Fortunes in Italy

"Where am I" mumbled Duke as she pushed her way through the crowded city.
"At this rate I won't make it back to the Guild in time for the spring festival."
She had walked with the flow of the crowd and was now nearing the centre of the city. She looked around herself at the tall ornate buildings that towered over the streets and alley ways.
"This place is huge." she gasped. She looked straight ahead and saw a building that dwarfed the others in size and shamed them in décor. The church.
She was lost in thought, when she was suddenly knocked to the ground. She struggled to her feet and looked up.

The crowd kept moving, studiously ignoring her. Until one individual in a long balck duster stepped out of the flow of people and towards duke.
"You ok? I didnt catch the guy that pushed you but id check your pockets, apparently Naples is now a hub for theives, I had three try mine on the way in, they wont be trying it again in a hurry" He spoke in a flat, non expressive tone which gave the clear impression he was not here to make friends.
He helped her to her feet "just show them you mean business and they'll back off"
He turned to walk back into the crowds.

Duke checked her pockets and found that she was not missing anything.
"Hey," she shouted, "Wait up." He seemed to know where he was going; perhaps he could help her get back to Venice. If she was really lucky he could even be going past that way.
She pushed through the crowd in the direction he was headed. Hopefully she could find him again, but it would be like trying to find a needle in a hay stack.

Lock chuckled, that girl would be hard pressed to find him again in this. He could see her jostling her way through the masses, vainly trying to catch up. It was a pity he had stopped at the nearest cafe and bought a newspaper, if she found him now she deserved too.
Still... she showed promise.
In different circumstances he would have waited for her, but there were places to go, people to kill, things to recover. He was entirely too busy. He took another slow sip of his coffee. Much too busy.

"This is getting me nowhere." Duke grumbled. Her feet were sore and she was tired. She thought she saw him once or twice, but it had turned out to be someone else. She had, had just about enough.
She made her way to a cafe, and sat down. She needed a break, plus her tummy had started to growl at her. Her mind wandered to the spring festival, the paper lights drifting on the pond, the warm food and cold drinks, the friendly faces of everyone in the guild. She just hoped she wouldn't miss it.
Her thoughts were interrupted by her tummy growling at her again.
I know you're hungry she thought, just wait!
She picked up a menu and read through the choices. She decided to try a warm cheese tart. She turned to call for the waiter when she noticed someone sitting a few tables away. It was that man again

Lock didnt let his surprise show, it must have been simply coincidental that she had picked this cafe.
He waved politely... then jumped out the window that he had deliberatly sat infront of for this very purpose. The window overlooked a one story drop onto a canvas shop overhang, he slid off and was back on the street once more. He found the busiest looking crowd he could see and joined it, he had probably spent too long in the cafe anyway. He made his way slowly north always moving with, not against, the crowd. He needed to get to the Northern most point of the city, that was where his items to be recovered were currently resting, unless they had been moved of course.

Duke just grinned. He had been in such a rush to get out the window he had forgotten his bag. She ran over and picked it up, then jumped out of the window as well. Lucky for her, she had trained at the Assassins Guild for the past ten years, and scaling buildings, was not only her best skill, but also her favourite past-time.
She decided to run across the roof tops, as there would be far less people on them, then on the streets below. She caught sight of the mysterious man and followed him from the roofs.

Lock glanced up Damn shes persistant he abandodned the crowd and began scaling a building himself, he reached the top just as she reached the building opposite. "well played, now may I have my bag back. It contains a few items I will be needing shortly"
He could see her face clearly and she gave a dramatic impression of thinking carefully, beofre giving a feindish grin "Only if you help me out, you forgot your bag, I found it for you. You owe me"
"You may have a point, but it all depends on what I will be doing, I have a few pressing matters to atend to"
She made her way nimbly towards his roof so that could conduct business without shouting.

She reached the building, only to dodge a swipe for the bag. She hopped out of his reach and giggled.
"Now that’s not playing fair."
"My apologies, though it was worth a shot." he said, without expression. His emotions did not show on his face
"All I want" Duke explained, "Are some directions to Venice." She started to blush, it was all quite embarrassing. "You see, I'm a little bit lost. In fact i have no idea where I am. I just wandered into the region and stowed away on a wagon. When I reached its destination I hopped out and got swept away with the crowd. So if you would be so kind as to tell me at least where I am.”

