Run and Hide (Raus)

[Kechaiya]

Timestamp: Fall 13th, 514 AV
Location: Streets of Sunset Quarter
Time of Day: Around the 11th Bell

Kechaiya was yet again in an alley covered in a stranger's blood. Fighting had been almost nonstop the past three days by all of the smaller gangs, and she was now crouched in the shade, trying to keep a man awake. His left leg was an absolute mess, everything from the knee down looked like beef that had been ground and ready to cook, though with bone mixed in. She couldn't be sure what sort of weapon caused this damage, for there were punctures, slices, but most predominant was crushing wounds. Perhaps it was a mace, spiked hammer, something along those lines. She'd already cut away much of the pant leg, and had been forced to yank pieces of cloth out of the wound. But if she didn't stop the bleeding soon, he'd be dead. And his coin purse jingled a little less, as she'd already collected her fee. It was just bad business to let a paying patient die, especially if they could get hurt again and pay once more.

She made a gut decision, and pulled out her knife, cutting a strip of cloth from the man's shirt. She quickly tied it into a single loop around the leg, just above the knee. She stuck the knife's handle into the loop, and gripped the blunt edge of the blade, and began twisting. As she twisted, the loop tightened more and more around the leg, the man howling in feral pain. He tried to reach for her, but the pain always sent him back down. Her eyes keep an eye on the mess, trying to see any sort of sign of the bleeding slowing, but she was never sure. She tightened it as much as her arms would allow, slipping the blade beneath the loop to hold it in place.

She then reached into her pack and pulled out the new bone saw she'd bought earlier for four golds. Readying herself, as she'd never done an amputation before, taking a deep breath. Placing the teeth against the skin, she pushed the saw down and forward, the man howling in pain. She had to use her other hand as both a brace, and to keep his leg from kicking around, her fingers squishing into the damaged meat, the warm blood squirting through her fingers. She pulled the saw back toward her, still only cutting through meat, struggling to keep the man still. She continued for several strokes of the saw cutting through, before it struck something hard. Taking another deep breath, she began working through the saw, noting the man's screams had stopped, probably having passed out from the pain. Her arm was beginning to tire from the sawing, but she hunkered down, trying to get through it as quickly and steadily as possible.

Eventually the saw hit ground, the leg now completely detached. Grabbing hold of it, she moved it away from the newly made stump. Her dark eyes able to see the leg like this was fascinating. She could see the differences in the bone, muscle, arteries, fat, skin, all of it. It was all absolutely amazing to Kechaiya. There was a slight trickle of blood from what appeared to be the largest of the arteries. Her tourniquet hadn't stopped the bleeding entirely and he couldn't live his life with it wrapped around his leg. Her eyes widened as she realized she'd just made a horrible mistake. She'd have to cauterize the wound before releasing the tourniquet. Her mind raced, thinking if there was anything she could use for this. Bandaging would do no good, the blood flow too heavily. There was no fire nearby, nor did she have anything to heat up. Kechaiya realized she'd just killed this man on accident.

Head hanging in shame and failure, she glanced up at the man's face. There she something curious. There was blood around the edges of his mouth. She moved closer and saw yet another mistake she'd made. Because she hadn't put anything in his mouth to bite down on, his teeth had crushed each other. Several of his molars were cracked and turned into shards. Placing a few fingers to his neck, she could barely feel a pulse. At least he'd die in unconsciousness.

"I sorry. I fail you."

With that rare admission, she packed up her gear, then loosened the tourniquet, watching the blood flow more freely now. This was a mercy, so he wouldn't wake up to the horror she'd left him in. He'd be dead before she even left the alley, his own heart pumping the blood from him.

"Wha' in the petchin' Hai di' ya do to Furry Fredo? Ya chopped his damn leg off ya black eyed bitch! You gonna pay now!"

Kechaiya looked down the alley to see a man with a rather large axe screaming at her. She immediately turned and ran, not even willing to try and explain what had happened. "Oy, don't run ya little rat!" Her pack was in her hands, not slung over her shoulders, and kept her from running full speed. She turned right at the next intersection, only to see a bunch of men fighting here. She turned back, but the man had caught up, knowing he had her trapped now. Petch. This was bad.

