Sigvor explains her reasoning to Dzan, her fists clenched in anger. Dzan could only be more furious than even her. He turned towards the group farther down the hallway and started to feel immense anger. Then he finally heard something that set him off.
“…I’ll drink it.” The boy states, pure fear apparent in his voice. Dzan realizes why. The boy’s mother has a grievous wound on her forehead. Even Sigvor had missed that, they were just talking to each other, oblivious to the speed of their enemies.
Sigvor was working hard to formulate a plan in her own mind. However, Dzan heard enough plans for today. He decides instead to do something else. First, he takes out his curved dagger from its holster.
“…Hey, what are—“
Dzan sees the hallway in front of him. The opportunity has already presented itself, now all he has to do is move through instinct. He takes off like a rocket towards the group of eight who are focused on the woman and her child.
His experience as a thief allows him to keep his footsteps silent for long enough that once they notice him it is too late. It is only when he is three paces away from them that someone turns towards him. However, he ignores the person in his way, dodging her body.
He sees the boy with the vial in his hand as well as a second vial still in the woman’s hand. He’s trying to unscrew the cap, while the woman notices Dzan sprinting towards her. A hand grips his shoulder tightly, however he simply slits the wrists of the person grabbing him, using his knife without even looking in the man’s direction.
Before the man can even shout in pain or anger, Dzan is close enough to the boy and the blonde woman to reach out towards them. He had considered what his best option would be in this situation. Should he simply try to kill the blonde woman who seems to be the ringleader? If he did that then he would have to face off against the seven people remaining and Sigvor would be dragged into the fight.
So instead, Dzan decided to swipe the vials, removing them from the situation completely. If he’s right about his understanding of the current situation, then the best thing he can do is run away with the two vials in his possession. If he does, the eight humans, or at least some of them, will follow him. Their group will be divided.
If he’s wrong and they decide to kill the mother and her child anyways and then come after him… then perhaps he has already stopped a fire bombing from taking place that would have melted this building full of demihumans to the ground.
Instead however, he goes with a third option, one that he can see clearly in this moment, one that can still salvage some of this situation.
He first swipes the vial from the blonde woman. Then, he swipes the vial from the boy. Then, he lifts the boy off the ground and onto his shoulder. Having secured the most important things in this situation, he sprints away towards the end of the hallway leading to a stairwell that goes up to the third floor and also down to the first.
Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.
All he knows is that there is no uncertainty within his heart. He knows what he has to do. Absolutely. If he does this, everything will work out. His rapidly beating heart will allow no failure from him. After he has gotten away from them, he could even regroup with Sigvor.
He succeeds and leaves the area with the boy, moving down up towards the third floor.
“Where did he come from?” Cariha asks in panic.
Her precious resources, the vials and the offering, were stolen from her. She had noticed a figure moving towards her and, rather than pulling the vial back, she had raised her hands to protect her face from what she believed was an attack on her life.
The agile beastkin had used that opportunity not to kill any of them, not even her, but to steal the vial from her and take the boy. Realizing that both her vials are gone as well as the child, she can only sit there in abject shock and confusion.
What is… How did this…
She cannot fully comprehend how this came to be. Though, she notices two of the men in her group chasing after the man down the hallway and up the stairs. She watches their receding backs in silence for moments before quickly handing out orders.
“You two!” She shouts, pointing to the other two male members of her group who are just as surprised as she is. “Help those two! Go after that mongrel and get those fucking vials back!”
Without any hesitation, the two of them sprint after the demihuman man as well. The beastkin woman who was leaning against one of their legs falls forward, landing on the dirty ground of the 2nd floor hallway on her front. She is unable to get back up as her hands remain tied behind her back.
She doesn’t understand what is going on but she can perceive that her son has been removed from the situation. The blonde woman had just called him a mongrel so that must mean that he was a demihuman who had somehow figured out a way to steal her son from right under their noses.
He’s… He’s free… No matter what, as long as he can keep running from those four men, then… then Bels can escape!
She is happy for her son, immensely jubilant at the possibility of his escape. Yet, her happiness is short-lived as she feels a deep pain coming from her forehead. She had almost forgotten that her face was mutilated.
Her forehead is flat against the ground. She stifles a groan as her throbbing, black forehead wound is covered in dust and dirt. She fears that she will develop an infection at this rate. How much skin would she actually need to remove from her face in order to get this fixed by an affordable healer?
I can figure it all out when I reunite with Bels and Roe.
Once she is back together with her husband Roe and her son Bels, she finds it hard to imagine even caring about this wound to her forehead. After all, she’ll be there with them, she can put behind this situation as some sort of foggy nightmare.
She doesn’t doubt her husband's love for her. She knows how far he would go in order to get the wound on her face healed. How many more hours would he work? Would he take out loans with shady people? He would do anything so that she would not be forced to live with her face being mutilated by a group of violent humans.
He is not a vain man. After she had given birth to her son, she had developed a harmful infection. It resulted in complications that caused her to become unable to have any more children. Yet, he didn’t care. Even though his only son was born with a disability in his leg, he didn’t care.
He never thought of leaving her to fend for herself and her child alone. He never showed disappointment in his child, not for a moment. His love for her and their child is pure. It was this love for her that she was looking to now as her steady rock. It is keeping her from falling apart right now.