The Unknown Shadow Chapter 2

As they escaped the city, night began to fall. The stars blinking to life as the blanket of ebony shrouded the sky and the moon let its silver glow caress the land gently. They had found themselves outside the city in the forest where the canopy allowed few streams of moonlight to pierce it. Panting, as they had ran the entire way, Kio leaned against the tree, grinning. "That was fun."

"This is what you consider 'fun'?" Kid huffed back. "It's freezing cold out here, and now we have no place to stay. At least in the city I had an alley to crash in. But now we're out in the forest surrounded by who knows what."

Kio chuckles, "Man, you're like Donnia, you worry too much. C'mon, let's find a place to make camp and I'll set up a campfire for us." He beckons Kid over, igniting one of his hands with white fire, illuminating the area around them.

Kid follows him into the unknown world. "So is there anything else you've yet to tell me? About yourself? Your culture? Your...mission?"

Kio nods. "I'm a half elf from the town of Xel'droa. I was an orphan for most of my life. Got sick of seeing us street rats stepped on and started a guild of rogues to protect those down on their luck. We're called a thieves guild, but that's just a title."

Kid sighed. "I like the sound of this deal less and less... A thieves guild? How childish. I'm not surprised you haven't all been stamped out already. And you're fighting a power you yourselves don't even know how to explain? How pathetic."

Kio sighs and shakes his head. "We're not thieves. We never steal. We're only called thieves because a bunch of idiots are afraid of a few rats running around at night collecting food from the forest." He finds a small glade for them and takes some loose tinder from the trees. "And call us pathetic again and you'll answer to Markus..." He shrugs. "We do what we can to survive...and we've done a lot better than you."

"Ooh. I'm so afraid of someone I've never met." Kid sneered, sitting down on the ground.
"And I wouldn't point fingers. For people doing 'so much better than me', you couldn't even tell that your drink was poisoned.  Despite the fact that it ate a whole in the inn's floor, I still don't see how you plan to conquer a threat you don't know anything about."

Kio just grinned and lit the pile of tinder, creating the flame. He lay down on his side, staring at the flames. "No one in my towns tries to kill us. They just tolerate us. Occasionally, we deal with Lunarian raiders, but nothing to give us full combat experience. we learn through doing, through experience. We gain nothing from sitting on our asses as this magic destroys our land."

"So what you're saying," Kid said as he spread out to lay on the ground, his head propped on his elbow, "is that you're a hypocrite. Making yourself out to be so much better than me."

Kio shakes his head.  "Hypocrite? No. What I'm saying is, we banded together to survive...not just stuck out on our own." He chuckles and pulls some jerky from his pack, offering some to Kid.

Kid cocks his eyebrows but takes a piece. "Uh...thanks. I guess."

Kio nods and places his piece of jerky into his mouth and chuckles. "Listen, you and I got off on the wrong foot. Let's just try and get along okay? We need to survive out here. We have a couple days until we get to Xel'droa."

Kio only gave him a confused half/glare as he barely nibbled on his jerky. "I've never seen the point to that expression. After all, what does it matter what foot you choose to begin a journey?"

Kio shrugs at his question and stares into the flames. "Well, I wanna be able to call you my friend, not have you hate me the entire time we're travelling." He sighs and looks at the sky, his eyes flashing in the moonlight. "You really gotta relax on things you know? You've had an attitude since we met...trying smiling now and then. Makes you seem friendly." He laughs.

"Why pretend to be something I'm not? I'm not friendly. And I guess the oh-so-superior half-elves aren't as smart as they claim, because you clearly aren't able to recognize humor." Getting up and tossing the rest of his un-nibblled jerky into the dirt, he headed towards the nearest tree and started to climb into it. Once about fifty feet above the ground, he settled himself in by laying on one of the larger branches. "And I'll be staying up here tonight. I don't need to sleep with someone who can't even look past his own ego to discern emotions." Lying on his back on the branch, it was clear that he wanted nothing to do with the rest of Kio's 'motivational' philosophy.

Kio simply scowls at him. "I'm trying to be friendly, but the thing is, you never give me an inch when all I want is to get to know you." He sighs and lays down. He remains silent a long time, the glow of the fire dancing across his form and illuminating the glade rather well. After several long moments of silence he looks up at the tree. "Tell me more about yourself, please."

Kid ignores him.

Kio sighs and shrugs. He understood they had a personality clash, he just tried working with what he could. Slowly, he drifts off to sleep, a dreamless night waiting for the sun to rise over the horizon and cast its radiant glow over the crest of the mountains and onto the forest.
[CHAPTER 2 END]