[Raus]

Sometimes raus really thought that whatever god was in charge of chance, fate or whatever you wanted to call it, Really really hated him. The idea was pretty stupid, no god would waste time on somebody like him. Attention of the gods wasn't wasted on scum like him. But on day's like this, he just couldn't help but wonder. Though the idea that the god just might hate an entire city and enjoyed making their lives even harder sounded a lot more plausible to him. It had started of alright, he got to work on time, the duo was also on time and didn't spend a few bells just screwing around before getting to work. In hindsight he really should have seen it coming that the rest of the day would've sucked. He had to go to the market to pick up some bloody meat since they rand out and as soon he got there everything just went to shyke. Some guy knocked over another guy, that guy screamed dhani and tried to tackle the other guy to the ground and before raus could even blink everybody was yelling, kicking people out of the way, trying to tackle the so called dhani to the ground and taking any bloody excuse to bloody some noses and let some stress go with some good old fasioned fighting. Raus usually wasn't averse to joining in on a brawl or two, but when the weapons came out this guy was going to run as hard as he bloody could. He liked everything in the right place and all the blood inside of him. Thank you very much. He ducked through the crowd, his very small size for once working to his advantage as he managed to be overlooked for the most part. With the occasional jab in the ribs to make some room so he could get out of this bloody brawl before he got a blade in his flesh. He stumbled out of the brawl and into a nearby alley. Only for the short bit of relief to fall when he saw that at the end of the alley there was a man with a very large and very sharp looking axe in his hand and he looked pissed. He looked around and saw a foreign looking woman, some blood splatters on her. Seemed like the guy with the axe was pissed of at her. Good for him then he could just run past him and get the hell out of this bloody mess. Leaving her to die. He tried not to give a damn about the fact the woman would end up being chopped to bits within a chime or so as he ran past the man who was focused on the woman. But it kept nagging at the back of his head. He scowled and skidded to a halt a pace behind the man with the axe. If he didn't do this his mind wasn't gonna leave him alone about leaving somebody to die. He slipped out of his coat, grabbed it with two hands and closed in on the man from behind, with a small jump he pulled the coat over the guy's face. “O...P..tc.” The guy screamed in surprise. Raus kept part of his coat in his hands. Twisted the arms together in the hope it wouldn't fall of immediately as soon as he let go and kicked the man as hard as he could in the back of his knees knocking him over. He then looked towards the woman. “Run!” He yelled at her as he started running to the other end of the alley. Already mentally cursing himself for the fact he just jumped into a beehive for no bloody reason at all. There was a yell from behind them. “Don't let the rats run!” The man yelled as both of them ended were at the end of the alley. So the guy finally had gotten rid of the distraction. Quicker then he had hoped. Raus quickly looked at where he could run. From the left there was a guy coming their way. Wielding a nasty looking knife. There were a few junctions down that way that led away from the market, towards neutral territory. If he remembered right at least. He didn't quite remember who was in control of whatever place the right led to. But it couldn't be worse then a knife in the stomach. “To the right. Left side has one of his friends” He simply said to the woman and quickly pointed out the knifewielder. Now that he looked again. That guy wasn't the only one coming at them.

[Kechaiya]

Kech, and her attacker both stopped briefly, watching some idiot just run by as if they couldn't see him. Was this guy just an idiot or blind? As he passed her attacker, her eyes met the fiery ones in front of hers. He let loose a guttural growl, axe raised, stepping in her direction. Then there was cloth over the man's face surprising them both. The axeman collapsed, and there was the passing idiot atop of him. Who the petch was this fool?

But she took the advice he yelled out, and hauled her little ass past the temporarily disabled oaf and his own impromptu attacker. Arms pumping, she took the path of least resistance by simply going forward as fast as she could manage. She hadn't even seen the knife wielder, just fleeing like an arrow from a bow. Only as she passed the intersection had she heard him yell at her to run right. Petching Hai! Stopping suddenly put a twinge in her knees, she turned and made her way back, going down the road he'd indicated. Looking over her shoulder, she saw a whole pack of scary men. That gave her arms a little more pump, her legs a little more swiftness.

This was Sunset Quarter, she knew it like the back of her hand. This eastward route would eventually wind its way to the bay. Her own home was in the north. She'd have to lose them before she could go home. But her burning lungs, and another over shoulder glance that showed the men closing the gap, told her that outrunning wasn't an option. Despite the shortages and violence, the many of the docks were teeming with people. She was running in her companion's wake, and her breath was coming shorter now. Trying to yell, but not loud enough for their pursuers to hear, "Docks!"

