‘First time I got to make that decision without having to rebel with everything I have.’

  Smacking the stupid smile off my face I move on.

  After walking away from the window, I move the knocked over chair back behind the table while flexing my stiff fingers, next returning to my seat and waiting for the next guest.

  ‘Pretty powerful if she can do this much damage to my hands despite absorbing it. If only she actually knew what she was doing, I’d smack the stupid out of whoever taught her to emphasize armor if I found them. Also that look she gave me after the waving… well can’t expect her to learn that qui-’

  Kicking in the door, and strutting in with all the confidence of a man on a mission is another person I’ve never seen before.

  ‘Maybe I should give up on familiarity?’

  He is absolutely loaded down with swords, carrying seven of them on his person, no armor though. The man is taller than most, with an average build and dark hair. His face could almost be considered pretty if it weren’t for a couple of scars suggesting he pissed off a very large animal.

  “Don’t you know you’re supposed to knock before coming into a ladies room?”

  With a smile on his face he turns to me, and looks me up and down, his smile turning into a frown.

  ‘I really need new clothes, I look worse than a beggar.’

  “Lady you are not, miss feral fox. I’m here to recapture or kill you, I’ll leave it to you to decide.”

  ‘Is that the only decision I get to make?’

  With that he withdrew two swords from his waist the rest floating out of their scabbards on their own, three of them floating over to the door and window to cut off easy exit.

  “Fancy. You know, you have me at a bit of a disadvantage with all of those swords. Think you could loan me one for a little bit? I’ll give it back.”

  Simply shaking his head he continues to stare into my eyes waiting for my decision.

  “Didn’t bring anybody else with you?”

  “No.” Gesturing to his swords he continues “Not much for group projects.”

  ‘Projects huh? I’d be hard pressed to use more than two swords at once, I wonder how much dexterity are in the ones not in his hands? Probably just uses them to stab, got the right shape for it.’

  With a sigh I start to rise slowly from my seat, and then whip it at him as hard I can from my bent over position, with him dodging out of the way as it crashes against the wall.

  Rolling sideways under the table as one of the swords slam into the floor of my previous position, I pick up the table and use it to ram at his new position smashing into him and burying him into the wall. One of the swords is knocked out of his hand, the other going through the table and into my waist.

  While pulling myself off the sword another hits me, pinning my left arm to my side and knocking me off the table.

  When the table drops off of him he stumbles out of the wall and I throw a fist into his jaw, knocking him to the ground with a loud crack. Yanking the sword out of my side I slam it all the way into the floor and bend it sideways from the handle.

  No time for testing so I just get rid of them.

  ‘One down.’

  Picking up the sword that was dropped earlier another two of them slam into me, one from above through my shoulder and out the side and the other through my right thigh.

  ‘Fuck that hurts.’

  The swordsman finally gets off the floor wobbling slightly, trying to put a smile on his face, it’s a little crooked. Good thing he wasn’t much of a talker anyway. As I’m stumbling towards him a third sword pierces my chest through my heart and out the back.

  “Yo choth death, yo bith.”

  I’d laugh but both of my lungs are pierced.

  Putting on my best ‘this don’t hurt’ smile, I slam the next sword into the floor.

  ‘Two down.’

  The only swords left that aren’t in the floor or me is the one in the table and the one that is currently flying into the mans hand. While he was busy with that I pull the one that entered from my shoulder out and take a deep breath from my repaired lungs.

  ‘Never will get used to that.’

  I can’t keep this up, I haven’t even recovered from starvation yet, and I spent the day drinking instead of eating, like a stupid stupid stupid little idiot. Time to get in close.

  Slamming the next one into the ground I start my approach. Ripping the sword out of my thigh to exchange blows.

  Unsurprisingly he’s actually quite good with the sword, maintaining his balance despite the slight swaying and me baiting him into over extending himself near constantly, using my much greater reach to my advantage.

  “Ho ar yo shtill mooing?!”

  Finally the dam breaks and I bust up laughing so much that he manages to slice me diagonally across the chest, his eyes going wide when he sees my ribs and skin repairing themselves immediately.

  “You’re going to need a lot more than that to kill me.”

  I’m trying so hard not to tip over while I’m saying that.

  He then makes the first smart decision he’s made all day and takes off running for the door, interrupting his escape I throw the blade and the remaining chair into his legs. The blade is redirected before it hits, but he’s not so lucky with the chair.

