[Story] The Cat and the Raven

As Corvus looks around at the stalls, he notices an unusual figure among the humans and elves and dwarves. An unusual cat-like figure, to be precise. He decides to sate his curiosity and walks up to the stall the cat-man is attending.

"Hello! I couldn't help but overhear you mention spells? Do you happen to have spel-"

Corvus is cut off as 3 well-armored men push through the crowd and stand in front of the stall owner. "Hello good sir," the man in the center addresses the cat-person. "After checking the books, it looks like you're behind on your Crag Gang protection payments. I'm afraid if you don't pay us the money we need, then you'll have to be shut down, for your own safety of course." The men on either side pull out a mace and sword respectively and brandish them.

The feline Spellweaver just looks at the three gang-members before sighing and reaching into one of his pockets with his left hand. The gang-members grin as he pulls out... A very yellow gem. In an instant, the gem and the cat's fist are crackling with electricity as he forms a katana from the aura around his right hand. He glares at the would-be bandits and says

"Do you really think attacking a spellweaver is a good idea?"

as his aura hardens around him. The three gangmembers take a few steps back before the middle one says

"Now now, who said anything about attacking? We're just requesting payment for our 'Services.' Ya gotta pay for protection."

Shade just looks at them and lifts the fully formed auric katana up and rests it against his shoulder, a spell very clearly being formed around the blade while his left hand still crackles with electricity. He then says

"And What if I have no need or desire for your so called 'protection,' Hm? What then?"

"Well, friend, if you don't see the need for our protection, then you just need to learn why you do." Without warning, the thug on the left reaches behind his back and levels a small crossbow at Shade.

Just before he fires, the thug grunts as a blade smoothly passes through his heart and swiftly pulls back out. The man crumples to the floor, revealing Corvus standing behind him. "Hey, assholes. Don't interrupt me while I'm window shopping, got it?" He then swiftly kicks the man in the middle before pointing Hellhawk at the man's neck. The blade glows dimly, but apparently enough to singe the man's skin, and the Crag Gang member's face contorts in pain.

With a completely serious expression, Corvus demands, "Hand over your weapons. You can take the other guy's body, but leave his weapons behind as well. When your boss asks what happened, tell him 'Corvus Silver happened, sir.'" The man nods as soon as Corvus pulls his blade back, and is soon helping the other thug drag away the body of their dead compatriot while Corvus sheathes Hellhawk and picks up all the weaponry. He walks back up to the stall and drops all but one crossbow and a quiver of bolts onto the counter and asks, "What can I get for this?"

Shade watches the scene that rapidly unfolded in front of him, then looks at the pile of weapons that Corvus just dumped on the table next to his cart. He stops for a moment before looking at his still crackling left hand, then at the auric Katana in his right hand and sighs before raising his left hand and discharging the electricity into the sky. He then take the auric Katana and sticks it into the ground slightly, allowing the spell he was weaving around it to dissipate. Moments later he looks at Corvus and grins as two lightning bolts fall from the sky and strike the ground directly behind the fleeing Crag Gang members, making them double their fleeing pace. As he goes to put away the yellow gem he says

"Thanks for the assist, but I really can't do anything with these weapons, so I can't really buy them from you. I don't sell mundane weaponry, and I don't use it either. Also..."

He reaches into the pile of weapons and pulls out a leather pouch that jingles audibly. He opens the pouch and inspects its contents before handing it over to Corvus.

"You might want to keep this if you're looking for money, because that's what this is."

"Oh, thanks!" Corvus accepts the wallet and looks through it. After a moment, he pulls out 10 Velli and places them on the counter in front of the weapons. "Would you be willing to help carry this stuff to a nearby smith, then? I don't really know where to go."

Shade picks up the Velli and places them in one of his pockets before saying

"Sure. There's one just down the road."

He quickly reaches into his cart and pulls out a small purple gem which he places on the side of his cart and then activates the spell inside it, making a blue barrier form over the cart. He then picks up the mace and the steel sword, leaving the auric Katana stuck in the ground by his cart and heads off in the direction of the blacksmith.

Corvus quickly picks up the remaining iron sword and catches up, walking alongside Shade.

Corvus studies his traveling companion as they walk, then asks

"Hey, have we met before? I haven't been here long, but you don't look like a native either."

Shade looks over at Corvus again before saying

"Hmm... Well I don't recognize you off the top of my head, but I have traveled quite a lot through many realities. If you travel the same roads that I do, you may have heard of or seen me there."

Corvus responds with

"Maybe... just in case, we should introduce ourselves for the aud- I mean, we should introduce ourselves. I'm Corvus Silver,"

He says as he leaps onto a crate.

"The greatest bounty hunter of all time!"

Leaping down, Corvus continues walking, keeping pace with Shade's stride. Shade merely grins before saying

"And I am known as Shade."

He quickly sets down the two weapons before doing a flip and forming a billowing cape out of his own aura and exclaims

"ExtraDimensional Extrordinaire and creator of many things."

A goofy grin passes over his face as he picks up the two weapons again and allows the 'aura cape' to return back to it's normal form around his body.

"Hmmmm..." Corvus looks at Shade with a lack of amusement. "That's not even a proper title. At least when I say bounty hunter, everyone knows what I mean. What are people supposed to think when you say stuff like ExtraDimensional? Do you live in the Void or something?"

Corvus stops speaking as a smithy comes into view. "Well, anyway, this looks like the place you were talking about." The two travelers head inside and dump the stuff on the counter. "Excuse me, I'd like to sell these weapons. What would be a good price for these?" The blacksmith stops his work at the forge long enough to inspect the two swords and the mace.

"I'll give ya 11 Velli for the lot, no more."

"Done."

"...Er, really?"

"Yeah. I make money from that, so no point in haggling. I'm not needy."

"Well, if ya say so."

The smith places the Velli into Corvus's hands, and the bounty hunter places them into the wallet. He tips the smith with a hat that is not there, then turns to Shade. "Well, that was fun, but I should be heading out to the jungle again. I can do better than a thug or two."