Shadows of Lumen

The bright lights of Upper Lumen alight the night sky above as Jabari crouched atop a roof far below them, stares up in awe. Lower Lumen the forgotten dregs of the great capital is as dull as ever. Jabari has almost finished his route, they stopped for a moment to take in the beauty above, no one is expecting him back anytime soon anyway. Jabari likes this spot, it’s one of the only locations where you can see the sky clearly, and he returns to it almost every night. And like most nights he allows himself a moment to muse, to let his mind escape the harsh realities of a man who has seen way too much too early in life and has been stuck in an unending cycle...but only for a moment.

A dissonant immature yell breaks Jabari out of his stupor, it takes a few heartbeats for him to hone in on where it came from. Swiftly he moves along the tight-knit rooftops towards the sound. A little off of his patrol route, he sees an alley ahead with three large shadows looming over a kid. Yes, most definitely a child. Jabari shuffles down off the rooftop and stalks his way over to the alley.

“Show us, you little prick, before we force it out of ya!” says a deep gravelly voice, the words carry far in the dead silence of night. The crying of the kid becomes louder, Jabari begins to think it best he simply ignores them and continues on his route, but something is urging him forward. A large boot crashes down on the kid propelling them backward accompanied by a groan of pain and more crying. The three brutes move to surround the kid again.

“Hey, what is going on over here?” Jabari puts on a confident voice, as he stands in the alley entrance.

“None of your fucking business, get out of her...” Jabari’s fist connects with the jaw of the large man speaking and he crumples up like a piece of paper. Moving faster than should be humanly possible Jabari, passes the two other brutes and is now standing beside the kid. The two brutes turn around almost giving themselves whiplash and yell “What the!”.

“Are you alright?” Jabari says as he bends down to check on the kid. The two brutes are slightly confused but more so enraged. They lunge for Jabari who deftly dodges backward out of the way and looks up at the two men fast approaching. A knot in his stomach begins to tighten. Not now, he thinks, he can’t draw blood right now he has to get the kid away from here. The guy whose jaw he was sure he dislocated begins to stir awake and Jabari knows his time is short. Right as one of the brutes throws a meaty fist toward his face, he sidesteps the punch and delivers a knee directly to the groin. Jabari lunges at the last man standing and at the last second drops to the ground and slides under the man’s wide stance, grabbing both ankles as he passes through causing the man to lose balance and fall face forward on the ground.

Jabari scoops the kid up in his arms, the kid is surprisingly light, and heads for the nearest roof access.

Vision going in and out, Kito is finding it hard to catch their breath. Everything happened so fast they haven’t had time to process it. Now they find themselves moving along the rooftops, in the arms of a strange man. Kito can’t find the strength to speak, so they hold onto hope that they haven’t gone from a bad situation to a worse one.

Kito notices the man’s jacket flaps and catches the wind as if they were moving very fast. How is this possible, they think to themselves. The man was taking them further into the city towards the center, following the river that cuts Lower Lumen in half. Kito has been avoiding going in that direction, favoring staying on the outskirts, because it’s best to stay low and out of the way. What good that did, they were still found. Shouldn’t have gone looking for food, but they were starving, they didn’t think this all the way through.

As thoughts of what they could’ve done differently or better run through Kito’s mind, a lurch in Kito’s stomach pulls up and the strange man jumps down from the roofs into an alley between two shops closed and shuttered for the night. They are in the lower markets.

“Stay down and stay quiet, someone is coming.” the strange man calmly states, as he turns to face the southern alley entryway.

Looking in the same direction, Kito is filled with fear as a familiar, gravelly voice pierces the night.

“Thought I smelled a leech. Nowhere to run where I won’t find you now.” comes from the shadow that turns the corner and looks towards the strange man.

The man from before, the one that Jabari punched in the jaw stands there with a look of vicious hunger on his face but more importantly, he looks completely uninjured.

Jabari hates being called a leech, it’s not clever nor accurate however it is an indicator of what is to come next. Positioning himself to block the view of the kid, Jabari reaches up and unbuttons the top of his jacket revealing a wooden necklace inscribed with formulaic expressions. A dagger drops into his hand from his sleeve and he stands stoic, anticipating the man’s next move.

