Nathaniel Rivers's Story

Nathaniel glanced up from the cards in his hands when he heard the commotion coming from the place next door. With his back facing the wall, he kept himself in the shadows so as to hide his eyes. They weren’t so wildly dissimilar that you could tell right off but if Nate was in direct light or he held your gaze for a moment too long you knew instantly what he was. Laying down his hand he pulled his hood up over his head and dealt himself out. Making his excuses he quickly and quietly slipped out of the door in time to see the figure or figures of interest make their way down the street.

The nondescript young man’s interest was piqued, at the sight or sound of chaos he was ready to spring into action. It was his status as a graceling that made this so. It had been too long since Nate had last sparred, or even worked up a sweat. Of course he was trying to keep a low profile as all like him should be trying to do. One mistake was all it took and according to the shouts coming from the tavern it was apparent the perpetrator was a grace. Swearing softly to himself he knew that soon this place would be no safe haven for those like him and if it was true that a graceling was wandering the streets kicking up trouble for the rest of them he wanted to see what it was about.

Falling into line behind the rest, he made no effort to hide himself. There wasn’t a point now as far as he could see. Stopping short he looked at the hooded figures curiously and pulled his own hood back from his face.

“Looks like you might have gotten into a spot of trouble back there. I don’t know that I’d take time to admire my spoils considering this city’s not gonna be safe for any of us once word spreads.” Nathaniel said wryly, a lopsided smile on his face by way of greeting. Glancing back and forth between the two figures in his eyeline.

[[I'm really busy tomorrow and don't know when else I'm going to post, so I'm going to post now because I won't be able to tomorrow. Hopefully Not That Awesome can jump right in]]

Chase gave wry smile as she traced the hilt of the dagger with her finger. She knew she had attracted attention, although it wasn't her intention. Two men were following her, but not the ones from the bar. Both of them were blatantly obvious about it. She could hear them from where she stood. Letting out a chuckle, she suddenly ran forward and leapt into the air. Her hands caught hold of a bar jutting out from a building. At some point the bar might of held up a sign to a shop, but now it was a perfect thing to climb. Her hands grasped hold of it and she used her momentum to swing straight up into the air, perform a flip in the air and land gently on top of the bar. Letting her feet slip forward and her body fall backward, it looked as if she were about to tumble to the ground, but her legs remained on the bar, so that she swung upside down, facing the two men.

Ok, so she was a bit of a show off.

"Looks like you might have gotten into a spot of trouble back there. I don’t know that I’d take time to admire my spoils considering this city’s not gonna be safe for any of us once word spreads.” The man said, removing his hood. Chase took in his appearance, taking note of the one eye blue and one eye green. Graceling. Chase grinned.

"Oh but why not? It's a very nice dagger," She said, holding up the dagger and picking the dirt out from under her nails with it, all the while upside down. Chase's attitude normally deterred most people. She smirked. "And I wasn't in a spot of trouble. The man had something I wanted and he had something he wanted. We just had... different views." Chase looked around to see if anyone else was around, but it was just her, Mr. Better Than Everybody and Mr. I Suck At Stalking People. "So what's your grace? And what about you?" she said, louder the second time, pointing with her dagger to the man poorly hidden in the distance. "Hasn't anyone ever told you it's not polite to stalk little girls?"

Chase grinned to herself, almost pleased with herself that she had caused so much trouble. Although she did feel bad. She hadn't meant to affect so many other Gracelings. She didn't know that many still lived in this city. "You can call me Chase. And nothing but Chase or you might get chased."

Shay's eyes snapped open when she heard a clamor outside of the inn. Rising slowly to her feet Shay made her way to the single window in her room and poked her head out warily. She was started to see a girl smaller than herself hanging upside-down from a pole sticking out from the inn's wall. Shay's eyes took in the hooded man she was talking to and the poorly hidden man in the background and clicked her tongue. The man was making a mockery of himself with his poor hiding skills, he wasn't even sticking to the shadows like any person who gave thought to hiding would. Shay's attention was drawn back to the upside-down girl and hooded man when he threw back his hood and said, "Looks like you might have gotten into a spot of trouble back there. I don't know that I'd take time to admire my spoils considering this city's not gonna be safe for any of us once word spreads." Shay saw his one green eye and one blue eye and had to cover her mouth so she wouldn't gasp. Other gracelings!

She couldn't help but smile, she'd found not only one, but three others like herself! Her smile turned even bigger as she felt the icy tingle that meant she was turning invisible. Time to have a little fun. Pulling herself out of the window Shay slowly started climbing up to the roof, telling herself not to look down the whole time. When she finally made it to the roof she'd missed half the conversation but she made it in time to hear the girl say, "You can call me Chase. And nothing but Chase or you might get chased." Shay and sat cross-legged next to the girl. Turning visible again she smiled at Chase and said in her soft voice, "Chase....what a lovely name!" She looked at the two men and turned back to Chase with a smile, "Sorry to interrupt. It only seemed fair that I even the numbers."

