Phantom's thoughts will be in Italics
What he's saying in sign-language will be in bold and in between ~s
What he writes will be in bold and in between +s
This is the same format as how MadMax does it, and I can't think of another, better format.
**It is not necessary to read this chapter to start reading the story**

Mom? Dad? Where am I? My throat hurts. I'm scared. It's so cold. What is this place. I'm scared. Where's Mom and Dad? It hurts so much. I'm scared.

"Hey! theres a child over here!"

I heard someone. Who's that? I tried to look to see who it was, but my vision was too blurred.

"Hey he's right!" A second voice appeared.

Help, please. It hurts. I cried, but they couldn't hear me. My voice wouldn't work.

"It looks hurt! Someone get the doctor!" Said the first voice.

Please help.

"Don't worry little human we'll save you."

What? I didn't realize what he had said.

"Boss says to bring it to the wagon! He doesn't want the Doc to leave the others!" Said the second figure.

"Fine." The first figure grabbed me and hefted me onto his shoulders.

Oww! Ow! Its hurts! Stop! That hurts!

"Ugh, it's so loud." complained the first figure.

"Then just tranquilize it." said the second. The first laid me on the ground before taking out what looked like a syringe. I hated shots.

"Now just sit tight, and be quiet!" The first figure stabbed me with the needle and injected me with something. Soon after he took the syringe out I began to feel sleepy.

///

When came to, I woke up to a face full of wooden floor. I pushed my face off the floor and opened my eyes. Where am I?. All around me was pitch black. I quickly pinched my nose. Ugh! What's that smell!? And where are my clothes!?. I was totally naked except for the bandages wrapped around my neck, torso, arms and legs. Wait a minute. It doesn't hurt!. I came to the sudden realization that my entire body felt better. My throat doesn't even burn anymore. A cold breeze hit me in the back and I shivered in response. I wrapped my arms around myself and turned around to see a window with wooden bars. I got up and tried to look outside, but the window was too tall.Then I froze as I heard something from the other side of the small room.

I turned around, surprised to find that my eyes had gotten used to the darkness already. But what surprised me even more were the figures staring at me. What are those!?. I immediately backed up against the wall and tried to get as much distance between me and those, things. As I looked at them more I began to realize something. Are those, people?. They were indeed people, other humans, although they looked. . . wild.

The 'humans' were all adults, at least I thought they were.. They were all naked just like me, but that's where the similarities stopped. Their hair were all too long, some going as far as their butts. I also noticed that none of them had the same hair color as me. My hair was cut very short and jet black. Theirs faces were more jagged than mine and most were more muscular than me. But that was a given considering I was just an eleven year old. Their eyes were all abnormal colors, ranging from a bright pink, to a sun-bright yellow. But worst of all, was how their eyes looked. All their eyes showed no signs of high intelligence, it just looked like. . . like. . . a wild animal's.

My thoughts were soon cut off by a loud banging. "Hey! No one better be messing with that kid in there! He's going ta make us loads o' money when we sell em." said a rough voice. I turned to look in the direction of the voice. There was a door, it had bars on my side of the door and a spot where someone could look inside. "Ah, the little bugger is awake! Morning, or rather, night Haha!" The man laughed at his own joke.

"Quit taking to the humans Jeral, you know they can't understand you!" yelled a female voice, followed by the sounds of wings smacking something.

"Ow! Don't hit me! What harm can come from just talkin' to tha merchandise?" Jeral argued.

"Nothing, but your stupid voice annoys me." exclaimed the female voice, "Where'd you guys find this kid anyway?"

"Well," Jeral held out the one word, "Gerold was actually goin' fer a piss, and as he was comin' back he spotted the kid and called fer me."

"And you said that the kid looked weird?" The female voice questioned.

"Yea! He didn't look like the rest o' them. His hair an' eyes be the craziest. Both are pure black!" Feral exclaimed with great emphasis.

"What?! No way, humans don't get those types of coloration!" Said the female voice, clearly not believing Jeral.

"I'm telling ya Kira, if ya don't believe me, take a look yerself!" Jeral challenged Kira. Soon after there was another rustling of feathers and the the slider on the door opened to reveal a pair of magenta eyes.

