A Day in the Life of a Sunberth Courier (Solo)

by **Shadowfang** on April 2nd, 2012, 3:08 am

31st of Spring 512AV

Shadowfang left the Establishment with his new daggers and the letter that Tua had given to him. It seems that he would just be a courier for the weird little man. It was probably best to heed his advice and keep grounded instead of taking to the air. He sighed and closed his eyes. At the very least, it was now almost evening so he would not have to stand the heat and brightness for very much longer. Still, it would be best to get his employer a reply before night fell. Shadowfang folded the letter up and put it in his pouch, sheathed his daggers by his side - throwing daggers on his right side next to his Assassin's dagger, the dagger Tua had given him on his left - and began jogging towards the orphanage.

Running was not his strong suit and he quickly felt his body begin to tire. Luckily, the orphanage was not a very great distance from his current position, so it would not be too difficult to get the letter there. No sooner had he thought the word "difficult," then someone slammed into his back, knocking him off balance and causing him to stumble. "Sorry!" the cloaked man yelled and continued running. Shadowfang regained his balance and continued his jog. He rubbed his ribs where the man had run into him and brought his hand back down to the pack... only to discover that the pack was gone! This had been a run-of-the-mill pickpocket, except it had not been in the least bit subtle.

Angry, he sprinted after the cloaked man. That pack had everything in it; his money, his journal, and most importantly the letter. He needed to get that bag back. He chased the thief through alley after alley. He was much faster than Shadowfang and he would have gotten away. Would have. As Shadowfang turned another corner, the thief was already out of sight. Then, Shadowfang's sensitive ears picked up sounds of a struggle, a yell, and a thud. He slowed to a stop, curious and wary of what had happened, and placed his hands on his knees, trying to regain his breath.

Quietly, he crept forward toward the corner. However, he wasted no time in doing so, sacrificing a bit of silence for speed. He peeked his head around the corner and what his eyes beheld was proof of what had happened. The thief was lying on the ground in the middle of the dusty alley, his cloak still on, the contents of a pack spread all over the ground. He hesitantly crept towards the thief, crouching low and moving slowly. Though his face was deadpan, he felt nervous. Was the their simply murdered or looted too; and did he still have Shadowfang's pack, or was he just faking it? He dropped to his knees next to the cloaked figure and nudged him. The cloak covering his chest fell to the side, revealing deep, still bleeding wounds gouged into his flesh and bones. The metallic smell of blood and death wafted into Shadowfang's nostrils. He thief had most certainly been murdered.

by **Shadowfang** on April 4th, 2012, 6:31 am

For a second or two, Shadowfang could only stare at the deep wounds in the young man's chest. This was certainly a surprising occurrence. Regaining his composure, he began to look around the corpse. The pack and contents that was spread all over the ground was not his. There was some moldy bread, many surgical bandages and wrappings, and a scrap of paper; all contents of the thief's pack, all useless. His own pack must have been taken by whoever killed the thief. He must have looked through both and decided that Shadowfang's had more valuable items in it.

Shadowfang closed his eyes, held his breath, and listened. He strained, trying his hardest to detect anything that could lead him to his missing pack. "Yeah, he pretty much ran into my axe. It was like he petchin' wanted to die."There was muffled laughter from another source then the voice began speaking again. "Got some damn good loot from the kid, too." There! That was what he needed to hear. His pack was in the possession of whoever killed the thief. Shadowfang took off the dead man's cloak and his own jacket. He put the jacket on the dead man and placed the cloak around himself. He was about to walk right into the building the voice was coming from, but caught sight of the bandages and had another idea instead. If people saw him, they would tell others that there was a Zith sprinting around Sunberth. At the very least, Shadowfang could cause some confusion about which Zith was running around.

Dropping the cloak for a moment, he picked up the bandages and went to work, wrapping them around his nose and mouth, chest, and stomach. He only barely had enough to wrap around his right forearm to add to the old bandages already on his left. As he wrapped, he listened. The voices had become muffled, but they were still there. He stood up and donned the cloak. The bandages covered up most of his fur; on his nose and mouth and chest mostly, and with the cloak covering his wings, he would look like an old hunch-back leper at first glance. As long as the hooded cloak kept his red eyes shadowed, he should be fine.

