The Sparrow

Chapter Five

While Reza was inside of the cleaning facility, the clouds had opened up and begun to rain down on the city. Slow, fat drops tap lightly against rooftops on either side of the street, lazily soaking everything in its path.  The boy curses softly as he glances up at the night sky, pulling the hood of his jacket over his head. The fine hairs on his arms rise as he shoulders his bag of laundry and begins to make his way back to his apartment, extending his senses into the darkness. Reza's feet slap at the wet road as he walks noisily forward into the night, hitting every puddle and making plenty of noise as he goes, pretending not to notice the hooded figure that peels away from the building and trails cautiously behind him.

The Sparrow waits until the cleaning facility is out of view before turning sharply down an alleyway, the sound of his footsteps suddenly disappearing along with the feeling of his presence, though he has not stopped moving. Once half way down the way, Reza leaps up onto one of the buildings, laundry bag hoisted over his back. He doesn't wait for the reaction of the person trailing him, uninterested in seeing their face at all. He doesn't have to catch a glimpse of them to know who it is in the first place- he would know them anywhere by feel alone.

Thanks to his heightened senses, Reza is able to tell when his tail decides to follows him up onto the roof. As soon as the thought crosses their mind, Reza drops back down to the ground three streets over and continues on foot. When they realize that he is no longer on the roofs, they also hop back down. Simultaneously, Reza leaps back up. Once the stalker realizes the game, they use their ability to see through the buildings around them, able to see Reza on the other side.

With a slight, amused smile, Reza blocks them by cloaking himself in a sort of energy blanket, cutting off their sight of him. The man following him is startled by the sudden disconnection of his presence, and tries their ability again, thinking that they may have done something wrong. They have no way of getting around the young Leofwin's shield, though, as he has worked very hard for an occasion just like this one. He was wondering how effective this new technique would be against his brother's all-seeing eyes, and is not disappointed by the result.

Reza carries on his way home through the rain this way, pleased when he feels the irritation of his tail once they loose him for good. Reza remains as silent as ever as he listens, feeling his surroundings through the hissing of the drizzle, continuing on with his feet silent against the rooftops. Airic Leofwin angrily continues to scour the city for his disowned younger brother, no doubt fuming that he was out-skilled by the boy. Reza knows that Airic was only sent to follow him, but the older sibling didn't expect the fledgling of a Sparrow to so easily lose him, when he shouldn't even have been able to sense his presence at all. Adelard will not be pleased with him if he returns with that news.

Later that night, Reza falls out of his bed in the wake of another nightmare. Apparently he had been fighting off the invisible specter this time, because he opens his eyes to see himself and all of his blankets on the floor. He lays on the floorboards for a while, trying to catch his breath and cool himself down before he passes out. This dream had been slightly different from the rest- now Reza was fighting back. He hadn't been skewered by Tarsis' blade this time, and his brother didn't say anything to him. If he remembers correctly, though, the older sibling looked pleased that he was no longer sitting still like an open target. Tarsis had been waiting for Reza to fight back. His body hums as he remembers the dream, ignorant of the broom handle thumping the ceiling beneath him.

Reza eventually pulls himself to his feet and makes his way to the window, effortlessly evading any debris that lays around on the floor, even without the use of his eyesight in the darkness. He opens the window, pushing aside the pale curtains that try  to tangle around his arms. The cold breeze blows in, curling cold claws around the boy's hot body. But it isn't enough. Reza pulls his shirt over his head, discards it on the floor and leans out the window, allowing the wind to dry the dampened hair from his forehead. Even though Tarsis had been proud of him this time, Reza still feels like he's lost somehow, and his body doesn't feel any better afterwords. His stomach still lurches and if anything, he feels a bit worse than the other few nights.