"You good Kimba?" He shuffled in response, tickling my ear with his tail.
"What are you even doing? Can't you sit still?" Kimba was scrambling around now, frantically flapping his wings.
No answer came.
Kimba turned around and stuck out his nose, now on the highest alert. Was something wrong?
"What is it?" I cautiously clutched the bag closer to me and backed down slowly towards the backdoor of the cafe again.
Someone's here.
"Who is? Is it one of those gangs?" It was quite common for gangs to form around the poorer districts of town. Many of them consisted of unlucky children that didn't have a real home or whose parents couldn't afford to send them to school. This was my next project: free education for everyone. But that still had to wait for now.
I don't know. Now it's gone. But I swear I smelt something before. Kimba closed his wings again.
Watch out Nene. I think something is still out there.
"Okay. Let me just get rid of the garbage first." Hurriedly I made my way to the back of the cafe.
Something felt off. I felt it too now. My head was telling me to run but my gut feeling was telling me to stand straight.
Quickly I heaved the trash into the bin, then made my way out of the backyard. Somehow the darkness didn't feel all that dark anymore as I remembered it to be.
Carefully we snuck our way to the corner of the street. Right now, we still should be fine, since we were still in the safe district of the Nobles and wealthy. However, to get to my apartment, we had to leave this district and cross over the run-down district infamously known for its many thug gangs that would rob anyone that crossed their paths. Normally they didn't kill anyone, but every now and then one would hear about the horrible things that happened to some unfortunate ladies that had been at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Usually, this was no problem since I worked earlier hours, but tonight was an exception. We had had many more guests than expected so I was called in to help out.
Although I had Kimba who could scout ahead, it was very dangerous to go home so late at night. I was practically defenseless, except for the small dagger Ferras had given me. I had it inside my right boot where I had sewn on a hidden pocket to keep it in.
Pulling my hood up again, I cautiously walked on and listened for any footsteps. I nodded to Kimba and he flew out to check out corners for me. If I ran into a gang it could end up very badly for me. I halted for a moment to listen. Kimba was a bit ahead of me and waved to me that the coast was clear.
It seemed safe, so I walked out quietly.
"Who goes there!?" A low male voice shouted. Shit! A dark figure appeared in front of me. How did he sneak past Kimba? I spun around bolted off.
Nene run! I'll distract them!
If I'm lucky it's only one pers-
With a crash, I hit someone from behind and tumbled to the floor. "Well hello there, Missy!" An ugly man, who looked more like a fat walrus than a Human, grinned down at me. It looked like more teeth were missing than still were there.
Inertly I gaged at the sight. "There she is!" Yelled one of my chasers. Now there were three men here in total. "Evening, commander." The two younger ones greeted the walrus. Well shit.
While they were distracted, I quietly got up and backed away. "Oh no, you don't!" Okay, this was bad. Maybe I could talk my way out of this. I had to stay calm. That's all.
"Back off! Or I will kill all of you." I held out my hand as a magician would.
"Oh Really?" Asked the youngest of them all. I'd say he was about 20 by the looks of it.
"What a shame we don't believe you." They all closed in one step further.
"Stay where you are, I don't want to hurt you." I took a step back. Okay, here goes my trump card. With one fluid motion, I pulled down my hood and revealed my long purple hair. They all gasped in unison and immediately backed off.
"No way! What is a color magician doing here!?"
Nene, I am ready. Do the thing!
"It's a trick! She's fooling us!" They all scrambled back as I took one step towards them.
"I recommend you run. Right now." I growled at them.
And just on cue, Kimba used his abilities to create a violet flame burning from my eyes and from my palm. I could see the fear written into their faces.
Just as they were about to run, a hidden figure swooped down behind them.
"What are you standing around for? Are you really going to get tricked by this low-level illusion?" The new comer sarcastically spoke.
The men looked at each other. With the wave of the hidden figure's hand, the flames were gone.
