Once upon a time, a smart and proud thief called Jake roamed the lands of Milosia. He was capable with his blades and the scars on his body and his face told the stories of many fights he fought and won, as he was still alive with all his limbs. No knight was ever able to catch him, no other criminal was ever able to trick him. And as he never harmed his victims and sometimes even did good, freeing villages of burglars and bandits (for a reward of course), he was known as the "prince of stray dogs"
One day, he decided to challenge himself and steal the biggest treasure of the royal castle. Little did he know that the castle was taken over by the evil and powerful sorcerer Donovan, whose dark magic sealed every ray of sunlight out of the castle. Of course, he did wonder, why during the middle of the day the castle was dark and only few torches lighted the creepy hallways, but he blamed stupid architects who just forgot to put in windows into the walls. Armed with his trustworthy blades, a bag bound on his back and a torch he picked from a wall, he snuck through the castle in search of the treasure chamber and only one thought raced through his mind:
"WHO THE BLOODY HELL CREATED THIS FREAKING MAZE?"
It took him a while, when he finally arrived in a big hall. It was the room Donovan resided and was regularly challenged. The ground was full of crown princes who tried to defeat the evil sorcerer and paid the price for failing. Of course, blissfully unaware of all this trouble, the thief bowed down and gleefully picked a golden crown and put it on his head.
The foolish, greedy thief revealed himself and Donovan, ruler of the Darkness naturally noticed the light of the torch Jake was carrying and bellowed angrily, "An intruder! Minions, GET HIM!!!!"
"...Crap." Jake readied himself to use the greatest skill of a thief.
The runaway!
With swift steps he quickly left his pursuers behind and ran somewhere upstairs. He fled to the upper floor, taking three stairs at once and found himself in a hallway which had many doors which led to many rooms where he could hide in. Just, he didn't have the time to pick a lock, but being the experienced thief he is he could tell with just one glance which door was locked and which one was not. When he found an unlocked one, he hastily barged into the room and closed the door behind him and pressed his ear against the door to listen...
An when he heard the heavy steps of the knights pass by with one of them shouting "This way!", he finally relaxed.
...
"Who are you?"
The question startled the thief so bad that his heart almost jumped out of his throat. He turned around to find a beautiful maiden dressed in a big, white, poofy dress, looking at him with curious eyes.
"Well... crap." Jake whispered to himself.
The fair maiden took one step closer to the thief who pressed himself panicking against the door until he noticed that her curious eyes were reddened of the tears she was crying.
"Are you... by chance..." she looked up to the crown on Jake's head and her eyes brightened up, "...the prince who has come to save me, Princess Naobi, and my kingdom from the evil sorcerer Donovan?"
The thief held himself back, as with every word the princess spoke, she came a bit closer to him, until she finally took his hands, her eyes sparkling with hope, but he just couldn't hold it any second longer. He burst into a laughing frenzy, so loud that the fair Naobi jumped back just as startled as she had him jump a few moments ago.
"ME?! A PRINCE!?" Jake exclaimed, holding his stomach, afraid it would explode of laughter.
"You... you are not a prince?" Naobi’s hopes sank.
"Oh but, of course, I am a prince, gal. I..." he picked the crown from his head, his chest swelling with faked pride, "... am Jake, the Prince of Stray Dogs." and bowed down with such a verve that the crown flew into the corner of the dark room.
"Eh, it wasn't my kind of hat, anyways."
"You are no prince, aren't you?" You could almost hear the princess's heart break along with her hopes.
"No, gal, I'm a thief and I'm only here, because your knights chased me up here. If your majesty would now excuse me..."
"NO! WAIT!" she yelled and pulled at his sleeve. "Please, you have to defeat Donovan. All my knights and mages fell under his evil curse and are controlled by him like mindless puppets. You are my last hope."
"WHAT?! NO! I've seen what that guy had done to others. I like being alive."
"Please, if you don't help me, the whole kingdom will fall into eternal darkness. My people will fall into despair. The lands will slowly wither and die. Me, the princess of Milosia herself, is asking, no... BEGGING for your assistance. Please."
The thief didn't even consider taking on such a dangerous mission, but when he looked into the princess Naobi's sincere eyes which, despite the humiliation of begging, were brightly burning with determination and passion and love for her people...
"Nggggggh, fine... I'll help you out of this mess." Jake let out a deep sigh and cursed his kind heart... then again, not even a heartless monster could have ignored this plea.
"Oh, thank you, Jake. How could I ever repay you?"
The thief eyed the princess closely and grinned, baring some teeth.
"Oh, I have an idea."
....
"I can't believe it" the princess muttered, holding herself and shivering as she followed Jake through the drafty hallways.
