Smoldering Despair

Devora skirted her way through the danky, dreary alleyways. Many, if not most, steered clear of them. Whether it be out of disgust, or possibly because they couldn't stand the sorrow, the pitiful gazes of the less fortunate upon them, a feel that that seemed to seep into your soul. Or, simply, because they had no reason to be there. To Devora, however, the alleyways were like home. Comfortable and familiar, hidden away from the busy marketplace hustle and crowded city streets. Despite being inhabited by others, those who were forced to reside here due to poverty, it was eerily quiet - something the rogue openly welcomed. She spent her time lurking the mazes while Sharastia was at the one place she knew that she would be moderately safe, the infirmary.

She made her way along the shady walls, her footsteps almost completely silent, although her many weapons were continually clinking and clanking with every step as she paced along briskly. Usually, she came here to relax - one of the few places she indulged in the pleasure she usually denied herself without disturbance - but time had ended up tighter than usual, not reaching the infirmary until past mid-day, so she was merely here on business this time.

Twisting one way, then another, she followed an odd path, headed in the direction of one of those places that you had to look to find, and know exactly where to look. After what would feel like hours to someone who had never traced this path before, she reached her destination. Pushing open the door of what seemed like another run down squat house of many apartments, she stepped inside It was a small room, but every square inch was occupied by an item of sorts. Smoke bellowed out the door as the rogue stepped in, the result of a poorly constructed furnace. A blacksmiths shop.

A large man, an arentil for that matter, heard the familiar sound of Dev's boots and looked up from his current work of putting the finishing touches on a large sword. He let out a gutty laugh, his large round belly shaking as he did so. Despite being a heavy man, his arms were as thick as a full grown mans thighs and not an inch of them was fat.

"Devora! I knew you'd be around today." he moved away from what he was doing to stand in front of the woman, every footstep he took seeming to linger for moments afterwords. "How can I help you eh? Ye've nearly bought me out by now! I think halv'me store is resting on that body of yours." he laughed again. The woman remained silent, removing a decent sized pouch from her belt and shoving it at him. The loot of an unsuspecting drunkard who had approached Sharastia with ill intentions. "That's because you make good weapons." she muttered, crossing her arms. The man grinned at the compliment. He did make sturdy weapons, and offered a warrant for an extra fee, that should it break within the year he'd repair or replace it. Devora always joked that it was a scam because his weapons couldn't be broken. And it was true, he used only the best materials and spent months on one weapon to make sure it was perfect. The only reason why very few knew about his shop and the reason it was hidden away because not all of his materials were bought through legal means, and he never payed his taxes.

The blacksmith, Arty, offered Dev a drink, and so she visited for a few minutes before making her way out. Arty and Shara were two of the very few people she called comrade. Walking away from the shop, she began through the alleyways once more, slowly making her way towards the infirmary.

Run run run leap. Run run run leap. Run run run leap. Despite the odd tediousness and repetitiveness of jumping across rooftops, Yanil found he never got tired of the exhilaration of flying momentarily between the two stable points, or the weightlessness of the jump. It was just so much...fun, even if it was dangerous and relatively stupid. He had done it enough that he found little reason to worry about not clearing one of the gaps. He had yet to test himself on larger ravines, but figured he was almost to the point where he could. Helped his balancing skills to, landing on the edge and managing to lean forward enough not to fall backwards to his supposed death or at the very least bad injury.

Grinning gleefully as he cleared another space, the teen landed easily and began picking up speed again, only partially out of breath from the other leaps of faith he had taken. A clear run across to the next roof; perfect. Dashing forward, he felt his leg muscles bunch in preparation, when a wooden door in the ceiling (or floor) that he hadn't noticed opened just as he was coming up to it. Catching a brief "What is all that racket?" as his shin caught on the door, yanking it out of the woman's hands and sending it clattering to the rooftop, Yanil panicked slightly when he couldn't catch his balance and was sent careening towards the edge of the building, toppling off before he could catch himself.

Eeping slightly as the ground came rushing towards him, the teen winced when a ledge caught him in painfully in the side, twisting him in midair just before he hit the ground with a dull thud. The raven groaned, coughing against the dirt as he began slowly pushing himself off the ground, hissing a breath when his ribs pounded from the brief impact with the wall that he had fallen into.

'Ow...okay...maybe this was a bad idea...' he groaned inwardly, placing a hand gingerly on his side and determining that nothing was broken, just seriously bruised, just like the rest of his body. Yup, he was gonna be in pain for a little while. 'I'm just glad I didn't hit anyone on the way down, That would've really sucked.

