Once The Flood Has Passed

Chapter 4

Stinger felt his muscles tense up, and he was sure whatever bit of color had returned to his face was instantly drained. He was grateful for the hood now. With no expression to be seen on his face, it would be a little less likely the man would recognize him, right? His eyes darted from the man to Kaelin. She was worried too. Stinger spotted her tension, even if it lasted for only a moment. The tone of her voice subtly changed as she spoke to the man again. Politeness made place for annoyance and a hint of insult at being disregarded. But the man ignored her completely and kept staring at Stinger as if he were trying to glance underneath the hood. Stinger slowly took a deep breath, hoping the man wouldn't notice how afraid he was. He noticed how the man scoffed and looked down on him as if he were nothing but a mess on the floor. Okay, technically that wasn't wrong. He felt like a mess, and he was pretty much on the floor... but that wasn't what he meant.

Stinger recalled Kaelin's earlier words. The people of the city are generally arrogant. Whoever has the biggest stick up their butt wins, unless they're put in their place by someone of the same or a higher status. It always makes them feel so awfully embarrassed when they're acting all superior in the presence of someone who outranks them. Just play your cards right and don't be afraid to show some ego and you could convince them you outrank them.

Words that suggested she either had experience in those matters, or she was much more important than he assumed this young woman living secluded from the city was. Whichever the case, Stinger was at a bit of a disadvantage here. If he were to get up, he'd risk giving away his identity. But laying on the floor and being rather badly injured made it difficult to seem confident or arrogant. He pushed himself up as far as he dared, mustered as much ego as he could muster, and stared back at the man.

"And who might you be?" the man asked in a condescending tone, as if he were either blaming Stinger for being injured, or expected him to stand up and salute the man. He didn't intend on doing that. Stinger quickly eyed Kaelin again. Despite her telling him he needn't be afraid to show some go, she had also warned him that pulling that card on the wrong people could lead to bad consequences. The young Aquarian gave him the smallest nod and a thumbs-up behind the man's back.

"The name's Kiro of Stormharbor," he answered, hoping he got the High Aquarian tone good enough to be passable. If he failed, the best case scenario would be him being called out to be a pretender.

"Then tell me, Kiro of Stormharbor... were you never taught to rise for your superiors?" the man scowled. Pulling the arrogance card, wasn't he? Stinger got no signals from Kaelin warning him to back down, so he assumed it was safe to play the same game here. He didn't cast his gaze away as he calmly kept looking at the man. Show ego, seem more confident than the person you're speaking to... Time to see whether the trust he decided to put in Kaelin was justified.

"For my superiors, yes," he replied. Not a phrase Kaelin taught him, but most of it was simply repeating what the man just said. Seemed like he couldn't go wrong there. And it certainly seemed arrogant enough to work out. The man seemed to be a bit taken aback and at a loss for words. Behind his back, Kaelin excused herself due to a spontaneous coughing fit. Stinger could tell from the look in her eyes she approved of what he said. The man seemed less amused. He recovered himself from the initial shock and now slowly approached, towering over Stinger and glancing around if there was anything within his reach he could use to attack.

"You are an insolent--..." he started, but Kaelin was quick to maneuver herself between the two. She shut the man up with a gesture and puffed out her chest in order to seem bigger.

"I would be very careful how you're going to continue from there on, Daron," she crossed her arms, staring right into the man's eyes. Her tone rapidly lost the politeness and friendliness. "Do you really want to finish a sentence like that to an Ishtal?"