Fantastopia: The New Life (Part 1)

I can trust these guys...right?

After a while with no sign of Jesse, Aria and the others came out from their hiding spots where they began to search around for their friend.

“Jesse!” they called out, but no answer.

With still no sign of them, everyone gathered in front of the mayor’s office, all having that worried look on their faces.

“You guys can’t find Jesse?” Aria asked worriedly.

“I have no idea where he is,” Dale remarked while twitching his fingers “It’s like he disappeared into thin air... although, in this world, it could happen.”

“I’m not liking this” Aria mumbled with a scared look, “I think something happened to him.”

“I thought I heard some running feet nearby” Hazel reported, “Maybe he was chasing after a pickpocket.”

“Where did you hear it?”

“This way.”

They followed Hazel down the lit-up streets where they came to a stop.

“Look,” she pointed below as she bent down to pick up something.

And when she showed them what it was, they realized it was one of the arcade tokens Jesse was carrying in those bags.

“It’s one of those arcade tokens” Aria stated, “He was here.”

“Well, where is he now?” Dale questioned.

__________

For a second, I had forgotten what had happened, but as soon as I felt a throbbing pain on the back of my head, that’s when I remembered chasing after a pickpocket when something, or should say, someone, knocked me down. It took a while for my eyes to slowly open and adjust to the light which I immediately noticed was unfamiliar. I also noticed that I was laying on something quite warm and not cold like the stoned street of the city.

As soon as my eyes fully opened, I came to the conclusion that I wasn’t in the city anymore but rather in some cave where I was laying on my back on the warm dirt ground. I didn’t see anyone around me, but I did feel something heavy on my ankle that caught my attention. And wouldn’t you know it, my ankle was chained to the wall. How did I not see this coming? I get knocked out by some robbers, taken to another location, and I’m chained up, wow.

Okay... so now that I’m fully awake and my head is in pain, let’s recap on what’s happening.

I was knocked out and taken against my will and now I’m chained to a wall in an unknown location. But is there anyone here? Well, as long as I’m alone, I might as well try to find a way out of here. I tried searching myself for anything to use, but it turns out those guys took everything they could find away from me, and that means my dagger is gone. Although, it looks like planning on escaping is going to have to wait because I’m starting to hear footsteps heading in my direction as two elf guys entered. One of them I recognized as the pickpocket I encountered earlier, and the other one was most likely the one who knocked me out.

“Well,” I smirked at them, “This should be interesting.”

“I knew it was a bad idea to bring him here” the first one hissed to the other.

“What other choice did we have?” the other one hissed back “He saw your face, and we weren’t gonna kill him.”

“And it’s a good thing you didn’t,” I reported, “Otherwise Princess Aria would have you two executed.”

“Oh damn,” the first one remarked with a scared look “I forgot he’s friends with the princess. What do we do, man?”

“Well, we can’t let him go or he’ll report us.”

“Um, can I say something?” I raised my hand.

“Sure.”

“Well, first of all, can I get something for my head? It’s still throbbing and I think I might have a concussion.”

“I’m on it” the first one offered as he went into another room, or should say another part of the cave.

When he came back a moment later, he tossed something big at me as it landed right on my groin with a hard force that caused me to yelp in pain.

“Oh, sorry” he quickly apologized.

You know, for a pickpocket, this guy is actually quite nice. Well, that is if he wouldn’t have thrown the object at me. And it wasn’t even an ice pack.

“Oh, a frozen fish,” I commented at the frozen bass “That will due.”

Using the cloth it was wrapped in, I placed the frozen fish against my head where I was hit and boy did that feel good. It stank, but it felt good.

“Okay,” I spoke once I was calm “Now second of all, why don’t we work something out here? I understand you guys are afraid to let me go because I’ll report you guys and get you all arrested. And even though that’s what I was called down here to do, they didn’t exactly say I had to turn you guys in, just stop the pickpocketing.”

“What are you trying to say?” the second one questioned.

“Well, before I continued, can you guys unchain me, please? I promise I won’t run, mainly because I have no idea where I am and how to get out of here.”

At that moment, the second one pulled out a key and used it to take the shackle off my ankle.

“Thank you” I thanked with a friendly smile as I pulled myself up while keeping the frozen fish against my head “Now, I know we just met and everything, but you all probably know my name already.”

“Jesse, right?” the first one pointed out.

“Correct. Now, what are your names?”

The two suddenly gave glances at each other, seeing how uncomfortable they were with the question.

“It’s okay, guys” I assured, “You can just tell me your first names, but in order to settle things here, I’m gonna need your names.”

After a moment of awkward silence, the two let out sighs as they finally gave me their names.

“Cyrus” the first one held up his hand.

“Emerson” the other one offered.

“Okay,” I nodded my head “Nice to meet you guys. Now, are there any more of you?”

“No” Cyrus shook his head “It’s just us.”

“Alright then, now before I ask where we are, I need to know why you guys are doing this? You know that robbing is a crime, right? You risk getting your a*s thrown in jail.”

“We know” they both groaned.

“We’re not proud of it” Emerson admitted.

“Then why do it?”

“Because we gotta some way to survive.”

“Um, there’s this thing called a job.”

“We know!” they groaned again.

“We’ve tried getting jobs” Cyrus reported, “But whenever we do try, they always seem to get taken at the last moment.”

“Oo,” I cringed “I hate when that happens.”

“Yeah,” he sighed “Anyway, we’ve gotten to a point where we had no money at all, so we did what we had to do to get ourselves some foods and supplies.”

“You guys became pickpockets” I concluded.

“Exactly.”

“And how long has this been happening?”

“Quite a while” Emerson shrugged “We don’t actually know.”

“Look,” Cyrus sudden spoke up “Are we gonna get arrested or not? Because if we are, well, we’ll understand.”

“Hold on” I held up a hand “I did say we should work something out here. But in order to do so, you guys are gonna have to lead me out of here so that my friends can stop worrying about me. Unless you guys are planning to send some kind of ransom to the royal household.”

“Oh, don’t worry” Cyrus assured “We won’t do that. We may be thieves, but we’re not exactly bad people... I think.”

“Okay then, lead the way.”

I really hope these guys weren’t just planning on leading me into a trap or something. I mean, they do look harmless, but I could be wrong. I was still weaponless, so if they do decide to attack me, well... let’s just hope I don’t die.