The Day at the Tavern -Dead-

Erich made his way out from the school entrance, and onto the large road that laid before him. Town was just only a couple of miles away, and he, himself, wouldn't mind a walk. Plugging his earphones on, turning on his I-pod, and looking forward, he began his long trot towards his destination. Fresh air and a scent of nature spiraled about him, the local trees rustling a melody's tune from the easy breeze that passed through. It pierced through the opening cracks of his hair, making it shake furiously like a bush; his hair was short, yet it was enough to run fingers through. This was what he was exactly doing, his right hand combing through the sunny, curly blonde hair that served only a means of attraction. In his brain, the two parts of his brain were doing seperate things; his left piece of his brain was taking control of his hand, while the right was completely lost within the music of his I-pod.

About forty-five minutes passed, and the boy had made it to the village. It was lively, filled with many a people and flourishing with no conflicts to spare. No one paid him any mind, except for the cute young girls that caught sights on him; they instantly fell in love. Despite the cold, content look he always held, they knew that the golden truth was only pure kindness and respect. Though, currently, his mind was only focused on two things; the bar, and music.

He had no reason of going to the bar. The wooden, hanging sign that smacked apon the gloomy walls of the building had attracted the boy's interest, forcing Erich's body to go into its direction. The local girls had noticed this, and instantly broke away from him with sudden frozen feet; they were disappointed, and worried about his decision. Does he not know what that place is?, questioned the pondering thoughts within the females. Of course, Erich paid no mind.

The door creeked open, and only gave off a minute's echo. Inside of the bar was only filled with total thugs and tough sailors--some which were total jerks. Erich took off his I-pod and turned it off, now paying attention to the area he found himself in. The stench of the building smelled only of beer, blood, and cigarettes, stuffing his nostrils up annoyingly. His eyes narrowed as he rubbed his nose, and made his way forward, sitting down apon one of the stalls. The bartender paid him no mind, yet one of the thugs caught sight of Erich, snickering. Oblivious to Erich, three of the group members approached him; he caught his eye on them, then looked away.

"Whatcha lookin' at, boi?" One of the members spoke, his face against Erich's. His nose became irritated once more, as the thug's breath gave off the smell of burnt popcorn, week old beer, and a salty bonus that made him think that the thug had been forced to drink seawater. How the person was still alive was unknown to him; Erich said nothing, which only got the thugs to pick on him even more. They started commenting around themselves; they plucked his clothes, pointed at his pockets, laughed occasionally, and even approach his face at times. Erich was trying to battle a fight all on his own: controlling his temper. If these thugs continued their actions, they'll taste the cold stab of Arthas's sword...

It was a nice day out and there was no way Kadira was going to stay indoors. She was too used to the open spaces to be too cooped up in a building anyways. A nice brisk walk would do her just fine. She wouldn’t have to deal with curious humans that were dazzled by the new kid. It was like holding a shiny object in front of a flock of crows. They were just so taken by something new, it was utterly ridiculous. She let her feet take her where they would; she didn’t really care where she ended up.

A good amount of time, she wasn’t keeping track, she arrived in the village. People were bustling about, going on with their daily activities. They paid no attention to her, they couldn’t be bothered, and she was thankful for that. She hated conversing with humans; they all had some sort of ulterior, greedy motive. She checked the village out, taking smaller alleyways rather than the main roads and sidewalks, getting a feel for the homeless people around here. She might as well do some “charity work” while she was out here while she was at it. Homeless people were much less greedy than any other human. A homeless person would take only what they needed, nothing more, a well to do human always wanted more money, more luxury, more anything they could get there grubby hands on.

“Money? Money for the poor?” A ragged looking man asked, holding out his hands. Kadira shook her head. If she gave him money she knew for a fact that he would only spend it on more alcohol or drugs. Whichever had wound them up on the streets in the first place. She held up one finger, a signal for him to wait. Turning the corner, she looked to make sure no one was around. The coast clear, she snapped her fingers. In her hands appeared a plate with a sandwich. Nothing too extravagant, as that would arouse suspicion, which she definitely didn’t need. She went back the way she came, and handed the man the sandwich. “Thank you,” he repeated several times, graciously. Kadira just shrugged and continued on her way. It wasn’t much, but it was a start to righting the wrongs she had been forced to commit.

Rounding another corner, she came upon the Tavern. I wonder what kind of low-lifes are in there, she thought. Might as well go in and find out, it wasn’t like she had anything to do today. As soon as she entered, a foul stench hit her. It was a gross mix of sea salt, rotten eggs, and an assortment of other terrible smelling things. More than that, there seemed to be some sort of brawl going on. Not a brawl really, a brawl would consist of two parties fighting. This seemed to be a group of steroid abusing men picking on a boy around her age. Older or younger, she really couldn’t tell.

