JCP: The messenger

"Chiiiiirreeeee!"

Tobias Finch, a short boy of twelve wearing a blinding white mask, swiveled his head to locate the sound.

"Chiiiiirrreeeeee!"

It was behind him. He tumbled off the roof he'd been lounging on and slid down a ladder that had been charred at the edges. He hit the ground with a roll and dusted the soot off his hands as he walked over to the boy standing at the corner. His mouth twitched into a smile underneath his mask. It was Bego, the stonemason's newest apprentice. Tobias had known him since he was young.

"What word, Bego?" The twelve year old asked the older boy. The strange bird-call meant that this was business.

"Naught for you." The apprentice replied, with a wide bright smile, holding up a letter. Bego was much taller than Finch, with that characteristic dark skin that most citizens of Dijbu had won through so many hours in the sun. His hair was black, braided close to his head, and he sported a single golden bead in his ear. Tobi stared at it enviously in silence, waiting for Bego to keep speaking. He had never liked to waste his words.

"Tch. Is Petran keeping a leash on your tongue now, too?" Bego asked, disappointed his friend hadn't replied.

"Another word and I'll gut you." Finch replied sharply, feeling a surge of anger on behalf of the leader of his gang. Petran had saved Tobi from death after he'd run from his home. He'd taught him to fly, to use the knife, to kill pigeons when the need was great. Tobias saw it as an obligation to keep his mentor's name unsoiled.

"Fine fine. Enough. This letter goes to the atiki man's office. The usual fee."

Tobias could smell the heat rising up from the ground. "In this sun? Neh, double. Atiki's office is farther'n you pay for usual."

Bego grumbled but handed over two identical silver coins. There was no better way to get letters across the city safely than hiring one of the city's birds. Even if the letter's contents wouldn't be confidential. The boy snatched the message from Bego's hand faster than the other boy could blink.

"Soli." Finch said in fair-well and jumped six feet, catching himself on the ladder he'd come down from. Dijbu was a sprawling metropolis, and the twelve year old knew every inch as well as he knew himself. He mapped out a path in his mind and began to run. Every step was as sure as the last, and with every jump, the wind carried him further than seemed possible. This high in the air, the currents were as strong as those deep under the ocean. He flew.

At the half-way point he stopped to catch his breath. Finch used the thin side of his knife to peel away the letter's seal and pulled it out. Letters to the mayor of Dijbu, called Atiki, were usually boring, but Petran insisted everyone read them.


"Atiki

Your shipment has arrived. Unless stated otherwise I will begin to shape them for the bathhouse.

-Jiro"


Tobi snorted and folded the letter, putting it back and laying it flat in the sun.The Atiki was crazy if he thought he could build a bathhouse in the middle of the desert.

The seal had softened and melted enough to look as if it hadn't been opened, and Finch was back on his way. He got to the office and slid to a halt on one of the nearby walls. He could technically walk in through the front gates, but Atiki's guards were bullies. It'd be more fun to give the old man a fright. Tobi grinned wickedly, making his way towards the large wall.

He wasn't halfway across when he heard the guards shouting. Without thinking twice he dropped and ran, diving into the first window of the office that he saw. The men inside yelled and he gestured at them rudely before making his way past the door, hear his feet slap loudly against the clean stone floors. The guards followed but Tobi was too fast-- that is until one of the men who saw him coming stuck out his foot and sent him crashing face first into the wall.

The guards caught up and grabbed him roughly. They were shouting, but Finch's ears were ringing and he couldn't hear them. He only noticed a change when a kind of tense silence descended.

"Who is this?" A crisp, clear voice enunciated.

"Answer him, boy!" The guards shook Tobi and ripped his mask off, showing  his tan face to a room of officials. His nose was bleeding and his bright green eyes stared at the floor defiantly. His hair had been bleached a dirty blond. Tobi spat blood onto the floor.

"Messenger." he drawled, looking up and into the eyes of a man who was much younger than he had anticipated. His instincts suddenly made him freeze. He felt a thrill of fear shoot up his spine as the man approached him and held out a  hand clad in more rings than it had fingers. Tobi gave him the letter.

"I am your new Atiki." The man said in a light tenor voice. "If I ever catch you in here again without going through the gates, I'll have my guards peel the skin from your back."

Tobi felt his mouth turn paper dry. The hands on his back loosened for a moment and he shot out of them, grabbing his mask and running back the way he had come faster than he thought possible. Behind him, he heard the words, "Let him go. He'll cause no trouble for us."

Maybe I wont. Finch thought, glad to be out of the cool rooms and back into the sun. But Petran? Petran will kill you.