A Thief’s Curse

Once upon a time, there was a thief. The thief had been out at sea for many years, he just took what he needed to survive, and never from those who needed it more than him. Despite his klepto tendencies being rather mild, he was still labelled a pirate by the public. Because he stole, and he travelled in a ship, of course he was a pirate. Who knew the bar was so low to become a pirate these days.

Thinking back to his outfit, it could be understandable why most would think he’s a pirate. He is in fact, wearing a large coat, puffy white sleeves, and leather boots. On top of it being an almost entirely black outfit, and it was doubtful his rather shaggy dark hair helped his case. But at least he didn’t have the hat, that would just be too much.

The thief, just before he started travelling, was cursed by a forest spirit. All he did was take fruit, which enraged the spirit who had claimed that all of it was hers. The thief had apologised profusely, but it wasn’t enough and she placed a lethal curse on him. The curse was a painful one, and would eventually kill him. He decided that if he was going to die someday soon, he wanted to make the most out of his remaining lifetime. He took the small stock of supplies he had, and stole a whole ship from the bay, throwing himself right into the jaws of adventure. The first thing he did? He created a huge bucket list of all the things he was determined to experience.

This curse of his manifested as a growing taint on his body. The skin would turn black, the colour reaching up his arm in frightening vein shapes further and further as time passed. Every time the taint grew, it was excruciating. The curse felt like a hot iron as it moved upwards a few centimetres, followed by a terrible headache that would last up to hours.

But it was ok.

If death chasing his tail was what got him to finally go out and truly live, then it was for the best. While he may die in a few months, at least he could say that he lived without regret.

Regret. Out of all the things he had listed, the one he absolutely could not bear to regret, was never returning home. So he vowed to return home when he was nearing the end of his journey. The thief’s working theory about the curse is that it’ll finally claim his life when the taint reaches his heart. Now that it has reached just over his shoulders, he decided that now was the time to go back.

His bordering ramshackle and poor excuse of a ship pulled into the docs of his home town. Well, town was an understatement. It was a rather large city, one of the largest in the country in fact. The first thing he noticed was the tall spire of a wizard's tower. It was much different than when he had left all those years ago, and he wondered if his old good friend the mage still resided there. His suspicions were soon shown to be truthful when the secret code to unlock the door was the same as he remembered.

Upon entering the room at the summit of the spire, the thief was met with the familiar sight of his best friend through his childhood. His auburn hair still styled messily in a bun just like he saw him last. The only thing he didn’t recognize was his new outfit, a rather simple combination of pants and a long sleeved shirt. The part of his outfit that stood out was the intricate cloak he wore, a gorgeous shade of green with golden patterning. He smiled wide, lightly knocking his knuckles against the door frame to get his attention.

“Knock knock”

The thief watched in amusement as the mage whipped around frantically, his round glasses threatening to fly off his face, startled by the sudden presence of another person.

“Wh- How did you get in here-!” The mage stopped short, freezing when he saw who the voice belonged to. “It’s…you”

The mage nearly started bawling right then and there, he bolted towards the thief and grappled him into a tight hug.

“oOF-” The thief nearly fell over from the mage’s sudden embrace, but took no time in returning the gesture. “It’s me. I’m home” He held the mage’s head into his chest.

When the mage pulled away, he was surprised to see a rather angry face.

“You disappeared! What the hell is wrong with you, you had us worried sick! We thought you died!” He weakly hit the thief’s arm, he was staring straight into the thief’s eyes.

He didn’t know how to break it to his friend what had happened. “It’s… It’s a long story…”

“Well then you better get to explaining!”

The thief sighed, and told him everything. The forest spirit, the curse, the adventures, all the amazing things he’s seen. At the end of his tales, the mage stood up and marched over to his desk. He was rapidly flipping through papers, picking up and identifying objects, back and forth between the different parts of the room.

“What-” He jumped out of the way of the mage when he flipped a 180 to go to yet another stack of books. “What are you doing?”

“Looking for a cure, what else?”

“What? No it’s fine, I’m fine”

“No you’re not! You’re dying, what do you mean you're fine??” The mage was beyond furious at these words.

“So what? I’m gonna die eventually anyway, that’s just how life is”

“You are NOT dying NOW” The mage was much shorter than the thief, so to look him in the eyes he yanked down on the collar of his coat. “You aren’t going to die on me you- you absolute idiot. What, you’re just going to show up one day after disappearing for months and then tell me that when I finally have you back you’re going to die? I’m calling him up, maybe he can talk some damn sense into you”

The thief knew exactly who the mage was referring to, and that made him panic.

