You figure it might be best to head somewhere that you can at least get your bearings about what you're going to do in the long term with your life. Still, it would be best to stay off the road and stick to the wilderness. With a new goal, you head in the direction of Klyton and hoping nobody from Teckleville is tracking you.

You stick to the woods figuring that it will provide you with more cover. You keep alert for possible denizens that lurk in the woods themselves, but besides a lot of birds and a few normal animals, you don't encounter anything out of the ordinary. You even manage to get a good night's sleep, well as good as you can get with as paranoid as you are.

Unfortunately the woods eventually begins to thin and if you continue walking the way you are going, you're going to be in the open plains and if you're going to march across the open fields, you might as well just walk on the road since you'll be just as exposed.

Since you're not exactly in danger of starving or anything and the woods themselves seem fairly safe, you decide to play it cautiously by staying in the woods for the rest of the day and travel in the open at night. Hopefully it won't be a much longer trek to Klyton.

You take the opportunity to rest up some more and when the only light in the sky is that of the dim moon, that's when you leave the edge of the woods. The trees around you soon disappear and all that's left is you in the open countryside and the occasional sounds of nocturnal animals. You walk across the fields for a while, but as the grass starts getting knee high, you start hearing unfamiliar sounds. While you hope it is only a harmless nocturnal animal (or rather several of them judging by the noises) you get concerned that you might be at a disadvantage if it isn't, so you quickly make your way back towards the road where you have better vision of any potential low to the ground threats.

The road is just as empty as the plains you just left. You continue to keep aware of your surroundings by keeping an ear out for various sounds. You still have this idea that you're suddenly going to hear Teckleville watchmen on horses galloping on your position.

You continue down the road and once again you see something out of the ordinary. This time though it's a hanging cage along side the road.

You've heard of those before. Klyton apparently uses them when the jails are full and the criminal hasn't done anything bad enough to deserve outright death. So they get put in these cages until they eventually die of starvation, exposure or someone grants the mercy of killing them. Either way they aren't the city's problem anymore. Seems like it would be kinder to kill them immediately.

You walk a little further and you see a few more of them on both sides of the road. Well if there's anyone inside them, they're going to be safely locked in a cage.

First couple cages you pass are empty. The next one has a decaying smell as you pass, but nobody is in it. You notice on the other side of the road a couple of the cages have bodies in them, but seeing as they aren't moving, you can only guess you're probably walking by corpses.

At least you think you are.

"Hey, you wouldn't happen to have any extra water would you?" you suddenly hear one of the slumping figures in the cage say.

Well you may have decided to travel at night, but it would seem you're encountering more people than you thought.

"Uh, no not really." You answer.
"That sounded really convincing there son. Come on, if you got any you could spare some. You always got the luxury of grabbing yourself a drink at the first tavern in Klyton…assuming you're even old enough...I can't quite see you, but you sound fairly young." The figure in the cage says.
"I'm not young, I'm a grown man!" you exclaim.
"Oh. Well apologies then. So can you please spare any water, I'm dying of thirst over here."
"Why should I trust you? You're in a cage meant for criminals."
"So? What, do you think I'm going to suddenly attack you or something? Even if I had the strength to grab you from between the bars and choked you out or something, that wouldn't exactly help my situation now would it? If anything it would just be harder to beg for water from the next person that passed by given that your corpse would be near my cage."

Strangely that logic makes a bit of sense to you.

"I'm not a violent criminal anyway. I'm just in here because I was a little down on my luck and stole some food. Unfortunately Klyton is pretty overzealous when it comes to their laws." The man goes on to say.
"So you're a thief?" you ask.
"Only out of survival."
"Explains why you got caught. You're not a professional." You say.
"Oh? Well more apologies then, I didn't realize I was speaking to a master fucking thief. Of course if you're so good, why the hell are you wandering out here in the boonies? Shouldn't you be stealing the King of Delantium's jeweled chamber pot or something?"
"Hey, if you're still expecting me to give you any water you're doing a piss poor job at convincing me." You say getting a bit agitated and stepping closer to the cage.

From this distance you get a better visual on the man in the cage. He looks about of average build, and he's a lot older than you. In fact he looks like he might be around your dad's age.

Of course he gets a better look at you as well.

"Heh. You barely have any stubble on your face! I knew you were just a kid! Something about you though…you look strangely familiar." The man remarks.
"I don't think so, I've never been to Klyton." You say.
"No, you don't look like you have. You look more like someone from a small town…say you wouldn't be from Teckleville would you? That is the closest town around here."
"…um no why?" you say and then silently cursing yourself that your lie didn't come out natural.
"I'll take that slight pause as a yes and you really need to work on your attempts at misdirection and lying. What sort of thief are you?"
"Better one than you obviously, you can't even pick the easy lock on your cage."
"Yeah, yeah, so Teckleville huh? Hmm….wait a minute!"

The man suddenly asks if you know a doctor from Teckleville, and then goes into a description somewhat matching your dad, even mentions him by name. Does this man know your father?

