The street of Oldwickers seemed dull and lacked life, men lay about in rags and torn clothing, the stench of filth and rum filled the air. Men ravaged my drugs and euphoria fought over the littlest of treasures worth giving value too.
Two oddities walked amongst their midst. One wore a dark cloak, standing at a height that defied his true age with a hood that covered his face. While the other was of small stature, small and unsure of herself.
The men around stopped their squabbling and watched the two people, they knew they hadn't been here at Oldwickers before, they could smell it.
One of the men threw a bottle of ale filled with piss at the feet of Shadow. The bottle broke, spilling out its contents and spreading piss everywhere.
Shadow stopped in his tracks. Looked at the man who threw the bottle, bent low and picked up the shards of the bottle and slowly walked towards the man.
"Piss off from here… Yer don't wanna get any closer" he said. His accent sounded of the slums, improper, sounded like an itch to the ear.
Upon reaching the man, Shadow squatted and drove the tip of the broken glass into the man's legs.
The beggar screamed with everything he had in him, getting the attention of everyone within the vicinity.
He reached for Shadow's hands and tried pushing them away. But his hands wouldn't budge.
The beggar cried out in pain and pulled at Shadow's hands once more, but to no effect.
The beggar's hands quivered in fear as he looked up at the face of Shadow, he looked into his eyes and was sure of one thing.
He would kill him.
"What…what do yer want? I dun have nuthin I swear it on my ma's dead body" the man cursed. Blood mixed with piss flowed from the beggar's wound.
"Scar" Shadow murmured. Low enough that the beggar could hear him but not loud enough for the other men around.
The beggar's eyes widened. "No…"
"Yes" Shadow replied, driving the glass share even deeper.
"Aaaargh… He'll kill you and the lady…" The man groaned in pain.
"I fail to see how that's your problem" Shadow used his palm to drive the glass share fully into the man's flesh.
A guttural scream left the man's lips. The other beggars who had slowly approached now backed away in fear.
"Please…" He begged.
"Don't throw piss at a stranger next time. Where is Scar?" Shadow asked for the last time. If the man didn't answer him, he would break the man's legs and move to ask another beggar.
"There!" The beggar pointed, the direction he pointed led to nowhere. Just the end of the street, a dead end.
Shadow turned his face back to the man, a scowl etched on his face.
"No no, look to the corner. Right there!" The man pointed once more. Shadow sharpened his vision and looked. By the corner of the wall, was a circular metal plate.
Shadow turned and moved to the metal plate.
"I didn't tell yer anything. The beggar stood up and limped away with blood and piss dripping from his leg".
Shadow soon appeared in front of the metal plate.
"Don't you think that was a little too harsh?" Liora whispered behind him.
He turned to her and shook his head.
"Here in the slums, a moment's hesitation could end your life… I hope you never have to learn that lesson" he sighed and turned his attention back to the metal plate.
He bent low and felt at the surface. It was smooth and well-made with hinges on the side that kept it in place on the ground.
"What's that?" Liora asked, crouching down with Shadow.
"Hmmm. It's a sewer?" He said out loud, but those were his thoughts, he was merely making a guess.
"A what now?" Liora stuttered.
"A sewer… It's a shithole that carries other shit together. Like a shit passageway," He answered absently.
Liora looked at him horrified. "What happened to a potty or burning the shit, why create a passageway for all the shits?"
"Look, forget what I said about shits. Let's focus" he felt around the metal plate until he felt a spot under it, he placed his fingers and heaved it with a bit of strength.
The plate strained, then opened with a grinding sound. A blast of cold wind shot out of the hole.
Shadow shivered slightly and looked into the hole. He closed his eyes and felt for Shadow's nearby.
One.
Four.
Eleven.
Sixteen?
Shadow felt a bit hesitant. Something was definitely wrong with this quest. This much difficulty for a novice?
He stood up and looked at Liora. He was well aware that she was in his hands, he had to take care of her.
"What spells can you use?" He asked anxiously.
"Pretty much everything. I'm a mage for crying out" she sighed.
Tch.
"There are sixteen men in there, do you understand what this means?" He held her by the shoulders.
"We have to capture them and give them to the guild, right?" She responded. But Shadow shook his head.
"We have to kill every one of them and bring the head of Scar back to the guild before we're accepted".
Liora stepped back a bit. "That's… A bit too much" she stuttered.
Shadow nodded and turned back to the hole. He felt something was horribly wrong but couldn't tell what. His senses were telling him so, he was sure about it but couldn't tell why.
"We'll need some heat. Be careful when coming down the ladder" he said without looking back and jumped into the hole.
"Wait!" Liora shouted back at him but heard nothing. She looked down and summoned some light magic but nothing. She couldn't see as far as she would like too.
But more importantly, she didn't hear the sound of Shadow landing on the ground. She was sure he jumped. She had seen him jump.
She breathed in as another blast of cold wind slammed her in the face from the hole. She whispered a spell and changed the magic nature light to fire magic. Slowly she held the freezing metal ladders and crawled into the hole.
Into an unknown.