The story of how Maribella and Jen first met.

Maribella was out for her usual stroll across her town of Nova, just a normal day as usual for her. She felt a little hungry so she stopped by a fruit stand and bought two apples, one for now and one for later.

Maribella went into a shaded area and ate one of the apples, while she ate the owner of the fruit stand walked away for a break, 2 minutes passed and nothing unusual had happened. But then all of a sudden, a cloaked person came from behind the stand and stole an apple. Maribella saw this and thought, "Why did they steal such cheap food?", and saw the cloaked person run into the woods, she desided to follow this thief to see what they were going to do. If they were indecent enough to steal, what else could they do?

It felt like a bad idea following someone that was potentially dangerous, but she wanted to try and understand why the thief did what they did. Maribella was almost caught by the thief a few times due to her clumsiness, but she managed to stay hidden. Eventually the thief stopped near a stream where a small boat was, the boat most likely belonging to them. Maribella went to hide behind a tree so that she wouldn't be caught.

The thief took the cloak's hood off their head, and began eating the apple they stole. Maribella got to what the thief looked like, the thief seemed to be a tall young man with very pale skin, scars on his face, brown hair, a bit of an odd nose, and blue eyes with tired bags under them. A lot of people would say he wasn't too attractive, but to Maribella she thought the young man looked quite beautiful for some reason. She didn't know why, just something about him stuck out to her. She also felt sympathy for the young man as he seemed tired and even a bit depressed.

After the thief was done eating he pulled his cloak back up and was about to get on the boat. Maribella thought it was time to get going as well as she believed the thief had done no harm and was simply hungry. But as she was walking away she stepped on a twig and it made a loud CRACK! She turned around and realized the thief had spotted her. They looked at eachother in fear, Maribella was afraid she was about to be attacked, and the thief seemed to be afraid someone saw him stole.

Maribella began running as fast as she could, and the thief began to chase after her, after moments of aimless running, Maribella had suddenly tripped and the thief seemed to have caught up to her, all Maribella could do was back up into a tree and cover herself.

"Please!", she begged, "I mean no harm! Don't hurt me!", she said quivering and terrified, she even almost started crying. Most other thief's would have probably attacked her for good measure, but this thief realized she was telling the truth and could see her fear was real. So he held out his hand to her, Maribella realized the thief didn't want to hurt her, so she grabbed his had and the thief helped her up. They looked at eachother for a moment, no words were spoken for a while. "Umm", Maribella awkwardly said, "Thank you sir-"

Then the thief asked, "Who are you? Were you following me? Are you someone of the law?" Maribella looked away for a moment before answering the thief's question, "My name is Maribella, and I'm not someone of the law but I did follow you. I saw you steal an apple so I wondered if you were dangerous, I mean if you had the guts to steal I figured you were capable of worse, but it seems I was wrong."

The thief then sighed and said "Don't you think it's creepy to follow someone? Where are your manners?" "I apologize sir", replied Maribella, "I was just wondering why you were indecent enough to steal." The thief looked offended at how she described the theft, "I didn't steal because of indecency! I stole because that's how I live. I can't find a good job."

The thief started walking back to the stream and Maribella decided to follow him, "Why are you still following me?" Asked the thief, "Because I still have questions." replied Maribella, "Well ask them now because I'm not answering them later." the thief said.

"I'm curious sir, why didn't you attack me?" Maribella asked, the thief told her "Because I had no reason to, you're innocent. If you had the intent of attacking me that would be a different story. But I'm not just going to attack an innocent person."

Maribella then asked, "Who are you?", "That's not important to you, besides, I don't want you telling people in the town I was here." the thief replied.

"Then I won't tell anybody if that's what you want me to do." Maribella replied, "Hmm...I can't say I believe you, but you seem honest, so I guess I have to take your word." the thief replied.

It was about to storm, the thunder was starting to roar and the waves were starting to get a bit rowdy. "I have to get going now, you best get home too." the thief told Maribella. "Alright then, do you think we'll meet again?" Maribella asked. "Most likely not, but don't feel too sad about it. I'm not someone you'd like." the thief replied.

"Have a good day sir." Maribella told the thief has he was walking to his boat, "Um, you too." said the thief said awkwardly. Then the two went on their way.

~To be continued.~