“No no no- We can NOT tell him!” The thief would do anything to avoid telling the soldier about his situation. “If we told him, you know what he’ll do. I can’t have him risking his life just because my death has been rescheduled for sooner rather than later. He’ll get himself killed, please”

The pained look in the mage’s eyes was almost too much to bear, but he knew that he understood.

“...Fine. We won’t tell him” The mage leaned his back against the desk in defeat. “But that doesn’t mean I’m not going to help you. I will find a way to reverse this curse”

The thief opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off by the mage.

“No. If you won’t tell him, then I’m going to continue searching myself. Understood?”

The thief knew it was useless to argue any further, once the mage had made up his mind there was no way it was going to be changed. He was headstrong like that sometimes.

“...Understood-” The thief couldn’t finish his sentence, and doubled down in pain. The taint moved up again. His head was pounding, only clearing up slightly when the taint had finished its spreading. He hadn’t screamed from the pain in a long while, but it always left him heaving for a few moments as he recovered.

There was a horrified look on the mage’s face.

“It’s…” The thief’s voice was shaky. “It’s alright, I’m ok”

“This is the exact OPPOSITE of ok” The mage couldn’t decide whether or not he should even approach him, not wanting to put him in further pain. When the thief had fully stood up, the mage gently guided him to the bed in the far corner of the room and forced him to lay down.

“Hey there’s no need I’m fin-”

“If you say you’re fine one more time I’m going to give you a reason to finally say you’re not” The mage scowled at him, not understanding how he could think any of this was ok.“You are staying right here, you are going to let me take care of you. Tomorrow we can go see him, but for now you will rest…I don’t like seeing you in pain” That last part was almost too soft to hear.

The thief couldn’t find it in himself to argue, and relaxed in the bed he had been confined to. “I’m sorry for worrying you…”

The mage gently put his arms around the thief, who was now laying down. “I missed you so much, never do that again”

The two of them dozed off.

When the next morning had come, the mage had now dragged the thief to the soldier’s current place of residence. The thief may have casually gone up to the mage, but the soldier he was beyond anxious about reuniting with. He had been just as close to him as the mage, but he always felt nervous around him for a reason he could never pinpoint. The mage knocked on the door, rather harshly at that, and the thief felt his shoulders tense slightly when the door opened.

The thief took in the sight of his other childhood friend. Unlike the mage, he had changed a lot since he last saw him. His blonde hair was much longer now, neatly tied back in a loose low ponytail. Just under the long bangs, he could just make out a rather large scar around his eye. It was a pretty nasty looking injury, but it didn’t seem to have caused any vision loss to his knowledge. The thief was used to seeing him in his guards uniform, so it was strange to see him in such domestic clothing.

The soldier could only stare, for a moment he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Just like the mage, his first instinct was to pull him into a death grip of a hug. He almost didn’t want to let go in fear he would disappear again. The soldier pulled away slightly, and his hands moved to cusp the thief’s face.

“You’ve barely changed a day heh” He traced his thumb over a scar. “Oh come on now, what did I say about fights?” He teased the thief, luckily the scar didn’t look like it was that bad of an injury. Suddenly aware of how close he was holding him, the soldier let go and stepped back a bit. Recovering smoothly, he crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow playfully.

“You know I can’t stay outta trouble” The thief laughed it off, though he’d be lying if he said the encounter didn’t leave him flustered.

The three of them were throwing jokes around left and right as they receded into the soldier’s home, and settled on the couches in the living room.

The thief recovered from his fit of laughter at the last joke and looked over to the soldier. “So, prized soldier, how’s the job going?”

“Ah well, I can tell you it isn’t nearly as exhilarating anymore. You might as well just say I’m retired, all they ever do anymore is dress me up in ceremonials and parade me around” The soldier made a comical pout, nearly sending the other two into another raging fit of laughter. “Now come on, tell me where you’ve been. You disappeared for 5 years, we honestly thought you had died on us”

“Ah, well” The thief had pre prepared a lie, he couldn’t let him know about the curse. “I kinda got whisked away, for the past few years I’ve been out at sea. Thought while I was making my way back home, I might as well see what the world has to offer!”

It wasn’t entirely a lie, some of it was true, he just left out some of the more concerning details. If the soldier had any suspicion, he couldn’t see it.

“Well it sure took you long enough!” The soldier gently punched him in the shoulder. “You’ve missed so much, so many things around here have changed”

“Well then maybe a stroll through the city is in order! Show me around the new stuff~” The thief wiggled his eyebrows at the soldier and the mage, who both laughed at the site.

