"Dinner's ready, guys!"
In his new shoes, Kael walked to the crackling coal in the hole. He glared at Els' grin, narrowing his eyes in a silent message. Ignored, overtaken by a hungry Tonio, who snatched a skewer of steaming rat.
The rat-man bit down. His eyes widened. "GOOD! Els good!"
"Hahaha, glad you like it. And it's safer cooked." Els winked at Kael. The only answer he got. Instead, she glanced at his shoes. "Wow, you became someone in the slums. I'd almost shed a tear."
The way she playfully traced tears on her cheeks made Kael snarl. "Just say you're jealous."
"Jealous? No, I'm just curious where they came from."
Munching through his rat, Tonio answered, "Bad man remove. Tonio fast. Catch. Run."
"I guess my comfort matters more than his." Kael's lips curled into a wry smile. After a sharp nod from Tonio, he turned to Els. "So, is it really safe? I mean... It's disgusting, but I can take diseases. I'm more worried about you."
"I won't give you the excuse you're looking for. Besides, your stomach fools no one, and if you can endure, I can return to how I was before the disease. So, eat." Els shoved a skewer into Kael's hand.
The scent struck his stomach before his brain. It tensed painfully, gurgling in command to devour meat that somehow smelled better than any loaf of bread he had ever tasted. His hand moved on its own, disgust numbed by hunger.
Yet, he pressed his lips tight for a second. Juice smeared them, and his tongue betrayed him to lick it. No taste of sewer, death, or wild diseases. Just juicy, well-cooked meat that brought his last resistance down.
Closing his eyes, he snatched a bite. Then, his eyes shot wide open. All his life, he had wondered about cow, about chicken, never imagining he would eat rat first. And yet, that sewer dweller, that disease monster, tasted even better than the potato he had once a year during the harvest festival. It was soft, but firm, with just enough juice to make it roll down his throat.
Without realising it, his teeth gnawed the rat until they dislodged bare bones from his skewer.
His eyes darted to Els'. She brought her meat close to her chest and half-turned. "Ha! Told you it was good. Dream on." She tore through her rat, then washed it down with water.
The canteen eyed Kael. Should he really drink? The taste would fade if he did! Later...
Tonio watched her eat as if he had found Kraghor in the flesh. "More tomorrow. Kael catch."
"Me?" Kael pointed at his face.
"Fast rat. Kael train speed. Catch rat."
"That makes sense, I guess..." Kael scratched his head. "I'll get us bread tomorrow morning. Give me the copper crowns."
Tonio slapped his palm away, his lips pursed. "Mine."
"We'll eat better. Come on, trust me."
For a moment, Tonio's gaze shifted between Kael and Els. When she nodded, his jaw dropped as if a divine revelation had befallen him. He smacked five crowns in Kael's palm. "For bread. Good food."
"I promise." Kael pocketed the crowns and finally allowed himself to drink.
Still thinking about meat, he went for another round of punching with Tonio. Sweat traced his skinny limbs, but a full stomach, his endurance, and the will to better himself pushed him until his arms burned hotter than the fire hole. Only when he failed to lift them did he stop under Tonio's proud nods.
Too exhausted to sell Els' candles today, he told her he'd do it tomorrow. She offered to do it herself, but he rapidly convinced her how foolish an idea it was for a girl, even disguised as a man, to wander the beggar streets alone.
He knew she wanted to help, and reassured her with Tonio's eager "Good," that she was already.
The evening passed by in the quiet flickering of the lamppost and Els' mutters about her power. Kael didn't listen; he slid under his holed blanket, and as soon as his back met the ground, sleep lulled his eyelids to a close.
No mocking laughs from Garrick or Sister Harrow in feverish nightmares, or god-spawn whispering to gaze at it. Instead, he dreamt of white houses bathed by a gentle sun, of the flowers he read about, swaying in winds free of steam and dust. In a scenery he knew couldn't be real, he clenched his fists.
Els, in a dress with finery woven around her shoulders, joined him. A man followed, his warm palm betraying the darkness clouding his face. Tonio, not the rat-man. The human.
He grinned at them. Promises and oaths didn't matter anymore. They'd go to Veston together because that's what he wanted.
His eyelids fluttered open in the same flickering light, but something new shone within their depths. Not the distrust he had sworn to uphold. It was still there, but beside it, a seed of trust budded. Trust for the people he deemed worthy, and if he only chose Els and Tonio, he'd only trust these two until he died.
When he gazed at their sleeping faces, a weight he didn't know burdened his shoulders lifted. He felt... great. Better than he ever had. Was it the training or yesterday's meat? Both perhaps. After all, Tonio kept nagging that he wouldn't grow stronger without meat, and he began to believe him.
He rose, the rustle of his blanket rousing a yawn from Tonio. Sleepy red eyes landed on him.
He smiled. "Sleep longer. I'll get us fresh bread."
"Run. Training." Before his last muttered word faded, Tonio was already back asleep.
With a nod, he slid relic 78 on his face and jogged out of the shelter. From the corpses lining the walls, only clothed bloodstains remained.
No one on the third beggar street. At least, not before he passed the old tannery. Beside the broad building, people gathered in a disorganised semi-circle. Most watched two groups of middle-aged men swing pipes and plunge knives into skinny limbs.
Kael approached the cheering crowd, barely hearing the fighters' groans. They bled in front of a broken wall that gave way to a living room littered with blankets and old clothes.
Before he could ask, someone screamed, "Yo, Melk. Ya're getting Jones' home today!"
Someone else, lost in the crowd, shot back. "He couldn't take down Brook in hours. He'll lose!"
In the cacophony, Kael frowned. Had they been fighting over Jones' home since yesterday? But... he was sure they'd find nothing in it. Keep your valuables with you. Not his belief. Not even a beggar's thing. It was a universal rule of the slums, or he would have been the first to raid the place with Tonio.
No, they plundered everything valuable from their corpses, and those who threw them to the pit took the rest.
They can get the shelter, at least.
Shrugging, he slipped past the crowd into the second, then the first beggar streets. People were up early, here, already whispering about spreading conflict.
"Martha told me the Black Casck gang raided the Ragged Crown's dwelling yesterday."
Kael slowed to eavesdrop on a toothless woman gossiping with an even older one.
"Ahh. My daughter told me. Blood flowed down their buildings, and corpses piled up. Her nephew saw it all from the street below. He said a quarter of Joss Renn's men backstabbed the others."
The toothless woman twisted her lips. "Garrick's men did the rest. Ya, I know. But did you hear that Joss survived?"
"He did?"
"Hmm, he's in hiding, perhaps even among us in the beggar streets."
The woman's eyes, crumpled by wrinkles so much that Kael thought they were half-closed, shot wide open. "No way!" She spat on the ground, "Stay away from us, Joss Ren. We don't want your gang wars in our streets!"
Kael mirrored her expression, but quickly resumed his jog out of the beggar streets. The gang wars became real. But why the Ragged Crown first?
Joss monopolised information! Garrick didn't give him a chance to ally with the Sump Dogs.
Were the dogs next?
In any case, his face contorted into a twisted grimace. If Joss really hid in the beggar streets, Garrick's men would follow. And if they found Tonio, or him...
We'll both become test subjects for whatever monstrosity he's building.
The streets of Ashcoil Row's neighborhood became dimmer. Even when he pushed the door of Lana's bakery, the bread smelled dull, almost no different from the one tempered with more wood chips than flour in the beggar streets, even though he knew Lana cheated the least in the entire neighborhood. Everything became dark.
He didn't want to be found out. Not yet. But what could he do? He had nowhere else to hide...