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LP Chapter 16

Page history last edited by Volkes_Wagon 13 years, 11 months ago

Jay On Stage

 

     Kuchiha strolled through the myriad of stalls, buildings, and feathered trees, looking for some sort of bounty poster. As she walked, the crowd gradually began to thin out, and she found herself staring at a deserted wasteland. She blinked, and turned around the way she came. Before long she was admiring a patch of uninhabited meadow. Apparently Angel City didn't have a gate or fence surrounding it, instead using inhospitable landscapes such as the wasteland and meadow as sort of natural borders. She pivoted on her heels and plunged back into the labrynth-like network of streets and markets. No, she assured herself, she wasn't lost, just needed time to get accustomed to the city layout. Once she found a bounty, everything would work out.

     A drop of rain landed on her cheek. She flinched and glanced up at the late morning sky, prematurely darkening.

     "Shoot," she grumbled. "Rain."

     Almost at the same time, another voice muttered, "Finally, rain."

     The familiar voice stabbed her in the gut like a knife.

     Which is exactly what would have happened to Runo if he hadn't noticed Kuchiha and dodged into an alleyway on time, dragging her after him. "Shush!" he hissed, clamping a hand over her mouth to stop the stream of insults and threats flying across the city. "Don't scream at me like that! I haven't done anything, and if you keep quiet, I won't do anything." Kuchiha stopped trying to scream, but kept squirming. Runo was forced to let go.

     "Where were you!?" She tried to restrain her voice volume, luckily not so hard while panting for breath.

     "Sneakng around. I can't just stroll through a park with 20,000 pintas on my head." [btw, from 100,000 pintas up, the bounty posters have a dead or alive sign on them, which means the gov. or whatever doesn't care if they're dead or not when they're caught. implying that you'd die if you didn't fight them w/ intent to kill.]

     "Oh. Right." That was the reason she'd almost ripped his stomach open, after all. Runo retreated to underneath the overhanging roofs of the black and red building for cover from the rain, as it was already coming down in buckets. He sniffed the wet air.

     "There's something I haven't seen before coming."

     "Huh?"

     "Just don't chase it away with your barking, she-wolf."

     Kuchiha was about to retaliate with an insult of his strangely dog-like use of smell when a clopping sound reached her ears. It sounded like a Sheemah's hooves, yet somehow seemed different. She peered around the building corner, staying close to keep bearably dry. A horse clopped through the street, a pale rider just barely hanging on.

     "Jay!" A man riding a Sheemah galloped up to him through the quickly deserting streets [who likes pouring rain?], adjusting his black tophat to maximize protection from the storm. "What were you doing!? The Sheemah stalls still need cleaning--no slacking off just because the Minister's away!"

     Jay pushed himself up. "I'm sorry--for the horses--but I have to tell you--"

     "And if you dare try to squeeze out of this by lying, don't think I'll just let you go!! Where were you, and what were you doing!? Out with it!!!"

     "I--r-riding in the fields--"

     "And what were you doing there for so long!?"

     "But--"

     "I so generously gave you permission to take a break for half an hour, and half an hour only. Yet you've neglected your duties for four hours, and without a report beforehand!!"

     "I--"

     "No excuses!! Now get to work!!"

     Jay leaned forward. He was obviously exhausted, and with the rain pouring from the skies and soaking him through, he had every right to break out and yell. "The Navi are coming!! I heard voices--so I stopped and hid, and--"

     "The Navi!! Blasphemous! [i love that word] The North signed a treaty with them years ago, and both sides have upheld it ever since. Why would they break it now!?"

     "I-I don't know, I couldn't move since they'd notice me, and they said--they said they wanted to invade the North through Angel City--"

     "Enough!!!"

     Jay flinched and shrank into the horse. Oppressing silence sealed his lips.

     "You go to those stalls. Now." The man gritted his teeth with rage, and growled between them. "You go and cover yourself in mud and straw and Sheemah waste and know that if it weren't for me, for me and the Minister, you'd be buried so deep in that mud that your bones wouldn't even rot. You've got it good here, you've got it lucky, and you will show your grattitude. So go, before I take those years back."

     Jay left without another word, shaking. The man watched him go with accusing eyes, then turned his Sheemah to the opposite direction, adjusted his tophat, and left too. Kuchiha stared at the deserted street, silently listening to the rain.

     "...So it was a horse. [don't ask me how they know its name, they just kinda do. it's my imagination. it works.]"

     She slid back to look at Runo. "...That's it?"

     "Hah?"

     "That's all you can say? What about that nose-in-the-sky tophat guy? What about the Navi!? What about that kid who was crying in the rain!!?"

     "I saw what I came to see, alright!? What'm I supposed to do--chase him down and make him fight!?" [dunno what he means by that...] The voice commanded silence, and Kuchiha hated complying to a voice.

     "No, but--just--argh, just say something about it at least!!? Like what the heck Navi are!!? Can't you smell 'em or something!!?"

     "Think about what you're saying!!" Runo put his hand to his forehead and sighed. "I can't just smell something I've never even heard of before. I'd need a mirror for something like this."

     "...Mirror?"

     He avoided answering by shoving her away with his eyes. A clopping sound came again, and she instinctively shifted her focus back towards the street. A coachdriver wearing a monocle, the same one from that morning, drove by, twisted in his seat trying to drive and talk to the person in the coach at the same time.

     "Oh, Mr. Playfair, sir, I cannot allow you to take part in it! Oh but if you would rest for a minute--please sir, oh, the Festival!"

     The voice drifted faintly to her ears, and she craned her neck to try to see inside the coach. Mr. Playfair's reply was muffled by the rain and velvet coverings, and she couldn't lipread, even if she could see his face. They didn't notice their spectator. Kuchiha retreated back under the roofs once they had clopped out of earshot.

     "Oh, yeah. Ruru, did'you hear..." Only then did she realize that Runo had left her talking to the air. She gnashed her teeth in frustration that she hadn't noticed his movements yet again and glanced up at the sky. The rain didn't look ready to let up anytime soon. No chance for an easy bounty, and no Forest of Angels for a while, then. But first things first: where were the Sheemah stalls? 

 

Table of Contents

Chapter 15

Chapter 17

Comments (3)

Volkes_Wagon said

at 4:15 pm on Apr 10, 2010

poor jay...got an uber-depressing entrance stage...

Ava Knight said

at 9:45 pm on May 16, 2010

20, 000 is less than 100, 000 you know...
did you mean 200,000?

Volkes_Wagon said

at 9:43 pm on May 17, 2010

...huh? wut? oh, runo's bounty...i forgot what it was, and then i changed it, and then i was like wtheck and left it. i have no idea what his bounty should be. offense against certified Officer...a low-ranked idiot guy...i dunno, what do you think???
and yes. toothbrush. read some of the past comments

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