Chapter Eleven: Labyrinth Part One

“No, fuck you Rashid.” I snarl at the old man.

Rashid raises a thin eyebrow at me, and says “What?” With a tone that definitely says he heard me.

I roar at him “You heard me you old fuck! I’m not helping you with your shit, especially after that shit you just pulled on me!” He looks at me blankly, then laughs like a sack of dry, bones rattling together. After he’s done laughing he grabs me by my hair and pulls me to eye with him and says seriously “What makes you think you have a choice?” I struggle in his grip, and then spit at him in the eyes, but he languidly dodges and backhands me so hard I see stars.

He says to me again, but bored like he’s doing a chore. “What makes you think you have a choice not to do this?”

I glared up at him and say “Because I don’t want to. What other reason do I need?”

He gives me a look like you would give to a slow child, and says dryly “Well maybe because you damaged my property and it’s high time you paid for it like your little pretty boy friend did or maybe because I don’t think you would have the balls for it unless I tracked you down?” Well this son of a bitch… wait Julian's already paid his debt? My eyes drift to the floor as and my cheeks heat up, I had hardly thought about paying it and Julian's already gone got it done.

Rashid pulls me back up to eye level and says with disappointment “Boy, you didn’t even come to see me and apologize after getting settled, If you had just come see me and asked what you could do to pay off the debt we wouldn’t be having this conversation right now. And now I’ve had to come track you down, and find you doing what? Bullying a clerk because you don’t feel well,” I try to interrupt him but he glares at me and I shut up.

“Well tough tits, these clerks have it rough and you don’t need to make it worse, now get over there and apologize to the nice man.” He spins me around and give me a good kick and I’m sent over to the clerk, while feeling Rashid’s intense gaze.

I sigh and give a bow to the clerk, then say apologetic “I’m sorry that I mistreated you, and I hope that we can remain on good terms.” The clerk stammers out “It’s fine, we deal with this kind of stuff all the time,” He then rubs the back of his head and says “We’re all kind of use to it, but we really do appreciate it that veterans like Sir Rashid stand up for us, since I mean we can’t all be strong like Ms. Vanessa.” He gives a honesty smile to Rashid who nods back, and I stand straight and hold out my hand to the young clerk, who’s probably older than me. He looks at for a second in confusion, but then a smiles spreads over his face and takes my hand. I let him shake it for a second before I say “Well thanks you for forgiving me, I think that Rashid would have beat me again if you didn’t forgive me… Uh what's your name?” I can hear Rashid facepalm from here, but the clerk chuckles before saying “It’s Curtis.”

“Well thanks Curtis, I’ll see you.” He stammers out a goodbye as I walk back to Rashid who nods and says “Good, now hopefully you’ll this lesson got through that thick skull of your’s.” He pauses for a second and says quietly “It would be a real shame for you to end up like him.”

I tilt my head and look at him to ask “Who’s him?”

Rashid looks a little surprised but says “You don’t need to know anything, other than he was a genius we had some years ago, and not unlike you but it was too late by the time he got here he was rotten….” Rashid goes into thought silently.

I wait for a second to see if he’ll start talking again, but after a minute I decide to ask “Well when do you need my help on this quest?”

That snaps him out of his thought, and he’s silent for a second, before a grin stretches his leathery face. He looks at his watch and then says “Let’s see here, If it’s one in the morning I’d say about” He then pauses for a second, “… right about fucking now! Come boy let's go! He grabs my arm and drags me out of the guild as I scream “Wait I haven’t even eaten yet!”

Curtis says as I’m being practically kidnapped.

“See later Atlas! Oh and please don’t tell Vanessa about this she might actually kill me!”

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“So this is what you need help with.” I say while pointing to the chains connecting me to the cart.

“Yeah, what’d you think I was going to have you do?” Rashid answers disinterested.

“Well I thought you would have me do something a bit more interesting than ya know, pulling a damn cart!” My chains around my wrist tighten as I say that.

“Shush, boy I’m trying to find it.” Rashid says as he moves his hand around the rock waterfall in the plaza.

Doing my best to get on his nerves I ask “What are you looking for anyway?”

Rashid answers back with annoyance “What do you think I’m looking for? I’m looking for the damn entrance to the labyrinth! So shut your damn trap so I can find!” He slams his hands into the rock and we hear a shifting and a opening appears.

I say with a sneer “Well looks like you found it.”

I can hear Rashid mumble under his breath, and then one of the chains slaps me over the head painfully and I grunt “Shit!”

Rashid laughs and then says “Enough fucking around, we’re going in.” He walks into the dark entrance and I follow to.