Sachi fought like a wildcat all the way to the gallows, but it did little good. With one guard on each arm, she was dragged through the crowd that spit and sneered at her, the captured thief condemned to die. Here and there, she even got pelted by rotten, rancid fruit that soaked into her hair and clothes and made her gag.
Angry and bursting with adrenaline, it didn't even occur to her to be afraid until the crowd parted and she caught her first glimpse of the noose, dangling at the top of the scaffolding while the hooded executioner still fiddled with it. That was when anger turned to panic, and her struggles redoubled. Loudly cursing her captors, she twisted in their grip and tried to kick them, jerked back and forth between them to test their hold, and even leaned as far as she could to try to bite one. But that just earned her a smack across the face and a bloodied lip, and she soon found herself at the bottom of the steps that would lead up to her death.
"W-wait!" she said, turning to the guard that hadn't smacked her. "Hey, wait, ya don't...haha, ya don't really wanna do this, right? Murder a poor girl?"
The guard didn't look at her. "It's not murder when it's a criminal. It's justice."
"Justice." Sachi shook her sweaty silver hair from her eyes, the dirty locks falling in a tangled mess around her shoulders. Prison hadn't treated her well. "C'mon, ya don't even know me! What if I'm like...uh...a mother! Got a family!" She winced when she saw him roll his eyes skyward. "I could have a family! Ya never know! I was only stealing so I could eat, though. Honest! Doesn't that just warrant the lash? Can we do that instead? Sounds like a great time to me!"
"Holding up a carriage so you could eat," the other guard, who had been listening in, said flatly. "Mhmm."
"...I was really, really hungry?" Sachi said with a sheepish, miserable smile, amazed at herself for being able to joke even now. But the guard only scowled and she hunched her shoulders.
Seeing she'd find no sympathy here, her eyes darted around the crowd, searching for empathy somewhere. But all she saw were jeering faces. She swallowed hard, sweat beading along her pale skin. She needed to figure out something, and fast. Unfortunately, strategy had never been her strength; she was a girl of action.
"You could just, you know, look the other way and I'd smack you and we could both pretend you fought real hard but I got away anyway?" she suggested with a weak laugh, to no response.
At the top of the scaffold, the executioner gave the guards a signal, and Sachi grunted as they starting dragging her up the stairs. Heart lodging itself in her throat, she set her feet against the steps and tried to brace herself so they couldn't drag her, but they yanked her forward and she just ended up stumbling and scraping her knees on the steps, tail lashing about wildly as she tried to balance herself. Even struggling and swearing all the way, it wasn't long before she reached the top.
One of the guards forced her to her feet and bound her hands behind her back while the other held her. And then, when he was done, another guard held her in place as the executioner slipped the noose around her neck, tightened it, and checked the placement of the knot.
She was running out of time.
"Any last words?" one of the men said as Sachi struggled to stand, her legs turned to jelly.
She latched onto that.
"YES! Actually, I do have some last words! A lot of them, actually!" She cleared her throat, surprised her voice wasn't as wobbly as it wanted to be. Something about this all still felt very, very surreal.
"I, er, I prepared this story, you see, and it's super sentimental and important to me so my last request is that I get to tell it before I die 'cause I haven't told it to anyone else and it's super great if I say so myself! Okay, so, there was this guy, see, and he lived under a bridge, but one day this crazy thing happened and..."
And she was totally pulling this out of her ass. But it had worked in that one story from the desert, about a girl scheduled to die who had prolonged it through storytelling, so...
Why not?
The air crackled with tingles of electricity, and the sky was less than pleased with its current state of indigestion. Thunder rumbled above the scene that was playing below and there was a bright flash within the clouds that day. It wasn't raining. It didn't even look like there was a thunderhead forming. But there was a heavy sense of dreariness and when the sky crackled with lightning, it's belly exhaled a powerful belch.
And suddenly the space ten feet above the gallows, zapped open, and a body fell from the sky. Maako yelped when a stray tendril of electricity zapped him. "Quit your whining!" His hand quipped back.
"Ahhhhhh!" he screamed anyway and slammed down hard on the wooden structure below. It crashed upon impact and splintered all up on his behind. The crowd gasped loudly, the headsman reeling back when the creature just materialized into existence.
