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"Saurian" is the title, and also the name of the world in which it takes place.
The main characters Nomminus and Khaz are an unlikely duo, she's an adventurer, always on the move and prefers a solitary life. He is a bright-eyed and excitable kid who ends up tagging along with her on her adventures due to unfortunate circumstances.
They will learn to work together as they deal with whatever dangers or challenges they might face while wandering the world.
<<< PREV | FIRST | NEXT >>>
Comments appreciated, thanks in advance for faves
characters and story © myself, please be respectful and do not copy, alter, or repost without permission. Thanks!
Back in the underground of Clawwood, things were flourishing, turned out that despite what had happened in the fancy forest estate, the guild managed to still make a good bit of profit on the riches collected, they disposed of the bodies, cleaned things up, and even decided to re-sell the property.
With the small fortune made, Pilu sought to expand the reaches of the guild, they had a foothold in most of the major cities, and some of the surrounding towns, but there was still one they had yet to break in to
Skyline City
A city high up in the southern mountains, on a plateau surrounded by canyons, all hidden by a ring of snowy peaks.
The stone there was as white as the snow that covered it, it was said to be a stunning view – if you could get to it!
Pilu had gone with a small team that she assembled, the scout from the estate job, she took the nickname “Scout” with her actual name being long and hard to pronounce. A thin microraptor, adorned with iridescent feathers covering her entire body, that shimmered in the sun reflecting colours comparable to an oil slick. Though despite her brilliant plumage, she kept covered up for the most part.
She had excellent skills when it came to climbing, she’d help them up the mountain range.
The other in her team was a brutish looking Ankylosaurus named Jonas, an ex-bandit originally working for Chief Layrite, he was fairly beefy and not exactly light on his feet, but he’d make for good muscle in case a situation came up where it was needed.
The last in Pilu’s team was Khaz, she’d asked to borrow him from his work, in the occasion they may need a contract made and fulfilled. Truthfully she just wanted his company, they’d become practically inseparable, so it only felt right to have him along.
They had trekked for what felt like forever, with no tunnels further south than Clawwood, they had to make the trek through brush, dense forest and thick, deep swampland, that was foggy at best, and an almost blind wandering at worst.
Eventually they had made it to the mountains, high in the skies they could see the lucky dinosaurs with proper wings flying to and from the city.
The climb was difficult, even with Scout leading the way, she knew her way around a rock face, but this was quite the challenge even for her. She envied those with proper wings, her feathers were only meant for gliding, which was useless for going up a mountain, going down later however would prove to be fun.
It took them a whole day, but they reached the halfway mark up the mountain, there they found a small plateau, with a few scattered huts, the inhabitants were small pterosaurs, barely reaching the waists of the tired climbers.
Pilu asked them if they’d be able to stay the night there, the pterosaurs allowed it, but only because they were leaving in the morning. They were given a separate spot to sleep away from the small settlement, and received no warm welcomes. Only cold stares.
The morning was spent rushing out of the immediate area, their hosts were kind enough to show them a pathway up the mountain, long and steep was the climb, but thankfully ropes and harnesses weren’t needed.
Most of the way up was shale rock that made a natural stairway of sorts, it did surprise the group of thieves to think that water causing the shale rocks to form would have been up so high.
The air grew colder, the rocks to climb were no longer thin crumbly shale, but thick pale stone, they were starting to get close.
Another full day of climbing and at last the city was in sight, reaching its center just after the sun had set.
They found an inn to stay at for the night, they were all tired and sore, and just wanted a comfortable sleep.
Once morning arrived they began to plan.
“Alright, first we need to locate someone, his name is Shou, a pterodactyl, his father use to run with mine back when they first joined the guild.” Said Pilu “Khaz and I will go around and ask some of the locals if they know him, or know of him. Scout and Jonas, check the prison, and maybe grab a few guard outfits just in case. We’ll meet back here in an hour.”
They broke up in their pairs and headed out, Khaz and Pilu changing in to normal clothing rather than their armour. As they walked out in to the town, they were greeted by a cold gusty wind, but it was sunny and the locals seemed like they were all in relatively good spirits. They began to ask around but no one knew of him, or they did, just not where he might be.
An hour came and they started to head back to the inn, meeting up with the others who were proudly sporting guard outfits.
“He’s in the prison, sharing a cell with someone else. They keep three to a cell, and his is the only one that isn’t full yet.” Scout informed.