"Whoa, creepy." She said, "Does it seem like his eyes are glowing a bit to you?"

"What?! Let me see!" The magenta eyes were shoved out of the way to be replaced by a pair of slightly larger brown eyes. "Whoa, this kid just keeps gettin' weirder an' weirder."

"Hey! Kira! Jeral!" Called another voice. The brown eyes immediately disappeared from the slit.

"Captain Henrim! We were just uh, havein' a little chat!" Jeral tried to make up an excuse.

"Yeah whatever! Just pay more attention! The Boss has ordered us to set up camp here for the rest of the night. So go and put your wagon with the others and help set up camp!" The Captain ordered.

I had been listening so intently to their conversation about me that I hadn't even noticed that the room I was in wasn't a room, but a wagon! Soon the wagon slowed to a halt and backed up. Once the wagon came to a full stop, the door was opened. What is that?! Is that a lion with a beck and wings!?. In front of me was a lion type thing with wings and a bird's beck. "Well," he said, "we're setin' up camp here. So make yerself comfortable. Haha!" The voice sounded like Jeral's so that must have been Jeral. Just what are these people?. Jeral left the door open and set the keys on a hook next to the bars separating me from him. "They said to always keep these key with you, but what harm can come from leavin' it right here? They jingle too much when I carry em." He told himself as he turned and walked over to the light I saw a little bit further down. I don't know what made me do it but as soon as Jeral got out of sight I immediately snatched the ring of keys and hid them behind me as I walked to a corner and sat down. What do I do? From what they were saying it sounded like they're going to sell me! I could try escaping, I have the keys. But they're all awake, with those wings they could easily catch me. After much mental arguing I had decided what I was going to do, wait.

///

I awoke to a loud clank next to my wagon. "Ugh why do I got to watch the dang humans?" complained a voice. "Its not like any of them can escape, they're all too dumb." There was a thump on the side on the wagon as the owner of the voice leaned on the wagon. "No one'll mind if I take a *yawn* nap." Soon after a moment of silence I heard the loud snoring of the guard, indication that he was asleep. Thank god that he was so loud, I could have missed my chance! I got up and grabbed the keys from the floor and tiptoed to the door. I tried multiple keys from the hoop until one fit and clicked. The barred door silently swung open. Huh, it was well oiled.

Once the barred door was opened I hopped as quietly as I could onto the ground outside. I stumbled, but managed not to fall. I slowly put down the keys, since I remembered what Jeral had said about them jingling, and went around the wagon to take a glance at the guard.

He was sound asleep leaning against the side of the wagon. He was wearing a armor chest piece, a helmet, and boots. I walked ever so close to him and saw that he had a spear laying on the ground. That was what probably made that clank sound. I got so up close to him that I could probably touch him now. I noticed a pouch hanging from his side and decided to see what was inside.

I carefully walked around him and untied the pouch from his side. However once I untied it, I underestimated its weight and it fell to the ground spilling its contents and making clicking noises. I flinched and froze in fear of the guard waking. I looked up to find that the guard was still fast asleep. That was close, stupid bag. I stopped in my thoughts as I looked to see a bunch of gold coins spilled out of the pouch. Instantly I was crouching by the fallen pouch and picking up the coins. Ar-are these real?! I couldn't believe my eleven year old eyes. I gathered the spilled coins and picked up the pouch. The pouch jingled a bit so I got the idea to put some leaves and grass into the pouch.

After filling half the pouch with foliage, I retied the top and walked around to test it. I made almost no sound now with the grass and leaves in between the coins. Success! I celebrated, but then I remembered my situation. A cold night breeze blew and I shivered in response. I need to find clothes! Hope they didn't throw away my clothes. I turned in the direction I remembered Jeral headed and raced towards the hill.

Once I reached the top of the hill I had a perfect view of their camp. The camp wasn't that big, from where I was positioned, there were about only 10 tents. One was slightly larger than the rest, which must be where their Boss sleeps.I scanned the camp to find no one awake, with 4 different campfires slowly burning away. I didn't know which tent could be holding my clothes. So I decided to just check through them all. When I felt ready, I began my decent towards the camp.

