“Honestly my daughter’s just… well…” Lana sighed as after she gave up trying to complain about her daughter.
“So children are just… promiscuous,” I said as I poured the remainder of Renn’s fruity drink into my own cup. She had taken her cup, but had left behind the pitcher I had ordered for her.
Such a waste. I didn’t like it at all.
Lana smirked as she watched fill my cup. “You’d think she’d run out of n, Vim. I don’t think I’ve seen the sa man twice in months,” Lana said.
I nodded. That was a little much. “Least it’s only one at a ti?” I suggested a way to think of her daughter’s activities in a good way.
“Don’t tell her that’s possible, please,” she groaned.
Chuckling at Lana’s attempt at keeping her discomfort at bay. She wasn’t succeeding too well, she looked genuinely worried.
“Though I’ll admit, it is funny. Your grandparents had been…” I frowned as I tried to rember what religion they had subscribed to. It hadn’t been the religion of the blind, nor the holy sisters…
“Don’t get started. At least she does her job. But if you’ll forgive a mother for insulting her own blood, I’m really glad Stan is going to inherit the pub instead,” Lana said.
“Hm…” I nodded as I watched Lana glance to our right. To her son, who was taking orders from another table nearby. He had already co over to say hi to earlier.
Really. What had been their religion? Maybe sothing from the west? I rember them wearing crosses, but they had been red in color…
“Still, we’ll be able to run this place for another few years, hopefully. Who knows maybe I’ll be able to work until my end like my mother? Used to think it was silly that she worked even until her death, but today I see the charm in it,” Lana said.
“Doing what you love is the only thing you should be doing, near you end,” I said.
She smiled. “So would say to do it your whole life, not just near the end,” she said.
“One has duties. Life would be boring without so kind of struggle,” I said.
“Coming from you that’s quite a statent…” Lana whispered.
Was it?
Taking another drink, I felt my eyes get drawn to the entrance. Had I heard sothing?
For a small mont I saw nothing. People coming and going. The doorman, a large man, was talking to a pair of older humans. Likely new arrivals. Lana’s son, Stan, was walking away from a large table and towards the eastern bar. Likely to drop off the platter of dirty plates and cups he was carrying.
What had I…?
rit.
I stood as rit ran into the Sunken Barrel. Her distraught face, with her white hair clinging to it thanks to blood, told all I needed to know.
“Vim!” Lana shouted at but I left her behind without warning. Before rit could even shout for I was next to her, about to bend down a little as to check on her. It looked like she had been hit on the head, thus the blood…
“They took her!” rit shouted .
Pausing a mont, I realized she really was hurt. Her quick shout had made so of the blood dripping down her face to splash around.
Renn.
She didn’t need to say more, she and I hurried out of the place and up the stairs. People tried to move out of our way but were slow in doing so, caught off guard I bumped into one of the n I passed. I ignored the woman he had been with as she scread in shock and upon reaching the street I hurriedly looked around.
It wasn’t stormy anymore. No more rain. Yet it was damp. Cold. Dark.
And for so reason I couldn’t sll Renn. Even though I felt as if I should be able to. Right now all I could sll was rit’s blood.
It slled of the sea.
“This way!” rit ran past , down the road heading towards the Animalia Company. I kept myself calm as I followed her to an alley.
It wasn’t empty. There was a man in it. Sprawled near a closed door.
Stepping up to the dead man, I studied the way the man’s neck bent and his agape expression. rit had broken his neck, and rather harshly too.
“They hit over the head, and took Renn. They wrapped her in so kind of sack and..!” rit spoke quickly, pointing down the alley. She sounded frustrated, but was keeping herself in enough control to let know what happened.
“Fly’s people,” I said, and then sighed as I kicked the body over a little. He was wearing better clothes than Fly did, but they didn’t fit him well… and not just because his body was distorted into odd ways thanks to his death. He had odd tumor looking things all over his body. They looked hard, and cancerous. So were as large as my closed fist. Yet it wasn’t them that told he wasn’t human. It was the man’s ears. They were long, pointed and sharp. Much harder than the soft cartilage humans had in theirs.