“Right, we’ll put someone on the inside to help him escape. A jailbreak shouldn’t be too difficult to pull off in a place like this.” Pilu said.
“Well how about we stage a crime?” Jonas suggested.
“That could work! I could pose as a local, almost everyone has wings of some sort here. I’ll fit right in.” Scout offered.
Pilu nodded. “Then we’ll have Khaz pretend to attack you, he’ll get carted away, and we’ll have Jonas posing as a guard to make sure he gets in to Shou’s cell.”
Khaz sighed, really not wanting to see the inside of a prison again. But for the sake of the job, he’d have to put up with it. “Alright, so, where do we meet after we get out?”
“Once you get out of the prison, there’s a cliff.” Jonas suggested. “There’s a wide and flat platform of sorts a bit of a ways down, we can secure some ropes for you to climb down.”
“I’ll secure the area, and meet you all there afterwards.” Pilu said. They all got ready, dressing up and heading out. Pilu checked the area they were meeting, things looked pretty clear for the most part. She anchored a climbing rope, made sure it was secure, then proceeded to the town square to watch the show.
Scout walked out into the middle of the square, a beautiful statue of the city’s founders stood tall in the center, around it were market stalls of all kinds. Some sold produce, others meats and fish, some were full of hand crafted trinkets or jewelry.
She wandered along the stalls, browsing and making light conversation with the locals. After buying a pretty necklace, she was abruptly pushed to the ground by a hooded figure who grabbed the necklace and began to run. “STOP! THIEF!” She cried out as she pushed herself upright into a sitting position. Some passers buy helped her up, while others went after the guy who robbed her like an angry flock.
The hooded figure – Khaz, ran from them quickly, then purposely ran in to Jonas, smacking in to his large chest and then falling back onto the ground.
Jonas picked him up with ease by the collar of his shirt, yanked the necklace away, and tossed it to another passing guard. “Be sure that gets back to the lady who owns it, I’ll take care of this guy.” He said, then pulled Khaz off to the prison cells.
a large square building made of white stone, despite being a place to hold criminals, the outside of the building still had ornate details like most of the others around the city.
Jonas burst open the door with Khaz struggling to break free from his grip.
“Caught this one trying to steal from an innocent citizen.” He said to the guards sitting near the entrance.
He picked up a key off a wall hook for the cell, and headed down a flight of stairs. The block where the cells were kept was dark and dingy. Thick iron bars were all that separated the cells.
He unlocked the door and threw Khaz inside after he opened it. Slamming the door shut and locking it again. “Some time in here should do you some good.” He grunted, then left Khaz to get acquainted with his new cell mates.
Khaz moaned as he sat up, rubbing the back of his neck, it was sore from being pulled around by his collar, and he must of landed on a few larger pebbles with it when he hit the ground.
He looked over seeing two others in the cell, a light tan Pterodactyl, and an orange Compsognathus.
There was a long moment of pause as the Compsognathus and Khaz stared at each other.
They knew each other
Khaz’s kidnapper all those years ago.
“You’re…” Khaz began
“I’m surprised your alive kid.” Said the Compsognathus. “Thought Layrite would have eaten you or something.”
“He tried. I got lucky.” Khaz answered.
There was another awkward silence.
The pterodactyl finally spoke up to break it. “So, what are you in for?”
Khaz turned to him, “Actually, I’m here for you.”
“Me?” asked the tan flyer.
“Yup.” Answered Khaz. “The guard who threw me in here is a friend, we’re from the Goldwick Thieves, and we’re here to break you out of jail.”
“Break me out? Well thanks! But, there most be something more, you guys wouldn’t come all the way out here just for a jailbreak.”
“We’re looking to expand to Skyline, and wanted someone to run things here. We came looking for you, to see if you were interested in being the guy to run things here?”
The pterodactyl was surprised. “Me? Run a branch of the guild…”
“Not a bad offer, I’d take it.” Said the Compsognathus.
the pterodactyl nodded. “Alright, I’ll do it. But you have to spring Ankle Biter out too.” He said, and pointed to the Compy beside him.
Khaz agreed to do so, as much as he didn’t really want to.
They waited a while and planned out their escape, there was about an hour where the current guards left and the new guards came in, that hour would be a perfect opportunity to escape.
Khaz was sitting against the stone brick wall at the back of the cell, he picked up a sound on the other side of the village running about its day. That’s when he realised the walls were hollow.
