Chronicles of Uel

Chapter 1

          On a dark night, A thief dug through the contents of a closed shop, smiling as he found plenty of expensive clothes and shoved them into his bag. On the roof opposite the shop, a dark figure looked down at a wanted poster in his hand, the picture of which matched the man in the shop. He jumped down and snuck toward the shop. A glowing transparent green knife appeared in his hand. He hurled it into the store, commanding it with his mind. The dagger dashed around the shop, staying out of sight of the thief. When the figure had wound around the store all he needed, the dagger shot at the thief, a trail of clothes attached to it. It coiled around the thief and constricted him. The figure raced into the shop and held up his fist, now in the thief's vision. He wore a shiny green helmet that covered his entire head, with matching chest and boots, various other pieces of green armor strewn over his black garments, a different shade of green for his cape.
            "Hey! Let me go!" The thief shouted.
            The figure punched the thief in the face with his armored knuckles. "I can take you in alive, or I can take you in dead. You choose."
            The thief recognized the empty eyes he'd heard so much about. He sighed. "You're the legendary bounty hunter huh?"
            The figure nodded. "I go by Uel. Nice to meet you."
            The thief rolled his eyes. "Alright let's go already." He said. Uel nodded and shoved him toward the door.
            Uel pushed the thief into the police station. "Found him." He said. The thief chuckled. A chicken wandered into the station behind Uel, pecking at his boot. "Steven, there you are." Uel said, picking the chicken up.
           "Cute chicken." One of the knights said.
           Uel looked over to him. "He isn't a chicken."
           "Well then what is he?" The other knight asked.
            "Not a chicken." Uel said, holding his hand out. "My payment?" The knight nodded and handed him a pouch of gold. Uel nodded. He walked out into the street and observed that the sun was beginning to rise. Uel opened the pouch of gold and sighed. "I think I'll have to go for bigger fish." He looked up to the large bounty board. The six wanted posters wavered in the wind: The Dragon's Bounty. Uel sighed. "I'd better get hunting, then." Steven clucked. Uel pet him. "Fine. We can go get something to eat first." Uel dropped a few coins on the desk in the market. "I'd like some seeds." He said. He placed Steven on the table.
            "Have a preference?" The vendor asked. He laid out a few different pouches.
            Uel looked over at Steven, who pecked at one of the pouches. "That one." The vendor pulled back the other sacks and claimed the coins as Uel grabbed the pouch of seeds and opened it for Steven to eat out of. "I don't understand why all you eat is seeds. You could be eating corn." Steven looked up at him and pecked his helmet. Uel chuckled. "I guess that's fair." He said. He looked around the city. "Now, where do I begin on finding the biggest bounties on the island? Doubt they'd be in this little town. Biggest bounty here was that thief." He put his hand to the chin of his helmet. "Unless they would hide here." He looked down at Steven. "What do you think?" He asked. Steven clucked. Uel sighed. "Guess I'll see if it knows." The dagger appeared in his hand, and he tossed it up into the air. The dagger stopped in midair and pointed in a random direction. "It is nice to know I have a direction this time." He caught the dagger and it dispersed. Uel turned and began walking in the direction the dagger had been pointing.
            When he'd reached the end of the town, he looked around until he spotted a man sitting on a barrel beside a few horses.
           "Excuse me, good sir." Uel walked over to him. The man looked up. "How many towns are in that direction?"
           The man sighed. "Have a map." He shoved a map into Uel's hand. Uel unrolled it and looked at the town he was in.
           He looked off into the distance. "Only one." He said. He handed the map back to the man. "Thank you." He began walking, Steven on his tail.
           "Don't you need transport?" The man asked.
           Uel turned and shook his head. "I'll be alright." He said. Steven clucked at the man then turned and followed after Uel. Uel looked up at the sun that was now high in the sky. "Looks like it's gonna be a hot one." He said. Steven clucked his agreement. "We should be there by tomorrow." Steven made the closest noise he could to a sigh.
           The next day, Uel and Steven walked into town, stopping to rest a while.
