Metsästää
Metsästää
*)Baguba Port(*
Vern silently slipped into his house and locked the door behind him. He knew that the Judges could not protect him so long as any slavers after the bounty on his head did not use force or break any laws. However, he also knew that such slavers did not have diplomatic immunity, and so locking his doors and windows meant that any attempt on him became by default a breaking and entering charge. As a further safeguard, all his windows were at the top of the wall, making them level with the ground. Any slaver wanting in would have to try the door, and Vern was prepared for such an eventuality.
He set the Pokéball containing his mother in his bureau and pulled out a Pokéanth Girls Gone Wild magazine from the shelf between it and his bed, removing his clothes. The taste of pitch clung in his throat from the vomiting earlier, and he reached for a small jar of candied Sitrus on his shelf.
Keeerash!
Vern quickly reached beneath his bed for a kriss, which he used for self-defense, and watched as a paw - belonging to a Houndoom or an anth of one, most certainly - scrabbled down into the dwelling from the hill.
"Come on, girl, that worthless little fuck's gotta be in there!" shouted a voice in Abyssal. Vern immediately recognized it as a slaver's. Putting away his porno mag, he watched the Houndoom anth sniff about at the window. Ivalicean law did not protect him while he was off-duty; he could not fight unless struck at first.
Vern's mind raced as he looked around his house. Behind him was the kitchen, which had several plants that grew wild in Sekhein, mainly Yache, Shuca, and durian, growing on a shelf. On the table were papers declaring him a citizen of Ivalice and a registered Judge, papers stamped by Marche and King Randell himself. The small stove in the corner was empty, a result of not having had time to cook dinner yet. Beside the stove was a poker; he set the kriss back and grabbed the poker, knowing he'd need the reach.
At about the time he took up the poker, the slaver and his slave left the window. Vern thought for a moment about fleeing to Allison and Banon, but remembering that the slaver was using a slave with a sensitive nose, dismissed it. He didn't want to endanger Allison's freedom or Banon's life, and he doubted he'd have time to make it to the airship yard and sabotage Nono's ship. He assumed a fighting position as the door was kicked in by the slaver, who led his anth in first. Vern could smell a very strong heat from the anth and immediately changed his stance as he rounded the corner, knowing the slaver's strategy now.
The slaver rounded the corner. He was wearing an iron mask, which Vern knew was meant to scar his face beyond recognition due to the razors inside it. He's desperate, thought Vern. I wonder what he did to piss off the leaders?
"Looks like the road for you ends here," said the slaver, his gravelly voice made a bit tinny by the mask. His bitch howled in pain.
"I think not," said Vern, backing up and reaching for a ripe Yache berry on the potted plant. The slaver ordered his slave to attack with a Flamethrower, and she loosed a gout of flame at the tree.
Vern ducked beneath the table as the tree caught fire, and looked around for something to get the slaver out of his house, or at least keep him distracted until a Judge came. Until the slaver tried to attack him, he couldn't do what he wanted to do - kill him.
"Get him out from under there, girl!" The sound of a whip making contact with flesh enraged Vern and caused him to roll aside as the Houndoom girl charged forward and attempted to bite his face off, getting stuck beneath the table in the process. Vern got up and tripped her with a foot before ducking beneath a whip.
"Bad move, fool," laughed Vern. He swung the poker at the slaver, who dodged it and got a hand up to seize the poker. Before Vern could react any further, the power was out of his hands and being bent on the corner of the wall.
"Come along quietly and I won't hurt you," he said.
"The other Judges will be here any moment," said Vern, bolting beneath the slaver's legs as the Houndoom anth pulled herself out from underneath the table. "If you want me that badly," he smirked, getting up near the door, "come and get me." With that, he bolted out into the night, hoping that the Judges at the very least saw him running across town with his berries hanging out. Not far behind him, he heard the sound of a whip and a howl of pain as the Houndoom anth was ordered to chase him. Thinking of an idea, he hoped the slaver either didn't follow him or was slower than the anth was. The sounds of wheezing in the distance made him look back and notice that the anth had covered far more ground than its handler in the chase. He smiled. Dammit, where the hell are the Judges on duty? Eating barbecued newt?!
Once he was certain the slaver was out of sight, he started turning down alleyways to make it harder for the slaver to follow them. He kept his course, however, for the naval port, and made it just as he had to stop and rest. Behind him, the Houndoom anth slowed her approach. Aggravated by the wounds on her back and the pain in her crotch, she snarled.
