Chat did end up pulling the hood of the Princess's cloak up over her head as they entered the marketplace of the port city. The streets were crowded with people from a variety of different backgrounds, but it was certain that their group would stand out the most. Between the five of them, the Princess and Nino were arguably the most normal looking. Chat was loaded down with weapons and Alya and Kagami both bore the markings of the dragons on their faces.

Chat had offloaded some of his concealed knives to the Princess, allowing them to be hidden beneath Her cloak and given the cape that buckled over his shoulders to Kagami to help her conceal herself a little more. Nino had ended up doing the same for Alya, giving her the scarf that he usually wore to use as a makeshift veil. Flecks of gold and the black markings next

to their eyes could still be noticed if you were looking close enough, but you'd have to be staring them straight in the eye, which was easily avoided.

When they made it to the center of the marketplace, Nino rounded them up into a small group, handing a piece of paper out to each of them with the Princess and Chat being the only two having one shared between them. Nino had quickly scrawled out a list of items they needed to pick up, having grossly depleted their supplies since leaving the mountains. "Okay, everyone knows the plan, right?" Nino asked, raising his brows as he looked between each of them. "Make sure you pick up everything that's written down, and-"

"Keep an eye out for the Green Dragon," Kagami interjected. "We are aware."

"I was going to say that if you miss even a single thing I'd scream, but, yes, that too," Nino said with a sigh. "Seriously, whether or not we get run out of this city remains to be seen, so we need to make sure we have everything we need in case we aren't able to set foot in another marketplace for a while."

"Got it," Chat said, placing a hand on the small of the Princess's back as he began to lead Her off. "We'll meet back here in an hour."

"An hour," Alya said with a firm nod. "Got it."

"See you then." Nino smiled as he adjusted the strap of his bag on his shoulder. He was the first to go, and quickly after Alya and Kagami went off in different directions as well.

Chat had kept his hand pressed to the Princess's back and as everyone broke off and they began walking, he slowly lowered it. As he did, She began walking even closer to him, their sides pressed up against each other as they tried to avoid bumping into any other customers or merchants milling about. They stopped only at the stalls they needed to, talked only when necessary. Both he and the Princess did their best to keep completely out of the way. There had been no unnecessary stops or slip-ups.

By the time they had gotten everything on Nino's list, they still had a good half hour before they needed to meet back up with the others. Chat considered just making their way back to their designated meet-up spot, but he felt uneasy about standing in one place for too long with nothing to do. People might think they were suspicious, and the last thing they needed was for the city watch to be called on them.

Luckily their answer for what to do came when the Princess tugged on the sleeve of his shirt. "Look," She said, pointing over to a corner of the market where a few people had formed a small crowd. "Performers."

They made their way over to watch the dance troupe. Two women and a man danced with fire torches as props. Throwing them up into the air, the fire burned above the heads of the crowd and the dancers caught them expertly as they came plummeting back down to earth.

The Princess gasped in surprise, gripping onto Chat's hand tightly. She seemed to be enjoying the show that was being put on, and he figured they could wait here for a while till they needed to head back. It would be safe enough.

"Do you remember when I almost tripped that fire dancer on accident during my birthday?" The Princess asked in a whisper, leaning close to his ear so only he could hear.

"Oh, you mean when we were watching fire dancers on your birthday and You said, "that looks easy, I bet I could do it," and then proceed to try and catch your fork after flipping it ten feet up in the air almost falling on your face in the process?" Chat asked Her, raising a brow.

"Gods, I didn't count on you having that good of a memory," She said, scoffing.

"Don't bring things up if You'd rather not hear the truth, then," Chat said. He stuck his tongue out at Her and She simply tried to jostle him in turn. A dancer gave another expert twirl of their torch and bowed to the audience, who clapped for them in turn. Chat and the Princess joined in on cheering him on. He leaned down closer to Her ear, speaking in a clear voice over the noise of the crowd. "We should be heading back now."

The Princess nodded, wrapping an arm around his elbow. Just as they had begun to turn away, more shouting voices joined in, but these weren't filled with the joy and excitement of the performance goers that had gathered in the marketplace. Chat's eyes zeroed in on the source, filled with mild worry as he watched city watchman pouring out from one of the buildings, weapons already drawn. Customers and merchants alike both cowered behind stalls, but the crowd around the performers couldn't disperse fast enough.

Chat pulled the Princess as far back toward an alleyway as he could as one of the watchmen began to shout. "This is an illegal gathering! Lord Cash has not given you his permission to perform here. Turn over your profits!"

Three of the watchmen immediately went up to the performs, pushing them till their faces were pressed up against the wall and twisting their arms behind their backs. Another picked up the jug they had been collecting money in, dumping the contents into their own purse before smashing the ceramic on the ground at their feet.

