The Runaways

What happens when your whole life is turned upside down in a single night? You run away, of course. Chapter 2 of Uprising

I jumped awake, and looked around wildly, completely disoriented.  Sunlight poured through a nearby window, signifying I slept through the night.  Alistar was lying next to me, looking pale and dirty.  We appeared to be in my home, but when did I get here? The last thing I remember was dreaming of a sweet music in the air.
“About time you woke up.  I need answers as to what the hell just happened.”  Alistar said, laying his head down on the floorboards, at ease now that I had finally woken.

“I… I don’t know.” I said, barely audible.  The events of earlier were slowly catching up to me.  “We are at my house though, that is about all I can tell you.”  I climbed to my feet, feeling stiff, bruised, and sore.  “We need to get you to a healer.”

Healers were the closest thing Karongar had to mages, the only difference was mages injured and healers healed.  Somehow, a mage could never use the art of healing, and healers could never use their art to hurt someone.

“I can’t walk. You’ll have to bring them here.”  Alistar said. He did look pretty rough, and I wasn‘t referring to the stubble that he had.

“Okay, but you need to at least get off the floor.”  I said, gently grabbing his arm and pulling him up.  He cried out in pain when I helped him get to his feet, but then he gritted his teeth and kept quiet.  I tossed his arm around my neck and slowly eased him toward the living room.  He attempted to walk, but ended up mostly dragged, and I dropped him on the couch awkwardly.

“Let me get you a blanket and a drink before I go.”  I ran into my bedroom and snatched my blanket off my bed and handed it to Alistar.

“Don’t worry about me, just go.”  He urged me, taking the blanket. “I might die before you even leave.”

“With that attitude you will.”  I complained.  “I’ll get back as soon as I can, hang in there.”  With those parting words I rushed out the door and sprinted toward the Healer’s Infirmary, a place where trained healers taught younger ones.  It was where most people went to receive healing, because it was either free or incredibly cheap, since they used injured people to help teach the younger healers.  There was no risk involved, an experienced healer always accompanied the student to ensure he didn’t do something wrong.

The streets at night were always empty, but during the day time they were impossibly crowded.  People milled about trying to get places, others opened up stalls and tried to sell goods, and the rest of the majority were homeless with nowhere else to go.  

This showed just how poor the people were, and it was always getting worse as their money and labor were slowly being pulled away by the King.  Jobs were getting harder to come by, and the only option was to work in the mines, where at least one person died a day.  Most people chose to be homeless instead of work in the mines, fearing for their lives, not to mention the pay was not enough to live off of anyway.  Many people started talking about rebelling, but any city that rebels were put down ruthlessly and worked harder by the king.  

I neared the edge of the village, with the Healer’s Infirmary actually being just outside of the village itself.  They chose to erect their own walls and raise their own army.  When the King invaded, many thought the healers were mages, and feared they would join the King, so they killed them.  It wasn’t until recently that people accepted there was a difference between the two, but no one blamed the healers for still being cautious.  

The large building started to come in view, a wonder that was beyond amazing.  The whole structure, and the walls around it, was coated by a thick layer of glass.  The healers even cleaned the glass weekly, causing it to be reflective, bouncing the sky and the forest off it’s surface, making it blend in and almost disappear. It was a spectacular view that always took my breath away.  

I ran outside the walls of the village, barely getting a glance from the guards stationed there.  They were used to seeing people running toward the Healer’s Infirmary, for obvious reasons.  Most people even ran to the guards for protection from the King’s soldiers.  The guards had no allegiance to the King, and usually helped protect the people by hiding them when the soldiers came looking.  They kept bandits, wild animals, or warlords from coming into the city, but they weren’t paid by the king.

Once I was outside the walls, trees dotted the landscape, causing the road beneath me to swerve erratically to avoid them.  The glass walls of the Infirmary came into view and cast the sun’s bright midday light off of it, making the building appear to shine.  I wanted to stop and stare, but my urgency prevented me from doing that.  Instead, I picked up my pace and rushed toward the shimmering building.  Birds chirped from the trees and wildlife rodents scuttled around, completely unaffected by everything the local people were.  It always made me want to just live as a hermit in the forest, if only that would work.

