Critter ran down the street as fast as his legs would carry him. He was a young lad of around the age of 16 but was quite small for his age. His body was thin and limbs were weak with only skin, bone, and a tiny amount of muscle making then up. His hair was a black disheveled mess of long unkept strands. Yells of what could only be described as fury could be heard not far behind the boy as he ran. Critter looked down at the small package in his hands and began to daydream how sweet it would be when he got back to the safety of the abandoned house he called home, but first he had to loss the man following him. With a quick glance back he saw that the rather portly man chasing him was perhaps 35-40 feet behind him but was gaining fast because of his much longer legs. Critter knew he had to act fast or he would have to face the mans ire but there wasn’t much he could do to lose the in the all but empty streets. That’s when he saw it, his ticket out of this race, tall wall that just so happened to have several garbage cans stacked beside it. Critter quickly diverted his course from the street to side alley that led to the wall. When he was almost halfway down the alley the portly man rounded the corner and peered down the street to see Critter’s desperate flee. Upon seeing this the man paused to caught his breathe before resuming his hunt with new found vigor as he believed it was drawing to a close. This man had assumed wrong though as Critter quickly jump top of one garbage can and quickly hop to grab hold of the top of the wall before pulling himself up to were he to sit on its edge. There Critter sat for only a second or two admiring his own ingenuity before he realized his grave mistake. He had inadvertently let go to the package when he grasped for the top of the wall and as he spied down he saw that remains of the package had been crushed upon impact with the ground revealing its contents. Inside of the brown paper package was a small cake that had quite clearly been lovingly decorated bu the baker that was now in anguish at the bottom of the wall. The man’s emotions didn’t stay in anguish much to Critter’s dismay, the baker’s face soon turned to a unbridled rage as he hurdled profanities at the lad on top of the wall, who was just out of reach of his pastry justice. Critter having seen that this would not end well if the baker did some how find a way ip to him, decided that it was time for a hasty retreat to his makeshift home. Rolling off the wall on to the the roof of the building Critter quickly and carefully ran across the edge farthest from where the baker was and slide down a drainage pipe to the ground. He caught a few weird glances from onlookers but they all decided whatever the boy was doing wasn't worth their time and let him go unimpeded. Critter decided to put a little more distance between himself and the baker before he felt safe. He knew that the big man was far to heavy and out of shape to climb on the garbage cans like him much less trounce his way across a clay titled roof. This idea of the big man sliding around on the shifting tiles brought Critter a good level of amusement and also made him further appreciate the brilliance of his own plan. Sure he had lost to cake he had worked so hard to steal but he had also made a perfect escape. He was definitely the smartest and most daring guy in town he thought as he shifted from main street into a smaller side street. Maybe if he kept up these amazing heist he had been pulling lately he would finally get rid of this stupid nickname that everyone called him. Seriously what even was a critter, he wasn’t sure but it didn’t sound like faltery to him. He wanted a name that would be as momentous as the deeds he would accomplish, something that could be recorded in history and not laughed at. To get a new name though he knew that he would need more than just a few brazen “heist”, he would need to start a new life. He would need to live a life of heroics or else he would just stay Critter, named only for pawing through garbage and his unkempt hair. Critter had now put quite a distance between the bakery he had stolen from and his current position while he was lost in thought over his name. It wasn’t his fault he had no parents to name him, they had given him up when he was only a baby and with no family he had been left at the old town orphanage were he acquired his current monicker. At 15 he had decided he would be better off on his own than with those ingrates at the orphanage, they wouldn’t know a genius like him if it bit them. Critter gritted his teeth and angrily spit on the ground as if to get the bad taste of the past out of his mouth. He then turned to a small abandoned house he was currently living in. It was a small single story house with several busted out windows and gray paint peeling off its walls to show the wood underneath. It was definitely rundown, Critter thought as he stopped to gaze upon the house, but it keeps the rain out and that’s good enough for me. He reached for the handle of the door to open it when it suddenly was thrown open and he was sent tumbling back out into the road. Sprawled on his back, Critter coughed as the dust around him cleared. He then pushed himself onto his elbows to see what had just happened. His answer came in the form of a man most referred to as Branch, mainly due to his lanky appendages. The tall, lanky man loamed in the doorway letting the shadow to the house partially obscure his face.
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“I thought I told you this house was mine now,” said Branch, his words slurring as he was clearly drunk.
“You said that about the last two houses I’ve lived in!” Exclaimed Critter, shakily clambering to his feet.
“All of these houses are mine and you’ll stay out of them if you know what’s good for you!”
“You don’t own these houses.” Said Critter feeing rage build in him. “You’re just a drunken joke of a thing that used to be a adventurer”
“You!!!” Shouted Branch. Critter had really done it this time. He had always heard that Branch was extremely sensitive about his past as an adventure due to his failure to obtain a gold rank which would have given him the right to become a knight. As rage burned brightly in Branch’s eyes, Critter decided it was time to make his exit. Critter spun and dashed as hard as he could up the street with a drunken, anger ex-adventurer in hot pursuit. Just as Critter made it to end of the street when Branch clocked him in the back of the head sending him sprawling yet again. As he tumbled and slide Critter collided with something hard and solid. Critter quickly turned to graze at the charging Branch who stormed towards Critter until he was only a foot away from were Critter lay. Then suddenly Branches eyes shot from Critter to something above him and all the rage and color drained from his face to only be replaced with absolute terror. In a truly pitiful display Branch tried to turn and run when a enormous black armored hand shot out at lighting speed and lifted him into the arm by his neck. Critter, shocked by what was transpiring, glanced up to to see that he had crash landed directly onto a terrifying and furious black Knight.
