novel

Prologue

Once upon a time, in the kingdom of Malbequedor, a young man, about fourteen or so, lived on a distant farm far from town. Lately he had received some luck issues. Having the cows milk's bucket fall on him, minor indeed, but there are some rather major things too, like almost being killed by a rampaging bull, or being trapped in a flaming barn only to be saved by his hunting dog, which that same night died of an unknown disease. And, to make matters worse (seeing as this society was particularly keen to the idea of life, and decided to pursue medicine science), having the body not buried, but taken away by the town Infectious Disease specialist.
He began to get fed up with all of the unluckiness. He needed somewhere to go where he could straighten his head out and find out what was going on. So,he went to town to see an old storyteller to foresee his future. That is where my story begins.

“You see storyteller, I have been having some very bad luck lately.” said the boy. “Do think maybe you could use your crystal ball there to foresee my future?”
“Of course not, not without three copper pieces.” replied the storyteller.
“Not much of a bargain I'd say, but it is a price I can pay.”
The boy, who's name was Raruu, handed the storyteller exactly three copper pieces.
“Ahh,” says the storyteller, “I see that your misfortune is only the beginning. Sadly this is a curse-”
“A curse!?” Raruu exclaimed. “How can that be? I've done nothing wrong!”
“Little Raruu, tell me something. Have you been having some tough times lately? Is it hard to pay for the simple things like food, or arrows to hunt with hmm?”
“Yes, but what does that have to do with anything?”
“Well, I see that you have stolen something. Is that true? And don't lie, because I will be able to tell,” she said sternly.
“Well, yes, I did.”
“Did it feel good?”
“Yes, actually, it did.”
“Well this is a fact. You will be cursed to steel anything that you can find, anywhere, at any time.”
Just then Raruu's mind spun so quickly that he felt that had been a little rabbit, out in the woods with no shelter when a tornado struck.
His skin turned white as a ghost. Raruu's life was heading down the drain. And from then on Raruu stole anything, anywhere, any time.








1

“Hey!” a lady screamed. Her name was Dorthy.
“Get back here with my fruit!” she yelled.
Raruu was running away with Dorthy's fruit that had taken her several months to grow and she had been storing them for something to eat in the winter.
She went up to one of the king's soldiers and asked him to go get her fruit back. The Soldier was not the one to be hesitant. Before you could say “Don't do it Raruu!” the soldier was right on Raruu's tail.
“Hey!” the soldier exclaimed. “Get back here with that madam's fruit!”
Raruu just kept running. This was not the first time he had a soldier on his tail. I have to hide Raruu thought to himself. It didn't take him very long to think of somewhere to hide. It was his best friend's house, Christian.
It was a good thing that Raruu was the fastest person in his village because the soldier took his spear and swung, but missed by a thread and got away.

