As she continued wandering the ship's decks that made up the streets of this bizarre city, Kage began to notice something that had been subtle at first, but soon evolved into something concerning.
At first she hadn't taken any notice of a couple of black flags with a spiky red calligriphic character painted on them, but now, the color and the character were appearing more and more often. Thin banners hung down from the second floors of buildings, and walls were painted with graffiti of the symbol, and a couple of scowling boys she had just passed had a bandana with that calligriphic in the center.
While she still had some hope that this world was a little different for those things, years of experience watching worlds was telling her that this was gang territory; not somewhere someone with no knowledge of the area should be wandering.
She considered doubling back, but since the afternoon sun was waning, she decided to start heading towards the middle of the city, and the Marker's Inn, and Artlem and Shole.
"This was not a good idea." She though after a few more minutes of walking.
While the red and black designs were becoming less common, now she was catching sights of something else: a yellow mark with a roughly-drawn blue swirl in the center.
She passed by one of those black banners with the symbol painted overtop, and couldn't help but notice how there were fewer normal looking people wandering this area.
Now the people who did walk by stared at her as she passed. She was doing her best not to make eye contact, but she still had the thought of looking for Bard.
A gang-controlled area could be a good place to find a hired sword, at least for the general image she had of that type.
"Probably someone with plenty of scars and tattoos, likes to pick a fight, and difficult to get along with." She thought.
"And unfortunately, that seems to match more than a few of the people in this area."
After stealing a glance, she quickly averted her eyes from two men eerily similar to that description, but with yhe black gang symbol on their outfits.
Their eyes followed her until she was completely past, and it was in that moment she realized she had no idea how big the horns on a Flint dragon were supposed to be.
Were they huge things jutting out of the head, or were they a couple of bumps that could be easily hidden under hair, or perhaps a bandana?
"This is why you don't send an off-worlder to go find something!" She muttered, fingers restlessly tapping the air as she increased her pace.
She heard a creak of wood from an alley to her right and swung her head up to see what was in her blind spot, but it was too late. She slammed straight into someone.
She managed to regain her balance and step back before she looked up, but she immidiately wished she hadn't.
Her gaze met the a couple of the most stereotypical gang members she'd ever seen.
Piercings all over their faces, arms decorated with tattoos that vaguely resembled calligriphics or various animals with claws or sharp teeth, complete with the yellow bandanas with the blue swirl; one wore his on his forehead, the other's hung loosely around his neck.
Aw, hell.
"What's wrong with ya, brat?" The one she'd hit said, voice rising to an uncomfortable volume.
"Okay, time to get out of here" She thought she glanced left and right as she stepped back trying to put some distance between them.
"Kid's trying to run, what's with those colours? You really showing off Fang colours in our turf?" The second man, with the scarf around his next was moving left, away from the other. He was cutting off one of her escape routes.
"Right, the black and red flags." She thought. "I had to be born with this awful color scheme."
"Rat got yer tongue?" Bandana man was moving to her right, and between the two of them they had effectively blocked off all three ways out. Now she was going to have to get past one of them to make it out, and soon, because they kept getting closer. If she didn't hurry, she was going to have to challenge both at once, but indecision was haunting her.
Scarf now had a weapon in his hand, an ugly looking dagger with enough jagged parts on the blade to do some serious damage on the way in and out. She was doing her best to keep Bandana in sight, but her missing eye was making it much more difficult.
"Tell you what." Bandana said. "Give us yer money and we'll call it square."
"That's going to be a problem." She muttered.
"What?" Bandana shouted. "Speak up, brat!"
"I'm broke!" She shouted. Oops. It wasn't supposed to come out like that, but her nerves were ready to blow.
So much for any chance of diffusing the situation.
"Are you trying to pick a fight? 'Cause you're doing a pretty good job." Scarf growled.
"Alright, I need a decision, now!" She thought. Unfortunately, Bandana made that decision for her.
She caught the motion out of the corner out of her eye and jumped back. Banana had swung his fist at her, missing by a bit, but now she was in reach of Scarf, who came at her, knife in hand.
Kage drew her own knife and deflected his swings. He had strength behind his strokes but not much technique, but she still didn't want to get caught by that nasty-looking knife. Suddenly, Bandana was there. She barely had the chance to parry a swipe from Scarf's dagger before his fist connected with her arm, knocking her back against one of the wooden buildings. She grunted, back and arm stinging, but she had no time to think about it. She swung her dagger in a wild arc, and not a moment too soon as she just caught Bandana's hand. As he recoiled she pushed forward swinging her dagger, desperately trying to get her back away from the wall.