That was something you didn't see everyday!
Sachi was still babbling over her never-ending story, conscious of the way the executioner's hand inched toward the lever that would kill her, when the sky rumbled, even though it was hardly overcast. Sachi didn't really notice the oddness, though, or note the crackling electricity, because she was too caught up with what was happening immediately around her--like keeping the story flowing and watching the hangman's hand!
Everyone noticed the lightning, though, and the strange sound the sky emitted--\
Right before everything came crashing down quite literally.
Something crashed into the gallow's beam and there was a loud crack, and Sachi let out a startled scream as she was thrown off balance--and for a frightening moment, she thought that crack was her neck. She landed hard on her side, for a moment not even noticing that the noose was looser now because the beam it hung from had been shattered, but a second later she realized that this was awfully strange to be death, and her body ached where she'd fallen, and she looked up in surprise.
And saw a strange blue...person? A strange blue person sprawled out near her.
If you could call him a person. What...what was all over his face?
Didn't matter! He'd broken the beam, wherever he'd come from, and Sachi's heart leaped when she realized the inevitable was delayed by whatever freak instance of nature had just occurred! Scrambling up onto her bottom while the executioner and crowd still gaped, her hands still awkwardly behind her back, she looked desperately toward the...person? The person. Yes. Was he even still alive?
SHE HAD SO MANY QUESTIONS. But right now, she wanted to not hang!
"Hey! Hey, you, ya still alive?!" she hissed, and kicked him lightly with her boot.
What was this strange world!? Who were these strange little critters all scattering about to avoid the massive splinters that jumped in the air when the beam fell? They were almost his size but they were so ugly-looking with their smooth skin and hairy heads and weird side-ways metal tails. Master had warned him of this. These little creatures called "hoomans".
Maako shook himself quickly, climbing to his knees as he pried a piece of wood from a butt cheek and shook himself. "See!? Nothing to worry about?" the mouth on his hand muttered and spat out a chunk of wood. Maako turned to his hand and smiled. "You have to learn to trust me!"
"Oh yes, very trust. That is how to say it?" Maako muttered. He shook his head, climbing to his feet when the little 'hooman' in the ropes was sputtering at him.
"It's one of them," Maako hissed, unaware that such hisses could still be heard by one in close proximity. "What should I do?"
"Listen to it! The ones with the metal-tails are coming up the steps!"
"Little Hooman, you have a strange rope necklace, yes? You're wearing it wrong. It must be tighter!" Maako leaned down to fix the noose properly, when one of the soldiers pulled his metal-tail out of the sheath and held it out before him.
"Stay away from the prisoner, fiend!" the soldier said.
Ohhhh wow he was naked too, a fact she finally noticed when he rose up and was no longer obscured by the broken beam.
Whyyyy was he naked?
WHY HAD HE FALLEN FROM THE SKY?
And oh my gods he was freakier looking now that she could see all of him and...uh...
Maybe...maybe she didn't want his help after all?
What was he talking to? Was he...was he talking to his hand? Even making a different voice for it and everything? Oh man, did he hear voices, is that what was going on?
Sachi stared at him. Maybe she was dying, maybe that's what was up. She was dying and hallucinating up strange naked blue people that talked to their hands and had so many pokey bits and a belly that...oh gods what was even going on with his belly, please tell her that was a tattoo! But then he reached for her and she snapped out of her staring and jerked back, eyes going wide. "Whoa, what?! No, no, it's not a neck--argh, dammit!"
Aaand he made it tighter, right as a guardsman came barreling on up. Peachy.
Her eyes flew to the guard, then back to the blue creature, her head spinning in confusion, but dammit, one option was certain death and the other? Who the hell knew! But she liked the unknown right then (even if it was batshit crazy) better than the for sure death, so she shuffled back toward the blue man person and shrank back from the guard.
"Get the rope off me, blue guy!" she hissed. "Now! We gotta scoot or it'll be your neck, too!"
Master warned him about something like this. Hoomans were notoriously feisty bottomfeeders that likes to wave their little sticks around when they were agitated. Maako smiled and waved his bottom left arm at the little shiny sword. But something the little hooman in the rope said made him think twice.
