Three Parts Good Day, One Part Bad Company (Leigo)

[Aehra]

21st of Summer, 512 AV Aehra sat on the warm stone path, out of the way of the occasional drifter that happened by. It was a beautiful day-- in her opinion, the best day she'd had all season-- with sunlight that was comforting rather than suffocating, fluffed clouds sparsely decorating the vast blue expanse of the sky, and mercifully gentle winds that cooled Aehra's warming skin as they brushed past. She leaned back against the outer wall of a waterfront store, turning her face towards the sun and letting herself soak in the light. From a ways ahead, the gentle rocking of waves lapping softly at sand washed over her, accompanied by the even softer creak of moving ships at the docks, farther away. Aehra sat with her legs splayed out in front of her, and she held in her lap a small copper pin. Its shape was twisted and contorted, with the silhouette of a wing, but its insides being a maze of interwoven lines, and at the base sat a very small blue gem; its shape was one that Aehra had memorized from a very young age, but she absently ran the pad of her thumb over its planes as though she thought that there might be some new crevice which she had not yet discovered. The sounds, the sun, the familiar feeling of her pin in her hand-- it wasn't very difficult at all for her to doze into a light sleep, in the midday sun. She drifted in and out of consciousness rather like the tide, and as such had very little sense of time. At some point, the feeling of small, grubby fingers digging into the palm of her hands began to rouse her from her state, but it wasn't until the fingers disappeared and took the weight of her pin with them that she snapped her eyes open. A little boy knelt beside her, with big green eyes and a button nose, and he was clutching her pin-- her pin-- underneath his dirt-dusted chin. He sucked in a sharp breath, turned, and quickly fled down and turned onto a street, disappearing from Aehra's view. Whether it was shock at being so easily robbed or her lingering drowsiness that kept her from immediately pursuing him, Aehra had no idea. Quite suddenly, her father's face flashed before her eyes, smiling and laughing as he told her for what must have been the hundredth time the story behind the pin, her father's pin, and a surge of energy shot through her limbs. "Little snake!" She shrieked, and shot down the path after him. She turned down the corner, searching for any glimpse of the young thief. All was still for a moment, and then-- There!-- he turned, farther up ahead. She raced after him, slowing quickly when she heard raised voices that certainly belonged to people older than the child that'd taken her pin. She peeked around the corner to see a group of four or five young people, all looking to be in early adulthood (with the exception being her own personal thief). They were laughing among themselves, and when the little boy raced up to one of the women, she cooed proudly at him and took Aehra's pin. The woman's laugh redoubled, drifting in the light wind, and she tossed it to a man standing across the group, who caught it deftly and juggled it between his hands with a smirk. The boy to his right said something, and the one holding her pin barked out a harsh laugh before tossing the copper wing to another girl, and Aehra saw red. She tensed, ready to rush into the group to get her pin back, when a girl ran to the group, grinning excitedly. She held her hand out proudly, but whatever it was that she had (had stolen, likely) was blocked from view by someone's back. Aehra frowned as the group greeted her much the same way as they had the little boy, and began tossing the two items around the group, laughing amongst themselves as they juggled their stolen goods.

[Leigo]

“I can’t help you! Deal with your own problems!” Leigo was as loud as he intended to be, even if it made a couple of the neighboring tables to cringe their teeth in disapproval. The girl that pulled him by the hand started to sulk and as her finger slowly slid off his, she walked away. No one ever noticed anything. Well, no one of this world. The ring, Leigo… Ha? She just took your ring… Seemingly disappointed with the boy’s lacking powers of observation, the familiar fell quiet quickly. It did its job, and now it was Leigo’s turn to do his. He needed to catch that little bitch and get back his heirloom. Before he even knew it, he was running. People soon started to move out of the way just by the stomping of his enraged footsteps. The girl was visible again. Unluckily for her, she wasn’t quite as fast as she hoped to be. As he ran, Leigo wanted to yell someone to stop that thieving whore, but he couldn’t for multiple reasons. First, he really didn’t want to be indebted to anyone and second, he was quite likely the bad guy here; at least to the majority of the population. Still, he wanted to hurt that thieving… he wanted to hurt her so bad. The day was complicated enough even without people like her stealing his things. She strolled into an alley for which Leigo knew had only one exit. And so he rushed after her, but before he could stop himself, he was faced with many more. There must’ve been at least five of them from what the boy could tell, and they were all looking at him. His momentarily fear of being outnumbered withered quite quickly as he remembered just who he was and just who they were. Leigo, you might want to retreat for now… they got the ring, yes. We can track them though and steal it back. Everything Onuo said made sense, but the blond was much too angry to react to any of it properly. Instead, he simply hissed for apparently no reason – not that the thieves could tell – and setting Onuo in his pocket, he pulled his hands behind the back. Djed circulated quicker than expected and it was soon exhausted as res behind his back. A strange gassy substance started filling up both his palms. Even long before he asked his question, he knew he’d like the answer… even if they wouldn’t. “Come now, slowly” he started “give back my ring and no one gets hurt!” by the looks of them; they were much like him – too arrogant to back down. Too confident in their numeral superiority to consider any other factors, they stepped forward. He thought he could hear them mumbling something about good fortunes and how they could get some more out of him before their interactions concluded. Yet, he couldn’t make any of it out because of Onuo, who simply announced a somewhat protesting note. If there’s too many, I’ll have to help. And if I help, you’ll have to kill them. It was a simple statement, one that might abhor Leigo at times, but now it sounded strangely appealing, tempting even. Whatever their decision was, he could deal with it – but could they?