Vern turned around. "Go ahead. Kill me. Your master will then turn around and do the same to you. I'm worth more money than you'll ever be." He stepped towards the dock, where a Nezumi ship was docked and changing its colors from the Jolly Roger to a banner Vern did not recognize. The Houndoom approached cautiously, taking the bait. "There's no point in you serving that fuck anymore," continued Vern. "At this point, anything you do will earn you death."
With that, Vern backed more towards the end of the pier. The Houndoom anth matched him step for step.
"Go ahead, jump at me," he begged as he stepped to the end of the dock. "I imagine that you not only can't swim, but that water is as painful to you as a needle is to a voudou priest's target. And even if I don't duck, you'll knock us both into the water." With that, he deliberately formed a few sparks of electricity at his cheeks. "You'll be electrocuted."
The Houndoom pondered his words, then spoke, with a noble bearing, no less, "Then what are you thinking, slave?"
"You're no better. Here's what I'm thinking." He heard the slaver knock over a trash can in the distance. "You distract your master while I shove him into the water, towards the ship."
"I... I couldn't," she said.
"Why?" Vern asked.
"Well..." she started.
Vern interrupted, suddenly figuring it out by the way she spoke. His heart leaped into his throat and gagged him. "Those heartless bastards..."
"It was either he enslave me, kill my mom, and hunt you down, or be executed for bestiality," she replied.
Vern's speechlessness faded as the slaver peeked out from the buildings in the port district.
"What was your name before you were stripped of it?" asked Vern quickly.
"I, I was never..." she started.
"I understand. If you allow me to kill your father, I'll have a talk with Immigration tomorrow and see if we can't make you a citizen of Ivalice." The slaver shouted out a demand in Abyssal and started to approach the dock. "You can pick a name out tonight - iff we survive."
The Houndoom anth nodded as the slaver ran onto the dock.
"Thought you could run from me, eh, you rat?" he said, venom in his voice. He pulled out a vicious-looking sword, resembling a hand-flamberge. "Well, you've run out of road."
"As a Judge of Ivalice," started Vernon before he was interrupted.
"'Judge?' You need to get back to reality: the only title you hold is 'slave!'" With that, he charged forward, hoping to knock Vern into the water. However, he didn't get the chance - he was checked hard in the side by the Houndoom anth about halfway down the dock, and fell into the water between the ship and the dock. He bobbed to the surface in a doggypaddle, but the current started to pull the ship closer to the dock. His last words were a disownment of his daughter - "I SHOULDA NEVER FUCKED YER MUM!" - before the ship crushed his body against a pillar, causing his ribs to pierce his heart. To his mercy, death was instantaneous.
Vern looked to the anth and held out a hand. The anth sniffed it, and shook. "Thank you."
"The pleasure is mine. Now, follow me."
When Vern returned, three Judges were conducting a criminal investigation at the house. Two of them were comparing notes as the third examined the house.
"Hey," Vern said.
The two Judges looked up and walked over to Vern. "You alright?" one of them asked.
"Yeah. Sekhein," he said. "While we're standing here, do you think you could contact I&C about a new citizen? Her master died."
"'Master?'" asked the other Judge, a Nimmo by the sounds of it and the apparent bulkiness of the armor, likely to include alchemical enhancements to keep his skin moist. He looked at the Houndoom anth. "I surmise she was property?"
"Until a few moments ago, yes."
The Nimmo Judge pulled out a notepad. "I'll just need her name, birthdate, and such..."
"Elara. Elara Kryrgg. Born on thirty-second Madmoon."
"What year?" asked the Nimmo. "We accept Crandonian, Islam, Lunar, Stardate, and Gregorian," he added as a sarcastic afterthought.
"Har har," said Vern. "We'll just stick with Crandonian."
Thinking a bit, she answered, "232."
Vern did a double-take. "You're only sixteen? Fucking Christ..."
"As far as Sekhein was concerned, my birthdate was the day I started working. Since I was a slave only for a week, I kept my actual birthday."
The Nimmo noted it. "Good. Well, come with me and we'll get your ID card."
"Hold up. I want to tell her something before she goes."
"Alright," said the Judge, looking at his watch, "but hurry up. There's a game between Baguba Port and Portland tonight, and I don't want to miss it."
Elara turned to Vern. "What did you want to say?"
"Well, there's this swamp a couple towns over..."Chapter End Notes:I left it open-ended as I'm not sure whether or not I want Elara to come by Allison and Banon (and do not goad me either way in a review or by email; I wish to make this decision myself)