Solo Street Tussle

[Ruzekiel Soren]

Fall 15, 512 A.V.

“You’re in for a world of trouble, kid...” The silhouette of a man loomed over Zeke with a scowl, casting a shadow that spilled out into the street behind him. His wrapped knuckles cracked and he made a sturdy pair of fists, advancing on the hapless traveller with an intent that could only be unfortunate.

“If you have any quarrel it should be with Etienne,” Zeke stammered, pointing out back to the stable, where his horse whinnied mockingly. “After all, he’s the one that, uh...” he waved airily at the man’s face, which was sporting a black eye and a large bruise right down the side. “Well, stomped you in the face, frankly, not me, heh.”

“You’re dead, Soren!” And at that the man lunged for Zeke, who stumbled backwards and fell flat on his back in the middle of the street. He scrambled up and bolted, his foe hot on his heels. As he was running the thought crossed his mind, I really don’t want to die in a gutter at 2 in the morning, surrounded by big scary men with knives. That’s just not a nice way to die. But no time to think now, because he was almost free. He ducked into a narrow alleyway and ran down that, then took his nearest left. After that he ran a few more paces, his pursuers grunting and huffing behind him, and pivoted to the left again, this time squeezing into an even smaller alleyway, where the sky was only a wide crack through tall buildings. It was a trick he’d learned from living in Alvadas for a few weeks---in fact it was the only trick he knew when it came to Alvadas. But damn, did it work.

Zeke sprinted down the alley and as he did the cobble slowly began to crack and crumble beneath his feet. Pudgy as he was, he was lighter than the group of gangsters pursuing him, so he knew his plan would work out rather nicely. Unfortunately, in Alvadas, things never go quite according to plan. The cobble rapidly began to turn to sand underfoot. He heard the men behind him grunting in surprise, grunts turning to shouts as they felt their own feet sinking into nothingness. He took a quick look behind him to see the five of them scrambling for purchase on the transformed terrain but falling nonetheless, and was mid-jump when he felt something grab the back of his coat and drag him backward into the swirling mass of bodies and sand.

“GET BACK HERE, YOU MANGY CUR!” And then he was falling too, and with a dull thump he landed on a dirt floor, in a sand pit. With a group of dangerous, violent brigands who wanted his head on a pike. Oh joy. Their leader wasted no time pinpointing the owner of the stupid stupid animal that had mangled his face and grabbed Zeke by the collar, shoving him against the wall and sending clouds of dust into the air. His goons sneered and crowded around the two, sending some choice jeers and insults his way. Etienne was NOT getting any apples for a very long time.

Zeke’s life was flashing before his eyes; the things that went on behind the scenes, the courtyard after school, running from the other kids, Avanthal, running from debt, running from his family, running from his job, running from life . As the man’s fist cocked back ready to sock him in the face, one resolute thought entered Zeke’s head. No. Not this time. No time to think. Just hit the bastard. And he did. He slapped away the offending fist and threw his first (successful) punch. Zeke also fancied that he heard a jaw crack, but what really happened was that the attacker was so surprised at this little man’s complete recklessness and lack of self-preservation that he was a little stunned, giving Zeke time to slip away from his heavily tattooed grip and run for his life. Again. But at least he got a punch in. Of course then Zeke got to the wall of the random sand pit and realized that there was actually no way out. Therefore, he was mincemeat.

His back was flattened against the sandstone wall, his heart beat fast as a rabbit in his chest, in his throat, and a huge, heavily tattooed hulk was advancing towards him with a most malicious scowl. Now his thoughts were just going round and round, offering no help whatsoever. What do I do, what do I do, ohh Morwen am I gonna die? Will they even give me a proper burial or will I just be buried in sand, under the streets, forgotten? What about Sunny? My best friend, my only friend here, will she think about me after I’m gone? At this point he had to mentally slap himself and tell himself to stop whining and deal with the situation in front of him right here, right now.

Unfortunately, internal dialogues just don’t work as well as they work in the fairytales, because Zeke looked up after several minutes of debating with himself and came face to face with what felt like a boulder speeding towards him at six leagues per hour, smashing him in the eye and sending his head into the stone behind him. Brutal pain flashed before his vision, which was blurring up, and he stumbled to the right to avoid the next punch, clinging his head and moaning with the force of it. Some wayward drops of blood speckled the floor.
“Haha, yeah, teach ‘im a lesson, Kaido!”
“Go on, bash ‘is brains out!”
He opened his eyes just in time to see the man lunge for him again, but this time he was ready. He darted to the left of the man’s approaching grip and retaliated with a pounding of his fists on the giant’s ridiculously hard back. It probably just felt like a minor pebble on his skin, but it was enough to make this Kaido angry. People get stupid when they’re angry.

