Rookery ~ Assassin's Creed Syndicate

Chapter Two

My feet beat heavily on the ground as I jumped from the train to the tracks.

"Stuff your damn train tickets!" I had made my way to London without buying a ticket. I took off my flat cap and tipped it to the train. One of the train guards spotted me and yelled loudly. I waved my hat at him with a huge grin. "Farewell, gentlemen!" The train clattered on past with screeching and angry calls from the guards. I chuckled and climbed over the side of the bridge. I jumped down to the grass.

Smog hung over the city. Smoke was billowing from the chimneys. Somehow, even through the thick cloud of dirt in front of my eyes, the city was still beautiful. Buildings towered above me as far as the eye could see, clustered together in messy clumps. Children dashed around, and I watched one steal the wallet off of a man's belt.

"Oi! Come back here, you filthy dipper!" He screeched after the child and chased after. I chuckled. I had been like that and I still was like that, even at the age of twenty. Barely any money made its way into my pockets, and any that did wasn't fairly earned.

I took the crusts of bread from my inside jacket pocket and bit into them. I was celebrating my arrival, on my own, wondering how the bloody hell I was going to survive. I had nowhere to live, no stable job, and there were plenty of Peelers around London. I expected that I would probably be locked up by the end of the week. If I wasn't, I'd eat my hat. Carriages raced by me, some driven by the very Peelers who would attack me simply for walking in their way. Most were driven by regular people, some who kindly tipped their hats to me as they drove by. I smiled back at them and waved. These people were far kinder than the people at home.

Speaking of which, I only then realised just how far away I was. I couldn't get back on a train now, not after the stunt I pulled. Although the guards would not get immediate orders, I would not even dream of catching another train until at least the next afternoon. By then, the train I had been on would have reached a main station and one guard would give a description of me. Each train which also pulled into that station would be informed and told to inform anyone at any other stations. I had made a right pig's ear of everything, and I'd been in London not even five minutes.

I decided on following the man chasing the small child. It would give me the chance to see all which London had to offer. I decided on taking to the roof tops - easier to see everything below me that way. An open window greeted me. What a lovely place to grab onto. I skittered up the wall to the windowsill and hauled myself up onto the next one. I did this many times until I reached the terracotta tiles. My dusty, scuffed boots skidded on the roof as I hopped onto it. The slope had taken me off guard slightly and I almost ended up with a tile in my ribs. Instead, I caught myself as I had been trained to do by my mother, and sprinted across to be able to see the man who had been robbed. I spotted him dashing along quickly to catch this small boy.

He stopped in a small square, surrounded by low walls and a few houses. The little boy ran between two men in red uniforms, leaving the taller man facing the armed brutes.

"Fine, you little mobsman... Keep it." His deep voice husked. I crouched lower to hear better.

"Well, well. What do we have here?" The shorter of the two guards was sizing up the man in the cap much like mine.

"You're on our property." The other guard grumbled, hand reaching to the hilt of the knife at his waist. I felt like yelling out to the man who had been stolen from, but kept it to myself. I could see that he was trained, what with his elaborate garbs. Something on his hand glinted, and I recognised it as a set of brass knuckles. I grinned, looking at my own brass knuckles. Mine had been stolen from my mother's office as a child but, now that she was gone, she would not be needing them. A swing of an arm and the crunch of bone against metal rang in my ears, pulling me from my daydream. While I had been examining the fine detailing on my weapon, the man had taken out both brutes, and I caught him just as he snapped an arm backwards and kicked a head into the pavement. I winced, secretly excited. He straightened, then laughed.