[Raus]

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Raus heard the girl yell docks at him. He didn't know if the goon's that ware hot on their heel had managed to hear it. But he wasn't gonna think about that at the moment. Take problems one at a time. Finding a place to run to first, losing those goons later. But the docks sounded like a half decent place. He just hoped there weren't any bloody water snakes still crawling around in the place. Those things really gave him the creeps.

“Gotcha.” He wheezed back. Not really giving a damn if the goon's could hear him. Again, taking problem's one at a time. He gave a quick look over his shoulder, the woman was slightly behind him and she was starting to struggle already. Petch, did he save a woman who was already exhausted? He still had enough in him to run to the docks as long as those armed goons kept chasing them. He wasn't sure if she could though and those bastards where quickly gaining on the both of them, in the distance he could even hear the screaming of that guy with the large axe, he wasn't quite sure. But whoever it was really sounded pissed and was rapidly coming closer.

They both ran into the quieter part of the market place, no outbreak of violence here. Though with the goons in tow Raus didn't know if that was gonna last. Another quick look over his shoulder. The goons were getting closer and closer.

“Petch this.” He muttered as he slowed down till he was slightly behind the foreign woman. He wasn't quite sure how to explain the plan quick enough without tipping the other guy's off.
“Keep running.” He said a last time as he went to the side of the street. Towards a stall filled with a bunch of cheap looking trinkets and other things he didn't recognize. He had seen many a street their do this in the years he had been living. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. But with so many people around on the cusp of breaking out in a riot. Well the odds probably were in his favor.. probably.

He kicked one of the legs from out underneath the stall. It shuddered and dangerously leaned towards one corner.

“The petch are you doing!” The merchant screamed and moved towards him. Just as her single guard did the same. Not in time for raus to give the wonky stall another harsh kick and the entire stall toppled, the merchandise and some of her money rolling all through the street. People started to dive for the money and things they thought could fence of later. Some guy's went after the thieves. Some people fought back. Raus felt somebody grip his shoulder. He quickly twister around with a snarl and punched the woman who had grabbed him right in the nose. She cried in pain and let go. Raus began to run once more. The screaming and other sounds of a brawl starting up behind him. He just hoped it would slow down their pursuers. He gave a quick glance over his back. The fighting already in full swing and whinced slightly at the few stalls that ended up toppled over as well. This plan just might have gone a bit to well. He probably should stay away from the market for a few day's at the very least. That merchant was sure to remember him for a while.

He quickened up the pace, he sure as hell didn't want one of the guards to get out of that mess and start chasing them both. He caught up fairly quickly to the woman. Trailing behind a bit as he felt his legs starting to burn. Luckely it wasn't that long anymore before they would reach the outskirts of the docks in just a few more moments. They could hide in the crowd, or even underneath the piers, there.

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[Kechaiya]

Petching Hai, her chest burned something fierce. It felt constricting, like her lungs were too big for her chest. She heard her companion's response and she was trying her best to keep up with him. Her arms pumped, albeit a bit wildly and flailing like. Her legs were struggling to stay beneath her, her thighs and lower back burning. Running petching sucked. She watched him slow down significantly, until she was out in front. She looked back, wondering if he'd hurt himself or something. She heard him tell her to continue, so facing forward, she attempted to redouble her efforts, pumping that much harder, breath coming that much quicker. If he wanted her to leave him to die, she was more than happy to oblige, even if he'd come back for her earlier.

She heard a loud crash from behind, but refused to look behind her. A stitch was forming in her side, and she was definitely beginning to slow. As she entered the docks road she began looking for places to hide. A small woman like her would stick out among the workers, and the crowds weren't that thick. She slowed to a jog, and she began weaving through the many laborers hauling supplies and trade goods. She ducked under a large crate that two men were carrying, who began swearing momentarily. She made her way to a dock that had two ships on either side, collapsing behind a crate, hands on her head, wheezing, trying to get her breath back.

She began looking around her, seeing the two gangplanks. This brought back memories of her days as a stowaway. She didn't want to go back to that, she could already feel her body slipping into the anxiety at the thought. She couldn't swim, so that was out. "Find them! They couldn't have made it far!" She was looking for her companion, but the sea of legs and crates made it difficult.

