieces of wire bent into various shapes.

“Thank you Master Marron,” she muttered inserting one of the wires into the lock. It clicked and sprung open quickly, making a strange hissing noise as it did. The girl removed the wire from it, replacing the ring back into the bag. She then proceeded to open the doors, which groaned in protest. After entering the room, she quickly shut the doors behind her.

Anyone unaccustomed to seeing large piles of gold and treasure would have gasped at the contents of the room. As it were though, the girl had become quite used to the sight. The room was piled high with treasures that seemed to have been taken from all over the world. On one side of the room, there stood a large golden statue with wonderfully detailed eyes. They seemed to almost be watching over the treasure. The girl looked over the treasures with almost a professional air about her. Like an old women shopping for fruit, she thought to herself. She picked up a golden cup with sapphires around its base. Sighing, the girl replaced it to its former resting place, choosing instead some golden coins that were lying in a pile nearby. She had not come to steal petty unimportant treasure, but even thieves need to steal something to live on. Acquire, not steal, she reminded herself. The black clad thief in denial made her way to the center of the room, walking past several other piles of various riches on the way. There on a small stand sat a crown. The crown was gold and covered with every jewel imaginable, but not in such a manner as to be unsightly. This was obviously the crown the host had been speaking of, and the thief could see why he was so excited to have it. In fact, she knew exactly how he felt because now, it was hers.

The girl quickly picked up the crown and placed it into one of the large bags that she bore over her shoulder. As she turned to exit the room, she came face to face with the tips of the swords of the two guards from earlier. The one she now noticed had some sort of scar that crossed his face from his right temple to his left ear. The girl backed away from the swords. The guards advanced. The thief tried to look as innocent as possible, while realizing how badly this was going to go. Even guards, she figured, were smart enough to realize that someone was in the treasury wearing all black and a mask, it wasn’t really banquet attire. Then again, they could be stupid, so she decided to try her luck.

“Uh, hello,” she said cautiously giving a little wave; “This isn’t the way to the privy, is it?”

“No, it isn’t” replied the guard who hadn’t been looking out the window, his scar making him look intimidating.

“I’ll just be going then,” said the girl starting to move towards the door.

“Don’t play dumb with us. We know what you’re doing, thief,” said the other guard.

“Ooh, aren’t you the smart one! Alright, you got me,” resigned the girl raising her hands, “now just let me go, and nobody will get hurt.” The two guards stared at her for a moment. Then the one looked at the other and they began to laugh. The girl began to finger her black sleeve while one of the guards stopped laughing long enough to make fun of her.

“You? Hurt us?” he half laughed, half said, “What’re you going to do? Bite off our kneecaps?” The girl’s eye twitched slightly at the jab about her size. Though she tried to keep her emotions in check most of the time, her height was a very tender spot. “You don’t even carry any real weapons,” he continued, “are you some sort of fairy come to put a spell on us?” In a flash, the girl removed the ruby pommeled knife from her sleeve and flung it at the guard. The dagger lodged itself into the man’s thigh. He gave out a great shout of pain and fell to the floor clutching the wound.

“Don’t you ever, ever, insult me about my size you piece of trash!” shouted Pan as she watched the guard lose consciousness. The other guard looked at her for a minute, a look of disdain crossing his features.

“Well thrown,” stated the guard, “but now it seems in your anger you have rid yourself of your weaponry. Quite foolish of you really. I believe I’ve heard of you before. Your quick temper, impeccable aim with a throwing dagger, and your, ahem, unique size are well known in this land. You must be Pan the Thief.” The man moved his sword into an attacking position. “Now if you would be so kind,” he urged, “hand over the crown and you may live to see the dawn.”

“Ha,” spat Pan, “like I’d give up to the likes of you.” With a roar the guard swung his weapon towards the thief, but instead of the incapacitating blow he had hoped for, his blade was stopped by a second dagger. Grinning, the thief pushed his blade away from her body. She then held out her right hand. “Rubien return,” she called. The dagger removed itself from the leg of the guard and returned to her hand. Its blade gleamed red with blood.

“Impressive,” uttered the guard.

“You see,” Pan instructed as she produced a cloth from a pocket to wipe the dagger, “this is an enchanted weapon. So is the other. They come back when they are called. A rare item, I must say. Anywho, it now seems as though I have an effective way to defend myself, so by all means, feel free to attack me again at anytime.” The scarred man moved slightly towards her, but before he could make any further moves, half a dozen guards charged into the room. “Well, well,” said Pan, “this was a bit unexpected. I think I’ll be going; even a thief will admit when they are outnumbered.”

Pan sprinted toward the guards, catching them unawares. As she neared the door, she heard one of the guards fire an arrow from the longbow he was carrying. Grabbing her side as the arrow grazed it; she glanced at her wound to see that blood was beginning to seep into her clothing. She dashed out the door muttering something about “how rude people are these days.” As she ran back the way she had come, Pan found she was running straight into another group of guards. She pulled up sharply as these guards began to shout. Turning quickly, she sprinted down another corridor and up a set of spiraling stairs. The crown beat heavily against her side, the bag not doing much to soften the blows. From the crashes behind her, it could be assumed that the chain mail brigade was catching up to her.

Reaching the top of the stairs, Pan made a quick decision, opened the next door she came to, and ran into the room. As she turned around, she noticed a large screen that stood about twenty feet away from the door that had several garments draped over it. There seemed to be someone behind it, but Pan tried not to think about what was going on there. Scanning the rest of the room, she discovered another door to her left. She quickly crept over to this door and exited the room just as the guards burst into it. This action was met by a falsetto scream that probably interrupted the festivities downstairs. Pan had to laugh at the mischief she had caused, simply because it was the sort of thing that amused her. Finding the adjacent room empty, she ran out the door and back into the corridor, then up another flight of stairs.

When Pan reached the next floor, she was met by nothing but silence. Breathing a sigh of relief she walked quickly down the corridor, rubbing both her sides as one was wounded from the arrow, and the other was being constantly bruised by the crown. Suddenly, the sound of chain mail clanking behind her greeted her ears, as twelve guards made their way to the top of the stairs. One gave a shout when he caught sight of her and the chased resumed. Pan found another staircase and fled up it, thinking about how stupid it was to put so many stairs into a castle. It opened onto a small terrace about 300 feet in the air. She pulled a small whistle like device from one of her numerous pockets and gave it a quick blow. The thief then began to make sure that everything she was carrying was suitably attached to her.

The guards arrived shortly after Pan, panting as running in chain mail is a bit difficult, especially in the summer heat. They found her standing on the railing of the terrace. Her face bore a satisfied grin.

“You’ve lost thief,” shouted the guard with the scar. “Why don’t you just give yourself up?” The other guards brandished their various weapons with an almost comical malevolence while grunting agreement.

“Because,” replied Pan, “there are much more enjoyable alternatives.” Pan gave the guards one last smile and another small wave then jumped off the side of the terrace.

Everything seemed to slow down. Pan saw the dark shape speeding towards her through the air. She landed on the flying beast with a slight “oof”. “Nice catch,” she gasped.

“I try,” replied the beast with a chuckle. Then beating its wings it rose into the air and flew off toward the horizon. Pan could hear the frantic shouts of the guards as she and her mount sped away from the castle.