"Wait? Why would they want to give me a rope necklace like yours? I haven't. Ow!" The sword quickly lunged and lashed out across his chest in a warning slash. Maako held his open wound, staring up in bewilderment. "That hurt!"
"I warned you creature! Get away from the prisoner!"
Maako scowled and closed the distance, snatching up the soldier by the neck and shaking him like a doll before throwing him off the balcony edge of the gallows. Maako busied his other arms with removing the rope from Little Hooman's neck and tore the ropes off her wrists.
"Scoot thing? We do this now yes? Those pointy sticks hurt!"
Remind me not to make him angry, Sachi thought as she watched him shake that soldier like a doll, her face pale. Because this was a big blue guy with pointy things in his face that talked to his hand and had four arms and reacted to getting slashed with a sword like he'd just been pinched! And yet, even as she openly gaped, she found it a little ironic because...haha...she was kind of a monster herself, wasn't she?
She just never thought of herself as one.
But the important part of all this was the part where he ripped the rope off her neck and hands, and in a flash, Sachi was on her feet. Blue guy seemed to have things handled, sooooo!
Time to do the scoot thing.
"Thanks, blue guy!" she called, and leaped down from the gallows. "See ya later! Avoid the pointy end and don't get arrested!" And she wasted no time in running.
She might be grateful, but she was still a thief. She knew an opportunity when she saw one, and knew when it was time to steal the moment!
Apparently, Maako didn't get the goodbye part of the deal. He simply thought that this was the scooting process! Oh, and she certainly made a go of it. But she was so slow running on those two legs of hers. Sure he had only two legs as well, but the advantage of having extra arms meant he could use them to close greater distances.
"Oh good! Then you know a way out!" Maako said gleefully and leapt from the edge of the gallows. He opened his arms wide and spreading out the skin between them. The 'wings' caught wind and he glided across the crowd, following along with Sachi's path.
Just then a troop of mage knights parted through the audience, bearing their shields and weapons at the ready.
The crowd had parted for Sachi, people moving out of the way since no one wanted to be in the path of a criminal--or the strange blue monster behind her.
Especially when that strange blue monster took flight.
Well, glided. But anyone who was there that day would certainly exaggerate what they had seen when he took to the air, naked and four-armed and strange, and swooped after the lion-tailed thief.
Sachi heard shrieks behind her, and when she looked over her shoulder, she saw people diving out of the way or ducking and covering their heads. What the...? She looked up.
And just about had a heart attack.
"HOLY SHIT!" she blurted, and pumped her legs faster, wishing she could shift on a whim--but it took effort and focus and also being naked, so that wasn't happening! So she faced forward and turned on the speed.
Only to come to a skidding stop when the crowd before he parted and mageknights came marching through.
"HOLY SHIT!"
Caught between a rock and a hard place. She hopped back a couple steps, looked behind her at the blue man swooping closer, and decided the enemy of her enemy was her friend. Waving frantically to the blue guy, she pivoted on her heel and ran away from the mageknights.
And toward blue guy.
"Watch out for the shield assholes!" she called to him, panting. "Also, you can fly?! Great! Fly us out of here!"
No he couldn't fly. But he didn't think that now was the best time to correct her. And just when he thought he was ready to follow, she just darted right back around and came barreling in his direction! The mage knights bared their weapons and immediately began casting a spell of paralysis.
Maako made a weird eep sound, feeling his joints stiffen briefly before he turned round away from the growing field. The knights began to spread out, and the people gave way, not wanting to be anywhere near here should a fight break out. Which this very well could turn out to be.
He dropped himself just low enough before spreading out his upper arms once again, his other two catching Sachi by the tail and hoisting her up, as the flesh caught wind again and he pulled them both up hard.
Be careful what you wish for, they said. For blue guy swooped down to grab her as she hoped--
And grabbed her TAIL! Of all things!!
Sachi let out a gasped yelp of surprise and pain as, suddenly, she was jerked into the air and skybound--which was the strangest, freakiest feeling when she wasn't the one piloting! The ground dropped out beneath her, along with her stomach, and she yelped again and flailed because it felt awfully precarious to be hanging by only her tail--which felt like it might break!
