Pattin walked down the cobbled road, slipping on a stone. He spat a curse and brushed his leg off, shaking his head and walking on proudly. The trees swayed slightly, pushed by a light breeze. Pattin secured his hat to his head and walked quickly. It was growing dark out, and he needed to be in the city with enough time to make the theft.

The Halfling approached a small shelter, grabbing the sides of the doorway and leaning in, looking around. He spotted a man sitting on a chair at an oak desk, scribbling something down.

“Erm… I need… in.” He said, pointing up. The mage sighed and reached a hand out. Pattin fumbled in pockets and his purse, pulling out a few gold coins under a couple balls of lint. Patting brushed away the lint and dumped the coins in his hand. The mage rolled his eyes and cast a quick spell.

Pattin blinked and felt his stomach lift. He opened his eyes and shouted, the town spinning in his view. Pattin groaned and clamped his eyes shut, holding his head and grumbled about shoddy spellwork while he walked into the nearest alley.

Upon entering, several voices stopped and shadowy figures walked to surround him. A few scruffy humans. Pattin gave a pitiful whimper.

Coming to Cascadia now was a hassle, what with it in the air and all, but Cordelia had felt compelled to revisit anyway. She had already gotten back what money it had cost her to get here, having left the dead body in an alleyway no where near where she currently was. The streets were dark and for the most part it seemed uninteresting here, but then the sound of a familiar voice caused her interest to peak. Her pace slowed during the steps of recognition until finally it hit her.

Spot.

This couldn’t be happening. After the incident in Kellen, the last person she wanted to see was him. Even Manic would have been a better person to see right now than him. She clenched her jaw and her fists, wondering if she should turn the other way or merely walk on past him and pretend she didn’t know him.

Seeing him stumble into the nearest alleyway, Cordelia’s eyes narrowed and she began to creep closer, every step silent and meticulously placed. There had been other voices coming from that alley and if anything was about to happen, she wasn’t going to miss it for the world.

She stopped a few yards from where the alley was, making it just in time to hear the pathetic whimper. A wicked smile broke across her face and she did her best to fight back a cruel laughter. Cordelia leaned against the stone wall of the building, each movement remaining quiet, not even drawing a single breath. It was time to enjoy the show and enjoy the wonder that was karma.

Pattin looked at the men as they surrounded him, enclosing him in a near-perfect circle. His eyes shot back and forth among the men. They gave him toothy grins, every one of them.

Almost toothy. A few of them were missing the requirements for that particular grin.

Pattin smiled a little to himself. One of the men snorted. “Hey shorty. What’s so funny? Find something funny about this?” Pattin’s face froze about midway between a smile and a mask of inhuman terror, making him look blank.

“erm… no.” He said, reaching for his mace slowly. A small hair-sized bolt of electricity hit his hand. He brought it back with a snap. “ahh!......OW!” He said angrily in his accented voice. The group advanced on him in a wave.

Mere seconds later, Pattin was upside-down, hands hanging loosely, squinting as he tried to recall how this happened. The Halfling grunted as a fist hit his stomach. He spotted Cordelia.

“Cordie, for the love of god and all that is holy…” He yelled out. another punch. another squeal.

Hearing him in pain absolutely delighted her. A look of content made its way onto her face and she snuggled into the wall, a warm feeling rising from her core and spreading throughout her. She closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the wall, just getting comfortable when she heard him call her name for help.

Her eyes popped open, a look of anger residing there for a moment before satisfaction took its place. He was in pain and after all he had done to her, he deserved it. He had stolen from her, made her ill, lied to her, and really had so much nerve for such a tiny man that she could barely stand it. She watched him swing upside down, beginning to giggle in a high-pitched, malevolent tone of voice.

“Well let’s see… I’m not holy and I could really care less about being good,” she said, lifting an index finger to her chin and tapping it lightly, mocking thought. “I mean, I could save you – but then that’d make me look like a hypocrite, wouldn’t it? After all you’ve done to me I think this beating is warranted.”

Her hand lowered and her grin widened, fangs bared wickedly and her entire demeanor seeming to darken. “Don’t ask for my help when you aren’t loyal to me. So, I’ll let these boys continue, Spot, and once they’ve taught you a lesson I’ll teach one too.” She winked and leaned back into the wall again, sighing. Tonight had turned out even more lovely than she had anticipated.

