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The Fox Cubs
So yeah, this will be what I am currently working on in terms of Dawn of Life, a story very much prior to that of Khaine Cuovia, it is about the childhood of the so called "Illusionist." For anyone who's read the third chapter of the main story, if I did ever post that here. Anyways, this is a excerpt from the story, so I do understand if some of the things in this read seems a bit confusing, the first chapter (as this is part of the second chapter) will be posted when I am finished editing it. Till then this is what you get, mostly because I like its outcome and because I want some feedback on how well I portrayed the relationship between the two main characters of the story: a fifteen years old magical boy called Mavíec and his "mistress" Joay, which is sixteen. They are the leaders of a small-time criminal gang called "The Fox Cubs" in the city of Il'Ean.
I am also posting this because I really want some feedback on the female psyche, as I, sadly, consider myself knowing very little about it. ;/ Also, I am throwing in a small description of the city, Il'Ean, to make some things simpler for you, it will not really be part of this chapter, but I feel like it'll help.
Hope you find it enjoyeable, and somewhat funny; as that is what it's meant to be. And also, any comments on the structure of the language is also warmly welcome if anyone has anything to comment on that.
If you don't find the aesthetic description of cities interesting: Skip the description part and continue reading from the headline further down. :/
Running along the trader’s high street, Pi’elo e’la Vieno, basked in mid-day sunlight and at rather an impressive speed is a very young South Elven boy, being chased by a shouting, cursing and sweating rather beefy looking East Elven trader. Meanwhile, the young thieving genius Mavíec Es’Tharonto was strolling happily along into a sidewalk, having the beefy elves’ money safely in his possession.
Es’Tharonto is an old alvish word of title basically meaning different or strange, and that in turn is a title the boy has done nothing but to have earned for his rather strange way of being. Mavíec is a fifteen years old boy, presumed to be East Elven, with no memory of anything under the age of five. The first thing the boy can remember of his life is waking up on a bench with rain hammering down on his forehead, invoking a striking headache, some seven years ago. Knowing nothing about himself or where he’s from, it was only by luck that the daughter of a highly respected family in Il’Ean found him and took a liking to him. She convinced her father to adopt him as her servant, giving him the only notion of a home he has ever known. This girl is Joay Venié, a spirited and crazy girl who is the pure incarnation of the saying “angles eyes, devils mind.” Together the two of them formed a small-time criminal gang called “The Fox Cubs” and by inviting the homeless children of Il’Ean to join their cause, they soon forged a family in crime.
Mavíec dawdled forwards in the false safety of the alleyways, clad with bright rays of blinding light being reflected down the otherwise dimmed alley via sizeable windows of the surrounding structures. He narrowed his eyes and squinted ahead, quickly deciding that his time would be better spent on counting their gain rather than trying to observe his path onwards. Gently leading his leathery crystal beset clad right hand to his inner pocket and tightly grasping the former owner’s silken purse. He emptied its content in his otherwise unused hand, discovering what looked to be a good gain. One Gino, two Mar and thirty-two Ceta, quite the gathering of pieno, the elven currency, and much more than what he would’ve hoped for. He saw some trouble getting rid of the Mars, but quickly got to consider the near impossibility of dispatching the Gino in any other way than to simply drop it to the ground. See, in Il’Ean, or the entire kingdom of Delión for that matter, coins bear a certain social standard, if anyone of the likes of Maviec would try buying something with a Gino, or a Mar for that matter, people would start asking questions and become suspicious, attention of the kind being the last thing any of the Fox Cubs sought to be given. Mulling over ideas of how to best dispatch, or exchange, these valuable coins and given his limitations of sight, he seemed to be completely oblivious to the fact that he was being followed. A dark shadowy figure was moving along the house-tops, only mere meters above his head.
In the elven kingdom they operated with four kinds of coins, Ceta, Mar, Gino and Parathi, each being more valuable than the other and bearing a mark of social standard. Ceta is the lowermost valued of the lot, and is mostly the kind used by beggars, thieves and low standard lines of work, such as trash cleaners or housekeepers. Sixty-five Ceta equals one Mar, which is the kind used by the middle class people in the elven empire, traders, merchants and others of the likes. Eight Mar equals one Gino, this is the kind of money used by the higher class in Delión: such as alchemists, doctors and bankers, and finally thirty-four Gino equals one Parathi, the currency of the nobility in Delión.