[Raus]

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Date

The woman had already gotten a good head start thanks to the brawl he had started behind him. Now he just had the small problem of getting out of dodge before those thugs got through the brawl and were able to chase him again. He darted away from the place of his crime as fast as his legs could carry him. Trying to keep an eye on the woman who was running ahead of him and ducked around people and obstacles. He put more effort into trying to keep up. Gritting his teeth hard as a stabbing pain came in his side and some part of him just wanted to stop running and give his legs a rest already. The threat of a knife in his chest however was a wonderful incentive to ignore that part of his brain and keep running.

He almost lost the woman a few times in the crowd, but she left a long enough trail of cursing men behind that he was able to follow. He was pretty lucky she looked fairly exotic and had slowed down a lot as well. Making keeping track of her in the crowd just hard instead of completely impossible. He finally reached the crate's she had doven behind and took cover himself. Breathing heavily and his legs felt like they were on fire. He just tried to steady his breathing as he listened for anything that was coming closer. He scowled as he could hear the loud voice of that axeman yelling to his underlings that he needed to be found. At least they were safe for now and he was gonna use that time to try and get his breath back at the very least.

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[Kechaiya]

He companion had finally caught up, picking her hiding spot as well, breathing just as heavily as her. She allowed herself nearly a half chime to get the rest of her breath, before peering out from behind the crate. The men were systematically checking behind crates and other gear at the docks, working their way to them. They were hemmed in, and there was no way to escape simply by running, and she had no intention of fighting them unless there was nothing else. Options and time were quickly running out. She quickly ran through the equipment she had on hand, wondering if any of it would be of use. Her pack had her healer's kit, full of salves and bandages, her herbalism kit had a wide variety of cutting and digging tools and pouches of herbs. Her sewing kit just had needles and thread, then there were her three skins, two with water, one each of salt and fresh, and one with wine.

Thinking back to what had started all of this, she tried to look at the situation from her attacker's stance. A black eyed, tanned skin woman in a dark cloak with a pack. Peering out again, she saw they weren't checking the people that walked by, perhaps assuming their prey would stick out. But perhaps they needed to blend in. Immediately going with that line of thought, she pulled her pack from her shoulders and removed her cloak. Scrambling into her pack, she pulled out a bandage, and used it to quickly tie her dark hair, normally left to tumble on her shoulders as it saw fit, up into a pony tail. She stuffed her cloak into her pack and passed it to the man. After all, they were looking for a woman with a pack. They really didn't have time for her to explain the plan, so she hoped he would just pick up on it. They hadn't heard her talk yet either, so there was that advantage.

She waited on her companion to prepare himself when she another element to this disguise she could use. Near them there was a coil of rope that looked rather cumbersome. Getting on her knees, she picked it up, struggling a bit, and put her right arm through it so it rested on her shoulder. This way if she walked past them, and kept them on the right hand side of her, she could keep her face, and more importantly her eyes obscured. Taking in a deep breath, she stood up from behind the crate, praying to any god that would listen for this to work. She could see the men were quite close now, and slowly, so as to not attract undue attention, moved to the left side of the dock, keeping her head down, as she started forward, hoping to slip past undetected, as well as her companion would be equally successful. If she lost her pack, she lost everything.

[Raus]

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Date

Raus breathed in deeply, trying to get himself back on his feet for another run or fight if the hiding plan didn't pan out. He cursed himself for the fact he didn't know how to swim well, that would have been a great way to get out of there. Maybe if he could climb down the end side of the pier he could hide down there for a while anyway? A quick glance over the side however threw out that idea. The boat anchored to the pier was swaying on the waves, occasionally pushing against the pier. He didn't want to get crushed into ground meat between there. He gave a glance to the woman, seeing if she had any ideas. The woman was quickly using bandages and whatever was around to disguise herself as one of the sailors

That was a brilliant idea. Raus wondered why he didn't think of that but shoved that out of his mind. First he had to figure out a way to disguise himself. He quickly tried to think of anything that made him stand out.. His height, or more importantly his lack of it, but he wasn't able to do anything about that.. He looked around at the sailor's who were working all around their ships. Giving them all a look over, trying to figure out how he could disguise himself a bit more like those people. He saw a few bandanna's, most of them weren't wearing a lot of heavy clothes. So he would have to ditch the coat somehow. That was probably why the woman handed him her backpack. It was a pretty noticeable thing on her. Not having that with her would throw them off unless they were looking well.

