Sunday Stories #4

    Sunday Stories: The Thief

    In hindsight, reveling in your own personal victory might not be the best idea. Especially if you’re concealed in an alleyway not more than a hundred steps from the crime scene that you had robbed more than five minutes ago. Especially if you’re the only pink dragoness in the general vicinity and one of the most viciously determined individuals is investigating the robbery. This was where everything quickly went south for as the pink dragoness was admiring the extremely valuable necklace she had just snatched, the equine had already begun her approach. By the time she had actually noticed and had quickly stashed the necklace away in her bag, it was too late.

    Even though it was only for just a few moments, it felt like an eternity as the dragoness watched the mare approach quietly. What was she to do? She couldn’t exactly make a break for it as everything stood because that would only confirm her guilt. It was only made worse by the fact she now felt her heart pounding in her chest. Had she actually seen the necklace? No, she couldn’t have. The distance was fair enough where only the sharpest of eyes could make out the details. Perhaps she had seen the glimmer of the sun’s reflection of the necklace, but that was it. It didn’t mean anything. It couldn’t.

    “Stand up,” the mare ordered as two additional guards walked right up beside her.

    “Why? I didn’t do anything!” she claimed, appearing just a bit flustered.

    “I never said anything of the like,” the mare replied calmly, “It’s just that we’re investigating a robbery as you likely know...and we need to check everyone in the vicinity.” With this, she gave a small gesture for the guards to begin searching her. As she set aside her bag, one of them lifted it as the other began a quick pat down.

    “This has to be against the law! You can’t do anything without a warrant of some kind!” the dragoness snapped, still a little panicked.

    “You are aware that, as the General of this nation, I don’t necessarily need a warrant to do a search? Especially in an ongoing investigation,” Elvera answered, taking note of the dragoness’ demeanor throughout the search.

    “Um...General, I think you need to look at this...” the guard said, only to pull out one of the most lavish necklaces any of them had ever seen. With a gigantic shield-cut ruby set in a platinum pendant while hanging from a gold chain. Just seeing that was enough to tip Elvera off as to whom this was, which caused a smile to spread across her face.

    “Oh? This looks to be the necklace that was described to me not more than a few minutes ago,” she said, before slowly leaning in. “Guess that means my suspicions were right...” There was a bit of a shift in the dragoness’ demeanor at that point as she went from visibly panicked to surprisingly calm in a matter of moments. The change should have been the warning for Elvera as the dragoness dived right for the bag, snatching out something else and throwing it right into the ground.

    This happened in a matter of seconds, even before anyone had time to actually react to any of her movements. Out of the corner of her eye though Elvera had sworn that what she had thrown had been just a tiny packet with a bit of blue powder in it. Before she could even consider her options however, it made contact with the ground. This created a blinding flash of light with a very loud scream. Now being forced back against the wall of the building.

    “Knights! Guards! Cordon off the area within a mile’s radius of this area!” Elvera roared as she leaned against the wall, now desperately rubbing her eyes in attempt to recover her sight. “The suspect is a pink dragoness with a chameleon-like tail! Be careful she has flash powder!” She only paused for a few moments, glancing back up to find that her vision was still very blurred. This was a true hinderance as she bumped into the trash can.

    “General, are you okay?” a familiar voice asked,

    “Do I look okay to you, Alverez?!” she yelled, turning in his assumed direction as she tried to guide her out of the alleyway. “Quit wasting time and find her! She couldn’t have gotten far in this short of a time!”

    “But...I didn’t see anyone leaving the area...”

    “What?!” she growled, “How could she have gotten away? She couldn’t have flown...”

    “Are you pos--”

    “I swear to the gods if you finish that question, I’ll send you back to basic training!” she yelled, still blinking continuously to try and get her bearings. It took several minutes before Elvera’s vision finally began to focus again. Shifting from a bright discolored light where everything was blurred out, to a steadily better view of the wall to her right and the phoenix holding her up.

    “Now...what did you see?”

    “I saw this crazy dragoness using a small packet of flash powder,” Elvera remarked, “Now...I said CREATE A PARAMETER YOU DIMWIT!” Alverez once again scrambled in response to the volume of her voice as a pair of good samaritans assisted the other two guards. She only took a moment to shift her attention to them, checking on their condition before racing off. Despite still suffering from the effects of the powder.

    ‘Now isn’t she the determined one...’ the dragoness thought, watching on as Elvera had begun her search.