He was making his way towards the Den, their headquarters and home. He had arranged to meet up with Jiache, the South Elven boy, by a large fountain in a rather enclosed square with nothing but alleyways leading to and fro not far away. South Elves is the most common race in Il’Ean, considering the city itself is the second to south-most city of importance in Delión; Dohsa being the only one further south. South Elves are typically dark skinned and dark haired elves with mostly brown or dark shades of gray eyes, they are more often than not shorter than the other three races and typically thinner, though not necessarily weaker by any means. While the other most dominant race in Il’Ean is East Elves, light skinned elves with mostly blonde or golden hair colours, light blue, orange of near-yellow eyes, more often than not considered to be the most beautiful elves of Delión. Another thing that shows a great distinction between the races, and a feature of which provides the knowledge of what gene is the most dominant should one have blood from several of the four elven races in his veins, is the ears. East Elves have what is most commonly referred to as normal or common pointed ears, much like the shape of humans, only with a pointed edge at the top. South Elves have what most people refer to as spiked or jagged ears, having more than one pointed edge of the top-most part of their ears. With most oftenly a dominant pointed edge pointing backwards as opposed to the East Elven equivalents pointing upwards.
“Pi’ela Mavíec!” a voice called from ahead as Mavíec rounded a corner leading onto a small square in the midst of the grand labyrinth consisting of alleyways on the southern side of the dam. It was popularly named En Grotzo by traders; alvish word for “labyrinth”, considering nearly only thieves knew how to orient themselves effectively in its dark and strange alleys. Not nearly accustomed to not having shining bright light bathing his vision with blindness, Maviec were scarcely capable of looking up and deducing that there were a group of older kids in his wake. But he didn’t need his dysfunctional eyes to recognise the sleek and arrogant voice of the elven boy who had spoken; it was none other than Sain Peréthy, a rich kid with too much spare time on his hands, time of which he liked spending at prying on the younger thieves of Il’Ean. Doing what he called a “public service” and taking what money the poor lone thieves had on them at the time, the self-righteous bastard.
Without a word to spare for Sain and his lackeys, and with dread building up inside his chest, Mavíec spun around on the spot and dotted off in the opposite direction. Why the hell is that damned would-be official prick always around when I don’t need him! Mavíec thought for himself while rounding corners and jumping fences, trying to get as far away from his pursuers as he possibly could. Taking a quick glance over his shoulder proved to be grandest mistake he was about to make that day, for while doing so he bumped right into what seemed to be another person, only this person seemed to be so strong it felt like running into a wall, making Maviec topple backwards. This shocked Maviec, for he had neither seen nor heard anyone in front of him as he had turned, and the alley was far and straight. When he opened his eyes and got to his feet, Maviec froze dead where he stood. Before him was what looked like a shadow in broad daylight, the thing in front of him had human features, but was as pitch black as the darkest night sky, and the sun was glowing full force down upon their heads. The only other distinctive colour was the shining fiery looking blood red eyes punctuating what looked like a head with too many horns. Much before Maviec had even gathered himself; the shadow raised its clawed hand and hit Maviec full-force in the face, knocking him out instantly.
Maviec screamed full-force when next he awoke; getting to his feet within seconds, completely unaware that he was surrounded on all sides, by Sain and his gang. The group exploded into laughter, making Maviec but too aware of his surroundings. While the others were busy laughing and throwing mocking comments at him, Maviec quickly looked in every direction, to make sure the shadow thing was not there. Maviec wanted more badly than ever to get away, but he knew it was pointless trying to explain to these thief thieves what he had just seen.
Looking around he could count six boys and girls in total, two mean looking brutes standing on either side of him, one having a smaller boy backing him, and another pair of girls standing in front of Sain, bad odds, bad odds indeed. Hatred now building up to the point of eruption in his chest he crouched down on the dusty tiles and smiled, knowing there was no way out of this, but utterly prepared to do whatever he could to damage that ugly face of Sains.
“Look, look Sain. Seeing as the odds are in your favour, I recommend you lot of miscreants get the hell out of here before someone gets hurt.” Mavíec said calmly, trying to sound as threatening as he possibly could, buying some time to decide what to do. “Or well, I heard that little black tumour you so desperately claim to be a heart has already been hurt this week, so I guess we’re really past that already.” He added, sneering at Sain, hoping the fool would come out from his hiding behind the others. To his regret, however, Sain stayed quite stationary and simply flinched at the notion of this last incidence. Opening his mouth to say something Sain was suddenly cut short by the outburst of one of the girls
“You bastard, how dare you speak of Sainy like that?!” she shouted in rage and ran towards Mavíec. Though unexpected, this was very much welcoming to Maviec, he sidestepped in response to her straight hit and punched her in the back of her head with the back of his hand, spinning on the spot and crouching down once more he grabbed two handfuls of dust and thrust it out towards the brutish boys, who had no time to react. Using the chaos to his advantage, Mavíec suddenly disappeared from sight, only to reappear only an instance later right in front of Sain. Using the slight moment of confusion to his advantage he struck Sain as hard as he could flat into the face and followed the boy as he fell to the ground. Gripping Sain on both sides of his face he made the boy scream out in pain as Mavíec redirected all of his burning hatred to his hands. The moment of triumph was brief, for only seconds after he had taken a hold of Sain he was pulled backwards by his hair by the remaining girl and thrown to the ground, being kicked multiple times between his legs.
