Of gunners and Elves

Two new characters. Maybe I'm getting out of my depth here? Acid, Red, Aradat, Breeze, Quicksilver, Ember, and now these two? I'm not used to writing for so many.

They had been travelling for less than a day, and, already, the young Elf boy was driving Arrow insane.  Round the bend, up the wall, and straight over the edge.  He voiced this frustration, only to be rewarded with more clingy whining.

     “Myl, if you do not shut the f**k up,” He glared, “I will leave you behind.  I do not, I repeat for emphasis; NOT, do Elves.  Too much fur, for God’s sake.”

     Myl pouted, his fire opal-like eyes flaring orange.

     “You’re such a spoilsport, Arrow.”

     “No, I just hate-” He was cut short by a quiet ticking noise.  “Oh, for the love of Jeni’s Whorehouse!” Turning back to Myl, he snarled, “I swear, you are my bad luck charm.  This is absolutely your fault.  Get behind me, right now, or I will leave you here to die and dance a jig on your grave.”

     Myl did as he was told, without protest.  He knew better than to seriously cross Arrow.

     As if on cue, the source of the ticking appeared; a group of vile Robotik contraptions with bladelike arms and some form of guns in their foreheads.

     “... worse than I’d thought...” Arrow muttered, reaching into his large gunnercoat and placing a hand on the hilt of his weapon.  “Open wide, f****r,” he called to the nearest Robotik, swinging his gunBlade around to point directly at the creature’s ‘face’.  He then professionally and efficiently blew the thing’s cogs out.

     The other mechanisms, which were able to move far more quickly than either of the travellers could have ever given them credit for, had by this time managed to surround the pair.  Myl, pre-empting his next instruction, moved into fighting stance, his back to Arrow’s.

     “Count of three,” Arrow murmured, “one,”

     The Robotiks started to close in.

     “two,”

     Their blade-arms began to rotate, like warped, morbid, windmills.

     “three.”

     The two young men moved, one up, one forward.  He had to surrender two of his least useful knives to stop the blade-arms from lacerating him into oblivion, but Arrow managed to behead two of the Robotiks before Myl had reached the peak of his jump.  Noticing a Robotik aiming a bullet at his friend, Arrow rammed the hilt of his gunBlade into its forehead, disabling its gun.

     Myl, reaching his highest point, twisted in the air.  His agility was greatly helped by the long extension of his spine (his tail, his pride and joy).  He then brought his heel down, with all the force of gravity behind it as well as his own strength, on the Robotik.  Horrifyingly, the thing was still able to move and fight, even with half its cogs spread across the desert floor.  Myl aimed another two kicks at its head, repulsed.  Any natural creature would have been dead.  The thing dropped, motionless, only after several bullets from Arrow.

     One of the young men then rounded on the final Robotik, which, apparently feeling some self-preservation instinct, put a bullet through Myl’s leg.  The Elf cried out, and Arrow, cursing, ran at the machine ready to remove its head.

     It proceeded to self-destruct.

     “What the-” Arrow stopped in his tracks and re-sheathed his gunBlade, “I really, really, really hate pointless fights.”  He shook his head, and then seemed to remember that Myl was injured.

     “Hey, Myl, are you okay?”

     “Absolutely,” Myl replied, sarcastically, his tail flicking in annoyance, “I’ve just been shot in the shin by some disgusting nonorganic contraption, but yeah.  I’m not in pain.” The Elf clutched his left let, an obvious attempt to stop the flow of blood, with his eyes watering slightly.  Arrow dropped to his knees beside the boy, pulling a short strip of bandaging material and a small, flat, jar of some description of antiseptic salve.  He rolled Myl’s left trouser leg up past his knee (drawing a few sharp gasps from the boy), then began cleaning and dressing the wound.

     “You’re lucky,” He told the Elf as he worked, “their guns weren’t particularly strong, and the bullet didn’t get too deep.” He held up the small black pellet for Myl to see, as if trying to prove he wasn’t lying.

     Not trusting himself to speak, Myl simply nodded dumbly.

     Arrow tied a loose knot in the bandage, scrutinised his work, then nodded, apparently appeased.

     “This should get you through until we get to the next town.” He helped Myl to his feet, and then, when the boy’s knee gave out whenever he put weight on it, thought better of it.  “Maybe I’d better carry you, on second thoughts.”

 

The inn was unbearably loud, its customers revoltingly drunk, and its prices ridiculously high.  Still, it was the best he could find (and afford) at such short notice.

     Arrow cursed his inability to find even half-decent lodgings, gritted his teeth, and took another mouthful of ale.

At this rate, he thought angrily, they’ll wake the stupid Elf up.  Drunks have no consideration.

     “...-’s not happy about it, either, I can tell you.”

     “I didn’t think it was ... one set of guards, bypass another completely, and ... must be furious.  I would be.”

