Chapter 2: The Unforgiven

             

              The Bum stands up, with effort. 

    He towers over the cocky thug, staring down at him with eyes darker than coal.   

 The rage was coming over him again.  Red hot like molten metal searing into flesh, black and heavy like an anvil on his chest.   He had always had a temper, but in recent years it had become worse.    Darker.          

  Life on the streets was brutal.  The Bum had been in more than a few alleyway scraps.  He knew from a young age that you couldn't let bullies get away with harming you, because if you do, they'll take everything from you.         

   But that's not why he was going to do this. 

    He was going to do this because it was satisfying.

 

  "What the fu-"  The words don't make it all the way out of his mouth as the much taller mans arms shoot out, grabbing the thug by the throat, and the hand holding the dagger. 

The hand on his throat is like a vice.  "Glchh!"   The thug makes  choking noises as he tries to scratch at The Bums hand, trying in vain to free his windpipe from the crushing grip.

 The Bum turns, and slams the rapist's back into the brick wall of the alley with a loud *SMACK*  causing the thug to drop the dagger, and knocking the wind out of him.

"Byron!"   "Get the fuck off him you freak!"  The big Thug rushes up and throws a punch at the murderous hobo.

The Bum drops the rapist Byron, and meets his attacker head on.           Years of combat training have been ingrained into The Bums very bones.  The movements were instinctual now, the muscle memory made fighting as natural as walking.

He easily brushes aside the big thugs clumsy punch, and steps in to grab him by the face with both hands.   

He raises his grimy thumbs, the last thing the thug will ever see, and shoves them into his eye sockets.

"EEEEAAAAHHHGGH!!!" 

The big thug screams as The Bums gnarled fingers are shoved slowly into his skull, crushing his eyes.   He flails wildly with his arms, trying desperately to remove the hands from his face.  The Bum drops his hands as the big thug falls to the ground, still flailing and screaming.

   "MYYY EEEYYYEESSS!!"  

"I CANT FUCKIN SEE! I CANT SEE! I CAN-"   *THUD*   

His screaming is cut short as The Bum stomps on his head.   Once. Twice. *THUD*  And on the third time there is a sickening *SQUELCH* as his skull is crushed by The bum's heavy boot, splattering blood and brains on the cobblestone ground.

 While the hobo is stomping ted's head in, Byron tries to crawl away. 

 He gets halfway out of the alley before his leg is grabbed.  His nails scratch the cobblestone, looking for purchase, anything to get away from the wretched thing in the alley.    

A heavy boot comes down on the back of his knee, shattering it against the stone.    "AARRGH!!!"  

A nauseating pain fills Byron, the most excruciating he's ever felt.  

The Bum reaches down and grabs the rapist by the collar, forcing him into a kneeling position with his back towards him.

The Bum puts weight on his foot, grinding the thugs broken knee into the cobblestone.   "Urp-"  Byron pukes all over himself, as well as soiling his trousers.

The Bum places a hand on Byron's shoulder, as well as his forehead.  Slowly, he began forcing Byron's head backwards.

Held in place, and unable to remove the large hand pushing his head backwards, he could do nothing but watch in horror, as he slowly started to see an upside-down version of The Bums face.

Cold, emotionless. The old man's face might as well have been carved from stone.   

Except for his eyes.   

 What Byron sees in his eyes is pure, unthinking, black rage.   He cant be reasoned with, there's nothing he can say.

That doesn't stop him from trying though. People will do anything, clutch at the slightest bit of hope if it keeps them from death.

"Pleas don kill me" he blubbered "I-I'll gib you money!"   The Bum just continues slowly breaking his spine.

"Pleeease!  My familys ric-ARRGH!!"  *CRUNCH* His vertebra are ground together with a sickening noise.   

Now with a voice  that didn't seem possible to make for a human - somewhere between a rabbit and pig squealing he screams

"PLEEEEEEEEEEEEAASSEE--*CRACK*  

With a final thrust from The Bum, he snaps Byron's spine completely backwards. 

