Welcome to Gaia! ::

WC - 751


Tiam stared after the.. Was that a girl? He tilted his head to the side slightly as he watched them run away from him, his small apothecary pouch flying behind them in the wind. Yes, Tiam was sure that was a girl. Probably younger than him. Either way, or gender he supposed, the fact still remained that the thief had taken something he needed. It was important to him. Or more to the point it was important to the people he treated. He needed some of those herbs to help him dull their pain or fight off infection, or even just to make their stomachs stop hurting. And there it went!

The leafling let out a long sigh as he lowered his head and brought his left hand up to cradle his forehead. How had he let that happen!? Well, no, he knew how. Tiam was no fighter. Even self defense wasn’t something he was all that great at unless someone really provoked him. The healer liked to avoid conflict if at all possible. So when he felt someone bump into him his immediate response had been to apologize and move to give them more room to get past. It hadn’t been to check his pockets or grab onto his bag to make sure no one took off with it. Of course it also didn’t help that the girl had simply just cut the strap rather than try to slip it off his shoulder.

A groan left his throat before he heard a voice beside him.

“Dang. Tough break kiddo.” A strong hand clapped him on the shoulder, followed by a low chuckle.

When he looked up there was a man standing next to him, one hand on his shoulder and the other on the man’s hip. The man, who he didn’t know, was busy watching the girl escape with his stuff.

“Hope there was nothing valuable in there.” He let out a whistle this time before he finally looked down at Tiam.

It took the boy a second to blink before he realized the man was honestly curious and wanted to know if the girl should be chased down. Tiam shook his head slightly.

“Ah, no. Nothing particularly valuable was in the bag.. Just my healing supplies.” Which he supposed could fetch a pretty penny if given to the right buyer but it wasn’t like the thief would be rolling in riches.

Most of what he had could be harvested in the wild. Only a few things had been bought but they were common items. In truth, unless the person was a healer he didn’t think there was much value to the contents.

“I guess if they get hurt or sick then they will be covered.” He said off handedly.

“Haha! Well that’s one way to look at it.” The man shook his head then looked back at the receding back of the thief. “A damned shame we can’t walk through town without someone stealing our things anymore. Didn’t used to be like this but as the city grows so does the crime.” The man took a breath then removed his hand from Tiam’s shoulder.

“I suppose that’s true.” Tiam was no expert on the stuff though.

He gave one last glance at the thief before they disappeared behind the moving bodies of the crowd then sighed with resignation.

“You wouldn’t happen to know where the nearest apothecary shop is, would you?” Tiam asked.

Since he now needed to replace what was lost he figured he might as well get some help in going the right direction. He might even be able to avoid getting robbed again if he knew which streets to avoid.

“Sure kid. Go down and take the second right. Should find Willow Nest somewhere around the middle of the street.” The man pointed in the same direction the thief had gone off in. “Good luck.”

“Thanks.” With that Tiam was left alone, or as alone as one could be in a crowd, to follow the directions. He pushed a hand through his hair, keeping it out of his eyes, and started on down the road. While he could replace what was stolen he still mourned the loss of the items and now some coin he had to spend in replacing them.

If this was any indication of how the rest of the day was going to go, he thought he might just want to go to sleep and wait until tomorrow to continue with his journey.