Kellach Donnallen (bane_bait) wrote in valloic, @ 2023-06-08 18:33:00 |
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Entry tags: | !: action/thread/log, emelan: briar moss, werewolf ta: kellach donallen |
Kelly caught the sight of movement in the crowd. “There ye are, Danny!” He exclaimed running through the crowd, weaving in and around people. After a moment he caught hold of another boy, but when he turned him around, it was clear the boy was not his cousin. “Ach!” He jumped back, letting the shoulder of the other boy go. “Yer not Danny!”
It was fortunate that he let go, because Briar had managed to find a couple of knives and conceal them about his person, and the next person who put their hands on him unceremoniously was going to get a blade to the guts. This time he just managed to stop himself, seeing a kid about his own size with a daft look on his face. “Oi, watch who you’re grabbin’,” he said, lowering the hand that had been able to draw steel. “Y’might lose some fingers.”
Kelly snorted in response to the threat, though his eyes caught the movement of the other boy’s hand. He had no way of knowing the other boy was armed, but he could tell from the tone of his voice that he wasn’t like the other kids of the neighborhood. They were mostly all talk. This kid was different. Kelly knew enough to back down.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I thought ye were my cousin, Danny. He an’ me sis ran off.” Looking back at the kid in front of him, Kelly felt stupid for having mistaken him for Danny. He didn’t look anything like Danny! “Ye haven’t seen’im have ye?
Briar shrugged. “Dunno. Ain’t many other kids out here - that ain’t in a group, anyway. Ain’t seen anyone. They look like you, do they?”
“Danny an’ I are ‘bout the same size,” Kelly said. “But he be blond. Me sister’s this tall -” he held out a hand at about the height of his shoulder. “She kinda looks like me, I reckon…” as he talked, Kelly kept looking out towards the people around them, hoping he’d see either his sister or his cousin around nearby, distracted by a shop window, or maybe a dog or a cat. Corinne loved cats. He didn’t see them. In fact, the other kid was right, there weren’t many other kids around. “Dammit,” he muttered under his breath. “Ma’s gonna skin me.”
“Yeah, well.” Briar shrugged. “I lost my gang too. People say this place can just pull you in from anywhere, so maybe that happened to you.” He grimaced. “Magic. As if mages weren’t enough, swannin’ around bein’ better’n’ everyone else, now there’s magic places.”
What the other boy said didn’t make much sense to Kelly, but he definitely knew the word Mage and it made him suck in a deep breath. “That ain’t good!” He exclaimed. “Mages are bad. We gotta get outta here!” He grasped the other boy by the arm and turned to run.
“Get off.” Briar tugged his arm out of the kid’s grip and pulled him back by the collar instead before he could scarper. “I told you not to grab me, didn’t I? Ain’t no one out here tryin’ to hurt you - not that I’ve seen anyway. I don’t much like mages either, but no need to run from ‘em like a cat what’s had its tail on fire.” He shook his head. “Baby.”
Kelly grunted and pushed the other boy off of him. “I’m notta baby!” he snapped back. But the other boy was right. He was acting like a little baby. Besides, he wasn’t supposed to talk about mages and magic and whatever out in public like this. It broke the litany. He was in enough trouble as it was.
But what was he supposed to do now?! “Ye an’t upset that ye don’t know where ye are?” Kelly demanded next, trying to save what face he could muster.
Briar shrugged. “We-ell. It’s nice here. Better’n home. Some people just give you food. And it smells nice.” That didn’t sound exactly right, in hindsight, but he had to admit that in comparison to Hajra, the streets of Vallo were a veritable paradise. “And there ain’t no Thief Lord after me for earnin’s,” he added, since that was the most important thing, really. “But if I had a home or a family and that, maybe it’d be worse,” he admitted, in an attempt at empathy. “I don’t miss the gang, really. You hungry?” he asked. “I can probably find something.”