Leon looked at the two of them not knowing what to say his eye patch moved a little the eye under it blinking. He slowly moved out of where he was badly hidden just to see the girl jump up and hang form a bar coming from one of the near by walls. He smiled still not knowing why he tryed to hide in the first place knowing he wasn't good at it. His light purple eye looking over the two both were hiding their eyes with hoods. Why? He had so much luck with his dealing with the eye patch over one eye he could understand hiding it with a hood. He was snapped out of his thoughts but the girl asking him something.

"Hasn't anyone ever told you it's not polite to stalk little girls?"

He hadn't even been meaning to 'stalk' her but he guessed thaat is what it could have looked like. "I am sorry Miss Chase. I didn't know how to speak to you and I was only waiting. It looked like you had a fight with a few men and I didn't think know how you would react to me.........."He looked away and looked back and now there was two girls he didn't know what to think till the 2nd spoke. He moved a little closer and asked "And what would your name be miss?"

Nathaniel immediately took a step back as the others made their appearances. He was confident, but he wasn’t sure if he could withstand the odds if they all turned their attention his way. They might be the same, gracelings all of them but that didn’t mean he immediately trusted them. As for the matter of numbers it didn’t matter much to Nate seeing as he always played for a team of one.

“Well, look here. What are the odds that so many of us would convene so randomly? If I didn’t know any better I’d think we were being set up, but I just can’t see how that’d be possible.” Nathaniel offered his voice neutral as he tried to keep all of the newcomers within sight and listened to them exchange pleasantries.

The cagey young man completely ignored the question of what his grace was, instead letting the attention shift to the rest of the group. His grace was as such that it wasn’t immediately noticeable and was such a part of him that he didn’t consider it to be anything strange or abnormal. Crossing his arms across his chest he took stock of the people before him. There were five gracelings meandering in the alleyway, as if that were a normal occurrence and wouldn’t set the town aflame if they were caught.

“I’m Nathaniel and we might want to do away with the how do you do’s and find someplace else to be? I mean it’s all well and good, there’s more of us than I thought but it wouldn’t do us much good if we were all cornered by an angry mob and strung up.” Nate added to the conversation, his tone making it apparent that he wouldn’t be too bothered by such a turn of events. Nathaniel might try and seem logical but he can’t help his natural affinity for a fight.

"I'm Nathaniel and we might want to do away with the how do you do's and find someplace else to be? I mean it's all well and good, there's more of us than I thought but it wouldn't do us much good if we were all cornered by an angry mob and strung up." Shay smiled shyly at the rest of the group and sighed, "Nathaniel's right, we're no good to anybody if we're dead." Shay slowly got to her feet and walked to the edge of the building.

Looking down over the edge of the roof she wondered vaguely how she was going to get down, unlike Chase she wasn't exactly able to just swing down. Sighing Shay looked over the group once more before quietly adding, "My name's Shay by the way. Some people used to call me Shy or Mouse, I'm not really sure if I should take that as a complement or an insult so you can chose." Shrugging Shay walked back over to where the window to her room was before climbing back in and going to gather her stuff. Something told her that this trip was going to be different.

"Chase....what a lovely name! Sorry to interrupt. It only seemed fair that I even the numbers." Chase was so startled by the sudden appearance of another girl that her feet slipped and Chase let out a small yelp "Ahh!" She didn't have time to catch her self and so she tumbled to the ground, landing roughly on her back. To ease the impact she rolled upon hitting the ground and sprung up. Coughing and dusting herself off a bit, she was bright red, embarrassed.

"Well that was.... an impressive trick" She said grinning up at the mystery girl who was clearly also graced. However, upon studying her she noticed that both her eyes were brown. Maybe she wasn't graced? But looking closer, she saw that one eye was just a bit darker than the other. Interesting. Chase's own eyes were hard to miss. Bright and strange, just like her personality. "You, my friend, have earned my respect. Shay's your name? I like Mouse better."

Taking in the other members of this merry band of misfits, she watched as the stalker guy spoke up, and quite eloquently. Chase rolled her eyes and twirled the dagger in her hand "You can say what you want," she said dismissively. Just then another voice crept up "I think I would rather have the odds in our favor would you agree?" Chase jumped, startled again, and quite surprised she'd managed to get outsmarted, twice. Frowning, she turned to the new girl, who claimed to be Isabelle. "Izzy, I do agree. But I also agree with Nathaniel it would be wise to go and find somewhere else to talk."

Her eyes darted up to the rooftops, and in another second she was climbing to the roof. After another second or two she was standing precariously on a ledge, overlooking a small view of the city. Mapping out the area in her head before climbing down, she had an idea of where to go. "There's a forest nearby and a small cottage next to it. I'm pretty sure the cottage is abandoned but it's hard to tell from here."