Some moments later he was grabbed and pulled up by the brutes, restraining him on both sides while Sain got to his feet.
“You fucking freak!” was the only words the boy managed to utter while punching Mavíec constantly in the head. And when the boy stopped, either to say something or to catch breath; neither of which Mavíec cared much for, he simply smiled at the ridiculously weak boy in front of him and spat blood all over his face. The only thing he remembers after this is being dropped to the ground some moments later, to the sound of distant shouting and many feet.
2
When he opened his eyes everything was a hazy, he had a bad headache and he hurt all over. Figures started appearing all around him, and slowly they turned into people as his vision sharpened. “Are you alright, Mavíec?” A familiar voice whispered. He tried responding but only grunts and mumble came out of his mouth, then he tried sitting up, instantly getting pushed back onto the soft surface he was lying on. “Don’t you dare doing that, after what you’ve been through I’m going to force you to stay in that bed.” The same familiar voice rang in Mavíec’s ears.
“Joay, I’m fine!” Mavíec earnestly tried sounding believable.
“Now that is something I don’t believe even for a second, you will keep lying there, even if I have to tie you down.” Joay said sternly. Mavíec sighed; he knew there was no getting out of this.
He could see only wooden bars in front of himself. He was unable to move and somewhere close-by there was terrifying screams and large bangs. The room was curtained in darkness, and the only light-source was one single ray of moonlight coming through a round window somewhere above him and landing onto his wooden prison. Footsteps approached the door some distance in front of him, which were shortly after flung open; a dark figure in black robes was pointing what looked to be a strangely long finger towards him. But before anything there was a flash of bright blue icy light behind the person in the doorway, with a groan the figure fell to the ground. “Is he safe?” he could hear a shivering female voice whimper terrifically as another person appeared in the doorway, with the same kind of finger.
“Yes, thank the gods.” The person, presumably a man by the sound of it, confirmed as he laid eyes on Maviec. As the man rushed into the room, followed by what seemed to be the owner of the woman’s voice, everything started faded away...
What felt like days since, Mavíec woke up once more. This time feeling nothing worse than a ringing headache and some shots of pain in one of his knees: Though not knowing which one worried Mavíec, considering his psychological health and all. He could hear the sounds of feet in motion and as thus decided to embark on a daring quest to sit up straight.
“Hi Mavíec” Penora and Pieni Lillié called in a chorus to him from over at the fountain where they were dancing in the moonlight. Penora and Pieni were two seventeen year’s old twin-sisters, and very highly ranked members of the Fox Cubs. They were also very good Ballíe dancers, which was a Life Elven rip-off of an ancient human dance called “Ballet”. He also now noticed where they all were, their whereabouts were at what they called ‘the den’: An old, small and abandoned town square in somewhere on the southern side of the great dam.
“Are you alright?” Penora suddenly asked, having stopped dancing and giving Mavíec a motherly expression of worry.
“Err... Yeah, I’m fine.” Mavíec answered, somewhat startled at the sudden, but somewhat expected, questioning. Then was when the decisive nature of the twins kicked in, as Penora and Pieni’s expressions quickly changed from motherly loving ones, to delighted reassurance. And accordingly they continued dancing as if the short conversation had never found place. Safe to say, when either one of the Lillié sisters looked ‘delighted’ it was rarely a good sign, and with a nervous feeling growing inside him, Mavíec started looking for his clothes, soon to locate them dangling from a string of rope on the other side of the square. With a subtle and quick hand movement he made his trousers and shirt float over to himself, discreetly. Getting dressed he regarded the twins: Penora was wearing a woollen light blue top which ended right above her navel, and a much too short silken skirt of the same colour. She also had a pink wool and silken scarf stopping only inches from the ground. Her sister had the same set of clothes only reversed colours. They did, like most twins in Il’Ean, look quite alike: having shimmering green emerald like eyes and healthy looking dark straightened hair, with a slight touch of curl in between. Their skin was that of a slightly shaded normal whiteness, which hinted to some South Elven blood intervened with their otherwise very East Elven genes. The only apparent difference between the two was that Penora had a silvery pearl piercing on her left cheek.
He then decided to test his luck trying to stand up and walk around. It seemed like the girls either didn’t notice him, or that they ignored him; for they continued dancing without saying anything. To some extent this made the already worried Maviec even more nervous.
