The girl cursed her own stupidity as she dashed away, tearing into one of the town's many back alleys, the men hot on her heels, swords raised. If she lived through today, she was going to get a helmet with straps.
Behind her, the men were calling for help between curses and commands to stop. That was bad. If there were more of them, she'd have her work cut out for her in escaping them. She cut a sharp corner, and scanned the alley for a place to hide. But it was barren, and the walls were far too high to climb. She groaned and kept running.
As a fox, she was used to physical exertion, but she was tiring, her breathing becoming ragged. She wondered if she could outlast her pursuers. Casting a glance behind her, she deemed it unlikely. They were fueled by greed and blind rage, determined to see her head on a pike.
Not for the first time, she questioned whether becoming a human was the right choice. Then she reminded herself that she hadn't really had one in the first place.
As she turned another corner, she saw that the alley was coming to an end, and could see firelight from the main street beyond seeping into the darkness of the alleyway.
Her blood ran cold as five armed men blocked her path. These must be friends of the two men chasing her. Damn.
She skidded to a halt. Behind her, the men rounded the corner, trapping her.
"No where left to run," One said with a sneer between heavy breaths. "Don't try anything stupid, and we might make this relatively painless."
"L-let me go!" The girl stammered, searching for the correct words. "I have….have not done anything wrong!" Not entirely true, but she wasn't going to bring up her past crimes now.
"As if I give one whit about what you've done!" He jeered. "I'm taking your head and getting that bounty, one way or another, soul stealer."
She had just about had it with this murderous human. She snorted and crossed her arms, raising an eyebrow. It was an expression of dubiousness she had seen many humans adopt.
"You are a fool," She spoke clearly and with a fluency she had not known she possessed. "I do not steal souls. And I would not want a soul from one so dim-witted, anyway."
She could practically see the veins bursting in the man's face. His partner stifled a laugh with his hand. The first man turned on him in fury.
"Shut the hell up! Just kill her!"
Snapped out of his laughing fit, the guard moved towards the girl, sword drawn. Their friends did the same.
The girl uncrossed her arms and drew her own sword. She knew in her heart that she would never be able to take on seven physically fit men, but she'd be damned if she didn't try and make this as difficult as possible for them. Then, like a light in a dark cave, an idea sprung up in her mind. It was incredibly dangerous, and she didn't know if it would work, but what choice did she have?
She faced the pair of attackers. He was livid, bloodlust clear in his eyes. The girl smirked. This would be fun.
Without warning, she charged at him. Fury changed to shock at her unexpected action. She leapt, as high as she was able, and landed squarely on his shoulders. Using him as a springboard, she vaulted again, this time towards the high wall of the alley. With a painful slap, her hands met the top of wall. She quickly hoisted herself up.
Crouched atop the wall, she looked back down at the men. The one she had used to get atop the wall had fallen to the ground, and was looking at her with a renewed hatred. She waved at him.
She narrowly avoided the stone he threw at her by sharply tilting her head.
"You should really watch that temper," She scolded him.
Below her, one of the men was crouching down, presumably to give the others a boost. Time to go.
She hopped down off the wall. It was a long drop, and she rolled as she hit the ground, lessening the impact. She found herself in yet another alley, but this one had many branching paths. She thanked her good fortune and picked one at random, sprinting along it.
After a time, she heard someone coming up behind her. She cursed and put on more speed. Before long though, she came to a dead end.
She stared in stunned silence. She was hemmed in by the walls of houses. There were windows above her, but they were too high to reach, even if she jumped off another of the men again. There were doors on either side of her, but they were locked, and though she banged on both several times, no one answered.
She heard footsteps behind her, and she whirled. To her disbelief, it was the exact same man she had vaulted off of, and to her dismay, he didn't seem to be any less angry.
"I've got you now," He hissed. "There'll be no escaping this time."
She calmly drew her blade. "I don't want to fight you," she said.
"Then don't. Makes my job easier," He pointed his blade at her throat. "And when I have your head, I'll be rich."
"You're insane," She said. "For the last time, I am not a danger to anybody."
"Save it," He said maliciously. "Just die!"
He charged, sword raised. The girl had been anticipating it. She brought her own sword up, and the man's downward blow sparked off the flat. She used his weight to shove him to one side, and sidestepped towards the other. She watched him sail past.
He stumbled and recovered. He came at her again, rage making his blows wild and unpredictable. The girl did not know how to use a sword. Her opponent was clearly the better fencer. But his sword was larger and heavier, and while his fury made his blows powerful, it also made them inaccurate, and the girl was able to consistently parry them.
The man swung downwards in a powerful overhand strike, and the girl nimbly sidestepped it. The man was slow to recover, and the girl spotted her chance to switch onto the offensive. She lashed out at his abdomen with a powerful kick, causing him to stumble backwards. She began raining blows on him, metal ringing filling her ears as he clumsily blocked each one. But she could see that his defenses were weakening. Fire raged in her arms as she continued the assault, until her blade finally bit flesh. Her sword lashed up his forearm, causing him to cry out in pain. He clutched it with his other arm, leaving himself open.
She drove the blade between his ribs.
She leaned into it, forcing the weapon in up to its hilt. Her face was inches from his. An expression of shock and pain plastered his face.
"Those who let greed rule their hearts know only despair," She said in a near-whisper. "Now be still."
She felt no remorse. True, she would rather not have fought, but guilt did not factor into a fox's psychology. She tugged her blade free and the man fell limp to the stone path. She sneered triumphantly over the body.
Then something struck her.
Like a punch in the gut, it left her winded. But as quickly as it came, it receded, dancing out of her reach. The fox girl was puzzled. What was this force that taunted her so?
Then, something deep inside her gave her the answer, echoing in her mind. It was magic.
She reached out for it, both mentally and physically, and seemed to be only to barely touch it in a way she did not understand. She strained herself, projecting her will forward, and finally took hold of it. It raced along her skin, rebounding against the inside of her skull, rejuvenating and mesmerizing her.
There was no pain this time. Only the mysterious, euphoric feeling that had invaded her mind when she had first been transformed into human. For a few moments she reveled in her own joy. And then, as before, it washed away like the sea at low tide, without the slightest indication. With some disappointment, she noted that the feeling had lasted significantly shorter this time.
She opened her eyes as a light rain began falling from the black sky above.
So this was the secret, then. The key to her humanity. She would have to take it by force. She looked down at the man, and with mild surprise she noticed that unlike the man who had granted her this human form, he had not vanished. Rather, he appeared almost skeleton – like, desiccated, as if he had been starved for weeks. She smiled at the irony of the situation. Perhaps there had been some truth in his accusations after all. However, she hadn't exactly taken his soul, just the energy of his body that would decay before long anyway.
She briefly pondered how she knew that. And for that matter, why she knew the mysterious force had been magic and that she should reach for it.
She shrugged to no one in particular. That didn't matter now. What did matter was that she now had a way of attaining her dream of becoming human.
Her smile broadened into a grin, spinning on a heel and leaving the body to lie in the rain.
Coldly.
Mercilessly.
After all, such things as mercy had no place in a fox's heart.