Kate had just laughed at Astrid's confusion of the greeting and shaken her head at the question of thievery. She began leading Astrid through the town, keeping one hand on the hem of her dress and eyes up front at whatever destination they were heading to. She spoke while they walked and answered all her questions excitedly. "You need money. Those round things I showed you. Without them you people won't give you stuff, that's just stupid. If they would then imagine some really big wood cutter man. Imagine how much food he would ask if he could just get all that he asks for. There wouldn't be enough for the rest of us and he would just bloat like those nobles in big cities. Bigger cities I mean, this one is a city too."<br/><br/>Their route went away from the main street as soon as they had passed the small opening square with some marketplace stands. It went straight to a side alley, an ascending cobblestone slope with two tall buildings. Some strings or ropes were hanging high up between the windows of that alley and clothes were hanging from them like small flags. Some tiles on the ground below them had small wet spots on them. Kate made a sharp turn as soon as they had climbed up the hill between those two buildings, she went left through a gate. They trespassed past a small garden with a pond and tiny flower arrangements in the shade of a tall building and popped out on the other side onto the roof of a building. They could see the first few lower tiers of buildings circling the hill from up there and only a shabby wooden railing was between them and a drop of over a dozen feet.<br/><br/>"I'm ten," she claimed as they walked across the opening. There could not have been a lie more obvious. "My parents aren't thieves. Papa is away and mom is helping Grumbles with his bakery. They both work really hard. I steal many things. Mostly stuff that people leave laying around. Like sometimes Grumples leaves cookies and some other shopkeepers also leave small trinkets. Last month I stole a coin, it's my biggest catch yet. I don't steal every day, just when I'm really bored," she spoke as they continued along. The wind picked up as they were now on open ground, a backyard of sorts though it was just cobblestone. Kate brought his free hand to swipe some of her hair to the side, but didn't stop for the view of the city or the wide farm fields around it. She led Astrid right back into another smaller alley.<br/><br/>She had a small pause to think of the last question, but found some sort of answer in the end. "Two years now. So I'm a real professional. What about you, have you traveled all your life? Wait, you didn't even say your name yet. No, you don't need to say if it's a secret." The paths they took narrowed and the bits between alleys became more and more obscure ranging from tiny stone bridges that connected buildings to simply wooden planks. No other people crossed their path though sometimes people would look from their windows and wave and smile. There were a few cats that Kate had to shoo away. They mostly blocked the path in spots where sun had warmed up the roof tiles.<br/><br/>The climb across the town hill ended up on a small perch of sorts. It was the roof of some kind of smithery or forge building, faint clanking could be heard through the thick roof and smoke rose from the numerous black chimneys on the roof. There roof of the house continued over the edge of the walls and covered this little platform, which wasn't actually part of it as well making it kind of like a small hut, the ceiling was low enough that even the kid had to bend her back slightly to enter. She crawled in first and went to sit on a pile of clothes at the back then signed for Astrid to follow. "Come, come. It's not much, but... no it kinda is pretty awesome. Hehe! What do you think, it's the best spot in the whole town."