Title: Found?
Fandom: Magic Knight Rayearth
Rating: G
Length: 690 words
Content notes: None
Author notes: This is the beginning of a historical AU I’ve had floating around my head for a while. Also, this is my first time participating since June 2014. Woo-hoo!
Summary: The youth Lantis caught trying to pick his pocket may be more than they seem.

Just a few minutes after he had stopped to watch a street performance in one of Eterna’s public markets, Lantis felt something brush against his waist near his belt pouch. Quickly reaching down, he grabbed the wrist of the would-be pickpocket and turned to look at them.

The…young man? Young woman? Their face was so androgynous, Lantis wasn’t quite sure…had short cropped red hair and looked about fifteen or sixteen. They were wearing trousers—probably a young man, then—and a shirt that looked well-worn and showed signs of having been both let out at the hems a time or two and turned at the seams at least once.

He also looked quite scared, more so than Lantis would expect from someone who hadn’t gotten their hand into his belt pouch. Looking down, Lantis saw that the young man actually had succeeded in getting his hand into Lantis’s belt pouch. Lantis had caught him on the way out. Well, that decides it, then, Lantis thought. Anyone good enough to get their hand into my belt pouch without me noticing could be useful to the Watch or the Guard. It just depends on why they were trying to pick my pocket.

“Come on,” Lantis said, tugging on the young man’s arm. “I want to talk to you.” The young man nodded and Lantis guided him over to a bench in the park at the edge of the market. Once they had both sat down on the bench, Lantis asked, “Why were you trying to pick my pocket?”

The young man looked at Lantis incredulously. “You aren’t going to turn me in?” he asked. His voice was high enough that it probably hadn’t broken yet and there was enough of an accent that Cephiran was clearly not his first language. Lantis took a closer look at his face and saw distinct signs of Fahrenese ancestry.

“There aren’t many people capable of getting their hand into my belt pouch without me noticing,” Lantis said in reply. “Depending on why you were doing it, I know some people who could find skills like that useful.”

The young man was silent for a few minutes, then blurted out, “It’s for Caldina.”

“Caldina?” Lantis repeated.

“She’s our brood mother,” the young man said. “That’s what everyone calls us—The Brood. Or Caldina’s Brood. She’s sick, she’s been sick for more than a week, she kept saying she didn’t need to see a doctor, and now that she admits she should, we’ve used enough of our savings that she won’t let us get one for her. You’re dressed well enough that I didn’t think you’d miss that much money.”

The young man kept rambling after that, but since it sounded like he needed to let out quite a bit of pent up worry, Lantis let him continue well past the point he’d made his decision.

Suddenly, as a rage-filled shriek sounded somewhere above them, the young man ceased talking and looked up. Lantis followed his gaze and saw a black speck plummeting towards them. The young man jumped up to stand on the bench and yelled, “Yaris, NO!” His voice cracked as he yelled, sounding even higher pitched than before.

In response to the young man’s shout, the plummeting speck slowed somewhat and Lantis saw that it was a large black bird—probably a crow or a raven. The young man held out an arm and the bird landed on it. Then his attention was drawn away from the young man by loud barking that was coming towards them. Looking back in the direction of the market, Lantis saw a large dog running towards him, closely followed by a boy of about twelve. As soon as he came within easy earshot of Lantis, the boy shouted, “You leave Karu alone.”

‘Karu’? Lantis thought. As in Hi-karu? Rapidly putting all the pieces together—red hair, androgynous face, approximately sixteen years of age, higher-pitched voice than would be expected in a male of that age, Fahrenese ancestry, enough of an accent that Cephiran clearly wasn’t their first language—Lantis felt stunned. Had he just found the lost Shidou daughter?