Dev withdrew a dagger and froze in place at the sound of a thump, her body, or more so her ears, immediately relating the sound to that of an assaulter jumping from a building. Of course, her eyes told her otherwise and she quickly sheathed the weapon and examined the lanky boy hardly a yard in front of her. How did he...? Nevermind, she wasn't even going to ask. At least not now.

Typically she'd ignore him, going about her business without paying another moment of attention to the entire situation. Although she was still a bit loose from her drink, so she moved over to him, grabbing his shirt collar and roughly pulling him to his feet. "If you wish so much to keel yourself boy, there are much easier ways." she remarked, resting a hand on her hip. "I'm going to the infirmary. Stay or go, up to you." she began off past him without waiting for a reply.

Weird kid.

Feeling himself being roughly pulled off the ground, Yanil yelped as the sudden and rather harsh movement jarred his now-bruised body. Looking up at the woman that had pulled him, he smiled brightly at her, moving to catch up when she began walking away.

"Nah, not trying to commit suicide. If I was tryin' ta do that, I know a bunch of other ways to go about it. Thanks for helping me up by the way, even if it did kinda hurt after my fall. I suppose I should just be thankful that I didn't break anything thought I think that the ribs on my one side are pretty bruised cause I hit the corner of this wall on my way down and it really hurt a lot but I can still move and I'm sure it would've hurt a lot more if they had broken not to mention the cracking noise I woulda heard if they had snapped, which I certainly did not cause they certainly did not so even if it hurts to move right now it's nothing too bad. I suppose I should apologize for almost landing on you, it was rather rude of me not to look where I was falling and make sure that I didn't hit anybody on my way down, so I'm also grateful for that. What are you doing back here anyways? Were you visiting a friend? Do you like it back here? Do you like the dark? Do the homeless not bother you? Have you ever talked to them? Why are you alone? Why are you going to the infirmary? Are you hurt? Why do you have so many scars? Where did you get them from? Are you going to visit someone in the infirmary? Can I come? Can I meet them? Do you think they'll like me? Do you like me? Do you find me annoying? There's a lot of people who do so i'm not really offended by it any more but it gets me in trouble sometimes because they find me too annoying and want me to stop but I never do cause I'm kinda hyperactive so then they get mad at me and chase me and I run away and they try and catch me but I always end up getting away cause I'm faster and smaller than them. What's your name? I'm Yanil!" he introduced himself finally, thinking it also rude not to do the same before asking for someone else's name.

Dev continued to walk all through Yani's rambling, and towards the end, found herself tightly clenching her teeth together. Finally, she stopped abruptly, twisting around on a heel. "You are much horrible at minding your own business." she frowned, "Tell you what, we can have deal - keep asking annoyingly questions and you won't have need for running." the muttered the subtle threat, turning around once more. She wouldn't actually go through with it. After all, she only killed those who deserved it. Unfortunately her opinion of deserved could be easily bent. Still, despite her growing inclination to slash the boys throat out of pure agitation, she'd refrain.

She twisted one way, then another, following the complicated route that should bring them towards the infirmary. But this one seemed different somehow. Pausing, she looked around, trying to get her bearings straight. However nothing looked familiar and everything looked the same all at once, and with no way of knowing for sure which way the main streets were, it was easy to get turned around.

She began off again, having pulled together a rough mental map of the area. Of course, her mind was still foggy from her drink, or drinks for that matter. That Arty never settled on a light alcohol when he indulged either. Probably to drink his customers into buying.

The deeper they trudged into the alleyways, the silenter it became. There was a sound occasionally, that would come from an untraceable source, but Dev brushed it away, her senses duller then usual. That would be the last time, she assured herself, she drank so much before traveling the alleyways. Another sound, this of a small rock clicking against the stone ground. The rogue now froze, quickly glancing out the corner of her eye, and having seen a movement other then the boy, she jerked around quickly and unsheathed her short sword. Nothing. Eyes glazing over the area in front of her, still facing the boy, she failed to notice the large beast scaling slowly down the building wall just yards from her.

Yanil fell silent after the unvoiced threat, though he was so used to htem by now he simply kept smiling brightly as he skipped along beside, or behind, the woman, noting that she was taking them in a direction that she probably didn't want to, a way deeper into the maze of alleys instead of to an exit. Still, not knowing exactly where she was heading to next, he kept his mouth shut, also not wanting to irritate her any more.

