My name is Mary-Ann and I am a thief. And yesterday I met an angel.
The thing about angels however, is that they are nothing like you would expect them to be.
But let me explain …

I live in the slums on the edge of the sprawl. A dangerous, dirty place but without money that’s where you end in a search for a better life. So I started off as a thief to earn a living for me and my little daughter. A few weeks ago on one of my tours I found a hidden cache of credit chips and money. Enough for my daughter and me to move out of slums and start a new life elsewhere.
I knew I should have left the money where it was, but I couldn’t turn down that chance. A few days later … they found me.
Turns out the money belonged to a small group of mobsters and they were not happy about it. They offered me one single chance to return the money and I agreed. But instead of giving it back and losing the chance for better future I hid my daughter in the care of a few friends and tried to lay low for a couple of days myself. When the door of the small flat I was hiding was kicked in violently I knew they had found me again and where now trying to take the money from my cold, dead paws.
I panicked, jumped through the old window into the streets. Miraculously unharmed, save for a few cuts and bruises, I ran blindly. Soon I could hear them, their angry shouts, their threats.
I heard shots fired, then screams. Somehow they must have missed me, hitting some passersby instead. In my panic I took the wrong turn and ended up in a filthy enclosed backyard. Dead end!
When a small, furry shape suddenly landed in front of me, effortlessly absorbing the impact of the drop in a deep landing pose, I just froze up in fear. He must have jumped from the only window, an impressive 16 feet drop, but he was apparently unharmed.
When the bear slowly lifted his head I could see his face. A very young face, just barely out of teenagehood or maybe not even that, but his honey colored eyes looked very old. Eyes that had already seen a lot of pain. He was dressed in a darkgrey and purple hooded sweater and some baggypants of the same color. And he was armed, too. He would have looked quite menacing, but that too young face and a pacifer tied to one of the straps of his baggypants kinda ruined that image.
A little smile crossed his muzzle as he wiped some silvergrey strands of fur from his face. A warm, reassuring but slightly sad smile.
“Don’t worry …you are safe. They are gone.” He said in a soft, low voice with an almost cat-like purr, before he started to walk away. “Go home, Mary-Ann. Start your new life.”
“But … but …” I stammered. "How did you... how do you know my … wait! What if they come back?"
He stopped and turned around, smiling that friendly, sad smile again with a paw resting on the hilt of his sword. "They won't. They will never hurt you again. I made sure of that."
With that he left ... for good this time.
Suddenly I remembered those dark red stains of blood all over his clothes and I knew … he really did.

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Amazing picture of my freelancer bear, done by the highly talented  jc .
Make sure to give her kudos this very cute and wonderful picture.

Thank you so much, JC. ^.^