"That" he said with faint surprise "must have been some wagon trip, You are in Naples"
He didnt expect any relpy, and he didnt get one. Naples was definatly a long way from Venice.
He felt sorry for the young girl, but still...
"I wish I could help further but like I told you, Im busy. Now may i have my bag back?"
He held out one hand and waited

"Thank you for letting me knows where I am, but that isn't a big help. This is my first time here and I need some supplies before I leave the city. It would be difficult enough to find the shops around here, with the large crowd and all, but I don't know where the shops are, I also have to find the way out of the city and the direction in which to travel, but I’m on a schedule. I have to be back in Venice before the second Sunday of spring.” She starting thinking of a solution and, subconsciously, pulled out a knife and started fiddling with it.
The man looked tense and pulled out a gun. Duke didn't even notice, she was deep in thought, hoping to think of a way out of the city.
Then an idea popped into her head, she turned to find the man pointing a gun at her head, and she was shocked. She looked down and saw the knife in her hands. She blushed embarrassedly, and put the knife away.
"I'm sorry I fiddle when I'm thinking. And I’ve just thought of something.”

He followed her lead and also put his weapon away "My apologies, there are people trying to kill me and I cant afford to take chances or lose time"
He stopped her as she was about to begin talking again "Ill help you if you help me, you work off that principle dont you? I already answered your question so you owe me a bag. If you want my help getting you out of the city and back to Venice, you have to help me with something first"
As he looked at her she noticed his eyes, they were a dark red. And they were cold. He did not look like a man who had time to haggle on a deal.

"Okay I'll help you." she said "But on one condition."
Her face turned serious and stony.
"You tell me" she paused for dramatic effect "Your name."
A cheeky grin spread across her face and she giggled helplessly.

He couldnt hide a smile at that rediculous statement. He bagan to laugh full and pure, his entire demeanour changing with it
His eyes were no longer cold when he looked back at her "I think you and I will get along swimingly madam, you may call me Mister Lock, or Mister or Lock or any other variation you can think up" his face went serious, still bright, but serious "what I will ask you to help me with probably wont be legal, so dont answer with your name unless you are ready to get your hands dirty"

"I lived on the streets for five years, and was adopted by the Assassins Guild. Don't worry I'm used to 'not quite legally' situations, I’ll be fine." she extended a small hand in greeting.
"My name is Duke".

"Its a pleasure Duke" he shook her small hand is his larger one
"But a word from the wise, dont reveal to much about yourself until you actually know someone, otherwise itll come back to haunt you" His eyes were distant for a moment and then he was back "But enough of that, follow me, i'll fill you in on the way"
He walked confidently along the rooftops, Duke scampering about gaily and getting under foot, not that he minded, it was rare to find someone so full of life and her energy gave him determination
"A consideralbe ammount of time ago I had a friend, not the sharpest tool in the shed but the friendliest, now he has since past on, but he didnt do so peacefully. He was murdered. I only found this out recently, and on top of that his grave was robbed. Now that, as you could imagine, erks me somewhat"
The way he said it left no doubt in her mind that "erks" was a severe understatement
"The murderer and robber were one and the same, this man isnt human either, hes a pseudo-vampire" her puzzled expression stoped him "I mean to say he is a conterfit vampire, he took a rare and dangerous concoction of alchemic mixtures in order to give himself limitless life. It came at a cost..." The sun was begining to set and the wind was cold on the roofs, he gave a soft chuckle "dramatic scenery for such a topic dont you think?" duke punched his arm in a "get on with it you plonker" sort of way "errr.. right... it cost him, he has to feed of human flesh in order to maintain the formula, he also has severe alergic reations to high levels of vitamin D, which the body gets from..."
"sunlight" duke piped in
"yes sunlight, among other things. This is why we dub people like him pseudo-vampires"

A shiver ran down Duke's spine "It's chilling, thinking about the supernatural. I've somewhat been oblivious to it all. I spent ten years surrounded by humans and five years surrounded by no one. I had almost forgotten about things like that. In the Guild we don't talk about those sorts of things. Only in stories"
She looked at Lock he seemed to be far away, deep in thought. She thought it best to stop talking so much.