[Aehra]

Aehra shook herself in surprised when the tall-- whoah, really tall-- blonde boy barreled past her, straight into the alleyway without so much as a hint of recognition. She pressed herself against the wall, making sure that she couldn't be seen from in the alley. Luckily, the boy's blatant threat was all too easy to hear from her position, and Aehra's eyebrows shot up at his confidence. The corner of her mouth twitched in an aborted grin. She weighed the options back-and-forth, silently: she could rush into the alley with the blonde boy and hope that the thieves would back off and give them their possessions (for she was sure, now, that whatever the young girl had stolen belonged to the new arrival), or she could rush into the alley with the blonde boy and hope that they could take on a group of five or six thieves who probably had a little fighting experience. She danced between the two briefly before settling concisely on It's going to start out the same either way, we'll figure out how it ends eventually and swinging into the alley. She opened her mouth to speak, painting her face in as thick a layer of easy confidence as she could manage, but her eyes were caught where the blonde boy's hands are crossed at his back. She furrowed her brow, not realizing how very visible she was at that moment; there was something strange, something not quite right about his hands, or the air around them, but before she could give it any proper thought, she was interrupted by one of the thieves. "Aye, girlie, you can stare atche' boyfriend's ass some other time, yeah? He's got 'imself in quite the situation, so if you could scoot your pretty little self out of here, we'd really appreciate it." It was enough to get Aehra's attention away from the boy's hands and up to the thieves, where the speaker was leering at her. She bit back a shiver, making sure to hold eye contact with him. "You lot've got somethin' of mine, actually. You give it back now, and--" She shrugged and grinned. "Well, you heard 'im." Apparently, her words weren't enough to hold them at bay, and the closest boy stepped forward, swinging wildly at the blonde boy on Aehra's left.

[Leigo]

Leigo thought he could see something moving in the corner of his eyes yet he simply wrote it off as insignificant. That is until one of the thieves denoted this newcomer’s presence. The res behind his hands pooled bigger and bigger and before long he had to split the cloud in two in order to keep control of it. Giving this girl a long glare, he wasn’t quite sure if he should ask her to leave or she would get that one herself. As the thief tried to push her away for her own good, he had no idea just how right he was. Still, Leigo didn’t want to use magic in front of people he had no intention of harming – after all witnesses were always a shady matter. He wanted to repeat what the thieving bastard exclaimed, but too late, the girl already offered to step in. And just in time, he thought as the two ellipsoid shapes in his hands slowly stared transmuting to fire at the edges. Rocks might have been better suited for brute force, but every creature feared fire to an extent, and Leigo needed any advantage he could get. Letting the outer brims burn fully, he could feel heat rising in his palms, yet he waited for that one step that would push him far enough to stop considering it and actually do this. And there he was, only one, the blond thought as one of the thieves began to swing at him. Without dodging this reckless attacker, the boy simply reached out his right arm so quickly that not even he could definitely decide where the ball would land. What he did manage however was to ignite the entire form from the inside out before it left his control. It took some concentration, but he made it just in time to see an average sized fireball perch itself just below his attacker’s neck. What came next wasn’t pretty, but he was prepared for that part of the package. Scream like sounds filled the air and the smell of burning flesh irritated the nostrils. Raising his foot, the boy kicked his enemy backwards to get a safe distance from the flames. Holding out his now empty hand, the ever calm voice repeated adding a dire undertone. He knew he had their attention currently after all. “The ring and no one dies…” he let his sentence slide off without a proper ending. They could each pick an equally horrific one for their own selves should they try to defy him again. Looks like I won’t need your help after all. The boy was smug, but the most Onuo could reply with was restraint. We’ll see. Now pool some more res into that hand, not only will it scare them, but it will also give us some more fighting power if they start being vengeful. Obeying his companion’s thoughts, Leigo started pooling more res in his right hand. A strange hunger was beginning to set into his stomach, and a trembling too, perhaps. Trying to reshape the new cloud, he knew the one behind his back wouldn’t last much longer. It would be ideal if he didn’t have to use it, but after seeing what he did to one of them and how long it actually takes to produce just one such weapon, the boy hardly believed in such luck.