He then regarded the square; they had all made some “improvements” on the town square over the years they had been using it as their headquarters. Many of the apartments around the square had been cleaned and re-arranged for meeting rooms and storages, while the square itself had been reinforced with makeshift wooden walls in every direction to better secure their base. Makeshift, in the sense that if any official should happen to take a stroll through the square, which rarely happened, they could take them apart and hide; making the square seem like any other abandoned spot in the poorer part of the city. The fountain in the middle of the square was only partially functioning; it had three levels of watery rings, and only the lowermost ring actually produced water, this had resulted in them using the highest ring as a sufficient spot to make camp-fires when they were celebrating or otherwise just trying to keep warm while at headquarters.
All the doors in the makeshift walls were closed; he picked the one wall of the four that seemed easiest to climb and approached the door, casting regular glimpses over his shoulder at the dancing sisters. When he approached the door and found it to be locked, dread spread through his body. The sound of dancing feet could no longer be heard, and the scent of a very familiar perfume of white roses and vanilla was but too present.
“Trouble?” A very sweat sounding voice asked from behind Mavíec. He quickly turned around to find Joay standing there, backed by Penora and Pieni on both sides, panic now spreading through his body. Joay was a descendant from a very respectable family in Il’Ean, the Veniés, a family of which prided themselves with staying as pure East Elven as they ever were. As thus Joay had very bright ice-like bright blue eyes complimented by a shimmering blond, straight and nearly white hair colour, which tonight had a portion of it set in a ponytail, and what remained of her hair was braided nicely on one side and put behind her ears. She was wearing a white shirt and an elegant looking pair of what the more daring boys on the streets called “hot pants” which is a very short kind of shorts. She had her shirt buttoned open, revealing a neat looking white top decorated with light blue details and pearly ornaments. Contrary to the twin sisters her top was made of cashmere. Her hands were decorated by very long and thin leathery gloves, white with light blue fur to compliment the top, while her feet were set with white leathery boots. Like the twins, she was also wearing a silken scarf coloured light blue and of the same length as the sisters.
“Uh... No, not at all, what’s with you all being---” Mavíec started with a poor attempt at a smile, but was cut short by Joay.
“Fancy this coincidence, you and me, here in the middle of the night, with no one else and nowhere to run.” She said lovingly and moved closer, as did the twins. Mavíec could smell the distinct scent of her lipstick now; it was a very dangerous kind. The “loving kiss” as the girls called it, designed with some mystical, probably magical, ingredient that was supposed to enthral the person you kissed into loving you.
“Well ah... See, it’s not only you and me, Joay, the twins are here too!” Mavíec said, indicating the girls and trying to buy some time, shooting his eyes in every direction for a way out. He didn’t fancy the idea of having three girls, all older than himself, pressing him into a corner.
“Oh... Pardon me for having some small safety measures, Mavíec.” Joay whispered to the giggling of the twins, now getting so close that Joay started leaning towards him.
“Look, what the... Penora what is..!” Mavíec suddenly exclaimed with a grim expression and a pointing finger in Penora’s direction with a convincing fright in his tone, making the sentence trail off in the unknown for better impression. His plan of distraction worked, Joay and Pieni alike turned to see what was happening to Penora, which in turn was regarding herself in shock to find the source of the problem. With quick movements, Mavíec pushed Joay into Pieni and jumped upwards, taking a hold of a vase dangling from a beam just above the exit. By turning mid-air to face the wall he used his feet to push himself into a vertical spin upwards and landed on top of the makeshift wall, nearly losing his balance. He then turned to make a mock-bow to the startled girls and said
“This will be where I take my leave, loves.” With attempted confidence in his tone, though he suspected the panic of the previous scenario still had a trace in his voice. He then dropped to the ground on the other side of the wall, and ran as quickly as his feet could carry him, what with the dreadful knowledge of the fact that the girls would be on his heels shortly.
So yeah, this will be what I am currently working on in terms of Dawn of Life, a story very much prior to that of Khaine Cuovia, it is about the childhood of the so called "Illusionist." For anyone who's read the third chapter of the main story, if I did ever post that here. Anyways, this is a excerpt from the story, so I do understand if some of the things in this read seems a bit confusing, the first chapter (as this is part of the second chapter) will be posted when I am finished editing it. Till then this is what you get, mostly because I like its outcome and because I want some feedback on how well I portrayed the relationship between the two main characters of the story: a fifteen years old magical boy called Mavíec and his "mistress" Joay, which is sixteen. They are the leaders of a small-time criminal gang called "The Fox Cubs" in the city of Il'Ean.
