A Rat In The Crowd

*Knocking*

Iris opened the door to see a familiar face. "Oh, you're finally back!" she excitedly said while letting Kies in. He didn't say anything back and just entered the room quietly which struck Iris as more than a little rude. "Hey, why have you been ignoring me all this time?" she walked in front of him and asked. She wasn't going to let him through until she had an answer.

"Please give me a break..." Kies grumbled to Iris. He waved his hand at Wompa to get her attention and then pointed at the pouch lying on one of the tables. It had all his money that he made the last few days, which wasn't much. Kies gave it to Falte for safekeeping but now he needed it. Wompa took the pouch and tossed it to Kies. He caught it and put it away on his body then turned to head out.

"Hey!" Iris tried to stop Kies but he already left the room. Annoyed, Iris decided to follow Kies, calling out his nickname as they went down the stairs. "Hoodie! Hoodie! Answer me!" Wompa saw what her sister was doing and she also went with them, worried about what might happen if she left the two alone. She closed the door, locked it, and then proceeded to follow after the two. All around them, the other people at the inn were looking at them, wondering what was going on and if it was just a lover's affair or whatever which embarrassed Wompa. Kies, on the other hand, didn't seem to care and Iris didn't seem like she noticed that she was discomforting the other people around.

Wompa let out a deep breath in relief when the two walked out of the inn since there were less people here who would notice the two. "Stop ignoring me!" Fed up, Iris grabbed Kies' hood and tried to pull it down, but Kies grabbed the front and the two wrestled for a bit before Wompa broke up the fight.

"Why are you doing this..." Kies sighed.

"Because you're ignoring me!"

"I have something I need to do!"

"Is it so important that you can't even spare a second to talk to me?"

"..." Kies didn't answer that question. It was pretty obvious that whatever he was doing wasn't that important.

"I thought so! So, tell me, what have you been up to?" she interrogated him about his whereabouts when the rest of them had been eating.

"Do you really want to know?"

"Yes!"

Kies reached into his pocket and pulled out a leaf. He handed the small green thing to Iris and she took it. "What is this supposed to mean?"

"That's where I was," Kies told her. This was the leaf that guided him to leaf. Well, not the exact one, but a replica. The elf gave him it as a reminder that he could accept her offer at any time. All he needed to do was find her and say yes. And as for how he was supposed to find her, it was easy. She was only in Otane because she is searching for strong people to bring back to her forest to help with a century-old issue that has been pestering the elves in her forest for some time. She was going to be at the colosseum looking for people that meet her criteria, and so far, Kies wasn't the only one she has scouted.

"And I'm supposed to know where you went from this leaf?"

"No, you'll have to figure that out yourself."

"Ugh... You're so unhelpful!"

"Thank you."

"That wasn't a compliment!" Iris threw the leaf away in frustration but it somehow magically flew back to Kies' hand and he put it back in his pocket. "..."

Kies didn't wait to hear what Iris had to say next to him and started walking away but she continued to follow him, causing Wompa to do the same. The two sisters followed Kies to the smithy where he went in to pick up the weapon that Rui placed for repair for him earlier. Kies thanked the blacksmith and gave him a small tip and left.

When he came back out, he saw that Iris and Wompa were still there. "..."

"Huh, so that's how the sword looks," Iris moved her hand close to the edge of the sword but Kies pulled it back. "..." Kies swung the blade behind his shoulder where he had a sturdy hoster for it made out of the hide of some unknown creature.

"Cool, cool, cool..." Iris muttered, unhappy about the attitude that Kies was giving her. She tried reaching for the blade again but Kies turned around, moving the sword away from her. "You're very petty, you know that?"

"Petty? I have a reason for being so petty. Do you want to tell me why you enjoy touching my things without my permission?"

"Cause it's fun?"

"Fun... Fun for you I guess."

"Alright fine, I guess it's my fault..." Iris snappishly admitted. Although she said that, she didn't sound apologetic about it, which Kies noticed. But, it was definitely a start. Kies rolled his eyes and drew his sword. He handed it over to Iris who took it with glee.