Chat pulled the Princess further into the alley, just peeking out to watch the mess play out before him. Other watchmen had stopped people on the street as well, holding them hostage until they slipped them a little bit of money to go away. Merchants had shut down their stores in mere seconds like it was a practiced and expected routine at this point. He had been right about them coming to a corrupt port town, but he hadn't expected the criminals to be the city officials themselves.

"Come on," Chat whispered as he took the Princess's hand. "We need to go."

She had made sure Her hood was still pulled over Her eyes and Chat kept his glance downcast, looking at his feet as they walked briskly. He prayed that they'd get away without trouble, but they had only made it a few steps before someone had grabbed onto his arm, tugging him backward. "Hey, there's a fine you have to pay for watching an unpermitted street performance," the watchmen said, holding out his free hand.

Ripping his arm from the man's grasp, Chat pushed the Princess a little bit behind him. "We weren't with them," Chat said, glaring at the man. "We just came from another street."

"That alley's a dead end," the watchmen said, a smirk spreading across his face. He was obviously feeling very cocky at having caught them in a lie. Shaking his outstretched hand, he waited for Chat to pull out the coin that he would probably pocket, and although Chat didn't want to give the man the satisfaction of cheating him out of his money, he also didn't want to cause any unnecessary trouble.

But then again, these guys were assholes.

Slowly, Chat reached into his pocket and without warning, swung his hand out to backhand the watchman across the face. He stumbled backward slightly, clutching his nose as it began to bleed with a steady trickle. Chat couldn't help the satisfied look that appeared on his face and he clutched the Princess's hand tighter, getting ready to run.

The other three watchmen who had been detaining the performers looked over at the commotion, glares on their faces. Their grips on the performers had loosened, and the trio took that as their chance to break free, heading quickly toward another one of the alleyways. The fire dancer turned back, motioning for Chat to follow him.

The alley was filled with sharp turns, but the watchmen had still been recovering from the hits they had taken that they were able to get away. A performer held open a small door in the side of a building, allowing them to slip inside. Chat hesitated for a moment before entering, but the sounds of the watchmen shouting for them changed his mind quickly. The five of them all let out a sigh of relief as the door was shut and locked behind them.

"Thanks for providing us with the distraction," one of the female performers said. "They definitely would have arrested us. Usually, we can get away with performing in the street, but I'm guessing they must just be in a crappy mood today."

"They took all your money," the Princess said. "Isn't there any way you can get it back?"

The fire dancer shook his head. "No," he said. "The likelihood of us seeing any of that coin again is slim to none. We'll have to make it up some other way."

"I'm guessing Lord Cash is the one who's in charge of the city?" Chat asked, frown lines appearing on his face.

"Yes, and he's extremely corrupt if that isn't obvious," the woman said. She rolled her eyes and plopped down into one of the chairs. "The money he took from us today will go in his own pocket."

"He taxes all of us more than needed as well to skim off the top." The fire dancer laid a comforting hand on his companion's shoulder. "Merchants have tried to band together and send messengers with complaints to the Earth tribe leaders, but they've all been killed before they reached the capital city."

Chat's jaw clenched, trying to figure out what he could say. He could offer a few comforting words, but that wouldn't do much good in this case. Before he could even come to a decision, the Princess was already reaching into his pocket and pulling out the extra money they had left, handing it off to the troupe. "Here, take this. You'll have something, at least."

"We couldn't possibly take your money," the fire dancer said.

"Please," She told them, putting the coins in his hand Herself. "I insist."

"You're so generous. Thank you."

The other performer glanced out of a crack in the door. "It should be clear now," she said. "Just avoid the busier streets. If you don't live here, I don't recommend sticking around much longer."

"Thank you," Chat said.

They moved toward the door, pausing for a moment as the Princess turned back and bowed Her head slightly. "I pray peace follows you now," She said, and Chat recognized it as the end of a prayer. She was blessing them. It hadn't occurred to him that prayers were something she still did.

He hadn't asked anything of the gods lately, feeling as though they wouldn't have heard him anyway. He stood not five feet from the holiest person in the land and still he was the farthest from divinely touched as possible. Chat wondered how many other people She had been praying for and if he had been in Her prayers at all.

They stuck to side streets as they made their way back to the meeting place with the others. Time had run out and they would definitely be late by now. Chat expected they'd be scolded, but it didn't matter much. He was just trying to make sure the Princess was still following along. She seemed completely out of it now, eyes staring off into space, focusing on nothing.

"Are You alright?" Chat asked Her, pulling Her a little closer to him in the process.

"Fine, fine," the Princess answered, though She shook Her head slightly. She inhaled sharply before speaking again. "Are most cities in the kingdom like this one?"