I came up to the walls, where a guard stopped me.

“Business?” The guard asked.  He didn’t sound harsh, but almost concerned.

“My friend has been injured by a group of soldiers.  He couldn’t walk, so I came to ask for a healer to help him.”  I said after I took a moment to catch my breath.

“Very well, wait here while I fetch a healing escort team.  He went through the wall, as if it were liquid, and disappeared from sight.  That part always amazed me.  Glass could be enchanted by magic to do many things.  Mages used glass to create weapons, while healers used them for utility purposes such as healing items or protective wards.  This enchanted wall in particular was solid to everyone that didn’t hold a ring with a special seal on it.  All the guards and healers possessed one, as well as important people that helped maintain the building.

  I walked to a bench that was placed against the wall and sat down, not sure how long I would have to wait.  A guard walked out of the glass, and I glanced up in hope, but saw it was a different guard.  I sighed in minor frustration and leaned back against the bench, resting my head on the cool glass.

“What are you here for?”  The guard asked, taking off his helmet and walking to the bench to sit next to me.  

“My friend is hurt pretty bad. I’m waiting on an escort team as of right now.”  I said.

“I was afraid so, that’s the only reason an uninjured person would show up here.  Is it serious?”  He asked.

“Well, not life threatening, just broken ribs and who knows what else.”  I said.  “What about you?  Are you off duty?”

“Yeah, only for a little while.  If you need me to, I can check to see how that escort team is coming along?” He offered.

“No thank you, I don’t want to pester them.  It was a nice offer though.”  I said, giving him a brief smile.  “How long does it usually take?”

“Well, they need to get two guards, an apprentice, and typically a master healer.  It doesn’t take long to get four people unless we are busy, which is mostly during the mornings.  Things settle down midday though.”  He explained.

At that moment, another person came into view, running along the path.  A different guard walked out of the glass, and stood near the path, waiting for the person to get here.  It appeared to be a young boy.  He stopped when he saw the guard and turned to wave at something out of view.  Moments later, what seemed like the rest of his family showed up.  A woman and an older boy held up an injured man between them.  It looked like he had been run through the hip with a weapon.  The wound was covered by some cloth tied over it, and it was dried over with blood.  The young boy scampered toward the guard until he was right in front of him.

“My father was attacked on the street.  Someone tried to rob him, and he tried to run, but was stabbed.”  The boy rushed out, not stopping for breath.

“Calm down, boy.  He is going to be okay.”  He held up a hand and beckoned toward the glass and another guard showed up.  They both marched toward the group and took the man from the woman and older boy.

“You three will have to stay out here, only the injured one is allowed through.  We will send a guard out regularly to tell you how he is.”  The same guard said, before they eased the man through the glass.  The young boy stared in shock as he watched them walk through the solid wall.  He placed his hand on it. Clearly this was his first time seeing this kind of magic.

“Will he be okay in there?”  He asked after a moment.

“Yes, they are fast and efficient healers, they won’t let us down.”  The woman said, placing her hands on his shoulders comfortingly.

“I would trust them with my life.” The older boy said, glancing over at me and the guard next to me.   I stood up and started pacing along the wall, leaving the bench open for any of them.  I hadn’t been carrying a man with me the whole trip, so they probably needed the rest more than I did.

Minutes later, my escort team walked out of the wall and greeted me.

“Just lead the way.  Meanwhile, can you explain his injuries?”  The apprentice said.  He had simple gray robes on while the other healer, the master, had white robes on.  It was the basic uniforms of the Healer’s Infirmary.

“He was beat up on the street, so I can’t say what you should expect, but I know ribs are broken and he did take some hits to the face.”





*    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    



Once I led them to my house, the group took over from there.

“He is on the couch, or was when I left.”  I said as they walked in.

“Is that you Vorasi?” Alistar called from the living room.

“Yeah, I brought you some help.”  I said as they filed into the living room.  The apprentice healer walked up to him and knelt beside the couch.

