[color=D6CC88][u][b]Town[/b][/u]

The young girl huddled near the corner of a building, one hand on the rough brick, the other tangled in the shaggy coat of her companion.  The cat wasn't too much shorter at the shoulder than she was, and currently much cleaner.  The girl's clothing was soiled and torn, her face smeared with grime and her short hair tangled.  In fact, the only part of her outfit still in good condition was her shoes, and even those had patches of mud on them.  She was watching the people in the square with a great deal of intensity.  Her eyes darted back and forth, and she pressed a hand to her stomach as its complaining intensified accompanying a breeze that brought delicious aromas from the tavern across the way.  It wasn't as good as what her mother would make, no, but she'd been eating scraps and what she could forage from her limited knowledge of edible plants and roots.  Wyth had brought her a rabbit on two separate occasions.  The second time she was so hungry she'd tried to eat it despite not having flint and steel to make a fire for cooking, but the taste of raw meat had made her nauseated and she could only force down a small portion before she gave up.  She thought that eventually she'd be starved enough that it would seem appealing, but that wasn't the case -- at least, not yet.

She'd been avoiding towns for the last two weeks or so, just travelling without a real destination -- anywhere that was away from the village she'd lived in all her life.  Upon spotting this settlement, however, the thought had occurred to her that where there were people, there would be food as well -- and she might even be able to grab flint and steel.  She'd never stolen anything before, nor begged, but desperation caused a person to do things she wouldn't otherwise.  So the child had made her way into town, trying to avoid the busiest streets and the larger groups of people, and before too long she came across the tavern she was now watching.  Could she slip in the side door?  It might lead to the kitchen.  She could grab something to eat and leave again right away.  But what if there was someone there?  She licked her lips.  As she tried to muster enough nerve to make a move, a young man emerged from the tavern, with a hunk of bread in one hand.  His attention was focused on a piece of paper, to the exclusion of all else.

The girl steeled her nerve and left the safety of her alleyway, heading for the man and the bread he held.  She realized she shouldn't appear too purposeful, so she tried not to look at him too much, and she angled to approach from behind and to one side.  When she only a couple arm's lengths away, she swallowed hard and darted forward.  As a thief, her technique was awful.  She made no effort to avoid being noticed.  Instead she relied on surprise to work in her favor as she snatched the targeted item from the man's grasp and took off at a dead run.  "Wyth, ahead!" she called, and the cat surged forward, weaving through the crowd with his girl right behind him.  The passage of a large cat cleared a path, at least temporarily.  As they reached the edge of the square, she told him to heel and dashed into an alley, her eyes searching for somewhere she could climb up, where the man wouldn't be able to follow.[/color]