It was late in the evening and Alice was pretty exhausted. Most of the activities around their territory were done in groups of two, but today was the first time that Alex had entrusted her with her own area to patrol, so even though it was exciting she had stood under quite a bit of stress as well.
She didn't want to overlook even the smallest detail, making her extra careful and since she had to do it alone, it was already two times more work than previously with a partner. In addition, Alice hadn't been very lucky as she had several run-ins with the city guards.
She was only a short time away from the base, she only had to turn around two corners to reach the dead end with the hideout. Just as she turned around the first one, she suddenly ran directly into someone. HItting her head on the pommel of that person's sword, she became dazzled for a moment.
Suddenly, she felt a heavy grip on her wrist. Alice became clear immediately, looking up she realized that she had run directly into a guard.
"Look what we have here if I turn you in I should get a little extra pay for today so come with me obediently, will ya?"
Just as the man was reaching for the steel shackles hanging from his belt, Alice used a certain move that Jayden had taught her. Gripping her caught hand with her free hand while kicking against the guard's knee, she mustered all power she possibly could to free her hand, turn around and start to run.
"Hey, you little shit! Don't you dare run away!"
"Shit!", Alice cursed, she had gotten unlucky again. Most guards would just let them run if they couldn't catch them on the first hundred or so meters. But this particular one was especially persistent, following her through several streets and even catching up. The only reason he hadn't caught her again was that his higher bodyweight plus the heavy armor made it hard to take turns.
Suddenly, she realized that she had made a mistake. The path Alice had taken was quite long without any turns, she couldn't do anything but give it her all to run. Not even a second later, the guard turned around the corner behind her. Seeing the guard catch up with her, she was out of other options. Giving it her all, she jumped up on the roof and started running and jumping crosswise to the streets and over the roofs.
Hearing the guard cursing, Alice jumped down into the streets again, making her way back to the hideout again. Taking a detour, it took her almost fifteen minutes to get back.
...
"Finally back? Took your sweet time there.", Jayden said when she dropped down through the entrance.
"Ugh, I ran into guard not even a hundred meter away from here and decided to lead him away before coming back. Could it be that I have just horrible luck, or were there a lot more guards on the streets today than normally?"
"Good thinking, but you should just disappear directly over the roofs if possible. Sometimes they realize that you are leading them and return to take an extra close look.", Gale said.
"And no, you weren't just unlucky, there certainly were more guards than usual.", Alex added.
"Could it be the foxes again? Or what is going on?", Alice wondered.
"I doubt it. Dick should still be out of commission for about a month, and even then they wouldn't dare to do something like that again so soon. Although I did hear that even the cats are getting attacked now. It seems like the Wolves are being pretty aggressive lately and even some small groups in the Free-zone take advantage of that to attack the cats as well.
Still, it happened far too suddenly. It shouldn't be because of that. Or has someone found out more?"
"A few homeless came in from the Rats territory. I got most of them to leave, but two got away. When they aren't found by the guard until tomorrow, we will have to drive them out ourselves, but I have nothing else happened.", Eric said.
"Something similar happened on my side, but I didn't let any escape of course!", Jayden added, his patrol area had been right beside Erics though, so it wasn't much of a surprise.
Besides those two, everyone else only shook their heads.
"Then maybe it's because of something else entirely? I dint hear anything though? What about you, boss?", Gardos said, he and Alex had taken care of the market together and maybe there had been rumors.
"No, nothing special comes to mind. Only some baseless rumors about some criminal called 'red demon' and an even more exaggerated version of the story about flying children.", he said.
"Wow, that story is still going around? Its already been around a month since then! Haha!", Gardos couldn't help but laugh.
"Pfft, yeah someone supposedly saw an entire flock flying through the sky."
"Urgh, can't they just forget about this stupid story already? Who would believe that in the first place?", Alice complained, at first she thought it to be funny as well. But when Gardos started to make stupid jokes, asking her if she was actually an angel or if her ancient blood was that of a bird, she got kind of annoyed at it.
"Hmm, but what about that 'red demon' guy? Maybe it has something to do with that? Maybe the guards are trying to catch him? I did hear about how he supposedly murdered several people.", Gardos asked.
"First of all, that 'red demon' is supposed to be a red-haired woman. But the stories I heard were all far too exaggerated. If you were to believe the rumors she would have to have killed at least a hundred, raped more than twice as many and robbed even more in only a month. If that rumor had any real base, it wouldn't have become so extreme. Also, the guards would have already raided the entire city and checked every single redhead.", Alex refuted him.
"Who knows, maybe it's our Alice right here who did all that?", Eric said jokingly.
"I know that she did not, and that's not funny you idiot.", his brother said while hitting him on the shoulder.
"Let's give it 'till 'morrow. At that point, some stories should have spread already. Gale, could you go and collect info then? And take Alice with you, if she gets used to it, her ears should be a great help."
"Okay, will do. On the market?"
"No."
"OK."
"Where then?", Alice got curious.
"Hehe, I won't tell ya! It's a surprise!", Gale teased her.
"Urgh, I hate you!"