Cade sprinted past the large and noisy market, barely giving it a glance. People paused to stare at him, a couple even attempted to stop him; he shoved past one, and threatened another with his drawn dagger. People stayed away from him after that, but it was not long before he began to grow tired. He knew he couldn’t keep the chase up forever.

He dove behind a wall and pressed his shoulder against the cold stone. He stood still and listened, trying not to make a sound. However, he could not stifle the sobs issuing from his mouth, and his jacket cuff did little to muffle his pathetic whimpering. He was uncertain about the specific events of the previous hours, but all he knew was what it lead to, and what was lost. His father had disappeared, without a word to Cade. Cade could not grasp why his father had run away, why the authorities had turned to him for answers, and why when they found none; they started making untrue accusations. They accused him of lying, telling Cade he was withholding information from the authorities. They threatened to lock him up. Cade had no choice but to run, and his father was nowhere to be found.

          It was a couple of minutes before he felt ready to continue on, and as he was preparing to sprint back out into the open he heard a gruff voice ask a civilian, “ja’ see this Halfling sprint by here?” He heard the rustle of some kind of parchment being held up. A soft, incoherent response came, then, “Where’d he go, kid?” the first voice asked impatiently. He heard a mumbled reply and a dozen hurried footsteps traveling towards him. He frantically looked around for any means of escape. To his right was a dark alley; it did not lead anywhere, stopped by a wall of stone.

In the corner there were some metal cans and a couple of discarded, rusty weapons. He stealthily crept over to the corner and picked up a rusty sword. No good, it would crumble upon impact with anything hard, no chance of doing any damage with that. It was then when he heard them turn the corner; he instinctively bundled into a compact ball, hoping that he would look nothing more than a heap of discarded rags. He held his breath, about six or seven guards turned the corner, swords drawn, and surveyed the scene. After a few moments one of the guards pointed to the corner, “I’ll head over to that corner to get a better look.” He stepped carefully towards Cade; he bent down and glanced directly over him.

“What is this?” The guard questioned, poking experimentally at his mid-section, “It looks like rags but the texture seems…odd”. He grasped around Cade and attempted to pick him up, and that’s when Cade made his move. He removed his concealed knife from within his rags and quickly slit the guards throat. The guards watched their fellow fall limply to the ground, and then charged toward Cade. Cade attempted to dodge them, and succeeded at dodging the first, but the following were unavoidable. They crashed into him and he was knocked to the ground. Two guards landed on him and he let out a muffled yell. He started jabbing his knife relentlessly into the guard on him, but it was met with the clang of metal upon metal.

He attempted again to right himself but was pushed back. He lay still for several moments, summoning all the strength left in his weak body. He attempted one more time, and managed to wriggle free. Almost immediately, however, another guard lunged at him and slashed wildly at his body. Cade ducked and ran into the guard, forcing him backwards, in surprise the guard tripped over a loose brick and fell to the ground, stunned. Cade dashed out of the alley and sprinted down the brick road, guards hot in pursuit. He was almost out of the city; the only challenge was to get past the gate, which was locked around the clock. There was a guard keeping watch from above and only he had the correct key to unlock the gate.

Cade took a deep breath and took a sudden right turn down a side street. Aiming his body toward some stairs leading up to a doorway, he sped up and lunged up the stairs. With a great leap he jumped from the stairway and grabbed onto the rooftop. He pushed himself up and started running on the roof. From behind him he could hear the guards frantically trying to reach the top as well.

Cade jumped to another roof just as he heard the sound of feet upon wood behind him. He saw an arrow fly by him and lowered his body towards the ground in hope of making himself a harder target. He reached the edge of the roof and leaped to yet another as another arrow flew past him. Just up ahead was the gate, if he could leap from the roof to the top of the wall and then vault over onto the grass outside of the city he would be free. As more arrows flew by he drew ever closer to the jump. He took a deep breath and sprung from the roof, just as the guard let loose another arrow. He had the distance, but in mid-air an arrow dug its way into his left leg. He let out a grunt of pain and landed haphazardly on the top of the wall, and rolled uncontrollably off it onto the ground outside the city, cushioned slightly by the grass.

He lay on the ground for a second, before getting up slowly from the ground, holding his bleeding leg. He began to limp across the clearing, heading towards the forest. Arrows continued to fly past and a second one pierced his shoulder. As he neared the woods he heard the gate open and the roar of guards headed after him. He pushed his way through the bushes and into the woods. He knew he couldn’t continue on foot for long. He trudged through some more low-hanging branches before he collapsed onto the ground next to a thorn bush. He managed to force himself behind the bush before everything went dark.