He followed the still speaking voices to a partially destroyed little house. He sat there wand listened for a bit. The two voices had quieted down a bit but were still there in the innards of the house, but Shadowfang still stood still, listening as hard as he could. Achoo! A sneeze, much closer than the other two voices. Shadowfang was not sure, but he thought that the noise meant there were only three people in the house, and one of them had his bag. He looked at the gaping hole where the window of the house used to be. It was easy access. Very safe-looking and silent. That was the way he was not supposed to go. He'd have to find a more difficult, less likely to be guarded entrance.

by **Shadowfang** on April 9th, 2012, 6:12 am

He skirted around the building, crouching around the corner and into a small alleyway. There was another smashed out window almost directly around the corner. Shadowfang peeked over the windowsill. Sure enough, there was a man sitting in a chair - an armed guard - facing the broken wall. There was a hallway leading deeper into the house to the man's left, but there was no way that Shadowfang could sneak into the corridor. He'd have to use the training he had received from Zandelia. Hopefully, he could remember exactly how to do it.

He thought a quick prayer to Akajia and lifted himself onto the window and prepared to drop down to the floor a few feet below. He lowered himself as slowly and quietly as he possibly could. Thump! "Hmmm?" No good. He was simply too heavy and not nearly good enough to drop even that small distance silently. He acted quickly, jumping forward towards the chair, reaching his hand out towards the guard. By the time the guard had turned around, Shadowfang had his claws against one of the only unprotected spots in the man's armor, his throat. He hoped to the gods that he had grabbed a hold of the sweet spot that Zandelia had shown him, and squeezed. His claws pierced the man's windpipe and Shadowfang heard a quick, sucking intake of air, then a muffled gurgling sound. The guard, unable to speak, began beating him with one arm, while trying to grab his sword with the other. The blows made plenty of noise as well as hurting worse than anything.

Shadowfang put his free hand on the man's sword arm, trying his hardest to keep the blade in its sheath, and pulled with his other hand. He felt his claws tear through the guard's windpipe and his struggles became weaker. Shadowfang finished it with a final yank, partially ripping the guard's throat out. He slumped over and went still, bleeding from the neck. The scuffle had caused quite a bit of noise so Shadowfang froze and listened once more. There was a laugh from a room within the house. Good. They did not appear to have heard the noise. Shadowfang crouched low, trying his bast to silence his footsteps once more, and crept into the hallway.

He followed the noises past to the end of the short corridor and paused. Rounding the corner would be tantamount to suicide, one of the two voices would see him. He looked around for anything he could use to find a vantage point. As it turned out, he was leaning against his answer. A door to his right was hanging, leading to a small room adjacent to the room the two thugs were in. He wiggled his way in, trying not to nudge the creaky door, and lay down on the ground in the small space. There was a single stone missing from the bottom of the wall and, if Shadowfang positioned his head just right, he could barely make out one foot standing in the other room. He had to think quick about how to incapacitate at least one of the thugs before he tried to retrieve the bag that he thought was in the room.

The answer presented itself right in front of him once more. He looked down at the bandages covering his body and remembered the power he possessed. It was decided, after this little trick, he would only have one opponent to worry about. Briefly, he wondered if he could make a portal large enough. He extended a hand toward the hole and concentrated on the area under the foot. He focused as hard as he could manipulating the djed, trying to make the portal grow as big as he could get it. After a good forty seconds of intense concentration, a small black hole appeared under the man's foot and expanded, pulling the the foot into it's dark depths. The foot and most of the leg fell through the portal, getting stuck just above the knee. The man let out a satisfying shriek of fear and pain, his leg now effectively stuck in the floor. The other one was yelling and cursing, equally surprised by the recent event. This was his chance. Shadowfang stood and grew the first weapon he grabbed, one of his throwing daggers and charged out the door, abandoning all attempts at stealth, ready to fight whoever came his way.

by **Shadowfang** on April 17th, 2012, 6:33 am

He barged through the door and around the corner, knife in hand. His eyes confirmed what his ears had heard. There were two men, one with a club, panicking and yelling gibberish, the other, the axe wielder, was screaming louder than his partner. Understandable, seeing that the axe wielder's leg had halfway disappeared into the the floor. Shadowfang drew his arm back and threw his throwing dagger with all his might. The only problem was, he had no earthly idea of how to properly use a throwing dagger. He let go too late and the dagger bounced uselessly off the floor a few feet in front of him. The sound caused the club wielder to notice him and he quickly put two and two together.

