It lumbers toward you with a deliberate gait...
As Nazan had suggested, Aennin ran as fast as he could for home. Ignoring the confused and perturbed looks of passerby, he weaved through the crowds that had formed along the streets as the morning proceeded. He was terrified. Of Nazan, for Samiel, and for his family. His control over his life had begun to slip away from the moment he woke up that morning and he was only just then realizing it. How was he going to explain this to his parents? How was his father going to react to what Nazan had done? What were they going to do about Katim now that the shop's money was long gone?
Aennin was so distracted by this question that he cut around an elderly woman without looking around her. In his haste, he bumped into a stranger at top speed, but strangely found himself sprawling backward to the ground without having even managed to disturb his gait. Aennin looked up as the stranger's legs stopped moving to see an elf with a rough, lined face that was tinged with a two day-old stubble. His thick, silver hair hung down to his neck and his left ear appeared to have been cropped short. He glared expectantly at the Aennin, as if making an unspoken demand.
Aennin was at a loss for words. It was all he could manage to stutter, "S-sorry!"
The man nodded to him, momentarily satisfied. He held his hand out to help him up. "Shouldn't a kid your age be in school?"
"I was expelled!" Aennin yelped, unsure of why he was answering so honestly.
The man shocked him by replying with a grin. "I hope whatever you did was worth it."
Disarmed by the stranger's response, Aennin sighed. "I thought it was at the time, but now I'm not so sure."
The man raised his eyebrows, but then whispered. "If that's so, it's not too late to turn your irrevocable choice into a new opportunity."
Aennin's skin prickled as he whispered back, "What do you mean?"
The man smiled like so many elven merchants did when they were closing on a sale. "This is Bronze Street! There are plenty of opportunities for a kid with quick legs like yours and an abundance of free time to make some good coin!"
You can feel its breath...
Aennin shook his head and said, "I'm sorry! I can't! I need to go!"
Far from stopping him, the stranger smirked. "I won't stop you if you're not ready for the easy life. If you change your mind, you can find me at the bar just outside Trinity Square. Ask for Katim!"
Aennin managed to hold back a gasp and nodded awkwardly. "Thanks!"
The man chuckled again, this time at Aennin's unusual response. "Well, wherever you were off to in such a hurry, I suppose you'd better get going, huh?"
Without further hesitation, Aennin continued his sprint for home while thinking about how he was now running away from and towards something at the same time. He had never before seen Katim in person, and was surprised to find that he was so capable of being pleasant. He had pictured a darker, much uglier person when he listened to Katim smashing his clocks so furiously. If he weren't so terrified of the man, he might have even been tempted by his offer. He still knew better than to take his apparent kindness at face value, but the list of alternatives Aennin faced seemed thin at this point anyway.
Aennin would not stop running again until he approached his apartment. The muscles in his legs screamed in protest; it felt like he had been on his feet all day already. His whole body screamed for rest as he found the door. A nagging feeling in the back of his mind told him to take a break. Right then. Before he could even open the door, he should just stop. But why would he? He turned the handle and stumbled inside with a sigh.
The next step, he thought to himself, would be to fall onto something in the sitting room and try to tell his mother what happened. All things considered, their last conversation had been the most positive one they'd had in two years. Maybe she would still be sober and she could sort everything out like she had when he was a child. If nothing else, he felt the need to apologize to her for something.
It lets out a hungry snarl...
"Mother, I'm home!" he called out as he closed the door behind him.
He had expected her to respond with a drunken grumble, or even a reproachful remark about returning home so early from school. What he heard instead was a choking gasp and a cough. His blood ran cold as he rushed into the sitting room to figure out what he had just heard. With a pang, he found the source of the ominous noise sprawled across the floor.
Anera lied there, badly bloodied and swollen from the neck up. Her face was completely unrecognizable under the signs of a terrible beating. Blood trickled from a broken nose, leaving her to breath desperately through her engorged lips. As he looked upon this horrifying sight, Aennin could feel everything within him freezing. He knelt beside her and moaned with her pain for a few moments before his wits jolted his body back into motion.
"Please! Hold on! I'm going to get a healer! I'll be..."
He attempted to stand up again without finishing his sentence, but Anera had grabbed his shirt. She shook her head weakly and sputtered, "Find Kana!"
Aennin shook his head desperately. "No! You need help!"
"You can't help me now!" The woman managed to choke out, followed by a long wheeze. "Find Kana! And kill your... asshole father."
Aennin could not stop the tears from flowing his eyes. He knew what was coming next. He wanted to run away, but he was paralyzed. "Mother! Please don't!"
"Don't let her..." Anera had begun to say before trailing off.
Through the shock which gripped him in that moment, one word managed to bring him back to his senses. Kana! He body felt unnaturally heavy as he stood up and left to find his sister, forever unaware of what he wasn't supposed to allow her to do.
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