“Maybe it is, haha!” The mage stood up, hands on his hips and fully ready to have an outing with his most cherished people in his life.

For the next few weeks, the three were constantly going out. The thief only recognised about half of the city as how it used to be, he was a little astonished at how much could change in 5 years. During these outings, the thief had many close calls regarding his curse and the soldier finding out. But he was just barely able to conceal it, he could tell the soldier was worried for him even if he didn’t know what was going on. During the night, the thief would stay with the mage in his spire.

The mage grimaced, the thief’s curse had once again started spreading. It pained him to see him suffering.

“We should ask him for help”

The thief didn’t respond immediately, still shakily taking deep breaths. “No, we aren’t going to tell him. Even if he wasn’t self destructive, I can’t ask him for this. Not after he’s done so much for me in the past already”

“You say that like he doesn’t want to help, I’m sure if you just-”

“That’s enough, I’m not telling him. That is final” The thief was still hunched over, but he lifted his head up enough to stare into the mage’s eyes to make sure he understood.

Unfortunately, the very next day when the three were lounging in the mage’s spire, the thief’s worst case scenario happened.

He was hit with a pain worse than others he’s had before. He inhaled sharply, trying not to let out a cry. His eyes were watering, a few tears falling down his cheeks. He clutched at his chest, gripping the fabric of his shirt tightly. The soldier had rushed to his side and caught him as he started to fall to the ground.

“Hey! What’s going on? Are you alright-” The soldier was in a panic, sure he had his worries about the thief but he didn’t think it was this bad. He caught a glimpse of the taint beneath the thief’s shirt. The soldier reached to move the shirt so he could see it, but his hand was caught by one of the thief's.

“N-no, please don’t” His eyes were squeezed shut from the pain, and he was muttering pleas softly.

“I’m sorry but I need to see what’s wrong. Let me look” His voice was gentle but firm.

“You can’t hide this anymore, let him help” The mage had knelt next to the other two, and was trying to help calm the thief down by running his hands through his hair.

The thief’s pleas stopped, and his grip on the soldier’s hand loosened allowing him to continue. He unbuttoned the top of the thief’s shirt, revealing the taint, only a few inches away from his heart. It was a dreadful sight. Eyes still squeezed shut, the thief was gently sobbing. The mage was still playing with his hair, and his unoccupied hand was being gripped tightly by the thief.

“What did this to you” His voice was rough, and almost sounded like a growl. The soldier was beyond angry. How long had the thief been suffering from this? And why didn’t he tell him? He was only answered with a pained whimper.

“A forest spirit. He took something not knowing it was hers” The mage answered for the thief, now that the cat was out of the bag he deemed it ok to tell the soldier. He looked at the thief with worry and added in a grumble. “He refused to ask you for help, stubborn idiot. Going on about how you’ve already done enough for him”

He looked down at the man in his arms and sighed. “There is never too much help one can receive, you don’t need to be afraid to ask for it. You can’t shoulder everything on your own, you must realise when it is time to ask for help”

The soldier glanced around the room, spotting the bed in the corner. He as softly as he could picked up the bordering unconscious man into his arms, and set him on the bed.

“Where”

The mage knew this tone all too well. This was the tone of voice the soldier used when he was about to do something out of pure rage. “Don’t. You are going to get yourself killed” Or, the mage worried silently. It’ll worsen the thief’s condition.

“Tell. Me. Where” The soldier was already halfway out the door, pausing and turning just his head back as he demanded a response.

“If you’re going then I’m going with you”

“Absolutely not. You’re staying here and watching over him”

“And you just expect me to let you go alone to a forest spirit that could kill you?”

“And you expect me to just sit around and do NOTHING about…this?!?!” The soldier gestured wildly towards the thief, who had finally faded into sleep. “You are staying by his side and that’s final. Now tell me where”

The mage groaned in disbelief. “Both of you are so damn STUBBORN” He furrowed his eyebrows before he finally broke. “She’s in the back part of the forest of…of the place we used to live as kids. You happy?”

The soldier didn’t reply, just simply turned around and started down the spire.

“You better not die, you hear me! I’ll-.. I’ll find a way to bring you back to life just to kill you again!” The mage’s hollow threat didn’t reach the soldier’s ears, the unbridled rage drowning out the sounds around him.

The soldier only detoured from his beeline to the forest spirit to visit his home, picking up his old armour and weapons. He hadn’t used any of this equipment in many years, and he was planning on breaking that streak today by slaying the creature that had cause the thief such agonising pain.

