out of the city

[keiakita]

Adalia crept out of Kabal City into the surrounding plain lands. The lack of trees made it difficult for her to hide, but the fact that she can't get caught eased her nerves. She has always been too quick for capture. The fox hybrid gingerly put her food down and saw she had a cut on her arm. She licked it, attempting to rid the cut of dirt and germs. She grimaced at the foul taste, but she was getting used to it. She had no way to receive medical help when she became injured or sick.

The fox girl wrapped her soft fuzzy tail around herself, although it didn't do cover much. It had always been a chore for Adalia to stay warm but she managed. Silently she summoned a small whirring ball of light, not to keep her warm, but to keep her company. She smiled and watched the sunless sky as it lulled her to sleep.

It was during the sunlight hours the fox woke up, startled the scent of smoke she packed up what little she had and headed away from where the fire was started. Small growls escaped and she started running. She was even slimmer than yesterday, her face was up everywhere and she couldn’t steal enough food for sustenance. Some of the best mercenaries were following her, so she needed to be more careful. She had a single pear left in her fruit bag and she ate it as she ran away.

The young fox wasn’t welcome anywhere; she realized this. Only other Magundi accepted her and the tears of abandonment resurfaced. The dullness in her eyes became more prominent. An overwhelming sadness filled her to the core, and hid between some thick bushes in fear of being seen. “Sad” she cried quietly, so as to avoid capture. The scent of the surrounding shrubbery was quite foul, and her extra-sensitive sense of smell caused her to cover her nose as stray teas ran down her face.

[venus]

The sparseness of the plains on the outskirts of Kabal was unsettling, especially when one made his way from the bustling capital into what slowly waned into dust. Dask Halmar was used to the sound of his own footsteps, having spent a considerable amount of time traveling alone; perhaps more than he had done settled in one place at any given time since his childhood. There was no denying the eeriness that these plains had to offer, however, and the Magundi acknowledged it even if he did not recoil at the thought of having to set foot where even the bushes gave off an oppressive odour.

His boots had been dirtied by the dust underneath his feet; even his deep green cloak was looking a little more lacklustre than usual. There were no visible weapons on him, so to anyone who may have been surveying him as he walked, his purposeful and confident demeanour seemed obviously misplaced.

He had accepted an errand from an old Alchemist back in Kabal, only because he was bored and steadily running out of funds. He wanted Dask to fetch him a particular plant, one which he had described in detail and even sketched on a piece of parchment which was now stuffed into the small satchel attached to the Bounty Hunter’s leather belt. It felt like a child’s run compared to the kind of thing he was usually doing, but desperate times called for desperate measures, and Dask was prepared to swallow his pride for a handsome pay-up.

He was only pulled from his own thoughts when he overheard an unmistakable whimpering from some bushes a few yards away from the between path he had chosen. He had not truly expected to find anyone else out in these plains, save for perhaps a mercenary; but it was unlikely that someone of that occupation would hide in a bush and cower.

Even though he had already made up his mind that whatever it was was already in distress and of no threat to him, he pulled one of his daggers from his boot and braced it in his hand as he approached the shrubbery.

“Who goes there? Are you injured?” He didn’t particularly sound like he cared.

[keiakita]

The fox girl tensed up. She thought for sure that if she was seen she would be taken in for the prize money she is worth. The bushes still rustled from her slight movements though. Once she realized she was inevitably be found she let out a few whimpers. The surrounding branches from the shrubbery had reopened the wound on her arm, and she stood up. Dirt covered her face, her eyes were sunken, and eyes dull.

Adalia licked her wound again in an attempt to remove the dirt from it. Tears still ran down her face and she managed to repeat the word "Sad." The choppy speech matched the girl. Both were broken. At one look she couldn't tell the man in front of her was a Magundi, though that didn't matter she thought he was going to turn her in for the hefty reward.

Fox's fuzzy tail was hidden almost making her appear cat-like. The patchwork clothes had blood on them, but it wasn't too bad. "No let...." she made a growling noise, "coins." Adalia was unable to reach for a knife, even if she was able to she was clearly at the disadvantage. She was shorter and much smaller than the other. She was so malnourished that her ribs could be counted if you took off her patchwork shirt.