[Aehra]

The group before them seemed to waver, and Aehra found herself wondering whose side she should be on. There was no mistaking that the blonde boy had something (a ring, she thought) stolen from him, and only wanted it back, but... But still, she shivered. The small fire flashed before her eyes again and again, blazing bright and small where it had contacted the thief's neck; still, she could feel a lingering warmth tingling in her cheeks, put there by the fire that had come into life hardly a foot from her own face; the thief's scream of pain still echoed in her ears. Her mind was stuck on a nonsensical loop-- wizard, wizard, danger, magic, mother, magic, fire, fire, fire-- and she could do little else but stare in awe and fear at a gift she had thought to be marvelous being used in such a terrible way. One of the thieves' voices cut through her daze. "Take 'is girl, then, wouldn't want us hurtin' 'is girl." Aehra realized almost too late that they meant her, that they thought she was this wizard's 'girl'. One of them made to approach her, and she twisted away from his clumsy grip, almost distractedly. She honestly didn't pay as much thought to the thieves, as she met the blonde boy's eyes for a split second and was greeted with a cold glare. She suddenly felt swallowed by confusion, suffocating in wave upon wave of fear and the unknown, and she longed for the comforting feel of her pin's copper warming as she rubbed her thumb along its ridges; it would have been a welcome change from this chilling fright. Aehra forced her focus away from the wizard and onto the thief that was still attempting to grab her as some misguided attempt at gaining leverage. The man was shorter than her, a bit thinner, and very much abstaining from using magic against her. She breathed a quick sigh of relief. This? This, she could handle. When the thief attempted to reach around and clutch at her hair, she smacked his hand away and dove forward, catching his chin as she swung her fist upward. She gripped his shoulder tightly with her other hand and brought her knee up with as much force as she could muster, digging into his stomach. The man dropped to the ground with a groan. Aehra looked up at the group of thieves to take inventory: two down, one on the floor clutching his stomach and the other backed against the alley wall while he pressed against his burns in search of some sort of relief. That left four still standing (six, if you counted the youngest ones that had acted as the actual thieves that day, although they appeared to have no muscle at all on their bodies). All of them were taller and stockier than Aehra, and she doubted that she'd be able to take any of them half as easily as she had this one. She cast a glance sideways, meaning to size up the wizard, only to realize that her attack had moved her a few feet forward, with her back to the tall boy. She tensed, but kept her eyes trained on the thieves. The second to last thing she wanted was to have two entirely different focuses in what looked to be a fast-approaching fight. The very last thing, of course, was for the thieves to know that she had another opponent.

[Leigo]

Someone mentioned the stranger who shared his plight in the context of his consort again, that didn’t surprise him – after all he was yet to make an attempt at denying it. As one of them dove for the girl in question, he pondered throwing the other fireball at him. This distance was no challenge; he could’ve surely hit his head clean. Stopping himself briefly proved a wise choice since the girl appeared able to pull her weight. As the coward that wanted to grab her fell to the ground, if only for a moment, Leigo wanted to burn him regardless. He had this fireball ready and the man clearly earned it. Only scum would want to hurt women and children like that. Ah, yes, women and children… The innocent girl was in front of him at this point. Someone else might’ve tried to stand between her and the rest of the thieves, but not him. She landed herself into this, he didn’t consider her an enemy, but she was far from being his responsibility. Lips pulling up into a smile, he felt the vibrating power in his still outstretched palm growing ever stronger. It would’ve been a shame to use fire again where there was such a great risk of burning one of his hometown’s buildings. The cloud was big enough to start reforming into a ball at this point, and Leigo spoke again, if only to buy some extra time before both his weapons were ready. “She’s nothing to me” body language null, he was certain they knew who he was talking about “yet only a coward would hurt a woman or a child…” thoughts floating off, he got his grip back quickly “Give her back what you stole from her and the women and children can go this very second, girl included. Unless those who leave keep my ring of course, then I’ll massacre all who stay. I might not be an able torturer, but by the time I’m done you’ll be pleading for only burns like that scum over there” calm and unassuming, he made a pause. There was something else he could add, but should he do it? “What will it be, gentlemen?” question aimed only at male adults in the group, after all only their hides would perish should things go out of hand. “And you girl… you should move to the side before someone accidentally hurts you.” An afterthought merely – and not a worrisome one either.