He pulled out the dagger he had hid in his shirt when he was thrown in jail, and hacked away at the bricks and the cement between them.
Soon enough a few bricks came loose, Khaz making good progress on a hole from which to escape through.
He knew it would dull his blade, but he could get that fixed easy enough. He just prayed it didn’t break.
But break it did. A strike at a bad angle snapped it in half.
“Dammit.” Khaz grunted, the hole was big enough that him or Ankle Biter could get through, but Shou wouldn’t be able to.
He saw some bricks were loose enough that he could probably kick them off with enough strength.
He laid on his back and pulled his legs up, and delivered a sharp blow to the wall. It knocked out the bricks but it also sent a feeling of pins and needles all through his legs and spine.
The shaking pained feeling was strong, like the whole world was shaking.
Then he realized it was the building. Apparently he had been chipping away at a supporting wall, and the whole building was starting to shake. “Uh oh.”
Soon the building began to collapse around them. Their protection was the metal cage they were trapped in.
“Well, that’s one way to break us out.” Ankle Biter scoffed. “You could have just gotten your friend to throw us the key.”
“We can talk about that later, let’s get out of here first!” Shou said, a large opening appeared as rock and brick crumbled around them. Ankle Biter hopped up on Shou’s back and Shou grabbed Khaz with his talons as he spread his wings and quickly took flight.
They fled the collapsing building and were then dodging arrows, the guards shooting at all the escaped prisoners.
“Hang on tight! This could get a little tricky.” Shou shouted, while weaving around dodging arrows and other projectiles.
Khaz gripped on to his legs tight, not wanting to be flung off and fall to his death.
Soon guards capable of flight started chasing after them.
“Try and lose them in the canyon!” shouted Ankle Biter, and Shou then dove straight down into the canyon surrounding the city.
Khaz hated every moment. This was far worse than those stupid carts.
Khaz was facing backwards, seeing the edge of the plateau grow quickly distant high above them. He saw someone looking over a slightly lower ledge, Pilu had seen them zoom by.
His view of her was quickly blocked by three flying guards racing after them. Shou pulled a sharp left, jerking Khaz who was still clinging for his life.
He saw one guard get hit with an arrow, looking up he saw Jonas holding a bow.
Next he saw the second guard get tackled out of the air by someone else. Scout had shed most of her clothing in order to make use of her gliding feathers. She rammed in to the second guard and they both fell from the sky in a frantic fight.
Khaz wasn’t able to keep watching as his attention was drawn to the quickly gaining third guard. He took a deep breath and let one hand go off of Shou’s leg and reached up his shirt, pulling out another blade and throwing it. The blade pierced through one of the guard’s wings and he went down.
“Nice shot kid!” Yelled Ankle Biter. It was somewhat hard to hear over the sound of rushing winds and flapping wings.
They flew around a bit more, making sure no one was following, and eventually circled back to the ledge they were supposed to meet on.
Once everyone was back safely, they began to discuss and plan arrangements for where to start the new branch of the Goldwick thieves, and what would need to be done. They agreed upon a cave somewhat near the small plateau where the small pterosaurs were. They made the trek there and began to set up shop a little. Unpacking enough supplies to get Shou started.
Jonas and Scout agreed to stay behind once the time came for the others to leave.
Ankle Biter agreed to join them, he’d been a thief for hire. Working on his own accord, but he welcomed the idea of being part of the guild, an important part being Shou’s second in command.
The night before Pilu and Khaz were about to head back, Ankle Biter asked to talk to Khaz alone.
They went to a part of the cave away from the others and sat down on the cold stone ground.
“So, why’d you want to talk to me?” asked Khaz.
Ankle Biter took a bit of time to think before answering. “Kid…I uh…I’m sorry, about...”
“The kidnapping? Why’d you do it? You said you were a thief for hire, did Layrite pay you to do it?”
“He did.” Ankle Biter answered.
“Look, kid, the Chief was the guy who killed your parents too.”
“What?!” Khaz was surprised. “Do you know why?” He wanted to know more, no he needed to know more.
“Your mom used to be one of his concubines, his favourite actually, until she escaped and fled to Paleo City, where she met your dad. The chief was obsessed with her, and was heartbroken when she ran away.” Ankle Biter explained. “Eventually he found out where she had ended up, and with who she ended up with. He decided if he couldn’t have her, then no one could. So he hired an assassin to off both of them.”
