Chapter Text
Nami carefully removed the section of roof that was right above the Royal treasurey, which she had been slowly cutting out for that past few days. This was the biggest heist of her life, and if she could get her hands on that crown, she'd be rich.
The crown in question had never been used, as the prince it was meant for was kidnapped 18 years ago as a baby. The crown had been sitting there for ages, and there was barely any security at this point. Nami was experienced in stealing, and this would be easy, as long as everything went to plan.
The two thugs she was working with held the rope that was tied to her waist tightly, if she fell from this height, she would certainly die. She couldn't be bothered to remember their names, as they weren't important to her.
She stepped into the small opening in the ceiling, and felt the rope go taught, and she felt herself get lowered slowly into the room. There were 2 royal guards in front of the crown, looking bored. They were barely awake, Nami realized with glee.
She felt the rope lower her down, low enough now to grab the crown. She maneuvered her satchel in front of her and placed the unused crown into it, and buttoning it up tightly, not wanting to lose the crown.
As she felt the rope betting pulled upwards, she felt a small object fall onto her shoulder, and then onto the floor. A clatter resounded throughout the spacious hall, making the guards turn to see the ginger their hanging from the ceiling, and no crown on the pedestal.
Nami stared for a second, and the guards stared right back. They certainly weren't expecting a thief, and Nami wasn't expecting to get caught.
.
.
.
"Get her!" one shouted, breaking the three of them out of their unintentional staring contest. The two guards charged at the woman, who let out a little 'eep!'. At that point, Nami started to climb the rope frantically.
"Pull me up! Pull me up! We've been caught! Nami screeched frantically at her accomplices. The two started pulling the rope up, as well as Nami climbing it, speeding up their escape.
Nami clambered onto the roof, and started to run with the two men. One had a weird pointy nose and the other had weird elbows. The three of them jumped down to a smaller roof, which was how they had gotten up, and then jumped down from that into a conveniently placed pile of hay.
Luckily, Nami and her accomplices had a head start, and by the time the Royal guards were being deployed, the thieves were already across the bridge.
"With this, we can be rich! Maybe we can buy a kingdom like this, or at least a castle!" Nami shouted joyously as she sprinted off the bridge. One of the thugs gave her an annoyed glare, and the other snorted.
"Is that a no? You two have no sense of fun." Nami said, not perturbed by their boring reactions. She would just have to get them off her tail, preferably forever.
As they ran through the forest, they passed a tree with some bounty posters for the trio. This cause Nami to screech to a halt, and back track.
"What the hell are you doing?" Pointy elbows asked. Nami paid no attention to him though. She was appalled. While the 2 men had a perfectly fine bounty poster, hers was all wrong.
"Ahh! They've gotten my nose all wrong!" she screeched in horror, showing them the bounty poster. It was all crooked and looked nothing the like ginger woman.
"That's what's holding us up?!" the two shouted angrily.
"Well, you two don't understand! As a woman, I can't let them ruin my image. You two are so ugly that you wouldn't need to worry about that." She said scathingly. The two didn't miss the insult she threw at them, as they gritted their teeth.
The little scuffle was interrupted by the royal guards, who had mounted their horses. The thieves stopped their arguement, with Nami stuffing the poster in her bag and running, along with the other two.
The guards followed them, which made Nami slightly more stressed. As they ran, the three encountered a problem, which came in the form of a small rock ledge that was too high to climb over.
"You two lift me up, and then I'll help you up afterwards." Nami suggested. The two thugs looked at each other, before Elbows climbed on top of Nose, and Nami climbing on top of Elbows. The woman heaved herself up, before turning to the two men.
"Alright, help us up." Elbows said. Nami grinned.
"Sorry my hands are full!" Nami said, flaunting the satchel she was carrying. The two men looked shocked for a second, during which Nami took the chance to run. She was laughing now, she has the precious crown all to herself.
"YOU DAMNED WITCH!" they shouted from behind her.
As Nami ran deeper into the woods, she stopped for a second to breathe. She has been running for a while now, and though she was fit, she couldn't run forever. As she took deep breaths, she heard something.
Hooves.
'Shit' Nami thought, as she heard the captain for the guards yell to follow her. Nami mostly had her breath by now, and so she started running again.