With a sigh, she called, “Hey, pick on someone your own size,” Her accent heavy and distorting her words. Even a year in America hadn’t gotten rid of it. She took a step closer, trying to appear intimidating, but these men still stood a good head taller than her. One of the turned around, looking rather angry at first, but upon seeing her smiled. He got a gleam in his eye she didn’t like at all. “Wass a perty thing like you doin’ herr?” He asked, slurring his words. He must be drunk. As he approached her she could smell alcohol on him. Definitely drunk. He clasped her shoulder and shook it off. “Aw, dun’t be like tha’” he said, attempting to grasp her waist. He never got that far, she landed a punch on him square in the nose. “AH! Ya Fackin’ bitch!” he yelped, grasping his now bleeding nose. “Ya broke meh nose, ya bloody whore!” Kadira rubbed her knuckles, he had a pretty hard face. They’d probably bruise, but she wasn’t too worried about that right now. Right now she was more worried about getter herself (and the boy) out of there with as little damage to themselves as possible.

Everything had slowly processed down the boy's brain. He felt the pestering suddenly halting, which made him slowly turn around. He wanted to laugh at the sight, yet only a grin aroused; one of the members--apparently drunk and stuffed up with the stench of beer--had gained a bloody nose from a female. This female appeared older than himself, like two or three years his age, he wasn't sure. But, from what he could understand, this girl was trying to get him out of this situation. His reactions to this was split into three parts; half grateful, half embarrassed, and half disappointed.

Reasons for this starts with him being half grateful. He did not want a riot to occur just from having his magic summoning power activated. He wasn't sure if these thugs were just pure humans, or secret power-users as well; if they were just mere pathetic humans, the attention he'd summon would increase ten fold. Plus, Arthas might just ignore the men and go on scolding Erich continuously, which would be embarassing--that was his half embarassed reason. As for his disappointed reason, it was from his anxious ambition of paying these gang members pay. Kadira had just ruined his chance.

"You shouldn't be here..." he grumbled under his breath, his head turned to the ground; he was trying to warn Kadira. From how angry the thugs were, they were too focused apon the girl to pay attention to him; once they finished "taking care" of her, they would probably forget all about Erich--for a split second. Now that he thought about it, he wanted for them to pester with him, so they could die from Arthas's mighty slashes. Erich shook his head, and sighed lightly; what was he THINKING? This wasn't like him at all![/center][/color]

The other brutes also turned their attention to her. She had hurt their friend, however miniscule, and they probably wanted some form of revenge. That was the thing with sailors; they always took things too personally. That was the thing with humanity in general. She turned to the boy and gave him a look that said, “Feel free to help anytime.” Kadira didn’t really expect him to; he had been the one who had been getting picked on in the first place.

She raised her eyebrow incredulously when he told her that she shouldn’t be here. “Feh,” she muttered. He wanted all the glory for himself? Typical human. If only he knew why she was helping him. “Don’t be appreciative, or anything.” She turned her attention back to the sailors. There was no way she was going to be able to fight them on her own, and without them picking on the boy, she couldn’t use any magic to help her out. Stupid magic wasn’t even useful.

“Well, I’d love to stay, but I have to get going.” She said with a grin, backpedaling to the door. She motioned for the boy to do the same, though she wasn’t sure whether he’d follow her or not. He seemed to want to do his own thing, even though he would get his skinny butt whipped. Well, at least she could say she had tried then.

Erich sighed heavily. All spotlights were placed on his rescuing "heroine", and these spotlights weren't your heavenly white lights, but red for death. Things weren't going as what he thought they were, for his plans were no longer just ruined; now that danger had passed the corner and smacked the two teens across the face, this was only risking Erich's choice of activating his own ability.

The boy decided not to argue, or do any kind of distraction, and just run. He quickly slipped out of his seat, dashed through the cracks opened up between the thugs--and girl, and slipped through the exit. This angered the thug leader even more. "GET 'EM!!!" The male shouted, and a crowd of angry sailors began to jump out of their seats. Erich was hoping that the girl was following.

Kadira was pleased to see that the boy left without any sort of argument. So much for his dreams of heroism. She followed him out of the tavern, following right on his heels. A delighted grin spread across her face as the man that seemed to be the leader yelled, ‘get him!’ They were after him again, which was great. Now her magic would be helping him and not herself, and she could use it.

With a snap of her fingers, the door to the tavern slammed shut and with a decisive click it locked. Kadira stopped running, and looked pleased with herself and her handiwork. She could hear the men jiggling the handle and swearing when they found that the door wouldn’t unlock. Banging could be heard next. It was futile though; her magic would keep that door shut tight until the boy was long gone. Either until he was out of the village altogether, or until the sailors forgot about him. She was guessing the former was more likely to happen first.