"But, her hair is still purple!" One of them exclaimed.
"Huh, must be another trick of hers. Think about it: would you guys really still be standing here alive if she were a color magician? No, I don't think so either."
Shit. Now I really was in trouble.
The hooded figure tapped the top of his head to bid his goodbye.
"Enjoy your evening, boys." Then he disappeared with a flicker of a shadow.
The other men laughed now as they walked towards me again.
My heart was pounding in fear. No way in hell was I gonna let this happen! My hands were sweaty. Kimba was panicking at the back of my mind, but I ordered him to stand down. I wasn't going to let him get into any danger.
I stood perfectly still as the commander walked up to me, my hands held loosely by my side.
He came a little bit closer.
Like a cornered animal I growled: "If you come any closer, I swear I'll kill you!" I took a step back and held my hands up into a defensive pose.
Another step closer.
Sweat was running down my back now. Too close! Way too close! My hands were trembling.
Just as the man reached for my arm I ducked down to my boot, slipped out my hidden knife and slashed at the man with all my might. I felt my dagger cut through cloth and flesh. Not deep, but bad enough for my attacker to reel back in surprise and shock, clutching his bleeding stomach. He roared in pain.
I was breathing fast shallow breathes. My brain felt light-headed from too much oxygen.
His companions were furious at their captain's injury. Quickly they rushed to the bleeding man's side. Both of them gave me a deadly glare.
Oh no. Things just got much worse. I knew that I had no chance against these two brutes. So, without second-guessing, I turned tail and ran. Desperately trying to hit the main street and grab some guard's attention.
I ran so fast, it didn't seem humanly possible.
No, it definitely wasn't. I was running so fast, my two pursuers had no chance. None.
I just flew by them like it was nothing. But I didn't have time to think.
All I could do was run.
I thought I could make it. I had left them far behind me already. But just as I jumped past a corner, someone sprung up, grabbed my wrist and slammed me into the alley wall. The person quickly disarmed me and flung me a second time into a wall. Like a broken corpse, I crumbled to the ground. Too dazed to move, I lay on my back in the snow. I felt my blood collecting in the back of my throat.
Another nosebleed. My whole body felt like it had been hit by a train.
Was I really going to die this way? In the back of an alleyway?
No. I had to think of something. Fast!
I didn't have time to finish my thought, so I was going to act on instinct.
Brutally a hand grabbed me by my left arm and held me up into the air. I dangled limply, head to one side, blood running down my face. It was one of the men from before. He must have cast a wind spell or something.
"This is for our captain!" The younger delinquent yelled and kneed me into my guts. I almost coughed my insides out, but luckily it was only blood. I fell violently onto the now red snow-covered ground.
I did not twitch. I did not breathe. I lay completely still.
"Dude, did you just kill her?" The third man walked up behind the second and peeked at me. "By Lydia... what have you done? We're going to be in so much trouble."
"Don't worry. She isn't dead." With his foot, he rolled me over to face them.
This was my cue. I coughed up some blood, splattering their shoes with it and made my eyes stare unfocused into the distance. I looked very very dead. I could see it by the expressions on their faces.
"Shit! Why did you do that!?" Shocked the third man grabbed my attacker's shoulder.
"I- I didn't mean to!" The man stumbled back as if he couldn't believe what he had done. "We've got to go. Now! The guards will be on us any second now!"
"Sh- Shit you're right!" The younger one drew back in fear. Then they both bolted off into the night.
I lay still for a couple more minutes. Just to make sure they were gone. Although I might have faked my death, I still was pretty badly injured. Slowly I pushed myself up. I was a complete mess and everything hurt, but at least I had survived. My head was still spinning as Kimba came crashing into me, hugging me and crying.
"It's alright Kimbu. I'm fine." I wiped my bloody face with my sleeve.
"I just need to get home." The world spun around me in colorful swirls.
Then, my mind went blank.