The Lion of Eomar, Eric K, Hasler [top young adult novels .txt] 📗

to keep track of where they were heading. Everything was different up here, he felt as if he was in another world; he smiled as the feeling invaded him, allowing a sense of freedom, an experience he never knew before inviting him to become truly lost in the euphoria. He submitted to it, and as a result he caught sight of Trayvr moving like a cat, with little bursts of speed here and there, jumping holes with ease, leaping small alleyways. Bodwin kept Trayvr in sight and had no trouble keeping up, until Trayvr stopped suddenly, and perched himself on the corner of the roof like a gargoyle smiling, “I am impressed Bodwin,” he said while trying to keep his breathing slow, “you move quite fast for a first time roof runner!”

Bodwin smiled, “I could easily see you,” he said, “every move you made.”

The look on Trayvr's face brought warmth to his heart.

“Is that so?” Trayvr's smile dropped and he spoke in a snarl, “well then, let's see what you can really do!”

Trayvr stood up, turned, headed in the general direction of the city centre and became invisible, as if he was one in the same with the shadows. Bodwin instinctively followed and quickly lost sight of him. Not fazed by Trayvr's invisibility he sped up, jumping holes like a cat, creating dry mouldy dust clouds with every step. An alleyway quickly appeared in front of him, with no time to think of the consequences he jumped and landed heavier than expected, he grunted and continued, willing himself to move faster. 'I can't see a dame thing' he thought while he instinctively leaped over a large hole, landed with a wobble, regained his footing just in time for another fast approaching alley. He jumped and landed just on the other side heavier and wobbling more than the last when he spied Tryavr and smiled, 'got you.'

 

The sound of something heavy hitting the roof above the alleyway pulled her from the serenity of half sleep. 'The Watch,' she thought as she jumped to her feet, head spinning left and right hoping that the darkness of the alley would keep her out of sight. She sniffed the air eagerly trying to decipher how close they were when a louder, heavier crash hit the roof above. 'What the...' she thought looking up. She shuddered, moved out of the alley and headed towards the city centre, 'what are you doing?' she asked 'go the other way, not into The Watches waiting arms.' She sniffed the air and caught a fragance; a rank smelling fragrance that caused her to cring and at the same time aroused curiosity. She started to run, 'I know that smell,' she thought, 'I hate that smell!' Another heavey crash upon the roof followed quickly by a louder and more clumsy crash gave her a sudden shake. 'I should have gone to the cave,' she whimpered to herself. But, she plucked up what little courage she had, and proceeded, franticly chasing the crashing sounds. While sniffing the air clean in desperation, she found herself at the edge of a large alleyway; the last alleyway before the city centre. This block of wooden structures was the original South Western merchant quarters. The smells from the foods that were cooked here were so intoxicating that you would find yourself standing in queue conversing with some of the wealthiest people in Eomar. That was until Ruskin stole the throne. Now this block of wooden structures is nothing more than just a breeding ground for rats, cockroaches, spiders and flies; and a hovel to hide in when The Watch are out on the prowl.

 

Bodwin's ankles were beginning to feel the strain of jumping, his lungs were beginning to feel the burn, his head started to go numb. 'What an awesome feeling' he thought as the euphoria continued to invade denying him the warning from the pain that was attempting to announce that his knees have had enough. Don't let him escape said a rasping voice. Faster screeched another voice. LOOK OUT, HERE COMES THE BIG ONE! Said a different voice, a deeper more concerned and calculated voice; one which seemed to scare off the other two voices. His head was now clear, not Bodwin noticed. He was too caught up in the excitement of the chase that he unwittingly ignored the voices as he sprinted towards the next alley 'he's not losing me' he thought as he approached the gap then jumped.

 

Standing there shaking her head she noticed a shadow flit across the ground and managed to look up in time to see a human figure leaping across the alley. Her eyes grew wide with disbelief. Her mouth dropped open. She sniffed the air and smiled at the recognition of the rank smell, 'I know you,' she thought. Out of the corner of her left eye she saw another human figure leap out and shout “crap!”

She spun her head quick enough to see the figure plummet to the cobblestones and spray the air with a fragrance similar, but not quite as pungent as that of the figure on the roof.

 

Trayvr stopped in the middle of the roof, 'Where did he go?' he thought as he crouched there waiting. Wiping sweat from his forehead, trying to control his breathing and keeping an ear out of Bodwin's heavy landing that didn't come, he began to worry. 'Maybe that alley was a little big for him,' he chuckled, stood up and walked to the roof edge, looked down, “crap!” he said.

 

Lucaresha looked up at the figure on the roof and watched as it scrambled down the wall and walked slowly toward the crumpled mess on the cobblestones. Another figure appeared, almost out of nowhere and glided towards the two figures. Lucaresha crept forward a little, sniffed the air and almost gagged. 'That stink must be from the new figure.' she thought as she watched it join the other two.

