TWELVE YEARS LATER

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Zia walked around camp, looking for Ike. They were supposed to be meeting Arch for their daily reports, but she couldn't find him anywhere. She looked by the cooking tents, the training arena, the latrines. But he was no where to be found. He wasn't even out playing tricks on the other Thieves! Where was that boy?

Much had changed in the past twelve years. Zia was now eighteen, and the hidden place where Arch had brought her when she had been attacked by Daxtor had now grown to its own little community of sorts. It had become the new Headquarters for the Thieves of Otar, and they had grown much stronger over the years. The hidden town was a near-home to more than three hundred Thieves, and that was only for the Thieves without a home. There were some men in the surrounding towns who still had families to look after, so they stayed with them, but they always showed up for the weekly meetings.

Some things, though, hadn't changed very much at all. Ike was still as cheery as ever, but in his teenage years he had become more mischievous. Zia was still strong-willed and stubborn, but through the years she had learned when to relent when the situation called for it. Arch and Ike were still Zia's family, and Arch was still the Thieves' fearless leader.

One of the things that hadn't changed at all, though, was the threat of Daxtor Myrna. Many nights Zia would relive the moments when he had tried to kill her, and would wake in a fit of cold shivers. She hadn't seen him in person since the night Arch had brought her here, but she knew that he was still out there looking for her, plotting to kill her in ways that would cause her the most pain.

Zia walked passed a large aspen tree with low-hanging branches. The leaves rustled in the wind as she passed, and she was just about to call Ike's name when a someone jabbed quickly at her sides with their fingers.

Zia didn't think before she reacted. She went into action. She quickly crouched down low and swept her foot behind her, knocking the person over. Then, before he could get up, Zia leaped onto him, pinning his arms and legs wide with her own and looked down at the person sprawled out on his back. 

Another thing that had changed: Zia had learned to fight.

"Ike!" she said furiously when she saw who she was pinning. She pushed angrily off of him to get to her feet.

Ike exploded into a fit of laughter which, was joined by another voice belonging to a man walking towards them from the trees.

"Oh, that was funny!" Heath said, his face turning red with laughter. 

Heath's parents had passed from starvation a few years after Ike, Arch, and Zia had taken to the woods. Heath hadn't realized it then, but they had both been giving him all their food. So, when his parents were dead, Arch took him in and raised him alongside Zia and Ike.

Heath walked over to Ike and offered him a hand up while Zia glared at them.

"You owe me two copper coins, Ike," Heath said once Ike had gotten to his feet.

Once he had gotten control of his fits of laughter, Ike said, "I'll give them to you at dinner."

"You two were betting I would almost kill you?" she asked Ike.

"Well, not really kill me, but that I could get a fighting reaction out of you," Ike said with a shrug, as if to say, It was nothing really.

Zia stared at him. "You really should've seen that one coming, Ike. I've spent nearly my whole life training to fight."

"Yeah, and me alongside you," Ike pointed out.

Zia shrugged like it didn't matter. "Maybe, but I've done better than you." She smiled, knowing what his reaction would be.

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