{Night 09: Time of Weakness}

"Is it really okay to let him off the chain?" Hassan asked doubtfully.

"If he makes a break for it, I'm sure that all of us are twice as fast, plus you and Zar have magic." I huffed, nudging Kahil down into the depression. He growled, trying to smack me. All he did was fall off balance and slip with a loud yelp. "Oi! Jeez, ya klutz!" I scolded, skating down the rest of the way to help him up.

It'd been a few days since I named him. My mom had fashioned a black patch for him from Zaria's old shorts and some black cord. There were two cords, crisscrossing around his head to connect to the corners of the slightly-padded black rectangle. It kinda suited him, and exposed more of his face than those bandages. He still had the red collar around his neck, as well as a length of chain that hung in front of his stomach.

Chaya had come from her village to see Hassan and so we could play sludgeball. It was agreed to be a team of those two and Zaria against Uriel and I, so we were heading into the depression to play. I had decided to bring Kahil along, thinking that being outdoors would do him some good. He was being very grumpy about it.

"There. Not hurt?" I asked, holding Kahil's shoulders. He gave a 'hmph,' not looking at me. "Alright. You just stay here, where I can see you. Do what you like, but stay in the depression while we fight." I instructed as the others started on their fort. Kahil didn't say anything, but I trusted him to follow my instructions, so Uriel and I got to work on our fort.

"Alright, Ur!" I declared as we finished our fort. The others were already pelting us, mud exploding against our simple fort. "You dig! The loose sludge'll be easier for me to mold than just scooping it up!"

As I said this, I made a digging-motion with my hands. Uriel growled in affirmative, nodding his head and wagging his tail. Turning his back to our wall, he started digging into the ground with his paws. As he tossed aside pawfuls of sludge, I scooped up handfuls from the resulting pile and started compressing them into balls. These I set aside into a stockpile of ammo.

"Ready, boy?" I asked, peering through a hole in the wall. Uriel nodded. The others were ducking down to get more ammo. I grabbed an armload of sludgeballs and stood up. Once they came up to attack, I started throwing my ammo as fast as I could. I hit Hassan twice, grazed Zaria, and startled Chaya. Then I ducked back down, my arms empty. "Alright! Great job!"

Then a gust of wind hit us from behind.

"Hey! Watch out! She's using magic!" Kahil yelled from the sidelines.

Huh?

Uriel seized a piece of wood in his teeth to use as a shield as the first barrage of sludge came, over the wall and at us from behind thanks to Zaria's wind-magic.

"Hey, no fair! No magic, bitch!" I yelled, grabbing another armload of sludgeballs. Ducking around to the side, I threw one of them. I hit Hassan square in the shoulder as he came up, knocking him off balance. He fell back into their fort, and I heard a lot of yelping and some arguing. The wind stopped, the sludgeballs suspended in the air raining down. "Good job, Kahil!" I yelled, flashing him a thumbs-up.

"D-don't get the wrong idea!" he yelled back, but I could see his cheeks pinking. He was pleased.

While I was distracted by Kahil, Chaya nailed me pretty good, making me gasp.

We continued to hurl sludge back and forth until a noise made us all stop.

A derisive laugh.

Uriel was the first to spot them. Four adults, all men, at the edge of the depression. They weren't Rots. Too clean and monochrome hair. Leers distorted their faces as they looked down at us.

A growl left me.

"Would you look at that! Like pigs playing in their own filth, huh? I guess we shouldn't be surprised to find a runaway slave hiding out with more trash, though!" one cackled.

Kahil suddenly dashed to my side, and Zaria, Hassan and Chaya ran closer to me as well. Uriel and I had set up our fort near the wall closest to the town, which was currently the furthest away from them.

Though I was shaking, I found myself slipping the knife out of my pants. I'd started carrying the black blade around with me when I went out, not knowing when I'd need it. Uriel's tail was puffed up, but he peeled his lips back into a growl anyway.

These guys were bad news.

"How adorable, they intend to fight!" one of them laughed, sliding down the depression-wall so he could come closer. "And you— Don't you know what happens to escaped slaves?"

Kahil's breath hitched, and I felt him shying away.

Mustering up enough courage to speak, I snarled, "Why don't ya dumb Not-Rots scram, ha? Before you get hurt?"

"You're adorable, kiddo. It'll be a lot of fun breaking you in as a slave."

One was approaching us. The other three were fanning out at the top of the depression. We were all but surrounded.

... I was scared.

They were a lot bigger and stronger than we were. Our way back home to the village, where we could get help from, was blocked. There wasn't anyone that I knew of out in this area today. We were alone. Five brats and a cat against these guys— against slavers.

... but...

As the guy in the depression came close, I scooped up one of my remaining sludgeballs. Pulling my arm back, I launched it as hard as I could at him. It nailed him nicely in the face, with a fair amount of force behind it. The muck exploded across his face, making him reel back a bit.

"You little shit!"

"Har-Har!" Zaria screamed, hurling a ball of flame at the guy skating down towards us. It caught on his pants, making him panic and flail.

"Hold on!" Hassan yelled suddenly.

We found ourselves flung into the air, landing none-too-gracefully on our faces, asses and stomaches outside the depression. I later learned that Hassan had used a clumsy, rushed wind-gravity combo-spell to get us out of there fast. It worked to some extent, I guess. Wobbling a bit, I got to my hands and knees, looking about. The two we'd attacked had to climb back out, but the other two were starting to run at us...!

"C'mon, c'mon, get up, let's go!" I screamed, urging everyone to their feet and shoving them in the direction of the village. We started to run, but Kahil was lagging behind...! They would catch us at this rate...!

"Ramz Al-Salos!"

Flashes of light accompanied by a crackling flashed through the air, over our heads, and crashed into the ground before our pursuers. They stopped, yelping in shock and slight pain, their legs singed.

"Master Alban!" we screamed, hurling ourselves behind the old man. Standing just off to his side was another one of our magicians, a woman called Mira.

"You little shits are alright?" the quack asked, briefly touching each of our heads. His eyes lingered on the knife in my hands for a moment. But then he turned to glare at the slavers. All four of them were here now. "Go home, brats. Mira and I will take care of this."

Everyone else nodded and ran. I lingered a moment longer, making Uriel cry in distress and confusion.

I wanted to help. I wanted to do something. But what could I do besides get in the way?

... I was useless...

Mira knelt down and touched my forehead. "Don't worry, Malik. You'll get your fight one day." she said reassuringly as the quack started firing off spells.

I blinked, just barely noticing that I was crying. My hand hurt from gripping the knife too tightly, and I was shaking. I gulped, turning to follow after my friends.

I wanted to fix this country?

Who was I kidding? I couldn't even protect myself, let alone my friends!

OOOOooooOOOOooooOOOO

A/N: I know it's late, but happy holidays and whatnot.

*utterly exhausted from putting up with all this holiday crap* My family is big and widespread and we have a lot of different holiday traditions...

So enjoy this chapter, leave a review, yadda-yadda-yadda... I'm going back to bed now.