Pattin sighed, hair standing away from his scalp. “Hey! What did I to to deserve this? I mean, stealing your dagger, running away, getting you drunk, laughing while you… You know I think I’ll stop talk—“ He grunted as a particularly large blow hit his stomach. ‘stop talking!’ the man yelled, angered that pattin wasn’t in full tears by now.

Pattin frowned and squealed as a thread of electricity hit him on the bum. He continued flailing as the mage kept hitting him. His chalk fell out of his pocket, rolling to his fingertips. He grabbed it and began tracing as he was swung. He began to feel nausea. He struggled and made a square, which opened up under one of the men. Four others looked at it and pattin.

With a shiny red face, the Halfling smiled weakly. The ringleader hit him backhandedly. “urgh… I’m sorry!” he yelled to Cordelia, nearly in tears.

It seemed to her that he had answered his own question. She listened to his voice, humming softly to herself with her eyes closed again. The sound was truly a nuisance, but at least he was getting a nice beating. She had had her fair share and he would learn how to deal with people stronger than him in time. It required a lot of thought and time, but it was doable. She knew from experience.

The squeals made her giggle again, her eyes opening to watch the scene. As soothing as it was to just listen and know that the sight was there, she had to see it with her own eyes and feast upon it. After a moment she noticed a sudden wetness to his eyes and a different quality to his voice at the last two words he said. I’m sorry.

That was probably a lie, just a lie to get her to help him. He was selfish and she wasn’t stupid. She very easily could stand by and she wouldn’t have a problem with that… but these men would probably kill him.

“All right, fun time is over,” she said. “If anyone’s going to kill him and make him writhe, it’ll be me.” Cordelia cast invisibility and blink, unsheathing her sword before she did so. She landed right behind one of the men holding Pattin upside down and brought her poison blade through his back, then cast inflict minor wounds on the other. With that done she returned to visibility, looking at those who remained and casting cause fear. These were all such minor spells and yet they had such wonderful effects!

“If you two value your lives,” she began in a malignant voice, “you will leave now. I have no qualms feasting on you.” She licked her fangs, holding her blade ready in case they decided they truly wanted to play a game with her.

The men dropped Pattin and he groaned as he hit the ground, simply laying down, looking at the street. His hand moved up and he rubbed at one of the rocks idly. Meanwhile, Cordelia's spells made the mage run off, obviously no fighter.

The rest of the men took off at the sight of her fangs, leaving the two alone on the alley. Pattin hummed a tuneless song, seeming completely random in both size and frequency. He looked at her, moving his head a little. “thank you dearie. But I think I’ll lie here for a while.” He smiled, right hand rubbing his sore belly. “I think it’s swollen.” He said, looking down. He pinched it quickly.

“Or not.” He shrugged, ignoring his ample belly. He sat up and swiped his hat from the street, beating the dust off it and slamming it down on his head. “No decency, these people.” He shrugged, turning to cordie. He looked up at her nervously. “You know, that sword’s making me awfully nervous.” He said, looking at it’s jagged edge.

Cordelia grinned as they ran away. She really was something to fear, wasn’t she? Especially when it came to mortals. They were so easy to scare and she had no problem taking complete advantage of that. She watched as they scampered off in their own ways, waiting until they were out of sight to nod to herself. They wouldn’t come back and it was doubtful they would mess with the midget again.

At that moment he spoke and she had to hold back a sigh. She had forgotten his sense of… well it couldn’t really be called humor, but it was something akin to it. She stood completely erect as she peered down at him, a part of her wishing she had just let him die. If he was so weak then what use could he possibly serve?

“Swollen? Have you forgotten that you drink so much it just… stays there?” Cordelia almost gagged and quickly turned her head away from him so she could relieve her nausea on her own. Once it passed she looked back at him, snorting softly at the sight of the cap.

“That thing is ugly,” she commented quietly. When he mentioned being nervous of her blade, her eyebrows lifted and she laughed deeply. “Oh, are you?” She waved it in his direction, mock stabbing him albeit with no intention to hurt him. After doing so she sheathed the weapon.

“You’re lucky I’m a nice woman, otherwise you would have died,” she added.

Pattin glared daggers at Cordelia. “It’s a beautiful hat.” He looked away for a second. “And yes. It does.” He stood up. “Nice woman my fat arse…” He scoffed. “you do realize how our previous encounter went? With the you tackling me? And the blinding me?”

Pattin waved a hand at her. “petty differences aside, we’re a nice duo, you and I. you, the huge scary vampire woman, and me, the short lovable, trustable bloke with quick fingers.” He smiled proudly. “who knows, you might learn to not want to kill me on sight one day. Stranger things have happened.” He thought about it.