She succeeded, but immidiately realized that instead of making a path to escape, Scarf was right behind her.
She spun around in time to deflect his knife only to feel a sharp blow to the back of her head and fall face first into the ground. She pushed through the pain in her skull and rolled off to the side, rising as quickly as possible, but her vision was swimming from the hit on her head.
As she rose, her knees wobbled, and her eyes fell downwards for a moment. She immidiately looked up in time to pull away from Scarf's dagger, but it's edge still caught left side of her stomach. She yelped as it tore away shirt and skin from her body.
Scarf grinned, a nasty, jagged-teeth grin, that filled Kage with rage, a rage that mixed with pain and smothered the anxiety inside of her.
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She shot forward, Scarf's eyes widening at the sudden ferocity. He tried to deflect, but she caught one of the knifes protrusions and with a skillful twist, wrenched it out of his hand. It fell off and stuck into the wooden road with a resounding "thunk".
But she didn't stop. She caught his cheek with the next swing, blood spraying into the air in a curved arc.
He swung his fist at her, which she easily dodged at this close of a distance, and sliced the inside of his arm. He shouted something in pain, but in her state she could barely hear it. She slipped around behind him and knocked his knee out from under him with sharp kick; as he fell, her left arm caught his head and her right brought her knife around his throat and-
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She stopped. She'd managed to catch her own brain, and not a second too soon.
She removed the knife from his throat, and struck his head with the handle with all her might. He fell to the ground, and her gaze shot up to meet Bandana's rage-filled eyes.
"So that's how it's gonna be huh, brat?" His voice seethed with rage.
She didn't respond, just glared. Her side was bleeding, and she wanted to end this as soon as possible to attend to it.
The deck creaked as she dashed forward, knife in hand. Bandana raised his arms in defense, but she dropped into a slide at the last second, slashing the back of his leg with her knife. He dropped to the ground, but still managed to swing his fist in her direction. It grazed her, but she barely felt it. Instead she used the same strategy, her daggers hilt coming down against his head. He didn't drop immidiately like the other, so she swung twice more, and Bandana toppled onto the wooden road.
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Kage's shoulders rose up and down with her breath as she straightened up. As the adrenaline and anger began to fade from her mind, she felt the pain and anxiety returning.
She didn't want to think about it, so she wiped the blood off her dagger onto Bandana's armless robe and set out back to her original direction, when they appeared from the same road as Bandana and Scarf had a few minutes ago.
A couple of teens with the same symbol on their own bandanas.
Her heart dropped at the sight, but it only got worse.
"Hey!" The first one shouted. "It's Braq and Ross!"
The two of them turned to face Kage.
"Hey, they attacked first!" She called out. " I don't want any more trouble today. They're alive so just leave me alone!"
Suddenly, it wasn't just those two boys. A couple more thugs spilled out of the alleyway, followed by a few more. They were all shapes and sizes, but they all had that yellow and blue symbol somewhere on their outfit.
Kage stepped backwards. This time, she had to run, and she had to run now-
Her back hit something sofy that hadn't been there a moment ago. She spun around ready to fight but stopped in shock as she saw the figure who had appeared behind her.
Well over six feet, the man behind her carried a sheathed broadsword over half his height over a thick, navy cloak. Two small, blood red horns stuck out from his dark red hair, and his expression caught her off guard, as he looked at her with concerned eyes.
"Are you okay?" He asked, voice gruff, but non-threatening.
Still stunned from finding the man she was searching for in this crazy situation, his question caught her even more by surprise, so she simply nodded.
He acknowledged with a small nod before looking up to address the crowd of gang members who, Kage realized, hadn't made a move since probably-Bard's appearance.
"What's going on here? This kid's a friend of mine. Surely she wasn't doing anything wrong." He said, voice dripping with sarcasm.
No one replied. They just stood there, glaring, but Kage noticed fear in their eyes. They knew this man as a force to be reckoned with.
"Good." Bard nodded. He turned to Kage and spoke in a softer voice so they couldn't hear. "They won't pick a fight with me. Let's get you out of here." He glanced at the tear on her side. "And we'll get that looked at."
Kage nodded, and stole a last glance at the angry mob behind her before heading back the way she came, Bard right behind her.
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