The Dragon's Jester

Chapter 2

"Hey! This is our spot, the Hell do you think you're doing here?"

Khaota looked over in the direction the voice came from, their expression showing more annoyance at being interrupted rather than fear. The leader of the intruding group was clearly bothered by how unintimidated Khaota was of them.

"Answer me!" 

"Pathetic humans. Anyway, back to yo-" Khaota began, turning to face the clown once again.

But as they looked down, they quickly realised she was gone. Like she'd vanished into thin air. They looked around the shop to see if they could spot her but once again hissed with anger before turning back to the group of humans.

"Did you see where that insane woman went?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Ugh, you humans are as blind as you are stupid."

"What did you say!?" One of the men in the back yelled.

The men all began moving, going into a curve formation to try and surround Khaota like a parentheses. 

"I have more important things to deal with than you cretins. I don't care if you claim this shop as 'your spot'. I got here first, you were late, and now I am busy."

"Okay, listen here, snake-person," the leader began. 

But Khaota immediately began to ignore whatever he was saying as they noticed a familiar head of multi-coloured hair slowly lowering down from the ceiling. They glanced upwards to notice Kithara had her legs hooked around the wooden beams of the ceiling. She had rope in her hands and was grinning at the leader wickedly.

In the blink of an eye, she wrapped the rope around the man's neck, unhooked her legs, and swung around in the air, landing in a crouched position with surprising grace while the leader was pulled harshly, face-first to the ground. 

"Bunny ears, bunny ears, playing by a tree! Criss-crossed the tree, trying to catch me! Bunny ears, bunny ears, jumped into the hole, popped out the other side beautiful and bold!" 

Crack!

Kithara had tied the rope into a bow like she was tying her shoelaces, then pulled the two loops tightly and snapped the man's neck.

Utter silence.

The other men were horrified and frozen in place, terrified of this insane woman who had just killed their boss. Khaota, however, stared in amazement. Such a lack of empathy. It is such a swift killing of a human with no remorse. Such viciousness. It impressed them.

"She killed the boss!"

"No no no! Made him into a pretty pretty present."

"Get her!"

One of the men reached for Kithara, but Khaota moved faster, reaching their palm forward and letting out a puff of noxious gas towards him. The man gasped on instinct, inhaling some of the gas, then pulled his hand away from Kithara to grip at his neck before collapsing to the floor in agony. 

Two down. Two to go. They stood on either side of Khaota and Kithara. 

There were a few seconds of silence. Then, like some insane, spontaneous, choreographed dance, Khaota and Kithara stood back-to-back, both pulling out crossbows and pointing them at the men and shooting simultaneously. The bolts zipped through the air and made a horrid squelching sound as they embedded themselves in the men's necks, right in the jugular vein. 

Kithara whooped and cheered as the men gripped at their necks, choking on their own blood, "I hit the apple!"

She skipped over to the man and yanked the bolt out, jumping in place and clapping as the blood spurted out of his neck.

"It's a party! Confetti!" She cried, skipping towards the other man and doing the same thing again.

And then the men collapsed. And it was over. Khaota looked around at the mess that had been made. They just wanted to grab a few treasures and go. Then there was a clown, and then humans, and now they were all lying on the ground, dead, and there was still a clown! Khaota whipped their head around to face the woman, then grabbed her arms, pinning her wrists to a wall and glaring at her through their bangs. 

"Who are you!?" 

"Kithara! K-i-t-h-a-r-a, what else do I have to say?"

"Why did you come here?" 

"They told me to."

"Who? Those humans?"

She just giggled in response and tilted her head. Khaota hissed once again but suddenly had an idea. As long as they kept a healthy paranoia in case she tried to double-cross them, this 'Kithara' could be a useful asset. She was just as violent, just as cruel, and just as ruthless as they were. Like a living weapon. Their lips curled into a wicked grin as they turned back to face her. 

"So, do you work for anyone?" They asked.

"Circus! It's all crispy now..."

"It burned down? Did you do it?"

That question seemed to strike a chord in Kithara's brain. Her breathing pace quickened, her pupils shrank ever so slightly, her smile was less genuine and more pained.

"They were gonna take the wheel away. Need it. Round and round. It's mine! They've taken it again. Taken it away. It's mine!" 

Khaota looked at Kithara with confusion before letting go of her and quickly taking a big step away, like she was some feral animal that would bite them the second she was unrestrained. Kithara instantly sank to her knees like a sack of potatoes and reached into her bag, breathing shakily and heavily until she pulled out a small wooden contraption. A box that fits perfectly in her hand, with a small crank on the side, and a wooden wheel on the front. 

Kithara clutched the wheel tightly, holding it close and gripping the crank like her life depended on it. The wheel had a black and white painted spiral on the front, which Khaota assumed would spin in constant circles when the crank was moved. They couldn't help but be curious as to why she was seemingly so obsessed with it. Who was supposedly going to take it away from her. 

"Kithara?"

The Halfling quickly looked up and met Khaota's gaze. After a few moments, her usual grin crept back onto her face and she seemed to be back to not-quite-normal-but-thereabouts.

"I think you and I made a good team just now." They started, being careful to speak in a way that was non-threatening.

"Yes! Good team!"

"Yes. How would you like it if we kept being a team like this?"

"You wanna be friends?"

"Sure yeah, the best of friends. You stick around to help me fight, and I make sure you don't die."

Kithara jumped up to her feet and squealed with excitement, getting right up in Khaota's face. They smirked at her, revelling in her obvious excitment. Humans and human-like creatures were so easy to manipulate, and this Halfling was no exception. But she was unpredictable, so they had to be more careful.

 Khaota then looked around at the bodies and destruction around them, like they suddenly remembered where they were.

"Let's go for a walk, shall we?"

"Yes, best friend!"

'That's gonna take some getting used to.' Khaota thought to themselves.