He looked around for something he could reuse as a bandanna and ripped off part of a large piece of cloth draped over the crate he had been hiding behind. He awkwardly wrapped it around his head in a bandanna like shape before he shrugged of his coat and tied it around his waist. Then he put the backpack the woman gave him on his back. He hoped he looked superficially different enough from who they had seen a while back that they would ignore him. Granted, he probably looked rather strange since none of the other sailors were wearing backpacks. But it wasn't a rare thing in this city. Seeing as the woman grabbed a roll of rope to seem busy, raus grabbed a small crate that didn't seem to weigh to much and followed the woman. Trying to look downwards so the clumsy bandanna would cover his face.

“Oi! What, you two going with our stuff.” A thickly accented voice yelled out. Raus turned around and looked up at a thin and gangly sailor only a few years older then him at the most.

“Put back stuff now.” The sailor threatened in his thickly accented common. As far as he could see nobody else was paying attention to them for now, only this sailor had seen it. But he doubted that would last. “You to woman.”

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[Kechaiya]

She looked over and saw her companion in a disguise of his own, her pack upon his back. That was good, she'd take her chances with the waters if it meant keeping her pack. Head down, she kept a steady pace, nearly parallel with the men searching for them. Then she heard a sailor yell out, and knew it to be for them. It seemed as if the disguise might be good for the pursuers, but not the sailors and dockhands that worked day in and day out on these docks. She didn't stop moving, made it seem as if his words didn't apply to her. But when he said the word woman, she reacted.

Turning as if nothing were amiss, she saw the attackers moving between crates. She turned, looking at the sailor, and nodded, being able to see the pursuers checking around the crates. Slowly she walked over toward the men, whose backs were to her, and started swinging the bundle back and forth. It was heavy and was throwing her off balance. The man that had spotted them yelled again, "Wha' in bloody Hai ya doin bitch?" When she felt she had enough momentum, the men turned and saw her just as she let go of the coil. It through her off balance and she fell backwards hard on her rump, watching as the rope collided with two of the three. One was hit full on and was knocked into the water amidst a flurry of swears. Another had been clipped and tossed into the crate, while the third was behind the crates entirely. The rope fell to the dock, and tangled in feet for a bit. Kechaiya looked to her companion, "Run!"

Kechaiya scrambled to her feet and took off yet again. She was getting awfully petching tired of running. Sprinting through the crowd, she turned southward, following the natural flow of the crowd. Cutting down an alley, she waited, hoping her companion had seen her and would catch up. She waited, for she wanted her pack back, and they needed a way to shake these men for good. They needed a plan.

[Raus]

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Date
Raus didn't have a clue what the woman was doing, walking around him and the sailor without saying a word. He did notice three of their pursuers searching around the crates on the pier and the woman was walking right at them. The petch was she doing? The sailor wasn't amused as well as he called out and started to walk towards her with murder in his eyes. Especially when she suddenly started to swing with the bundle of rope. It clicked in his mind what she wanted to do. He could work with that. Before the sailor could get another peep out of him raus dropped the crate, stepped up towards the sailor, grabbed him by the pants and his vest. Ignoring the yell of alarm he gathered whatever strenght he hadn't yet used with running away and with a hard pull to the side he shoved the sailor into the water with a loud splash. Not moments after that the woman let go of the rope and knocked another of those gangers in the water and knocked over another one.

She then turned around and Raus didn't have to be told twice. He quickly followed her as they both darted through the crowd. He following her so he didn't have to much trouble with pushing people out of his way because of his height. After another stint of running they came to a stop in another alley. He was breathing heavily as he leaned on his knees for a bit to get his breath back. He hadn't ran this much since he had been a kid running from a beating. They really had to shake these bastards before things went to bad. He held out the pack to the woman when she held out her hand for it. After that he leaned against the wall of the alley. Just trying to catch his breath.

“I'm not gonna keep running for long. Doubt you're up for it either.” Raus simply stated as he looked around the alley and peeked around the corner to see if those ganger's where coming. If they just didn't have weapons, then he could have gone fist to fist and see who came out on top. Still even he wasn't hotheaded enough to put bare fists against cold steel. Raus scratched his head. All his ideas pretty much came down to that. Beat them down.
“I'm coming up blank for a plan. Ya got anthing?”

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