When the woman paused, whirling around as she unsheathed one of her swords, the teen assumed she had either seen something, or was so annoyed with him following her (which didn't seem incredibly possible, but still likely) that she had decided to go through with her threat from earlier. When she paused again, not advancing on him or past him to where some hidden attacker lay, the raven opened his mouth to ask why they had stopped when his oddly colored eyes caught movement from behind the Drow. The creature, which had probably tunneled into the alleyways, was advancing quickly, and was already raising one of it's spindly legs to attack before he finally reacted, by promptly shoving the Drow to the ground and out of the way of an attack which would have impaled her head-to-toe otherwise.

Grunting slightly as he hit the ground on his bad side, Yanil immediately rolled to one side to avoid another attack, rolling backwards and into a standing position. He didn't know how dazed whats-her-face was to have not seen or sensed the monster, but if she was out of it, he'd have to at least get it away from them...so he began taunting it.

"Psh wow, is that really all you got? Man, is this ever going to be boring. And I actually thought that you guys were some sort of challenge!" he laughed. The monster, growling, left the prey that it figured would be the easiest and instead went after the thing that was annoying it. Yanil eeped as it sped towards him, jumping and flipping backwards to avoid its giant claws being thrust at him regularly in an attempt to skewer him. Eventually, he was backed into a wall, staring up at the creature. The monster, proud of itself for so easily catching the annoying bug, went to stab the boy again, only to have him leap on to it's claw...and then the other one, when it tried again, and then jumping over to it's head. The monster shrieked as the teen landed on it's head, spraying acid in an attempt to hit him. Yanil sighed, throwing up a barrier to catch it on and pulling out two daggers. "Man your breath stinks...and you really need to see a dentist about those teeth. Until then-" he paused as he shoved the daggers through the creature's jaws, one from the top and one from the bottom, effectively closing it's mouth. "You can keep those shut so that you can avoid accidentally hitting someone with that acid of yours!" he quipped happily, the smile falling from his face and the creature began thrashing it's head around, sending him flying into...another wall. Ow.

Groaning slightly as he picked himself up, Yanil groaned as the creature turned towards him, growling in fury as it charged again. "Um...ya know lady, I wouldn't mind a little help-gah!" the teen called, yelping when the monster got him pinned to a wall with it's secondary legs, restraining his arms and pretty much all bodily movement. Fantastic.

Devora began pushing herself to her feet quietly, albeit swiftly, grabbing several throwing knives off her boot as she did so. The sound of metal cutting through the air was followed immediately by a shriek and the large beast turned around to face it's attacker. Blood trickled from it's back in the many places the knives - about a dozen - had pierced it, in a perfectly straight vertical line. "Look ugly, you are not of my type and this is poor way to start relationship." Dev briskly rolled to the side as a large claw plunged towards her and hit the ground she had been standing in with a hallow 'chalng!'.

"That wasn't very nice. Wasn't it boy?" she asked rhetorically, looking to Yanil. Unlatching the metal chain from her pant leg, she took a step back before lashing the metal whip forward and watching it wrap around one of the beasts claws. While it attempted futilely to rid itself of the incapacitating bind, Dev let loose to avoid being flung and used the brief distraction to pick up the sword she had dropped when Yanil had knocked her to the ground earlier. Then dashing forward swiftly, she ran down the length of the creature, dragging the sword through it's side as she did so. Again, it shrieked out in pain and attempted to crush her with it's capable claw but missed by a hairs width.

"You are getting on my nerves now.." she muttered, jumping onto it's back and running up to it's head. Another cry, this one more vile then the all the rest, rung out as the rogue plunged the short sword into it's head. It began to write and shriek violently, knocking the woman off it's head. Dripping with rage, it lurched abruptly towards Yanil. Dev, however, recovered and bolted towards the boy at the same time, removing the broadsword from her back at the same moment. Then, it was over. She had managed to get in front of Yanil and hold at the broadsword at just the right moment, piercing the creature in it's tender belly.

Without another word, Devora began to collect her tools. After a few short moments, she pulled out the shortsword that was still protruding from the monsters brain and sheathed it, turning to the boy. "You lead." she began over to him, crossing her arms. "BUT do not get cocky, this means nothing of friendship." she warned, but more lighthearted than was typical for her.