"I think we sould find a room to let for tonight" His gun was drawn, hidden in the folds of his jacket as the wind blew it about, but she saw the way his arm was positioned so she knew that it was there, Lock was looking into the darkness, apparently seeing something she didnt.
"And I mean imediatly"
There was a scuttling noise, like the sound of long nails on tiles, it was not far away.
Lock leaped off the building to a terrace below with Duke hot on his heels, knife in hand, a door opened and light streamed out and a man called them inside quickly
"you fools, get inside. Its dangerous at night around this time of year"
He slammed the door shut behind them and slid home a heavy wooden stopper
"people go missing, how can you be so stupid?"
"Please accept my apologies and my gratitude"
"Forget it, forget it. Theres always one or two young idiots like yourselves. They are usually the ones taken.... no no dont get up to leave, theres a spare room out the back, you can use it for tonight"
Lock thanked the man once more and led Duke to the allocated room, as he left he saw the man pick up an old rusty rifle and sit at the door.
The room was small, with only one bed and a small table
lock didnt even consider the bed he simply rolled up his vest for a pillow and used his jacket as a blanket. Duke didnt argue and jumped onto the bed.

Duke had only just woken up. She strapped her weapons back on and ran her fingers through her hair to flatten it. The room was empty. She walked out into the main living area to find Lock talking to the man. Duke walked up to them.
"You two should be more careful, you could get killed out there at night. You’re just lucky I heard you, other wise you might have had an unpleasant encounter." said the man.
"Thank you so much for letting us stay the night." she bowed to show gratitude. “We are very grateful."
"Well just remember that’s its dangerous."
"We will keep that in mind. Thank you again for your hospitality, but we should be going now." Said Duke, politely.

Lock nodded his farewell and the two of them walked back onto the terrace and back onto the rooftops
"Its best if we dont fight him on his terms, he is old and very cunning. What we need is to lure him out and ambush him"
They walked in silence for a while until Lock spoke "If you want to back out now, this might be your only chance, because from now on we are the hunters"

"Back out?" She mocked shock. "And leave you defenceless." she giggled
After a while her face turned serious.
"I'm sorry, I'll try to be more serious, but you're talking to a trained assassin remember. I trained for ten years in the art of stealth, medicine and poisons, evasion, sword play, fist fighting and other forms of self defence." she said
"Oh and archery. That reminds me, I would like to buy a bow and some arrows. I didn't think I would need them until know."

"You can leave the ranged combat to me, its my speciallity"
He took a deep breath
"Now theres no easy way to ask this but im going to get you to act as decoy, my plan is for us to set up an encounter in which you lead him into a narrow street where movement is inhibited and then I take him out. I wont be too far away in case he does something unexpected, but i will need you to be able to fight him one on one until i arrive. If he dosnt take the bait or if he brings company, you will need to hold them off until I can move into a postion to back you up"
They continued walking while Lock discussed contingencies and locations. It was mid after noon when they stopped by a cafe for lunch
"So what do you think?" asked Lock "Did you have any stratagies you wanted to discuss?"

"I'm not so good at strategies and stuff. But I can hold my own in combat." she said. They sat down at a table.
"Now I can finally have the warm cheese tart I wanted. Last time I ordered one you jumped out a window." Duke's tummy growled.
"Oh shut up!" she yelled. Her face went red with embarrassment. "Um... sorry, we've been disagreeing lately. It won't stop growling at me!"

Lock shook his head, smiling "youd be surprised how often that happens to me Duke"
They ordered their food and ate with gusto "So the plan is settled then?"
Duke nodded, unable to speak through the massive tart and Lock could only laugh
"alright then, tonight we kill a monster"
they clinked their glasses and smiled at each other

The alley was dark. Really dark. This did not frighten Duke. What did frighten her was the thought of being bait to a big, powerful, flesh eating monster.
She waited, not daring to move. Then noises, far off getting closer. The monster was prowling for prey.
The moon was just over head casting shadows, and then from the shadows it came. It walked slowly forward, inch by inch. Then it tensed ready to pounce. Duke remained still, and then it leapt forward. Duke easily dodged it, as it was not expecting a little girl to move so quickly. It leapt again this time ready for her.
She ran straight at a wall, and up it. She flipped over the things head and landed behind it, dealing a hard blow to the back of its head with her fist.
It turned sooner then Duke expected, and raked, what seemed to be claws, across her arm. She ignored the cuts and unwound her chain whip, things were getting serious. She shot the weighted tip forward and it dug into the things arm. It screamed. She quickly pulled out the sharp point and swung the chain close to her body, so as not to hit the wall of the tight alley.