"Ow, owww, you oaf! Not the tail!" she yelled, trying to flail enough that she could grab o to him to take some of the pressure off. "Let go! I men, no no, don't let go, ignore me, but maaan, why the TAIL?! You're bending it, owww!"
It wasn't ideal. And for that brief moment he realized that grabbing her tail probably wasn't the best idea. But it was the first one that came to mind when he reached down for her. Because his arms just snatched onto the first appendage that was closest to him. Swooping in to hoist her by the arm would require too much effort!
Or so he argued to himself as she shrieked below him. Maako pulled her up by the tufted thing until he had her by the ankles upside down, trying to double back up to get more air.
That was until the fireballs started heading their direction. Coupled with flaming arrows. Oh, lovely!
"Are they throwing us a party!? Should we drop back down?" he asked, looking upside down.
Sachi couldn't decide which was worse: being hoisted along by her tail, or flying upside down. No doubt she couldn't make that decision because the blood was rushing to her brain and making thinking hard. That and she was trying very hard not to puke all over everything, and praying she'd survive this day, because the gods apparently had it out for her and were bound and determined to see her break her neck.
Or fry her.
A fireball whizzed by, so close she could feel its heat, and she let out a squawk of alarm--and another at his words.
"NO!!" she yelled, eyes going saucer wide. "No, no, that's a bad party! The worst party! It's a corpse party! Keep flying! Fly faster! Oh gods if you don't get me bloody well killed I swear I'll throw you a party, okay?! I swear I'll--hurk."
And she cut off and slapped her hands over her mouth, turning quite green around the gills.
Oh, it was a sound he was familiar with. With his view of her upside down and the sound of spinach being shoved through a grinder. In fact, the color of her face looked a lot like it. "What!? No! It stinks! Hold it in!" It was a moment of distraction long enough that he had dropped too low and they both took a tumble into a cart of oranges.
Maako's form smashed into the fruit, but the scent of citrus was such a relief compared to the scent of spinach. Or whatever she ate. Fire arrows smashed into the wooden hull of the cart, and the man that had been running it cried out in horror and rage.
"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!? THAT WAS ALL MY STOCK! MAGDA! MAGDA! GET THE BROOM!"
Maako rolled off with a grunt and looked for the Spinach Human. "You okay, LIttle one!? We need to leave! No more pukie!"
A woman rushed out from the building beside them. She saw the mess that had been made and when the pair were close enough - blue demon thing be damned - she came at them hard with the bristled end of her broom.
This was definitely not how she imagined this day going, Sachi thought as she sat in a pile of oranges, bruised and nauseated, as a woman with a broom ran at them. Was this her punishment? Her punishment for not dying? Maaaan, what a shitty deal! She grabbed at the blue "demon", at one of his several arms, and hauled herself up sorely, still reeling and dizzy--
And wasn't quick enough to avoid getting a whack to the head, and another to her gut.
That was the woman's greatest mistake.
Sachi choked, gagging--and then the meager last meal she'd managed to hold in through all their aerial acrobatics and craziness came roaring on out and splashed onto the woman's shoes.
Ew. That wasn't a pleasant sight.
Maako made a noise and the woman shrieked in horror at being spewed all over. Maako didn't want to hang around much longer before snatching Sachi once again and dragging her along the walk way. "No more sicky, okay? I don't know if it washes out! It doesn't smell like it does!" he griped and slung her up onto his back.
"Hold on, yes? Here we go!" He gave a strong leap with his legs, just as a fireball grazed his leg and he yelped. Wobbling, he spread the flesh between his arms and caught wind once more, trying to steady himself with the added weight.
Sachi would have been totally mortified if that woman didn't totally deserve it for beating them with a broom! And if she didn't still feel queasy, and now have the added fun of a totally vile taste in her mouth! Gods, what had she last eaten?
But she had no time to ponder that. She had just managed to wipe her mouth off on the back of her hand when the blue devil was at it again, grabbing her and dragging her along while she let out a noise of protest and stumbled after him. She had barely just gotten her footing when he suddenly hoisted her up--and the second she landed on his back, she understood his intent.
Her stomach dropped.