She ran a hand through her hair and leaned against the outer wall of the tavern. She could stand here all day and listen to the fools complain. Complain was an understatement actually. Those sailors were saying some pretty explicit things, the stuff you were pretty sure you weren’t allowed to shout in public.

"So, you're one of them," said Erich, whom was standing in front of Kadira casually. His own right hand was drilling through his forehead's bangs, and driving its way to the top of his head, while dragging his bangs back with him; the sight of this made him look like a messy skater. Well, that was what he was; a skater. It's only logical that this appearance would match his title, though no skateboard was visible around him at this moment.

His eyes scanned Kadira, trailing down to the back of her head and to the end of her shoes, going back up again. Obviously, she was smaller than him by a couple of inches, yet appeared to be a bit more bigger than his own weight. She was slim, sleek enough to sneak through a bank if she wanted, and appeared to be the athletic type. That was the result of his observation, but he was sure that he was totally wrong. He exhaled a warm breath in a pouting way, heating up the insides of his nostrils and the nose itself, as he began to remember the regret the option of not summoning Arthas. Not only was bloodshed, embarassment, and attention going to be a problem anyways, the thought of this girl and her unknown ability might have interfered. He simply forced his eyes to look over at the enclosed door, trying not to listen to what any people were saying. He was suddenly in a bad mood, which was odd for him to have mood swings. Perhaps it was the childish regret he still had lingering in his head.

“One of who?” Kadira asked, confused for a moment. Not only confused, but worried, and very possibly frightened. If he had figured out she was a djinn, as the term genie was really an insult to her kind, then she was royally screwed. She would never hear the end of it; he’d want everything under the sun. More money, fame, revenge on the guys that had been picking on him. She didn’t want any part in a revenge scheme. Even if he did have her figured out, he still didn’t know the ‘activation code,’ if you could call it that.

“Oh, you mean from the school?” she asked, hopeful that’s what he meant. Come to think of it, was he from the school or a local? She had no way of knowing really. He seemed normal enough; typical skater type if you asked her. She would have asked what he had done to upset the men in there, but she kept her mouth shut except for mostly the essential responses. Anything she said could possibly give away her secret.

That was the part she hated the most; having to always monitor what she said. People saw her as cold and distant, which she was a lot of the time, but she was a sentient creature too. She craved companionship just like everyone else. She noted his change in mood too. Would it be rude if she just walked away now? She didn’t want to deal with a normal tempered human, let alone a pissy one.

"Yeah, from the school back there," Erich nodded, pointing back to the road that led to Foresta Academy. He heard fear in her voice, and it got him wondering what thoughts could be patrolling throughout her brain. Though it was none of his business, he was curious and wanted to know anyways, as something he must have said must have some sort of connection to something about her; he was beginning to think about that unknown ability of hers, whatever it might be, would be the answer. But, he kept his mouth shut, and said nothing. He made a note to try and keep his ability secret too, until he discovered what her power was. Physically he appeared to have nothing to hide, let alone a special power, but every single human being has something kept a secret between subconscious and/or conscious jail bars.

As he waited for a reply, he couldn't help but instantly get his mind pinned apon the power--or powers--she could possibly possess. He witnessed the sudden shut of the bar's doors, and the motion of her fingers snapping. At first, he thought she was a psychic; that idea was instantly excluded out, for the girl could have ordered the men's brains to go away--if she had the skills. Other thoughts came about, yet none of them were related to her true powers; the power of a genie, or djinn, if he wanted to be polite.

Kadira nodded as he pointed to the road that made it’s to Foresta. She had thought that’s what he had meant. She let out a breath she hadn’t realized she had been holding in. “I am, are you?” she asked. She figured it was only courteous to ask back. She sort of had her doubts though; if he had a power, wouldn’t he have used it to defend himself from the sailors. No, not necessarily. He could have a completely useless power. She argued with herself.

Again, she wondered if it would be considered rude to just walk away. She felt awkward and jittery just standing here. She kept fidgeting with the necklace she was wearing. She knew what question would be coming next, the one everyone at the school asked. ‘What’s your power?’ It didn’t matter how nit was worded, it always came down to that. Well, she hoped he liked disappointment because he wasn’t going to get an answer.

The silence seemed to grow, almost oppressively, and Kadira wondered if she should say something. She really didn’t want to initiate conversation right now. Actually, she just wanted to get back to the school and wander. She had yet to see everything it had to offer. Conversely, she was curious to see what exactly this boy had done to invoke the wrath of some drunken sailors. As much as she didn’t want to admit it, she enjoyed a little company every now and then. Just don’t make a habit, she reminded herself.