Kelly took a deep breath through his nose. The other kid was right, it did smell nice here. No horse shite in the middle of the streets. No smog and smoke in the air from the factories. He didn’t know any “Thief Lord”, but he assumed that to be a leader of the other kid’s gang. Kelly had been warned about gangs. A cousin had gotten caught up in one in America, he’d been told. They’d found him murdered in New York. Kelly frowned.
But this kid seemed to be ok. He said his gang wasn’t around here. Plus he was talking bout getting something to eat. Kelly hadn’t eaten in a couple of days, so if this kid could get them something. “Aye,” he said with a nod. “I’m hungry.”
Briar nodded. “C’mon then.” He turned and started heading towards the place where he knew there were stalls with people selling things. There were shops too, with lots more food in them, but people tended to notice when he wandered in them by himself, giving him and his oversized clothes that he’d torn and retired to fit him some strange looks. It was easier to blend in in a street crowd. It would be even easier with two of them; his motivations here were not entirely unselfish. He wandered between the stalls for a few minutes before tossing an apple in Kelly’s direction, apparently having materialised it from nowhere. “It’s good,” he assured the other boy. “They don’t even try to sell rotten stuff here. Mad.” He shook his head. “I’m Roach, by the way. I mean, Briar.”
Kelly knew a fake name when he heard one, but if this kid wanted to be called Briar, he wasn’t going to argue. Hell, Briar was a better name than Roach anyway. He wondered who gave him that in the first place.
“Kellach,” he introduced himself as he caught the apple tossed at him. “But most folks call me Kelly.” He shrugged. He didn’t seem all that perturbed about where the apple had suddenly come from either. Kelly was no stranger to street thieving himself. He didn’t bite into the apple right away, not wanting to draw attention to either of them with the sound. Instead he followed along after Briar, his eyes scanning the crowd around them.
“Welcome to Vallo, Kelly.” Briar grinned. He’d heard people say that out of his phone thing. He’d worked out how to use it by trial and error. It was cool. He indicated the city skyline with his arms. “I only been here five minutes, but it ain’t that bad. Weather’s nice. No animal dung anywhere. So far no one’s tried to put me in a cell or cut off me hands.” He grinned. “You’ll do all right s’long as you don’t go around lookin’ like you’re running from something.”
“Vallo,” Kelly repeated the strange name. It didn’t sound like any of the other septs or caerns he knew about. On the one hand, that was probably good. Wandering into another Garou’s sept or caern without announcing himself was bad enough, being kinfolk and wandering in unannounced was a good way to get beaten. So at least he didn’t have to worry about that. On the other hand, Kelly had no idea where Vallo was or how he was going to get back to where he was supposed to be.
But Briar was right. Vallo wasn’t so bad. It was pretty clean, cleaner than any neighborhood in Belfast. If what Briar said was true, that meant that there probably weren’t any shitty landlords around either looking to make a quick buck off their tenants. People weren’t fighting or starving…
Briar was also right about not running away. That was good advice no matter where you found yourself. Unless it was from a demon or fomorai. But none of them seemed to be around either.
“It’s not so bad, I guess,” he said. He finally took a bite of the apple. Then an idea hit him. “How’d we get here? Were we spirited away?”
Briar shrugged. “Magic,” he said, as though this explained everything. “Ain’t seen any ghosts or spirits, but maybe. That the kind of thing they do?”
“Nah,” Kelly said and shook his head. “Spirits ain’t smart enough to’ do that. An’ even if they were, they’d only drag us into the Umbra. An’ that looks nothingall the time, but Briar didn’t need to know that. “But they’d probably pull us inta the underworld…” he looked around them. “This don’t look like the land o’ the dead, do it?”
Briar made a face. “I think I’d know if I was dead,” he insisted. “Probably it wouldn’t hurt if you stubbed your toe or whatever. And you could go through stuff,” he added wistfully. Street kids in Hajra were not well-versed in religion, but no child society that ever existed was without its ghost stories. “What’s the Umbra?”
Kelly looked thoughtful again, his brows furrowed close together in concentration. “I dunno if ye hafta be dead to visit the underworld.” He said, but ultimately decided that he too would probably know if he was dead.
