Stranger From a Strange Land (canceled)

Chapter V: Complications

"you're that girl from last night, aren't you?" I query. She doesn't answer. Instead, she turns away and tries to get away from me, but it seems her persuers have cornered her. "There you are, you little rascal!" The one says. "This is the last time you get away from us!" Yells the other. She backs up slowly until she bumps into my legs, stopping. She looks utterly terrified. "Yeah, and next time, we'll have to punish you so that there won't be a next time" the one says. One of them is skinny, and the other is fat. God knows how they both caught up to her at the same time. "Thank you for catching it, kind sir, but I'm afraid we'll be taking it from here" the fat one says. "Yeah, and we're gonna teach it a good lesson so that it never inconveniences anyone like this again, isn't that right, little one?" Says the skinny one. Honestly, just how cliché are these guys? The skinny one steps forward, raising a black stick within his hand. He flicks the stick, and the girl looks to be in tremendous pain for a moment, before dropping limp at my feet. It's a wand. That pissed me off. "Now, if you'll excuse us, we'll be taking our merchandise back" he says, approaching me. "Do you have to be so rough with her?" I ask. "Her? You mean it? And yes, we do, or it gives us trouble like just now" He says. "I have a slight feeling that she's only giving you trouble because of how you treat her" I say. "Oh, please, this is how all slaves are treated" he says. "Is that so?" I say. "Look, mister, I don't know what part you don't understand, but what we're doing here is 100% legal" says the fat one. "Oh, so it's legal?" I say sarcastically. "Don't pick a fight here, sir. We're well within the limits of the law" says the skinny one. "Oh? So now I'm picking a fight?" I say, stepping in front of the girl. "You wanna get sent to the infirmary, dumbass?" Asks the skinny one. "Does it ever occur to you that just because it's legal doesn't mean it's right?" I say, cracking my knuckles. "We're just making an honest living" he says, Raising his wand. My appraisal tells me that he's a pretty high level magician. Aries explained the difference between a mage and a magician earlier, and magicians need wands to use magic, while mages don't. If I can disarm him of his wand, he should pose no threat to me. "You call beating people up and selling them an honest living? Is there something wrong with your head?" I ask. "That's it, you don't dare insult me!" He says, lifting his wand higher. "Oh, but I just did. I don't think you've realized, but there's quite the difference in physical capabilities between us" I say. "So? I can use magic!" He yells, flicking his wand and sending a bolt of electricity sailing in my direction. There's a barrel next to me, so use it to do a backflip over the bolt and avoid it, and I watch it go flying into a building at the end of the street. "Tch. Don't get cocky about your fancy little tricks!" He yells, preparing to cast another spell. I quickly begin thinking of how I can get out of this. I realise that the wall has enough texture to it to sustain a wallrun over to him, and just as he casts his next spell, I begin running along the wall. He seems dumbfounded as to how I'm doing it, but he doesn't have enough time to figure it out before I vault away from the wall and plant a kick in his abdomen. He falls over, but he still has his wand. He gets up, lifting his wand to cast another spell, but I draw my dagger and disarm him, sending the wand flying across the floor, and I punch him in the nose, breaking it. He falls over again, clutching his face. The fat one tries to avenge his fallen comrade by drawing his knife and charging me. I simple step aside and stick my foot out, and because he has too much momentum, he can't stop before he trips over my foot and faceplants just in front of the girl. He tries to take advantage of his position, raising his knife. Her eyes widen with terror, but the fat idiot doesn't realise how big of a disadvantage he's at, because I step on his arm and disarm him of his knife. It's of horrible quality, and it's so dull I doubt it could even cut bread, much less hurt someone. "Listen here, you fat dope. If I see you or your buddy over there hurting so much as a bug ever again, you won't be walking away with your lives" I say, driving his face into the ground. "Understood?" I query, pushing even harder. "Yesh! Anyfing! Pwease jus' don' hur' me!" He begs. "Good" I say. "Now, I'll be taking this here slave with me. Here's payment that I believe to be worth the trouble, just so that we're even" I say, throwing a single copper coin on the ground. I'm no good Samaritan, but I don't like seeing people get hurt without reason. "Are you okay?" I ask the girl, and she nods. I can see tears brimming her eyes. It's obvious that she's scared and confused, but most of all, she's relieved. She seems injured, and too weak to walk on her own, so I pick her up and begin carrying her to the guild to see if anyone can help her. There's people staring. A lot of them. I can feel it. It's somewhat embarrassing, but I'm also somewhat pissed off with myself, for acting on a whim. I was reckless, and this'll probably get me into endless amounts of trouble, but I'm ready to accept that, because this is my responsibility.