As she looked back, she saw about 7 guards after her, with the captain on what looked to be...a deer? Wearing a hat? That confused Nami momentarily, but she quickly started running again, as they got closer.
She ran through under a log, narrowly avoiding several arrows, and stopping a few of the guards, with only 3 left, including the man with the deer.
She kept jumping and turning, hoping to get these guys off her back. She lost another guy to a rock tumble the horse couldn't jump, and then all but the deer and captain where left behind at an oddly shaped tree, which was hard to get past.
'I've got to get away. I need the money. For myself. For Nojiko.' Nami thought frantically. She couldn't run forever. She'd need to lose this damn guard captain and his weird deer.
She took her chance, climbing up a tree and waiting for the captain of the guards to come through. When the man did, Nami jumped down, kicking him off his deer and knocking the man clean out.
For a few seconds the deer ran before stopping abruptly. It turned it's head and stared at Nami.
The ginger thief took this chance, to hop off and start running. She ran through the deep woods, trying to lose the deer, but the hat wearing animal wouldn't let up. She checked behind her to see if the deer was still there, and shouted in surprise at it being right behind her.
While the two of them weren't looking where they were going, Nami suddenly didn't feel ground under her legs, and she was falling, as was the guards deer.
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" The woman shrieked as she fell down. She would rather not die. As she hit the ground, she felt surprisingly ok. She looked around for the deer, in had landed a little ways away from her.
Nami looked around for a place to escape, and saw an odd cave which was somewhat concealed by vegetation. She ran over to the opening in the rocky wall, and hid.
The deer quickly got up as soon as it had recover, and started sniffing the ground, looking for her.
'Please don't find me. Please don't find me!' she begged in her mind. She watched tensely as the deer approached the cave. She felt herself holding in a breath. She couldn't be caught now.
Her body relaxed as the creature passed her, but she wasn't leaving yet, she had to wait until she was sure it was gone.
Now that Nami had a moment, she looked around at her surroundings. The cave clearly wasn't a cave now that she looked, but a tunnel, as she could see a bit of an opening down a ways. It was the perfect place for her to hide.
She walked down the stony tunnel, running her hand along the mossy walls.
As she emerged on the other side, she blinked a little, before her eyes widened in shock and amazement. Before the woman was a beautiful hollow, with a waterfall coming down on one side. There were beautiful green trees, and birds sang in their melodic choruses. What stood out the most, however, was a tall, thin, moss covered tower. It was made out of stone, and a layer of ivy and moss covered the lower half. The roof was pointed, and a colored a washed out royal blue. There was a little window, with plants sitting in pots that looked well cared for.
'Someone probably lives there. Maybe I can hideout with them until things settle down.' Nami thought. She walked through the clearing, in awe at how magical everything seemed. As she approached the tower, she quickly realized something. There was no door.
Nami looked for some way up, wondering how anybody got in and out of the tower. She saw no way in, and looked around to see if there was anything that could help her. She noticed 2 arrows that the guards had fired stuck into her bag, and she hatched an idea.
She ginger woman pulled out the arrows and stuck one into a gap between the mossy stones. She stuck the next one a bit higher, and raised her leg, putting the toe of her boot in between the stones. Using this method, Nami slowly ascended the tower.
As she got to the top, she pulled herself onto the wooden ledge that led to the window at the top. The plants that sat on the ledge looked well taken care of, and the wood didn't seem to be rotting.
It was well kept, despite there being no way up to the tower. Nami thought that was odd. She turned to the actual living space, which also seemed taken care of, and stepped inside. It was a beautiful living area, with bookshelves, and tables, and a kitchen area. There were stairs leading up to higher rooms. A flood of sunlight illuminated the room from a window in the rafters.
And the walls. The walls were covered in beautiful paintings. They weren't one theme, just paintings you'd do whenever you felt like it.
As Nami looked around in awe, she saw a flash of movement from the corner of her eye, and before the thief could react, she felt a sharp pain, and then darkness.
Standing above the unconscious woman, stood a boy, about 18, with a pan held firmly in his hands. His hair was white and fluffy, like clouds. His eyes were a deep red, and a small scar sat under his left eye.