           "See? Wasn't that bad." Uel said. Steven didn't seem impressed. Uel shrugged. "I'm betting whichever one is this way is currently in this town, so we'd better get looking. Not like we have anything better to do." He stood and looked around. "Now, where to begin." He unrolled one of the wanted posters. "Guess I'll have to memorize their faces." One by one, he put each face to memory at the best of his ability. He rolled up the last one and began walking. He walked up and down the streets, but didn't see anyone that looked remotely familiar to any of the pictures. He climbed up on to a roof and looked around. He spotted the tower that displayed the time on a sundial. "I wonder." He said. He jumped from rooftop to rooftop before reaching as close to the tower as he could. "Would he be dumb enough?" He began climbing the tower. When he'd reached the top room, he looked around to see a part of the stone tower that didn't look quite right. He crept over to it and stamped his foot into the stone. His boot went right through it. Uel chuckled. "Bingo." He said, dropping into the hole. He turned to see a man sitting there, his mouth agape and a loaf of bread in his hand. He dropped the bread yet stayed otherwise still. Uel looked intently at him and chuckled. "You aren't very good at hiding are you, Spider?"
           Duros gulped. "I don't know what you're talking about. I'm no spider." He said with a nervous chuckle.
          Uel laughed. "So we gonna do this the easy way, or the hard way?" Duros sighed. He placed his hand against the stone wall, which opened up, Duros jumping out and sealing the wall behind him. "Hey!" Uel shouted. He pounded against the wall. "So he's an Oread, huh?" He jumped against the wall and vaulted himself out the hole in the roof. He looked around and spotted Duros running away, jumping from roof to roof. Uel sighed. "Hard way it is." He jumped down and raced after Duros, who created obstacles out of stone to slow Uel down. Duros jumped down onto the ground and raced down the street, Uel not far behind. Suddenly, Steven appeared in front of Duros, causing him to skid to a stop in surprise. Uel tackled him to the ground. He flipped him over and stared into Duros's eyes. Duros gulped and attempted to bend the stone around him, but he could not. "You don't look like a bad guy." Uel said.
           Duros nodded. "I'm not. How did you know that?"
           Uel stood and pulled Duros to his feet. "I can just tell."
          Duros sighed. "I thought you were going to kill me."
          Uel chuckled. "Course not. I'd turn you in for a long life of imprisonment."
          Duros's eyebrows rose. "But, you're not gonna, right?"
          Uel put his hand to the chin of his helmet. "Haven't decided yet."
          Duros smiled nervously. "So, you're a bounty hunter?" He asked. Uel nodded, kneeling down to pet Steven. Duros smiled. "Cute chicken."
          "He's not a chicken."
          "Then what is he?"
          Uel looked up at him. "Not a chicken."
          Duros shrugged. "Well, I'd better be off." He began walking away speedily. Suddenly, a glowing green blade appeared in front of him.
           "Not so fast." Uel said, rising to his feet. "If I'm going to trust you not to do anything I'll have to take you in for, I'll have to keep an eye on you."
           Duros sighed. "And how do you plan on doing that?"
           Uel shrugged. "I guess you'll just have to come with me."
          Duros slumped over. "I'm not exactly able to just go wherever."
          Uel chuckled. "You've hidden pretty well so far. You'll be fine."
          Duros shrugged. "Where would we go anyway?"
          Uel motioned for Duros to follow him. "Well, I need some money, so I'd like to take in some big bounties. That's why I came after you, anyway." Duros nodded. "But I see that you were wrongfully accused. And I would assume that your friends have been as well?"
           Duros nodded. "But how would you know that? No one else believes us."
           Uel chuckled. "It's..... a gift I have."
           Duros shrugged. "So, who we going after next?" He asked with a smile.
           Uel looked back at him. "I guess the next step down from you guys. Wanna help?"
           Duros nodded. "Maybe it'll give me some good credit."
           Uel shrugged. "Couldn't hurt. Let's get going to find a bounty board." Duros smiled and followed after Uel.