“May I?” He asked.

“Yes, please.”  Alistar said, and laid his head on the arm rest.  The healer removed the blanket and placed his hands firmly on Alistar’s chest.  I couldn’t see anything special, but I knew that he was somehow searching for all the wounds.  Healers had the ability to sense where the pain was coming from.  It helped them to heal an injured person without leaving something wrong internally.  Back before healers were trained, an amateur would heal a broken rib or something, only for the person to die a few days later from internal bleeding.  

“There is a broken rib, your nose is broken, there is a torn muscle, a concussion, lots of bruising, a couple of knots, and a busted blood vessel.  What did you do to get beat up so much?”

“Uh….”  Alistar started.

“He bought some food from a stall and a group jumped him on his way home.”  Lie.  I couldn’t really tell them what happened or I would end up in the king’s hands faster than I could blink.  

“Yeah, sorry.  This concussion makes it hard to think.”  Alistar mumbled, looking at me with silent thanks.

“I’m not able to heal blood vessels yet, and concussions are way out of my league.”  The apprentice said, mostly to himself.

“Just heal what you can, I’ll cover up the rest.”  The master healer spoke up for the first time.  His voice was sharp and stern.  For a first impression, I wasn’t getting positive vibes from him.

“Brace yourself, sir.  I’m not sure if you are familiar with healing, but it hurts like hell.”  The apprentice said.  Alistar clamped his jaw shut and nodded.  Moments later he gasped and started to squirm.

“Steady.”  The apprentice said, gritting his teeth.  Alistar stopped squirming, but he yelped and cried out twice as often.

“Are you sure you are healing him?” I asked.  I was never present when someone was being healed, I was always sent away.

“Pulling a wound out hurts just as bad as when it was inflicted.  Sadly, your body can’t brace for it this way.  Your brain can’t send chemicals to numb the pain, adrenaline doesn’t make you overlook it, and you’re not able tense for it the same way.  This takes willpower over physically bracing.”  The master healer said. “He is handling it very well though.  Normally we have to hold them down, and they tend to scream their head off until they lose their voice.”

“Handling?  It looks like he is about to pass out.” I said, unconsciously putting my hand to my mouth to chew on a nail.  

“They never do, the brain doesn’t treat this pain the same way as real pain.  When you cap your pain threshold, your brain makes you pass out so you won’t feel it.  Here, the brain doesn’t do anything really.  I never understood why.”

Alistar stopped yelping and cried out.

“I’m working…. On the rib…. Might hurt more….”  The apprentice gasped out.  Sweat was starting to form on his face and the back of his hands.  I guess they feel the pain too when they pull it out.

“Why is he hurting too?”  I asked the master healer.  Alistar screamed again, and the healer waited until he stopped to answer.

“We can’t use our magic to heal others, but we can use it to take the pain out of them.  From there we can use our magic to heal it much faster than the body ever could naturally.  What could take a week to heal normally, we can heal in a matter of seconds.  Provided we have enough magic to heal it.”  He almost sounded like he was lecturing me, but I could tell he enjoyed brandishing his knowledge.

“All done.”  The apprentice said and slumped forward a little.  “That rib sure does hurt.”

“You did flawless.  Now let me get rid of the concussion and busted vessels.”  The master healer said, sitting down beside the apprentice.

“For the vessels, you can’t treat them like a broken bone, they don’t mend the same.  You have to leave it loose, or it will bust again.  Also, pull the leaked blood out as well, that could still bother him.”  He placed his hand gently on Alistar.  After a few moments he moved his hand over a little and said, “Brace yourself.”

Alistar gritted his teeth but he didn’t jerk or scream, even though it looked like he was in severe pain.  His bruises seemed to slowly fade away until they were gone completely.

“This concussion is a different story entirely.  The brain is a delicate place. I will just teach you about that later, it is too advanced for you right now.”  He put his hand on Alistar’s forehead. “This will probably hurt the most, and close your eyes, things will get dizzy.” Alistar closed his eyes as instructed.  I wasn’t ready to see this part, so instead I went into the kitchen to prepare him a fast meal. Since there was no door between the two rooms, only an archway, I was still able to clearly hear his screams.