The forest spirit was irritated at the presence of someone in her territory, but she wasn’t truly angry until the soldier had started yelling obscenities into the vast forest around him. He was demanding for her to show herself so he could face her.

“A foolish mortal, challenging a forest spirit? How cute”

The soldier stood in the center of a large clearing, whipping around to face any noises he heard. His sword was drawn, he gripped it tight in his hands as he searched around him.

The forest spirit was toying with him, circling the clearing in the shadows. “Do you wish to die? Why do you invade my territory”

“The only one dying around here is you foul creature!”

With a roar the forest spirit appeared before him, taking a swipe at him with its vines that extended from her arms. The soldier rolled to the side to dodge, cutting a few away with his sword in the process.

Being so far deep in the forest, no one was even close to being able to hear the cries of battle between the soldier and the forest spirit. After what had felt like ages, the soldier, heavily wounded and exhausted, had finally pinned down the spirit. He raised his sword up high, readying a forceful plunge of his sword directly into the heart of the spirit. Before he could lay the final blow, there was a yell and the pain of something ramming into his side.

When the soldier had finally come back to his senses, he realised that the thing that rammed into his side and had yelled, was the thief. Then, to his horror, the second thing he realised was that his skin was growing cold.

“What are you doing here?!” The soldier shifted both of their bodies, and he was now cradling the thief in his arms. Tears threatened to fall, his voice starting to crack. “You idiot, why did you do that”

“Someone has to stop you from pulling stupid stunts” He joked weakly.

The sound of rapid approaching footsteps cued them both to the arrival of the mage. He kneeled to the ground, sliding into place on the other side of the thief.

“Well-” The thief let out a few violent coughs, one of them leaving blood dribbling on his lips. “It seems this is the end of the road for me”

“Shut up, don’t say that” The mage was in denial about his curse as per usual, in a way the thief found it endearing. The mage was once again running his hands through his hair, it seemed more like a way to calm himself than the thief though.

“Let me talk, com'on, hear a man's dying words?” He chuckled, what a time to make jokes.

He only continued when both of them acknowledged his request.

“Listen, I know I disappeared. I got cursed and decided that, if I was going to die sooner than I thought, I needed to go out and live so I wouldn’t have regrets” He reached both of his arms up, placing one on the backs of each of the other two. “And to keep that promise to myself, the last thing I needed to cross off my list was to tell you both that I loved you. To finally reconnect for my last days I walked this plane, I wanted my last memories to be of you two”

The mage was leaning over his body slightly, failing to hold back the tears that had been forming. The soldier had grabbed the thief’s arm and was holding it, moving it from its previous position on his back.

Neither of them could even try to say a word.

“Both of you mean the world to me. These past 5 years I thought of you everyday.”

He turned his head to look at the mage.

“You are so smart, your intelligence is sharper than any sword. Please never give up on your aspirations, you are enough. And please never change your style, while it may look “strange” to some it is downright beautiful”

He then faced the soldier.

“You don’t have to have a purpose to keep going, and you’re gorgeous in that ceremonial armour. You should take your own advice too, don’t be afraid to ask for help. You don’t have to shoulder everything on your own”

He closed his eyes, sensing the end was close.

“I love you both so so much”

The thief waited for his consciousness to fade out, but to his confusion, it never came. In fact, he felt a little different if anything.

“Hm, kinda expected to die right there. Well this kinda ruins my whole dramatic exit” He jokingly pouted, which got disapproving looks from both the mage and the soldier.

“Wait…look!” The mage pulled the thief’s shirt down a little. They all watched as the taint slowly receded, moving away from his heart and back down his arms.

“What-But how? That curse was supposed to kill me”

“...I retracted your curse” The forest spirit spoke up, startling the three of them.

“Aww, did my love confession move you?” The thief sat up, giving her a goofy smile.

`“Absolutely not, that was sappy and gross. What a terrible way to confess. No, I retracted your curse because for some reason you stopped your lover from killing me. I don’t like owing people, so I retracted your curse” The spirit was no longer angry, but was still definitely irritated.

“O-oh” The thief had forgotten about that part. “T-thank you!”

“Now get out of my forest. If I see any of you three ever again I won’t hesitate to kill you on the spot” The forest spirit then disappeared into the trees, leaving the three alone.

The three sat there dumbfounded for a few moments, before the thief pulled them all into a tight group hug. “Guess I’m not going anywhere after all”

If this is where finally asking for help brought him, the only thing he wished was letting it happen sooner. He happily lay in the embrace of the two he loved most in the world.