Forever Alone (Wakfu)

Chapter 8

T/Ws marked with ### symbols. End of T/Ws marked with ^^^ symbols.

*~~} World of Twelve ^ Xiaolei Timeline {~~*

<:> 982 <:>

''' Yugo'''

I ran around the city once again, barely avoiding the newer, sharper blade-tipped staffs that the eastern guards wielded. They were much more effective to use as a weapon, and completely threw the idea of close combat out of the window. My shard would be proven useless.

The problem with the staffs is that they could be thrown like spears, and very smooth-flying ones on top of that. I turned the corner as one whizzed right past my forehead, catching a chunk of my bangs with it. I was pulled forward, my weight unable to counter the staff's momentum.

The one thing I had going for me at this point was my unfindability and the lack of evidence that I existed. The current theory floating around the guards was that I simply wasn't ever there and that I was a hallucination or a dream resulting from some form of poor quality-checks. Of course, my bangs, cut messily by the blade, were caught in it with me. I yanked it off of me and grabbed the staff for myself. I would have to untangle my hair later.

I turned behind me to see the four guards I nearly left in the dust about three house-lengths away from me. I stood up and ran, knowing that I had less than a minute to lose them again, the weight of the heavy staff slowing me down as my legs began to feel fatigued from carrying it. A headache began to set in alongside the fatigue, disorienting me somewhat. I pushed forward, not dropping the staff.

I thought about turning to the right, my ally close by. I rejected the idea, remembering that if they were to remember this location and return in daylight, they would have me arrested easily. I turned left instead.

I saw a ladder above me and progressed toward it. My last chance.

I jumped up to catch the bottom bar and pull myself up. I hoisted the staff into the back of my sweater, puncturing the fabric. I moved my hand back into position as my left began to slip, unable to carry my whole self. My "wings" positioned backwards in pain.

I scrambled up the ladder without looking back. It seemed to go up for forever, but when I reached the top, I was only three stories above the ground. I threw my whole body onto the roof the ladder had led me to and pulled my hands into fists a few times, trying to regain feeling in my palms that currently were left numb.

I leaned over the edge slightly, trying not to be any visible. I saw the guards still in the middle of the street, unable to figure out where I had gone to. They proceeded forward and ran further down the street to find me. I was free.

I pulled back over the edge and layed flat on the roof again. I began to slow my breathing, closing my eyes and resting my head down on the concrete "floor" beneath me. As I sat still, a stinging sensation flowed into my body. I wished I could cry out in pain.

I turned myself over, letting my back be exposed the sky above me. I moved the staff out of the back of my hoodie and positioned it to be in place where I could look more at it, only illuminated by the soft moonlight.

########blood########

The staff itself was quite the weapon. The spear tip appeared to be made from chiseled black stone, sharp and fresh. It was left almost without imperfection, only slightly worn where it had come in contact with my hair. I pulled the strands out of the tip and stuffed them into my pocket. I quickly became aware that it had my blood on it now. I didn't know when it had pierced me because my whole body was stricken with the same pain that any cut would send through my veins.

I began to neglect my general health at about the same time that I had stopped eating more than twice a "day". I had a feud against the Eniripsa race in general, mentally scared from my experience two years in the street, if I could remember correctly.

An Eniripsa woman had approached me on one of my night walks, curious on my motives. I said few words, but she tried to feed and house me despite my constant objections. I felt like I was going to throw up after I ate so much. I would have been glad to befriend an Eniripsa if she hadn't basically tried to kidnap me afterward. She had taken me to what she called an orphanage and practically forced me into one of the beds. I saw many other kids stuck in this place and didn't hesitate for long before I disappeared back into the night.

I held my mouth tightly together reminiscing on the memory. I wiped my blood off of the blade using a puddle of water next to a broken pipe beside me. I took it and covered it in a layer of oil from a bucket adjacent to the pipe before wiping it off one more time. Now polished, it shined in the moonlight and looked brand new again.

I set the staff down and sat up holding my breath. Wherever I was bleeding from, I was bleeding pretty significantly. It would have taken me until sunrise to find it if the back of my hoodie hadn't been sticking to my back like glue. Confident that no one could or would see me, I took it off, divulging my "wings" and uncovering my bare skin.

Holding the hoodie in my hands, I saw the long, crimson line that stained the fabric, a hole at both ends of the lines, most likely where I had carelessly pierced the staff through. I dipped the back of my hoodie into the puddle of water and swiped it across my back, sending a fiery pain down my back once more. I rubbed a bit harder, wishing only to clean the blood away.

I felt the blood-water mixture drip down my back more, the liquified scabs spotting down my back more than before. I took a dry sleeve from my hoodie and dried it away. I stopped actively bleeding.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Once I felt stable enough to, I threw the staff onto a similar patch of moss to the one in my ally as to not make clanging noises, threw my hoodie back on, and climbed down the ladder slowly, regretting my decisions every step I made it further down, the stretching of my back becoming exhausting.

I set the spear flat in the middle of the street, aligned to be straight between the two sidewalks on either of its sides. I smiled slightly, knowing the confusion that this would cause in the day guards.

I ran off again, my sandals lightly tapping on the dirt-covered ground as I made my way toward my ally. I felt the air began to literally get warmed the closer I got, finally falling backward onto my moss bed. I took my little bag out of my pocket, placing it to the left of the heater as I grabbed my freshly heated rolls of bread.

I bit into the stale loaf, not caring much for the taste. Food was food.

I finished it quickly before I layed back down on my bed and turned to sleep on my side, my back closer to the heater to attempt to cauterize it. Sleep quickly overtook me.