Preparing food while there was someone screaming their lungs out in your living room wasn’t the easiest of tasks.  I grabbed some dough and began pounding and kneading it, trying to soothe my nerves that were rattled each time Alistar screamed.  If I had chose not to run into his house, this wouldn’t have happened to him. Guilt.  In fact, he went out of his way to protect me. Guilt.  I could have ruined his life because of what I had done.  Guilt.  Once the king hears someone here used magic, we will have to bail town. He will have to abandon his home, his family, his life.  Guilt.  All because of me. Guilt, guilt, guilt.

On the other hand, I’m in deep water too.  I’m about to be a target of the king himself.  I hate the king’s guts.  He is the reason my new friend is screaming in my living room.  

I shook my head to clear these thoughts out, and realized somehow I was smearing sauce everywhere except on the dough I had ready.  Another thing I realized was the screaming stopped.  I walked back into the living room, and saw everyone, except Alistar, was standing again.

“I think we are all done here madam.”  The master healer said.  

“Of course, how much do I have to pay you?”  I asked, trying to remember where my money was.  It was hard to think about those things when compared to what happened last night.  “I’m not too destitute, so don’t worry.”

“Oh, two silver pieces?”  He said. I’m pretty sure I kept my money in the nightstand.  “Or would that be too much?”

“No that is fine, I’ll be right back.”  I walked to my bedroom and pulled the drawer of my nightstand open, four silver pieces, a gold piece, and too many bronze to count.  I grabbed two silver and went back to the living room.

“Here you go.  I’m still in your debt for the time you took to help him.”  I said, handing him the money.  

“Don’t worry, it is our job.”  The apprentice said cheerfully.

“We’ll be heading back now.  Contact us again if your friend here doesn’t seem right in a few days.”  The master healer said, and then they began leaving.  I waited for them all to leave and then checked on Alistar.  He was sound asleep after all of that.  I pulled the blanket back over him and then went back to the kitchen to finish what I started.

*    *     *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *

By now I had all the food finished, tea set out, and the living room fireplace ablaze.  I was beginning to doze myself when Alistar finally woke up.

“What time is it?”  He asked.

“Late afternoon, almost dark.”  I said, yawning and stretching.

“I need to get home.”  He said jumping up.

“There is no way you can just head back home after what happened.”  I said, staring at him in shock.

“I know that, but I need to find a way to barricade where my front door used to be, I can’t just let it get robbed.”  He said pacing back and forth.

“You know as well as I do that those soldiers already took anything of value.  Now sit down and eat what I prepared for you.”  I hopped off the couch myself and went into the kitchen.  The food was sitting out on the table. Three chairs were spaced around the table and I seated myself down at one randomly.  Alistar came and sat in one opposite me and stared at the food.

“I made some tea, and I made meatball sandwiches.  I hope you aren’t picky.”  I said, sipping from my tea.  I had already eaten.

“No, this is fine.  In fact, I get by with pot roast every day.  This would be a nice change.”  He said warmly, eagerly digging into the food in front of him.  This would be the first time he had eaten all day.

“So what, you never took the time to learn some new food to cook?”  I asked him.

“Well, why learn more than you need to?  I knew how to make one item of food, so that was all I needed.”  He blushed, clearly embarrassed that he never really learned how to cook. “Anyhow, we need to talk… About what happened.”  His face turned serious.  I had been avoiding this very subject, but I couldn’t any longer.

“You’re right.  Look, what happened… that was the first time it happened.  I didn’t know I was a mage. I swear it!”  I looked down, not wanting to meet his eyes.  “I’m sorry I brought you into this. Why did I have to be late to my house! If I had checked the time and went back when I was supposed to, this wouldn’t have happened.  By the angels, if I had just knocked on someone else’s door, you wouldn’t have been beat up like that.  I could have killed you!”  By now I was just babbling. I couldn’t help it, I didn’t know how to stop.  Maybe I was going crazy.

