"Take me there." She ran out of the room. Derek followed after them.
It was along the corridor of a small alley. Two beefy looking men blocked Madeline's path to a wall. There held steel pipes and had perverted looking expressions on their faces. One of them even licking his lips. On the other side of the wall, a man held Aesir by the collar of his shirt with a pistol to his face. He was much skinnier and shorter with a full-bearded face and a vertical scar on the left side that trailed from his eye to his neck. He looked to be the leader of the motley crew as he was the one spitting out orders.
"Leave them alone," Tiny ordered on arriving at the scene. "Kareem, go get your father." She instructed the boy and he ran off into another alley.
Everyone turned to her and the men burst into laughter. The man with the gun looked at her. His gaze like a dog that found a new toy stopped at her waist. He had naked perversion apparent in his eyes. "Asim!" He called out, and one of the men responded sharply.
"Leave that one for your brother to handle. Bring me the one with the afro," pointing to Tiny.
"You stay away from her." Derek, panting for breath on the ground stood up in her defence but before he could take a step forward, His eyes met a scene he would never forget for the rest of his life.
Tiny did not panic. In fact, he could have sworn he saw a slight smile from the side of her lips. Her legs moved fast and she ran towards her oncoming assailant. she got close enough and jumped onto his neck. With her legs around his head, she back flipped-flinging the grown man to the ground.
A look of surprise was plastered on the faces of all onlookers.
The man with the gun looked at his counterpart laying passed out on the ground and looked back at Tiny's petite body. He was shocked, "Masika, help your stupid brother."
But before the other advanced, she had closed the distance between them. Rendering the pipe in his hand, more of a burden than a weapon. She rained punches on his torso. Her right leg sidestepped and she was slight to his side. She moved her heel to his knee and shifted his point of balance bringing him to a crouch on the ground. Her left knee kissed his face sharply and he passed out.
Another wave of surprise washed overall.
Derek thought back to rumours of Tiny in the orphanage. He never thought them to be true. She was always a cute docile girl in front of him. This was the first time he was seeing the fierce part of her.
The gang leader looked at the fainted man. He swallowed a big ball of saliva. That last hit to the face left a mark in his mind.
Tiny made an advance for him, but he was smarter than his two goons and backed away from her.
He still had the gun pointed to Aesir's neck. "Back away! back away or I'll put a shining pin in his neck."
She stopped in her steps. He laughed hard, "Now take two steps back." She hesitated. "Do it! or i swear, I'll press it."
She took two steps back, "You don't want to do this. I have already sent for the police, there'll soon be here."
"You have already sent for the police there'll soon be here!" he imitated her, "is that my business? You stupid foreigners. You come to our town and you think you can do whatever you want. You...You eat our food, control our people, take our things and for what? we are supposed to keep quiet because you are tourists? I don't think so. I am going to take my pound of flesh." An ugly grin plastered his face. He looked to Tiny's chest and down to those powerful looking legs and he licked his lower lip, "Strip!"
She looked at him in amazement and chuckled, "you are not serious."
"I said STRIP!!!" shoving the gun closer to Aesir's neck.
Madeline at the other side of the wall sat on the floor. Her hands shaking in fear. "How did it come to this?" She thought to herself.
Roughly forty-five minutes ago...
"Madeline, I am so hungry and my legs are killing me. Let's go back." Aesir sat on a stool by the stall.
"I'll soon be done. Am just checking out some clothes. Don't be a buzz killer." She tapped him on the head.
Buzz killer? She actually called him a buzz killer? Here he was, practically hearing his tummy rumble and she called him a buzz killer. He did not care if she called him a 'buzz murderer'. The only thing he cared about right now was the sweet taste of food. He was so hungry he could swear he had started seeing things.
Like that black cat staring at him from the other stall. It had been staring at him for a while now. If he did not know any better, He would have sworn that it was following them. Maybe it was hungry too, or maybe he could eat it. He licked his lips in thought. He had eaten all sorts of things before but never a cat. A part of him actually wondered what it would taste like. Besides, he was never picky with food. He shook the thought out of his head. Even If he could, he wouldn't try it. Cats were considered sacred in these parts. Killing one was literally punishable by the law of the land.
"Blockhead, we have never been out of our town before much less another country. But here we are, In this beautiful place and you don't even want to explore it? Are you even human?" She took a scarf from the stall and tried it to her neck, "Does this look good on me?"
Aesir took a look at her and did not know what to say. He was never into fashion and was not sure if he really cared at all. In his own book, a T-shirt and some jean trousers were good enough. Except for cause, if it was a costume from an anime, now that would be worth the hunger and wait. He did not find the scarf attractive in the least bit, but he had read enough manga to know how to respond in such circumstances. "It's not bad."
"It's not bad? What do you mean is not bad!? Is it terrible?" She flipped the scarf over to check if she wore it wrongly. "What about now?"
Aesir slapped himself in his head. It would have been better if he kept his mouth shut.
"What of you Kareem? What do you think?" She turned to the boy that acted as their guide around the market.
"You look beautiful Miss Madeline."
"Awwn! Do you think so? It doesn't make me look fat?"
"Absolutely not ma'am. You look rather ravishing for the eyes." He gave a thumbs up and a wink.
Madeline felt bashful, "You silly boy," she stroked his head gently, "you can just call me Maddy, not ma'am. Okay! also, no 'miss'."
"Sure Maddy."
Aesir looked at the two in surprise. This boy was good. The little monster looked barely ten and his tongue was already so sharp? He was already addressing her by a nickname. Aesir made a mental note to himself to ask this genius for some lessons. Seriously, which otaku did not desire to have some 'game'.
Madeline tried some other scarfs in front of a mirror before there eventually left the stall-buying nothing of course. They barely had enough money to feed and the conversion rate was terrible. The only reason there had a place to sleep currently was because of the kindness of Kareem's father who thought them to be lost tourists.
Madeline kept on entering different stores, trying different clothes and jewellery. Aesir felt like strangling himself. Were all women like this? Nothing colourful or sparkling could cross Madeline's eyes without her trying it on. There were supposed to just get some food and bandages only, but they had spent more than a couple of hours strolling the market because someone could not hold back her love for 'shining things'. And the vendors did not help matters either. There kept calling to her like hungry babes for motherly attention.
"I think we are being followed." Madeline signalled to Aesir, pointing at the reflection of a man in the distance through the mirror.
"Yes, you are right. He has been following us for some time now." Aesir pretended to look through the mirror checking out his hair.
This man was not terrible at tailing. But it was not his fault. These two had lived most of their lives in a competitive environment. You don't survive this long in an orphanage and not build some skill to ensure your own survival.
"We have to ditch him." She advised.
"Yes, but how?"
"Kareem!"
"Yes, Miss Madeline... ehm Miss Maddy... I mean Maddy."
"Do you know a shortcut back to the house?"
"Yes Ma'am, I do."
She looked at him with a frown and he immediately corrected himself again, "yes Maddy, I do."
Kareem took them from the market through the shortcut of the alleys but the tail following them was a persistent one. Seeing that they were about to be trapped, They made way for Kareem to escape and pass news of their dilemma.