"Whoa, whoa, wait, no!" she yelped, but it was too late because they were airborne, and there were fireballs whizzing at them. And so she curled her poor, sore tail in close to her body and wrapped her arms around his neck and legs around his waist, squeezing as she held on for dear life and closing her eyes for good measure!
"Oh gods, you're a terrible flyer!" she groaned.
This was it. She was going to die today after all!
"You are too..fat to be carried!" Maako griped as he struggled to keep balance because he felt something immediately singe the back of his foot. The mageknights were not going to let them go so easily. Troops surrounded their path of escape, even as he glided over the top of them. Maako growled and averted as he slammed hard into the glass of a balcony door, tumbling headlong onto the floor.
He scrambled to his feet and tugged at Sachi's tail to get her up again. "So much smoke! So much fire! Oh, how I miss home!"
FAT?!
DID HE CALL HER FAT?!
Sachi reeled back with an offended gasp, fear replaced by indignation. "Now listen here you--!"
Smash!
The world spun, and suddenly she was on the ground again--well, not quite ground, but the floor of a balcony. But not for long, because then the brute was yanking her tail!
"Hey!" she snapped and jerked her tail away from him, then held it and waved it at him like a mother waving a spoon at a naughty child. "First of all, rude! Ya don't just go grabbin' peoples' tails like that! And second of all, I am not fat! Also rude! I expect an apology right this instant!"
And she scowled at him, fists on her hips, even as fire rained down all around them.
Maako stared at her wild-eyed, and the mouth on his hand hissed in displeasure. This little critter had a lot of nerve at backlashing so much at his help. However, he was obedient enough to know when wrong was wrong in a moment like this.
Except maybe he didn't have to apologize right away.
"Yes rude. But um, your hair. It's on fire."
"What are you talking about...?" Sachi started to say. That was when the acrid, distinct smell of BURNING HAIR filled her nose, also with a faint sizzle in her ears and an increasing heat, and she yet out a screeching yelp and slapped her hands at her head.
Yup. It was on fire, all right.
"OH MY GODS WHY DIDN'T YA SAY SOMETHING?!" she hollered as, finally, she managed to pat it out, and that horrible burning hair smell turned more smoky. Unfortunately for her, a big patch of her hair on the right side was black and charred now--and crumbling even as she ran it through her fingers.
"I did!" Maako wasn't going to be the butt of her wrath. Or whatever they called it here. And as her hands ran through her head, he could see more clumps being pulled out. "NO! NO! STOP! YOU'RE MAKING IT WORSE!"
He fumbled two hands about her arms trying to get her to calm down. "We must go! There's no time to pull out more of your hair! Please Furry Human, move feet on the beat. Yes?"
"I'm gonna be BALD!" Sachi wailed in horror when she realized what those charred clumps were. Her gorgeous silver hair! RUINED! She wasn't usually the vain sort, but she was really fond of her hair. It was silver like precious metal and shiny and fluffy and now it was burned! And who wanted to be bald? Except monks...
The gods were having a field day with her.
But he was right, and as he grabbed her, she sucked in deep breaths and got a hold of herself enough to remember more pressing matters. It helped that it was also at that moment that a flaming arrow thunked against the wall right next to her, making her jump.
"Shit! Uh, uh, where am I moving to the beat to?!" she said, shooting a frantic look around them. If they stayed much longer, they'd be cornered inside this building. Or burned down with it. Grabbing one of the strange creature's arms, she tugged him into the empty home with her (seemed its occupants had gone to watch her execution).
"This way, out the other side, maybe the guards are thinner there!"
"Other side! Yes! Good idea smoking human!" he said and ushered her in the direction opposite the way they came. Down the stairs they went, and the racket of noise was almost overbearing on his senses. Maako was not happy with the present situation. Five minutes in this new plane and already people were trying to kill him. And his new friend kept yelling at him!
How rude.
Momentary distractions for the present moment it would seem and he followed her out the rear of the building and made his way down the alley that was narrow for his shoulders to pass through. Turning sideways he followed behind her, trying to blew out a few strands of hair that were still smoking.
Into the alley they went, and Sachi had a much easier time navigating through them than her strange...companion...did. She was quite adept at fitting through narrow spaces, not that the alley was that narrow for most people! For her friend, though...