The man roared and turned around to grab Zeke by the throat. Zeke yelped as he felt his breath constrict, and saw Kaido’s huge hands clenching at his esophagus though his blurry vision. For a second, as his feet left the ground to dangle two inches above the dirt floor, he thought he saw his brother grinning at him through Kaido’s ruddy face, ice chips in his eyesockets, but then it was gone and the piggish eyes that stared at him now were hazel. Also he was choking. He struggled instantly, tugging at his foe’s iron grip to no avail. When that didn’t work, Zeke saw a much more satisfying option. The brigand wasn’t wearing much armor. Most importantly, he wasn’t wearing a codpiece, which meant that Zeke’s heavy, trail-rugged boot would hurt like a bitch when it swung violently upwards and made the acquaintance of the organ between the highwayman’s legs.

Kaido howled. Releasing Zeke, who crumpled into a blue-faced heap, he stumbled backward to hold his painful injury and fall to his knees on the floor. Zeke knew that this was not the appropriate time to giggle, but he did slip on a smirk. Regaining his breath, he slowly got up, rubbing at his throat and coughing quietly. He looked around to see the other four that Kaido had come with, just staring. No one was coming in to take their leader’s place. It was all his fight. So instead of taking the easy way out and just clobbering the man before him with a brick, he allowed Kaido to regain his dignity. The man got up, burning holes into Zeke’s eyes with a murderous look. This meant war.

But this time, Kaido was not the first one to lunge. Zeke threw himself on the other man, sending a rain of blows down upon him, feeling anger build up in his stomach. Kaido retaliated with a parry and a blow to the chest. Zeke feinted to the left, as he’d seen his brother do, and when Kaido also went left he aimed a clumsy hit to the side of his head. Not a perfect mark, but enough to daze him enough that Zeke had an opportunity to barrel into him at full speed, releasing a loud oomph and pinning him to the wall as he himself had done to Zeke not a half hour before. He brought back his fist for a victory punch, but Kaido had learned from Zeke as much as Zeke had learned from him, and he threw himself to the side of the smaller man’s arm, causing him to knock it into the wall. Pain shot up his forearm as his knuckles cracked against the stone. Damnit, that was his carving hand.

With a feral scream he descended on Kaido and struck him, once, twice, three times, oblivious to the pain. There was too much excitement, the thrill of the fight that he’d never felt before, the thrill of standing up and attacking rather than running, the feeling of the adrenaline pumping through your veins---a fist plowed into his face and he tasted copper in his mouth. He staggered back and spit out a bloody tooth on a spray of red, glaring into Kaido’s triumphant sneer. It trickled down the man’s face from his temple and nose, looking worse than how Etienne left him.

That was me, Zeke thought in a daze. I did that. The lust for the fight that had gripped him slowly started to fade, and he saw it in Kaido’s battered face too. It was lighter out than it was before,and when Zeke looked around, he realized that the sand pit was gone. They were back on the streets of Alvadas, surrounded by a small crowd of ragtag people, anticipation gleaming in their eyes. The four men that Kaido came with were nursing tankards of ale on the sidelines, watching, waiting. What was he doing here? Kaido advanced on him, his face a horror show of congealed blood and purple bruises, his teeth clenched in a weary snarl. Zeke, who had turned somewhat to look around, pivoted lazily on his heel and landed a violent blow to the man’s stomach. Kaido coughed, then wheezed, and slumped to the ground, unconscious. The crowd was silent. One slow clap began the cheering, loud and obnoxious and echoing in Zeke’s head. He slowly turned around, gave the troupe of ragamuffins a red smile, wet with blood, and promptly threw up.


When he got back to the Wolf’s Den Inn, he was nursing a black eye, a bleeding cut temple and a missing tooth. When Korin questioned him he waved his sprained hand back and forth and pleaded that they never speak of it ever again. Then he trudged wearily into the kitchen which was also his bedroom. He grabbed a sheepskin blanket and nearly fell over in his haste to lie down, falling asleep as soon as his head hit the rug.


That evening he dreamed of the fight.

[Fallacy]

XP Award! Name:Ruzekiel Soren XP Award: +1 Running +1 Brawling Lore: Getting Into a Fight Run Zeke Run! Notes: Any questions or concerns about the rewards gained please send a PM