“Calm down, it’s okay.  We both came out of it okay, nothing bad came of it. Right?”   He stopped eating and I could hear him lean forward.  I slowly looked up and met his eyes.  Bad idea, his bright blue eyes were dark in the late day light.  It made him look even more serious than he was.

“The point is, you could have died.  Actually, we both should have died.  I don’t know how we lived, but since we did, it put us in more trouble than we were in earlier.  The king is going to hear about me, and he is going to find me.  He will probably turn me into one of his monsters and I’ll go around KILLING people!  I have never killed anyone until yesterday…. Do you think those soldiers lived?”  I’m pretty sure I was going crazy.  Was now a good time to ask if I was freaking him out?

“We aren’t getting anywhere with you talking like that.  I know we’re in trouble after what happened.  Also, I could care less what happened to those soldiers.  I don’t think we killed them if it helps, apart from the two I killed in my house.”  He leaned back in his chair.  “Get a grip on yourself.”

I took a deep breath and tried again.  “Sorry.  I’m not used to this… excitement.”  I stood up and started to pace.  It helped me think.  “We will have to leave here, or the king will burn the place down to get to me.  I don’t want to risk that.  Never mind, you don’t have to leave.  The king isn’t after you.”

“That doesn’t matter, he will be.  I was spotted with you, I assaulted soldiers.  Besides, I can’t let you run around by yourself.  You would die overnight.”  He chuckled at that last sentence.  Clearly, he amused himself easily.

“Thanks for your confidence in me.  Sarcasm aside…. Thank you, I probably wouldn’t last long.”  I stopped pacing and sat back down in front of him.  “How long will it take until the king reacts?”

“I don’t know, overnight?  I don’t think we can stay or we will wake up in chains.”  He finished his food and sipped from the tea.

“So what? We take off at night?  The soldiers will drop us before we even get out of the village.”  I said.

“That is why we will be staying with the guards.”  He said, smiling at his ingenuity.  “They will help us I’m sure.”

“Well, we better set out now.  It will be getting dark soon.”  I got up and walked into my bedroom.  I grabbed all the money I had from the nightstand, and then rummaged around until I found two sacks.  I went back to the kitchen and tossed a sack at Alistar.

“Grab whatever you think is important, I’ll start with food.”  I said, dumping the cabinets into my sack.  

    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    

“I took all I could, my sack is about to rip in half.”   Alistar said.  We were out of the house and headed for the village walls.  Alistar was walking along side me, perfectly healed, not even a bruise on his face.  Speaking of which, he had a really tan face, it worked well with his dirty blonde hair.

“Before we go through with this,” I said, looking in his direction. “I am going to ask you this.  Are you sure you want to go with me? It isn’t too late.  I will understand if you choose not to come.”

“You know I’m coming.  Nothing left for me here, I’ll just be killed.”  Alistar said, giving me a smile.   We walked through the village, looking around at what might be the last time we ever saw this village.  It almost made me cry, to think I would be leaving where I grew up.  

“Will they come after us?”  I asked suddenly.

“What? The soldiers?”  He asked. “I don’t know, they might.  We should assume they will.”  They are coming after us.  It is my fault this is happening.  He is here because of me.  I need time to let this sink in.

“Where will we go?” I asked.

“I don’t know, how about we pick a direction and just keep heading that way?”  I stared at him and he laughed. “I’m kidding.  I actually planned to ask the guards for a map or something.”  I nodded thoughtfully.  That sounded like a good idea.  Why didn’t I think of that? Crazy people don’t come up with good ideas.

It wasn’t long until we reached the edge of the village.  There were three guards hanging around the gate that we were coming up to.  

“This is it.” I whispered.  Alistar only nodded.  We walked up to the closest guard, he was leaned against the wall, lounging around and looking bored.  Alistar stepped a little in front of me, almost protectively.