Since you seem to be messing up on your lies right now, you just go ahead and confirm his suspicions.

"The gods are truly merciful this night! I knew your father! You look a lot like him when he was young. My name's Tom and I used to go to school with your father!"
"You mean in the university?"
"No, I used to go to primary and high school with him. I was one of his friends during childhood. I mean sure we drifted apart obviously, even more so when I dropped out altogether, but me and him were always alright with each other! I heard he moved to Teckleville years ago and had a family. Didn't know his son was a thief though…how the hell did that happen?"
"Long story."
"Hm, I'll bet…so you were saying this big ass lock on my cage looked easy?"
"Yeah, I've picked more complex merchant lockboxes." You say confidently.

At this point Tom stops slouching and begins to move towards you as much as he can in his cage.

"That's good…that's good….so hey instead of water, how about you set me free?"
"What? Why should I do that?"
"Oh come on! I was a friend of your father's! Surely he's mentioned all the fond memories of us playing smash sphere after school."
"Well, actually my father doesn't speak much about Klyton or the past at all. He prefers to forget it. Says it was mostly stressful."
"Oh....well hey how about this deal then? You've never been to Klyton, so how about in exchange for my freedom I give you some basic information on some of the neighborhoods and potential places you could easily go burgle. I mean obviously I'm rubbish at it, but if you're as good as you say you are, they should be easy for you.

You might have less of a problem with releasing him if you could somehow confirm he is who he says he is. Tom certainly seems to know bits about your father that would be hard to know by some complete stranger. Your father never said anything about former childhood friends though, or if he did you weren't paying attention.

You leave Tom

Even if he is a childhood friend of your father, you just don't trust Tom enough to set him free.

"Look, I got my own problems right now and I can't be taking on someone else's, so I'm saying goodbye to you."
"Wait! Okay, I get it, I get it. You don't trust me, but can't you at least give me that water?" Tom asks.
"And I told you I don't have it to spare! Look, I'm going, maybe the next person will be more generous." You say.
"Fine. I can see you're nothing like your dad. He would have at least given me the water." Tom mutters and then mumbles some swears as you leave.

You continue along the road and fortunately you don't have any more late night encounters.

Eventually Klyton is in sight and you quicken your pace, anxious to get to your destination.

When you get to the city gates, you find them to be heavily guarded and you're stopped.

"Halt, you don't look like a merchant or anyone else that has a real job. In fact you look a bit suspicious sneaking about the city at this time of night." One of the guards says.
"Sneaking around? But I'm going through the main gate!" you say.
"You giving me lip boy? I'm asking the questions here! We don't need anymore scum like you in this city!" the guard says and pushes you.

You're smart enough not to start a fight with an armored guard, but you're starting to wonder if you're going to even get in the city.

Fortunately, not all the guards are power drunk assholes and one steps forward to pull the asshole one back a bit.

"Oh for fuck's sake Clyde, calm down and leave the boy alone. Judging by the look of him he's just a snot nosed kid. Probably ran away from home or something. Hey, kid you got any money on you?"

While you normally wouldn't announce such things, you figure they want a bribe to leave you alone.

"Um, yeah…look I don't have much, but you can have what I…" you start to say.
"What? No, we're not trying to shake you down. This isn't Holgard son. I just wanted to know so I can tell you which inn you should probably check in at. Seeing as you said you don't have much, I'd recommend the Welcome Mat, which isn't that far from the main gate, you really can't miss it.. The place is cheap and pretty safe. If you still can't afford their low prices, they'll probably have some tasks you can do to earn a place on their flop room floor at least."
"Oh, okay. Thanks."
"No problem, but I'm going to warn you once now. I certainly HOPE if you're sticking around the city, that you have every intention of being a productive citizens. Because if you don't, well…let's just say we don't take kindly to crime around here. I trust you saw all those cages down the road."
"Yes, sir."
"Hm, well that'll be where you're heading if you have ill intent in this city. And that's if you're lucky."
"Yes, I certainly understand sir." You say.
"Very well, off you go son."

You start to walk towards the city entrance, when Clyde can't resist talking more shit at you.

"Remember what we said! You fuck up and I'm gonna fuck YOU up! You hear me you little shit? I'll be on your ass! I'll be on you ALL fucking night and day!"
"Yeah, yeah, I got it." You say.

While some of the other guards are chuckling and Clyde's buddy is telling him to cease his almost rape like threats, Clyde isn't even paying attention anymore, he HATES your dismissive tone and all he's feeling is disrespect to his authority.

"You fucking little scumbag bitch! Fucking dismiss me will you?" Clyde mutters and before you know it he's punched you hard with his gauntlet-encased fist. You drop like a sack of potatoes.

"NO Clyde! STOP! Shit! Get Clyde off of him!" Clyde's buddy shouts to everyone, as Clyde is kicking your head in.

Eventually they get Clyde off of you, but it's too late. He's stomped your head into mush. You can't even see anymore and you're already losing your hearing.

You think you hear someone shout for a medic, but by then everything goes black.