I feel like Akefia has matured a great deal in this chapter and no this is not sarcasm. Yeah sure, he's still a bit of a hussy with an addiction to pretty women and an idiot thief but the way he deals with this situation makes me feel so proud. Warning: this chapter gets VERY violent.
Akefia covered his mouth; it was all he could do to keep from choking on the thick steam that danced in his face upon entering the bath house. Unsure what was accustomed at such a place he followed the lead of the man who entered before him and grabbed a drying cloth from a nearby basket. As much as it pained him, Akefia parted from his grimy garb and traded it for the towel. Not sure of a safe place to set his clothes and trusting no one he hid his clothes behind the comfort of a decorative vase.
Once inside the main room Akefia felt no better. He was stranger to the hot water quickly pulling away when his toe hit the surface for the first time. This earned him a giggle from a group of women bathing nearby. In a bath house there is only the raw exposure of skin, no shadows to hide in. Akefia forced himself in further in not wanting to draw any more attention to himself if at all possible. He added baths, along with Sheeba, to his already long list of hate. Thankfully, this task could bring him closer to getting his dagger. He vowed to make things as quick as he could.
The target was a strange looking woman with obvious Roman lurking in her blood for her hair fell in gorgeous dark curls that defied the will of the water keeping shape even under its weight. She was beautiful in a curious way that had Akefia dumb founded at first glance. She was sitting alone in a corner trying in all its futility to hide her timid beauty in the waves of steam rising around her. Akefia drew closer slowly as he could not to disturb her. She noticed him right off but, as if frozen to the very spot, remained in her corner. When he obtained reaching distance he paused as if she were a bird ready to take flight the moment he broke too deep into her personal space.
"Hello there." She chirped nervously eyeing the strangers face, taking a long stare at Akefia's scar last of all. Akefia didn't know quite what to say, the situation was delicate.
"It's a long story," he said choosing the scar as the safest way to break the ice, Akefia hated dragging his past into this but part of him wanted to spill everything to the little bird before him, "I would tell you, but I'm not quite sure how."
"I'm so sorry, I-"
"Don't worry, you're not the first person to ask, I'm used to it." he gently took her hand and traced it over the indent on his cheek.
"Oh..." She said blushing. She turned her face away from Akefia then back up.
"So why are you over here all alone? It's a shame you're not mingled with the crowds. Beauty such as yours deserves to be shared."
"Why should I? They mock me for my... mixed descent. They call my mother a whore and my father a-" the little bird stopped herself realizing she had said too much as most little birds tend to do. Catching the little bird was a different story. Birds were quick and cautious and this bird was no exception.
"Then they're fools." Akefia said playing the "sensitive guy" card. He almost had her; he could read it in her eyes.
"Really?"
"We have much in common, you and I. I think your differences are what help make you all the more stunning," Akefia slid his arm around her shoulder, closing the distance, "Tell me, what is your name?"
"Help..."
"What kind of name is hel-" suddenly it all sunk in.
"HELP! MY LOVE!"
It seemed the woman hadn't come alone. A man in his drying cloth came running out of the changing area with fumes erupting from his ears. He was a muscular Egyptian man with a rock solid face and a look in his eyes that could kill.
"You!" he roared as he pointed a fat finger at Akefia.
Akefia retracted his arm from the little bird, who was splashing and throwing herself about in protest, and zipped from the bath with reflexes like a frightened cat. He made a slide right under the man heading for the direction of his clothes behind the vase then repeated this feat once more before exiting. The man of stone followed close behind but with less dexterity. Having no time to properly fit his clothes Akefia settled with wearing only the bath towel as he ran through town searching for a place to hide. Every now and then he could feel the breath of an angry beast burn at his neck.
Not once did he run into Sheeba, as expected. Akefia knew from the moment she spoke this was a set up, he felt like a fool for hoping he was wrong and even more so now that he was being chased through the village half naked. The cries of a desperate thief and an angry husband could be heard from every street and every house for miles. It carried on the wind and took to the skies so that Sheeba may hear it wherever she may be so she could smile and laugh at her genius work, but Sheeba was not laughing.
There were ten this time, "ink heads" as a certain thief would say, and they were circling Sheeba like a pack of starving wolves. Their black hoods cast even blacker shadows in the setting sun.
"What do you want?" Asked Sheeba in a low growl.
She didn't receive an answer, the "ink heads" didn't need to give one. She could tell they were sent there to kill her, the thought that they would try such a thing amused her. She drew Akefia's dagger humoring them in their ignorance. If it was a fight they wanted they were certainly going to get one.
The first one to make a move was lucky to make contact. He grazed Sheeba's shoulder as she spun round taking out both her assailant and the guy behind her in one sharp flash of steel. Grinning something wicked, like a naughty child bubbling over with a mischievous secret, as her eyes met her assailant's, blood splattering up her arms when the dagger ran through his throat. Removing the dagger she spun around to rip another guy to shreds. Then, sliding forward, she made a spit second upper cut to the man trying to fill a dead man's space.
With four men in under a minute the others started to pull back just out of Sheeba's reach. Sheeba had to admit, fighting distance wasn't her comfort zone, but it didn't slow her down.
