39 Names

Mikhail landed on the rooftop with a loud thud, feeling the impact in his knees.

'Yeesh…' he thought as he straightened out, shaking his legs to get the funny feeling out of them.

He looked about from his point of view, admiring the skyline of the tribe.

It was almost reminiscent of a city jam packed with skyscrapers, only with an ancient aesthetic. And the towering palm trees all throughout was the icing on the cake that was that lovely view.

At least it would've been, if the sight elicited any emotional reaction.

He quickly lost interest in the sight and thought of where to go.

'I guess… North Path. No need to get out of my depth. Let's just stick with an area I'm vaguely familiar with for the time being…'

He nodded to himself, and then he turned towards the west.

'Lez go' he thought to himself.

From a few steps, he began acceleratnig, entering a light jog. And then, he went into a full on sprint, rushing across the rooftop before leaping over the alleyway between the two buildings.

He stumbled upon landing, but he felt a flutter of excitement as he caught himself and continued onwards.

As he jumped from roof to roof, Mikhail saw how there were many different things scattered about, making it appear as though the tribe had two layers to it.

For one, lots of people were casually strolling about in comparison to him, walking across the various bridges connecting the buildings together. Mikhail would also run across them when they appeared on his path, narrowly sidestepping a plethora of different groups as he ran.

But he liked the flutter of excitement he got from jumping over alleyways, so he kept doing that more often than not.

Anyway, there were also other sights that could be found all along the rooftops.

Like how every single rooftop had their own sort of fireplace. They ranged from simple campfires to elaborate looking stoves, and many of them were busy burning up wood, roasting meat, vegetables, or even fruit.

And typically, they were near the opposite edge of the building from the wind towers. With just enough space from their respective edges to allow a circle of stools, or chairs, or even mats to sit around them.

Mikhail eventually reached the North Path, finding it to be as bustling in that area as it had been when he first stepped onto it yesterday.

'I probably could have just slowed my roll and talked to someone on the way here… But I guess I was having too much fun, huh?'

His smirk faded as the fluttering excitement basically vanished within an instant.

'Wack…'

Mildly annoyed by the unwavering emptiness caused by the poison flowing through his veins, Mikhail let out an aggrieved sigh before jumping down. He failed to feel the same fluttering sensation before he landed with a loud thud, just like before.

A few people glanced in his direction, but most ignored him, continuing about their business.

Adolescents llike him regularly dropped down like that, both on purpose and by accident. Nothing new. Although, the few people that did glance at him went wide eyed.

"I can't believe there's actually a Scouregborn among us…" Mikhail heard as he shook his legs.

His ears seemingly twitched as he heard that, and he quickly decided on who the first person he would talk to would be.

Lifting his head up, he scanned the crowd and quickly noticed someone flinch, followed by the same voice from earlier coming out of that individual's mouth, saying, "Oh no."

It was a young teenager with lightly tanned skin, wearing a blue shirt and white shorts, as well as leather boots. His darker skinned buddy was wearing a similar getup, though the colors of his clothes were different.

Red shirt and black pants, to be specific.

Mikhail revealed a mischevious smirk out of habit.

"Oh, yes," he said while nodding slowly.

"Wait… You can speak Manakel? But the rumors said you couldn't!"

Mikhail slowly walked over to the young adolescent and his group of pals, his devious smirk growing wider. "Oh yeah. When I got here, the only language of this world that I could speak was Shagar. But guess what? I was reading ALL day yesterday."

The young dude's worried face went blank.

"So, you arrived here and passed out for two days, and after waking up you… Read all day? And that's how you're able to speak Manakel?" the other guy asked..

Mikhail nodded.

"That's right, buddy. ALL. DAY. Had a field day with our history book's glossary this morning on top of that."

As Mikhail talked, he was slightly changing his pronunciation of the different words. It was such a sudden transition that the guy wearing a red shirt immediately noticed what Mikhail was up to.

"Say, you wouldn't happen to be talking to us just to fix your speaking skills, would you?" said one of the younger looking dudes in the group.

"Actually, that's exactly what I'm doing!"

Mikhail revealed an innocent smile.

"Uh-huh…"

Two more people showed up, carrying a bunch of small bags, who then distributed them among the group. "Who's this guy?" one of them said. At least, until he took a good look at him.

"What the- The Scourgeborn?!"

"Yes, yes. The Scourgeborn. My name is Mikhail, damn it."

The group looked between themselves before looking back at him.

"Right… Nice to meet you Mikhail. We need to get to Maya's before we get our ass kicked for being tardy. You can show up late if you want, but we're not risking it!"

The young one that Mikhail had first approached shook his head in dismay as he took out what looked to be a thick chip of some sort, crunching it before turning tail and traveling south along the North Path.

"Least you can do is tell me your names, you know?"

The one that ran off first turned around and shouted, saying "Mercutio!"

"Tybalt."

"Benvolio."

"And my name is Romeo! Fare thee well, Mikhail!"