Walks of Rasha

Chapter 1

He walks down a beaten path where few have traveled. His pack is light, only two changes of clothes. One he wears while the other he washes. Little food, but that does not concern him, when he runs low on consumables, he looks at this as an opportunity to practice the skill, and the art of hunting.

He walked on his fresh leather boots, still wearing them in. His cloak covers most of his legs, and all the way up over his head. The only skin that shows from his face are his chin and nose, from the concealment of his hood. The only other skin that is shown, are his fingers protruding from knuckle gloves. He carries only three weapons, each has their purpose. A small deadly knife, strapped to the inside of his left forearm. Around the left side of his belt hangs a chackram, a razor sharp flying disk. The last weapon, his favorite weapon, he even considered it a friend. So he gave it name, Shadow. A sheathed katana that hangs upside down off of his back. None of them are visible, or show any hint of existence.

Each step he takes is straight, and parallel to the edges of the dirt road. One step after another, his destination draws near.

Rasha is making his way confidently to Twin City. The reputation of the city does not bother him; in fact, he looks forward to the unpredictable challenges it brings. Every man that comes to reside in this city has a history of violence. And if he doesn't, this would mean they have lived in the city for a short period of time; or they have learned to hide their violence from the knowledge of the people. Thieves working for crooks, crooks working for masters, masters working for guild lords, and the guild lords are split between two factions. All mixed in with warriors, rouges, assassins, magicians, sorcerers, dark wizards, and few clerics to heal the wounded, and cure the sick.

This is the hierarchy view of the city, with Rasha's occupation at the bottom of the list, next to dogs. This is why he looked forward to the city. They have never seen a warrior like him before. The city revered magic, and looked at fighting as a necessity. That's all Rasha had, simple fighting techniques, but a measurement in skill, and discipline, that Twin City had yet to see.

With the city finally in view, Rasha made his way to the dock on the other side of the ravine. He could smell something fowl in the air. The smell was so intense he could taste it. It smelled like something died far away, or right in front of him. Rasha thought to himself, how can these men stand around, and not be affected by this awful smell?

He walked on the docks; and saw that the boatmen didn't notice him at first. So, he forced his steps a little harder to make his presence known.

"When is the next boat crossing for High Tower?" he asked. There was hesitation, and low murmurs, then finally a confident man walked in front of the rest.

"That depends on you." The boatman said.

"Can you explain?" asked Rasha. The one boatman crossed his arms, and stuck out his chest, showing a defensive posture.

"Ok, here's the deal kid, I've never seen you before in my life. I have no note from anyone saying to let you in. So what depends is how much you got in your pockets; meaning how much money do you have? Let me know if I need me to break that down a little more for you to chew" said the boatman. After finishing his statement he looked to his fellow boatmen and laughed, trying to put on a show for their boredom. Rasha told himself to just take the insult, and that he better get used to this. This could actually be useful later, people not knowing his reputation.

"What happens if I don't have any money, or goods?" Rasha asked.

"Well then, looks like you would have a problem, and that problem looks to be in the shape of this river with no boat" he said chuckling to himself and to the boatmen behind him cheering him on with laughs of instigation.

"Would it bother you if I waited in the shade until someone comes for a crossing, then jump on your boat with them?" he asked.

"Um... No I guess that wouldn't bother, and long as you don't bother us." He explained.

"Fine then, by the way, when is the next crossing?" he asked.

"Not till tomorrow afternoon" said the boatman trailing again off into another laugh.

Rasha walked away thinking to himself, how that didn't make any sense. How do the boatmen go back to the city, if the next crossing isn't till tomorrow? Maybe they lived outside the city. He forced himself to forget about it. He walked away and noticed that the terrible aroma started to fade, made an assumption that it came from the moat surrounding the city. He was glad to get himself away from it.

As he was walking he saw some horsemen in the distance, making their way to the docks. He quickly slipped into the trees, pulling his hood even more over his face. There were three, four, five, five house men in the group, each of them wearing a robe of a different color, all dark colors. He followed them all the way back to the boatmen that rejected him just moments ago.

The boatmen where all gathered around loitering, then one man pointed in the direction of the horsemen to the others; and they all started to move around quickly and efficiently as they could. Moving with purpose, before the first horse stepped on the dock, they had everything prepped and ready for transport. Rasha tried hard not to let these simple men get to him, but they did.

The leader of the horsemen was wearing a dark green cloak. Rasha could over hear the conversations from his position in the tall trees.

"Lord Reiner! you've come quite earlier than expected" the boatmen said with arms out wide, and palms up.

