okay hello there. this little thing is the first thing i've written on here and i'm not polishing or perfecting it so be prepared for many, many spelling mistake and misuse of punctuation and all that jazz (my english teacher would approve a lot).
another thing to add, this part is from the perspective of alina starkov upon meeting nikolai's love interest after, she and some of the crew have helped alina and mal escape something. (sorry to be vague I just want to describe this girl really)
enjoy :)
We ran without stopping. The twisting avenues and alleys were difficult enough to navigate on a normal day never mind in the dark, whilst your being chased by some ruthless scum the Barrel had to offer. I could hear Mal's footsteps behind me. Good, the countless bottle's of kvas hadn't affected his ability to run.
"Where is she taking us?" I heard Mal pant behind me, as we darted to the opposite side of the canal, slipping momentarily into the light of a lamppost.
"I don't know." I shouted behind me. "But I hope for our sake she does."
My heart was thrumming in my chest, and I felt as if it would spring straight from my mouth and onto the rain slick pavement. We'd ran so much I felt we were going back on ourselves, running over the same bridges, through the same tunnels, past the same taverns. Did she know where she was going?
"How are you two holding up back there?" I'm going to punch that girl when we get to wherever we're going.
"I'll take that silence as a no then." She laughed. Laughed. Laughed whilst being chased by criminals through the roughest part of Ketterdam in the middle of the night? Was this girl crazy?
"Is this girl asking for a fight?" Mal growled angrily.
"Easy, Oretsev, don't go picking fights without knowing what you're up against." The satisfaction in her voice irritated Mal even more than the fact she'd made him run after he'd had maybe one too many glasses of red.
We scurried under a bridge where the canal was particularly short however I still managed to get my feet wet with dirty canal water. Dancing shoes weren't very good at waterproofing feet.
"Where are we going anyway?"
"Just a few more turns, down an alleyway and up a ladder and we're there." She called joyfully as she swung her body around a lamppost and down a dismal alleyway.
Mal and I's footsteps bounced off of the slick walls, sending a cascade of noise throughout the tunnel - no doubt giving away our location - but her footsteps were silent, almost as if she wasn't even there at all.
I must have been concentrating on her too much because the next thing I knew I was lying on my back and tumbling down a flight of stairs. I lost sight of her and I could no longer hear Mal. Great. I may as well be a sitting target now.
"Enjoy your trip Starkov?" The girl giggled as she slipped past me, flashing me a grin. She really is looking for a fight isn't she.
"Come on, Alina." The rough of his voice in the darkness startled me, as I came to realisation. I could barely make out his silhouette but the voice had come from none other than Tolya. And there he stood hand outstretched before me. "There's not much farther to go now." I grasped his large hand as I heard the echo of voice from somewhere above me. One of those voices I recognised as Mal's, and another as Tamar's. Just what is going on here? Tolya threw me over his shoulder as he sprinted through the alley. For saints sake what are two of the best soldiers in Ravka doing here?
"Tamar!" The girl shouted. "How are we looking back there?" There wasn't a strain, or a pant to her voice.
"Oretsev's with me and Tolya's got Starkov! The rest of us are spread out!" She was short of breath as well.
"Good, keep the numbers low to evade suspicion!" The girl spoke strategy. Like Nikolai.
Suddenly, the sound of voices filled the alley. A conversation spoken in some foreign tongue that a couldn't understand. Fjerdan?
"Hold tight." I heard Tolya say before he hauled his heavy body upwards on some kind of ladder suspended precariously from the wall.
The air was crisper and a bitter breeze ruffled my hair over my eyes. I brushed the hair from my eyes and I couldn't believe what I could see. The silhouette of a busting city. A port to the east of me where ships were docked and shipments being transported to and from vessels. A cathedral with a domed roof and a spire stretching upwards to the heavens, where the few stars that laced the sky sat. The clouds shifted and the light went out and the city of Ketterdam disappeared again.
It wasn't long before Tamar hoped onto the roof where Tolya, the girl and I were stood waiting. Mal flopped onto the roof, much less graceful than Tamar - like a wet fish on the deck of a fishing boat.
