Diamond In The Rough

One Jump Ahead

The sun was shining from high above the sky. Another beautiful day in the kingdom of Altea. The marketplace was bustling, vendors trying to sell their items to people passing by. All in all, it seemed like a calm day in Altea.

Well, almost.

"Stop thief!" one of the palace guards yelled as they chased a thief up onto a rooftop. The thief was a boy named Lance, a notorious thief in Altea. Lance sent a smirk the guards' way but stopped, almost falling over the edge. He held onto the loaf of bread he had in his hands as it almost slipped out of his hands. The head guard Kolivan glared at the boy.

"I'll have your hands for a trophy street rat," Lance glanced at the loaf then back at the approaching guards.

"All this for a lousy loaf of bread?"

With no other options, Lance jumped onto the clothesline below and skied down, collecting clothing as he slid down. As he neared the end he noticed an open window and hoped to go through the window. He didn't expect that the woman in the window would yell and close the window. He ended up slamming into the shutters and fell down to the street below, hitting multiple awnings and eventually landing on the ground. The clothes softening his landing.

He sat up a towel on his head and was about to bite into his prize when the guards interrupted him from above.

"There he is!" one shouted.

"You won't get away so easy!" another shouted as they backed up to get off the roof. Lance rolled his eyes with a scoff.

"They think this was easy?" Laughing caught his eye and his gaze landed on three women nearby who were laughing.

"You two, over that way," Kolivan said to two of the guards with him. He turned to the other on his right "you with me, we'll find him," Kolivan and the other guards walked his way. Lance quickly pulled one of the thin blankets over him to disguise himself. He walked up to the three ladies with a smile.

"Mornin' ladies," the older of the three chuckled.

"Getting into trouble a little early aren't we Lance?" Lance chuckled.

"Trouble? No way, you're only in trouble if you get yourself caught," as irony would have it Kolivan pulled him around and yanked off his disguise.

"I'm in trouble," Kolivan growled at the street rat.

"And this time--," before he could finish his sentence a blue lion cub jumped down from above and landed on Kolivan's head pulling his hood down covering his eyes getting stuck. Lance chuckled as the lion cub jumped off the guard

"Perfect timing as always Blue," Blue gave a smile and jumped onto Lance's shoulder. "Now let's get out of here!" he said as he took off in a run but ran into a guard.

" Gotta keep

One jump ahead of the breadline "

The guard tried swinging his sword at Lance but the thief jumped off the barrels he was on. The guards' sword instead of hitting the barrel and fish spilled out.

" One swing ahead of the sword"

Blue stuck her tongue out and blew raspberries at the guard who swung his sword again and missed the cub by mere inches.

" I steal only what I can't afford

And that's everything! "

Lance pulled the guards' belt off which let his pants fall down to reveal the pink and white hearted underwear underneath. Lance ran away with Blue, the guard glaring at the boy as he went to fix his pants before chasing after him.