She turned around when she felt him blowing on her, and gave him a sharp look, waving a hand at him to signal him to knock it off. It kept tickling her neck!
"Okay, so what now?!" she asked as she kept inching along. "Where to? Can ya do the flying thing again?"
"No time. No air! Too much hot stuff!" he squealed, narrowly missing an arrow that scathed across his arm. He eeped and took Sachi a bit roughly, throwing her onto his back and lunging forward on all fours. He wasn't exactly built to bound off like a dog or another four-legged creature, but it was a heck of a lot faster than running on two legs, or trying to fly and then promptly get shot down again.
Maako drew himself along in a steady lop, his limbs unused to the action, but getting along just fine as he leapt over a wagon and made his way for what looked like a sewer grate...and someone else throwing a sack down it.
He didn't waste time, the ground already slimy and wet, and slid along his belly, shoving the other person aside and the heavy sack of whatever it was and slipping into the large man-sized grate...and plunging down the fall below.
"AHH!"
If Maako had any hopes of being stealthy, they were ruined by Sachi's scream as she found herself riding him like a horse. And Sachi did not like horses, and they didn't like her, and she didn't trust anyone's legs or wings but her own! She clung to him for dear life, tail whipping out behind her like a streamer, and then--
Oh no.
He wasn't--
He WOULDN'T--
And then they were sailing down into the sewer.
Sachi would have loved to claim she wasn't familiar with the sewers, but yeah. She was. Wasn't her first time by any means, but that didn't mean she hated it any less. And at least those other few times, she'd gone in prepared! Worn the right clothes (ones she would burn later), nice high boots, covered her nose and mouth with a cloth bundled up with nice-smelling herbs. Not this time!
Down, down they went, the stench already gagging her, and then came the inevitable splash.
They hit the bottom, Sachi rolling off of him in the impact, and she had no sooner gotten to her feet when she was hurling her guts up.
What was left of them, anyway.
"Why the sewer?" she moaned between retching fits, eyes watering.
This was the worst day ever.
Maako was no more pleased than she was! But at least he wasn't crying about it! He got to his feet, a little taller than her, and shaking off the, erm, residue that built up from the impact. Or splash. No word was making this any easier to bear.
"It was the only opening," Maako said, spitting and his hand screamed at the sensation of all the ick on his palm. "Oh, sorry!"
It spat venom and hissed at Maako. "You ee-diot!, " the mouth on his hand hissed. "You should know better than to make katha on me!"
"I didn't! We are just...in the stinky," Maako replied sheepishly.
In the stinky. In the stinky!
"Oh, we just got so many diseases!" she whined, grimacing as she lifted her tail, which was coated and dripping with--no, she didn't want to think about it. With another dry retch and full-body shudder, she flicked her tail to dislodge it of...some of the...stuff.
"All the diseases. We have them all. We're officially lepers and--OH HOLY CRAP!"
She snapped a look at Maako--or more specifically, his hand--and gaped. "It really does talk! Your hand, I wasn't just imagining that. Whoa, damn, does it have like...its own brain? Are you making it talk, or does it just do its own thing?"
"Dezeeeses? Diseeeeases? Dizzy-ese," Maako was busy mushing out the word when his hand turned its attention to Sachi and glared at her between toothy blinks. Once the eyeballa appeared and got a good look at her, the organ vanished and turned back into it's mouth.
"This is the thing you were tumbling all around for!?" his hand spat in irritation.
Maako turned between the two of them, looking at his palm. "NO! yes!...Yes. Don't be mean. She saved our skins... We'd've been set on fire if not for her."
"We almost were because of her!"
Yeah, that talking mouth-hand-eyeball-thing was really disconcerting.
...But also kind of wicked?
Sachi might have grabbed his hand for a closer look if she wasn't so skeeved out by being covered in...gods, yeah, not going there. Another lump rose in her throat but she choked it back down with a flattering gagging sound and did her best to breathe through her mouth.