"I see what you're trying to do..." Sheeba said in a playful snarl, "And it won't work. I use to eat through twenty block-heads like you every day when I was in charge. I don't need to be close to kill you."
Again the attackers didn't respond. Sheeba was growing impatient. Sheeba clutched Akefia's dagger tight for a moment before throwing it at the chest of the nearest man killing him. The remaining five took this as a sign to move in. They surrounded Sheeba without a moment's notice. With all the momentum and energy she needed Sheeba weaved around jabs and slashes and directed them at other "ink heads." When the dust had cleared every "ink head" was dead.
"I'd never let it be that easy." Sheeba said to herself before spitting on a corpse. She walked over to the body still wearing Akefia's blood soaked dagger like bad jewelry. She decided to keep it since it's only helped her so far. One small part of her, small enough she took no notice, hoped that holding on to the dagger may lead her to find out why Akefia was so attached to it. Sheeba turned her back to the town, dagger in hand, feeling almost guilty. She tried to convince herself all was well, that's when she felt a breath on her neck.
"Face me." Said a deep voice long forgotten by Sheeba. It was deep and booming like thunder and it filled the air, coving Sheeba and giving her goose bumps.
"I can't." She said closing her eyes.
"Then I shall carve away the mark bestowed to you for the bravery you now lack." He was talking about the lizard tattoo on Sheeba's lower back, like the one on the side of his face, "You will walk the earth with a cowards wound so that all may see you're shame."
Sheeba ducked down quickly as a knife cut the tips of some of her hair. She had no choice now but to turn around and face the man she had once called brother.
"Rishid..." She said wanting to say something more meaningful but not finding the words.
"I see you still wear the face you've used to hide yourself in the past. I'm surprised you haven't traded it for a new one."
"And I'm surprised you turn you blade on your own kin." She braved moving close to Rishid, she grabbed him by the cloak and pulled their faces closer still. Her jagged breath filled the silence between them as they took turns trying to read each others eyes. Whatever Rishid's cold analytical eyes saw it must not have been the right thing because in a matter of seconds he had pinned Sheeba in the sand and was beating her down to a pulp. Whenever Sheeba saw an opening to crawl away Rishid would kick her in the gut and pound her face in.
"That's enough!" Shouted none other than Akefia getting bored with the show. While walking the road to the outskirts of the village looking for Sheeba he managed to stumble across this unpleasant scene. Due to the recent events Akefia wasn't sure whether or not to help her or not.
"Were you watching this whole time?" Sheeba said, her "s" sounds whistled through a newly made gap in her teeth. She tried to turn her head to face him but her head seemed too heavy and her eyes too swollen.
"Long enough to see you get the shit beat out of you by baldie here. I was afraid you were, dunno, actually trying to ditch me here without returning to me my dagger but thankfully the blood smears and corpses tell me otherwise." Akefia said grimly smirking when Rishid got up off Sheeba to face him.
"Will you try to stop me?"
"I might," said Akefia with a cocky grin, "I just hope you can entertain me."
"No," Sheeba said with a struggle, "this is not your fight."
Akefia ignored her and knocked Rishid off Sheeba tumbling with him in the sand. It wasn't an easy fight, especially since Rishid was much bigger than him but at least Sheeba was safe. Akefia was worried that Rishid might have actually ended up killing her if it weren't for his sudden intervention.
"Stop it!" shrieked Sheeba crawling toward the scene.
"Earth to Sheeba," Akefia said while dodging blows to the head, "he was trying to kill you!"
"Why do you care if he does or doesn't? I stole your dagger!"
"Quit reminding me," Akefia managed to knee Rishid in the gut buying him some time, "But that still doesn't make what he's doing right."
"Since when did you start caring what's wrong and right? You're a thief!" Sheeba's voice grew hoarser with each word she tried so desperately to shout.
"Why can't you just accept my help?"
"Because I hate you!" She said getting both Akefia and Rishid to stop, she coughed up blood at the dagger she threw but was unwilling to stop there, "And I set you up so I could get away without you trying to stop me."
"See now?" Said Rishid to Akefia making Sheeba's burn feel worse to him, "She is nothing more than scum."
"Why?" He fell to his knees with a blank look on his face then Akefia glared at Sheeba with a hate like never before. Sheeba couldn't return his look, she felt unworthy. Akefia had trusted Sheeba, an act of kindness as typically unrecieved by Sheeba as it was ungiven by Akefia. And now, with the ugly "truth" left out in the open, Akefia and Sheeba both realized they may have been, in a loose interpretation of the word, friends.
"You may take this," Rishid offered Akefia his dagger, "you could end her life here and now."
"I could," Akefia said accepting the token; he looked to the dagger then to Sheeba.
She was the definition of a wreck. She lay shredded like a thin cloth in the sand, still hopelessly picking up the biggest pieces of her honor and pride she could find. She was weaker now than Akefia had ever seen a person be. Akefia almost pitied her. He turned to Rishid with a new determination in his eyes.
"But she's not the worst of them."
Akefia knifed Rishid right through the chest.
Answers? Well next chapter I can finally get things cleared up! And, is it just me, or when you leave a chapter alone for a week then check back on it you find so many mistakes and holes? Please R&R to tell me if I've succeeded at this strange human device called suspense and left you all with lots of wonderful unanswered questions.