Once I reached the bottom of the hill, I silently approached the nearest tent. I peeked inside to find that there were two of the creatures sleeping inside, next to both was their belongings. I snuck inside and looked through their stuff. One didn't really have anything of interest, but the second had a harness(not a saddle) that I could strap around my waist and it could had multiple bags to hold things in. I put it on, it was somewhat big, but it had a strap to adjust it. After adjusting it to fit me, I slipped my coin pouch into one of the bags, it fit perfectly. Seeing nothing else of interest, I moved on to the next tent.

The next two tents didn't really have anything that stuck out. The second tent contained their food. I took some bites of food. It seemed like they ate both meat and vegetables, omnivores. The third tent was filled with maps and books, it seemed like a meeting tent. I looked through some maps and decided to 'borrow' a few. The fourth tent however, is where I found what I was looking for.

Holy cow are these jewels?! I entered the next tent to find three chests filled with gems, of all kinds. If I took all these I could live forever without having to work! I could play video games my whole life! But then I realized that I wouldn't be able to take all of the gems. So I settled for a small bag full and slipped it into another bag on my new belt. I looked around and saw some leather bags. I walked over to it and opened a rather small one. Wow! You're kidding me! They washed and fixed my T-shirt and jeans! I bet they were planing on selling them to someone for money. I took off my belt and slipped on all my clothes. Ok, I feel much better with my underwear on. I picked up my belt and strapped it back on.

Ok, I'm starting to get heavy, so I guess the next tent will be my last. I looked to see what tent was next. Oh. It's the Boss's tent. . . I was deciding whether or not to see what the Boss had. Thinking about it, I decided to check it out, I've been having good luck so far. What could possibly go wrong?

I easily snuck up to the Boss's tent and peeked inside. Hmm, their Boss must sure like weapons. As I looked inside I saw weapons of all kinds around his tent. Each looked more deadly than the next. I might need something to defend myself, even if I don't know how to use it. I looked at all the different weapons until I saw an almost plain looking knife. This looks nice, and it's small and quick. I slid the dagger out of its sheathe, and looked at the blade. Whoa the blade is so white! what is it made out of!? I quickly sheathed the dagger and slipped it into another slot in my belt. I took one last glance around the inside of the tent and spotted a small chest about the size of a baseball. It was also sitting right next to the Boss's sleeping bag so I was unsure whether to risk it. But remembering what they did to me instantly remedied that. I tiptoed as silent as I could and grabbed the box.

I opened the box to find that inside was a piece of rock. Is, this it? A rock? Why would he keep a rock in a chest? Taking a closer look the rock seemed to glisten and had it a tint of dark-purple to it. Well. . . it looks pretty. And it must be valuable if it was in this chest and sitting right next to their Boss. I slipped the little chest into one of the bags of my belt and turned to finally leave this place. As I turned to leave something grabbed my leg and made me fall onto my stomach. What the hell? I turned to look at what I had tripped over, my face of annoyance quickly changed to one of fear as the thing that grabbed me slowly got up.

"What's this?" The menacing figure said it reached over and lit a candle for some light, "What in the world? Are you a human?" He said, still holding my leg. He was noticeably larger than the other creatures, and had two giant scars over his chest in an X shape. "I thought it was some Diamond dog that was in my tent, but it just seems to be a human. Although," He stared at me closer, "you seem to be different. Oh well doesn't matter," He shrugged, "Nobody, and I mean nobody! Steals from Hawvik the Griffin, and gets away with it!" The giant being squeezed his claw around my leg even more. I panicked. Oh god! he's going to kill me! I didn't know what to do, so my instincts took over, I grabbed the dagger I had stolen and swiped it in front of me closing my eyes.

"GAAAAHHHH" His pain filled shriek spread across the camp. I opened my eyes to see him covering his right eye with both claws. The candle fallen onto the ground. I quickly got up onto my feet and ran, I didn't care where, just away from here. To where my parents were, and intelligent people that could save me from these things.