Khaz was silent, staring off into nothingness as he processed wat he was hearing.
“but” Ankle Biter continued. “When the assassin came back to collect payment, he mentioned you. The chief wanted you dead, and wanted to do make sure to it himself. So he hired me to find you and bring you to him.”
Khaz sat silent for a while longer, then spoke up, shaking his head, and with a voice shaky and unsure. “I never knew…I always thought my parents were good people.”
“They were, kid.” Said Ankle Biter. “I worked for the chief for a while when your mom was there, she was taken from her home by him and forced to give her body to him whenever he wanted it. But despite that she was incredibly caring toward the other women, and some of the men that worked for Layrite.”
Khaz shrugged his shoulders. “I’ve been living with this guilt, this nagging feeling in the back of my head that I killed someone, I ended a life, despite doing it defense. I still felt terrible. Now it’s a relief to know that I got to be the one to kill him.”
“Wait, you killed him? I thought the big blue friend of yours did it?”
Khaz let out a bit of a laugh, and a hint of a smile on his face, almost feeling a sense of pride now. “Nope, it was me.”
He paused before continuing. “I appreciate that you told me all of this, but, why?”
Ankle Biter sighed. “Your mother was a dear friend of mine once, and what happened to her was terrible.”
He pulled out a piece of paper with some writing on it. “Layrite is dead, but the assassin that killed her is still very much alive.”
He unfolded the paper and handed it to Khaz. “I want to contract you to kill him.”
Khaz took the paper, it was indeed a contract, but it was a bit different than the ones he saw. “Where did you get this?”
“I did a job for them once, rather than coin, they gave me this. A free contract, I don’t have to pay a thing, and I could have them kill whoever I wanted. I held onto it, I thought I might not even ever use it, turns out I was wrong.” Ankle Biter pulled out a pen and inkwell out of a small pocket on his thigh. “Will you do it?”
Khaz skimmed through the contract, his eyes arriving at the name of the target. “This is...You want me to kill him?”
Ankle Biter nodded. “Yeah, I want you to kill the leader of the Assassins guild.”
The main characters Nomminus and Khaz are an unlikely duo, she's an adventurer, always on the move and prefers a solitary life. He is a bright-eyed and excitable kid who ends up tagging along with her on her adventures due to unfortunate circumstances.
They will learn to work together as they deal with whatever dangers or challenges they might face while wandering the world.
<<< PREV | FIRST | NEXT >>>
Comments appreciated, thanks in advance for faves
characters and story © myself, please be respectful and do not copy, alter, or repost without permission. Thanks!
Back in the underground of Clawwood, things were flourishing, turned out that despite what had happened in the fancy forest estate, the guild managed to still make a good bit of profit on the riches collected, they disposed of the bodies, cleaned things up, and even decided to re-sell the property.
With the small fortune made, Pilu sought to expand the reaches of the guild, they had a foothold in most of the major cities, and some of the surrounding towns, but there was still one they had yet to break in to
Skyline City
A city high up in the southern mountains, on a plateau surrounded by canyons, all hidden by a ring of snowy peaks.
The stone there was as white as the snow that covered it, it was said to be a stunning view – if you could get to it!
Pilu had gone with a small team that she assembled, the scout from the estate job, she took the nickname “Scout” with her actual name being long and hard to pronounce. A thin microraptor, adorned with iridescent feathers covering her entire body, that shimmered in the sun reflecting colours comparable to an oil slick. Though despite her brilliant plumage, she kept covered up for the most part.
She had excellent skills when it came to climbing, she’d help them up the mountain range.
The other in her team was a brutish looking Ankylosaurus named Jonas, an ex-bandit originally working for Chief Layrite, he was fairly beefy and not exactly light on his feet, but he’d make for good muscle in case a situation came up where it was needed.
The last in Pilu’s team was Khaz, she’d asked to borrow him from his work, in the occasion they may need a contract made and fulfilled. Truthfully she just wanted his company, they’d become practically inseparable, so it only felt right to have him along.
They had trekked for what felt like forever, with no tunnels further south than Clawwood, they had to make the trek through brush, dense forest and thick, deep swampland, that was foggy at best, and an almost blind wandering at worst.
Eventually they had made it to the mountains, high in the skies they could see the lucky dinosaurs with proper wings flying to and from the city.
