The ghetto of Oflen was just so...so dirty. Sous looked completely out of place with her nice fitted black suit and dress shoes on. Even after killing that Alpha back in Hana, Kara was able to easily cast a spell to clean her up. There she stood, in the center of this...this area.
Sous didn't even know what to call it. Yes, it was a ghetto but...was it a city within a city, a town within a city, or...just a ghetto?
She cleared her throat and took her suit jacket off and threw it over her shoulder.
Tap, tap!
Her shoes echoed on the cobberbrim stone street, splashing in the dirty puddles formed from rain, urine, feces, and who knew what else. She crunched up her nose. What was that smell?
Splash!
She limped downward, quickly pulling her foot up from a puddle. "Eww," she said, standing on one leg and looking at her soaked shoe and socked.
Sous looked up and saw there was a make shift bench a little further up. She limped to it and proceeded to take her shoe and sock it. As she did, the night proceeded to turn into day and the vampires were forced to arise.
It was like they all came out as zombies to head toward the mills to work, even the kids. Their skins were burnt and chard from being in the sun. A weak cloaking spell just to keep them alive.
Sous didn't even look up as she wringed her sock out. She just followed. The mills were easy to spot, the large smoke stacks shooting black smoke into the sky.
She walked past the vampires, their bodies hunched over with exhaustion. Their clothes were tattered, some barely holding together with stitches that looked like they'd been done by a blind man. Their shoes were falling apart, some held together with twine or wire.
They noticed her but seemed to coward from her, probably thought she was working with the wolves of Apex.
The mills loomed ahead like rotting teeth, belching smoke that clung to the cracked brickwork. Sous kept her pace steady, her damp sock squishing slightly with each step.
The vampires shuffled forward in a sickening rhythm, their movements synchronized by exhaustion, left foot drag, right foot shuffle, inhale the stench of burning coal and rotting flesh. The air tasted metallic, like licking a rusted blade.
BOOM.
A shotgun blast shattered the predawn haze, scattering pigeons from the mill's sagging rooftops. The sound ricocheted off the cobberbrim stones, echoing like a second shot. Every vampiric head snapped toward the noise, eyes wide with something between hunger and terror.
Sous didn't flinch. She just tightened her grip on the wrung-out sock, watching a rivulet of filthy water drip between her fingers.
The human guard emerged from the mill's shadowed archway, shotgun slung casually over his shoulder. The gum in his mouth snapped between his teeth, pink and wet in the dim light. His boots scuffed against the cobberbrim, kicking up little spurts of ash.
He wasn't tall, but he carried himself like he owned the ground beneath him, shoulders back, chin up, eyes locked on Sous with the lazy curiosity of a cat sizing up a wounded bird. The vampires around her recoiled, shrinking into their own shadows as if the man radiated some invisible heat.
"Who the fuck at you?" He said to Sous, poking his shot gun at her.
Sous quickly snatched the shot gun and broke it in half, aweing solder and vampires. She stepped forward to him, her wings flapping behind her. She smirked and quickly wrapped her hand around his throat.
Swoosh!
She soared up to the sky.
"AAAAHHHHHHHH!"
THUD!
Crack!
He landed on the ground more than three hundred feet up in the air. His neck broken. Finally, Sous had time to dry her sock. As she hovered in the air, the sock was now dry.
Sous stood at the gate watching the vampires combust into bats and take off. Sous told them to hide out because this was the only ghetto rescued. There were hundreds more to go and the process could take two to three years. War didn't end in a day.
And now she had to deal with the humans. She sighed as she slowly walked toward the mill where the human soldiers were stationed. They looked at her, scared.
Before she could talk, a parchment appeared in front of her. She opened it to reveal Tany via a drawing talking to her on a map.
"With the help of the covenant, I was to draft up a map. Here things are coded. To make it easier, I sectioned it off by area and species. The bat symbol means the ghetto is a vampire one, as an example," she explained.
Sous listened to her, already knowing where she was going to go next: Leenway. She looked back at the humans.
"If I see you again working for Apex, Ill kill you on the spot," Sous said.
A guard snickered. "Yeah, what else are we supposed to do?"
"Realign," Sous answered bluntly.
She didn't wait for their reaction, just crouched slightly, her wings unfurling with a leathery snap that sent dust swirling across the mill yard. Then she was airborne, her shadow a fleeting slash across the terrified faces below.
The wind howled in her ears as she ascended, the stench of the ghetto thinning into something almost clean. Almost.
She thought about hownher children were doing as she flew in the direction of Leenway. She needed to get to Pameon but she had no idea where the girl was. How she was holding up. Same for Xeno, was he okay during this war?
She took the map out and looked at it once more trying to figure out if she could tell where her daughter or son was from it.
Eeear!
An arrow shot into Sous' wing. She screamed out and flipped over, falling to the trees below.
Sous' body crashed through the canopy, branches snapping against her ribs like dry bones. Leaves sliced at her cheeks, her wings tangled in vines that whipped around her limbs as she plummeted.
The impact came sudden, her back slamming into the wet earth with a sound like a sack of grain splitting open. Breath left her in one brutal rush.
She heaved, turning over on her side to support herself up. Boots came into eye sight. She looked up to see elves pointing their weapons at her.