“I’m going to rip you limb from limb, starting with your jaw bone, then I’m going to take the kid back...mostly intact.” The large man intoned as he began to lurch forward.

The sound of skin tearing and muscles ripping encases Kito as they look upon him in horror as the man begins to expand. Fur sprouts all over him and his face transforms into the form of something more canine as his nails become sharp claws. Kito’s mind is telling them to run but their body is unable to move, completely frozen in fear. Kito doesn’t even notice that the strange man is talking to them.

“Kid...KID!...you need to run and hide now...Go!” The shout and urgency in the voice of the strange man cut through the fear just long enough for Kito to feel their legs and begin to scramble toward the other end of the alley.

Jabari has now seen a werewolf transform many times over, but it never gets easier to stomach. Especially when the werewolf’s rage is aimed at him. The transformation is quick but violent. The kid is on the move, and a little bit of relief washes over him, with the kid gone he can do what is necessary.

The werewolf sees the kid scurrying away and lets out a loud growl as he rushes towards Jabari, in hopes of ripping through him and getting to the kid. Jabari rapidly takes his dagger and stabs it into the palm of his other hand, drawing blood. The blood begins to flow rapidly and the necklace around Jabari’s neck glows, flashing a blinding red light. The werewolf is stunned momentarily as the light pulses out and that is all the time Jabari needs.

A blade made of blood forms and solidifies in Jabari’s right hand, as he rushes to meet the werewolf head-on. The werewolf lashes out with his claws aiming to cut Jabari down quickly. The claw clashes with the plain dagger blocking his head as Jabari jabs the blood dagger into the werewolf’s side. It slides in like butter but the yelp of pain that the werewolf lets out, lets Jabari know he hit his intended target. As the dagger is removed, blood gushes out. The werewolf in a fit of rage wildly swings his arms in hopes of landing any sort of hit. Jabari takes a backswing to the body and stumbles, pain shoots up his chest, a rib broken. That hit would’ve killed most but as a crack appears in the necklace around his neck, Jabari is grateful for its protection.

The werewolf crashes down upon him again clawing for anything it can get a hold of. Jabari almost as graceful as a dancer, dodges each swing by just a hair. He knows a fight of attrition would not go in his favor, but the werewolf is bleeding out, another solid hit should seal the deal. He falls back a few feet away giving himself just as much of breathing room.

“YOU WILL BE MY DINNER LEECH!” the werewolf is enraged. He falls to all fours and begins to run for Jabari.

An enraged werewolf is when they are most dangerous but Jabari has fought worse, of course in those cases he was way more prepared and didn’t just have the necklace. He watches as the werewolf dashes towards him, leaving a trail of blood in its wake, and pounces. Right before crashing into him, Jabari rolls the side and brings down both daggers, digging both into the body of his assailant. A whimper is what escapes from the werewolf as they fall into a pool of their blood. Death throes are common so Jabari waits before approaching the dead werewolf.

He falls to his knees, takes the blood dagger, and lays it in the blood of the fallen. He uses his finger to scrawl a quick formula around the dagger then places his right palm upon it. As he does the the formula begins to glow, as all the blood in the pool and within the werewolf gets absorbed into the dagger before the dagger disappears. A knot in Jabari’s stomach twist violently, he steadies himself as the pain begins to subside. His hunger would not be stated tonight...not if he can help it.

Jabari bolts up, the iron dagger drawn as he notices he is not alone in the alley. At the opposite end of the alleyway the Kid stands. Stupid kid he thinks to himself, they were supposed to run, he hopes he didn’t see what just happened. It then dawns on him that werewolves run in packs, if the punks from earlier are on their way, then he has wasted too much time. He looks at the kid and nods slightly, signaling that all is okay. As the kid approaches him, he is surprised the kid is moving towards him, he takes the dagger and flays a bit of the werewolf’s flesh.

“You’re one of them.” the kid says, not a hint of malice in their voice, but curiosity. “Why did you save me? I was told you kill humans for fun.”

“Don’t believe everything the Empire tells you kid—don’t believe everything the Dominion tells you either for that matter.” Jabari retorts.