“I let them take her, Vim!” rit cried.
“Go to the Society. Warn everyone and take a head count. Lock it down,” I ordered.
“Vim!” rit stepped towards , to argue.
“I’ll not abandon her. I’ll go get her back. After we verify the Society is fine,” I said.
“I didn’t co back to you just so you could waste ti!” She shouted.
“You’re the one wasting ti, rit,” I said calmly as I stepped out a few feet into the street. Ignoring the people watching us from a distance, I bent down to pick up the small black book.
“Gah!” rit turned away, hurrying down the street. People hurriedly moved to the other side of the street, as to stay out of her way.
Sighing at her, I glanced one last ti to the dead man.
I had no ti to handle his body. I’ll just have to deal with it later. Luckily his… tumors, would maybe excuse his ears and any other traits the humans found upon him. They’ll just think he was deford or sothing.
“Co on Vim!” rit shouted without looking behind her. She was nearly at the end of the street already.
Taking a deep breath, I noticed the weird slls. The sll of death, likely from the man in the alley. The stench of the sewers. Renn’s sll. rit’s blood. The unique leather book in my hand.
It took a lot for to turn away from the alley and follow after rit. It was noticeably difficult, which worried .
I not only shouldn’t worry over Renn more than the rest of the Society… but I also couldn’t afford to actually grow furious.
If I did then I’d not be gentle with her kidnappers, or rit’s attackers.
Running away from the alley, it didn’t take long at all for rit and I to hurry into the Society. Our hurried rush into the building, causing workers and custors alike to pause in what they were doing as to stare, told the Society was fine.
Reatti was at the door’s entrance. She stood upon our hurried entry, her eyes going wide.
“We were attacked,” rit said a little too loudly as she hurried over to Reatti.
Glancing around at those in the main lobby, I noted the many humans. Not just the workers, but the visitors. This was not the place to have such a conversation… even if it was clear that rit was hurt, based off her appearance.
“Didn’t Renn go with you?” Reatti asked worriedly.
rit nodded harshly, and Reatti quickly looked over at as I too approached her.
“Is Fly here?” I asked her.
rit flinched as Reatti quickly understood my aning.
Luckily rit, although hurt, wasn’t too far out of it. She was able to step forward and grab Reatti’s arm, before she could run off.
“rit!” Reatti nearly growled at the bleeding rit, her face contorted into wrath.
Reatti tried to pull her arm free, but rit’s grip was firm. I knew the humans would find it odd that such a young girl could so easily keep a grown woman in place, especially when said young girl was so hurt.
“He didn’t an to kill the poor bird, Reatti,” rit said gently.
“But!” The erkat’s shout had drawn more than just the gazes of those here. Her brother ran into the lobby from the hallway that led to the bank. His eyes were hard, and scanned the room as he approached.
He had heard his sister’s tone. They were good at alerting each other, at least.
“I’m going to go get Renn back. rit you handle the rest here,” I said. If Brom was here like that then nothing was wrong here. At least not yet.
“You better! Get going!” rit turned and shouted at , even though she still hadn’t released Reatti’s arm yet.
Holding out the black book, rit’s face scrunched up at the sight of it. She took it, yet did so in a way that told she was no longer interested in reading it. In fact she simply tossed it over to the nearby desk that Reatti had been sitting at.
Turning away as Brom hurried over, and I noticed Gerald appearing on the second floor. He was looking down at us, concerned.
So Fly was here.
Did she know?
I didn’t have ti to find out.
Leaving the building, I wasted no ti. I ran across the street and to the next block over, the one that Renn had been taken in. I wasn’t sure if they had gone straight into the sewers from the alley that they had taken her in, but it was a good bet that they had. Carrying a person in a sack, likely while said person was screaming and struggling, through town wasn’t smart even for them.
Going to one of the large warehouse buildings, I rounded it and headed into the back alley. About half way to the next building, I ca to a stop before a large grate. One built into the building rather than the alley itself.
Bending down, I pulled the iron bars off one by one. Until there was enough room that I could easily slide in.
Without any hesitation I crawled down into the rain drainage. It was dark. Damp. And I landed in ankle high water.