 

Lying there for a moment Bodwin tried to gather his senses before attempting to move, when he noticed that both of his ankles were bent in the opposite direction. The shock of seeing a bone sticking out of the left forearm brought out a deep moan from the pit of his stomach which exposed the pounding in his head that was seemingly reinforced by the stabbing pains in his back. 'Idiot,' he thought, 'why do you listen to these... these... crazy people?' He closed his eyes and tried to dislodge the vision of broken bones from his mind, and to force the pain away by bringing back memeroies of when he and Lucaresha were fresh out of the orphanage, scrounging food from certain wealthy Eomarians; cuddling tightly under a stolen blanket using each other's body heat to fight off the cold winter nights. Finally drifting away from the pain with these memories re-embedding themselves into his head he felt a hand touch his shoulder.

As a natural reaction to being touched in this context, his eyes sprung open suddenly to see a healthy pair of breasts with a large pearl and ruby pendant hanging between them. “Bodwin,” she said in a concerned husky honey drenched tone “can you hear me?” Opening his mouth in attempt to speak just brought forth winded grunts and groans and denied the euphoric cleansing from pain.

“It's going to be alright,” she said with a wink of her eye and compassionate smile. She placed both hands on either side of his face. The hot and cold feeling invaded, reverberated throughout his body causing him to sweat, and shiver at the same time. His mind felt like it was being dragged back from the past and his thoughts were being realigned, or changed; he wasn't quite sure what was happening. But the external tingling sensation that had erupted and enveloped his whole body started to change into the feeling of a million needles bombarding him internally, which released a sense of absolute pleasure; he moaned as this ecstasy penetrated into every part of his being.

 

Lucaresha shivered. The density of air in the alley had started to change; an eerie coldness began to seep in bringing with it a new smell. She sniffed the air and almost gagged, 'this stinks worse than that new figure' she thought. Her stomach began churning and produced an acid taste that bubbled in the back of her mouth. She swallowed trying to fight back the over whelming feeling of wanting to throw up. Clamping the right hand over her nostrils blocked the putrid smell and helped to keep the vomit at bay, but didn't stop the stench from producing tears in her eyes.

Through watery eyes she watched, and was astonished when the shadows in the alley started to move towards the crumpled mess, as if they were being sucked towards him. They formed some kind of black smog that covered him like a thick blanket, but continued to get thicker and darker as more shadows were drawn towards him. The blacker and more dense the smog became the stronger the coldness got, both of them seemingly enforcing the brutal strength of the smell, as if it was feeding off of them and helping the cold smogginess become blacker than any of the alleys shadows. The smog was not truly black, it was more like a heavy cloud just before it releases torrential rain across the land. As the shadows were being drawn towards and disappeared into the smog, she crept forward another two steps in attempt to see who the crumpled mess was, then stopped, her heart beat sped up and her eyes widened allowing the stench to produce more tears 'Bodwin?' she thought, 'oh Bodwin, what have you done to yourself?'

As if on cue the smog began to swirl creating three funnel like shapes spiralling down from underneath; all three spun in different directions and coiled into points that reached down and penetrated both of Bodwin's nostrils and his mouth. Bodwin moaned in what sounded like pleasure, and then there was a loud stomach churning crack, then another, and then another as his bones realigned themselves. The coldness started to dissipate and the rotten fragrance started to evaporate as Bodwin's chest heaved, and in one long deep breath he managed to draw in all the smog until there was nothing left but three human figures in the alley. The shadows had returned to where they had been drawn from, the air had returned to what could be considered normal for Eomar; she released her nose and sniffed the air and smiled at the absence of the putridness, then convulsed at the realisation that Bodwin smelt as rank as the other two figures that stood over him. Then she got a shock as one of the figures bent over and kissed him on the forehead. Lucaresha shuddered with repulsion when she heard a sickly screeching female say, “the kiss is to seal the healing.”

Do not taste his blood said the voice in a flat tone in her left ear.

'Why would I do that,' she thought with a shudder, and then moved back into the alleyway shadows to watch what happened next, and to stay out of sight.

 

The female figure stood up, bent over, exposing more of her ample breasts, and offered Bodwin her hand, “let me help you your feet,” she siad in that husky tone. Bodwin reached for her hand, then shook his head and dropped his arm, “my ankles and arm, they're numb and bro...” she grabbed his hand and yanked him to his feet, smiled and said, “There's nothing wrong with them! Now come with me, training is over for tonight.”

Bodwin stood there looking at his arm. He started to bounce on his toes, and then grinned, “What happened?” he said amazed with this incredible recovery.

“You fell, and broke yourself,” she said, “try to be more careful next time!”

“How did you do that?” he asked.

“Do what,” she replied with a smile and a wink. He scratched the back of his