The climb was difficult, even with Scout leading the way, she knew her way around a rock face, but this was quite the challenge even for her. She envied those with proper wings, her feathers were only meant for gliding, which was useless for going up a mountain, going down later however would prove to be fun.
It took them a whole day, but they reached the halfway mark up the mountain, there they found a small plateau, with a few scattered huts, the inhabitants were small pterosaurs, barely reaching the waists of the tired climbers.
Pilu asked them if they’d be able to stay the night there, the pterosaurs allowed it, but only because they were leaving in the morning. They were given a separate spot to sleep away from the small settlement, and received no warm welcomes. Only cold stares.
The morning was spent rushing out of the immediate area, their hosts were kind enough to show them a pathway up the mountain, long and steep was the climb, but thankfully ropes and harnesses weren’t needed.
Most of the way up was shale rock that made a natural stairway of sorts, it did surprise the group of thieves to think that water causing the shale rocks to form would have been up so high.
The air grew colder, the rocks to climb were no longer thin crumbly shale, but thick pale stone, they were starting to get close.
Another full day of climbing and at last the city was in sight, reaching its center just after the sun had set.
They found an inn to stay at for the night, they were all tired and sore, and just wanted a comfortable sleep.
Once morning arrived they began to plan.
“Alright, first we need to locate someone, his name is Shou, a pterodactyl, his father use to run with mine back when they first joined the guild.” Said Pilu “Khaz and I will go around and ask some of the locals if they know him, or know of him. Scout and Jonas, check the prison, and maybe grab a few guard outfits just in case. We’ll meet back here in an hour.”
They broke up in their pairs and headed out, Khaz and Pilu changing in to normal clothing rather than their armour. As they walked out in to the town, they were greeted by a cold gusty wind, but it was sunny and the locals seemed like they were all in relatively good spirits. They began to ask around but no one knew of him, or they did, just not where he might be.
An hour came and they started to head back to the inn, meeting up with the others who were proudly sporting guard outfits.
“He’s in the prison, sharing a cell with someone else. They keep three to a cell, and his is the only one that isn’t full yet.” Scout informed.
“Right, we’ll put someone on the inside to help him escape. A jailbreak shouldn’t be too difficult to pull off in a place like this.” Pilu said.
“Well how about we stage a crime?” Jonas suggested.
“That could work! I could pose as a local, almost everyone has wings of some sort here. I’ll fit right in.” Scout offered.
Pilu nodded. “Then we’ll have Khaz pretend to attack you, he’ll get carted away, and we’ll have Jonas posing as a guard to make sure he gets in to Shou’s cell.”
Khaz sighed, really not wanting to see the inside of a prison again. But for the sake of the job, he’d have to put up with it. “Alright, so, where do we meet after we get out?”
“Once you get out of the prison, there’s a cliff.” Jonas suggested. “There’s a wide and flat platform of sorts a bit of a ways down, we can secure some ropes for you to climb down.”
“I’ll secure the area, and meet you all there afterwards.” Pilu said. They all got ready, dressing up and heading out. Pilu checked the area they were meeting, things looked pretty clear for the most part. She anchored a climbing rope, made sure it was secure, then proceeded to the town square to watch the show.
Scout walked out into the middle of the square, a beautiful statue of the city’s founders stood tall in the center, around it were market stalls of all kinds. Some sold produce, others meats and fish, some were full of hand crafted trinkets or jewelry.
She wandered along the stalls, browsing and making light conversation with the locals. After buying a pretty necklace, she was abruptly pushed to the ground by a hooded figure who grabbed the necklace and began to run. “STOP! THIEF!” She cried out as she pushed herself upright into a sitting position. Some passers buy helped her up, while others went after the guy who robbed her like an angry flock.
The hooded figure – Khaz, ran from them quickly, then purposely ran in to Jonas, smacking in to his large chest and then falling back onto the ground.
Jonas picked him up with ease by the collar of his shirt, yanked the necklace away, and tossed it to another passing guard. “Be sure that gets back to the lady who owns it, I’ll take care of this guy.” He said, then pulled Khaz off to the prison cells.
a large square building made of white stone, despite being a place to hold criminals, the outside of the building still had ornate details like most of the others around the city.
Jonas burst open the door with Khaz struggling to break free from his grip.
“Caught this one trying to steal from an innocent citizen.” He said to the guards sitting near the entrance.
