Chapter II: A Moment’s Sanctuary

Blackheart pulled on the reins of his feralite, letting it slow to a gentle walk, it’s bony talons scratching up the sand and casting it into the beams of moonlight as it’s ugly nostrils flared and fumed.

“We can’t slow down!” Adelia’s eyes dashed back and forth behind her. The torches here had been out for some time and the pursuer had been left far behind. But when he caught up, she wouldn’t be able to tell.

“Listen,” Blackheart sighed, “she has to catch her breath. She’s just rushed away from a fate worse than death at a pace that even she can’t handle for long. Besides, we’re not far from where I want to go.” Blackheart whispered in his feralite’s small ear and it turned down an alleyway.

“You have no idea how terrible the fate we’ve just escaped was. We could’ve been killed leaving that tavern!”

“We could’ve been killed staying in that tavern,” Blackheart retorted with a certain sting to his words. “Besides, you should be grateful, I saved your life.” He patted the thick blue fur of the beast and continued to look ahead.

Adelia clung to Blackheart’s waist, not comfortable with her feet off the ground. “You only postponed my death.”

Blackheart sighed, “There you go again with all that cloak-and-dagger mystery talk. What the hell do you think is after you?”

Adelia looked back and breathed, her cold breath chilling the air around her, “You don’t want to know.”

Blackheart rolled his eyes, “Listen, bell, we’re going to be together for quite some time I’d say, so you might as well fill me in on the details, because we’re probably going to be facing them together.” Blackheart looked down at his amulet and muttered a curse.

Adelia eyed the man who sat in front of her for a moment, a question on her mind. “What do you mean, be together for quite some time?”

Blackheart stared forward, no emotion in his voice, “I just know these things sometime. You ever have an instinctual feeling that just says, ‘Bingo?'” Blackheart pulled on the reins and the feralite turned down another alley.

Adelia looked back, “You have no idea how often.” She looked ahead to where the light of a torch beamed out from a street. “Head towards that light.”

Blackheart looked at his amulet which flickered. “Can’t do that, dear,” he replied, stopping the horse and dismounting.

“Would you stop calling me those little pet names!”

“No, I don’t like your real name, so I might as well use ones I enjoy,” he said with a grin as Adelia huffed. “I might think about it if you start telling me what’s going on. After all, you obviously know what’s going on with those torches. They’re never snuffed out at night. Not by the guards at least, and if they are, they’re rekindled momentarily.”

Adelia looked back down the darkened alleys they had came from. “Not if there’s no one left to light them,” she muttered. “And what’s wrong with my name!? It’s better than yours! How cliche and criminal of a name can one have?! Blackheart,” she snorted.

Blackheart grinned and looked back. “Well, your name is terrible because names are meant to characterize, not to mention also give you a hint as to ancestry. And Adelia is not only a HUMAN name, but your kind have three names, first is your own, the second your mothers, and the third is your clan. You’ve got one, not very much hint there. I don’t even know which one of the three Adelia is,” Blackheart said as he walked to a rundown fountain.

“Oh?” Adelia pulled herself up to regal height and glared at Blackheart. “Well, for your information, my name is Adelia-Oruno-Miaidiaes. I thought I’d save you the trouble since your tongue can’t even pronounce my last name properly. And besides, humans have two names. Your first, and your family’s last.” She grinned with victory.

Blackheart looked to the ground with a smile of awkward humor. “Well, I would have a last name if my parents were human, if I had parents at all actually. Well, that’s misleading,” he conceded, “if I was old enough to remember anything about them before they were slaughtered. And as for my first name, it is what it is.” Blackheart stepped into the fountain and knelt down.

Adelia coughed nervously, “I’m sorry, I didn’t know.”

“S’all right, you didn’t. And everything surrounding that has been taken care of and left where it belongs, in the past,” Blackheart said as he busied himself.

Adelia peered curiosly at Blackheart, “What are you doing in the fountain?” No reply came and as Adelia craned to see from atop the feralite, she lost her balance and slid off, hitting the sand with a thump. The feralite began to poke her with it’s sharp tongue. “STOP THAT!”

“Her name is Kiki,” chuckled Blackheart as he worked. “Not a fitting name for a creature that can kill you a hundred different ways, but I always had a morbid sense of humor, if you know what I mean,” Blackheart laughed.