Woe to the Thief

---Indigo---

Although my head was in the crook of my elbow, I could see a masked figure crouch down no more than three feet from me. He was busy undoing the straps and opening up the bag with practiced efficiency, which meant that he probably stole on a regular basis.

"Books, pens, paper…" the person muttered to himself as he rifled through the bag. "Aha! Coins!" He pulled out a small drawstring bag and hurriedly opened it to find it full of gold coins. He greedily stuffed it in his pocket before turning to search for more satchels. I heard him open Lucian's bag, which was purposely placed on top of the empty bed, and take out another pack of coins. He also emptied out Rachel's bag on to the bed, scattering all of her potions and poultices, but didn't find anymore gold coins.

The intruder was all set to leave. However, he paused in the middle of the room. "If I leave now, they'll wake up tomorrow and find that someone went through their stuff," he said to himself. "They'll see that they were robbed, and come after me to demand for an explanation. I can't have that. Better get rid of them while they're unconscious to avoid having trouble tomorrow." I heard the sound of a knife being pulled from its sheath.

My heart increased its pace. I had not planned on Philip trying to murder us. Our plan was to wait until he tries to leave with the coins, and then corner him. I didn't think he'd try to kill us. Any sudden movement and he'll stab Rachel, who was closest to him. Slowly, I reached for my sword, hidden beneath the desk.

Shiiiing! A sword was pulled out, and I heard the intruder gasp. I stood up abruptly, grabbing both my sword and a match to light the candle on the desk. Behind me, the burglar tried to fight with his knife, but he was no match for an experienced fighter like Lucian. There was one clang, and then the knife was on the floor, Lucian's sword pressed against the intruder's throat. "Move one inch and I swear I'll kill you," Lucian growled.

I held up the lighted candle and looked closely at the cowering person pushed up against the wall. It was definitely Philip.

"Hand over the gold," I ordered. Philip hesitated, and Lucian pressed harder on the blade. With a yelp, Philip dug out the little bags of gold and handed them over. I tossed them to Rachel, who glared at Philip as she began to put all the items back into the satchels.

"P-p-please don't k-kill me, I'm r-r-really sorry!" Philip stuttered in fear. "I d-didn't know th-that—"

"—that we were waiting for you?" Lucian finished for him. "Man, with your loud voice, I'm pretty sure the entire village heard about your plan to rob us. Our window is literally right above the entrance to the inn. If you're trying to rob someone, at least be quiet about it."

"You know, we were going to let you keep some of the gold," I said. "But that was before you decided to murder us. Why, if we hadn't overheard your conversation, we would all be dead by now!"

"I'm sorry! I'm really sorry! I don't know what came over me!" Philip pleaded. "I'm sorry I called you creepy, and I'm sorry that I said Academy kids were all brats—you three are the best people there are! You guys are like real-life gods! You, sir, are very handsome and you, ma'am are the most beautiful girl I've—"

"Quit the flattery! You think a few compliments are going to buy your freedom?" Lucian snarled. "I can't believe you have the audacity to try and rob us! Why, if you knew who we are—"

"Lucian, that's enough," Rachel warned. She walked over, a dangerous gleam in her eyes. She was holding up a piece of cloth and some rope. "I'm usually a nice person, but this is a special occasion."

* * * * *

"This will teach you to never rob people again," I said to Philip as we prepared to leave. "Since you wanted gold so much, I'll leave some coins—with your mother."

"Yeah, you should be more respectful towards Lucretia," Rachel scolded. "After all, she raised you and paid for this inn. If you ever be rude to her again, we will come back and expose you to all of Sheep Lane."

"That's right, prick, don't you dare do shady business again," Lucian spat as he shouldered his satchel. "You're lucky these girls are nice and they didn't let me beat you to a pulp."

On the bed, Philip writhed in his whole-body binds and struggled to form words through the gag. We had wound the rope around the bedposts tightly, just to make sure he wouldn't escape until Lucretia came up to check on us. There were several bruises on his cheek from where Lucian punched him as Philip tried to escape while we were tying him up.

As an additional punishment, Rachel had whipped up a special face-mask for Philip using her poultices. A gooey, sickly green paste covered the entirety of Philip's face, and as it was absorbed into his skin, hideous red bumps of various sizes appeared beneath the mask, painful to the touch. They would disappear after a week or two, but in the meantime, Philip would be the laughingstock of the entire village.

Even though it wasn't five o'clock yet, none of us wanted to stay in the inn anymore. With Philip tied up in our room, we probably wouldn't get a good night's rest anyway. We also wanted to avoid possible confrontations with the rest of the village if it was discovered that we had tied Philip up.

We locked the door behind us and left the teapot and teacups on the counter, where Lucretia was sure to see them in the morning. Then we slipped a note underneath Lucretia's door explaining everything, along with some gold coins. We walked out of the inn quietly and headed towards the front of the village, content to wait there until morning arrives.