With a *THUMP* the rapists body falls face first into the stone, dead.

 

The Bum looks up to see the final thug, knife in hand, shaking from fright and piss running down his leg.   

As he sees The Bum looking at him, he snatches up the woman who is cowering in a ball by the hair and puts the knife to her throat.

 "S-STAY THE FUCK BACK!  he shouts  "I-if  you come near me i'll cut her throat!"

The Bum just stares, and then takes a step towards him.

 The thug pales as The Bum takes another step, not caring about his weak threats.

      The skinny thug took one last look at The Bum, before he turned on his heel and ran, saying

"Fuck this shit! I'm Out!!!".   

 The Bum tried to chase after, but his bad leg strikes a loose cobblestone and his left knee buckles.    Forcing him to grab the wall of the alleyway for support, and sending waves of fiery pain through his nerves.  Forcing him out of his black rage.    Leaning against the wall, a wave of fatigue hit him.  

*Huff* *Huff*    Breathing heavily, he finally gets a good look at the woman, illuminated by the moonlight through a part in the clouds and smog. 

             

   She's young, barely more than a girl, with dark hair  swept back by a bandana, and a dress that showed too much skin for this cold weather.  Her skin was pale, and he could easily see her small pointed ears.

  "A mixed - breed girl , not one of the major races.  Barely seventeen years old by the looks of her. Too skinny"  he thought to himself.

"Are you *huff* alright, girl?" The Bum wheezes in his gravelly voice. 

 She squeaks in fright, not expecting him to speak to her. 

 "D-don't hurt me!   I-I'm not with them!"

She's shaking like a leaf, too scared to even move her legs properly.

The Bum's knee is painfully throbbing, not used to the strenuous activity.   It frequently went out on him, causing him to stumble and fall.       He had been struck in the back of the knee by an arrow, shattering it.   It had never healed properly.

He stubbornly refused to use a walking cane though, he preferred to live with the pain rather than look like a cripple.

     Leaning his back on the wall, he slides down it, letting himself slump down into a sitting position.

  "Calm down girl, I know you're not with those bastards, and I wont hurt you. I don't harm children"   He said while holding his palms face out.   Not helping was the fact that his hands were covered in blood, she looks sick as she sees it.

  " i-I'm n-not a child, I'm seventeen"  she manages to just barely stutter out.

 "Heh"  The Bum smirks.   "All kids say that" 

 "Oh? This one has a little bit of a spine"   He thinks, as she makes a face.

"Hey kid, got a name?"

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   "Umm Its  L-Lyalya, but everyone just calls me Lya"    she seems less terrified now, but still shaky.

  "Lyalya...   That's a Lycaon name.  The headband looks of Lycaon design too.  If she was Pureblooded, she would have transformed and ripped these rapist's throats out with her bare teeth"

 "Lyalya... that's a good name."   Said The Bum in his gravelly baritone voice

 She sat for a moment looking at The Bum, expecting a name in return.

But The Bum had no name left to give anymore.  He didn't want it, couldn't bear the shame of it & all that came with it.   He wasn't that same man anymore.   No home, no family, wretched and filthy, a bad joke with a weak punchline.  A worthless bum, in mind, body and soul.

  "Can you stand kid?   We're going to need to leave before that squirrelly bastard who ran away comes back with the city guard"    The Bum said while looking away.

 "I think so"    she said as she shakily picked herself up, using an arm on the brick wall for leverage.

The Bum picks himself off the cobblestone, keeping his weight off his bad knee, he stands up. 

 Towering over the girl at  six and a half feet, she has to crane her neck to look up at him, reminding her again of how frighteningly strong he was. Especially considering his age.

 "C'mon kid, help me loot these two bodies.  I'll give you half of what they were carrying."

  "w-What?" the girl stammers

 "Don't you need money girl?" the old man grins revealing his broken yellow teeth.

The girl looks away reflexively.  

