A dark mage? Man, kurdran felt weird for a moment, when the shopkeeper referred to him as such when picking him up from the street. Apparently he had a job for him though, so he didn`t dwell on it for a long time. Apparently, this one kid had been annoying him for a long time, and he wanted to teach the kid a lesson. Apparently all the peaceful options had been used up already, so the camels back had been broken. And that is where kurdran was supposed to come in: Grab the boy and give him a lesson he will not forget anytime soon.

And as it would happen, this little annoyance walked right past them, as the guy was very happy to point out... Kurdran was less than impressed... seriously? A kid that size was giving this adult man trouble? You`d think he would be able to just run at him and ask some questions, but eh... Guess he had to just think of it as easy money. If the guy thought of him as a "dark mage", it shouldn`t be too hard to make the kid regret his actions by grabbing him by the shirt and shaking him a bit right?

Kurdran could not have been more wrong.

As soon as kurdran took a few little steps towards the boy with a decently neutral expression, the boy started sprinting off like a rat with his tail on fire. "HEY! Get back here!" Kurdran started following him with his stubby legs moving rapidly from front to the back, as he tried to keep up with the kid.

The kid tried all the classic techniques of running away from someone who wants to cause them harm. Firstly he ran through a group of people, trying to get Kurdran to lose his sights on him... And honestly it worked. The kid really didn`t need much to try and get this meatball off of his back. As soon as Kurdran bumbled into the group of people, his eyes darted around trying to see the little boy again, only to see him giggling at the sight of all these people he had accidentally ran into. "Apologies, uh... duty calls!" Kurdran could feel his head getting a little bit more red.

Next up, the boy suddenly rushed into an alleyway, and hopped past trash cans, trying to make him trip over them. Ironically, just rushing so suddenly into the alley when Kurdran was right behind him, made the poor guy slip and roll past it for a little while. Kurdran comically kept grunting all they way, as he luckily landed back on his feet and turned back, and ran into the alley trying to dodge the trash cans as he ran again towards the kid who had gained a ton of distance between them.

And finally, the little boy really showed his superiority against Kurdran, with a skill that Kurdran thought he had under control: his mouth. each one Kurdrans shouts was answered by something either mildly insulting or demeaning. The boy was clearly trying to break his spirit in multiple ways. "Come on, stop already! You are making this easier both of us if you stop!" "Well, I think it would be way easier for you to catch me if you went like a barrel and rolled!" "Maybe if you just took this little punishment like a man, instead of a baby I would not be in this mess!" "Oh, so that`s why you are so short! They tried to get you recruited to my group!" These continuous insults at his pride had him biting his lip...

And eventually, it was starting to get clear that he was becoming redder and redder. Not out of exhaustion or embarrassment, but outright frustration. He was starting to huff and puff and groan as he ran, every step being filled with anger and forcefulness. He was literally getting insulted by yet another sneaky fellow, who didn´t understand what a real confrontation was. The thing that was even more angering about it, was that he knew that this was a kid he was thinking about! He couldn`t beat him up whether he wanted to! There was nothing legendary about beating up kids!

As the kid dove into an alleyway again, this time Kurdran in his red angery self, seemed to have an idea. The boy had done this so many times before and he had always followed. So this time, he didn`t. He continued onwards on the road the boy had left, passing other ways to the alleyway, seeing the boy run past them as well, seemingly looking behind himself. Guess he was predicting this to just happen again, so he just calmed down chuckling and walked away...

When suddenly out of another alleyway near him, dove a big haired angry man, who pressed the boy on the ground and started shouting at him in clearly pure anger. "WE! ARE GOING! TO APOLOGIZE! OKAY!?" The boy shook in his boots... You could almost see Kurdrans hair rising up as his head moved around... the boy couldn`t help but nod in fear of getting hurt.

As he walked back towards the store, Kurdran had tugged the boy tightly under his arm, so his legs weren`t touching the ground. However, with each step, and the task done, Kurdran slowly started to feel better. He was even able to talk normally to the kid. "Look kiddo, stealings a bit nasty business, you get me? Its not the kind of stuff that makes you a living without getting in trouble..." "Yeah right, how would you know..." ...Kurdran couldn`t really say much back. Rest of the trip to the shopkeep was held in silence.

As the shopkeep saw Kurdran with the kid, it was clear he was all smug and happy about seeing the problem child picked up. He took the boy inside his store, from which Kurdran could feel echoing nasty words... And as the kid exited the store after the nasty lashing... Kurdran couldn`t help but feel guilty.

[WC=1010]