“You didn’t answer my question.”

“I know.” Jabari stands and heads out of the alley and tells the kid “Come, hurry, we aren’t far from the safe house.”

Kito follows.

Most shops in Lower Lumen are rundown and in need of maintenance. The bakery that Jabari and the kid stand in front of is no different although it still looks serviceable.

“We’re here, come let’s get inside.” Jabari hurriedly says as he uses his key to unlock the front door.

As they enter the bakery, Jabari takes a look outside to ensure no one is following them, then locks the door. He heads to the back of the store and goes under the counter to the back door. The kid stares at the pastries sitting in these glass cases.

“Take some it’s okay, Vette won’t mind.” Jabari notices the kid and sees the hunger in their eyes.

The kid nods their head and goes to grab some of the delicious-looking pastries as Jabari fiddles around with a hidden switch near the back door. A side panel opens that leads to a set of stairs. The two of them descend below the bakery. As they reach the end of the stairs, Jabari yells out. “Vette!”

“Why are you yelling?” says a gentle, feminine voice, as a tall and brawny dark-skinned woman steps into the room through a curtain wearing an apron, wiping her hands free of the flour she must have been baking with. “Wasn’t sure if you were busy or not. I have something for you.” “First, who is the kid?” Vette points toward Kito, who shrinks within themself as they are noticed. “They will be staying the night here, found them during my patrol.” Jabari takes the piece of flesh he took off the werewolf earlier and throws it onto a table in the center of the room. “Is this one of yours?” Vette approaches the flesh and takes a heavy sniff. “Nope, not one of mine, and why do you have werewolf skin?” “Was followed by one, after helping the kid out, not sure why.” “Well...fuck, okay. Hey kid...” Vette turns to face the kid who has retreated into a corner and is eating pastries. “Eat up, they are delicious, right? you’re welcome.” The kid looks up, abashedly nods, and then continues to eat.

Vette informs Jabari that their other two sect members are back and probably asleep. In the morning they will convene and discuss the kid. Vette finds a spare blanket and pillow for the kid, who keeps staring at her in awe. Jabari goes to his room for the night, hungry and exhausted. He is unsure of what exactly is going on with the kid but he intends to find out. For now, though, he must repair his necklace and prepare a few more blood tokens. It’s going to be a long night for Jabari but he is used to long nights, sleep doesn’t come easy to him even on the best of days. But sleep does eventually find him. In the morning, Kito awakens to the smell of freshly baked pastries, and bleary-eyed they take in their surroundings. Sitting at the table is a lady shoveling down pannens topped with strawberries, a large scar sits across her face from ear tip to lip. The lady they met last night named Vette is in her kitchen making more pannens and their rescuer is not present. Vette makes her way out of the kitchen and sees Kito is awake. “Fair morning to you kid, come eat, meet Elani. Jabari and Yab will be back soon.” “Hi.” An unexpectedly shy voice comes from Elani, the lady who fills her plate with more pannen as Vette sets a stack of them on the table. Kito gathers themselves and goes to sit at the table. Elani doesn’t make any effort to speak so Kito follows suit, makes their plate, and begins to eat. Moments go by, and Kito has had their fill and now sits at the table bloated, more full than any time they could remember in recent memory. Voices can be heard coming downstairs, the topic of the discussion indistinguishable but one of the voices belongs to the man who saved their life last night. As Kito turns to take a look at the arrivals, Jabari steps into the central room and says “Yab and I are back from our morning run. As I told him I don’t want to discuss the kid in the room. We can talk later.” Elani looked like they were about to ask a question, thought better of it, and put her head down.

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Jabari exhaustedly raps on the door, right as it swings open. Standing in the doorway is a squat, brown-skinned older lady with hair grey and full of wisdom. She looks Jabari up and down and gives a wide smile that reaches her ears where intricate earrings hang. ‘Is it really you!?” she says slowly and faltering. Jabari breathes a sigh of relief and moves forward to cup her face, she does not flinch as he kisses her on the forehead and says “Yes, it is me, I am home ma.”

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Still a WIP! This is a very rough draft, unfortunately time got away from me. More scenes are coming and many edits.