I burst out of the tent as the camp was slowly filling with candle-light. I looked around and fled into the forest. It was still night time and there was no moon in the sky tonight. I raced across the forest floor trying to look out for any trees. Soon my eyes got used to the darkness again and I could see my surroundings. I paused to take a look at where I was, but then I heard them. "Come on! The little bastard couldn't have gotten far!" I spun around to see lights in the sky and on the ground rapidly getting closer. Oh god, oh god. They're going to kill me! I cried. I turned and tried to run away. They're going to kill me! I've got to get away! My thoughts were cut off when the terrain changed to a hill. I didn't anticipate the hill and went tumbling down.

I don't remember how tall the hill was but I was rolling for some time until I hit a wall. I seemed to have landed in a ditch. I tired to get back up, but the collision with the wall hurt my leg. I couldn't run! I cried my eyes out thinking these were my final moments as I lost conscious.

It seems luck was on my side for when I regained consciousness a little I noticed there was daylight and that I couldn't hear anymore yelling. I cracked a smile thinking I had gotten away. But them I heard a small voice.

"Is that a human!" I panicked thinking it was one of those creatures again. "Oh it is! It is!" Listening closer I noticed the voice wasn't angry. The creature put its face in my sight as I took a look at it.

It seemed to be a child, from the voice maybe a girl. "Are you ok?" The little creature asked me. "Don't worry I'll go get my daddy. He'll know what to do! He knows a lot about humans!" She exclaimed as she flew off. Soon after she left I started to get weaker again blacked out.

///

9 Years Later

"HEY PHANTOM GET YOUR LAZY ASS UP!" Yelled a voice as I woke up from a dream. I rubbed my eyes and gave out a big yawn. My door slammed open to reveal a griffin with a gray and black feather pattern. "Finally, I've been calling you for half an hour!" She exclaimed.

I stared at her and gave a smile, ~Sorry Trist, just had a weird dream.~

"Yeah well you're awake now, so get up and get changed, I got breakfast ready." Trist stated and closed the door and left me to my own.

I threw my blanket off and swung myself onto the floor. I stretched my arms and did a few warm-up exercises. Once I finished I headed to my bathroom and took a nice hot shower.

I got out of the shower and looked myself in the mirror. I still had my pure black hair, however I did grow it out to be at least covering my eyes. But for some reason It naturally grew spiky. Non of it really covered my forehead and it spiked upwards to give me that hyper-active guy look.

Another thing that has changed from before was that I had obtain a scar on the right side of my chin. I didn't mind, it scared over and looked a bit cool.

As I exited the bathroom, I took the time to look around my room. Man, I've gotten pretty far from back then. It had a steam-punk feel to it with the metal walls, ceiling and floors. I had a bed, a closet, a door to my bathroom, and another door to my private treasure room. I walked over to my balcony and breathed in the fresh air. Ah, fresh air. Today's weather seems fine and the birds are singing. I smiled.

I turned and walked back inside and opened my closet. Inside were my clothes. I don't keep my gear with my clothes, where it could be easily stolen. I put on a sleeveless black shirt, a pair of black skin-tight pants. Baggy pants get in the way.

I closed my door and walked over to my treasure room. I opened the door to seen a safe door the same size as the normal door. I put in the safe's code and opened the door. Inside were all the treasures I kept for myself. Some of my personal treasures I used in my heists including:

The harness I got nine years ago, although upgraded to also have two straps crossing in the front and back in an X form. I had bags containing anything I could need, from rope, to ammo, to food.

My synthetic, finger-less leather gloves. With groves in the palm for extra grip.

My hook-shot, which also could work like a crossbow, was great for getting to a tall or far away area.

My lucky dagger, stolen from Hawvik nine years ago. I found out that it is actually a dagger made from a sharpened dragon's tooth.

And lastly, and possibly my most treasured prize. My warmog black cloak. It reached from my neck to my ankles and had the warmog's black and grey fur around the collar of the cloak. It also had a slit in the front and between the legs, this allowed for better mobility. However, the most important thing was the properties warmong skin had. Warmogs are only found on the Dragon Isles, and usually are the size of timberwolves, but much faster. No one has ever killed one. I got lucky and found one that had already died. That's a story for another time though. The special properties warmog skin have allow them to be completely unaffected by magic. It is even said that Celestia, one of the alicorn rulers of Equestria, couldn't get rid of them since even her magic was ineffective.

