Chapter 3 - You may call me M.W (HoW)

The cloaked figure ran into a dead end. He turned around and saw his pursuers slowly walking towards him. He was trapped.

“Oh dear. Maybe I shouldn’t have tried to hide in alleyways….” The cloaked figure said to himself.

“We’ve got you now ya feline bastard. Can’t let deserters like you live.” The first pursuer said venomously as he pulled out a dagger.

“N-Now hold on a second fellas, I’m sure we can come up with something here…” The feline raised his gloved hands up in the air.

The pursuers were not convinced and walked towards him. The cloaked feline backed up to the wall. He chuckled nervously.

“**HEY! WHAT ARE YOU TWO DOING?**” A voice called out to the two pursuers, who stopped and turned their heads around. The feline sighed in relief.

There, Liam and Kameron stood with their weapons drawn.

The first pursuer gritted his teeth. “Damn it, we got company…” He turned to his companion and said, “Deal with those two kids while I finish off the stupid cat.” The second pursuer nodded and unsheathed his longsword before he charged towards Liam and Kameron.

The first pursuer turned back to the feline in order to finish him off. That never happened. Instead, the pursuer got a dagger to the chest. The last thing he saw was a smirk on a face of a brown cat.

“Shouldn’t have been distracted, my friend.” The hooded cat said before he took his dagger out of the first pursuer’s chest. His victim looked at him with shock and horror before he fell down to the ground, dead.

Meanwhile, Kameron decided to charge towards the second pursuer while Liam stood back, getting into a defensive stance.

“Take this you filthy criminal!” The koopa shouted as he lunged at his opponent. A hit!

Kameron ran the second pursuer through with his spear. He never stood a chance.

Liam ran over to the cloaked feline. “Are you alright?” The squire asked with concern. The feline smiled and removed his hood.

“Yes, I am quite alright, my friends! You have my thanks for getting these brutes off my back.” The green-eyed brown cat said as he chuckled. “Now, if you excuse me--”

“No. You stay right there.” Kameron commanded the cat as he walked over towards him. “We’ve heard about how those two men called you a deserter. What do they mean by that? Were you part of some group these men were in? A group of cutthroats and ruffians, perhaps?” The koopan squire questioned the cloaked feline.

“Easy with the questions there sir. If you want answers, you’re going to have to pay me.” The cat said as he grinned.

“WHAT? PAY YOU? WE JUST SAVED YOUR LIFE!” Kameron shouted at the feline angrily who only shrugged.

“Information isn’t free, you know.”

“**YOU BASTARD!**” Kameron, now angered, lunged at the cat with his spear.

“No, Kameron! Stop!” Liam tried to stop his friend, but to no avail.

The feline dodged to the side and leaped far from the two squires.

“Although, you did save me so I suppose I can give you fine men a piece of information without a cost.” He said.

“Meet me at the general store tomorrow afternoon and I’ll tell you what you want to know. After that, if you want more information, you’ll need to cough up some coins.” The cat then turned to leave before he suddenly stopped. “Oh! I haven’t introduced myself yet, haven’t I?” He turned back to Liam and Kameron.

“You may call me M.W, the greatest thief ever to grace this kingdom!” The feline thief boasted.

“Wait….thief?” Liam asked while Kameron glared at M.W.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, my good sirs.” M.W bowed before he left the alley.

Kameron looked at Liam. “I don’t like that sly bastard at all. Not only does he get on my nerves, he’s also a thief. **A THIEF**! Thieves are not trustworthy and they STEAL from others! I don’t understand how he’s not rotting in jail right now!” He shouted as he threw his arms up in the air, clearly frustrated.

“He may be a thief but still, we need all the information we can get. What if he knows something about The Deadly Serpents? Maybe there’s a chance that he’ll tell us the truth?” Liam suggested.

“I doubt that, Liam. There’s no way someone like him is going to tell the truth. He’ll just rip us off and feed us pointless lies.” Kameron voiced his doubts. This got the brown-haired squire to think before he came up with a plan.

“We’ll just bring Freyja with us then. If the worst comes to worst, she can cast spells at M.W to prevent him from fleeing then we can force him to tell the truth.” Liam said.

“If you say so then. I’m just going to go home and get some rest. I’m feeling pretty tired.” Kameron said. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Liam.” He waved at his friend before he left the alley.

“See you, Kameron." Liam waved back. He then looked up at the sky and found out that dusk was starting to settle in so he left the alley and headed home.

On his way back, Liam thought about the feline thief. Would he tell him everything he needed to know or would he lie like any other thief? Speaking of which, he should talk to Freyja tomorrow and see if she was on board with his plan or not.

The squire could only hope that things will go well without any incident.