"Me neither." Jake agreed, pulling a part of Naobi's dress out of his bag, admiring it. "Is this real silk from the eastern continent? Is... is this golden thread? Oh my god, DIAMONDS embedded in the cloth? This thing is worth a fortune!" he said happily, pushing the dress into bag again. He took the princess by the hand to speed up a bit. "Consider this as a first part of the payment, little lass."
Princess Naobi, who was only dressed in her undergarments, pulled her hand angrily from his grip, "Part of the payment, you greedy jerk? And second, it's not 'lass', it's 'Princess Naobi' for you!"
Jake turned around and looked down to her, "Okay, then listen well, my little princess, you better get used to me, because your Prince Charming is in another castle. If you got any complaints I'll happily return you to the cozy, little chamber I've found you"
The princess backed away, almost scared.
"And now..." the thief offered her his hand, instead of just taking hers, with a little bow, "... if you don't mind. I still need a guide through this maze you call a castle."
Hesitatingly, she put her hand in his and felt the gentle pressure strangely encouraging.

Having someone who lives in this maze as a guide was worth more than any treasure Jake could find, because despite their slow and careful movements they quickly progressed through the dark hallways avoiding each and every patrol. Donovan's curse made the castle even more intimidating and the protraits of the former royal family seemed to stare at every sneaky step the unlikely pair did. Seemingly endless minutes passed just like the princess and the thief passed through equally endless hallways, when Naobi said, "We've arrived."
Finally, Jake thought and boldly pushed the door open which would lead...
...
not out of the castle?
"Where are we?" he asked wide-eyed as he stared to Donovan and several of his strong-armored and dangerous-looking guards who returned his gaze equally suprised.
"Why, in the throne hall, of course, so you can fight and defeat Donovan."
Jake's jaw would've dropped to the ground if it weren't attached to his head.
"FIGHT?! I'm not going to fight that monster!" Jake replied, pointing at the sorcerer
"But you said..."
"I SAID I'LL GET YOU OUT OF HERE."
A dark laughter rose from behind them. The sorcerer recovered from the suprise and applauded the two.
"Wonderful show. Truly, wonderful. I know, my dear little Princess Naobi, that you don't appreciate my company right now, but your stubbornness is only matched by your stupidity."
"HEY!" Naobi exclaimed.
"I believed you to be smarter than to rely on the services of a filthy, ignorant thief."
"HEY!" Jake exclaimed.
"But, do as you wish. Come and fight me, if you dare." Donovan said, closing on to them.
"Nnnrgh, you're gonna double my payment after this! You hear me, lass? And I ain't cheap."
The thief threw the bag he was carrying as hard as he could to the sorcerer. The cheap leather bag opened in mid-air and the big poofy dress the princess used to wear flew over Donovan and covered him which he angrily tried to get rid of. Jake used this short moment of confusion to grab the princess and with a quick move he threw her across his left shoulder, holding her legs, prepared to do what he could best. Run!
"Donovan, I dare not. I'm taking the princess and I'm out of here."
The princess, naturally, wasn't that happy about this sudden change of plans. "How DARE you lay hands on a princess like that?"
"Naobi, where is the exit?" Jake plainly replied. The princess struggled to unwind herself from the thief's grip which gave him a hard time to keep his balance.
"LISTEN, honey. You either stop this right now or I drop your pampered butt on the floor this very moment and see if I can get out of here on my own. It's your call."
"They... they aren't chasing us." was all the princess said.
"Eh?" Jake turned around and couldn't believe his eyes. "Is... is this guy... sniffing on your dress?"
"He's WHAT?"
"He's... uh, THAT explains why he didn't turn you into one of his zombies..."
"... Get me out of here. Turn around, straight ahead, giant door, you can't miss it. Get me OUT of here."
Naobi's former guards and patrols didn't give chase to the escapees as they were Donovan's mindless slaves and since Donovan's mind was drifting somewhere else at that moment, they were just like useless statues standing around. After Donovan snapped out of it and he bellowed a quick "STOP THEM!", the entire castle was after them, some of them trying to throw spears or shoot arrows at the two, but the sorcerer stopped them.
"Are you out of your mind? You might hurt the princess. Catch them ALIVE!"
But even with the weight on his shoulders the thief was faster than any knight in this castle. Only two archers who coincidently guarded the gate stand between him and the freedom. With a big leap he landed on the face of one of them and with nimble movements of his arm he stole the long bow, the quiver and the belt (to which coincidently a wallet was attached) of the second one while passing. Jake handed the weapon to the princess.
"You don't happen to be able to use one of these, do you?"
"Yeah, but... how did you...?"
