forsyth | A Forsyth Story Sniplet

Something I wrote earlier, no idea how or if it ties into anything else. I just had an urge to write something Forsyth-ey.

The streets were dark and grey and empty. Well, mostly empty. There was me, and then there were the guards screaming and yelling behind me. The magic lights along the street were out, either they were set to turn on at a certain time, or it wasn't dark enough, or somebody was just lazy. Any of them'd work. I leapt over a puddle then ducked around a corner as one of the guards fired off some kind magic net ball. It popped open and wrapped glowing twine around a sign.

This street was almost empty, too. There were a few people walking around under umbrellas (normal or magical), but no crowds. The lack of crowds on the street had good and bad points. A crowd slows you down but you can lose yourself in it easier, too. And it's easier for me to duck and weave between people than it is for bulkily armored guards. Nice when they're shooting things at you, too.

Ah, there we go, an alchemist's shop. Good timing, too, since they were just coming around the corner. I darted down the alley, then grappled up to the tangle of pipes that sprouted out into the alley from the shop. That magical grapnel was definitely coming in handy. Climbing the pipes was actually easier because of the rain, the hot pipes marked themselves with gouts of steam any time a drop touched them. Below and behind me I heard shouts and then twangs and clinks as somebody got anxious and tried to shoot arrows up at me. A couple of their little capture dealies just webbed themselves across the pipes.

I knew at least a couple of the guards were mages, one of them tried to be sneaky and shoot a burst of magic up, it weaved through the tangle and shattered a pipe right as I leap up to the next. The pipe shot out a gout of stinky, heavy steam, or gas, or something. The guards behind started shouting, but I was too busy getting out of the way to notice.

Up and over the edge of the roof, then off through the rain again. Something whizzed by my head. Great, sky patrols. If I'd known it was going to be this much trouble, I woulda stolen that fancy jar they had all locked up instead of just a couple potions and some money. Make it worth their while to put all this work into chasing me.

Luckily for me, I was still in the magic section of town, wizards tend to put their own utility in place of things like how their house looks, so I had plenty of cover from the sky patrol. There were two of them, on hovering skateboards, with fancy magical shields that flared everywhere a raindrop hit them. Show-offs. My outfit kept me mostly dry and dark grey blended in with the grey and rain. I rested in the lee of a chimney and caught my breath. I could hear the little fritz sounds as the rain flared off their shields.

Gently now, gently. Panting would be noisy, and if they had anything that could pick up heat, it might still work. I hadn't seen them wearing anything like that, but I hadn't been able to get a good look. The rain should help a little with blocking that. Okay, they were swinging that way, right, wait for it...

I took off. I ran down the roof I was on then jumped the two feet to the roof next to it. My feet splashed in overflow from a gutter somebody hadn't gotten around to cleaning and I heard shouts as I crested the roof. The guards from the ground musta found a way to get up, great, more trouble. The sky patrol turned and started swooping in my direction, since I'd been pointed out. There was just one roof between me and the street, the sky patrols decided to box me in, one going ahead, one behind. Okay, I can deal with that.

You know something? Some people will leave the back of their house, that you can't see from the front, all broken down, as long as it works, but make the front all fancy. Things like leave the back of their roof with plain shingles, then cover the front with slate. I hate slate. Especially in the rain. I crested the roof, started to turn, and whoops, there goes the ground. It was goo slate, too, set flush and tight, no handholds whatsoever. And the gutter had a cover to keep it from getting clogged.

The only reason I didn't didn't die to somebody else's vanity was the sky patrol. The second guy had cut around to try and cut me off, and was looking down the street where I'd been turning. He turned when I was about two feet away, right before I launched off the edge of the roof. His anti-rain shield FRITZED really loudly, and deflected me off to one side of him. Slowed me down enough I had a chance to grab the end of the skyboard.

Three feet of wood, even fancy magical wood, isn't very stable. "HEY, WOAH!" the guard yelled, flailing around wildly. I guess I'd knocked his shield out, since the rain was pouring down on both of us, which couldn't be helping. He wasn't dressed for the weather at all. I clung on to the end of the skyboard, since it was spinning like mad. The guard managed to tangle himself up in his wet robes and tipped over, taking the skyboard with him.
So now we were hanging upside down twenty feet above the ground. His feet were strapped to the board and his robes were wrapped around his head. I wish I knew how to steer one of these things. The other skyboarder swooped in and threw one of those net balls the others had been using. No time to figure it out. I dropped off the skyboard and slid down the guard's robes. The net ball smacked into him and popped open, glowy tendrils of net flaring out and wrapping him tighter in his wet robes. I let go right before. Ten feet's not that big a drop, even on to rain-slick concrete. I rolled, my working clothes kept me from getting scraped up and still mostly dry, then I was off, again.

Almost safely away. The last of the sky patrol shot something past me, a bolt of magic that hit and lit up a cart. Great tracers. Ha, there we go, an old awning, sagging under the rain. I ran underneath and jumped up. "Halt in the name of the la...GAH!" the last skyboarder yelled.

I'd grabbed the bottom and stretched the awning down, then let go. It'd launched up enough to catch him in the water, which flared off in a giant FRITZ from his shield, making a nice cloud of steam. And that was all the time I needed to get out of sight, once I did that it was easy enough to get to where I'd hidden normal clothes and I passed an amusing few hours sitting in a nice warm tavern, watching the guards trudge around in the rain hunting for me. They were looking for a "scrawny little ferret", running from the law. Certainly not me, a well dressed, plump, and unworried merchant. I'm sure they had tracers on the bottles, they'd find them soon enough, where ever the sewers lead to, empty. It's always worth a few extra minutes to do things right, now I'd have plenty of time to mess with these new mixes and add them to my mix of poisons.

Later on, though, I'd have to go back for that fancy bottle. Once they were sure this was just some random robbery, not somebody after it. After all, if it was that well protected, it had to be valuable. Or interesting.

Tags: Writing