[Aehra]

Aehra flinched at the sharp words, whirling on the boy behind her. "Oi! What d'you think you're pulling, sayin' things like that?" Even as she sounded her protest, the two youngest thieves rushed past them, shoving Aehra about as they left. The boy stumbled on his way out of the alley and scrambled to push himself upright and followed the girl around the bend. Aehra glared at the wizard, and his nearly bored expression ignited further anger in her. "You--," she spluttered, unsure of where her fury was coming from (and why it wasn't directed at the thieves), "You can't just go tossing burns on people!" She waved her hands about as she yelled, as she was prone to. As large, calloused hands grabbed her wrists, and she recognized her mistake too late. She scolded herself for being so careless; Aehra'd learned her lesson about turning her back on an opponent early on in her foray into brawling, and yet she'd made a rookie mistake because she lost her temper. The one holding her wrists pulled her back roughly and threw her into the wall. She managed to avoid slamming her head into the wall by throwing her arms up in front of her face, but her elbows slammed into the merciless stone with a jarring intensity. The man moved behind her and grabbed her shoulder to spin her around and face him. His close proximity made it difficult for her to see anything, let alone the three fighters that were (as far as she was concerned) unaccounted for.

[Leigo]

At first it looked like things were going on his terms from that point. The children dropped whatever it was they were doing and made a run for it. The women followed close after, dropping his ring and something shiny too into the dusty road. Good – so there was still some sense in them. Looking after the women, he finally noticed the thing he’d been missing up till that point. One of the males was trying to give that girl a hard time, albeit more successfully than his predecessor. Sighing at the sight, Leigo tried to throw the fireball from behind him into the scum’s back, but just as the hand was brought up, he could feel the res transmuting too widely, burning his own flesh a bit. Instead of waiting for a decent aim, the boy simply swung the last of his fireballs in the general direction. Hitting the man in the knee, Leigo hoped that as faulty as his aim was it would provide the girl with a chance to run away as well. He never got to see it however. Attention forcibly shifted when he started to feel weight pressing onto him. Apparently one of the thieves thought a full frontal attack was the way to deal with the distracted intruder in their midst. Surprisingly, he was right. Leigo took a hit clean to his cheek before he even realized what was going on. Cursing the girl for being a distraction, he quickly shifted his attention to the res cloud and pulled it along as he fell back. The insulting man quickly threw himself over Leigo and before either of them knew it they were at each other’s throats – quite literally. The man seemed stronger than Leigo and the blond knew he couldn’t hold out in the mutual grip on his own. Concentrating heavily on the res, he tried to mold it into a widespread, thin area. The essence obeyed and soon it was enough to cover perhaps a third his attacker’s back. Letting it coax the garments covering the flesh, the boy started to change it slowly, surely. Breaths were becoming nonexistent and he could feel something between a headache and dizziness coming on – luckily he was already on the ground. Arms slowly trembling from too much djed abused, he was completely beat in the grip battle. Instead of trying to readjust his hold, the boy went straight for the attacker’s eyes. Not surprisingly the man pulled back in order to avoid this attack and that allowed Leigo a small breath. It was just enough to keep him breathing. And then it came, splashing across the man’s back. Fire-earth; no other name for it, he could only marvel at the speed at which the man started burning. The screams were much more intense this time around too. Pushing the man back, he didn’t get to stand up when another boot dove straight for his hip. Moving awkwardly, he did his best not to let this strike land on Onuo. Instead it hit his abdomen squarely, sending him rolling across the alley. The familiar had fallen out of his pocket somewhere along the way. Trying desperately to get back to his knees, the boy conversed obscurely with his companion. Release, he thought, and kill him… kill them all – it’s no price at all! No response came, perhaps he was too far away to communicate with the creature? A kick to his shoulder didn’t give him time to question it any further; instead it sent him back to the ground. If Onuo had heard him, now was a damn fine time to act on it.