"Duh, thief, it's my friggin profession." and with a strong blast of his free shoulder he blew the door open and they stepped into the glaring light of the midday sun. The princess almost squealed of happiness. It was the first time in days that she has seen sunlight. She asked Jake to put her on her feet again.
"We're save." she exclaimed joyfully, spreading her arms into the air, trying to embrace the sky. "The light of the sun is the only weakness Donovan has. We're save."
"Oh, are you, my princess?" Donovan said, his face deformed of madness, he and his minions stood in the safe darkness of the castle gate. "Do you really believe you're save from me?" he stepped out of the gate, but not into the sunlight. The shadow of the castle seemed to follow him, even more so everything started to become darker. The thief and the princess stared in terror as the sun quickly disappeared behind a black disc, until only a thin ring of light could be seen that covered the lands of Milosia in a eerie twilight.
"Not even my sole enemy, the sun, can threaten me anymore, my dear, now that I have the eclipse as my ally."
Jake’s instincts told him to flee, as far and fast as possible, but with the sun lost, he could only run, but not hide anymore. He had to fight.
“I really hope you know how to use this thing.” Jake said quietly, so the sorcerer couldn’t hear.
“Yes” the princess replied just as quietly “But I’ve never shot on a living target before.”
“Well, I guess this will be your first time, then. Be prepared.” Jake said, unsheathed his two blades and stepped forward to face Donovan. His heart was willing to win, for the first time in his life not for himself, but for his homeland Milosia and for the princess, but he didn't stand a chance against a sorcerer of this league. As Jake charged forward to strike, the sorcerer vanished into the shadows, reappearing right behind him, quickly disarming him and striking him down with a powerful blast of black magic.
Kneeling on the ground before Donovan, the sorcerer prepared to finish the thief off with a especially power- and painful spell, but Jake used this short window of opportunity to lunge at the sorcerer, who was, despite his suprise of the sudden vigor Jake regained, able to vanish and reappear behind him, ready to finally kill the thief.
"How often do you think this trick will work?" Jake said with a cocky voice and with a speed only a thief could provide, he grabbed Donovan's wrist and turned, decking the sorcerer's face with the back of his first.
"I see... so you can't do this fancy vanish trick of yours, when someone's holding you, eh?"
"You little..." Donovan's rage knew no bounds and he sent his black magic directly into Jake's body, where the pain would tear him apart, but he thief collected the last of his willpower, strengthened his grip and managed get hold of the sorcerer's whole body.
"You should know better than to embrace the darkness." he said, continuing to pulse dark magic into the thief.
"Princess, if you're wondering if this is the right moment to shoot, here's a hint: YES, IT IS!", Jake moarned in between his screams of pain.
"But... you're in the way. I can't shoot at him." the princess replied from behind, the bow readied.
"That bow's big enough. The arrow should pierce far enough through me to hit him as well."
Donovan, who realized the thief's true intention, struggled now even harder to free himself of the thief, but he just couldn't get rid of him.
"Why won't you die, you damn piece of filth?"
"I... I can't sacrifice you..."
"Oh, so you'd rather sacrifice your kingdom to watch how that bastard kills me off? Shoot, you dumb girl, fulfill your duty as a princess and protect your kingdom! Or was that love for your people only empty words, when you begged for my help?"
No second later, he could feel a violent jolt through his chest and with delight he could see Donovan's eyes flung open in terror and sun slowly reappearing behind the black disc before his vision faded into complete darkness.

...

"Jake... Jake... wake up."
The thief opened his eyes slightly after hearing a familiar voice and stared into a bright blurriness of a pretty face.
"Hmm, so heaven's angels really ARE beautiful, but damn, their voices are annoying."
"WHO ARE YOU CALLING ANNOYING?" the princess exclaimed and jabbed him into his chest which ripped Jake out of his heavenly dream.
Confused he sat himself up and looked around, seeing the imposing castle and the surrounding forest embraced by the light of the recently risen full moon at dusk, birds calmly singing their last melodies of the day at this wonderful scene. He patted the place where the arrow pierced through him, but there was no wound, only a hole in his bloodied shirt remained.
"But... how?"
"I'm capable in the art of healing magic."
"Why didn't you tell me that before?!"
"You didn't ask." Naobi said with a happy smile.
To that, even the witty thief knew no reply and they remained silent for a few moments until the thief finally remember the reason why he put himself through this ordeal.
"Soooo, Princess Naobi, about my payment? The bad guy's dead and you're free."
The princess eyed the thief closely and grinned, baring some teeth.
"Oh, I have an idea." she said and pecked the thief's lips with a gentle kiss.

And this is the story how Jake, Prince of Stray Dogs, stole the biggest treasure of Castle Milosia: Princess Naobi's heart.