Work In Progress Section 1
PLEASE READ THIS:
THIS WILL ONLY BE UP TEMPORARILY. DO NOT FAVORITE THIS. IT IS ONLY A SECTION OF AN UPCOMING, YET STILL INCOMPLETE WORK.
This is the first part of a collaboration by myself and Thundagger (thundagger.sofurry.com). This is the first two pages (if you were to put it into a word processor) of the story so far, and in a week or so, we'll take this down off both our profiles and then post up the next two pages. We'll keep doing this until the story is finished and we're ready to post it. (and the story is going to be more than 40 pages once it's done, so we could go on with this for months if we wanted to. But we won't. XD)
Anyway, enjoy the first part of our as of yet still untitled collaboration!
Poverty, shabby houses, beggars, and vendors of overpriced trinkets; a very typical sight for Donichus as he walked through the shantytown outer circle of the city Bern, a frequent stop of his either for one of his missions of justice or a simple night's rest. Head held high above the crowd, Donichus's slitted, reptilian eyes wearily scanned over the dirt-ridden faces of the surrounding group as he hurried quickly on his way. Among them were a multitude of not only people, but anthros of almost every possible species and form.
Though he was born of the noble class, his modest appearance of a heavy cloak, strap braces, and light armor failed to distinguish himself as one of their number. Nonetheless, he was badgered more so by beggars asking for the favor of a few bronze coins, or vendors desperately offering to sell their worthless trinkets for enough money to buy the day's meal. "Sir!" one of them exclaimed, following Donichus well beyond sight of the stall he originated from, "It's a dangerous world out there! There may come a day when not even those weapons could save you, only luck! This, my friend, has served me well for years! And you may gladly have it for a pitiful price of-"
The vendor stopped in his tracks as a silver coin was pressed into one hand and the charm taken from the other. "Eat well, tonight," Donichus said casually, hardly even stopping to turn back to the man as he gave the coin out. The badger (ironically enough) stood awestruck for a moment, unsure as to what to make of the situation. Donichus, on the other hand, couldn't delay. He had an extremely important matter he needed to attend to, and he couldn't afford to give away much money, either. As much as the dilapidated, crumbling buildings and almost unbearably soiled streets littered with the homeless made him despise the corrupt officials that ran this city, collecting their taxes for the expenditure of nobility rather than the city they were given control over, he had a more immediate concern to attend to.
The noontime sun boring down on his light brown scales, the anthro raptor continued to press onward towards his destination with haste. The heat wasn't too bad, since it was only the early spring, and the temperature didn't get nearly as hot as it would in a place further south such as Spain, but any heat hotter than the usual temperature of his hometown of Berlin tended to make him slow and gave him headaches. A headache was the last thing he needed, and he tried to focus on the objective ahead as he waved away all further beggars and vendors, whom were now becoming more of a nuisance. Making his way to the more well-off parts of Bern, where his meeting was to take place, the shanty houses and two-story taverns with dirty rooms for rent which made up the outer circle of the city made way for a much cleaner core, with small, tidy flower shops, clothing stores, various smiths, and a few street vendors that at least seemed confident enough to not badger every single person that walked by. The houses, which more often than not resembled palaces, were far less of an eyesore than the shantytowns, as much as he hated to admit, knowing that a lot of these houses were funded by unfair taxes and bribes to the nobles that owned them.
There were, however, smaller, yet still well-to-do dwellings interspersed throughout the core of Bern. These houses, while not inhabited by nobles, were more often owned by wealthy merchants who either sold the crops of nearby fields, or importers peddling goods from faraway places. Such a dwelling was where Donichus was headed. Like some others, the one he was expected to deal with today was guarded by personal bodyguards and metal gates. Although the authorities of Bern did not seem to be aware of what most of the citizens of Bern deem to be "honest living," the true nature was that manors such as that housed peddlers of illegal substances; substances either dangerous to others or from countries that Switzerland didn't allow trade with. Often, Donichus had imposed his own justice upon such merchants, and yet his reputation stayed relatively anonymous. As low as he felt to allow himself to be dealing in their trade, he found himself in desperate need of something of such great rarity and value at this time.
Before long, Donichus reached his destination; a mostly white, sandstone house stylized with dark wood beams embedded into it. A metal gate in-between two stone barriers surrounding the house separated the small pathway leading up to this particular man's house. The gate was flanked by two guards, dressed in chainmail, a bronze helmet resembling those worn by the soldiers of the old Roman Empire, small, circular, bronze shields, and a longsword sheathed at their sides. Their presently unarmed hands instead bore metal gauntlets, likely for intimidation more than anything. But, as much as he felt like testing these guards' actual skill in combat, he didn't have time.
"What business brings you here, lizard?" one of the guards, a human, sneered at Donichus.
"My own." The raptor's own voice was grainy, yet poised with authority and masked confidence. "Your employer should be expectant of me."
The guard huffed. "What is your name?" he asked, giving him an untrustworthy look, as the other guard fished in his pocket for a list of names with whom their employer was to conduct business with.
"Donichus," he answered, simply, "and I do not wish to be late to my appointment."
The other guard, a canine anthro, saw Donichus's name on the list, and looked at the other guard, nodding. The human guard nodded in turn, and rather reluctantly unlocked the gate, allowing Donichus to pass through to the front entrance, also flanked by two guards, who, unlike the ones at the gate, simply opened the double-doors to the house without a word. Nodding a little bit to the guard on his right, Donichus entered the house, which was surprisingly well lit, despite the small windows. The sunlight still managed to blend in generously with the many chandeliers of candles that illuminated the interior quite nicely. Directly in front of him was a fine, stone staircase, before which lay an elaborately crafted Persian rug, and banisters that supported two candlesticks adorned with tall, red candles at the bottom.