A Tale of Blood, Sand And Vengeance.
Act 1, Part 1:Hammerfell.
Life on the streets of Sentinel is, brutal to say the least, they wouldn't let me stay at home, claimed I wouldn't be entitled to it until I came 'of age' so the streets it was. At first I was lost, spent most of my days sitting in alleyways begging for coin to purchase food. No one ever stopped, just walked on by as if there was no one there, after the first few days going hungry I began to give up on ever eating again. That was until I noticed the other street children, and they were indeed hard to spot, like shadows dipping in and out of market stalls, plundering the plethora of exquisite foods that lay upon the stands, they passed like ghosts, so I decided to watch them, day by day, begging for coin and learning their techniques. It finally came time I was confident enough to try my own hand at stealing. A young boy only ten years of age, surely no one would even want to pay attention to me. I marked the stall I would be stealing from in my head, watched the stall owners habits, Just like the other children and whilst the trader was busy counting his coin out I made my move, I softly darted between the crowds of people huddling around the stalls, ducked underneath the stand, and tried my luck. I outstretched my hand from under the stool and placed a firm grip over the item I had intended to steal. What went wrong? I was noticed almost immediately, the trader began shouting out to the masses.
“Guards! Guards! I've found a thief!”
I cursed under my breath, I then did the only thing that came to mind. I ran. ran as fast as my young legs could carry me; my small size my only advantage upon the guards. I ducked under stalls and weaved in and out of the scores of people littering the market. I noticed a winch up ahead, usually used for hauling building supplies up and down onto the rooftops, as a younger child I'd often watch the builders manning these winches. I knew exactly how they worked, I vaulted over a butchers stall positioned in front of the winch, grabbing one of the butchers blades on my way over, gripped the rope firmly in my hand, cutting the counterweight with the butchers knife and up I went. The guards watched on in surprise, not expecting such a manoeuvre from a young child, they shook themselves free from their brief astonishment and continued to climb up to the rooftops. I'm not free yet! I began to run yet again, quickly scanning the hundreds of rooftops, trying to work out my escape route the whole way. There were three possible routes. Jump across to the next rooftop and carry on, use the winch on the opposite site of the rooftop to lower myself down to street level and hide or the final option. Give up and pray for mercy. Ruling out the third option I chose the first, I began to run, picking up my pace enough to make the leap to the next roof, ever approaching the edge, my timing had to be immaculate to make it. My foot hit the edge of the rooftop. I pushed myself into the air with all the strength my legs could muster. Whilst gliding through the air it was as though time stopped, the city guard had made it to the roof and had begun firing arrows at me, they whooshed past me, almost at half speed, I felt like I could catch each one in mid air. Thankfully each shot missed me. I could see the townsfolk looking above them in confusion, they all looked so small from up here. I plummeted onto the next rooftop, rolling to break my fall, “I MADE IT, YES!”
No time to celebrate though, the guards where beginning to make the jump themselves, I hadn't much time, I quickly scanned my surroundings and realised I was doomed. One more guard had joined the search for the thief. Standing in the adjacent rooftop his bow already drawn, and yet another joining me on this rooftop. Aren't they supposed to arrest me? the guard drew his sword, ever enclosing on me.
"You know the punishment for theft child? Let's just say you won't be stealing anymore." he was just about to grab me when I remembered the knife i'd stolen from the butchers stall. I drew it. At this point terrified, my survival instincts kicked in. I hit him in the chest with the handle of the blade and pushed him away, the other guards looking on seemed astonished such a young boy could even touch a city guard.
"Theft and assaulting a man of the law? You'll not get out of this one child!" He drew his sword. He encircled me, whilst I did the same, the other guards just watching on, they wanted nothing to do with this. The guard came at me, first with a downward thrust, I rolled out of the way and swiped my blade towards him, it briefly grazed his arm, drawing blood. This time more enraged and embarrassed. He went for a lunge straight toward my chest, I anticipated his next move and grabbed some dust from the ground, threw it straight toward his eyes, this blinded him, giving me enough time to sidestep his attack, I swiped my blade again, this time cutting his outstretched arm. He dropped his blade from the pain, and the other guards realised he may need some help. They quickly leaped to the rooftop we were brawling on, blades drawn, and Arrows knocked. I didn't know what to do, so I held my blade towards the blinded guards neck.
"Any closer and I'll do it! Let me go!"
They didn't even seem phased, it's as if they knew I wouldn't do it. Just as they began to crowd around me the blinded guard composed himself, and grabbed my ankle, pulling me straight to the ground, upon the impact I heard something crack. A rib perhaps? he then lifted me up by the throat, his grip ever tighter. This was the end.
"STOP!"
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