My landing in the drainage system made a loud echo, and I listened to it as it rolled along the square sewer. I noted that the echo ended quicker to my right than my left.
Which ant the right was a dead end, or sothing like it.
Hurrying to the left, I didn’t care about the loud splashing sounds I made as I ran. I could feel that the center of the sewer was rounded lower than the rest of the ground. ant to guide the water, and possibly let there be sections on the sides that one could walk along… but there was too much water down here. The water was flooding it seed, thanks to all the rain.
Running through the sewer, I reached a turn. It went left and right, with the left having a slight decline in it.
Of course I had no idea the layout of the sewers… but I knew that they had been built to divert water as much as sewage. To the sea, especially.
Which ant as long as I followed the water, eventually I’d find a route downward… to the old city below.
As I ran I tried to pay attention for any hints of Fly’s people. Usually people, even the nonhuman type, left traces. Scratches in the wall, either from a bored drawing or guidepost for their ally’s. Yet the only things I found as I hurried through the sewers were wastewater, flooding tunnels, and blockages.
Pausing in front of a blocked off tunnel, I groaned as I watched the nasty water piling up. It’d not be long until the whole section I was in was underwater at this rate… especially if the storm picked back up, as I suspected it to do.
Lun needed to clean them. Did they even know that half of their grates were blocked like this?
About to turn away, to find another route… I stopped.
The running water here was not as fast as the other places, thanks to the blocked drain… but that was the point, wasn’t it?
Looking back at the blockage, I quickly saw what I hadn’t upon my first glance.
The large pieces of wood. The way the wood and blocks were stacked and tied to the grate’s iron bars.
“Done on purpose…” I said as I saw the handiwork of man, and not nature.
I wasn’t too bothered by the waist high water pooling in front of the blocked drain… but I wasn’t sure if this was the route I really wanted. Heading around, I used the location of the blocked drain as a center-point… and eventually found another blocked drain.
This one too looked blocked on purpose. And it too was leading in the sa direction as the other had been.
“This is how they keep water out,” I said, understanding.
Would explain the flooding too. Even though it had been raining constantly lately, the downpours hadn’t been that bad. Nothing that such large drainage systems shouldn’t be able to handle.
Hurrying down another tunnel, I slowed to a stop as I approached another drain. This one was blocked as well… but there was more than just wooden panels and large boxes being used.
Near the edge of the blockage, was a makeshift gate. One that even had things piled up in front of it, to let soone climb over it.
An entrance, if such a makeshift thing could be one. How did this stuff not fall apart during such storms? It looked so rickety…
Approaching the makeshift gate, I stepped up onto one of the boxes before it, out of the water, and looked in-between one of the panels. Past the iron bars that hid behind it… and down the dark tunnel beyond.
All I saw was more tunnel, and darkness… but I didn’t need to study it long. Especially since there was a slight draft coming from the tunnel.
A draft that stunk horribly… and not just from the waste water.
This might not be their ho, but it was definitely connected to it. Their stink was far too strong for it not to be.
Pulling on the makeshift gate, it wasn’t hard to open it… in fact, it was too hard to open it without breaking it.
The thing cracked, a little loudly, as I moved it just enough to step through it.
Ignoring the broken gate, I had to crouch a little to get under the sawed off iron bars that they had removed to make their door.
Sighing as I entered the tunnel, I glanced at the floor. There was a small bit of water still, flowing down the drain. It wasn’t just because I had broken it either; it seed to be seeping through all the sa.
Explained this stench. The seepage let enough in, and without the rest of the rainwater to wash it out the stunk only beca worse.
Not that it mattered.
Heading deeper into the tunnel, I ignored the deep sense of urgency to rush forward. To find Renn, and save her.
I needed to, of course… but…
Sotis one needed to force calm, even during chaos.
Otherwise one simply joined it.
Walking at a brisk pace, but not a run, I headed deeper into Fly’s people’s territory.
To find Renn.
To punish those who would kidnap and attack a mber of our Society.
To do my job.
Hopefully Renn would forgive once this was all finished.
Hopefully she’d be able to…
Since I won’t.
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