“The Umbra is the place where spirits live,” he explained. He went to take a bite of the apple and then realized that Briar hadn’t eaten anything yet. He offered the other boy the unbitten part.
Briar shook his head. “I ate before,” he said. “It’s easy here, really. Just look sad and people will give you stuff. It’s almost too easy. There aren’t really street kids here, that I’ve seen. People keep trying to make me stay with them.” He laughed and gestured to the towering apartment buildings nearby. “Like I’d be caught dead in one of those. What if it falls over? And I bet they’d make me wear shoes and bathe as well. No thanks.” He looked at Kelly sidelong. “I bet they’d find somewhere for you though, if you asked. It’s that sort of place.”
Kelly looked at the building Briar was motioning to and found that he kept looking up. He agreed with Briar. There was no way he was living in one of those. That was too fecking high! “If ye fell outta one o’ those windows ye’d be dead fer sure,” he said. He looked back at Briar and shook his head. “Nah,” he said with a shake of his head. “I gotta keep lookin’ fer Danny an’ Corinne.”
Briar shrugged. “Suit y’self. I’ll help you look if you want. I’ve been here a few days an’ ain’t seen anyone from home, though.” Not that he especially minded.
Kelly raised a brow at Briar. “Ye wanna help me?” He asked. He didn’t want to sound skeptical, but the kid didn’t seem the type to just offer his help outright. Sure, he’d gotten Kellach an apple, but that hadn’t seemed to require a lot of effort on Briar’s part. Kellach’s eyes narrowed a little “In exchange fer what?” He asked carefully.
Briar considered. It was an established rule of the street not to do anything for anyone for free, but mostly he was just bored. “How ‘bout you just owe me a favour?” he suggested.
Kelly frowned. He already owed the local packs his service. That was his purpose in life. Owing someone else felt like inviting trouble and Kelly had enough of that as it was. “Nah,” he said. “I already owe too many people me time. I prolly owe you enough as it is just fer this apple.”
Briar shrugged. “Suit y’self. Call the apple a freebie, I can get plenty.” As if to prove his point, he tossed another apple up in the air before taking a bite. “How come a kid like you got so many deals lined up already?”
Kelly watched Briar toss up another apple. How many had Briar stuffed into his pockets and when? He could ask his question after answering Briar’s. It was only fair. And considering they were both in a strange place and away from the Caern, Kelly didn’t see the harm in it either. “They’re not deals,” he said. “I’m kinfolk. It’s my job t’ be useful t’ the changers. S’what I was born for.”
Briar raised a curious eyebrow. “Well that’s a lot of words I don’t know,” he said, “but that ain’t strange for this place, half the people here talk mostly jibber-jabber. What’s kinfolk mean, then?”
“Kinfolk are related to changers, but don’t change themselves,” Kelly explained. Then, too late, he realized that Briar probably didn’t know what that meant either. “Ever hear o’ Garou?” he asked. “Y’know, werewolves? That’s what I’m talkin about. Kinfolk are people related to werewolves, but can’t change themselves. We serve the Garou.”
“Heard of wolves,” Briar said, making a face. “Not that there’s many of ‘em in Hajra. Too hot, prob’ly. You mean there are people that can… turn into animals?”
Kelly considered this. “Kind of,” he said. “Some o’ them are born animals and kin change into humans, which I ‘spose be the same thing, just in reverse.”
Briar was wide-eyed, somewhere in between fascinated and disgusted. “Never heard of that,” he said, grimacing. “Sounds painful. Bleugh.”
Kelly tilted his head thoughtfully. “None o’ the changers at the Sept have ever said it ‘urt,” he stated and then shrugged his thin shoulders. “But, they probably wouldn’t tell me even if it did.” He laughed. “Don’t matter any, I ain’t gonna be a changer.”
He took a final bite of his apple and tossed the core away. “I gotta find Corinne and Danny still. Ye kin come wit’ me if ya want,” and to be honest, Kelly wouldn’t mind the company, “but ye don’ hafta help me look.”