“Scratch that. There has been no miracle as big as that which I just spoke of.” He frowned and scratched his forehead. “Say, Cordie. I’m headed to the bar.. .would you like to accompany me?” he smiled at her.

“ oh wait. Never mind. You waste good drinks. Forgot about that.” He flicked his temple. “silly me.”

“You do realize how our previous encounter went – with you stealing from me and poisoning me?” She put her hands on her hips, eyes narrowing. She wasn’t going to put up with his crap, especially when it was all his fault to begin with. She would have completely ignored him if he hadn’t decided to bump into her and try to pull the wool over her eyes.

She snorted once he got to describing himself. “Lovable? Trustable? Let’s add delusional to that list too,” she said with a fake smile and a nod to confirm her statement. He was hardly lovable; he was a fat, alcoholic midget and there was nothing cute about him.

“You say one more thing about drinks and I will kill you, are we clear?” she asked, her voice rough sounding. She would slap him again and worse if that’s what she had to do to get through to him.

Pattin rolled his eyes and pulled out a crumpled piece of paper, scribbling on it with a piece of charcoal. “There. Added.” He tossed the paper into the gaping hole in the street, made by his very own chalk.

Pattin glared at her. “Very well. Temporarily understood, for a long period of time.” He winked at her. “Well, my evening is done. I had nothing else planned for tonight, seeing as you’re here, I cannot visit any tavern whatsoever anywhere.” He sighed.

Pattin kicked a rock into the large hole, delighting in the grunt it made when hitting the half-conscious man inside the basement. Patting passed a hand in and out of the hole, making it close up. He chuckled and hummed, walking up to cordelia’s side. He looked at her intently. “ye know, if ye weren’t so pale, ye may have gotten a very different reaction from them men.” He chuckled.

“Aww, getting rid of it already? I could have thought of millions of other words to describe you,” she said. She looked at the hole, taking a step closer to inspect it. It was a shame that neither of them could retrieve the paper now that it was gone. It wouldn’t be too hard to remake another list, though; forgetting Pattin was, unfortunately, impossible.

Cordelia rolled her eyes at the mention of a tavern. Was that all that the midget did? There was more to life than a bunch of drinks. She didn’t know how old he was, but if he kept up like that he was going to get himself killed. “Drink and get beaten up by men a lot bigger and perhaps older than you. That’s all your life is composed of? What a waste you are.” She shook her head, sighing softly. She didn’t understand at all how he could be satisfied with something like that.

The closer he walked to her the stiffer she became, her hands sliding down to her belt to ensure that he wouldn’t be able to take anything from her again. It wouldn’t be a big deal if he did, considering she was stronger and faster than he was and he was afraid of her blade, but she wanted to prevent the chaos and anger that could come from that.

She glared at him when he opened his mouth again, a single hand reaching down to his shoulder and resting there for a moment. “Watch yourself, midget,” she said, leaning over slightly so that she was at his height. “I could kill you right now, so you’d best choose your words very, very carefully.” She nodded a single time before straightening up and removing her hand from his shoulder.

“So why did they beat you up anyway, hmm? I could think of a lot of reasons, but I just have to hear this one.” She looked down at him expectantly. “Or were they just mean people who hurt for the sake of hurting?” It really wasn’t such a mean thing to do, since she did it plenty of times. It was really quite satisfying.

Pattin glared at Cordelia. “While I’m sure you could have, and would like nothing more than to do so, I’m afraid I’d rather not stick around here.” He chuckled nervously, looking around.

Pattin placed a hand on his chest in mock-shock. “ Why Cordelia, I’m surprised you find me so bland as to live such a life.” He clicked his tongue sadly and shook his head, eyes closed. Stopping and cracking an eyelid he winked slightly. “I also steal.” He lifted two coin purses, one medium-sized and one just big enough to hold about ten coins.

He snickered and opened the purses, looking through them. “Make the best of every distraction, dear. For all you know, I swiped something from you while you were busy with the men there.” He said in a heavy accent.

Looking up at her he chuckled. “Don’t worry. I’m not stupid.”

Cordelia gasped, feigning shock at his words. “Not stick around? Oh, now that’s a saddening thought.” In a way it was – she wanted him to stick around long enough for her to taunt, after all. If he left too soon then her fun for the evening would potentially be ruined! “I can’t be that bad, hmmm?”