Later that night Raruu finally sneaked through the village and got to his friend's house. He knocked on the door. Christian answered the door,
“Hello,” he said. Christian realized who was at his doorstep and harshly whispered this time, “What are you doing here!”
“I just thought I'd drop in on my old pal Christian and see what he's up to.” Raruu replied.
“Raruu! I have the newspaper and I read about what happened. Now leave before you get me in trouble too!”
“Wait, I need a place to stay. They're looking for me and you wouldn't want me to be found, now would you?”
“What do you mean 'found'?”
“You know how serious stealing in Malbequedor is. They could sentence me to be executed.
Christian thought about Raruu being dead and changed his mind.
“Alright,” he said. “You can stay here for now and wait until this whole thing blows over. But do not leave the house and do not tell anyone that this is where you are hiding, are we clear?”
“Sadly, no,” Raruu sighed.
“No!? Why not?”
“Because I am cursed.”
“Cursed?”
“That is right my friend. You see, I am cursed to steel anything I can find, at any time,
wherever I am.”
“Oh, so is that why you have been stealing from the village so much?”
“Yes. I can't help it. It's not fair. I feel like I'm a puppet when it happens. It's all so sad.”
“Well that is sad. I'll just have to keep you locked in here until the curse wears off.”
“That's the problem, the curse doesn't wear off. I can't stop.”
“Well, maybe you'll lose the urge if I just keep you locked up in here.”
“I'm afraid that won't work, for if the curse was that weak, I would have willed the curse away myself.”
“The curse is that strong, huh?”
“It is. Thus, I ask that you, my friend Christian, agree to resist the urge to know me any longer. Now that this curse has been bestowed upon me, I will cause you nothing but grief and trouble. I know it will take some getting used to, but it's for the best. Farewell.”
Raruu turned around, mentally preparing himself to leave his friend forever, and walk off into the moonlight. It wasn't, of course, until a couple seconds afterwards that Raruu felt warmth upon his bare shoulder in the cool night air of late September (having received even more bad luck when his shirt got caught on a broken piece of wood coming out of his barn door). He tried to shrug it off, to get it to go away. He hated it, the way it reminded him of his previous life that he was trying to give up, the happy life he owned before the curse fell upon him. Finally (after what seemed like an hour to him, but only a couple of seconds), Raruu turned around, and confirming his assumption, found that Christian was trying to stop him.
Suddenly a dark atmosphere surrounded Raruu's personality, as if his want to leave and find a new life in hiding had actually had a mental effect on the way he thought and acted.
He glared directly into the eyes of Christian with his newly cold gray eyes, and found Christian staring back with the soft blue glow that used to make him so happy—used. “Let go of me.” Raruu's voice was surprisingly raspy from the way that he had just been talking a minute ago, and it had an unpleasant edge to it, as if he were going to strike at any moment.
Christian did nothing. He kept his hand firmly on Raruu's shoulder, utterly refusing to remove it until he had a chance to talk with Raruu. So, he simply said, “No.”
Raruu wasn't surprised at all by this, rather expecting it for a matter of fact. The determination written across Christian's face was simply admirable. Christian would go to the end of the Earth to remain friends with Raruu, and this is something that Raruu knew deep down. But Raruu was also determined. He knew that with the curse around, he would never accomplish anything more than theft. “Please,” Raruu said, “I only want what's best for you. If you don't want what's best for you, than my actions will give you but a small taste of all of the pain that I will cause you if you don't let me leave.” Raruu knew that the threat was nothing but a bluff, but from the strange and sudden change in Raruu's personality, Christian wasn't very convinced.
Still Christian did nothing. However, he did shift a little, only to be expected from such a threat. Raruu stood uncomprehendingly. How could his threat not have worked? Thinking things over in his head, Raruu's wonder turned to frustration. He began to view the immobile shape in the darkness that was Christian as simple disobedience. I thought that friends were supposed to listen and understand each other Raruu thought.
Slam.
The blow from Christian's punch caught Raruu off guard, partly because it was particularly unlike him, and partly because it was the last thing he expected to happen in that moment. Raruu took a second to recuperate, then made to strike back, but soon wishing he hadn't. Christian was a smart boy with incredible reflexes and coordination, and easily struck Raruu with a sharp kick to the shin.
“Yargh!” Raruu yelped. He bent over to nurse his heavily bruised shin. Christian, taking advantage of the momentum, landed an uppercut square on Raruu's forehead, sending him crashing to the ground. Raruu looked up with slightly blurred vision to find that Christian had turned around and was shaking. Suddenly, he heard a quick gasp that he identified to be a sob. Christian's getting less like himself by the minute Raruu thought. Raruu could finally see that (even though pain is practically the opposite than you would expect to help) Christian was taking to desperate measures just to get a simple conversation from Raruu. “Alright, you have 5 minutes.”
“No, I will take as long as I want to talk with you. You think that your intimidating and fake personality is going to give you the right to boss me around? Now, I want to make something very clear to you: even if you manage to shake me off tonight, the remaining hours of the night will be the last you will ever have without me on your tail. If you thought that the curse was bad, think of having someone you don't want around deliberately following you everywhere you go.”
“ Yes, but--”
“I'm not finished! Now, if you continue to steal like this, you will run the city dry and people will start dying. If you will allow that to happen sitting down, then you have gone as mad as you look.”
Christian thought he could see a hint of fear run across Raruu's face, but Raruu caught the flicker of Christian's eyes and instantly returned to the hard expression he had been wearing. Christian tried to continue, but he noticed that Raruu was not listening as intently as he had before. Raruu knew the reason, even if Christian didn't. He had detected the presence of something he could steal. The same presence he had dealt with when stealing the fruit earlier today, and all of the other countless items he was forced to come in contact with. In those instances, Raruu's mind went literally blank except for the urge to steal, the desire to steal, the necessity of stealing.
Raruu began eye-inspecting every inch of Christian's clothes, looking for some sort of a gold glint that would signify jewelry, a lump in which a valuable charm would be, or Christian's wallet. Then he saw it, a little gold medallion necklace Christian was unfortunate enough to be wearing outside of his shirt.
“Bend down, I need to tell you something.” Christian obeyed, smiling to himself with satisfaction, thinking that his word had finally started getting to Raruu's head. Raruu wasn't stupid, so he began with his story of how sorry he was and such, and in a flash Raruu was on his feet running with the broken chain and medallion of the necklace. But, while he was running, he started to come out of his theft trance and stopped dead in his tracks. Somehow, he just couldn't bring himself to make off with the medallion, especially since he was the one who had given it to him before the wretched curse had befallen him.
Not taking any chances, Christian tackled Raruu, sending them both tumbling to the ground, and leaving a rather nasty gash five or six inches down Raruu's right arm. Christian made an attempt to grab at the medallion, and surprisingly he succeed. As a matter of fact, Raruu had made no attempt whatsoever to stop him, or even to slow him down, for that matter. Despite his will to give Christian's medallion necklace back, the feeling of the cold gold slipping out of his fingers without a fight pained him more than you could imagine. Christian, knowing Raruu so well, knew what kind of willpower Raruu had to muster up to let the perfectly good and vulnerable gold go without a fight, and admired him for it.
Raruu finally regained full consciousness and became acutely aware of the warm maroon blood that was trickling down his arm. Raruu hated blood. In his life of stealing, he had had to deal with it far too much.
Christian followed Raruu's gaze into the warmth of the cottage just behind them. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, then sighed. “Would you like to continue our conversation inside?” he asked.
Suddenly, a powerful deep voiced pierced the night sky. Raruu had completely forgotten about the guard that was chasing him. But apparently, the guard had brought a few friends, and his little pet dog. The barks from the dog sounded like that of a shortened version of the cry of a full grown grizzly bear defending its child. It terrified Raruu to no end, giving him visions of the endless amount of possibilities of how the dog could utterly rip him apart. He knew the routine only too well of what guards will do to stop a thief in Malbequedor, so he wiped his arm clean on the grass (which stung quite badly), and ran around the stone cottage, hating the footprints in the dirt trail he had been stupid enough to take, into the dense forest behind Christian's house. Raruu knew only too well that the guards would suspect Christian and search his house, something that Raruu didn't want to stick around for.
As any normal human being would be, Raruu was very reluctant to go into such a dense forest, especially at night. Naturally, his senses became more acute, particularly touch and his sense of hearing. Not having afforded to be educated, Raruu had no idea that this was just a mind game, and shivered. Raruu noticed how cold it had become and how late it was. This brought him back to the thought of what his family would think. He had more important things to worry about he told himself.





