Sorry about the wait. Fight scene! And boy did I whip it up good this time. I actually took the time, repeating what I wrote in slow motion, describing it as I went to make sure each action word fit. I ended up having more fun writing this than Mirage part 1. Any-hoo... enjoy!
"Radamn it woman!" Akefia cursed retracing his steps. He was half fearful she may lose the dagger to whatever thieves lay lurking in the city and half afraid she would sell it. In a city as big as this one it seemed easy to lose track of things. He figured it were only a matter of time before he had completely lost her.
Meanwhile Sheeba was at peace with Akefia out of her hair for a change. He's probably off plotting somewhere, she thought, that idiot. He'll never get this dagger so long as I'm holding it. Though I must admit, if he's tailing me he's being pretty quiet about it... unlike the two pursuing me.
Sheeba pretended not to notice slight echo in her steps or slight motion from the shadows. Instead she kept a poker face and carried on with her "shopping." She hoped that her pursuers would eventually get tired with her and move on. She wanted them to know she was a far cry from an easy target.
After a couple hours her pursuers remained consistent, never once letting up or turning their back. When Sheeba grew tired playing with them she picked up her pace. She turned her pursuers down every main street in the city and then some. She pushed them to the point where they couldn't help but be seen once or twice. Once she knew what she was up against she made a sharp turn and stopped.
"Shit!" She cursed examining the dead end she turned onto. As if on cue her pursuers appeared like clouds of steam behind her.
"We got you now," said the larger of the two revealing a blade from the inside of his cloak, "You can either hand over your wallet now or we'll have to take it."
Sheeba turned around laughing hysterically, "You think you caught me?"
"You have nowhere to escape."
"And neither do you." Sheeba said charging at the larger of the two. She moved swift as lightning leaving little time to react and knocked her stalker to the ground with such a tremendous force he lost his breath. From him she quickly transitioned into a charge for the smaller one as she threw him onto the wall of a nearby building.
"You two remind me of another thief," She said choking the smaller boy with her arm, "tell me, are all the thieves in this country this pitiful?"
The larger one returned to his feet and pulled out his dagger. He charged for Sheeba in blind rage.
"Simply pathetic." In one fluid motion Sheeba used her palm to deflect the direction of the dagger upward releasing the smaller thief. She slid between the two out of the way just in time so that the larger thief had almost stabbed his partner in the head. Sheeba had won... or so she though.
The smaller of the two, with his partner hanging over him, took advantage of the moment and rammed his partner in the chest knocking him onto Sheeba. Sheeba, who was completely off her guard, struggled to save herself mid-fall. She broke the heel of her sandal and twisted her heel in the process as she hit the ground hard. The smaller one made a dive for her coin pouch, which had fallen onto the ground, and made a dash out of the ally way.
"Damn." Sheeba said pulling herself up. She slammed the remaining thief hard to the floor as he tried himself to stand then ran after the purse thief.
He wasn't hard to follow; he tried to travel against the flow of the crowd a sport that Sheeba was good at. Running with a broken heel? Now that's a whole other story. Now and then she'd fumble and give the thief whatever ground she managed to gain. Luckily for her Akefia was close by.
"Watch it!" He shouted when she crashed into him, when he realized it was Sheeba his expression and tone changed, "What's the rush? Did something happen?"
"Thief... my purse!" She said out of breath. When Akefia finally figured out that she didn't mean him he lifted Sheeba onto his back and followed after the thief.
Sheeba was shocked to see how quickly Akefia could run. Part of this was due to his brute strength and size. Anyone who was in the way was abruptly pushed to the side. In a matter of minutes they had the thief cornered in yet another alleyway.
Sheeba found herself being flung from Akefia's back as he rushed right into battle.
"I c-come with a m-message," the thief stammered when he saw the dark lines of Akefia's muscles, "For the woman. It's none of your business."
"Oh yeah?" Akefia hissed, "Well I have a message for you."
Akefia lifted the thief off the ground and shook him until his face went green then dropped him and kicked the thief before he had time to stand up. Once he was sure the child would stay down he grabbed everything in the boy's pockets claiming everything except Sheeba's coin pouch which he tossed to her. Then he moved on to the thief's cloak. With one mighty pull he had ripped it off exposing a small scared boy underneath as well as a couple more pouches and a peculiar tattoo.
"It's a lizard," Akefia said puzzled, "Like the one on your lower back."
"Where?" Sheeba said rushing over.
"You know him?" Akefia said examining the tattoo, "Is he family or something?"
Akefia never got an answer for in a matter of seconds Sheeba was on top of the thief with her fingers clenched tightly around his throat.
"WHO SENT YOU?" She screamed sounding like a demon as she shook him lifeless, "WHAT THE HELL DOU YOU WANT FROM ME?"
"Don't know... promised food... my family..." the thief gasped, "mercy..."
"Sheeba cut it out," Akefia said grabbing her shoulder, "he'll die."
"Fuck off!" Sheeba said shaking Akefia off, "This isn't your business!"
Sheeba released the boy's neck and retrieved Akefia's dagger from the very purse Akefia had returned holding it to the thief's throat. She slid it across his neck breaking skin and drawing blood. Both the thief and Akefia winced.
"Now tell me who sent you!" She ordered poking the tip of the blade on the thief's neck.
"I don't know! I heard a voice... he promised food and-"
"What did he sound like?"
"Sort of scratchy... older."
"NOT GOOD ENOUGH!" Sheeba screamed raising the dagger about to make a stab. Akefia could take it no more. He lunged at Sheeba clutching tight to her hand. He tried to pry the dagger from her hand but saw that in her rage he was no match. She thrashed and bit at Akefia as the thief got up and escaped. Akefia waited patiently for Sheeba to collect herself.
"You could've told me it was in your purse," Akefia said in his usual way as an attempt to distract her. He felt sorry for the person he saw before him, scrappy blonde hair in messy tangles, black eyeliner pouring down the side of her face.
"You never asked." Sheeba said with an empty smirk.
Mm-kay, so I know you've got a lot of questions at this point. Don't worry! The next chapter (which may turn out longer than this one) will answer at least half of them. There is still the time old question "how is this citron shipping? There's no gay porn!" Well never fear! The best parts are yet to come (unless you are REALLY expecting hardcore yaoi) when I start explaining tomb keepers in the next few chapters.