"You! You did-!" He did not have time to finish as Shadowfang drew his other two throwing daggers and threw them in quick succession. Neither of those two daggers fared much better than the first one, missing both targets wide. The man with the club quickly reacted, leaving his friend behind to attack Shadowfang. The Zith drew his Assassin's dagger and thrust it forward, attacking in turn. The club swung upward and knocked the dagger from Shadowfang's hands. The club then swung to the side and hit him in the area between his ribs and his hip. He hissed at the pain and leapt back, getting out of the way of the man's next swing. Clutching his bruising side, he drew his last resort, the dagger that Tua had given him, and kept slinking back, dodging the club's wide swings.

He backed into the hallway as the man's club came down again. This swing struck him on the left forearm. Luckily, that was the numb arm, but he could feel his entire arm tingle from the force of the blow. Shadowfang leapt into the room he had been in when he opened the void and forced the door closed. Before it closed completely, the advancing club hit it and bounced off. Now was his chance! He attacked while the club wielder was still half-stunned by the hit against the door. He slashed with the dagger, slicing the man's forearm. He screamed and dropped the club, and Shadowfang took this second chance. He ran into the hallway and thrust his dagger at the man. The blade sank into the man's gut and gave a wet squelch as Shadowfang pulled it out and stabbed again. The man was thrashing, kicking, punching, anything that might keep the Zith from killing him. It was a futile attempt. Shadowfang pulled the dagger out again and stabbed a final time. The man twitched, then went still.

Shadowfang sheathed the dagger and walked into the room once more. There, on the table, was his pack, its contents spread all over the surface. He quickly went to work, gathering his four dropped daggers and stuffing his money, the letter, his journal, and everything else he found into his pack. He turned and looked at the axe-wielder, still with one leg lodged firmly in the floor. The man was blubbering, crying in fear and pain. Understandable. The Void was not a pleasant place, even if you could not see inside it. Shadowfang felt that he should at least help the man before he continues on his way. He positioned himself behind the man and practiced another one of Zandelia's methods taught to him. One hand he placed on the man's jawline, the other he place on the side of the man's face. With one quick motion, he violently twisted the man's head. There was a loud snap, like the crack of a whip, and the man was put out of his misery.

by **Shadowfang** on April 22nd, 2012, 11:20 pm

Bang! Bang! Bang!

He knocked on the door to the orphanage as hard as he could, urging whoever was inside to answer. The door opened to reveal a very short woman standing there and looking up at him. "Yes?" She did not seem at all intimidated by the six foot tall, bandaged, cloaked figure standing at the door. He simply pulled the letter out and held it out to her in answer to her question. She took it from him and examined it. "Ah. Tua, eh?" She opened it and began reading. "Hold on just a moment." She closed the door and Shadowfang stood and waited, staring at the door. After a short while, the door opened again and the woman handed him a different letter, this one unsealed. "Thanks." she said as a final goodbye. He silently accepted the letter from her, turned, and began jogging back towards the establishment.

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"What took you so long?" Tua said. Shadowfang, breathing heavily with his hands on his knees, simply drew the blade that Tua had given him, showing him the blood still lingering on the blade. The man simply nodded and took the letter from Shadowfang. "Ah! Excelent! Good work! I'll expect you here bright and early tomorrow!" Shadowfang took off the cloak and handed int to the little man. "Store this here for me, if you can. I'll be using it when I deliver more of your letters." With that he turned and left, his head filled with the thought that a nap would be excellent compensation for all his trouble.

ClothesThe jacked has been discarded and the cloak will be kept at Tua's for use on jobs. That is, of course, if you don't decide to make the man sell it. >.>

by **Archelon** on May 22nd, 2012, 4:24 am

Thread Award

"..."

And the Results!!!!:

Shadowfang :

Would you like some extra turtle sauce ? :