[Aehra]

The man attempting to attack Aehra fell to the ground with a cry, clutching at his knee where it burned and singed. Aehra took advantage of the opportunity immediately by gripping his shoulders tightly and slamming her knee into his nose. A scream sounded, bloodcurdling and agonizing, and Aehra turned just in time to catch the biggest thief fall to the ground and clutch frantically at his back, which was smoking and hissing. The thief fell to the ground, writhing in pain, and the two others descended on the wizard with renewed vigor, kicking the boy where he was curled on the ground. Aehra lunged forward, clutching at one of the thieves' shirts. She rocked forward slightly, to throw him off balance, and then used the momentum she'd gained to throw him behind her. The other thief kicked the wizard in the ribs before he noticed that his companion had fallen, and he rounded on Aehra. She attacked him with little thought for technique or skill, and it cost her; she'd only landed a few blows to the brute's jaw and collarbone when he wrapped his thick fingers around her neck and squeezed. Aehra flailed wildly, scratching his cheeks and eyes until he howled and dropped her. She knelt in front of the thief so that he was between her and the wizard, meaning to sweep his feet from under him, but the man had recovered from his scratches more quickly than she had anticipated, and he kicked her sharply in the ribs. Aehra fell to the ground and noticed that, a few feet to her left, the thief that she'd pushed down only a few moments before was beginning to stir.

[Leigo]

The blond gasped heavily. Every breath did more harm than good. One of his ribs might've been cracked. It wasn't really a safe bet. Suddenly air became the single most precious resource in the world and he longed for it. Pain was but a fleeting moment compared to his desire to breathe. It was in this masochistic fashion that he started taking deeper breaths. Each swallow of saliva brought forward the terrible metallic aftertaste. Accompanied with the tremors he had been feeling for some time now, they painted a cute little picture. Overgiving – so much done by so few to so many – and there he was, fighting the impulse to cast some more. Fighting the need to ruin himself further without a reason. Onuo could get them. The alien would. The girl – he could see her finally. Getting the beating of her life (as far as he knew) and all because of him. Had he been a bit more agile... wait, NO! It was her own damn fault. And while Leigo did feel incredibly (understatement) grateful for the recovery she was making possible, she was still the one who brought all of it upon herself. She shoulda just ran when he gave her the opportunity. Yet there she was, still fighting when there was clear room for escape. That was one brave soul for you, but if Leigo noticed anything lately, bravery was terribly overrated. It wasn't worthless. It was hard and brought little, then why was it so important to people. He knew his reasons well. Did she? So much burned flesh... When the girl got kicked in the ribs profoundly, it didn't take the broken boy long to react. Grabbing the coward by his massive boot, the blond nudged the leg in order to make his presence evident. He wasn't down just yet, petch it all! The man turned around surprised by the boy hanging from his feet. Trying to shake Leigo off, he made a couple attempts at thrusting his heel into the face. Latching the other hand on as well, the blond prayed he didn't get hit in the abdomen again – there was little pain that could match up to it. Suddenly a smile appeared, smeared across Legio's bloddied face. A crimson grin befitting of the thieves' fortunes from that point on. As if to ridicule the boy, this brute bent over and swung for the boy's teeth. It would be the last movement he made. Surprise intensified and all other notions fleeting, the man touched his chest slowly at a certain point where something bloody was sticking out. Pulling back out, Onuo's tetrahedron metamorphosis reamined floating after the thief fell. „Took you long enough“ Leigo spoke without reservation. There was no point in trying to hide the familiar from that point on. And as if to meet him halfway, the alien too spoke in clearly audible tones. „These things take time. I thought we've already discussed that spectrum of my abilites.“ A simple statement again. Strangely, Onuo's actual voice wasn't as mechanical as many of his thoughts were. And after having saved his life, it might've actually become Leigo's favorite sound in the world. „We haven't, but we will...“ trailing off, Leigo quickly turned his attention to the only still functioning thief. „Run and you'll live for now! Stay and Onuo here will kill you. Leave Zeltiva if you must, but if I ever see your ugly mug again...“ no intention of finishing the statement, Leigo watched the man run for his life. Even while lying down having trouble breathing, Leigo was fearsome. Onuo made him fearsome. „You let him go?“ angry, clearly. „Yes. Who would believe him anyway?“ „You have a point there.“ Anger mediated. Trying to get up, the boy failed. He could've probably asked the girl for some help, but that woulda been shameful. No man of Abranox would ever stoop so low as to have a maiden do half the things this girl had already done for him. Maybe she wasn't really a maiden – but then again, he wasn't really an Abranox worthy of his father's name, not yet anyway. „Girl... you alright?“ cheap with his words, communication resumed on a hidden, personal level. The one that ran – could you pick him out in a crowd? Yes. Excellent. He would find this man and he would kill him. But first he would make him run for his life and tremble and feel all there was to fear. The thief would wet himself ten times over before the blond would ever allow him the elegant escape of death.