The hustle and bustle of the marketplace swirled around me as I walked down the main thoroughfare of the town. The trample and pound of countless feet kicked dust up into the air, creating a thin brown haze that hung over everything. I moved through the crowd, deftly avoiding running into anyone as I weaved my way through the people - and where I couldn't avoid bumping into someone in the press of people, I made sure to keep my injured arm out of the way of the impact. It was a street market day, and the crowds were thick with busy shoppers.

This close to this many people, the swirl of emotions that were washing over me was too jumbled to make out clearly. As a matter of fact it was almost difficult to think straight from the constant intrusion of other's feelings. Only long practice kept me on my feet and my thoughts relatively clear. It did help that most of the people around me were all feeling relatively the same - a soothing medley of contentment and expectations, tinged with some excitement as they found things they were looking for.

Greed. My head snapped around at that sharp, discordant emotion. Someone nearby was feeling that strongly enough that it overpowered the other feelings that were sticking to me. If I was any closer I might think it was one of the vendors, trying to gouge an unwary shopper, but no - the nearest stall at the moment was roughly twenty five yards away. It was possible that the emotion was strong enough for me to feel it from that far away, but I doubted it. No, this was closer - and from the undercurrent of expectation mixed in with that greed, it was a thief moving through the crowd.

A cutpurse. The heavy throng of people was ideal for someone like that, with everyone bumping into each other so frequently that one more impact would be ignored. Until later, when the victim found their purse lighter than it should be. I looked around, not for the first time cursing the fact that my empathy didn't give me a specific location for the source of things I was feeling. No one looked out of place, everyone was minding themselves, rushing to and fro from different stalls and looking at what was on offer.

I staggered a bit as someone bumped into me from behind, and almost ignored it, caught up in looking for the would-be thief. That is, I almost ignored it until I felt a faint, soft touch on my belt, a slight tug that was only barely there. I spun around, my good hand shooting out and grasping the wrist of the hand that had been extended and searching, and I took a look at the cutpurse. Greed became shock/fear and I knew I had managed to catch the right person.

I stared at the scruffy, dusty figure in front of me, taking in how scrawny and thin they were. That was the problem with my empathy - I could only feel emotions, and sometimes things were a fair bit more convoluted than just those surface feelings indicated. If the person had actually been going around cutting everyone's purses, then there should have been some warning before they were basically on top of me - as strong as the greed had been, I should have picked this thief up as soon as they were within my range. So the greed had come on quickly, likely spurred by something else, a decision reached in the heat of the moment.

"Not always a good idea, kid." The waif - and even now, holding their wrist, I couldn't tell if they were a boy or girl, too thin and scrawny and their clothes too raggedy to tell. I sighed internally - I'd been where this kid was. I reached into my vest awkwardly with my injured arm, pulling a few silver pieces out of the pouch that was sewn to the inside of my leather vest, then turned the waif's palm over and deposited the coin into their hand. "Sometimes you get lucky. Sometimes, you won't. Stop before that happens." I let go and the would-be thief stared at me for a long few moments with big, trembling green eyes - then darted away into the crowd, shock/fear melting into relief/gratitude that faded away as the kid left my range.

I heaved a sigh and resumed my wandering - looking to see if there was anything or anyone that caught my eye. Mixed in with the vendors hawking their wares were a few that were trying to hire guards, or get some small jobs done - and at the moment, I was at a loss for what to do with my time so picking up an odd job suited me. Now I just had to find one.