Tick
I couldn't tell you how relieved I was to finally get away from the old blind man. He stood tall with along aged beard and wrinkles of travel. The eyes started red-lined white, and burned at the slightest glance. No one knows whether or not he could see, but I've felt their touch.
I am Roni. Some call me little Thief. Some call me bug. My close friends call me Tick. It was my small size survive. Yet with all my art, cunning, and speed, I still find it hard to escape the old blind man. His trinket was worth no more than three copper, and he looked well fed. I thought I deserved to eat that evening. It was as though he could see without eyes. It is said the ancient art has been lost and gone forever. Mystics worked day and night to discover the mind power of long ago. I could not think an old blind man would possess such knowledge.
It was mid-morn in the slums of Goshtar. The morning I woke to the bangs of a woman chasing rats or some other viral rodent that roamed our neighborhood. The smell of poverty was a faintly scent to all of use in the Goshtar slums. Only, I was ready to get away. I did not like to see my petty life slipping into nothingness. I had to see more. I'd make trips to the city and collect what I could, bringing the many home and stash it in my own secret rock-box. Soon, then, I would have been able to get a legal name, our land, travel, or whatever I wished. My dreams were special dreams I would make come true.
Hot days had a way of getting people very thirsty. This day was one of those days. You had to pay for water you drank at noon. I used up all my funds by late afternoon. that's when I say the old blind man. I guessed he was just passing through, lost or something. He paid for a drink of water at the Toll Well, after looking, oh, feeling around for about ten minutes. As he was drinking I saw my chance to get that piece of jewelry dangling from his belt. I moved swift as a robot. Though people under a cart over some boxes. I tried to grab it as I passed the old blind man. I grabbed it alright. But a withheld long hand stopped my very next step. I froze. I could not move to save my life. Believe me, I tried. The old man turned to force him by turning my head with one hand on top of my dusty hat. I looked into his eyes and he looked into mine, or rather, he looked through my eyes.
Tht day changed my life. I don' t know what he did, but the old man helped me out of the slums. Though, he still scares me.