I am also posting this because I really want some feedback on the female psyche, as I, sadly, consider myself knowing very little about it. ;/ Also, I am throwing in a small description of the city, Il'Ean, to make some things simpler for you, it will not really be part of this chapter, but I feel like it'll help.
Hope you find it enjoyeable, and somewhat funny; as that is what it's meant to be. And also, any comments on the structure of the language is also warmly welcome if anyone has anything to comment on that.
If you don't find the aesthetic description of cities interesting: Skip the description part and continue reading from the headline further down. :/
The Fox Cubs
Il’Ean e’la Viendec is one of six major cities that rivals for supremacy in Delión, the elven region of Origon. Positioned south-east, very close to the high seas it mounts two sides of a grand torrent making its way through a rocky, yet lush, landscape. Originally built on one side of a torrent the elves built a grand bridge, in the absence of being able to cross by boat, to gain access to the sea on the other side. Ultimately the city expanded on both sides of the bridge on the steep cliff-walls above the bouldering water. And while expanding on the cliffs, the city also grew on top of the bridge itself which started to more resemble a dam of epic proportions than a mere bridge. Built in the classic marble white and elegant style of the East Elves, with the artistic and inspiring details of the South Elves this city soon grew to be known as the most wondrous city of all the elven cities spread across the continent.
The entire city is littered with Dawns, which is a very special crystal drawing power from the sun to gleam in the absence of light, making for very good lanterns at night. And when shimmering in the South Elven styled silken curtain details and the Glim, a metal that close to exactly resembles Gold, ornaments on every odd structure the Dawns make the entire city come alive at night: Which makes for a very special experience that can only be accustomed in Il’Ean.
The entire city is littered with Dawns, which is a very special crystal drawing power from the sun to gleam in the absence of light, making for very good lanterns at night. And when shimmering in the South Elven styled silken curtain details and the Glim, a metal that close to exactly resembles Gold, ornaments on every odd structure the Dawns make the entire city come alive at night: Which makes for a very special experience that can only be accustomed in Il’Ean.
1
Running along the trader’s high street, Pi’elo e’la Vieno, basked in mid-day sunlight and at rather an impressive speed is a very young South Elven boy, being chased by a shouting, cursing and sweating rather beefy looking East Elven trader. Meanwhile, the young thieving genius Mavíec Es’Tharonto was strolling happily along into a sidewalk, having the beefy elves’ money safely in his possession.
Es’Tharonto is an old alvish word of title basically meaning different or strange, and that in turn is a title the boy has done nothing but to have earned for his rather strange way of being. Mavíec is a fifteen years old boy, presumed to be East Elven, with no memory of anything under the age of five. The first thing the boy can remember of his life is waking up on a bench with rain hammering down on his forehead, invoking a striking headache, some seven years ago. Knowing nothing about himself or where he’s from, it was only by luck that the daughter of a highly respected family in Il’Ean found him and took a liking to him. She convinced her father to adopt him as her servant, giving him the only notion of a home he has ever known. This girl is Joay Venié, a spirited and crazy girl who is the pure incarnation of the saying “angles eyes, devils mind.” Together the two of them formed a small-time criminal gang called “The Fox Cubs” and by inviting the homeless children of Il’Ean to join their cause, they soon forged a family in crime.
Mavíec dawdled forwards in the false safety of the alleyways, clad with bright rays of blinding light being reflected down the otherwise dimmed alley via sizeable windows of the surrounding structures. He narrowed his eyes and squinted ahead, quickly deciding that his time would be better spent on counting their gain rather than trying to observe his path onwards. Gently leading his leathery crystal beset clad right hand to his inner pocket and tightly grasping the former owner’s silken purse. He emptied its content in his otherwise unused hand, discovering what looked to be a good gain. One Gino, two Mar and thirty-two Ceta, quite the gathering of pieno, the elven currency, and much more than what he would’ve hoped for. He saw some trouble getting rid of the Mars, but quickly got to consider the near impossibility of dispatching the Gino in any other way than to simply drop it to the ground. See, in Il’Ean, or the entire kingdom of Delión for that matter, coins bear a certain social standard, if anyone of the likes of Maviec would try buying something with a Gino, or a Mar for that matter, people would start asking questions and become suspicious, attention of the kind being the last thing any of the Fox Cubs sought to be given. Mulling over ideas of how to best dispatch, or exchange, these valuable coins and given his limitations of sight, he seemed to be completely oblivious to the fact that he was being followed. A dark shadowy figure was moving along the house-tops, only mere meters above his head.