"Hey, lookit that, we all almost got set on fire and we all almost died and saved each others' skins so wow, it sure looks like we're all square and stuff now!" Though she couldn't remember when she'd saved this strange guy's life. But she wasn't going to correct him, either. Hey, if he wanted to thank her for imagined heroics, she wasn't going to get in the way of that! "We good now? Yeah? Okay! So let's get the hell outta here before I start pukin' organs. C'mon."
She felt pretty confident that the guards wouldn't follow them here. But she also feared they might try to intercept them at some other sewer entrance. Luckily, she was familiar with the city's underbelly, so she motioned after Maako for him to follow. "I've got sooo many questions for you, my friend," she said as she started to trudge along, and coughed again, going deathly pale at a particularly potent whiff of...stuff.
"I've got sooo many questions for you, my friend."
At those words, Maako's eyes dilated considerably. Friend. "Frieeeeeend," he hissed and immediately moved to Sachi's side, clinging to her like static to fabric. Still, he made an effort to scurry right behind her. Those words still reverberated on his mind and he mulled over them. He was only in this realm for five minutes and already he had made a friend. A best friend!
"So where are we going? Are we going to bathe? Can I see you naked? Can I wash your hair? I'll clean if if you want to! I'm good at that! I promise I'm gentler than i look!" he chittered off excitedly.
Oh Sach, what have you done...?!
"Uhhhh, what?" Sachi choked out, coughing both on fumes and incredulity. Oh sweet gods, was this going to become a problem? This was going to become a problem, wasn't it? Shiiiiit. The monster man was nice and well-meaning and had saved her life and all, but did she want to be stuck with him long term? Hell no! She had things to do! A life to live! And he was awfully clingy!
Time to start planning a way out of this.
"We're getting outta the sewer, yeah we're gonna bathe, NO ya can't see me naked and hell no ya aren't touching my hair," she said, shuddering at the idea of it. With that hand, sometimes an eyeball and sometimes a mouth...in her hair...hurk. Nope, nope, nooope.
She gave his shoulder an awkward pat. "I'm sure you're great and gentle but washin' and whatnot and I dunno how things are done where you're from, but here? It's a private thing, you know?"
[Yes, Maako is ridiculously clingy xD Whoops.]
"Oh yes, I understand," Maako murmured. He cold still hardly contain his excitement as he followed her. He was going to get a bath, a real bath. And no scalding lava this time!
He giggled something but he tried to hide it. So instead he figured conversation was an adequate distraction. "You...why were they trying to kill you?" he asked. "What did you do?"
[I love it. xDDD Sachi is in for a headache, bwahahaha!]
"What did I do? I didn't do nothin'!" Sachi said with a huff of indignation and a flick of her tail that sent muck splattering the wall. "I was just all by my lonesome, out getting a bite to eat, when those thugs pounced me and decided hooray, let's have a lynch mob! So rude, really."
Yeah, that definitely sounded better than "I held up some rich guy's carriage and stole his shinies because...shiny." It wasn't a full lie, either. Those riches were going to pay for food, after all. And clothes. And wine. And gambling...
"Monsters, the lot of them. Ah, here we are!" And with a relieved smile, Sachi pointed to a crude, rusted grate above them and cautiously pushed it open.
"That's terrible!" Not that Maako really believed her, but if he at least pretended to be on her side, maybe she'd let him wash her hair. It was nice looking and other than the grimy goop looked pretty soft to pet. And allowing him to touch her hair was the highest honor he could ever hope for.
He followed her to the other grate and even held it open for her her with his other arms. "Then it's a good thing I came along," he said, smiling sharp teeth at her. "Or you probably would have been real dead."
After poking her head out to check that the coast was clear, Sachi hauled herself out and flopped out onto the filthy, but far cleaner, street, sucking in fresh air. Though it was still tinged with her own stink. Ughhhh...she was going to smell like shit for days.
"Yeah, I'd be super dead," she said as she finally sat up--and her stomach twisted with a pang of nausea, not only because of the stench but also because of that thought. It had all felt strangely surreal in the moment, and then she'd been so unconventionally rescued. She had been so distracted that she had never really had time to realize just what all that had meant, that she had literally almost died. She swallowed hard, and smeared some of her filthy hair out of her face with a grimace.
Damn...