  “No running.”

  Pulling the blade out of my chest I close the distance but at the last second he flips over and slashes me across the thigh, opening it to the bone. The sudden loss of muscle causes me to lamely stumble forwards, but in exchange I angle the blade and smash it through his shoulder pinning him to the ground. When he opens his mouth to scream I shove my free hand inside, knocking a few of his teeth out in the process.

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  “No screaming either.”

  ‘Then everybody knows it’s not going well.’

  Straddling his chest and pinning his arms is a difficult process made worse by the fact that I can’t extend my leg, but I manage with a few more slashes from his sword opening up more wounds that aren’t healing. Grabbing the handle and a bit of the blade, the edge biting into my fingers, I manage to rip it out of his hand and with an incredibly awkward swing cut his hand off at the wrist.

  ‘Now for some fear.’

  Picking up his severed hand and holding it up to his face, I pull and pull as everything that it was made of is used to superficially close the wound in my leg. What’s left of it turns to dust that runs through my fingers and onto his face.

  “Sorry sweetie, but this was inevitable.”

  The look in his eyes goes from quiet fury to down right panic, his legs flailing wildly behind me as he manages to free his good hand from under my crippled leg to try to desperately claw at my face with both the stump and his fingers.

  Taking his hand in mine, interlocking our fingers, I angle his head with my jammed hand just enough to-

  Once, twice, three times, on the way towards my fourth headbutt the pain in my collar flares up with increasing intensity until I come to a halt, my face inches away from his crushed and split cheek.

  ‘So that would have killed him. What incredibly shitty precognition.’

  After knocking the swordsman unconscious all the tension in my body runs out causing me to collapse sideways, just staring up at the ceiling. I know I need to be quick, but… I’m still alive.

  1 minute. That’s it. My everything condensed down to a few fleeting moments. You live your whole life holding on with such incredible intensity, scratching-clawing-ripping-tearing, only for someone else to come along and tell you your life is forfeit with all the ease of a casual conversation with a friendly neighbor.

  ‘Who owns my life? I do!’

  Turning my head I spit in my attackers face with disdain, his complete lack of a reaction ruins the moment a bit.

  Sitting up after my revelry I place my hand on the guys throat. Now that I’m not lost in a trance I can actually be smart about where I’m taking from, starting with his extremities I work through the least important areas for continued life: eyes, kidney, spleen, part of liver, legs, arms…

  What I’m able to take only heals up the wounds from the fight plus a little more.

  With that done I strip off what remains of my clothing and examine myself, wounds are closed, but I still look so skinny. Poking myself I can count every one of my ribs; I miss my girls.

  Letting out a sigh I pull on the robe I stole earlier while wrapping my tail around my waist so it doesn’t stick out the bottom. Then weave the shredded remains of my clothing into my hair, placing them so that it covers my ears.

  ‘There are some interesting fashion choices I’ve been making lately.’

  “Time to go- ahhh!!!”

  Noticing running from the entrance of the building I turn to leave through the window but nearly jump out my skin when a man floats up from one of the shadows without a sound.

  ‘That’s… dangerous.’

  He’s covered in a cloak of shadow barely hiding pale skin, has a short blade of shadow in his right hand and a thick gauntlet on his left also made of what looks like shadow.

  ‘No back-up my ass. Keep fucking bluffing Lexi.’

  “You wouldn’t hit a pregnant lady would you?”

  His eyes dart to the not so insignificant bulge my tail is making under my robes and he produces the most confused look I have received so far.

  Perfect.

  Closing the distance in the instant he’s distracted I kick high up on his chest with both feet, knocking him out the window with a strangled gasp, and catch myself on the ledge to keep from following him to the ground. Two stories isn’t going to kill him, but it’s not going to feel great either.

  Hanging from the window after following the man out, a crowd has gathered and people on the ground start shouting and pointing at me, while gathering around mister goth. His shadow equipment is gone, one of his arms is bent in the wrong direction and he isn’t moving.

  With that inventoried I start climbing to the roof of the building trying to get to the top before the others from the entrance gets to the room.

  ‘Where are the rest of them?’

  Right as my hand reaches the roof ledge an arrow pierces through it to pin me to the brick work.

  “Ow!! Apparently right fucking there!”

  Ripping my hand along and off the back of the arrow I continue my climb up when another three arrows pierce deeply into my back as I pull myself over the ledge.