"No," Chat said a little too quickly. He wanted to reassure Her. "No, not all of them. It-it's not all bad."

"It's definitely worse than I expected," She said.

As She began to pick up Her pace, it wasn't difficult for Chat to keep up with Her. He could tell She wanted out. Of the walls of the city, out of Her head. Chat could practically see Her thoughts flying wildly behind Her eyes, and all it took was fixating on the way She squeezed his hand too tightly to know what Her emotions were.

"Princess, slow down a little," Chat said in a hushed voice. She wasn't listening to him, and not watching where She was going either. Someone coming from the opposite direction bumped into Her, knocking the Princess backward slightly and causing the hood of Her cloak to slip off Her head. Chat caught Her easily enough. The person who had run into Her didn't even stop to apologize. As they disappeared into the crowd, Chat caught the flip of a long ponytail behind their head but couldn't tell much else about them. Just that they had long black hair and wore a green shawl. He kept his hands on the Princess's shoulders as She steadied herself. "You okay?"

"Yeah, it was just a bump in the shoulder. I'm fine," She said, reaching to pull Her hood back up. The Princess's hands froze as Her fingertips hovered over Her ears. Her face turned white, eyes widened, and Chat could see Her bottom lip begin to quiver as realization dawned on Her. "M-my earrings... My earrings!"

Chat pulled Her hair back from Her face as tears began to well up in Her eyes. As She had said, the ruby earrings She had been wearing since they left the palace- Her last remnants of home- were missing. His eyes snapped toward where the ponytailed girl had run off, moving to go after her, but the Princess's hands gripped his forearms. She was practically leaning all of Her weight on him.

Chat moved to let Her rest against his chest as he held Her. The beating of Her heart was erratic and he could feel it through Her chest. Her breathing was quick and sharp, and he could tell She was on the verge of being unable to stand at all.

Going after the thief would have to wait.

Gripping Her waist, Chat threw one of the Princess's arms around his shoulders. He tried to ignore the fact that there were tear stains on his shirt or that She wasn't even picking up Her feet as She walked. Chat might as well have been dragging Her along.

At that moment, the earrings might have been the Princess's first priority, but, as always, She was his. And he would take care of Her first before dealing with the thief that had picked the wrong people to steal from.

------------------------------------

Nino had bought them a tent, apparently. As expected he had scolded them for getting back to the meeting point late, but that was before he had noticed the Princess's tears. The walk out of the city had been practically silent, and no one dared to say anything or ask what had happened till they finished setting up camp for the night.

Kagami and Nino had helped the Princess get into the tent. As soon as they had chosen where they would stay, Chat had sat Her down on a rock, watching Her carefully. The other two had taken over caring for Her now that everything was finished. Currently, She was asleep, head resting on Kagami's lap as the White Dragon gently ran her fingers through Her hair. That was where She was at, crying Herself to the point of exhaustion.

From where they were camped, Chat could see the ocean, and he chose to focus on watching the currents for the time being. The stars were beginning to come out and it'd be hard to see anything soon. Before he could rest, there was just one more thing that Chat needed to do tonight.

He picked up his spear from where he had leaned it up against a tree and slung it over his back. Alya had been standing not too far away, brows knit together in a quizzical stare as she watched him reattach all the knives that the Princess had been holding for him today while they were in the marketplace. He was practically a walking armory, an odd choice for so late in the evening.

"Keep watch for me," Chat said as he began heading back in the direction of the port city.

"What are you planning on doing?" Alya asked, stopping him. "You can't expect to find a single thief in a huge city like that."

"I can at least try," Chat huffed in frustration. "Or, at least, I can get information on where a thief might steal stolen items like that."

"The earrings," Alya said, "what's so important about them?"

Chat closed his eyes briefly, the image of a woman flashing through his mind, holding a much smaller version of him and a girl on Her lap. "They belonged to the Queen," Chat told her. His eyes brimmed with tears as he looked at Alya. "They're all She has left.'

"Right," Alya nodded firmly. "I'll come to help you."

"I can do this," Chat said. "You need to keep watch-"

"Kagami can handle it," Alya interjected. "Just accept the help."

Chat took a deep breath, but nodded, agreeing with her. Accepting help would be for the best. Alya checked her own weapons and adjusted the straps on her boots. She tapped the spear Chat was carrying and shook her head. "Leave that. We'll need to be sneaky."

"Got it," Chat said, setting the spear down at the entrance of the tent. He peeked past the canvas flaps, making sure the Princess was still fast asleep and that Nino and Kagami were still with her.

Kagami noticed him in the entrance, her hand freezing midstroke of the Princess's hair. She nodded once and Chat did the same. That was all it took to understand that Kagami would make sure She stayed safe while he was gone.