I smiled as I lifted the cloak from it's spot, and draped it over myself. The fur on the collar serves no real purpose, it could probably help when it's cold, but mainly I had it there for decoration purposes. I mean, why can't a thief be effective and stylish?

Next I strapped on my harness and hooked my hook-shot onto my back. I slipped my dagger into a slot I had on my chest. Then I grabbed my gloves and exited my treasure room.

Exiting my room I closed my door and looked down the corridor. Doors adorned the walls to the right while there were circular windows on the left. There was a set of stairs to my right leading down, and another set to my left headed upwards. Turning right, I headed for the dining room and kitchen.

As I walked down the stairs I heard a soft thumping. Reaching the bottom of the stairs I was immediately tackled by a moderately big creature. The creature instantly began licking my face. Haha, hey there George, calm down! I tried to get him off me.

George was my pet lizard-dragon, I had found him as an egg while at the Dragon Isles. Trist told me that he was a breed of dragons that were sometimes used as guards by other dragons. So I decided, "Why not have one as a guard pet?". So we took him and raised him at our hideout. Now, George guards the hideout while we're away.

"George down!" Trist called from the kitchen, George eventually got off me as I wiped my face. Soon Trist came out of the kitchen with two plates of breakfast. ~Those look delicious~ I licked lips.

"Hmm, you should try learning how to cook yourself." Trist grunted as she laid down the plates and sat down at the table. I looked at the plate. It had 3 sausages, some scrambled eggs and some mashed potato.

~You really went all out~

"Yeah? Well today is the ninth anniversary of when we first met."

~True~ I picked up my fork and ate one of the sausages. ~Oh, man I'm so glad that I landed in the Griffin Empire now rather than someplace they don't eat meat.~

"Heh, lucky you huh?" She began to eat as well. "Remember when you had to write to me to communicate?" She laughed at the memory.

~Yeah, and remember your face when you realized I was sapient? ~

"Haha Yeah, totally didn't expect that."

~So~ I wiped my face as I finished my breakfast. ~Are we almost there yet?~

"We should be almost in view." She picked up the plates and walked over to the sink. "You can go ahead and take a look if you want, I'll be right up there to bring us out of the clouds."

~Sure, See ya there.~ I jumped from my chair and climbed the stairs. I raced down the corridor and jumped up the second set of stairs going up. As I landed on the ground from my leap I lifted my head and took in the sights.

The vast blue sky, the shining sun, and the giant balloon holding the airship we were on up. I had actually stolen the airship for a griffin nobleman who was very into steam-punk. It was actually pretty easy to steal, considering it was quite big so he couldn't really hide it. Plus it helped that he made it run silently so when I piloted it during the night, no one knew where it had gone. Once I brought it back to the hideout, we renamed it The Lumiere. Don't know why but Trist insisted that it was called that. Over the years after we made the Lumiere our base of operations, we upgraded it a few times. Now it has a better functioning and easier to maintain steam engine. A self-defense system with cannons and smoke bombs. Trist is the one who usually pilots and maintains the Lumiere, it's almost it's almost as if it's her child, I teased her.

After staring at the sea of clouds for while, Trist came up on deck with her captain's hat as well as her saber on her side. "We should be entering Equestria airspace soon. You got everything right?" I gave her an 'OK' with my hand. "You learn Equestrian hoof-language?" I rolled my eyes and nodded. "Good." She smiled as she took the wheel of the ship.

She pulled a few levers and the Lumiere began to sink into the sea of clouds. I ran up to the front of the ship and George followed. I propped myself on the railings as the clouds enveloped the Lumiere. Soon the clouds began to thin out and the ground came into view. ~This is it! A new land-.~

"A new heist!" Trist answered back. I looked out into the new kingdom we were entering and gave a smirk. Look out Equestria, cause here comes Phantom Thief!

-To Be Continued.

Author's Note

This is just a one-shot. If you want this story to continue in the future, then it has to be sort of popular or I'm just going to keep it like this.
You can also comment to tell me if you want the story to start when Phantom starts his heists and is unknown, or when he is already infamous and continues his heists.

*Update*: Once the series continues, only the first part of this chapter (the part with Phantom as a child) will be relevant. The second half (the part after the time skip) will be a possible outcome. Keep this in mind, once the thief's journey, continues.