Slumping to the ground when the monster released him and charged after the woman instead, Yanil watched the battle rage for a short time before the creature raged towards him again. About to push himself up, the teen paused when the Drow appeared in front of him, gouging the Consumer deeply in it's weak stomach and killing the beast. Letting out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding, the teen cast his eyes upwards to the female when she came over to him after collecting her weapons, bright smile appearing when she told him that he could lead, in a tone that was filled with less irritation than the last time she had spoken to him.

"'Kay!" he exclaimed, jumping to his feet and making his way quickly over to the dead creature to extract his own daggers from it's head. Grimacing when they came out sticky with blood, the teen sniffed at the substance and tasted it before wiping it off of the weapons and putting them back in their place. That done, he made his way over to the gaping wound in the creature's stomach and swiped a bit of the sticky blood and smearing it on a gash he had received on his arm. "Mama says that Consumer blood is good for putting on open wounds; it stops the blood flow immediately, and is good in salves too!" was the explanation he gave, sure that the woman would be looking at him strangely. Finished with his task, he whirled around, ran back to the Drow and grabbed her hand, tugging on it briefly before skipping on ahead. "Exit closest to the Infirmary is this waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!" he called back, laughing as he ran further ahead before circling back and slowing down so that he was at a normal walking speed again. "You still haven't told me your name though, big sis." the nickname slipped out before the raven could stop it, but he figured that it fit her oddly well....at least, to him it did.

The woman let out a brief sigh, wondering where the boy got the nickname 'big sis'. Maybe it's what he called all women he tagged along with? No matter what the reason, it was strange, but she pushed it aside nevertheless. "It's Devora. Dev." she muttered. "Thank you, for of getting my back. Maybe it has respectable, but stupid." she nodded. Either way, she was grateful. "But," she warned, "We are still not of friends, got it boy?" she reminded him. As they maneuvered their way towards the marketplace, more so the infirmary, she sobered out, regaining an cold and unfriendly air as her mind returned to the fact that she was still late to pick up Sharastia from the infirmary.

"I has to ask uh... Yanil? WHAT was you doing?!" she asked randomly as they drew nearer to the outside of the alleyways. "I never in my LIFE can see a people fall from a roof like that." she crossed her arms and turned towards him, expecting an explanation. "You was stalking maybe?" she raised a brow slightly at the boy.

Adopting a confused look to his face at the question, Yanil cocked his head to the side as he considered what she was saying. "So we're not friends but you still think I was stalking you? How does that make any sense? I've never seen you before in my life, let alone even heard of you, so there's no reason or way I could or would be stalking you because I have no idea who you are and this is my first time seeing and meeting you and in order to stalk a person you have to have seen them at least one other time and fallen rather oddly and madly and deeply in love which would also make no sense because you're too old for me and Mama told me not to talk to strangers but you seem like a nice person and you told me your name so I guess we're not strangers any more but I still don't know you and so therefore have no reason to stalk you unless you think I should have a reason which I suppose you do because otherwise you wouldn't have asked but I can assure you I was absolutely NOT stalking you. I was jumping across rooves because I could." he stated finally, giving a very (and odd, considering it was Yanil) firm and determined nod, as if to say 'yup, I'm totally rigth and that's that'. Because in his mind, he absolutely was. He had no reason to stalk Dev, or Big sis, so therefore, he wasn't. "Oh, and your very welcome for the saving of your life, but you repaid me in kind by saving my own, so there's no debt to be paid...thanks for saving me!!" he exclaimed with a bright smile, casting his eyes forward again and noting that they would soon be exiting the alleyways.

"You could maybe spy, or, tax collector..." she whispered, the words virtually inaudible. "I can get to there, so now I'll leave." she waved off the boy, Yanil. Jumping off rooftops because he could? He was interesting, to say the least. Someone she would remember should she pass by him again. He was sort of interesting, and reminded her a bit of herself as a kid. Minus the talking, which, she imagined, was undisputed by all who had ever lived and more likely than not, all to come yet.

"Goodbye little brother." could be heard, faintly but distinctly, before she vanished into the crowds and made her way to the infirmary.

The teen blinked for a moment, mind cycling back through what he had just heard. When the title finally registered, Yanil brightened, his smile growing impossibly bigger as he laughed aloud, incredibly happy to have made another friend, no matter what Devora said about it.

"Well! I'm off to find something else to do! Maybe I'll try walking along clotheslines again! I'm feeling particularly light today!" he giggled to himself, running off into the Marketplace, cart-wheeling between people as he went.