Chapter 1 - Runt

Black globs of tar-like viscous liquid dribbled onto the eroded pavement. Each drop fell into tiny pools of the same shiny black liquid, where the edges reflected stray neon purples of the skyscrapers above. I brushed my nose with the back of my fist and inspected the black stuff smeared down to the wrist and discolouring my blue furred hand.

"Dog boy even bleeds like a freak," a youthful voice cackled. Pushing myself up off of the gritty pavement, I tapped into the emotion of the lump swelling my throat. "Black blooded freak is standing up." The wannabe thug snarled, cracking his neck and raising his fists up in front of him and stepping forward with clumsy confidence.

Lifting my head to face the chubby teen, I shook off the dizzying effects of the last assault, and smirked ever so slightly at his misstep.

"C'mon Craig," I beckoned with bravado. "Show your buddy what a tub like you can do to a defenseless Kavalli runt like me."

The friend laughed out loud while Craig's face flushed a shade red often reserved for street lights. Craig came stomping towards me with one fist pulled back and ready to strike. The second assault came slowly, as he lunged forward with all of his weight. The wind of his haymaker brushed past my hair as I ducked easily under the strike, all the while thrusting up with a knee to groin, dropping Craig to his own knees in the process.

"Urgh-hk!" The hapless bully winced in pain as he continued his fall forward and onto his palms.

Not to give up my advantage, I held both of my fists together and brought them down on Craig's upper back. With a thud, he collapsed in a heap of himself, his face flirted with road rash.

"It's Erk, not Urgh-hk!" I mocked.

Smearing another trickle of blood from my nose, I turned my attention to the other teen with a wicked smile.

The second, taller and older teen twisted his face in contemplation, deciding whether this was a fight worth picking. Although I knew he could take me, given the considerable age and size difference, there was no way I could take them both, but this wasn't the only thing he considered.

Craig was dumb, and seeking approval of the older boy. Perhaps even hoping to be inducted into a street crew. I glanced back to the bully laying at my feet, and pitied him, juet for a moment.

The older boy was on the other hand wise enough to know that there was a price to pay for getting too much attention. Even by picking a fight in a run down alley of Quarry Town, the context of who you were trying to jump mattered.

"Hey boys," is if on cue, a familiar angelic voice plucked the air, relaxing my stance with her feminine confidence. "If you wanna sign up for lessons with my father, me and Erk were just heading to his dojo." She continued with a smoothness that could only be natural. I half-turned to look over my shoulder and lock sights with the green eyed gaze before me.

Jade… I sang to myself, and that lump in my throat starting to well up once again.

"Course," she hesitated with a shrug. "You're supposed to spar with Al'lan to get in, not my little Erk."

I winced at being called little. Feeling as much of a hit to my pride as Craig must have felt from being knocked prone by a Kavalli pup. Then, as if to answer for himself being beaten by little Erk, Craig shuffled to with a groan and hoisted himself off of the ground.

"Shut it Jade!" Craig protested with a spit, but instead of striking a defiant pang on the ground the spittle just blew past his lips like a pathetic raspberry. "Dog... I mean Erk hit me in the--"

"Craig!" The more experienced teen thug cut off his younger associate. "He beat ya fair and square. Let's go."

"C'mon Tra--"

"Now!" The lead bully interrupted again with an urgency that swiveled my head back to look at him instead. I sighed, not knowing whether I felt relieved or perturbed.

Next to the taller boy a shadowy figure stood, face obscured by a black hooded poncho draped over his shoulders. In the faint light the newcomer offered a scant, closed lip smirk as he slid an arm down to his belt, grabbing something hidden under his poncho.

"Oh-o-kay", Craig stuttered, scrambling over to the taller thug, who was even then walking backward out of the alley with both arms raised and palms facing out disarmingly toward the newcomer.

I kicked up a cloud of dirt from the scuffed up pavement, and grumbled as the bullies left our immediate space, all the while adjusting my jacket so as to not look so roughed up.

"What's that Erk?" The boy in the poncho pulled back his hood, revealing a freckled, dirty blond teen with shaggy cropped hair and pale blue eyes.

"I had them before you stuck your nose in it," I shot back with a bitter smugness.

"Whatever," he strutted over to Jade with a cool confidence, throwing an arm around her waist and pulling her by smiles, willingly down the alley. "Virgil sent me, he's already at the shop,” he shouted over his shoulder I remained staring at the ground.

"Dojo," Jade threw a playful closed fist at his chest as they giggled, lesding thr way down the alley. "He prefers you call it a dojo."

My heart raced, and I heaved another breath. While I considered being shown up by Al’lan, a glint of refracted light caught my drifting gaze, shifting my attention to something next to my dirt coloured sneakers. Staring down at the source of the reflection, I bent over to pinch the circular metallic thing between my index finger and thumb. Turning it over to inspect, I recognized it as a sort of antiquated token that wasn't often used in the city these days.

Rubbing a closed fist against it, in an attempt to clean its surface only reminded me of the beating I had taken before dropping Craig, as my black blood was now dried against tufts of blue fur.

What I would give to be human.

Realizing then, the coin must have fallen out of Craig's pocket during the end of our tussle, I crammed it into my own pocket while I stomped off.

It didn’t take me long to catch up to Jade and Al’lan. With shoulders slumped forward, I peered ahead at Jade’s smile in his presence. My face tensed as I felt a growing frown taking root. My little Erk, I recalled, frustrated for being seen as little, but easing my perturbation by degrees, and trying to force a smile for being called hers.

I may be a Kavalli runt, but at least I'm hers.