“Excuse me, sir,” The guard looked at him, clearly he had been interrupted from daydreaming.  “We need to hide from the soldiers.”  He looked at Alistar for a moment, and then his gaze fell on me.  His dark brown eyes narrowed for a moment, but then they grew soft and he motioned for us to follow him.  Alistar glanced back at me, and then we both walked after the guard.  He walked alongside the edge of the village, headed straight for a large pair of bushes that grew against the wall.  He disappeared into the bushes and we paused uncertainly.  Before we had time to think it over, we heard a grunt and then the sound of stone scraping on stone.  Part of the wall moved inward and warm light peeked over the bushes.  The guard’s face poked out of the bushes and he motioned for us to come in.  Alistar went first and I squished in behind him.  The bush brushed across my head and arms, and then I was quickly through and standing in a warm room.  The guard grunted again and heaved the wall back in place.  It clicked smoothly, and he sighed and wiped his face.  

“So what’s your story?” He asks, a grin showing up on his face.  He didn’t have a hard, gruff voice like most guards, and he looked more like a young rookie.  “I’m Scraps by the way.”  Awesome nickname.

I glance at Alistar, unsure if we should tell him what really happened.  He only looked back at me in equal indecision.

“John, here, let me into his home when I stayed out too late.  The soldiers caught me going into the house and broke in to get me, and he beat them up to save me.”  I say, telling the truth for the most part.

“That’s a shame, heartless dirt bags like them need to get what’s coming to them.  You can stay here for the night.  We’ve got food, warm beds, and friendly guys to chat with for the lady there.”  He added the last part with a wink.  My first instinct is to slap him, and my second instinct is to slap him, so I let Alistar answer instead.

“We’d appreciate that very much.  Where do people go afterwards, though?” He asked.

“We’ll talk about that later, right now we can just get you two settled in.” Scraps said.  He walked past us and led the way to the sleeping quarters.

“There are some trunks to put your stuff in at the foot of the beds.  Alistar, you can have this bed.  The pretty young lass can have my bed right beside it.  You never told me your name, by the way.”  I’m not sure if I should be sick that he is offering me his bed, or grateful that he is offering me his bed.  To reflect my confusion, I lie about my name to make myself feel better.

“My name is… Maria.”  I spit out just before the pause gets awkward.

“Glad to know, are you and John married?”  He asked.  

“No.”  I say instantly. “Just met, actually, did you not hear me earlier?”  Alistar almost blushes, but instead looks to the trunk to toss his stuff in.

“You’re right, how stupid of me to ask.”  He says.  “Are you guys hungry? The guards should be eating right now.”  I look to Alistar.

“It would be wise to eat now.  I don’t know where we will be going, and it might be a while before someone offers us food.”  He says.  I nod in agreement and look back to Scraps.  He grins and leads us around the wall.  I’m not sure why he leads us, there are only two directions, and we came from one, leaving only the other direction.  Once we leave the sleeping quarter, we come to the kitchens, and a little farther we reach the dining quarters.  A bunch of guards are out of uniform, some are out of more than that.  I even noticed one man wasn’t wearing anything, and I made a point to look at everything else instead.

“Scraps! My boy!”  One guard called out.  “Who are the guests?  There’s a lady in the house!  Put on your pants Danny Boy!”  There was more chatter, but that was all I managed to grasp.  I grabbed the back of Alistar’s arm, trying to disappear.  Guards look intimidating in uniform, but out of uniform they are just big teddy bears that act like they haven’t seen a woman in years.  

We ate with the guards, and many of them turned out pretty friendly.  It was here that we decided to discuss where we needed to go.

“You should head east of here if you want to just get out of town and move to the next closest town.  Head west if you want to hit the coast and get a ferry out of the area altogether.  If that still isn’t enough, there is a strip of land that takes you pretty far away from civilization altogether south of here.”  A big burly guard was explaining.  Alistar was nodding in understanding, but I was developing ideas of my own.

“Where would we go if we wanted…. To find mages?  Mages not aligned with the king, if that is possible?”  I ask suddenly.  Alistar gives me a sharp look but I ignore it.

“Well, rosy, that’s a funny question there.”  The big guard says, giving me a strange face.  I went up blank for a lie, and Alistar so far has proven to be a terrible liar, and it was actually Scraps that saved me.

