I gritted my teeth and glared into the eyes of my potential adopted father. I knew it wasn't over. But, why didn't I do anything? My options were limited, but I could've, at least, tried to do something.
Madame Bernaceaux remained oblivious to me burning a hole through Dahlsim's face and said, "Well, Crow. Dahlsim has already done all the paperwork. All there is is the matter of spending one day together and then he will be your new father."
"And if I refuse?", I asked. But she didn't answer. Something about her was wrong. She seemed even more plastic when Dahlsim came into the room. "You two have fun, ok? Good bye!", she said before moving towards the door. "Wait! Madame Bernaceaux!", I called out. But, it was too late. She was already gone.
I sat there for a moment with my hand held out at the door. It fell back to my side as my eyes sunk down to the bed sheets again. "You...", my eyes met his once more, "What did you do to her?!". He folded his arms and played dumb. "What do you mean? I simply played my hand."
"You cheap bastard! What makes you think I'd let you adopt me!?", I snarled.
"It's simple really.", Dahlsim walked to my bedside and got as close to my face as he could. "You either come with me and live... or stay here and die."
"Oh really?", I sneered, "And who, exactly, is going to do me in?".
"Pfft, cocky little punk; aren't you?", he backed off and turned his back. "I don't see why you're still here in a hospital"
"What do you mean? I'm still injured. Are you blind?", I argued.
"That's not what I see,", he said, "Check your wounds."
I lifted the bandages from my chest enough to see the wound. To my surprise, it had already skarred over! The blood left was dried and resting irrelevantly on top of it. In disbelief, I checked my ribs. They weren't hurting, at all! It was as if someone pressed a reset button on them!
I was fully healed... and I didn't even know it! I looked up at him dumbfounded at what I had just realized.
"How did you...?"
"Know that you were fully healed?"
I shut up to hear him out. He sighed to himself and turned to look out the window. "I don't want to be the one to tell you this. But... You're not human, at least not completely.". I was dazed and confused. "What?! That can't be true! I...". Looking back at everything that's been happening, I began to doubt myself. "You have a high speed regenerative factor. That's practically enough.". He turned toward me,again, and said, "You're from the Soul Clans. I can tell that just by looking at you. As for the exact clan, I can't say."
"Soul... Clans?", I repeated to myself. "I don't understand what you're saying."
"And I don't know much about them, myself.", Dahlsim said. He walked toward a window to look out. "Honestly," he continued, "I don't know much about you, what you are the heir to, or why the chief needs you.". He smirked a little, "But orders are orders. He's never steered anyone wrong before."
We both grew silent as he turned his head in my direction. "You know what?... I'll give you a day to reconsider. I have a feeling you will.". He walked to the door and waved on his way out.
I stared up at the ceiling for about an hour after that. I couldn't believe I was getting adopted; especially, by that weirdo. I didn't know what to think about all of this.
A little later that day, I got a doctor to assess my injuries. He was equally astonished by how fast I recovered. Long story short, he let me out of the hospital, that day.
I walked back through town toward the orphanage as if nothing went wrong. The idea that I was freely walking around like getting shanked was something that you could just shake off was a sort of scary thought. What was I to do, at this point. Tell my friends that a crazed maniac wants to adopt me and is pulling all the strings to make it a reality? Yeah, that's what I'll do.
I headed toward the Southern Gate still debating on a better idea when i heard... whistling. But, it wasn't was just any kind of whistling. The tune it had was ominous. I picked up my pace as I looked around to see if I could find whoever was doing that.
I could see people, shopkeepers and such, but none of them were whistling. Even more so, no one else seemed to notice the strange sound. It was ringing even louder in my head as I drew closer to the gate. I started to run to escape the noise.
In my confusion, I ran, face first, into a wall. I fell backwards to the ground holding my face. I looked up to realize that what I hit wasn't a wall.
It was a tall, hooded, and built dude in a badly worn cloak who was staring daggers at me. "Sorry, man.", I apologized, "I wasn't looking at where I was going. We cool?". I held my hand out to him... He only responded with baritone laughter; the threatening kind.
I finally was able to get a better look at him. He was a brute you wouldn't want to run into like I just did. He was scruffy in the face and his left eye was gone and replaced with an eye piece that had an infrared dot for an iris. When I looked at his right hand, I noticed it gleaming the cloud cover off of it. It was a hand made of metal, had to be auto-mail or something. I've heard of them before, but I've never seen them, in person.
"You're the objective?", he cackled, "Seems more like a canary to me.". He held his auto-mail hand at my face as it transformed into a machine gun. "Now, hold still.", he said.
I ducked just barely avoiding gun fire. Gasping out of sheer terror, I managed to say, "I'm guessing we're not cool.". "Aww, little birdie,", he said with crocodile tears, "I was about to set you free.".
I dashed away from him as fast as I possibly could. He already knew my name, i thought to myself, could he be another one looking for me? But I didn't have much time to think. He practically teleported right in front of me; stopping me in my tracks.
"Why don't you ju-," He was immediately met with my foot to his face. I didn't feel like waiting for him to give his banter. I used his face as a boost to get to a rooftop. I knew this guy was going to cause a scene in town ever since he fired his first shot. I had to lead him out of town, somehow, or more than just my life would be at stake, here.
I decided to book it towards the Southern Gate on rooftop. But as I feared, he was faster. He "teleported", again, and this time he grabbed me by my face and threw me back with such force; I could barely catch myself in midair. I had never felt so lucky just to get off with some minor scrapes and bruises. I was met with his arm gun, once more.
"This is it, rat with wings.", He cackled. I knew I wouldn't be able to dodge it, this time. I didn't think what Dahlsim said was true. I'm so stupid. I closed my eyes and prepared for the worse. Then, I heard a clang off metal.... and nothing.
I opened my eyes to see Dahlsim cleaving through the guy's automail arm with something that looked like a scythe. Me and the iron man were both equally surprised by his appearance.
Not waisting a second, Dahlsim punched the man in the gut. It must've done considerable damage with the way the iron man buckled. Dahlsim immediately leg swept his face and sent him flying off the edge of the roof.
He turned to me saying, "I hate to say I told you so, but-". "Who the hell was that!?", I interrupted. He sighed and said, "If memory serves, his name is Shephard. A wolven one-armed bounty hunter who was exiled from the Society for his rebel efforts to dethrone the King. Better known as The Hunter". He grabbed me by my hand and raced me toward the Southern Gates. "Wait, wolven?," I asked as we ran, "What does that me-.". As we made it through the gate, I had already got my answer.
From behind, I could hear howling. I looked back to see a dark brown humanoid wolf with a damaged metal arm galloping to catch up to us.
I could do nothing but gawk and say, "You've got too be kidding me."