In the elven kingdom they operated with four kinds of coins, Ceta, Mar, Gino and Parathi, each being more valuable than the other and bearing a mark of social standard. Ceta is the lowermost valued of the lot, and is mostly the kind used by beggars, thieves and low standard lines of work, such as trash cleaners or housekeepers. Sixty-five Ceta equals one Mar, which is the kind used by the middle class people in the elven empire, traders, merchants and others of the likes. Eight Mar equals one Gino, this is the kind of money used by the higher class in Delión: such as alchemists, doctors and bankers, and finally thirty-four Gino equals one Parathi, the currency of the nobility in Delión.
He was making his way towards the Den, their headquarters and home. He had arranged to meet up with Jiache, the South Elven boy, by a large fountain in a rather enclosed square with nothing but alleyways leading to and fro not far away. South Elves is the most common race in Il’Ean, considering the city itself is the second to south-most city of importance in Delión; Dohsa being the only one further south. South Elves are typically dark skinned and dark haired elves with mostly brown or dark shades of gray eyes, they are more often than not shorter than the other three races and typically thinner, though not necessarily weaker by any means. While the other most dominant race in Il’Ean is East Elves, light skinned elves with mostly blonde or golden hair colours, light blue, orange of near-yellow eyes, more often than not considered to be the most beautiful elves of Delión. Another thing that shows a great distinction between the races, and a feature of which provides the knowledge of what gene is the most dominant should one have blood from several of the four elven races in his veins, is the ears. East Elves have what is most commonly referred to as normal or common pointed ears, much like the shape of humans, only with a pointed edge at the top. South Elves have what most people refer to as spiked or jagged ears, having more than one pointed edge of the top-most part of their ears. With most oftenly a dominant pointed edge pointing backwards as opposed to the East Elven equivalents pointing upwards.
“Pi’ela Mavíec!” a voice called from ahead as Mavíec rounded a corner leading onto a small square in the midst of the grand labyrinth consisting of alleyways on the southern side of the dam. It was popularly named En Grotzo by traders; alvish word for “labyrinth”, considering nearly only thieves knew how to orient themselves effectively in its dark and strange alleys. Not nearly accustomed to not having shining bright light bathing his vision with blindness, Maviec were scarcely capable of looking up and deducing that there were a group of older kids in his wake. But he didn’t need his dysfunctional eyes to recognise the sleek and arrogant voice of the elven boy who had spoken; it was none other than Sain Peréthy, a rich kid with too much spare time on his hands, time of which he liked spending at prying on the younger thieves of Il’Ean. Doing what he called a “public service” and taking what money the poor lone thieves had on them at the time, the self-righteous bastard.
Without a word to spare for Sain and his lackeys, and with dread building up inside his chest, Mavíec spun around on the spot and dotted off in the opposite direction. Why the hell is that damned would-be official prick always around when I don’t need him! Mavíec thought for himself while rounding corners and jumping fences, trying to get as far away from his pursuers as he possibly could. Taking a quick glance over his shoulder proved to be grandest mistake he was about to make that day, for while doing so he bumped right into what seemed to be another person, only this person seemed to be so strong it felt like running into a wall, making Maviec topple backwards. This shocked Maviec, for he had neither seen nor heard anyone in front of him as he had turned, and the alley was far and straight. When he opened his eyes and got to his feet, Maviec froze dead where he stood. Before him was what looked like a shadow in broad daylight, the thing in front of him had human features, but was as pitch black as the darkest night sky, and the sun was glowing full force down upon their heads. The only other distinctive colour was the shining fiery looking blood red eyes punctuating what looked like a head with too many horns. Much before Maviec had even gathered himself; the shadow raised its clawed hand and hit Maviec full-force in the face, knocking him out instantly.
Maviec screamed full-force when next he awoke; getting to his feet within seconds, completely unaware that he was surrounded on all sides, by Sain and his gang. The group exploded into laughter, making Maviec but too aware of his surroundings. While the others were busy laughing and throwing mocking comments at him, Maviec quickly looked in every direction, to make sure the shadow thing was not there. Maviec wanted more badly than ever to get away, but he knew it was pointless trying to explain to these thief thieves what he had just seen.
Looking around he could count six boys and girls in total, two mean looking brutes standing on either side of him, one having a smaller boy backing him, and another pair of girls standing in front of Sain, bad odds, bad odds indeed. Hatred now building up to the point of eruption in his chest he crouched down on the dusty tiles and smiled, knowing there was no way out of this, but utterly prepared to do whatever he could to damage that ugly face of Sains.
