The Dregs

Chapter 2: The Slat

Wylan's POV:

When Wylan came to he could only feel his head pounding. It hurt like hell. He dimly recalled pursuers punching him in the head, in his stomach. Why had he been in the Barrel in the first place? And then he remembered. It had been his birthday- wait maybe it still was his birthday. He slowly opened his eyes and found himself staring straight into a pair of sparkling grey eyes. Wylan let out a yelp and tried to jump backwards only succeeding in banging his head hard on the floor. He let out a groan and cradled his head, shrinking in on himself to form a tight ball.

He heard people muttering:

"He's awake!"

"D'you think he'll be OK?" A gentle voice murmured

"He'll live," a raspy voice said.

"Jesper you scared him."

"I didn't mean to. I was just... looking at him."

"Looking at him? You creep. He is kinda cute though, oh no, don't worry Matthias he'll never compare to you."

Wylan peeked over his arm to see a curvy brunette smirking at a massive blonde.

He felt a soft hand on his arm and whipped around to face a caramel skinned girl with kind brown eyes and a gentle smile, "Hi Wylan, I'm Inej. I helped to rescue you from those thugs."

Wylan frowned. Rescue? Someone in the barrel had rescued him? Why? What did they want in return?

"Don't flatter yourself Wraith," a rasping voice came from the corner, belonging to a muscled but lean man with dark hair and calculating eyes, "I did most of the whacking." He tapped his cane on the ground. "I'm Kaz, leader of the Dregs, welcome to the Slat."

Wylan looked up at him with wide eyes, "K-Kaz Brekker?"

Kaz grinned, a strange sight on his wicked face, "Ah see, he knows me. I told you that my reputation preceded me."

The boy who had scared Wylan- tall with dark skin and beautiful eyelashes- rolled his eyes, "No one ever said that it didn't Kaz." The boy crouched down next to Wylan. Wylan couldn't stop staring at his beautiful lips as he talked. "Hey I'm Jesper. Don't worry Kaz isn't as vicious as everyone says he is. On the inside he's really just a sweet little baby."

Jesper let out a yelp and tumbles sideways as Kaz's cane hit him hard on the shoulder. "Don't listen to him," Kaz snarled, "he jokes."

The curvy brunette who had, up until then, been busy shamelessly teasing and flirting with the blonde pushed past Kaz, "Hey I'm Nina and that's Matthias, he's always scowling, don't take it personally." She rolled her eyes and gestured to the indeed scowling blonde.

Wylan smiled, "Hey, I'm Wylan."

Nina grinned, "Yeah I know. Now, why don't we eat some of your fancy food you brought."

As she stalked past Inej she whispered loudly, "He's sweet, I like him already."

Nina grabbed Wylan's backpack and pulled out the chocolate bar, "Bingo."

Kaz banged his cane on the ground, "enough. Nina put that down, it isn't yours." Nina scowled and dropped the bar. "Matthias try to be nice to our guest. Jesper stop going through his stuff like a creep." Jesper jumped and dropped a bag, Wylan's bag. "And Wylan get up and go fend for your own stuff. From now on I won't blink an eye if those guys take your stuff."

The caramel skinned girl - shoot, what was her name again? - shot Kaz a glare and he seemed to soften a little bit. He offered Wylan a hand up. Wylan blinked looking at the gloved hand and then cautiously took it, pulling himself up. He strode over to his backpack and put it on, and then grabbed his duffel, shooting Jesper a glare before checking that everything was still in there.