A Dreamer's Worlds

Mortality (Part 1 of Bet On It)

Adimus frowned at the dice. Chiyo grinned at him over her snake eyes.

"One more roll. Bet you can't beat my score." Chiyo was perfectly confident in herself. Then again, she had every right to be. Chiyo was a thousand points ahead of him, and they'd already made this game as risky as they could.

If Adimus won, he got Chiyo's tails. If Chiyo won, she got his wings.

The moral here was that you shouldn't play high stakes games with a kitsune, because Adimus was going to lose. Badly.

Still, he rolled, getting a three and a two. He could almost hear the dire bells ringing in his ears.

Chiyo leaned across the table.

"I win." She said, and pulled Adimus down to kiss him.

And that was pretty much the last thing Adimus remembered after waking up in an alleyway. He hurt all over, but it was mostly his back. That was expected at least. He had just lost his wings after all.

He groaned and crawled to the wall. Leaning against it, he waited for the pain to die down before moving again. He lifted a hand up and tried to summon some sort of magic.

He could feel it, but it was like a thin wall was between him and his magic. Adimus let his hand drop. At least he had some magic. He'd probably just lost his divine powers.

So the situation wasn't too bad. He'd been at Chiyo's mercy for however long he'd been unconscious. She hadn't injured him in any way, and he seemed to have modern human clothing. Adimus supposed Chiyo was kind enough not to completely screw him over.

Still, an angel with no wings would be easy prey for anything that felt like attacking him, or worse. He should get out of the alleyway and somewhere people could see him.

He dragged himself up and had to take another rest when the pain was too much. He'd love to rest, but he didn't know where he was and if there was anyone friendly nearby. If there was, he could rest there, but there probably wasn't. He had terrible luck.

Adimus managed to get out of the alleyway, but quickly collapsed as soon as he was out. He just didn't have the strength to get anywhere fast. People passed him by, trying to get on with their day as quickly as possible. They didn't care about a guy sitting against a wall. Maybe they glanced at him, curious, but there wasn't enough to make them stop. Definitely not enough to make them help.

Adimus had a jacket, and he was glad for it when he pulled it around himself. It felt nice to have something tight around him. He wished it were softer though, but beggars can't be choosers.

As soon as he felt like he could walk again, he did. He didn't know where he was headed, but he knew it was somewhere. Maybe he could find a safe place.

He wouldn't be finding it soon, though. He had to sit down again after passing a few buildings. He wasn't just hurting, he was tired. Or maybe he just wasn't used to working with a mortal amount of energy.

He just wanted to sleep. Rest his head on something soft and be dead to the world. Wouldn't that be nice?

But he couldn't sleep now. He had to keep going. So he did. He walked a bit, then rested. It was slow, but he was getting somewhere. When he looked up at the signs, he couldn't read them.

Did he even know English? Curious, he looked closely at one of the shops. Oh, he could. He looked back at the street signs. He stepped closer to them, trying to keep out of the way.

Seriously? He was nearsighted? When did that happen? He couldn't remember being near sighted, but then, he'd never needed to see far away things clearly. Maybe he'd never noticed. Maybe it was Chiyo's fault. He shook his head and made his way back to the wall. It didn't matter. Adimus didn't need to read street signs that badly.