[venus]

Dask had not had any clear expectations of whom or what he might find whimpering in one of the plain bushes, since he had not accounted for it at all. When she stood up he was at once reminded of something akin to a beaten cur, the way her eyes were heavy and sunken, laden with tears; the way she licked her wound left Dask leaving his guard up. If she had any traits like the beasts he encountered, she was prone to lashing out at that moment.

“What do you mean, coins?” He blurted before he could stop himself, growing frustrated that he had even paid her any mind now. The alchemist he was working for did not emanate patience in the least, and he could not spare any time for someone that may be begging him for his help at any moment.

He lowered his dagger in a quick change of heart, motioning towards the bushes Adalia had taken refuge in. “Those will do nothing for your ailment, if that advice is worth anything to you now.”

[keiakita]

Adalia grabbed her fruit bag and pulled out a wanted poster of herself and pointed at the reward. She was worth five hundred coins and she quickly realized she wasn't in any immediate danger. "No coins." She whimpered.

The wound on Adalia's arm wouldn't stop bleeding. She didn't trust the man, but she had no choice but to listen to him. "Help?" The fox's hair had recently been roughly cut by a knife, when she was cutting she got her arm and caused extreme pain.

An empty feeling in the runt's stomach caused by hunger was a sensation she wished to rid herself off. She figured that he wouldn't be generous enough to feed her and tend to her wound. She had always gotten by before, though things were changing two of the best mercenaries that Aedai had to offer were after her. She couldn't swipe enough to provide sustenance.

Adalia tried not to let the hunger show in her expression instead she focused on the blood flowing from her arm. "hurt."

[venus]

“I can see that.” Dask replied nonchalantly, glancing at the weeping sore on her arm momentarily. It would not bleed her to death, but open like that it would certainly get infected and then the real problems started. A minute portion of him did entertain some kind of sympathy towards the whimpering waif, but the more dominant part of his personality still reigned: she was wasting his time, and she didn’t make much in the way of sense, so what was he to do?

“Five-hundred coins, eh? That’s big money… luckily for you I’m not feeling particularly greedy right now. I’m on a job.” He wasn’t entirely sure all that he was saying could be understood, but he wasn’t about to oblige the girl by stooping to her level of communication. Dask was feeling far too intolerant for those kinds of courtesies.

“Dress the wound. It will heal faster that way.” He sighed, his body language stiff with anxiety to get back to his original task, and the weight of the opportunity in front of him was hard to ignore. This… thing, whatever it was, presumably a Magundi like himself, was worth a hefty pay. He could scoop her up and carry her back to Kabal, but the likelihood of him doing that without running into the mercenaries that were no doubt after her was slim – very slim. A whimpering girl was no threat, but a couple of mercenaries were a whole different kettle of fish.

Begrudgingly, he approached her and grabbed a piece of ragged thread that had been caught on the branch of the shrubbery, and started to wrap her wound with it roughly. “See? Like this. Dumb thing…”

[keiakita]

Now Adalia was more confused by the man and his attitude. "Friend or not friend?" She asked before growling at a low tone.* "food?" The thief asked for the emptiness at the pit of her stomach was becoming unbearable. When Dask wrapped her arm she winced a little in pain. The thing is she could understand most everything he said, she had difficulty speaking as she only started five years ago.

The fox seemed to get more pathetic by the second. She was found crying, her arm had been bleeding and now she was asking for something to eat. It wasn't too hard to tell that a little portion of anything would do her some good. So would a washing, but that was another matter. Her hair seemed a bit matted, it probably had never seen a comb or a brush.

A little twitch by Adalia's ears alerted her someone else was coming. She hid behind Dask, afraid that it was a mercenary.

[Dufflepud]

Rhadriar strode down the narrow pathway, grimacing at the opressive heat. In his opinion, anything above 50 was too hot for his liking. The trees swayed back and forth in a slight breeze, leaves whispering quietely. The birds sang quite loudly hear, and Rhadriar's sensitive ears were practically being bombarded with sound. If not for his moral objections, he would have frozen then and laughed as they dropped to the ground.

Suddenly, something caught his eye. It was a piece of parchment, nailed to a tree. Stepping up to it, Rhadriar wrenched it from the bark and inspected it more closely. It depicted a fox-tailed girl, and... what's this? A 500 gold piece reward! Rhadriar was in dire need of some kind of valuable metal, as even with the effects slowe dby his sustained transformation, his scales would begin to decay if he did not ingest something better than iron in the next week. Besides, if this girl was a thief then there was nothing moraly wrong with turning her in. Pocketing the warrant, Rhadriar once more started on the path. Almost immediately faint conversation as well as an animalistic growl reached his ears. He immediately thought of the girl - was he really this lucky?

