"Why the fuck don't you..." the pride-less, cowardly human growled, frustrated by his inability to hit me. "...drop dead?!"

»Why don't you?« I barked back, no less frustrated. My claws tore his skin so many times. He was bleeding all over, and yet I was the one, barely standing, hardly breathing. It was so unfair. Just because he had grown up bigger than me, I was about to be...

'Huh?'

A noise at the mouth of the alley caught my attention. Footsteps and not just one person.

'Has the illusionist returned? With "friends"?'

That brief moment of desperation cost me dearly. I might have dodged the coward's blow by the skin of my teeth. But even though my [Equilibrium] weave was guiding my steps, I stumbled over the female's corpse and fell not very gracefully to the filth of the ground. The nastiness of it, however, was the last thing on my mind. Just as my good hand sank into a mess of mud, filth, blood, and whatever, so did my heart and hope. The polar opposite of my opponent. Yes - devious as the male was, he deserved at least that much credit. It sure had nothing to do with my pride not letting me to lose to my prey.

With teeth bared in a smile upon seeing me lying between the two dead bodies of his pack mates, he lifted his leg and stomped down hard before I had even a chance to react. The bones in my shin gave way, a piercing pain ripped through my body, and I nearly passed out. My hurt cry, however, got drowned out in another.

"STOP!"

Looking up through my tears, fearing there was no way out of this for me anymore as the gutless craven's backup arrived, I found the fierce voice belonging to a man in uniform, a uniform I knew, the uniform of the Castiana City Guards.

'Finally,' I almost breathed out aloud, relieved. Then dread drenched me in sweat.

'What if...?'

What if the man in the uniform and his colleague standing behind him, representing law and order in the city, were in cahoots with the thugs, those monsters who didn't shy away from touching the pup? Annoyingly, no matter how hard I might have pricked up my ear, tried to peer through the curtain of tears, or sniffed their scent, I failed to pick up on anything. There was nothing for my instincts to tell me whether the two were here to help me or to collect their bribes.

In fact, judging by the pride-less, cowardly human's smirk, the latter.

»You vile, gutless craven!« I roared as he kicked my broken leg.

'Fucker!'

"I said stop!" boomed the city guard, and before I knew it, a spear appeared in his hand, its blade pointed at the hateful male’s chest. "Or do you have a problem with your ears?"

"Not at all, officer. My bad." To my surprise, that despicable human raised his hands and stepped away from me. "You see, this wild half-Terr and her friends almost killed me..."

"Did I ask you about that?"

"No, Officer. I just..."

"Then shut your trap!" the city guard barked, looking around the small square of the back alley. "Do you see this, Grel?"

"I sure do, boy. What a mess. Two that look dead, two breathing, and a kid - I'll be damned - a kid in what looks like a City Hall uniform?"

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

"Ha?" the one with the spear in his hand, by the tones of their voices, the younger one of the two, grunted and looked from the cowardly craven to the pup, then me and back at the male. "Which one of you two fuckers was so dumb to touch a guide?"

The way he said it, the tone of his voice, the anger behind it - if there was a falsehood, I didn't pick up on it. These two were true city guards, doing their job, the kind I wished had come a long time ago.

'They came, though.'

They came, and not entirely too late - in the nick of time, I'd say.

"Officers, do I look like someone who would hurt a small child? I came to Castiana today, and I hired her to show me around. But when..."

»Bullshit!«

'Lies!'

"See… see. She and her friends - they dragged me in here and then went all wild."

"You do realize that we can and will verify all of that?" the man with the spear growled, just when I'd calmed my racing mind enough to give him a good look.

[Spearman: 116 sigils]

'Not a Guardsman?'

Not that I was in any way disappointed - if anything, the opposite. The Spearman array sounded more powerful than an array of Guardsman most of his colleagues I met had - at least at the moment. Making the despicable human back away while wielding a large spear, the Spearman looked strong and dominant.

'Oh, come one! Stop it, Korra! Not now - or ever.'

I certainly wasn't in the best state of mind to judge anyone, not when I had no idea how arrays actually worked, let alone the difference between the two. Not to mention that the other uniformed male had even more sigils engraved on his array.

[Guardsman: 125]

"I do, officers. I do - I'm telling the honest truth. This feral..."

»You lying craven.«

"Come one, see. She..."

"Shut up! Speak only when asked. You, half-Terr’den - can you talk Standard?"

'Shit! Of course I could just… how the fuck one shifted back?'

Unfortunately, all I could give the male was a shake of the head.

"Oh, but do you understand me?"

Nod.

"Good. Then listen to me, both of you. This is how we are going to do it. My colleague and I will handcuff you both; we will identify you and take you to the barracks."

"But Officer, I'm bleeding out here. I need..."

"For the last time, shut your trap! If you'd let me finish, you'd know that we'll provide you with basic treatment, including a healing potion. If you should require more thorough treatment, which it seems you do, the barracks healers will provide it."

»For free?«

"Since we're making the arrest, yes. You will not be required to pay for it - should you prove innocent."

"Damn. I didn't know you knew the beast talk, boy?" the older uniformed male asked what was on the tip of my tongue.

'How? How did he understand me?'

"Eh? Oh, OH - it's just, that's what they always ask. Right? Anyway, are you alright with that? If not..."

"Fuck this," the big human growled under his breath, grabbed the spear pointed at his chest, yanked it out of the city guard's hand, and shoved him aside. Two steps were as far as he got. In a mixture of horror and awe, I watched a sword come out from his back.

* You participated in the slaying of [Strapper - Kifler: 53 sigils]

Damn! One strike and the human I had struggled so much with was dead. Envy struck my heart. Yet when it came to lament how weak I was, the fear of what I saw overshadowed everything.

'Ria.'

»Pup!«

As the older uniformed male drew his sword out of the gutless craven, his hulking body began to slump to the ground, right on top of the unconscious little kitare.

Before I knew it, I moved to protect her.

So did the older uniformed male.

Thus, what I did was pointless, a stupid instinct driven by lofty ideas and urges beyond my control, something that cost me everything. Broken as I was, I merely managed to reach out for the pup before a sharp pain bit into my back. It ripped through my chest, all the way from my shoulder blades to my breast, pulling my gaze down to where the tip of a blade was sticking out.

'So unfair.'

A few painful heartbeats later, my skull tingled with yet another notification, and my world plunged into darkness.

* You died.