Chat placed a hand on Alya's shoulder as they began to walk toward the city. "Let's go."

---------------------------

The streets were empty enough that they didn't entirely have to stay in the shadows. Chat guessed that the watchmen were ruthless enough that nobody wanted to be outside after dark. They'd started by finding the street where the ponytailed girl had stolen the Princess's earrings, deciding to work their way out from there. Even the darker, back corners of the marketplace had closed up shop for the night. There had to be somewhere still open that had what they were looking for. Even if the earrings weren't there Chat just wanted somewhere he could take the next steps from.

"We could look through the poorer parts of the city," Alya suggested. "I doubt a thief would be living in a very luxurious place."

"Well, depending on how much they steal," Chat said through gritted teeth.

Footsteps from the other end of the street caught their attention immediately, and Alya and Chat pressed themselves up against the side of a building, covering themselves in shadows. Two watchmen came into view soon after, laughing with one another as they stumbled about drunkenly. As they came closer, Alya and Chat slipped away in the opposite direction.

"It's possible that even if we do search every corner of the illegal trade market in this place that we'll even find them," Chat said. "It seems like the government officials are just as likely to buy stolen goods as criminals."

Alya grabbed him by the collar and pulled him into an alleyway as they saw two more guards coming. This pair clearly wasn't drunk like the first, and their hands were already on their weapons. It was possible they might not have even noticed Alya and Chat anyway, being extremely occupied by something else.

The watchmen were stalking closely behind a woman who was walking down the street alone at night. It was clear they were just waiting for the right time to strike. Whether or not the woman noticed she was being followed was unknown. She had a large hood pulled over her head, concealing her face.

Something seemed off about her.

Chat studied the woman, watching her gait and where her hands rested. He noticed they were hovering over the hilt of a sword almost too late, and clearly the watchmen hadn't been quick to notice it either. The woman had already drawn her weapon by the time they were on her, slashing at them with quick precision as the two men tried to recover and get a safer distance away from them.

She threw off the hood, revealing long black hair and the top of a green shawl underneath the cloak she was wearing.

"That's the thief," Chat said in a harsh whisper, gripping the hilt of one of his knives a little tighter.

Alya's eyes widened as she looked between the watchmen and their thief, who were fighting against each other. "Should we be helping them then? Or her? Should we be helping anyone right now?!"

Chat watched as the watchmen tried to swipe their swords across her neck, the thief just barely leaping out of the way in time. He winced, disliking the words that were about to come out of his own mouth in the next second. "Her," he said. "Let's help her. So we can interrogate her afterward."

"Right," Alya said drawing her sword. She jumped into the fray without a moment's hesitation, blocking a blow that surely would have hit the woman. Chat wasn't too far behind, forming a triangle between the three of them and facing off against the watchmen.

Wanting to get the fight over with quickly, Chat didn't hold back as he struck one of them in the head with the hilt of his knife. The woman had moved between him to land a blow in the stomach. Alya seemed fine managing to take care of the other one all by herself. They weren't aiming to kill, but they clearly managed to scare the two watchmen off enough that they had them running in the opposite direction in no time.

Almost as soon as they were gone, the woman tried to run off. Chat grabbed her by the arm, dragging her into the alleyway they had been previously hiding in, and pressed her up against the wall, keeping a tight grip on her shoulders. Alya stood right beside him, blocking her exits.

"A pair of ruby earrings," he said in a biting tone, "I know you stole them today. What did you do with them?!"

"You just cost me my chance at getting information!" She fought back against his hold. "Let me go! I needed to interrogate that guy!"

"You were losing that fight," Alya said. "You're lucky we saved you."

"I was holding back to get them to underestimate me," she responded.

"I don't care why you were trying to pick a fight with those guys," Chat said. "What did you do those earrings?!"

"I'm not telling unless you agree to let me go!"

"Tell me first-"

"Uh, Chat-"

"You don't understand how important they are!"

"Chat!" Alya shouted. His head whipped towards her, brows raised as he waited for her to speak again. She just pointed at the girl's face, hand shaking slightly. Chat followed her finger, and in the small amount of light that was available to them, finally calmed enough to notice the flecks of gold on her cheeks and the dark lines around her eyes.

Dragon markings.

"You're the Green Dragon," Chat whispered in awe.

He hadn't noticed that his grip had loosened slightly and the girl had managed to push him off her without saying another word. Chat was slammed into the opposite wall, groaning as his injured shoulder made harsh contact with the stone. Alya tried to keep him upright, but it meant that the Green Dragon was allowed to escape and disappeared easily into the night.

"Damn it!" Chat shouted, banging his fist against the wall. He'd managed to lose two things tonight. The thief of the earrings and the Green Dragon.

Unfortunately, they were one and the same.