Rhadriar charged down the pathway, bursting out into the open to find a strange man helping the girl. reaching out his hand, he spoke in a demanding tone,

"That girl is an accused thief. You will hand her over to me so that she may stand trial and be judged by the state."

He let those words hang in the air for a moment, before taking another step forwards, hand still outstretched.

[venus]

Dask was quickly running out of patience for the girl’s boorish vocabulary and cries for help. He did not doubt that somewhere inside him there was a drop of pity for her, but not enough to allow him to provide food for her or decide then and there that they were friends. You name things and you get attached to them; you feed them and agree to be their friends and you’ve just earned yourself a bloodsucking leech. There had to be an appropriate but fast way to decline her pleas that would cause him a minimal amount of stress.

“No… I’m sorry, I don’t have anything.” He sighed heavily; about to extend his arms and back away, back to his initial purpose before the hybrid was darting behind him, seeking some kind of protection from the next presence to waste a bit of Dask’s time. The only person that was allowed to do that was Mr. Halmar himself.

Fuelled only by the remnants of his frustration from spending the past ten minutes with a girl who could not talk and seemed preoccupied with food, Dask turned to face the person before them now, demanding from the Bounty Hunter a peaceful hand over of the girl so she could be brought to justice.

The guy was huge – considerably taller than anything humanoid he had come across in his lifetime. The cool tone of his eyes and silvery sheen on his skin seemed menacing in the sunlight, but Dask hd found her, god damn it, and no big idiot was going to run in screaming and expect him to hand over his glory just like that.

He stood his ground, legs shoulder-width apart as he surveyed who was before him with a mild calculating look on his face. “I will do nothing of the sort.” The Magundi smirked, taking pleasure from the very scent of a challenge. “I found her. I will turn her in. Don’t you think it’s a bit uncouth of you to crash in here at the first scent of coins and expect me to hand over what is rightfully mine? Finders keepers and all that…”

[keiakita]

Adalia reached for her knife and threw it aiming at the drake that stood before her and other magundi. "My name is.... Adalia." That was pretty much her first real and fluent sentence she has said. She observed the drake and screamed "No coins! You are Bounty Hunter" The simple words she normally uttered where being put into sentences. Normally when she isn't in fight or flight mode she'll only say simple words.

Adalia seemed a bit angry and the ball of light that normally accompanies her appeared. The ball of light flew in front of the opponent and it shone a blinding glow. She almost appeared a feral animal at the ferocity she threw all her knives at. "Protect the undecided. He helped me." Is what her battle cry was. Of course when this ordeal was over she would be the scared whimpering girl she was when Dask met her.

Since the girl was a thief her money was only good in the black market, so it was a surprise that she had any at all, but she cut away the string holding her coins. CLINK! The coins she had fell to the ground ontop of each other. All together she had six bronze, two gold, and eight silver coins. The small loot was to pay Dask for patching up her arm. "Undecided take." When she ran out of run of the mill throwing knives she pulled out the decoratively designed dagger from her bag. She aimed every blow for the Drake's face and chest area.
Whoosh!
The sound from the speed of her movements was unfathomable. She wasn't called "The illusive thief" for nothing. She had speed, and in the heat of battle she'll only become faster. It was hard to believe a girl who was just crying and begging for help could do this much.

[Dufflepud]

Rhadriar smiled at the ferocious girl, allowing scales to grow out of his skin as the knives began flying. Using his element to brittle the blades, they did nothing but shatter as they colided with his armored hide. Suddenly, the girl took a moment to cut away at her coin purse.

Turning to the man before him, Rhadriar sighed, it was never his intention to resort to violence or threat of violence, but it seemed to be necessary all to often, and if he didn't eat soon, his scales would start to drop out like hair from a dog. Reaching over his shoulder. He grasped a massive bone crossbow, already primed and ready to fire, pulling the three foot weapon into an easy grip. He shifted his stance so that he could level the weapon and fire in an instant, if need be. This girl would be his. Suddenly, a thought came to him,

"If you have any intention of taking the girl back yourself, I will fight you, and most certainly win that battle. However, if you would prefer we take her back together, we can split the reward evenly, and have a much higher chance of preventing her from being stolen by other mercenaries."