Her eyes widened at the sight of the two purses, a grin almost cracking across her lips. For a moment she almost entertained the thought that he could be at least somewhat smart, but that did seem incredibly stupid. If she hadn’t come along he would have been dead, and all he cared about was money? “Does your life really mean so little that you steal even when there’s no guarantee of you living long enough to count it?” She rolled her eyes. Why did she even bother with him?

As soon as he said he could have taken from her, she patted her pockets and her belt, finding nothing important missing. Nothing important, at least; he could have taken something she didn’t remember having. “You…” she growled, getting ready to bite his head off before he said he wasn’t stupid. “I don’t believe you. You were stupid enough the last time to steal my dagger – what’s stopping you now from stealing something else? Huh?”

Pattin laughed, doubling over when she was feigning concern for his departure. “Oh, you misunderstand me. I’m coming with you.” He slapped his knee. “oh, you’re funny.” He shook his head and whistled. “Hilarious.”

“I believe in dying how you lived. Though I’m not completely certain I lived upside down, suspended between two brutes. Thank you, by the way. I owe you my life, though I don’t think I’m willing to extend that particular offer.” He smiled cutely.

Pattin was overcome by laughter once more when she searched for anything missing, but her tone made him stop. Not smiling, of course. Just stop endangering his life with exaggerated breathing out.

“Well, that particularly terrifying blade you hold in your hand is, my dear. I’d not like to be stabbed with it, and I suspect that there’s a man somewhere clutching a poisoned wound, yes?”

Cordelia found absolutely nothing funny about him coming along with her. “Didn’t we discuss this last time?” she asked, somewhat of a rough tone to her voice out of frustration. “Oh, that’s right, I forgot. Your brain is just as small as the rest of you is so you couldn’t possibly remember. My mistake.” The jokes about his height were never going to get old, especially when she was so much taller than he was.

She grunted when he said that he owed her his life. He owed her a lot more than that. “I should have let you die,” she grumbled. “Save you from your pathetic life and save my poor ears from bleeding every time I hear you speak.” To emphasize her statement, a single hand lifted up to an ear, checking to see if there was any blood around it.

Her eyes slid to the poison blade, a smirk coming onto her lips. “That’s right, clutching a poisoned wound. He’ll be dead in twenty minutes.” She spoke as if she were talking about the weather, although there was a drop of sadistic pleasure to her voice that casual indifference could never have. “You sure you don’t want that either? I think it’d be a nice way to go out.” Her smirk widened, revealing her teeth. A low, rumbling laughter emitted from her throat and she shook her head, tucking a few locks of black hair behind her ear.

“It didn’t stop you last time. Glad to see you’ve learned something.” She nodded firmly once. “It seems you’re learning your place.”

Pattin chuckled at her. She was still making jokes about his height. She seems to be forgetting that no matter how many things she had, no matter how strong she was, Pattin could easily dispatch her. Surprise had quite a say in the end of a fight. And a club might have something to do with it as well.

“You probably should have. But you just can't resist my boyish charm and good looks. It's the hair, isn't it?” he patted a lock of curled hair on the side of his head.

“I'm fairly sure I wouldn't. Nice of you to offer, though.” He poked his tongue out. “yes well, last time you weren't wielding a huge, serrated ogre knife.” he eyed the weapon uneasily. “I'd greatly appreciate you putting away your amazonian silverware, please my good friend.

Cordelia burst out laughing at the mention of boyish charm and good looks. How did he see himself to possibly even think he had either of those traits? It just further proved her point that he was delusional, completely and utterly delusional and that it seemed there was no longer any hope for him. “You mean the nonexistent charm and looks?” she asked to clarify, almost smirking but refraining so that she seemed serious. “And no, it’s not the hair. If anything that makes you smell worse than you already do.”

Good friend? Her nose wrinkled at the idea and Cordelia looked down at her weapon, shrugging and deciding it wasn’t really worth it. He knew she had it on her person and that if he tried anything she wouldn’t hesitate to use something he was afraid of. It wasn’t like he could steal it, since it was too big for him too wield, and even if he did the poison wouldn’t have any affect on her.

Deciding to comply with his request, Cordelia sheathed the weapon and then held her arms on either side of her body, parallel to the ground. “Happy now, midget?” she asked. “It’s away and it’s not going to hurt you unless you decide to piss me off. I could always bite you, but honestly I think you drink too much for me to even want to try.” She shrugged.

“So where do you think I’m going that you plan on following, huh? Do you think I’m that interesting?” She stared down at him, giving him a bit of an odd look.