He picked up a key off a wall hook for the cell, and headed down a flight of stairs. The block where the cells were kept was dark and dingy. Thick iron bars were all that separated the cells.
He unlocked the door and threw Khaz inside after he opened it. Slamming the door shut and locking it again. “Some time in here should do you some good.” He grunted, then left Khaz to get acquainted with his new cell mates.
Khaz moaned as he sat up, rubbing the back of his neck, it was sore from being pulled around by his collar, and he must of landed on a few larger pebbles with it when he hit the ground.
He looked over seeing two others in the cell, a light tan Pterodactyl, and an orange Compsognathus.
There was a long moment of pause as the Compsognathus and Khaz stared at each other.
They knew each other
Khaz’s kidnapper all those years ago.
“You’re…” Khaz began
“I’m surprised your alive kid.” Said the Compsognathus. “Thought Layrite would have eaten you or something.”
“He tried. I got lucky.” Khaz answered.
There was another awkward silence.
The pterodactyl finally spoke up to break it. “So, what are you in for?”
Khaz turned to him, “Actually, I’m here for you.”
“Me?” asked the tan flyer.
“Yup.” Answered Khaz. “The guard who threw me in here is a friend, we’re from the Goldwick Thieves, and we’re here to break you out of jail.”
“Break me out? Well thanks! But, there most be something more, you guys wouldn’t come all the way out here just for a jailbreak.”
“We’re looking to expand to Skyline, and wanted someone to run things here. We came looking for you, to see if you were interested in being the guy to run things here?”
The pterodactyl was surprised. “Me? Run a branch of the guild…”
“Not a bad offer, I’d take it.” Said the Compsognathus.
the pterodactyl nodded. “Alright, I’ll do it. But you have to spring Ankle Biter out too.” He said, and pointed to the Compy beside him.
Khaz agreed to do so, as much as he didn’t really want to.
They waited a while and planned out their escape, there was about an hour where the current guards left and the new guards came in, that hour would be a perfect opportunity to escape.
Khaz was sitting against the stone brick wall at the back of the cell, he picked up a sound on the other side of the village running about its day. That’s when he realised the walls were hollow.
He pulled out the dagger he had hid in his shirt when he was thrown in jail, and hacked away at the bricks and the cement between them.
Soon enough a few bricks came loose, Khaz making good progress on a hole from which to escape through.
He knew it would dull his blade, but he could get that fixed easy enough. He just prayed it didn’t break.
But break it did. A strike at a bad angle snapped it in half.
“Dammit.” Khaz grunted, the hole was big enough that him or Ankle Biter could get through, but Shou wouldn’t be able to.
He saw some bricks were loose enough that he could probably kick them off with enough strength.
He laid on his back and pulled his legs up, and delivered a sharp blow to the wall. It knocked out the bricks but it also sent a feeling of pins and needles all through his legs and spine.
The shaking pained feeling was strong, like the whole world was shaking.
Then he realized it was the building. Apparently he had been chipping away at a supporting wall, and the whole building was starting to shake. “Uh oh.”
Soon the building began to collapse around them. Their protection was the metal cage they were trapped in.
“Well, that’s one way to break us out.” Ankle Biter scoffed. “You could have just gotten your friend to throw us the key.”
“We can talk about that later, let’s get out of here first!” Shou said, a large opening appeared as rock and brick crumbled around them. Ankle Biter hopped up on Shou’s back and Shou grabbed Khaz with his talons as he spread his wings and quickly took flight.
They fled the collapsing building and were then dodging arrows, the guards shooting at all the escaped prisoners.
“Hang on tight! This could get a little tricky.” Shou shouted, while weaving around dodging arrows and other projectiles.
Khaz gripped on to his legs tight, not wanting to be flung off and fall to his death.
Soon guards capable of flight started chasing after them.
“Try and lose them in the canyon!” shouted Ankle Biter, and Shou then dove straight down into the canyon surrounding the city.
Khaz hated every moment. This was far worse than those stupid carts.
Khaz was facing backwards, seeing the edge of the plateau grow quickly distant high above them. He saw someone looking over a slightly lower ledge, Pilu had seen them zoom by.
His view of her was quickly blocked by three flying guards racing after them. Shou pulled a sharp left, jerking Khaz who was still clinging for his life.
He saw one guard get hit with an arrow, looking up he saw Jonas holding a bow.