     “You’re telling me?”

     “If you ... should just be exterminated.  Filthy vermins.”

     “ ‘Exterminated’, you drunken fool.”

     “’Mnot drunk.”

     Arrow listened for another few minutes, but drunken banter seemed to interest his eavesdrop-ees more than providing him with titbits of information.

     From what he had gathered so far, a rebel group of ‘demons’, ‘magicians, and ‘freaks’ alternately, had not-very-recently broken into the city, brutally murdered some of the High King’s more elite guards, stolen something of great value and proceeded to vanish from the face of civilisation.  The fuss now was mostly to do with the fact that, despite the efforts of the High King’s most skilled warriors and magicians, the rebels had evaded him for no less than one month.

     He drained the remainder of ale from his tankard, and then headed towards the room he had payed for.

     As soon as Myl’s leg healed, they would pay these demon-magician-freak people a visit.

 

***

I wish she’d just go away.

     “I wish you’d just go away, Red.” Acid rubbed his temples and sighed, “thanks to your unceasing rain of repeated, re-repeated and re-re-repeated questions, I’ve neither bathed nor slept for three days.” He eyed her, almost suspiciously, “Are you some sort of insomniac-streetchild, who thinks both sleep and hygiene are luxuries beyond her grasp?  Do you realise, Red, that I don’t know the answers to the questions you’re asking me, either?”

     Red gave an impish grin, before remembering herself and rearranging her features accordingly.

     “A small price,” she countered, “for my soul.”

     Acid glanced, then, out of a nearby window.

     “Hey, Red,” He jerked his thumb accusingly at something outside, “what’s that?”

     Red turned her gaze out the window, and it didn’t take long to see what he meant.  A pair of young men, one with floppy blonde hair wearing a navy-blue gunner’s coat that covered everything from his nose down, the other slightly shorter, with long, silvery hair tied into a plait down his back, wearing dark cotton clothing.  The shorter person had electric blue powder of some sort underneath his eyes, which ran along the tops of his cheekbones to meet his ears, which were pointed, and covered in a fur the same shade of blue, though the top third was the same silver as his hair.  He also had a very long, thin, tail.  It reminded Red of a whip.

     “Well, Renshi,” she chose her words carefully, not sure what was expected, “one of them looks like a gunner.”

     “Yes, I see that.  What are they doing?”

     “It looks like they’re trying to get in.”

     Acid sighed theatrically.

     “For the love of God’s most frequented w***e, will you get rid of them?”

 

After Acid had gone to bed, Red had positioned Quicksilver and Breeze at well-placed arrow slits with bows and a few arrows, then had Aradat lower the drawbridge.

     As she crossed, she surveyed the strangers warily.  They seemed dangerous, but there was a small chance that they weren’t here to cause trouble.  To that end, she had to greet them nicely.

     “Who are you, and what do you want?” It didn’t come out quite the way she’d planned.

Smooth, Red.

     “My name is Arrow, and my companion is Myl.”  The gunner gestured to himself, and then to the strange boy beside him.

     “Err... right.  And- not to be rude or anything but- what is he?” She grimaced, knowing how impolite it was to ask.  She heard Aradat groan with embarrassment behind her.

     The gunner and his friend, however, laughed.

     “I’m an Elf.” The boy, Myl, laughed.  Red stared at him, confused.  She’d always been taught that Elves were tall, graceful, beautiful creatures.  She’d never imagined that they might resemble this strange, catlike person she saw now.  The Elf laughed again.  “Don’t believe everything you believe in stories and legends.”  He said simply.

     It was true, Red supposed, that his voice was sweet, like a small bell ringing.  And, she supposed, he was strangely good-looking.

     “Well,” she mumbled, trying to change the subject, “we know who you are, but why are you here?”

     The gunner pushed his hair back from his face, and she saw that his eyes were a particularly striking shade of blue.

     “We heard some interesting rumours.  This is the home of the demon-magician-freaks, is it not?” He was direct in his speech, and Red had to stop herself from bursting into surprised laughter.

     “That all depends upon your perspective.” She replied.  “If it were, what business would you have with them?”

     “I wonder, eh?”

     Red sighed.  They seemed trustworthy enough.  Knowing that the rest of the group would probably flay her for it afterwards, not to mention Acid, she invited the pair in.

Author's Note

:/
Is it really bad?

Also, I'm aware that there are going to be many, many spelling mistakes and stuffs in here, since MS Word spellcheck is stupid, and I'm being rushed off here tonight.
Point them out to me, and I'll correct them ASAP.
:/

Reviews

[Star Catcher]

--Mid-read--
"To that end, she had to greet them nicely.
"Who are you, and what do you want?""
I love it. XD

""Don't believe everything you believe in stories and legends.""
It's kind of redundant, you might want to fix that.

--Post-read--
What is with all the obscure references to w****s/whorehouses and the love of them? XD