“Look, look Sain. Seeing as the odds are in your favour, I recommend you lot of miscreants get the hell out of here before someone gets hurt.” Mavíec said calmly, trying to sound as threatening as he possibly could, buying some time to decide what to do. “Or well, I heard that little black tumour you so desperately claim to be a heart has already been hurt this week, so I guess we’re really past that already.” He added, sneering at Sain, hoping the fool would come out from his hiding behind the others. To his regret, however, Sain stayed quite stationary and simply flinched at the notion of this last incidence. Opening his mouth to say something Sain was suddenly cut short by the outburst of one of the girls
“You bastard, how dare you speak of Sainy like that?!” she shouted in rage and ran towards Mavíec. Though unexpected, this was very much welcoming to Maviec, he sidestepped in response to her straight hit and punched her in the back of her head with the back of his hand, spinning on the spot and crouching down once more he grabbed two handfuls of dust and thrust it out towards the brutish boys, who had no time to react. Using the chaos to his advantage, Mavíec suddenly disappeared from sight, only to reappear only an instance later right in front of Sain. Using the slight moment of confusion to his advantage he struck Sain as hard as he could flat into the face and followed the boy as he fell to the ground. Gripping Sain on both sides of his face he made the boy scream out in pain as Mavíec redirected all of his burning hatred to his hands. The moment of triumph was brief, for only seconds after he had taken a hold of Sain he was pulled backwards by his hair by the remaining girl and thrown to the ground, being kicked multiple times between his legs.
Some moments later he was grabbed and pulled up by the brutes, restraining him on both sides while Sain got to his feet.
“You fucking freak!” was the only words the boy managed to utter while punching Mavíec constantly in the head. And when the boy stopped, either to say something or to catch breath; neither of which Mavíec cared much for, he simply smiled at the ridiculously weak boy in front of him and spat blood all over his face. The only thing he remembers after this is being dropped to the ground some moments later, to the sound of distant shouting and many feet.
2
When he opened his eyes everything was a hazy, he had a bad headache and he hurt all over. Figures started appearing all around him, and slowly they turned into people as his vision sharpened. “Are you alright, Mavíec?” A familiar voice whispered. He tried responding but only grunts and mumble came out of his mouth, then he tried sitting up, instantly getting pushed back onto the soft surface he was lying on. “Don’t you dare doing that, after what you’ve been through I’m going to force you to stay in that bed.” The same familiar voice rang in Mavíec’s ears.
“Joay, I’m fine!” Mavíec earnestly tried sounding believable.
“Now that is something I don’t believe even for a second, you will keep lying there, even if I have to tie you down.” Joay said sternly. Mavíec sighed; he knew there was no getting out of this.
He could see only wooden bars in front of himself. He was unable to move and somewhere close-by there was terrifying screams and large bangs. The room was curtained in darkness, and the only light-source was one single ray of moonlight coming through a round window somewhere above him and landing onto his wooden prison. Footsteps approached the door some distance in front of him, which were shortly after flung open; a dark figure in black robes was pointing what looked to be a strangely long finger towards him. But before anything there was a flash of bright blue icy light behind the person in the doorway, with a groan the figure fell to the ground. “Is he safe?” he could hear a shivering female voice whimper terrifically as another person appeared in the doorway, with the same kind of finger.
“Yes, thank the gods.” The person, presumably a man by the sound of it, confirmed as he laid eyes on Maviec. As the man rushed into the room, followed by what seemed to be the owner of the woman’s voice, everything started faded away...
Narrow Escape
1
What felt like days since, Mavíec woke up once more. This time feeling nothing worse than a ringing headache and some shots of pain in one of his knees: Though not knowing which one worried Mavíec, considering his psychological health and all. He could hear the sounds of feet in motion and as thus decided to embark on a daring quest to sit up straight.
“Hi Mavíec” Penora and Pieni Lillié called in a chorus to him from over at the fountain where they were dancing in the moonlight. Penora and Pieni were two seventeen year’s old twin-sisters, and very highly ranked members of the Fox Cubs. They were also very good Ballíe dancers, which was a Life Elven rip-off of an ancient human dance called “Ballet”. He also now noticed where they all were, their whereabouts were at what they called ‘the den’: An old, small and abandoned town square in somewhere on the southern side of the great dam.
“Are you alright?” Penora suddenly asked, having stopped dancing and giving Mavíec a motherly expression of worry.
“Err... Yeah, I’m fine.” Mavíec answered, somewhat startled at the sudden, but somewhat expected, questioning. Then was when the decisive nature of the twins kicked in, as Penora and Pieni’s expressions quickly changed from motherly loving ones, to delighted reassurance. And accordingly they continued dancing as if the short conversation had never found place. Safe to say, when either one of the Lillié sisters looked ‘delighted’ it was rarely a good sign, and with a nervous feeling growing inside him, Mavíec started looking for his clothes, soon to locate them dangling from a string of rope on the other side of the square. With a subtle and quick hand movement he made his trousers and shirt float over to himself, discreetly. Getting dressed he regarded the twins: Penora was wearing a woollen light blue top which ended right above her navel, and a much too short silken skirt of the same colour. She also had a pink wool and silken scarf stopping only inches from the ground. Her sister had the same set of clothes only reversed colours. They did, like most twins in Il’Ean, look quite alike: having shimmering green emerald like eyes and healthy looking dark straightened hair, with a slight touch of curl in between. Their skin was that of a slightly shaded normal whiteness, which hinted to some South Elven blood intervened with their otherwise very East Elven genes. The only apparent difference between the two was that Penora had a silvery pearl piercing on her left cheek.