“Don’t pester the pretty lady, a lot of damsels run to mages for protection all the time.”  He pipes up, joining our section of the table.  “Lucky for you, there is a group of mages around that avoid the king.”

“That’s great! Where are they?”  I say, starting to stand up, but Alistar pulls me back into my chair, so I scoot forward instead.

“Well, the king hasn’t conquered much if you head north.  Apparently he doesn’t like the cold much.  They hide where blizzards are common and white outs are normal.  They don’t have a set location, so we can’t really help you there.”  Scraps said.  I look at Alistar, trying to get his opinion on this.

“I don’t see anything wrong with that.”  He says after a long pause.  I jump up, and before he can stop me, I have him wrapped in a hug.  After that I pace around for a moment, while Alistar just buries his face in his hand.  Apparently I pace too much for him.  

“So we will rest up tonight, and set off tomorrow.  How hard can it be to find some mages?”  I think aloud.

“You sleep tight in my bed, I’ll just pick up an extra shift, unless you need some company in bed.”  I ignore my first instinct to slap him, and instead follow my second instinct and slap him.  He takes it pretty well and grins with a red hand print on his face.  I walk toward the sleeping quarter, proud of myself, with an embarrassed Alistar behind me.

“Do men always tease at you like this?”  He asks when nobody is nearby.

“It does happen often, but at least here they haven’t pulled any stunts.”  I say back.

Once we get to our beds and settle in, I lie on my back, staring at the ceiling.  I feel pretty exhausted, but sleep just won’t seem to come.  I glanced over from time to time to see that Alistar was tossing and turning himself.  Guards started dragging in after a while, clearly tired of excessive drinking.  Scraps stayed true to his word and never showed up, and I felt a little guilty about it, especially since our last meeting ended with a slap to the face.  

“You can’t sleep either?”  I whisper to Alistar.

“Not a bit, I slept all morning, remember?” He whispers back.  He sits up in bed and huffs.  “I’m going to chat with the guards, see if I can do anything constructive.”  He climbs out of the small bed and walks off silently, not that these guards would wake if he stomped through the area.  When he leaves, I roll over and try to fall asleep, but I’m pretty sure it won’t happen soon.  

After a while, I lean over to the foot of the bed and open the trunk up.  I grab my sack and rummage through the items I stockpiled.  For a moment I thought about running off now, to spare Alistar from having to go through this with me.  In the end, I was too much a coward to do it, doing it alone feels terrifying.  The sack had plenty of food, and I stuffed a blanket in there as well.  I didn’t have a large amount of gold, but it would be enough to get by.  

I drifted off of rummaging through the sack, and instead stared into the trunk itself.  Scraps stuff was stored away inside, and I was getting pretty nosy just by staring at it.  I contemplated for a moment before I dug through it.  I was disappointed to find nothing but clothes, a couple of knives, and some gold.  I looked around at the sleeping guards, and then quickly stuffed a knife into my sack.  I don’t know why I didn’t grab one before I left my home, but I was pretty sure Scraps wouldn’t miss one of his.  I put my sack back in the trunk and then went to look for Alistar.  I didn’t know where he went, but considering there is only two directions to go, I took the direction he went and hoped he didn’t double back when I wasn’t looking.  I passed through the kitchens, and into the dining area, where only a few guards remained.  I smiled politely as I passed them, although I’m pretty sure they were out of it in the sitting position.  

I was getting unsure of myself when I walked into what seemed like a sparring room, and was about to turn around when I finally saw Alistar.  He was sparring with one of the guards, and was getting beat at every turn.

“When they throw out the lower arm, it will be going upward, so lean back and move in low to counter.”  The guard barked out right after he clipped Alistar in the face.  He then followed up by doing a quick low sweep with his foot and dropping Alistar to the ground.  He rolled around on the floor a moment before he climbed back to his feet.

“I think I got it.” He huffed after a moment.  The guard put his arms up, and when Alistar followed suit, proceeded to throw his lower fist out.  True to his word, it curved in an upward fashion, straight for Alistar’s face.  Alistar leaned back, and the punch barely brushed his face, Alistar then leaned in, as instructed, but the guard in turn backed up and dropped his other fist, hammering Alistar back into the ground.