"Yes it does seem that way, business did not go quite as planned, so were back earlier. Sorry to disappoint you, Kavle" Reiner said.

"I'm sorry to hear that Sir, I hope everything is ok." Kavle said.

"Yes everything is fine, better than fine actually, that's why we were able to come home so early. Now, can we cross, I'm tired, I haven't had a good sleep for days, and my stomach needs foods. So can we cross please before I start to lose my senses, and you lose you scalp" Reiner demanded.

"Yes, right this way." Kavle said with a small hint of nervousness.

The group started to cross, and about half way to the city docks. The boat started to sink. Rasha could see the expression on Kavle, he was panicking. Kavle did not know what to do in the situation. He started to panic, then turned the boat around back to the docks on the shore. The boat was already to far gone by this time. The group had to take a different measure. They jump out of the boat, and swam toward the shore. Rasha pitied everyone that fell into the moat. They all must have been soaked in that deathly smell.

Once they reached the shore, Reiner was in a rage. He swung off his cloak, pulled out a dagger from his belt, and walked toward Kavle with intense eyes. Rasha paid close attention to the dagger, and analyzed it. It had a small red stone in the middle of the handle, possibly an enchanted diamond. A green aurora followed the swing of the blade, straight into the heart of Kavle. Renier held the knife inside of his chest. He grabbed the dying boatman and lifted him up to look at his eyes. His eyes turned into a bright green color, flickered then went dark. In a short moment the boatman was dead. Renier dropped the body to the ground, and the head bounced off a rock like a rag-doll. The knife started to glow even brighter, and in that same instant, the body turned into a skeletal being; and burrowed itself underneath Reiner.

"Necromancer" Rasha whispered low to himself. He couldn't remember a time where he came across a Necromancer before. This Reiner intrigued him; but this couldn't get into the way of his plans.

On the second try, the boatmen were able to get the group across, with no set backs. Rasha didn't want to intrude on the foully drenched party, thinking that they might try to let out some more anger on anyone else that would attempt to get in their way.

*****

It was nightfall when two more boatmen came from the city to the shore docks. Trading places with the others, so they could go back to their homes for the night. Rasha waited at the shoreline for the two guards to fall asleep, he kept his steps silent, and walked like a shadow of a ghost. The two guards sat back to back, on the docks, supporting each other like a chair.

Rasha stepped on the docks carefully, and made his way to one of the boats. As he starting to untie the boat from the dock, heard someone yell at his direction.

"HEY! What do you think your doing?" the first guard yelled. Just as fast, Rasha's hand was out in front of him when he let go of his chackram. All the guard saw was a shiny gleam of metal reflect off the moonlight, for a split second. Then something touch his throat. Unaware of what just happened, the guard tried to yell for help, but the only sound he made was a loud gargle from the blood that filled his mouth. He quickly grabbed his neck, and felt warm blood starting to flow. He made the connection of what just happened to him, then fell on his side.

The second guard started in a full sprint, with his sword drawn, and charging at Rasha. Well aware of the situation, Rasha quickly unsheathed Shadow. In one motion, he caught his returning disk out of the air, and parried the nervous guard's attack. Then he sliced the him in the same spot on the throat as the first guard, with the razor disk.

Rasha regretted how he handled the situation. He acted off impulsive instinct, and emotion. Wishing he could have handled it better, so these men might have lived a little longer. He did not dwell on the thought for very long. He dumped the bodies in the foul rive. Then took one of the boats to Twin City. He still had to figure out a way to get in.

All Rasha could think about was the horrific smell, when he made his crossing. Shielding his face with his arm, was the only thing he could do to help the uncomfortable situation. Just before the boat landed at the gate of Twin City, it started to open. Rasha quickly reverted the boat to the side, into the shadows of the walls. He hopped off the boat to the ledge of the wall. All he could see were shadows coming from the open gate. It was two men pushing a giant cart that had a tarp over it. The smell was immense.

When the two men reached the moat, they unraveled the tarp, and dump what they were carring. Rasha focused in on the contents being pored into the moat. It was dead bodies. One after another, making a splash every time one of them hit the water. He saw a window of opportunity. Rasha took a small handkerchief out of his pocket he used for sweat, and tied it around his face. So he wouldn't have to keep using his arm to shield the smell. Normally, that would have disgusted him, but it was nothing compared to what he was about to do.

He waited until the men were done with their choir, before he made his move. Rasha used the noise of the rusty wheels, to make the sound of his footsteps unnoticed. He jumped into the back of the cart, and hid under the tarp. Rasha soon found himself in the notorious Twin City.

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