Looking back down at Maako, she let out a slow, shaky breath. Well. She wasn't going to freak out about her own mortality now, long after the fact. It was over with, she was alive. That was what mattered. "Thanks, by the way," she said. "For the fabulous timing."
Thankfully, for her at least, Maako was not a manipulative individual, or would be expecting favors in return for the favor of saving her life. In truth the trouble of all of this was not something he would have willingly fallen into. As it were, even though they smelled, he rather thought it ended well. And better that they were stinky and alive than stinky and dead, right?
He had no intention of holding it to her that she somehow owed him.
"Then I will follow you until it's time for me to go, yes?" Maako murmured, although it wasn't really a question, and he wasn't really paying attention to anything she might have replied to it. "Do you live somewhere close by? I promise I will not be in a the way. I'll be a good Maako. I'm very good at being good, you'll see."
He even reached across to thwack some slop that was dripping from Sachi's tail.
"Errr...right," Sachi said, and twitched her tail out of his reach. Stay with her until it was time for him to go? Did that mean she could say it was time now, and he would go?
She eyed him sidelong, considering, and then let out a sigh. She didn't want the extra weight or burden of another person clinging to her, especially one as chaotic and conspicuous as him, but he had saved her life, and she owed him. Even thieves had honor, after all; the least she could do was see him cleaned and fed.
He didn't have to stick his neck out for her, and he could have gotten himself killed doing so. She would have been dead otherwise.
Just relax.
Turning to look at him, she jerked her chin off to the right and started to lead. "It's this way," she said. "Ain't that far. I got some money stashed away, enough to afford us a bath and a meal. Just...try not to stand out too much? Like, no talky hand thingy, yeah? No gaping maws. Good?"
The no gaping maws bit and standing out too much were the easy requests of the two. The talking hand, oh he would try to muffle as the eye flicked back and blinked outwardly to glare at Sachi. Oh if it had a chance, it would snap that annoying tail of hers right off.
"I'll be on my best behavior," Maako promised and trailed after her. His stomach grumbled loudly at the thought of food. And his skin flared with heat. "Oh...I'm so hungry! What kind of food do you have here in this city? No cats right? Cats are terrible. Hairballs everywhere."
"Cats?!" Sachi repeated, turning to give him a disgusted look, nose wrinkled and lip curled. "Oh gods no, no...cats. Really? You've eaten cat?"
She shuddered. Must be the gryphon part of her that found that so...distasteful. Akin to cannibalism, actually! Hopefully he didn't get any funny ideas about her tale. With his mouth-belly as it was, he could probably fit a child in there. Her eyes flicked to his strange stomach as she thought it, and she shuddered again.
"Definitely no cats. I'm talkin' REAL food. Like bread and cheese and meat! Maybe a nice stew. I could eat a bloody horse about now."
Another pause. "Not literally. Don't get any ideas."
Her distaste for his cat-diet was perfectly understanding. He hated it too. And Maako was blushing furiously when she turned around and went on and on about how hungry she was. He followed close behind and made sure not to make a nuisance of himself.
"That all sounds lovely," Maako whispered, leaning in closer to her ear and sneaking along behind.
The street seemed incredibly empty at this time, and Maako breathed out a soft sigh of relief. "So where's this food, you keep hyping up? Do we steal it?"
"Whoa!" Sachi gasped, jumping in surprise when Maako was suddenly way close, close enough his breath tickled her ear and neck. A shiver shot down her, making her tail floof, and she turned and swatted him away.
"We're good, man, we're good. We don't have to whisper anymore. Doubt the guards came over here yet. They're probably still scoutin' around the chaos. Just act natural." After all, acting all sneaky and whispery could sometimes attract more attention than just acting normal. Not that either of them looked normal, and especially not covered in shit.
Leading the way through the alleys, Sachi came to a stop beside a brick wall that served as the back of a tavern. Feeling around with her fingers, she finally nudged a loose brick and pulled it out, then reached into the space and pulled out a little bag that jingled as it moved. She shoved the brick back in place. It was one of her many stashes; she always made sure to spread out her treasures, and had several caches hidden throughout the city.
"This oughta be plenty. C'mon, let's see if this tavern lets us wash up, or if they kick us out for stinkin' up the place."