“Lean in, but never take your eyes off the other guys fists.”  The guard barked again.  Alistar didn’t say anything this time, but climbed back to his feet again.  This time he took the offensive, throwing his lower fist up first, which the guard easily backed away from, and then drove in lightning fast and started to uppercut Alistar, but stopped just shy of it.

“See how that could work?  When someone moves toward you, always use your upper hand to block, don’t be afraid to back up yourself.

“What if you are against the wall?”  Alistar asks.

“Deflect, lean against the wall and push them off with your hands or feet.”  The guard backed up to a wall and motioned Alistar forward.  Alistar threw a punch and the guard used one hand to push the punch away, keeping his other hand perfectly in line with Alistar’s free hand.  He slammed his back into the wall and used a single foot to propel Alistar backwards, who stumbled back frantically.  I used this time to speak up, before Alistar knocked himself unconscious.

“You are very elegant in your falls, John.”  I say, barely remembering to use his fake name.

“Oh, Mary, how long have you been watching?”  He said after a long pause, clearly wondering who John was.  He clearly didn’t remember my fake name either.

“Not long, just enough to wonder how swollen your face will be tomorrow.”  I laugh at my own joke, stopping suddenly when I see Alistar rolling his eyes at me.

“Just you wait, one day you’ll be glad I asked Marlo here to help me learn some fighting tips.”  He says, trying to defend himself.

“Well, if you get knocked out cold, be sure to get up in the morning, I don’t want a late start.”  I head back to the sleeping quarter, smiling as I hear the sound of him thudding back to the floor.  Tomorrow we will be fugitives, and there is no way of knowing how things will turn out.  I drift off to sleep eventually, only to toss in troubled sleep of the sweet, sorrowful music and images of who I was that night. Dreams of me injuring and killing people with a flick of my wrists.

Author's Note

This chapter is in first person, as I said it would be. I would appreciate feedback on this, because if it isn't as good like this as it would be in third person, I'll happily change it!

Reviews

[Kianna]

Dear Lentron,

I see you got a little better at describing the setting. I think that's awesome.

Here you could have described the shape of Alistair's jaw here to get a better picture of him, "referring to the stubble that he had." I liked you mentioned he had stubble. You said he looked dirty. It was then you could have described some of his fancy clothing.

Here, you switched verb tenses, "I ask suddenly. Alistar gives me a sharp look but I ignore it.

“Well, rosy, that’s a funny question there.” The big guard says, giving me a strange face. I went up blank for a lie, and Alistar so far has proven to..." Read through and make sure all of it is in the same tense. Any point of view to me is better in past tense. Some can work it in present tense, however.

As for the point of view switch. Mmmm, I suppose it depends on you. I think I like it better in first point of view, just casting my vote on that.

Also, I want to say I like Volasi lol. She has a habit of lying on the spot and stealing. How strange, but charming. I really like this. I can't wait to see where you take this.

Good job.

Sincerely JazzSoulKeke,

God bless

[Lentron]

I'm glad I'm improving on my descriptions. Perhaps in the future, I'll be able to get the hang of it completely. You might notice that I left out descriptions for Vorasi. This is because I looked at her description, and decided I didn't like it. As soon as I figure out how I want her to look, I'll slip that description into the first chapter.

I'll run through and fix the tense errors. I have a habit of switching between them while typing and I had to fix a ton of them when I finally noticed I was doing it. I'll clean up the ones you pointed out and any others I can spot.

I'm glad you decided you liked first person more, it gives me a little more freedom with how I choose to word things. In third person, everything feels to formal for my taste, but I experimented with it anyways. I like it, just not for this scenario.

I noticed Vorasi quickly changed from a normal girl to a lying thief quickly. I think it kind of fits, as she was left on the streets for a short time of her life, and also because people tend to be like that when times get hard, no? It helps that, in her head, there is a good reason behind the bad action, even if it is only good for her.

Thanks for the review!