Next he saw the second guard get tackled out of the air by someone else. Scout had shed most of her clothing in order to make use of her gliding feathers. She rammed in to the second guard and they both fell from the sky in a frantic fight.
Khaz wasn’t able to keep watching as his attention was drawn to the quickly gaining third guard. He took a deep breath and let one hand go off of Shou’s leg and reached up his shirt, pulling out another blade and throwing it. The blade pierced through one of the guard’s wings and he went down.
“Nice shot kid!” Yelled Ankle Biter. It was somewhat hard to hear over the sound of rushing winds and flapping wings.
They flew around a bit more, making sure no one was following, and eventually circled back to the ledge they were supposed to meet on.
Once everyone was back safely, they began to discuss and plan arrangements for where to start the new branch of the Goldwick thieves, and what would need to be done. They agreed upon a cave somewhat near the small plateau where the small pterosaurs were. They made the trek there and began to set up shop a little. Unpacking enough supplies to get Shou started.
Jonas and Scout agreed to stay behind once the time came for the others to leave.
Ankle Biter agreed to join them, he’d been a thief for hire. Working on his own accord, but he welcomed the idea of being part of the guild, an important part being Shou’s second in command.
The night before Pilu and Khaz were about to head back, Ankle Biter asked to talk to Khaz alone.
They went to a part of the cave away from the others and sat down on the cold stone ground.
“So, why’d you want to talk to me?” asked Khaz.
Ankle Biter took a bit of time to think before answering. “Kid…I uh…I’m sorry, about...”
“The kidnapping? Why’d you do it? You said you were a thief for hire, did Layrite pay you to do it?”
“He did.” Ankle Biter answered.
“Look, kid, the Chief was the guy who killed your parents too.”
“What?!” Khaz was surprised. “Do you know why?” He wanted to know more, no he needed to know more.
“Your mom used to be one of his concubines, his favourite actually, until she escaped and fled to Paleo City, where she met your dad. The chief was obsessed with her, and was heartbroken when she ran away.” Ankle Biter explained. “Eventually he found out where she had ended up, and with who she ended up with. He decided if he couldn’t have her, then no one could. So he hired an assassin to off both of them.”
Khaz was silent, staring off into nothingness as he processed wat he was hearing.
“but” Ankle Biter continued. “When the assassin came back to collect payment, he mentioned you. The chief wanted you dead, and wanted to do make sure to it himself. So he hired me to find you and bring you to him.”
Khaz sat silent for a while longer, then spoke up, shaking his head, and with a voice shaky and unsure. “I never knew…I always thought my parents were good people.”
“They were, kid.” Said Ankle Biter. “I worked for the chief for a while when your mom was there, she was taken from her home by him and forced to give her body to him whenever he wanted it. But despite that she was incredibly caring toward the other women, and some of the men that worked for Layrite.”
Khaz shrugged his shoulders. “I’ve been living with this guilt, this nagging feeling in the back of my head that I killed someone, I ended a life, despite doing it defense. I still felt terrible. Now it’s a relief to know that I got to be the one to kill him.”
“Wait, you killed him? I thought the big blue friend of yours did it?”
Khaz let out a bit of a laugh, and a hint of a smile on his face, almost feeling a sense of pride now. “Nope, it was me.”
He paused before continuing. “I appreciate that you told me all of this, but, why?”
Ankle Biter sighed. “Your mother was a dear friend of mine once, and what happened to her was terrible.”
He pulled out a piece of paper with some writing on it. “Layrite is dead, but the assassin that killed her is still very much alive.”
He unfolded the paper and handed it to Khaz. “I want to contract you to kill him.”
Khaz took the paper, it was indeed a contract, but it was a bit different than the ones he saw. “Where did you get this?”
“I did a job for them once, rather than coin, they gave me this. A free contract, I don’t have to pay a thing, and I could have them kill whoever I wanted. I held onto it, I thought I might not even ever use it, turns out I was wrong.” Ankle Biter pulled out a pen and inkwell out of a small pocket on his thigh. “Will you do it?”
Khaz skimmed through the contract, his eyes arriving at the name of the target. “This is...You want me to kill him?”
Ankle Biter nodded. “Yeah, I want you to kill the leader of the Assassins guild.”
Category Artwork (Digital) / Fantasy
Species Dinosaur
Size 983 x 1263px
File Size 194.9 kB
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