Their Lives, His Decisions

Chapter 1

Roe was a good-hearted dwarf, he wasn't a good dwarf, but he was a good-hearted one. A mantra both him and his older sisters convinced himself (themselves) of. People had often told Roe that made not even the slightest bit of sense, but Roe didn't care, his word alone had always been sufficient for him. 

But despite his good heart, Roe was a thief. A very good one too, the best in the entire country, so said one of his good friends to the former captain of the city guard, before being hoisted up to the execution stand and promptly having his head chopped off. Roe had never bothered to find out why. It wasn't that he didn't care, after all, he was a good-hearted dwarf, but that particular friend had been a criminal just like Roe. So of course Elmar had been executed. And it also just so happened that Roe himself had been a little busy that day trying to escape from the city guard as well, seeing as how he had been meant to be executed too.

And so, that is how it has always been in the capital of Loerchiex, Carnelia. The country of roses and all things bright and beautiful, where almost each and every one of the citizens were obsessed with fashion and glorified poodles, each social class having their own dressing systems and trends.

But the citizens of the capital, Carnelia, were a class of their own. Flashy and grandiose, every man, elf and dwarf, down from the poorest guard to richest noble would splurge daily on ruffled shirts and ruffled skirts, with the few exceptions either belonging to the military or the paupers that would be seen occasionally in the back alley of an abandoned street.

Roe, however, wasn't one to splurge. A large, leather-brown beard was the most extravagant thing he owned. One he did well to maintain. Even so, he was in his two hundredth and twenty-third year, the beard he had strived to keep groomed and untouched, had already begun to whiten with age. His wrinkled face was weathered and coarse. His eyes had begun to fail too and these days, he would have to squint hard to be able see a local pub's dartboard. But there was one thing age hadn't, and according to Roe, couldn't take away from him. And that was the cat-like gleam in his eyes that had never failed to infuriate his sisters and all three of the former captains of Carnelia's guard.

Roen Trollsbridge, more commonly known as Roe Stickyfoot, was the most infamous of all thieves in Carnelia. He had been scheduled for a public execution for the last hundred and eight years and always, always slipped away from the city guard with his infamous "sticky" feet. Said feet having a special adhesive that had been invented by Roe himself that allowed the pores of his feet to stick quite closely to any given surface. 

The game of cat and mouse between Roe and the city guard had always been a pleasant and highly amusing topic, for both the general public and of course, Roe himself. His wrinkly face had been plastered on scores of newspapers, with scores more of them plastered on wanted papers. Plays, books and comics had also been produced in his name. To the city guard's disgust, Roe had acquired a pretty amount of fame amongst his countrymen.

Of course, Roe knew he would get caught someday, be sentenced with no trial and have his head lopped off by a cloaked executioner. But Roe had decided long ago that he would not go out so unfashionably, instead, he would go out in style, his execution would be the grandest in the history of Loerchiex!

How exactly, he was not sure, but it would come to him in time.

And that was how it would've been, until the arrival of a certain someone, on a certain day. Regrettably right after he had just finished up with a most successful robbery in Willow Wood District.

Autumn leaves crunched beneath his feet, as Roe barreled down an alley. A bag of loot thrown hastily over his shoulders jumped and jerked as he tore down the narrow passage, sliding under the legs of both man and woman alike.