First time along the promenade [Open]

[Vendredi]

He watched her back for the second time that day, dagger slack in his hands, blood dripping from his fingertips. He was half-bathed in shadows and breathing heavily, whether from adrenaline or nerves he could not tell. The action had happened in the span of what felt like a second. Before he could react, all the men were down.

Oh.

This time oh meant oh, you’re dangerous. It meant oh, you’re merciless. It meant oh, you helped us.

He wanted to speak something profound, but words were stuck in his throat like ants in an abyss. Instead, he watched her back, her fingers, her bowstring, and the blood beneath her feet. He stared at her with eyes wide open and alert, and watched her leave. Oh.

His breath slowed to a regular beat, and he slid the daggers back into the sheaths in his sleeves. He threw his companion a glance. She was gone now, and her departure signaled something. The atmosphere of danger and peril disappeared, dissipated into an aftermath of cool nothingness with her last footstep. Fii wondered what he had seen here, today. He wondered who he had seen. He knew neither their names, but there was a greater power holding down upon his tongue.

“I’m leaving,” he said, acknowledging his companion’s words. This was not a place to remain for long. This city might not welcome them for much longer, and it would be wise to sidle back into the shadows before another curious pair of unfortunate eyes chanced by.

Without another word, he faded back into the dark, and ran.

[Sage]

Sage watched the boy leave for only a moment before turning his head towards the last place he had seen the woman. He was on his own again, alone in an alley with a bunch of corpses with a dagger in his hand. Leaving was a very good idea.

He considered the dagger he had in his hand, wanting nothing more than to just throw it away in disgust, but again the thoughts of something like this happening again echoed within his mind, and the idea of repeating these events without some kind of defence did not sit well with him. “Time to go” He thought as he hid the dagger within his loose tunic, out of sight and cautiously peeked around the corner to see if anyone was nearby. The last thing he wanted at that moment was for the watch to find him like this.

Coast clear he shifted from the entrance of the alley towards where he had thought the docks would be and rounded the corner to see the thinning crowds up ahead. The sight almost made him whimper for the normalcy that only a crowd of people could bring, normal people just going about their lives, unaware of the ongoing of some shady little alleyway.

Sage shivered, and not due to the cold breeze either. An eager eye tried to catch sight of the woman and the boy one final time, but they were long gone by now. He slipped into the crowd, blending in as he gently wove his way down the road in the general direction of where he thought the Fox and Hounds Inn would be.

Then a hand came upon his shoulder, like a jumpy rabbit sage snapped, spinning around to deflect the hand from his shoulder while the other discreetly reached for the dagger he had only just so recently claimed. Was it one of the other patrons from the bar, the Bartender or someone else he hadn’t seen? Wait, he knew that voice, he knew that face, the swept back brown hair, the short trimmed beard and reading glasses covering a stern gaze. He froze, just as he had deflected his father’s arm from his shoulder

“Hmm, did something happen?

“Father?” Seeing his father, after thinking he would never see him again was more than enough to overwhelm the emotional blocks sage had hastily erected to stay calm, he flung himself forwards, wrapping his arms and began to sob earnestly.

“Sage?” his father asked in concern, having never seen the boy appear quite so distraught, something had happened, he was sure of that, his old mage instincts were kicking in telling him he was missing something. “Something enough to send the boy running all over the docks at any rate” he deduced suddenly glad of the simply tracking spell he had placed on the boy, he had been just on his way to see what he was up to when the boy had started to make his own way back.

Owen Ainsworth sighed and put his hand back on his sons shoulders, the boy would talk when he was in a much more stable mood, if not a more stable environment.

When he was good and ready

---
Spoil: Simple Iron dagger.

[Philomel]

Workshop submission
Name of thread: First Time Along The Promenade

Rewards:

The Mongrel receives:
1100 EXP
120 EXP
Spoils: Map approved.

Vendredi receives:
1240 EXP
145 GP

Sage receives:
1040 EXP
120 GP
Spoil: Iron dagger approved

[Lye]

EXP & GP Added!