"Wow, it's heavy!" She almost dropped the weapon the moment she took it and Kies had to catch it before it sliced off one of her fingers. This was made of steel, unlike his other weapon which was made out of aeronite, so it was expected for the thing to weigh as much as a... Well, sword.

It took Iris both her arms and a lot of strength to hold up the weapon, and when she did, she took a swing at the air, almost decapitating a person behind her.

"Hey! Are you trying to kill someone!" the man yelled in surprise to almost having his head get chopped off.

"Sorry!" Iris put the sword down and bowed in apology, dropping the weapon and almost cutting the man's toes this time. "Oops!"

"What the h*ll are you doing!" Luckily, the man moved his foot out of the way in time.

Kies sighed and shook his head. This was why he didn't want to hand the weapon over to Iris. He knew that she would do something irresponsible with it and he was right. Hopefully, the man would just forgive Iris and walk away, but judging from his reactions and how he was scolding her, it didn't seem like he was going to let them off lightly for this. He regretted giving Iris the sword.

"You there, you're her guardian right! You better take responsibility for this!" the man demanded from Kies.

"Sorry, but- Wait..." Kies recognized the voice. It wasn't that long ago that he heard it. Kies took a closer look at the man and saw that he was a lot shorter than them. Furthermore, despite sounding like a grown man, he looked like a child. Both of them widened their eyes as they suddenly recognized each other. "You..."

"Wait, you! You're that-" the man pointed his finger at Kies and looked around. He took a few steps back, searching for an escape route or weapon.

Kies pushed Iris aside and picked up his weapon. "Hey, what are you-" Kies swung his sword at the man who dodged the attack. The man then proceeded to run as fast as his short little legs could allow him towards the crowd.

"Winds..." Kies wasn't going to let him escape. He needed to catch him before he could disappear into the mass and get away. A layer of wind surrounded his body and he sprinted after him.

The man glanced back and screamed in surprise when he saw how fast Kies was catching up. "Woah-" He grabbed a nearby person by their collar and threw them at Kies, who caught the person only to throw them to the side. "Ah!"

All around them, people moved out of the way as they saw what was going on. There was an angry man chasing after a midget with a huge steel sword. The last thing that they wanted was to get caught up in that.

"Someone call the guards!"

"Guards! Guards! Help!"

Chaos quickly ensued in the place as people began to scream and run in every direction. "Help! He's trying to kill me! He's an assassin! Help me!" The short thief began to blurt out all kinds of lies in an attempt to get someone to help him, and unfortunately, it worked. A pair of guards who happened to be on patrol in the area saw what was going on and stopped Kies.

"Hold it!" They raised their weapons and pointed them at Kies. "Drop that sword-"

"Move!" Kies swung his sword horizontally, bashing both the guards aside with the flat of his blade. They flew into a nearby stall, smashing into the wood, causing more chaos and panic. He didn't have the time to talk with them since the thief would just escape if he got distracted for even a second. Hopefully, the guards would forgive him for what Kies did after he caught the thief and revealed their identity to them.

"Help! Help! Help me!" The thief continued to call for help, and more guards popped out of nowhere.

"Stop there, criminal!"

"D*mn it..." Why was this so annoying? But to be fair, he was the one chasing an unarmed man who looked like an innocent child, which made him look like some sort of a madman. He could only imagine what was going on in the guards' minds as they were seeing this.

But regardless… "Out of my way!" Kies didn't have the time to explain what was going on, and they probably wouldn't believe him if he tried so he resorted to Iris' 'first solution to everything,' and swung his sword at the guards.

"Wahhh!"

"Stop at- Ooof!"

One by one, Kies sent all guards flying and didn't stop until he culled through the entire wall that was keeping him from the thief. Kies stretched out with his arm now that the thief was almost an arm's reach away.

"Aaah!" The thief continued to scream and shout for someone to save him but it was too late. Even if there were still people willing to help him, Kies was too close now for them to help. All he needed to do was grab him and all of this would be over.

Just as Kies was about to catch the guard, a voice came out of nowhere, telling him to cease his actions. "Stop right there!" A sword flew out of the sky and landed in front of Kies, forcing him to stop or otherwise he would've been impaled by it.

"..."

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