The sky slowly turned from white to grey and snow started to fall again. A small group of men walked through the snow that was already above their knees.
'Jeez, it's damn cold! How long do we have to walk? My feet are already frozen!', said a man with green-grey hair and a ponytail who was walking almost at the end of the group. He warped himself deeper into his jacket which had the emblem of Luberia on one sleeve.
'Think of something warm and shut up, for God's sake! We're all freezing. So, don't remind me to the cold!', grumbled the man in front of him. He was tall and had a very grumpy face. 'Oh, ohu, seems like Zeze-chan is not in a good mood today, huh?', smirked a young man next to the one with the ponytail. The man with the grumpy face turned around: 'Wanna mess with me, boy? I'd not recommend you to!' The young man grinned. 'What's the fuss, Zeze-chan? Did you sleep not well, or what?' 'Insolent rascal... !' 'SHUT UP THERE AT THE BACK!', shouted the man who was leading the group. 'Zekara-san, stop taking your anger out on others! Tarin, a bit more respect for your elder! Palaya, stop complaining, we are almost there! You guy should safe your energies to move your feet and not your mouths!' 'Alright, boss!', said the young man cheerfully and wispered to the man with the ponytail: 'Man, looks like they have all eaten something wrong for lunch.'
The man with the ponytale looked sorrowful at his young mate. 'Say, Tarin, are you aware of what we're going to do?' 'Well, we're going to see whether there's something useful in the ruins of that village which burned down three days ago, aren't we?' 'You don't seem to have a problem with that. There will be tons of burned corpses. I don't like that idea.' Tarin folded his arms behind his head: 'Never thought about that. I don't mind. Ya know, the boss will stick at nothing to attain his own ends. And we're not supposed to think about what he does but just to support him no matter what. So cheer up, Palaya-san! It can't be helped.' Palaya shook his head. ''Support him'...! You don't get my point. We're bandits and that's fine with me so far but I'd never kill to get something and taking from the dead seems to me just the same thing.' The man who had shouted at him before turned his head to him: 'That's just because you're too soft, Palaya. Honestly: I don't know whether being a member of Luberia is the right buisness for you.' 'Maybe you're right, Zekara-san. I'm not as unscrupulous as you or the boss.' Zekara grinned. 'You say that as if it was something negativ.'
The group suddenly stopped. The leader raised his arm: 'Okay, you guys, here we are. We'll pitch camp in the building on the left. The two of you will help me doing that. And the rest will look around and bring everything that is more or less valuable here.'
The men were standing in front of a huge ruin that was once supposed to be a village. Almost all houses had burnt to the ground.
Palaya gave a gulp. He did not know yet that he would find something that would change his life and the life of the whole thief guild forever...

The sky became darker and darker. 'Hey, Palaya-san, is everything okay? You are looking quite pale.' Palaya did not answer. He had joined some people to go to the other end of the village but now he was just too shocked by the szene they were walking through. The burned rubbles of the buildings were covered by snow. Here and there were corpses of humans who had obviously died in the flames.
Palaya noticed a plaque on a building. The building was not as damaged of the fire as the others but had collapsed. The plaque said 'Orphanage'. This brought back memories… memories Palaya had already forgotten since he joined Luberia when he was fifteen.
The other men had hurried to a building that looked like it must have been a villa once. But Palaya had the feeling that there was something about this orphanage and he so made his way through the rubbles. There were frozen corpses of children between them. Palaya got almost sick. Then he stood in front of a big beam that had collapsed and distroyed the whole room. He glanced through the rubbles and saw the hand of a child. Another corpse again, he thought and was about to go since he felt more than sick. But then suddenly… the little hand moved!
He pushed the beam aside. A boy of about six years was lying on the floor. It had dark hair and it's skin had turned blue. Palaya ran to the child, took of his jacked and warped him with it. He was cold and almost frozen to death. 'Boy, do you her me?' Palaya shook him and the boy groaned quietly. 'Hang on! Don’t die yet!' Palaya took the boy and ran out the building, out to the snowcovered street and to the place where the others had set up the camp.
The building where the camp was had also collapsed but three of the walls were still standing and the roof was almost undamaged. The boss and two other men had made a big fire next to it.
'Aris-san! Aris-san!!!' 'What’s up, Palaya, did you find something?' 'A survivor! This child was lying in the ruins.' 'WHAT?' Aris as the boss of Luberia was a ruthless man who had no problem with killing people or letting them die – not even women or children – if their death was not his buisness. But he knew what it felt like to be a child… alone and about to die. 'Come over here to the fire! Has anyone of you rats a Holy ÄRM with him?' 'Yeah, I have one!', a man who was carrying wood shoutet. 'Then hurry up, man! I need it here! Tarin-kun, is the soup ready yet?' 'Yes, boss!' 'Then bring the kiddo a bowl!'

‘Palaya! Palaya? Hey, wake up, man!’ Palaya was startled. ‘Huh? What?’ ‘I asked you whether you’d like to have my jacked. You’re sitting here for about two hours with wearing only a shirt. You’ll catch your death, buddy!’ Zekara hold his jacket out towards him.
Two hours? Palaya had not even noticed how long he had sat next to the fire while holding the boy in his arms.
‘Thank you, Zekara-san!’ ‘You’re welcome. Just too typical for you. You try to save that brat’s life while almost freezing to death yourself. Tsk! One day your kind-heartness will kill you. Hey, looks like your little sunshine finally woke up.’
The boy groaned and slowly opened his eyes. They were amber colored.
Palaya smiled. ‘Thank God you’re finally awake!’ ‘Uhmn, where am I? What happened?’ The boy tried to look around but was still too weakened to move. ‘Don’t worry. You’ll be fine’ said Zekara putting his hand on Palaya’s sholder, ‘The good-hearted fool here will take care of you. Tarin?! Is there still soup left? The brat needs something to eat!’ The boy stared at Zekara and creeped deeper into the jacked. ‘Don’t shout like that, Zekara-san! You scare the child’ snarled Palaya, turned to the trembling boy and smiled. ‘Don’t be scared. Zekara might look like a brutal old fart but he’s not half as bad as he apears. Ne, Zeze-chan?’ Zekara looked like he did not know whether to be anry or not, then he turned around and went to Aris.
‘Ahaha, now he’s huffy! My name is Palaya by the way. And what’s yours?’ ‘…Galian.’ ‘Ah, well then, Galian-kun, here! Thanks, Tarin.’ Tarin had just brought the bowl of soup which Palaya gave to Galian. He took it in his little hands and stared at it. Then Zekara came back and said: ‘There’s no use in just looking at it, boy. You have to eat it! Listen, Palaya, we’re going to go back to the headquarter in about an hour. The boss said you’re allowed to take the brat with you but YOU will be the one to care for him, got it?’ ‘Of course.’ Zekara went away again and Galian looked up to Palaya ‘You’re going to take me with you?’ ‘We can’t leave you here, can we?’ Palaya stroked the boy’s head. ‘Tell me…you are.. an orphan, aren’t you?’ From one moment to the other the expression in Galian’s eyes became very sad. He just stared at the fire and wispered quietly: ‘Yes…’ Palaya hugged Galian to himself and they were silent for a short time. ‘Don’t worry… From now on I’ll care about you.’ Galian’s eyes opened wide. ‘Really?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘…will you promise me?’ The two of them hooked up their little fingers. ‘Yes, I promise.’

This was the beginning of something… maybe this something was not important for Luberia, maybe not for MÄR Heaven… not yet. At this moment it was only important to two human beings… sitting together near the fire… under a clouded sky at night in the snow…

[MÄR Gamma – Part I: "A night in the snow" end… to be continued)