"Obviously not built for long distance running then, are we?" The girl grinned as Mal looked as if his lungs would collapse in his chest. "Surely a soldier in the first army should be quite fitted for this sort of activity." Mal's eyes flashed as he pushed himself from the floor. Before he could say anything she'd already vanished over the other side of the roof.
"Mal." I said. "Calm down." I touched my hand to his as he dragged his other one through his tattered hair.
"Don't waste your breath on her," Tamar said passively, staring off into the distance. "It's not worth the oxygen." She scanned the skyline, searching the narrow streets for something, the people chasing us I presumed before continuing in her journey.
"She's a waste of oxygen." Mal mumbled under his breath as he heaved himself to his feet.
Tolya put me back onto my feet and we, together, descended another ladder. Tamar led the way and Tolya stayed at the back - for protection reasons I assume. Mal hovered by my right side. The girl really had vanished, and we were now just walking aimlessly behind Tamar. We kept a quick pace but Tamar allowed us to walk rather than run, which gave Mal and I a chance to catch our breaths.
The air had crisped. So we must be close to the sea. I couldn't keep a hold of my thoughts. They were rampaging through my brain like wild boars in the forest. Mal linked his arm through mind.
"Hey. We're going to be alright." He could obviously sense my anxiety. His words warmed me and I smiled. "It's not like this is the first time we've been taken hostage." He joked bumping my shoulder with his considerably larger one.
"You're not being held hostage. If you were do you think I would have been this kind to you and your summoner?" Her voice was somewhere to the left of me, Like a ripple in the dark. She hadn't been there before. Or had she?
I felt Mal tense beside me. If I weren't between them I think he would have grabbed her. However I thought she'd be a pretty good fight.
"Well it doesn't seem that way!" He growled through gritted teeth. She stopped dead in her tracks and in one swift motion, pushed him away from me, grabbing the collar of his shirt.
"Listen Oretsev, I could've left you in the Barrel with a handful of criminals and spies to fend for yourselves and I promise you, you wouldn't have made it out alive. So unless you want my help stop arguing with me okay?" She was sharp and authoritative like a commander of some army, but she was only some young girl out here on her own. She threw Mal back against the brick wall and turned away from the group.
He stared the girl down as she soundlessly floated down the alleyway. We'd only had a short interaction with her and Mal had already developed a deep hatred for her. So why was I jealous?
"Come on." Tolya grumbled.
"What did I say?" Tamar shrugged disapprovingly.
"Tamar where are we going?" I looked her up and down. She was dressed head to toe in deep blue, the suit hugged her strong structure tightly. There was a leather satchel slung tightly over her left shoulder, it looked stuffed. And soft, brown leather boots.
"Nikolai wants to see you." She sighed and turned turned away from us.
Nikolai? Doesn't he have more pressing matters, like running a country?
We'd plodded on slowly Mal and I hand-in-hand followed by Tolya in his usual warrior-like stance, quite clearly alert.
We were by the sea after all. Even at night the docks were busy. Streaming with workers. Some talked in foreign languages others in the rough Kerch accent.
We slipped through behind some crates which had been piled in stacks of three or four, we'd reached a clearing and were surrounded by what seemed to be abandoned buildings. I took a guess and assumed they were old office's where business owners and captains would have met to discuss transportation and shipping arrangements and other very important matters
Each building was the same uniformed ugliness. Cheap bricks and roof tiles sliding out of place, letting the light seep through cracks in the wall and spaces in the boarded up windows.
Tolya came to a window boarded up with planks of wood and gave it two sharp knocks. There was a moment of silence before we heard a voice in the other side of the door.
"Qui ostium quaerit?" A thick accented voice from the other side of the window spoke.
"de turba autem rex." Tolya said and the boards slid open and revealed a window for us to climb through.
well, there's part #1. a little disappointing i know but there's your first taster of "the girl". i really like her character and i'm looking forward to developing her further, along with her relationship between Alina and Mal.
thank you very much for picking this story, part #2 is coming.
:)