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CHAPTER 1 - Genesis (continued) The figure kept walking. Liam and chuck let go of the woman, who ran towards me. The four thugs sorrounded the stranger, who was now in the midst of them. Hooded and cloaked, his head was down. But even through the cloak I could tell his stature was imposing. Over six feet tall, he turned his neck from left to right. Chuck was twirling a chain. Liam weilded a steel bar. A huge serrated knife was griped tightly by Carter. Lester was unarmed. He didnt need to be. He was over seven feet tall, and pure muscle. "And suppose we dont wanna leave?" Liam said, feeling cocky. The stranger raised his head, letting the hood fall back to drape around his neck. He was a black man, with short cropped hair. But the eyes. They were unlike any a man has ever seen on a human. He eyes glowed a fiery yellow. They looked more like a hawk's, avian as they were, than a man's. Lester paused. He'd never seen a black man with yellow eyes before. The rest began closing in. The woman and I watched. I wondered if I should lend a helping hand. The way the woman held on to my arm gave me reason for hesitation. But, after what happened next, it became a moot point. Liam swung first. The stranger dodged the attack, at the same time kicking Chuck in the chest. With a loud 'oof', Chuck fell back. Liam swung again, this time aiming for the head. An easy target to see, those yellow eyes. A harder target to hit. The stranger ducked. At the same time sothing shot out of the back of his cloak. "My word!", the woman said. It was a wing. I didnt know until later the color of it. At the time it did not matter. It hit Liam with the force of a gun in the legs. There was a wet cracking sound. Liam cried out in pain as he fell. I knew from the sound that both his legs were broken. He passed out from the shock. Chuck apparantly realized what happened too late. The other wing came out from hiding beneath the cloak. Again, he was hit in the chest. This time, the force lifted him up in the air, over into a clump of brush. The bushes stirred for a bit, then stopped. Chuck wouldn't be getting up. "You dont scare me!", Carter said, tossing the knife from hand to hand. I'd seen him use that blade before. Of the quartet, his reflexes were fastest. He was the best knife fighter in the Webstian Circle. The stranger made a 'come here' gesture. Carter obliged with a quickness. He sped towards the stranger, who at once put his wings around himself. Faster than my eyes could follow, Carter plunged the knife deep into the stranger's wings. The woman gasped, turning her head into my chest. I wanted to look away but couldn't. The stranger made not a sound. Instead, he grabbed Carter by the neck. He hit Carter repeatedly in the face. I could make out a liquid spurting with each blow. Blood. He threw Carter off to the side, who feel in a heap beside Liam. The stranger pulled out the blade from his wing. He looked it with a morbid curiosity. It was dripping with blood. His own. He tossed the knife away and turned to Lester. "And then there was one." With mighty flaps he rose in the air. His cloak floated to the ground. Lester , who had seen what just happened to his fellows, all armed, decided it wasn't worth it. He was unarmed. And, though he was bigger than the stranger, he didn't want to end up like the rest. "Leave me be!" He said, turning tail to run. He ran past the woman and me as if we were not there. I did get a chance to look in his eyes, though. He was scared. Big and muscular as he was, and he was afraid. I never saw Lester in the Webstian Circle again. "Are you two alright?" He asked, floating to us. "Yeah", I said. It took everything in me to maintain composue, this being my first time in the presence of a winged man. "What about you? You took a nasty stab." "I'm fine." The stranger said. His voice just as serious as when he fought Liam and his gang. I looked at his wing. The one Carter stabbed. There was no wound. Only a splotch of blood to mark where the entry spot was. His wings were huge. Off white in color, with brown spots here and there. Combine those with yellow, avian eyes and the face of a black man who didn't smile, and it made for one incredible first impression. "Who are you?!" The woman asked. Her words echoed my thoughts. "I am Grymn."
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