Final Interlude: The Stardust Thief

The treasury of the Moon Princess was really the treasury of the kingdom of Canaan’s royal family. It had become associated with the young Kagura, over time, as she spent many of her days exploring the wonders within, despite the scolding of her father.

Many of the magical items were dangerous and they had been relinquished by the various tribes, feeling that any conflict that came up, with use of them, might tear the very moon asunder. That hadn’t stopped her from exploring it, trying to find helpful uses for even the most dangerous of implements.

On one such day, Kagura had entered the treasury to find a man in white clothes, with the sleeves ripped off of his shirt, digging through the pile of treasures, humming to himself. The inquisitive young princess didn’t recognize the man yet she approached him.

“Excuse me, sir, what are you doing?”

The man, in his mid-twenties, didn’t seem surprised by the young visitor and was hardly disturbed by her presence.

“Oh, you must be the young princess.” He kept digging through the vast piles without a care in the world, a smile on his face. “You see, young miss, I’m plundering the place!”

Kagura, barely seven years old, tilted her head, trying to figure out what that meant. She clapped her hands together, smiling brightly. “Oh, you came to see about the magical tools too? I guess I’m your ‘plundering’ partner then!”

The man, a famous thief who had warned he would ransack the treasury, burst out into laughter hearing the young princess’ declaration. “I got that makes us partners in crime, young miss!”

Suddenly, the sound of guards could be heard outside and the stranger jumped up, giving the princess a small smile and a pat on the head. “Sorry, little princess, but you’re going to take the fall for this one!” In his hand was a small glass bell that shimmered in all the colors of the rainbow. He gave Kagura a quick bow before slipping out of the treasury.

The guards, having learned of the thieves’ audacious plan, swarmed the treasury and were surprised to only see the young princess, standing in the midst of the treasures as always. Searching the inventory revealed nothing amiss but with the threat of the thief looming, the king hired the Hound to guard the sacred treasures.

Whatever became of that thief?

He traveled across the vastness of the moon, along with a tiny silver fox that he had found, wounded in the forest. He nursed it back to health and after running all over the surface of the moon with it before eventually being caught by one of nomadic warrior tribes trying to steal their sacred relic.

The Stardust Bandit, as he was known, had fitted the single bell he had stolen from the treasury all those years ago into a collar, and gave it his fox companion, with a smile on his face, not knowing that he had contracted a terrible disease and the bell, known as the Sanctity of Life, had been keeping him alive.

The Stardust Bandit perished that night but not before releasing the fox, Inari.