The Street Urchin

Leonard sat on the bench alone on the other side of the store, waiting for Kaen and Oskari shopping for new clothes. Watching people passing, minute by minute, caught him in boredom. Every minute passed, it felt like an eternity for him just to wait for them. Before they went to buy some clothes, Oskari gave Leonard a few good scoldings, merely just to tell him to stay and not to wander around. After what happened to him last time, Oskari did not want that to happen again.

No matter what he said, Leonard just brushed it off. His mind still wandered, curious about what the city had to offer. A few walks from the store wouldn’t hurt, he wouldn’t go far from the store, he thought. He settled into his thoughts and went to wander along the sidewalks, looking around for something to catch his eyes.

As he walked down the bustling street, a gust of strong wind unexpectedly snatched up his hat from his head. Helpless against it, he tried to chase his hat, attempting to catch up with the wind. It was not an ordinary wind, he thought. The wind playfully messing up with his hat swaying to the right and to the left, it felt more like a magic show rather than a strong wind picking up his hat. After all, it was only him that got caught by the wind, while everyone else looked at him in confusion. His mind already clouded with annoyance but he tried to remain calm as he tried to catch up with it. It was obvious that someone was trying to play around with him.

A mixture of annoyed and frustration was seen all over his face. For once he thought he was going to use his catalyst to snatch his hat back from the wind. However, the wind eventually settled down abruptly; his hat fell into a puddle in the middle of the street. “Oh drat,” he rolled his eyes, annoyed by it. He knelt down and picked up his displaced hat; its brim dampened by the dirty street water.

He swung his hat up and down, attempting to dry it up. Just when he thought his day couldn’t get any worse, suddenly someone bumped into him and once more his hat fell into the puddle. Again, an annoyed face painted all over his face.

“Oi watch your steps!” he said with a high tone.

“Ah sorry,” said the person lended their hand to Leonard. Leonard tried to regain his balance and rise to his footing, but his attention was drawn to a sight that intrigued him. A feralkin showed up in front of him; a renardien to be exact.

He took quite a long look at the renardien. A short haired renardien, with its ear flopped down and dressed in a rugged brown coat paired with a brown cap.

“Uhh… hello?,” said the renardien waving his hand to Leonard.

By the look of it, the renardien was more or less the same age as Leonard. But what truly captivated Leonard was the catalyst on Renardien's hips. He was quite surprised by it, based on its white coloration it's a Divine Tribunal with the wind affinity.

“Did you just-” Leonard was suddenly cut off by the renardien.

“A-ah!, here's your hat, sorry about that,” the renardien smirked a bit and for some reason bowed down to him and then blended into the crowd.

He continued to swing his hat, attempting to dry it off from the dampness. As he was about to reach out his hand, to put the hat in his bag, his eyes widened. A hint of frustration was seen all over his face as he realized something was missing.

“M-my pouch..” he remarked, his voice trembling in disbelief. “M-my coin pouch is g-gone,” he paced back and forth, retracting every step he had taken, searching for his pouch, but it was nowhere to be found. Realizing what happened, he sighed and took a deep breath.

“Oh great, Oskari is going to kill me this time…” he said frustrated.

Then, he realized something, he remembered the renardien who had stumbled into him several minutes ago.

“That damned thief,” his eyes glared in fury. Without a second thought, he dashed through the crowd; in his mind there was only one thing that mattered, to get his pouch back. Making his way to the dense market. He paid no heed to the people he bumped into until he got a clear view of the renardien.

He stopped for a while catching his breath in the middle of a bustling market, he couldn’t grasp a clear view of his surroundings. But then, he noticed a bunch of crates stacked in each other. Without hesitation, he climbed one of the crates beside the market stall to get a better view.

Under the glaring hot sun, he stood on top of the crates, squinted his eyes. "Orange hair, brown coat, orange hair, brown coat," he muttered while his eyes skimmed through the crowd. Without a doubt, his eyes caught a glimpse of the unmistakable orange hair of the renardien with his rugged brown clothes near the alley at the end of the street, amongst the other children –perhaps a group of street urchins like the renardien.

Leonard plunged back from the top of the crates to the bustling market; blending among the sea of people. For every step he took, his heart's beat grew faster. Dealing with a monster was easy, but dealing with people was something that he never encountered before. Sometimes he wished he would never to dealt with people; too much hassle.

