Thief
an excerpt

He liked taking risks. It was one of the many reasons he was a tomb robber in the first place. To him, adrenaline was like a drug – addicting, and all together too attractive. But addictions tended to lead into danger – which was exactly what he found himself in at the moment. Not that he thought it was danger – no, to him, it was just a slightly riskier venture than most – no worse than breaking into a king’s tomb. He was Rishid – self dubbed King of Thieves, and tomb robber extraordinaire – he did not get caught.

And it was this very arrogance that had led to his latest predicament. The dark skinned man fled down a corridor, the sounds of guards not quite that far behind him. His loose sandy coloured cloak flapped out behind him, the sleeves clinking lightly as he ran. His feet – which were bare – made not a sound on the smooth stone. Rishid cast one dark eyed glance over his shoulder, and let a hiss escape him. They were getting closer – and he was growing tired.

With an soft curse, the thief started to look for quicker ways out .The answer shortly presented itself to him in the form of a sizeable window – just enough for a man to squeeze through. Rishid paused only for a moment, to make sure that if he jumped, he wouldn’t plummet to his death. With a sigh of relief – though he’d never admit it – he saw that it was a first story window. Looking over his shoulder again, he saw that the three guards who had been chasing him had finally caught up.

He backed away, feigning fright – all the while placing himself strategically in front of the window. Rishid eyed the spears they were leveling at him with net entirely faked apprehension. Damn it all! I didn’t think they had weapons. If – He cut his thoughts off with a savage – both mental and physical – snarl. He did not think whilst on the job. Thinking only led to noticing all of the little flaws in your plan – how maybe deciding to steal from one of the richest mages in the Pharaoh’s employ just might not be a good idea, and how pinning all your hopes on not breaking your neck as you jumped out of a window just might be less then wise. Rishid snorted mentally. Who was he kidding? Those ideas weren’t stupid – they were just… a bit eccentric. He shook himself again. Back to the guards pointing sharp objects at his body.

As always, in the face of adversity, Rishid only smiled, and laughed a haunting laugh. He backed up another step, until his hands were resting on the windowsill. Mentally, he sent up a thankful prayer to Ra that the mage had not seen fit to put spell protections on the windows, and that Egypt was too hot to be able to use glass.
“I am dreadfully sorry to cut our happy little meeting short, noble sirs,” he said to the room at large, ignoring the fact that there were only four of them, and that all of them were as far from ‘noble sirs’ as you got. “But it seems that Ra wishes me to live just a bit longer. The King of Thieves will not die on the spears of mere guards, after all.” With another cynical grin, Rishid kicked off the stone ground and launched himself backwards thought the window.

He let out a howl as his shoulder hit the frame – apparently it hadn’t been big enough for him to fit though. The unexpected force threw off the timing of his lunge, and instead of landing neatly, the tomb robber landed with a crash on his already bruised shoulder. Picking himself up, Rishid saw the guards getting ready to leap out after him, and made himself scarce, sprinting flat out across the wide street, wishing all the while that he had some sort of horse.