EXT. OLD QUARTER STREETS - NIGHT
The OLD QUARTER is a run-down conglomeration of hovels and buildings on the verge of collapse. Everywhere smells of death and desperation.
A FEMALE PAGAN FIGHTER and a MALE PAGAN FIGHTER break the image by darting across the frame.
EXT. OLD QUARTER ALLEY – NIGHT
4 HAMMERITES harass an elderly hag, MINNOW, and her 6 year-old grandson, LARK. Other HUDDLED FIGURES dot the alleyway, ignoring the conflict. The hysterical MINNOW is shielding LARK with her body.
HAMMERITE 1
The lad hath no living parent, hence
he is ward of the state.
MINNOW
(shrieking)
Curses bes casting! VENGEANCE!
HAMMERITE 1
He shall be a devout servant to the
Hammer.
HAMMERITE 2
You are too patient, brother.
HAMMERITE 2 pushes MINNOW to the ground. As soon as LARK is exposed he spews liquid from his mouth all over HAMMERITE 2. MINNOW touches HAMMERITE 2 with a withered finger and he bursts into flame. The FEMALE PAGAN FIGHTER emerges from the shadows and stabs HAMMERITE 3 in his left side a dozen times with a MISERICORDE. The MALE PAGAN FIGHTER also emerges carrying a makeshift MORNINGSTAR, but is knocked flat by a deadly swing from HAMMERITE 4's HAMMER. HAMMERITE 1 crushes MINNOW with an overhead blow from his hammer. A DART, shot from the nearby shadows, glints off HAMMERITE 1'S armor. HAMMERITE 1 looks around wildly to see who shot the DART. HAMMERITE 4 tries to swing at the FEMALE PAGAN FIGHTER but she dodges. Brandishing a CHAKRAM in her free hand, the FEMALE PAGAN FIGHTER slices HAMMERITE 4'S throat. HAMMERITE 2, fully ablaze, tackles the FEMALE PAGAN FIGHTER. Just the way that the FEMALE PAGAN FIGHTER was holding the CHAKRAM implies that she fell into it. A SECOND DART flies from the shadows, this time hitting HAMMERITE 1 squarely in the cheek. HAMMERITE 1 falls immediately.
GARRETT, who was one of the nearby HUDDLED FIGURES, stands and walks to HAMMERITE 2, who is rolling on the ground in agony. GARRETT uses his FLUTE as a blowgun to shoot a DART into HAMMERITE 2, who stops moving a second after the DART connects. GARRETT covers LARK'S eyes with his hand to stop LARK from staring at MINNOW.
GARRETT
Don't look. Don't remember her like
that. Turn away now. That's a lad.
LARK draws a RUSTY BLADE and runs it along the back of GARRETT'S hand, drawing BLOOD. GARRETT swats LARK on the side of the head and throws him away.
GARRETT
Street trash.
LARK looks at GARRETT, forlorn.
LARK
S-sorry...
GARRETT
(bending to his eye level)
Do you know who Dyan is? She is kind
and fair, and she helps orphans.
LARK nods.
GARRETT
Can you take me to where she is?
LARK thinks, then nods.
EXT. OLD QUARTER STREETS – NIGHT
LARK leads GARRETT through the OLD QUARTER. The streets are deserted except for BEGGARS who sleep outside. Passing a PROSTITUTE, GARRETT picks off one of the RIBBONS she decorates herself with and uses it to bind his bleeding hand. GARRETT halts when he sees 2 JUNKIES grinding up a GREEN POWDER. LARK stops too and watches GARRETT, who is transfixed.
LARK
Bes hungry?
The JUNKIES see GARRETT watching and scowl. GARRETT moves on.
GARRETT
(to LARK)
It's nothing. Just keep moving. How
far now?
LARK
Bes thems close. So close.
GARRETT
Wait who's thems?! Dyan. We're going
to Dyan.
LARK
Aye, meaners Dyan. Thems be meaners
Dyan.
LARK runs off ahead of GARRETT.
EXT. OLD QUARTER SHACK - NIGHT
A BONFIRE burns outside of the crude SHACK. WILLOWREED (female), LEAFER and CORNBRIAR (males) lounge around the BONFIRE on STUMPS or BLANKETS while GINNY boils TEA in a POT over the BONFIRE. The SHACK is crowded in on all sides by OLD BUILDINGS that used to be the soul of the city, but have since become refuges for the refused. Through some complex, otherworldly technique WILLOWREED uses 5 KNITTING NEEDLES to knit a BLANKET while CORNBRIAR and LEAFER take turns smoking from a crude PIPE.
GINNY
...her third child bes bearing.
WILLOWREED
Third child?
GINNY
Thirdsie now.
WILLOWREED
Tsk - with no man threes be too many.
CORNBRIAR
With man shes be at fourth.
ALL PAGANS cackle. LARK runs in and goes to GINNY.
LARK
Marm! Marm! Sneaksie be following! Old,
old sneaksie be-
WILLOWREED
Lark and him stories.
LARK
Bes him right follower. Killered
them Hammers and Pagans both. I NOT
be liar.
GINNY
Hush, Lark. Talks us with sneaksie
when sees us one.
LARK
Him be wanting sees Dyan.
WILLOWREED
Dyan?
GINNY
What wants him Dyan for?
CORNBRIAR
Ho, ho! Bes Larksie no liar.
LARK
Dirtlord! I be NOT liar!
LEAFER
Ha! Dirtlord!
CORNBRIAR
Comes near child. Saps I you woodsie
face.
GINNY
Sneaksie be gones, Lark.
LARK
Sneaksie HERE!
WILLOWREED
Knows sneaksie Dyan?
GINNY
Maybe goes sneaksie to Dyan.
LEAFER
Sneaksie real now?
LARK
REAL.
GINNY
Lark, goes you to Dyan and tells her
you story.
LARK doesn't move.
GINNY
Lark?
LARK
Granna's...
LARK breaks down.
WILLOWREED
Lark?
CORNBRIAR
Lark, what be granna?
LARK
... ...DEAD!
GINNY
(comforting)
Oh... child...
(to CORNBRIAR)
Fetchers Dyan.
CORNBRIAR
Aye. Be she near, returns me quicklike.
CORNBRIAR exits. A shadowy swish in the foreground indicates that GARRETT is following.
