He shivered in the cool, autumn air, clutching with tight fists to the thin scrap of rags his cloak had once been while on the lookout for discarded scraps of food to feed his wailing belly. It was in his weary and disheartened state that he missed the conspiring and prey eyes of young boys not yet men rallying together with cruel mischief on their minds.
Naomi had only a moment to recognize he was in danger as shouts of "runt" and "rat" echoed through the empty streets before he was bolting to escape, the cackling herd close on his heels and tossing rocks at his already battered body.
His heart pounded within his frail chest as he struggled to drag air into his weary lungs and fuel his limbs into continuous motion. The running from an angry and malicious mob was nothing new to the little creature. He would only be so lucky if rocks was the worst they threw. Should they catch up to him, Naomi knew he would be in for another nightmarish night of pain and suffering.
Frightfully, he cast a look behind only to whimper at how quickly the lads were closing in on him. Then, suddenly he was barreling into a figure coming around the opposite end of a corner and found himself bouncing off the larger person's side and towards a darkened alley. Naomi's luck ended there though as he heard the whoops and hollers of the boys behind him and saw the high, cold stone wall of a dead end before him.
It was never before the twilight hours when Xanifer ventured beyond the darkened halls of his home and he always retreated back before the dawn. Years ago, when he had still been young, the darkness hadn't been something he sought out, but these days it was the only way he could move in safety and comfort. The night was his sanctuary, the air was chilly, but he did not feel the cold any longer. Some days he wasn't sure he felt anything at all anymore.
His cane clicked against the stone streets in a steady rhythm. There was no hurry, the evening was young yet. Long, stiff ears twitched lightly as the sound of running footsteps approached from behind him, as well as the voices of young boys. It was an unusual disturbance to his peaceful night stroll.
By the time the noises drew close enough that Xanifer thought to turn and see what was going on, it was too late to avoid a collision. Some small, thin, wretched thing barreled into him before bouncing off and down an alley.
His bad leg nearly gave out on him, and if he had not had a firm grip upon his cane the vampire surely would have been cast clean to the cobblestones. How uncouth and rude! The boys chasing the scraggly creature were no more attentive to the well-dressed and limping walker, nearly running him over. Luckily Xanifer was quite swift for someone using a cane and side-stepped the mob of young men.
Once they had passed he followed them. Clearly there was great mischief afoot. The fleeing creature had nearly knocked him over, but under the circumstances that was quite excusable. It was the behavior of the others that was simply unacceptable. What did they think they were doing?
Even as the boys thought they had cornered their quarry, they were cornered themselves. Xanifer stood at the entrance to the alley, watching the young men close in on the poor thing against the far wall.
"Excuse me, but I think it is time for you children to be running home. Don't you know monsters lurk around in the dark?" Monsters like him.
Naomi curled in tightly around himself, his tail tucking around his folded legs as he sought to make himself as small possible. His ears laid flat against his skull and a whimper escaped as the first stone was cast, colliding painfully with his bare shoulder to leave another deep gash that bled freely.
"Listen to the rat squeal!" one of the boys cackled, already scooping up another rock to chuck when a voice at the entrance of the alleyway alerted the five humans and lone kitsune that they were not alone.
"Pfft," the largest of the boys scoffed before spitting a large wad of saliva towards the man. "Mind ya own business old man. This ain't concern ya!" He crossed his arms tightly over his chest before nodding his head to the rock-bearer. With a toothy grin that revealed several pearly whites missing, the blonde chucked the rock, just barely missing Naomi as he tried to shrink more behind some rubble and junk abandoned there.
The disgusting projectile was nimbly dodged for a man with a cane.
"Old man?" Xanifer clucked his tongue in annoyance. "Children these days, they have no manners at all, I swear." That wasn't something that he could tolerate. Not when these particular children were being so very naughty. It was time someone actually introduced some discipline into their lives.
Spare the rod, spoil the child.
Being a vampire did on occasion have perks. It took only a second for Xanifer to go from the entrance of the alley to striking one of the boys soundly with his cane. He moved from bully to bully, hitting each in turn with the blunt weapon, surely leaving welts they would not soon forget.
The boys squealed and howled as they were struck before turning tail to run, clutching their injuries as they shouted curses and promises to be back and cause more pain later. They disappeared as quickly as they had come though and despite their words were too cowardly to make good on their threats as they scuttled off to lick their wounds and comfort their bruised pride.
Naomi for his part tried to shrink further into his dark corner out of sight. His tormentors's disappearance just meant that a bigger monster had arrived on the scene to harm him so more. Maybe if he was lucky, this one would find him too pathetic to bother and go in search of more worthy prey. The tiny kitsune did not get his hopes though.
He had never been lucky.