He then decided to test his luck trying to stand up and walk around. It seemed like the girls either didn’t notice him, or that they ignored him; for they continued dancing without saying anything. To some extent this made the already worried Maviec even more nervous.
He then regarded the square; they had all made some “improvements” on the town square over the years they had been using it as their headquarters. Many of the apartments around the square had been cleaned and re-arranged for meeting rooms and storages, while the square itself had been reinforced with makeshift wooden walls in every direction to better secure their base. Makeshift, in the sense that if any official should happen to take a stroll through the square, which rarely happened, they could take them apart and hide; making the square seem like any other abandoned spot in the poorer part of the city. The fountain in the middle of the square was only partially functioning; it had three levels of watery rings, and only the lowermost ring actually produced water, this had resulted in them using the highest ring as a sufficient spot to make camp-fires when they were celebrating or otherwise just trying to keep warm while at headquarters.
All the doors in the makeshift walls were closed; he picked the one wall of the four that seemed easiest to climb and approached the door, casting regular glimpses over his shoulder at the dancing sisters. When he approached the door and found it to be locked, dread spread through his body. The sound of dancing feet could no longer be heard, and the scent of a very familiar perfume of white roses and vanilla was but too present.
“Trouble?” A very sweat sounding voice asked from behind Mavíec. He quickly turned around to find Joay standing there, backed by Penora and Pieni on both sides, panic now spreading through his body. Joay was a descendant from a very respectable family in Il’Ean, the Veniés, a family of which prided themselves with staying as pure East Elven as they ever were. As thus Joay had very bright ice-like bright blue eyes complimented by a shimmering blond, straight and nearly white hair colour, which tonight had a portion of it set in a ponytail, and what remained of her hair was braided nicely on one side and put behind her ears. She was wearing a white shirt and an elegant looking pair of what the more daring boys on the streets called “hot pants” which is a very short kind of shorts. She had her shirt buttoned open, revealing a neat looking white top decorated with light blue details and pearly ornaments. Contrary to the twin sisters her top was made of cashmere. Her hands were decorated by very long and thin leathery gloves, white with light blue fur to compliment the top, while her feet were set with white leathery boots. Like the twins, she was also wearing a silken scarf coloured light blue and of the same length as the sisters.
“Uh... No, not at all, what’s with you all being---” Mavíec started with a poor attempt at a smile, but was cut short by Joay.
“Fancy this coincidence, you and me, here in the middle of the night, with no one else and nowhere to run.” She said lovingly and moved closer, as did the twins. Mavíec could smell the distinct scent of her lipstick now; it was a very dangerous kind. The “loving kiss” as the girls called it, designed with some mystical, probably magical, ingredient that was supposed to enthral the person you kissed into loving you.
“Well ah... See, it’s not only you and me, Joay, the twins are here too!” Mavíec said, indicating the girls and trying to buy some time, shooting his eyes in every direction for a way out. He didn’t fancy the idea of having three girls, all older than himself, pressing him into a corner.
“Oh... Pardon me for having some small safety measures, Mavíec.” Joay whispered to the giggling of the twins, now getting so close that Joay started leaning towards him.
“Look, what the... Penora what is..!” Mavíec suddenly exclaimed with a grim expression and a pointing finger in Penora’s direction with a convincing fright in his tone, making the sentence trail off in the unknown for better impression. His plan of distraction worked, Joay and Pieni alike turned to see what was happening to Penora, which in turn was regarding herself in shock to find the source of the problem. With quick movements, Mavíec pushed Joay into Pieni and jumped upwards, taking a hold of a vase dangling from a beam just above the exit. By turning mid-air to face the wall he used his feet to push himself into a vertical spin upwards and landed on top of the makeshift wall, nearly losing his balance. He then turned to make a mock-bow to the startled girls and said
“This will be where I take my leave, loves.” With attempted confidence in his tone, though he suspected the panic of the previous scenario still had a trace in his voice. He then dropped to the ground on the other side of the wall, and ran as quickly as his feet could carry him, what with the dreadful knowledge of the fact that the girls would be on his heels shortly.
Thanks in advance to anyone taking time to read and comment on this, I highly appreciate it.
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