Two Halves: chapter 13

blah, blah, blah.... chapter 13

The market was much larger than Nicolas had originally thought. The ring around the huge opening that led to the bottom did not show the full extent of the stalls. The rings extended back into the walls forming small avenues and alleyways into the darkness of the city. The contraband seemed to get more illegal and carry higher fines the farther you went down into the bizarre.

 

“Where exactly are we?” Nicolas asked as they walked between the stalls. Without Bestalel with them the shop owners attempted to sell them the various contraband. They stopped a few times to glance at the items. There was nothing particularly interesting, at least not to Nicolas. Zeckle on the other hand was running excitedly from table to table. She was picking up things at random and looking at them.

 

“Well, if you go by what they say top side we are right under Hope district near the Salex central office. If you want to keep safe we are in the territory controlled by the Rust River Raiders.” Said Heather as they watched Zeckle run from around. She picked up one of the pictures of the girls with exotic body-mods. The man behind the counter was obviously not accustomed to women taking interest in the items.

 

“Well, if this is what the style is now days I guess I’ll have to blend in.” Said Zeckle as she examined the picture. Suddenly her nosed narrowed and became noticeably smaller. Her cheekbones rose slightly, and her skin turned much lighter. This gave her a over all younger appearance. He suddenly noticed that she looked considerably different than she did earlier. Her hair was far shorter, before it would have trailed along the floor, but now it stopped around the small of her back. Her horns were different as well. They had lengthened from the small points to what looked like bull horns.

 

“Stop that Zeckle. People are going to know you’re a demon if you keep changing your appearance. I didn’t take you into the market so you could decide on a new appearance.” Whispered Nicolas. Demons didn’t have to change gradually from one form to another. That was simply for theatrics. They could change instantly if they needed or wanted to.

 

“But I haven’t been out since the Blaze War. I need to keep my appearance up with the times.” Replied Zeckle as Nicolas led her away. Heather was staring at her. Zeckle continued to argue with Nicolas as he led her away.

 

“So what if they know I’m a demon. Serves them right if they wanna mess with me! You gotta stop being so afraid Nick. Your father wouldn’t have cared we would have laughed his a*s off if I had scarred them.” Whined Zeckle. Nicolas turned into a small Café at the corner leading into one of the alleys. It was a much more permanent building than the tables that crowded every surface in the market. Nicolas led them to a table.

 

“I don’t want to draw attention to us. If we are found out the local gangs could get involved, and then Salex might get involved.” Nicolas stammered at Zeckle. She pouted and looked away.

 

“Like they would. No one is going to notice me.” She replied testily. Heather sat down next to them. She was holding several bottles of the quick brew, and passed them around. Zeckle twisted the top off her and began to drink.

 

“ You should be more careful though. Salex takes away every demon above level twenty, and bring them to be modified in their labs.” Said Heather. Zeckle sputtered and coughed. She had spilled quick brew onto the table. She shuddered

 

“I’ve seen what they do to them. Even after they are released their essence come back to the demon realm. They don’t know who or where they are. They are stripped of who they are. It isn’t a good life.” Her eyes were glazed over as she thought of it. She was imagining the poor demons, fusions of magic and science. Their minds overloaded with information until they lost their sanity.

 

“I’ll just finish off my changing now. “ Said Zeckle as she shifted. In the blink of a eye she was wearing entirely different clothing. Gone was the loose green t-shirt. She was favoring a new skintight purple shirt. It had some strangely stylized logo on the front. When before she had looked to be somewhere in her thirties she now looked no older than twenty-five. Her horns had changed from the bullhorns. Now they curled around her eyes to look like large ram’s horns.

 

“Now people will just think I have had a body mod. I will keep my aura in check; no one will think I’m a demon. They won’t even think I’m a sorcerer.” She said innocently. Nicolas looked around panicking; luckily it looked like no one had been looking. They continued to drink their quick brew in silence. They got up and started to walk back into the market.

 

“Sorry for getting you into this Heather.” Said Nicolas as Zeckle walked inside a shop. It was a pet stall. Full of custom made oddities and strange beasts. Cages crowded the table. She was laughing excitedly over some small pet in a cage. It was just a ball of hair, and obviously made with gene-mods. Probably would die within days.

 

“Don’t worry. Nothing interesting ever happens here, well… at least nothing new. There are gang wars, and security raids, but it’s always the same. You guys seem to be different.” She said as Zeckle rushed towards them.

 

“Nick, can ya buy me that little guy. He is so cute.” She was jumping excitedly She indicated one of the pets from the cages. It was what appeared to be a fish. A huge gas sack kept it floating in mid air, and a small fleshy globe on its head lit up at random. Its tail extended about two feet below it, and it looked around at the world with small beady black eyes.

 

‘I am not buying you a pet! I am not dragging around your pet while we try to save the world. Why would you even think I would agree?” Nicolas told her. They continued to argue all the way back to the Cat’s Hotel.

Author's Note

I am sorry, but I am to tired to edit it tonight. I will get to it tomorrow after school. Sorry everyone if it is a little hard to read.

Reviews

[Domenic Luciani]

there seems to be a large gap from the last chapter to this one. You could probably fix that up with some detail about the trip too the market.
Same sort of minor spelling errors..
Some more detail about the items for sale in the market would be nice besides just "contraband"
I completely forgot what the plot of the story was, by the way lol

[James Watts]

I agree with Domenic. Might want to start filling in some of the wholes so as not to lose your audience. It is still an interesting story and not a bad draft at all.

[Deaths Cold Kiss]

this is a really good story, i really like it :)

[Dutch Jr.]

Your characters are beginning to come off of the page, and your story is definitely coming along.

[Miss Coral]

Wasn't too hard to read, though I did spot a few typos. Great read again- Zeckle is quite entertaining. c: