Asking for directions

Upon his arrival into the city "Krage made his way through the bustling streets, taking caution to maintain a level of distance between himself and others. The City itself was a new hell of its own, the sheer level of smells, sounds, and heat signatures left him as blind as he had been at birth.

He could not find the scent of Alice amongst the crowds, its scent drowned by the plethora of perfumes, colognes, and body odors. As he stumbled through the roads and paths of the market, people gave him a wide berth, likely believing him to be mad, or simply were disgusted by his clear lack of vision.

However, in reality, Krage could see far too much, heat signatures surrounded him in an ocean of colors, shapes, and sizes, his tapping drowned out by the clamor of footsteps and his mana site rendered useless by the glittering of nearby objects and people, gifted with magic. This forced him to close his eyes, so as to not be blinded, it simply felt like he was staring into a lit fire at close range

Shoving himself into an alley, he took a moment to breathe, he leaned himself against one of its grimy walls, using his stumped hand to hold himself up and let out panting breaths.

There was no way to see her glow

No way to smell her scent

No way to hear her cries

No way to find Alice

…..

Taking a moment to calm himself slightly so he did not lash out at his nearby surroundings in agitation, he began to think. He had no idea where he was or where to go, but he did know who he was looking for, not Alice, she would hardly be known as anything but a nameless product here, instead, he had to look for the slaves themselves!

While he knew very little about the baroness but judging from her title and the way she had been treated back at the slave transfer by his previous owners, she was sure to be well known… he just had to find her

however, before he could walk out of the alley, a voice called out to him from behind, scratchy and course

"Coins and Clothes… Now" the voice commanded, Krage, felt a person come up behind him, placing a hand on his shoulder and pushing something sharp against his back, a knife likely. The hand on his shoulder was cracked and smelled like a damp corpse, likely for a reason

At this turn of events, Krage quickly felt a small variety of feelings, surprise, annoyance, disgust, and finally… relief. On a side note, Krage had noticed that since his changing of form, into a human, emotions had been affecting him more than ever… but this was not important at the moment. Raising his hands, or in reality, hand and stump Krage let out a small whiny voice, lowering his head, careful not to let the person behind him see his eyes, lest they be scared away by his piercing and alien gaze

"P-please s-sir, I ain't got any money, these clothes is all I av" he mock begged, taking on one of the accents he had heard among the many voices of the crowds prior "I s-swear. All I have is the clothes on me back and the shoes on me fee-" he didn't finish as he interrupted himself, swing around on his heel and swiping the hand of the would-be thief with the clawed fingers of his remaining hand, spraying blood across the wall and himself, knocking the knife away

Not giving the man time to recover he quickly slammed his small body into the larger man's core, knocking the wind out of him. Ignoring the curses spewing from the man, he then jumped up, using the back of the thief's lowered head to pull himself up, slamming a knee into his face and causing both of them to fall.

They wrestled for a moment, but thanks to the lack of air and injuries the other man was now far weaker than even the child that Krage was. And his struggling soon stopped as Krage got above him, placing a sharp claw just away from the man's eye

As they both breathed heavily, finally stopping the fight, the two took each other in, the thief saw a young, handsome boy, with eyes not matching glaring down at him, his one purple clearly daring him to try to fight. And Krage saw a man, malnourished and dirty, glaring up at him

"Where is the Slave market?" he interrogated

…

"Huh?" the man asked, confused

"Where is the slave market, I'm looking for it" Krage repeated, explaining slightly

"That's no place for children… Also, fuck you!" the slave answered back, switching between tones of condescension and anger as he spoke

Not saying a word, Krage simple lowered his finger and dagger-like fingernail closer to the man's eye, moving it until it was touching the man's wet eyeball, not enough to hurt but enough that he could feel it

"... f-fair point" the thief acknowledged, beads of sweat5 now pouring down his forehead before raising an arm slowly, and pointing "two rights and a left, follow the smell of shit"

…

"Thanks," Krage said before pulling his hand back. Only to quickly slam it forward, his sharp fingers slamming through the man's eye and into his skull, killing him before he could even react. As he pulled out his hand out he grabbed onto something, the man's brain, snatching out a large chunk and holding it in front of him

"for the food, that is" he finished as he took a bite out of the jelly-like substance before rising to his feet, searching the man and taking what little possessions he had, resulting in him now owning two knives, a few coins, and a snack

One he continued to munch on as he made his way through the alley, his face and mouth smeared with blood, scaring off any who saw him, causing them to run away screaming words that generally bordered from curses to prayers

And so started the myth of "The crimson child", an urban legend that would haunt the alleys of the western sea market for years to come

Not that Krage cared, as he had suddenly found what he was looking for

The slave market