Raskal - The Chase (1)
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This is one of my more interesting characters to write about.
Meet Raskal...my favorite hyena <3.
There's a bit more to this particular tale, a few short stories of his exploits, and way more shorts of his mistakes. It's hard to live off of charm when your split-personality has an unquenchable thirst for excitement.
I marked it as clean, but there might be a bit of language in the story that sounds a bit more adult. Let me know if I need to fix it.
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It happens to the best of us. Sometimes for seemingly no reason, and other times we'll find it to be an act of karma. Regardless of what supernatural force we choose to blame for it, we all find ourselves in situations where we're forced to act first...to take the initiative over an adversary. For a moment, I could almost convince myself it was a noble thing. "What the fuck did you just say to me?" The metaphorical freighter of a Tiger asked in a rhetorical tone, turning toward me. I returned the favor, meeting his gaze evenly with a wide-toothed grin. "I said that such a beautiful creature such as yourself shouldn't be wasting the ephemeral gift of youth on someone with such brazen lack of class...but I was talking to her, not you." Sometimes I amaze myself. No...rather...sometimes he amazes myself. Or...sometimes I amaze himself? Preposterous! Never you mind. It's rude to talk about those who aren't in attendance. Unfortunately, in this particular case I was more amazed by my own carelessness than cleverness. Those were poor words I'd chosen. I hadn't even considered the possibility that my new adversary would be twice my size. "Why you little..." The Tiger snarled, and he lunged foreword, bring his massive paw precariously close to my snout as I stepped back, kicking the leg of my barstool out in front of him. Well, at least that was one thing that I could rely on to ease my weary mind: I was obviously faster than my opponent. Another boon was that if I died tonight, at least it was at the hands of someone whose best - and only - insult was to refer to me as 'little'. I stepped foreword and did what any self-respecting man would. I leaned the Tigress down, and planted a kiss on her muzzle. Warm, sweet, and slow. I found it a bit puzzling that I'd had the time. When I turned around, her slab of muscle that had escorted her into the bar was still stumbling back to his feet after rolling over the barstool. The bigger they are... I took a moment to relish the simple things. For example: the Tigress blushed, and giggled, and there was a small round of cheers from the eyes around the bar that were peering at my back. Would they call me bold? No...no. Stupid, perhaps. I took the opportunity while the Tiger was re-gaining his balance to cherish...
***** ...the burning in my lungs, and every muscle in my body? I felt the rush of the wind whipping through my hair, and the cool spattering of rain on my cheeks. I was in the air, staring down at what I could only guess was another twenty feet or so left to fall. I realized just then that I'd forgotten my umbrella. I was very upset. Rain can do terrible things to a suit. Water can easily damage the fabric, and it can cause awful wrinkles...just terrible! "You're falling, you idiot!" The voice screeched in my ear. Now, my priorities are right where they should be. Once I'd moved through the important things, I found myself faced with the issue of the concrete rushing toward my face. Instincts kicked in, and I reached out toward a nearby clothes line hung between the buildings and cursed as it snapped, leaving rope burns along my fingers. "Jack, how come it always works for YOU?!" I shouted back at him as I struggled to remember how to land. Then I realized that the mere twenty feet beneath me that I'd yet to fall had been very vague. Rudely vague, even. So vague, in fact, that those devious twenty feet had neglected to inform me how far I'd already fallen. I'd argued so long in my head about how to handle the situation that I'd neglected handling the situation. I'm sure that someone would call the landing graceful, since for some strange reason, I found myself standing once more without a single scratch. I wouldn't be so forgiving if I'd witnessed something so preposterous. The shock was enough to jar my jaw, but once that was through, I realized that I'd landed on a pile of empty boxes stacked onto an old couch that someone had eschewed to the alley for the lowlifes to scavenge. "Tsk, tsk..." He said, "You really should be more careful, you know." "Jack...I swear, if I have to tell you one more time..." I snarled. "I know, I know...'Shut up, Jack. I don't want your opinion.'" He said, in a very insulting impression of my voice. "No." I said, brushing myself off, and stepping lightly down off of the couch. "Oh? What were you going to say then?" He asked in a sarcastic tone. "Shut up, Jack, unless you're going to tell me why I just woke up falling to certain injury - if not death - in the rain." "Oh...that." He replied. I could feel that he was grinning to himself. "Yes, that." I nodded, observing the area around me to try to estimate where I was. "This suit is probably ruined now..." "Well, Chris, you see..." I could feel the glee in his words as he described the story of all the experiences that I'd been deprived of. Unfortunately, it also included the bad decisions that I'd never been given the opportunity (not) to make. "That Tiger sure seemed angry..." He said, in mid-story. "What did you say to him?" Now it was my turn to grin. "Nothing." I started walking toward the end of the alleyway. "Do you know where you're going?" Jack asked. "Of course not. But, then again, it really doesn't matter, does it?" I snorted, looking out onto the street. My first impression was 'Fuck Kansas.' "So, Chris..." Jack began... "Don't call me that." I replied. I put on my best grin, and hit the street once more at full speed.