2

Christian had expertly timed the making of his dinner so that he was just beginning to put it on the plates for his family when a deafening knock came to the door. Boom. Boom. Boom. The noise was beginning to severely irritate Christian, but he was determined to ignore it until just before they resorted to the battery ram.
The reason Christian was waiting so long was because he had to think. Surely by now they would have checked Raruu's house and would know he wasn't there. His mind was racing with excuses and ideas to convincingly explain Raruu's absence. Sadly, none of them would work very effectively, because the king only chooses the most cunning of men to fill the rank of men that chase Raruu. Suddenly, he got an inspiration for a very convincing, yet desperate, story indeed. Christian remembered when Raruu had gotten the cut along his arm and how he had wiped it on the grass, conveniently close to a pile of sharp broken boards Christian had been using to repair a hole in the roof from when lightning had struck it.
He bolted outside into the night, hoping he could see well enough in the star and moonlight to find out where the blood stains were. Luckily, the guards, checking every house from left to right on the road, had put a lantern into the sky for interrogation purposes. He found the stains quick enough, and was almost amused by his luck, seeing as how the blood was still very wet and there was a particularly sharp broken board very close by.
This will be perfect Christian thought grudgingly as he pulled a long and dirty sliver out of his ring finger. He sprinted over to the blood frantically after hearing the guards advancing to the house two doors down and began smearing the blood in the most realistic-looking manner he could. After deeming the capable weapon acceptable, he started smearing dirt on his face, hands, arms, and legs so it would look as if he had had a fight. Then, he splashed some clear water from the backyard pond onto his face so it would look like he had cried. For a nice 'wow' effect, he screwed up his face until it was red and willed his body to shake.
The guards were one door away when it hit him: he had no body for proof. Then again, he really didn't have any bodies for proof, so he couldn't really do anything about that.
The guards were walking up the trail to his house, and so Christian assumed his position on the ground clutching the stake as the guards came by. His heart was pounding in his throat and his eyes stung as he refused to blink even once as he watched the oblivious guards from behind the fence. He then began to hate himself for not thinking about the possible outcomes of having 'killed' someone, even if it was a wanted person. Sadly, since Raruu was wanted alive, Christian had no right whatsoever to go and commit 'murder.' Christian knew that it was for the good of Raruu, and he knew that Raruu couldn't help the theft and burglary he regularly committed, and that is what made him realize the significance of the action he was taking.
One guard near the back of the group noticed a rather suspicious black lump by the fence in the night. The guard immediately ruled out the possibility of the lump being a harmless dirt mound, because the shaking had immediately given Christian away; just as he wanted, too.
The guard motioned to the rest to aim the lantern at the area where Christian was, followed by a series of gasps and open sobbing from Christian. Several sharp unsheathing noises from the guards' swords and shields finally caused Christian to look up and reveal his identity.
“I couldn't help it!” Christian screamed. “I don't know what came over me, it just sort of happened. You have to help me!”
One of the guards eyed the stake he was holding on to, and noticed all of the jagged ends and the particular sharpness of the stake itself. He began to feel the urge to be sick. The top guard gave no sign of having even noticed the stake and took step forward with perfect posture and dignity.