"C'mon, you can loot the pretty one, his clothes will look better on you anyway" he chuckles  " I'll take the big one... he has a nice coat..."

  The Bum stepped over the rapist thug Byron, as he made his way to the fire pit in front of his destroyed shack.  He broke off a couple pieces of wood and rags and threw them on the hot coals, blowing on it until it produced a flame to see with.

  He then proceeded to methodically loot the big thug.  Rifling through his pockets he found some silver & copper, but The Bum didn't stop there.  When you lived on the streets, you had to scavenge everything. 

The Bum took the thugs long dark brown rough-leather coat, as well as his belt and boots.  He took his shirt even though it was bloody, it would be stained but wearable with some washing.      As he was taking the big thugs pants off, the smell hit him. 

  Memories flood his brain of the battlefield.   Blood and shit and piss and sweat and death, all mixed together in a horrid melange.

  "The stories you read as a child about heroes & battles never mention the smell, no matter the battle, the smell remains the same"

The Bum mused as he took even the thugs pants. The pants were mostly clean, luckily. having most of the filth kept in the thugs underwear.

He bundled all this up in his old coat, as he put on the new (and slightly bloody) coat...

 

***

 

As  The Bum was rifling through the big thugs pockets and taking his clothes and boots off,  Lyalya was staring into the eyes of her would be rapist and perhaps murderer.  Now dead, with his tongue lolling out and his face in a permanent rictus of horror and pain.

 As she stares, a slow feeling of rage and anxiety bubbles forth from the depths of her being, growing stronger.   

 Her face a blank mask, she kicks him.  Again. Again and again and again.  Now screaming  wordlessly, she vented all her pent up emotions into his smug dead face.

"FUCK YOU! . YOU . EVIL. FUCKING. PRICK!"  She screamed in between kicks.

Suddenly, she feels hands on her shoulders, firm but not painful, they hold her back.  Struggling, she elbows and flails with her arms at the figure behind her.  The hands don't move, they just hold her until she wears herself out.  

 Finally, he lets go, and she turns to look up at him.       He doesn't say anything, just stares at her with his dark eyes, and an indescribable look on his face.    " pity "  she thinks, as she looks up at him.

Suddenly its too much,  she throws her face into his ribs, and just starts bawling. 

Like  a baby, she cries into his chest, while his arms are awkwardly outstretched, not sure what to do with the situation.   

Again, he just stays  still until she's done.     

 Vaguely aware of how embarrassing the situation is, she thinks         "what am i doing?" 

"He's a total stranger.  And he's definitely scary.  Plus he smells...                     

           ...but he saved me..."

Finally The Bum grabs her shoulders and pushes her to  arms length    "Are you okay now kid?" he asks looking down at her.

 *sniffle*  "Um i-  *sniffle*    I think im good now" she manages to get out.

"Alright then, as an act of revenge, you can help me rob all this bastard's items"     She nods.

 

***

 

"Ok lets see what you have"  The Bum thinks as he drags the rapist thugs body near the fire, to get a better look.

"Fancy coat, silver inlay.   that'll fetch a pretty penny.  Good boots, shame they're too small for me, I'll take them anyway." 

As he puts the coat and boots in his makeshift rucksack, the girl starts to go through his pockets, she finds his coin purse, eyes going wide at the amount of silver inside. 

   The Bum presses it to her when she holds it out to him.

"I'm an old man girl"  he said looking away  "I'll just piss it all away on booze anyway, take it"

   "Wha- No! I can't take this"    

Ignoring the girls protests, The Bum started going through the rest of the thug Byron's pockets thinking to himself.

 "She's a good kid, but these streets aren't kind to good people.  If she wants to survive she'll have to-   

His mind goes blank for a moment as he looks at the object he's pulled out of the thug's pants.

Its a small golden tablet about the size of a palm with a motif of two hawks fighting, done in red laquer.   

  This was a nobles crest, he knows because he had one similar to it.

  What's more, he is very familiar with this particular noble's symbol

  

"......Fuck"

 

  

 

 

 

 

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