After she had asked that question, Erich began to ponder whether or not to answer directly. She might question his power directly, and pierce through the shield and say how pathetic it is. He wouldn't have cared if she did say that anyways; he hasn't used his power in front of her, |yet|, so she had nothing to prove by saying so--if she said so. The occuring silence from this mute tone only led him to speak fast.

"Yeah," he spoke, nodding slowly as his eyes trailed over to the door that held firm as a gate, despite the many blows given to it by the enraged sailors,"and I was planning to use it on those jerks, but you came in trust in time to stop the bloodshed. I, personally, don't like it, but if someone approached you and bugged you when you sat down in peace, wouldn't you want some sort of revenge?" He felt as if he was talking too much, making him suddenly yawned and stretch his arms. He rubbed and rotated his neck, making it crack comfortably. "Anyways, I think I had enough fun around this part of town. Imma leave; you should too, unless you wanna handle all of those guys. You may have a power, but an army of soldiers can eventually jump a fire user." He shrugged, then walked off to the path that led to another part of town.

Her eyebrows shot up in surprise. He was walking away, and without asking that all important question. She wasn’t sure what to make of that. Chuckling at his explanation she murmured something along the lines of, “I’m pretty sure it’s against school rules to harm humans.” Mainly to herself, but she regretted saying it as soon as it had come out of her mouth. If he had actually managed to hear her then he’d know she wasn’t human. Fantastic.

“Not a power, a curse.” She muttered darkly, not caring if he heard this or not. She would always advocate that, no matter what. She trialed behind him, having nothing better to do. It also seemed that they were heading in the same direction. She thought back to what he had said about wanting revenge. They had been picking on him, sure, but a bloody revenge for that? They hadn’t even hurt him. That was a little extreme of him, no?

She wondered if he even noticed she was following him. No, she wasn’t following him, she just happened to be going the same way as him. That was all. She didn’t want friends, she reminded herself. Having her trust betrayed again was not an option. A smaller part of her wondered if she could be friends with someone without making them privy to her powers. She could try, she supposed. It couldn’t really hurt anything, could it?

As expected, the boy was listening to every word Kadira said. The girl was a student at Foresta like himself, and his goals were: to make a lot of friends, pass the school, and control his power, so this female could be a start. However, from the way he was acting now, and earlier, the thought proved to be far impossible than said. Personally, Erich himself was wondering what was wrong with him. Normal picking and taunts were stuff he had grown out of; perhaps it was a strong remembrance of the past that seemed to have kicked in. Or, he really wanted to teach those punks a lesson on learning how to take a bath, and brush their teeth once in a while.

"So, where are you planning on going?" Erich questioned, looking over his shoulder and noticing that the girl was going the same way as him. He did not expect her to be following or anything, for that would be a bit awkward. He went with the other thought that he, coincidentally, had went the direction she was going to follow anyways. It seemed more reasonable than the first idea.

[/color][/center]

Kadira looked up, having had looked down at her feet just moments earlier. She hadn’t expected the boy to say anything to her, but she was secretly a little bit happy that he had. Would he think she was creepy if she told him she had no idea? No, she was sure she could twist it in some way to make it sound innocent or something. She had to; she didn’t want to scare him off or anything. Or did she? She didn’t know anymore.

“I don’t really know.” She finally admitted with a grin. “I’m new around here and just getting a feel for things.” Her accent causing strange lilts in her words. She guessed they didn’t make her completely incoherent, seeing no one had ever mentioned it before. No one had ever really asked her to repeat anything. She was pleased that her excuse sounded much more innocent that she had hoped for.

As the awkward silence fell again, she began humming a tune; the melody from her most recent favorite song. One of those songs that sounded pleasant enough when you first listened to it; a catchy melody and charming harmonies, the whole bit, but when you actually took the time to listen to the lyrics and what they were saying, it was a shock. Some songs like that ended up having twisted lyrics, but this one’s were saddening, so Kadira stuck with just humming it.

"Same here," said Erich, nodding in agreement as he looked forward once again, "just that I walk around on my own. I plan on making friends, but, it's difficult in new areas as you can see." He stopped, finding himself in the center of the market. Looking around, he scanned three split roads that led to other parts of the village. He began to think and decide where to go--whether or not the chosen road will be safer than the last one. He sighed, shaking his head; he was at a mental crossroads also, having trouble deciding. He glanced at Kadira for a split second, hoping she would decide. He wanted to look around the village also; of course, he was worried about trouble and safety, and whether or not either of the sailors' friends were down those roads.