As he closed to the alley, his hand was already scheming with his catalyst, ready for what worse to come. Leonard stepped forward to the alley, there, right there, behind the bunch of stacked crates he saw the glimpse of the orange hair, the renardien.

Without much patience, Leonard addressed the renardien.

“My pouch! Give back my pouch!” he declared as his voice echoed into the alley wall.

The renardien turned his head; their eyes met. The renardien’s eyes widened as if a thunderbolt just struck him, but he remained silent.

Leonard approached him, showing his catalyst on his hip, in hopes to intimidate him to return his pouch. However, as he stepped closer, much to his surprise, his face locked in dismay.

He realized that he was surrounded by a group of children –their innocent faces turned frightened as they looked at him in horror; interrupted them in their joyful meal.

His eyes widened in shock, a sudden glimpse of Sheera flashed into his eyes, the same horror expression that one last look that she gave him in their final moments together.

He slowly dropped his hand from the catalyst, regretting every reckless decision he made. He tried to close his eyes, hoping that would go away.

From all the moments that they cherished together, it's the only one that he always remembered. That look of her was something he always tried to bury, no matter how hard he tried, it engraved forever in his memory.

“I think this belongs to you,” a clinking noise heard through the air. Leonard opened his eyes, though his vision was a bit blurred, he knew that it was indeed his gold pouch laid in front of him.

“Sorry,” said the renardien. Leonard looked at him, remorse was seen from the renardien's face. Leonard took his pouch and grabbed a couple gold coins from it; four gold coins to be exact, just enough to buy food for two months.

“Open your right hand!” exclaimed Leonard as he grabbed the coins

The renardien was taken aback by little, “w-why?” he stammered. “After what I did to you, I snatched your hat and threw it to the street, I-i bumped into you deliberately, I-i stole your gold pouch and you still want to give me your coins?”

“So it was you,” upon hearing his confession, his eyebrow twitched out of annoyance but he tried to remain collected if it wasn’t for the children.

Leonard sighed, “I forgive you,” and just like that all senses became much clearer as if something had been lifted from his mind.

Tears welled up in the renardien's eyes and out of nowhere he jumped into him and hugged him tightly. “T-thank you,” he said. “You know what? I won’t steal anymore.” he exclaimed somewhat proudly.

“What about no honor amongs thieves?,” he snarked a bit.

“What!? I’m no thief, we're just desperate. I can’t leave these kids behind.”

“I still somewhat don’t trust you okay,”

“Th-that’s fair I guess,” As Leonard was about to get up, his hand bumped into the renardien’s hat and his hat fell off from his head.

“Ah my bad,” Leonard bent down and grabbed the hat. However, something caught his eyes. A golden-orangish hair cascaded down, touching the stone pavement.

He quickly turned his head to the renardien. Unexpected to him, the hat revealed his long golden-orange hair.

For a moment Leonard, stunned by his hair flowing down to the ground. “Wait a minute, You are a girl?” Leonard muttered in confusion.

“Huh? yeah?” she replied back. “When did I say I was a boy though?” she slightly tilted her head in confusion.

“What?”

“Wait… You thought I was a boy this whole time? Wahaha…” she laughed at him. “Call me Hattie,”

“Hattie?” I feel like I'm living in a pun world about hats,” he put his hand on his head as they both laughed together.

***

As he was about to return to the shopping district, from a distance, he could see Oskari with his arms crossed and his brown eyebrows scrunching against each other while his small feet tapped impatiently. He turned his head as he noticed Leonard coming in from the end of the street, his eyes looking vicious and sharp, ready to piercing anyone who sees it.

“Oh great, here we go again,” he muttered to himself, putting on a bright innocent face while raising his hand up in the air and waving to him. Like if nothing happened to him.

“Nice hat you got there!” he snarked as Oskari approached him with his comically large top hat.

“Cut the pleasantries,” he remarked. “Where have you been again Leon?” pointed his hand to Leonard’s face.

“A-ah, you see… I was kinda hungry, so I wandered off to the corner of the street looking for a food stall,” he said, attempting to convince Oskari. “Look, I brought you and Kaen some bread,” he shrugged and awkwardly grinned a bit, hoping that Oskari would believe him.

“Padre is right, Leon, He actually worried for you,” Kaen chimed in, trying to cool off the situation. “If you really want to wander around the city, you could do it tonight,”

“Ahh… Surely tonight would be a sight to behold.” Leonard added.