With that, the drake shifted form, muscles bulging, massive extra limbs bursting from his back, and spine elongating until he was a thirty five foot, monstrously large creature. As the girl came at him, he frosted over the ground ahead of her, hoping to cause her to slip and fall, before opening up his wings and letting loose a deafening roar that shook the trees and could be heard from miles away. If that didn't stop the girl in her tracks, with her sentisive ears, then he would simply have to pin her down. His massive bulk would render this a fairly simple task if necessary.

[venus]

It was clear from the moment that Rhadriar was in full sight that whatever he was was more than a match for Dask. He had considerably more bulk to him, though, so evading him was an option if so needed to lend from that advantage. It was almost impossible to tell his race, but the Bounty Hunter felt safe in the assumption that trying to fight this guy would surely lead to his demise, or very close to it.

And, as if to confirm the thoughts that his body language hid so well, he watched as Adalia’s untamed and furious attacks left her weapons shattered amongst the coins she had dropped on the ground (ones that for once Dask had no interest in). The creature before them seemed unscathed.

Then it was clear why. In seconds he mutated, grew to an astonishing height and left Dask stumbling backwards in a fear he could no longer mask with confidence. So, he had met the misfortune of getting on the wrong side of a Drake.

“Hmph... that’s hardly fair.” Dask spoke eventually, pushing back his awe for a more defiant stance, after the deep roar had all but destroyed his eardrums and the edge of the icy floor was touching his toes. “But I guess you leave me choice, when you go and cheat like that.” He grinned, shaking his head. “We shall hand her in and split the reward, but remember... you owe me for finding her.”

[keiakita]

Adalia felt helpless as her attacks did nothing. The mag who was previously helping her said something about taking the other's offer. Betrayal. One of the few things Adalia is really familiar with. She screamed as her ears suffered from the roar...

Tears rolled down her face, and the betrayal finally settled in. Once she recovered from the roar she took off. The ball of light she held dear seemed bent on blinding her foes as the glow increased greatly. It provided the girl a head start as she ran quickly, she had no belongings with her so her speed was pure without any weights to slow her down.

The flat plain land made it easier to run. Eventually she shed the sandals that covered her feet and turned direction to the left. Desperately she tried to escape. If it weren't for the injury on her arm she would have got on all fours, which would have quickened the pace.

[Dufflepud]

As the girl took off, Rhadriar began to beat his wings. He didn't need to be able to see to reach the sky. Nearby trees were buffeted back by the displaced air from his ascent, and the dragon was soon far above the ground, that nasty light far behind him. Circling around, it didn't take long with his superior vision to spot her. She was engaged in a dead sprint away from the city. She was fast, but a flier is always faster. The dragon zoomed forwards, tucking in his wings and gaining a massive amount of momentum, before unfurling them again and flapping them repeatedly. He didn't need to fly long if he were to catch her, just quickly. As he gained, Rhadriar slipped up past the cloud layer, intent on preventing he from spotting him.

Siezing his chance, the drake dove downwards, a streak of silver that appeared almost like a lightning bolt as the sun reflected from shimmering scaly armor. Opening his wings at the last second, he came to a grinding halt, uprooting grass and shrubs as he slid sideways, some twenty feet ahead of the girl, with his claws deeply embedded in the earth. The deep streaks he had left would take some time to heal.

Opening his maw, the dragon let loose a blast of frozen breath, bringing up a wall of ice to surround the fox thief.

"You will not find it so easy to escape a dragon! he roared.

[keiakita]

Adalia was sunk. Whimpers escaped her lips as tears ran down her face. To kill her or injure her was to harm a child; it would leave any sane person with a bad taste in their mouth. Most of the time she only did what she had to, to survive and she was going to die at the hands of a bounty hunter. Unable to fight back she just cried, showing how weak she really was. If she was taken to authorities no doubt she would be executed.

Its funny to see how innocent the fox is, even as a thief. She has only ever learned to steal to survive because when she was younger no one would take her in. No one taught her stealing was wrong. In her mind being a thief meant she would live to the next meal.

The magundi's crying became louder. You could tell she was scared, her limbs trembled, wails escaped her mouth. The smell of blood tainted the air. The girl wasn't evil, far from it, she was as innocent as a young child. Nothing to comfort her, the terror in her rose from panic to sheer terror. She probably wouldn't able to get away.