  ‘I can’t even hear them coming!’

  Continuing my run across the rooftop making as many erratic movements as I can, taking a couple more in the back for my efforts, I make for the far edge.

  Another arrow catches me in the back of my knee causing me to collapse and roll off the roof breaking off the ones in my back in the process.

  Breaking my foot with a loud pop upon landing on the ground when my leg gives out with a twist, I let my frustrations get the best of me.

  “Fuck! I hate this place!”

  The people in the crowd who have been trying to get away from the action freeze when they hear my outburst along with my sudden appearance on the ground. Generally getting in the way of me disappearing.

  “RUN AND GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME!!”

  Roaring at them does the trick.

  ‘Now how do I get out of here?’

  Before I’m able to make a plan another arrow hits me in the upper arm knocking me sideways.

  ‘Okay, no plan it is.’

  I’m too weak to even actively use my powers so now I have to go for no control, don’t want to pass out in the middle of escaping. Reaching up to the side of my head I grab a fist full of hair, yank it off, and toss it to the ground at my feet. Within moments a haze starts to float up from the hairs as I watch them return to their original color for a moment.

  ‘I hate you.’

  The cobblestone and inn wall near me visibly decaying as it spreads. The haze soon fully surrounds me as another arrow flies through, but it’s too dull and degraded by the time it reaches me, bouncing mostly harmlessly off my chest. As the haze spreads I make my move and limply sprint to the nearest alley I can find, hiding in the dark behind some discarded trash while removing the arrows in my arm and knee.

  ‘Going to need new clothes again. That took more out of me than I planned… I know I said she should find me first, but I think she is my only safe bet at this point. Just naive enou- that’s not fair, okay the only one who has at least tried to talk to me first. Lets follow the trail to Jessica, hopefully she picks good hiding places.’

  Winter roses or at least something close to it is how I’m able to follow her trail, through back streets, and roof tops to another inn, this one much smaller than the last.

  ‘Winter rose. Ha! Got to tell her how obvious that is.’

  “Let it be known that climbing to a second story window after taking eight arrows and breaking a foot, is not easy.”

  Finally reaching her window after slipping off more than a couple times I find it already open with her standing on the other side staring at me with an icy gaze.

  “You’re making a lot of noise. How did you find me so fast?”

  ‘Winningest smile Lexi.’

  “If you’re going to hide, don’t wear a unique per-”

  “Are you still drunk?”

  “It’s like you didn’t even want to hear the ans-”

  “Answer. The. Question.”

  ‘Maybe I deserve this.’

  “… Yes it’s only been a few minutes. Can I come in? I’m in a lot of-”

  “Are you going to throw me out another window?”

  ‘Ya, I deserve this.’

  “No. Seriously I’m in a lot of-”

  “Why did you throw me out the window?”

  “The guy who was coming wasn’t an ally.”

  “How did you know that?”

  “He was coming from further away than you or your group did.”

  “So you didn’t actually know?”

  “The weapons he had weren’t-”

  “We could have gotten our own.”

  “Okay okay, can we do this inside? I’m starting to see two of you.”

  Simply shaking her head she continues with the line of questioning.

  “What happened?”

  “Long or short?”

  Seeing her cock an eyebrow, a whine escapes my throat. I have no choice, I need help. So I quickly relate the events leading up to me being at her window, dropping a few of the details.

  “Are they dead?”

  “No.”

  “Was it only the collar that prevented you from killing them?”

  “If you knew about the collar why did you-”

  “I’m asking the questions here. Answer.”

  “It was just the one… and… yes, but only because he threat-”

  “What are you buying for dinner?”

  “What????”

  “That’s ten questions, you still owe me another ten later, and you said earlier you would buy me dinner if I found you again. Guess what? I found you at my window.” Her lips finally cracking into a smirk.

  “Dinner? I- y- wha-” My sputtering dies down as I make a sad realization.

  ‘I can’t pull myself up.’

  “Can you help me up? I have a broken foot, and I used up all my strength to hold myself here.”

  “Boo Hoo. You threw me out a window, you can pull yourself through a window.” She said while her smirk turned into a vicious smile.

  “Now that is a scary smile. Please, I need help.”

  “Puppy dog eyes don’t work on me, and I won’t repeat myself.”

  With that she walks to the other side of the room to a table, sits down, and doesn’t even look back.

  ‘Well… I approve.’