Snippet #858278

Bored now. Really bored.

A large green Top Hat bobbed up and down through the marketplace crowd, the only visible part of the young Blood Elf while he was immersed in the living current. It swayed and occasionally stirred slightly as it made its way upstream against the crowd; a periscope for the Elf below struggling to make his way as most workers were headed home for the evening. As soon as he cleared the crowd at the other end of the square three flaming logs came hurtling towards the Elf.

Without slowing down the Elf grabbed the first log on the fly, throwing it in the air. Then the next with the other hand and the last with the first hand again. Juggling the three flaming logs he slowly inched closer to his intended target as three more flaming logs hurtled his way. Flinging the three he currently juggled back at the originator in rapid succession, he smoothly took on the new logs in due course and continued moving in closer. Finally only a few feet from the other juggler now, the two hurled the flaming logs back and forth and into the air at a startling pace. Several of the onlookers started to move back as the path of the logs began to blur into an incandescent pattern of light.

“Ready for the big finish you beautiful son of a bitch!”

“Whenever you are you fantastical bastard!”

The Elf and the Human flipped all the flaming logs so high up into the air the first was just a flicker of light, one closely followed the other up towards the sky as they spun. As the logs hurtled back down towards the ground the Elf took off dead sprint towards the Human, planting his right foot on the Human’s knee and propelling himself off it into a full back flip. He nailed the landing, struck a pose with both hands high in the air while going to one knee. Meanwhile the Human made a wide loop in front of him, connecting both his arms by the fingertips. The green Top Hat came off, rolling onto his shoulder, down the arm and flipping end over end through the Human’s loop. The Elf caught the Top Hat upside down and one by one the flaming logs all disappeared into darkness inside of the green Top Hat.

A loud chorus of applause, cheers, and laughter broke out in the square as some of the onlookers started to toss coins towards the Human’s hat. “Profiting off me again I see you greedy asshole. Well, see you later.”

“Always on the lookout for impromptu performances, you know that you gloomy prick. Here’s some coin for your troubles if it’s such a burden on you!” As the Human flipped him several coins he leaned in and placed a message in one of the Elf’s inside pockets. They both knew that the Elf had enjoyed the show. But for some reason, whenever they saw each other they just couldn’t keep the conversation from degenerating almost entirely into esoteric banter.

Just like old times.

Once he had moved a suitable distance away from the square he reached into his coat and pulled the small note; but he turned at the sound of a raspy voice calling from the alley to his right. The Elf made a quick detour into the alley and refolded the note.

“That you Old Man?”

An incomprehensible string of vowels and grunts slowly echoed out of the shadows. Sitting up against the back wall of the alley, the Old Man quietly slid his cup out of the shadow of the alley’s back corner. The coins hit the ground in rapid succession as he flipped them alternating hand to hand until all of them had bounced once off the ground or off the brick wall behind and right into the Old Man’s cup. The Old Man smiled and quickly went back to sleep. Satisfied, the Elf removed the note once again and read it, a grin slowly creeping across his face as he finished.

Looks like multiple interested parties here. Darkling Crevices Gorge. Steal samples. Interesting.

As he looked up at the sky storm clouds gathered and the first few drops of the evening landed on his face. It was getting late and there was a lot of ground to cover. The ones hired to retrieve the samples for the Professor probably had a good lead on him.

Better hurry and at least make the forest by nightfall.

He started to whistle and meander towards the West Gate. Eventually his meandering led him to the front of a livery where he stepped in through the huge rolling doors that comprised the main entrance. Inside a young Human boy was tentatively handing the reins of a beautiful Arabian Horse over to the owner for a small bag of coin. Sensing an opportunity, the Elf slowly skulked up behind the two as the transaction was completed.

“Nice horse, very nice indeed. So you recently acquired this horse from this lad here, did you sir?”

“Yeah, that’s right. 45 Crowns and she is all yours.” The boy suddenly glared at the man and yelled, “What? You told me it was only worth ten Crowns. That you could only sell it for fifteen Crowns at most.” Chuckling to himself the man turned back to the boy, “Yeah well, consider it a free lesson in life kid.” Reaching into his coat, the Elf removed a bottle of clear liquid and two small bags. Dashing a little of the liquid on a gold coin he removed from one of the bags, he untied the loop at the top of the other bag, emptying its contents onto a small table near the wall. He blocked the other man’s view of the table as he carefully dropped out the contents. As he turned he flipped a gold Crown to the man. “Well it sure is a nice horse, yes sir a nice horse indeed. 45 Crowns it is. Inspect my coin if you like.”

The man caught the Sovereign mid air and his eyes grew wide as he saw the Elf move aside to reveal all the money on the table. “Well hold on there now stranger, seems to me that a man of your means could probably afford to pay 55, no 60 Crowns for such a fine thoroughbred.”
The Elf turned back to the table, picked up a bunch of the coins, then looked at the man and said, “Well I do need to get underway tonight. And that Arabian could go full pace all the way to my destination tonight. That would make travelling the vast distance I need to go much easier. Okay. 60 Crowns it is.” The Elf flipped several of the coins over to the man who caught them and carefully cradled them in his hands before tucking them quickly away in his pocket.

The boy stared in amazement as the owner accepted a single Crown and then pebble after pebble followed by a few small rocks in exchange for the Horse he had just sold. Who was this Elf and when was the man going to get angry?

“Also, I noticed that the Quarter Horse in the corner there is moving around lame. I know a guy that would take it off your hands for a couple Crowns. Makes adhesive from their hooves.”

A worried expression came across the man’s face as moved towards the Quarter Horses’ stall. “Damn your right, I just can’t catch a break. Well I suppose a couple of Crowns is better than nothing followed by having to kill and haul him away myself. Alright.”

The Elf grinned and flipped the man two more rocks as the boy looked in amazement at the spry and energetic young Quarter Horse that was supposedly, “lame”. What was happening here?

The Elf gathered up his pebbles, grabbed the reins of both horses and started to walk them outside. The boy followed him out to the street and a little ways down the road. Finally, just a few blocks from the West Gate, the Elf turned, “Here you go lad,” the Elf half whispered as he handed him the reins to the Quarter Horse. “Here’s a free lesson in life kid. Sometimes greedy bastards get what is coming to them.” With that the rain started to pour down, drenching the two almost instantly, and the Elf took off out the West Gate at full gallop.