Puck grinned to himself as he carefully made his way down the dark stairwell. His eyes were better suited to the darkness than human vision was, but not so much that he didn't have to take care. "There has to be an inch of dust on that floor up there, with your petite little footprints all over it. The only thing that might have made you easier to track was a big neon sign flashing over your head."
The girl didn't respond. She was hidden from view in the darkness, in the alcove behind the stairwell; silently, she watched the shadow pass overhead as her pursuer descended the stairs. Stifling a small chuckle, Puck turned towards her hiding place nonetheless. Her breathing marked her position with relative ease. It also told him a lot about her state of distress. "I know you think I'm some kind of a headcase. You're really going to think I'm bugfuck nuts when I tell you why I'm chasing after you, but it's a damn good reason, trust me." He took a step towards her, and heard her breath catch as she realized he knew exactly where she was. Now that he was a little closer, he could make her shadowy form out in the darkness. "Look, kid, unless I'm really mistaken...which I almost never am....I'm the closest thing to family you've got around here."
"I don't have any family."
"Ah, see, but that's where you're wrong." He smiled his most reassuring smile. There was no doubt she couldn't see him, but he knew enough about people to know that the expression would show through in his voice. "I just need to take you with me, so I can run a few blood tests...but there's really no doubt in my mind who you are. I've been looking for you for a long time." He grinned a bit, making his way slowly closer to her hiding place. He was positive he'd blown his cover, chasing after her like that, but if he could just get her out of this basement soon, they could make it back to his ship and make a run for it. "You have no idea how long; the last time I saw you, you were a lot shorter. Bald and wrinkly, too. And kind of red, I'm glad to see you outgrew that." He was almost close enough to grab her, now; better to scare the shit out of her now, and both of them come out alive, than waste too much more time trying to cajole her into trusting him.
Still, he kept up the one-sided conversation, partly because he couldn't afford to give her too much time to consider escape, and partly because he found that he really couldn't quite escape the urge to explain himself. It probably wasn't going to help anything, she was still going to think he was completely insane, but it made him feel less like a lunatic to at least try. "I knew your parents, y'know. Well....I met your father. But I knew your mother, almost from the time she was born. I knew whose child you had to be the second I saw you." He paused, honesty weighing against his natural propensity towards the dramatic. "Well, okay, it took me a few seconds. It'd been a while, you'll have to pardon me not recognizing you right off....but really, there's nobody else's child you could be." And as far as Puck was concerned, that was true. He knew, now, why her bright blue eyes and the stubborn set to her jaw, the way she held herself and that ridiculously thick mop of blond hair had stricken him so deeply; in Puck's eyes, there were no other two parents in the universe who could have passed those exact traits on to their baby girl. Any tests he could run were nothing but a formality. After fifteen years of searching, Fate had definitely smiled on him, and the last thing he was going to do was let the opportunity get away....even if he could currently feel said opportunity glowering at him out of the darkness as if he were a flesh-eating ogre.
That was the last thing he remembered thinking before a ten pound dictionary struck him, first with a solid blow to the side of his head, then with a second, far more horrifyingly painful strike between his legs that sucked all the breath out of his lungs and left him a whimpering mess on the dusty floor.
Dropping the book, the girl barely gave him a glance as she stepped over his prone body; he tried to say something to stop her flight, he really did, but all that came out was a slightly strangled gurgling noise. "You were right about one thing," Holly called out as she bounded up the stairs two at a time. "I do think you're bugfuck nuts!"
******************************************************************************
I was sure I had never run so fast in my entire life. My legs burned, my lungs ached for air, and I propelled myself along so frantically that several times I nearly stumbled and fell. The pirate attack was waning now, at least, the explosions coming fewer and generally farther away, sounding a little like distant thunder as the pirates focused their attentions on the mines outside of town; I fled blindly through alleys almost without even seeing where I was headed, now that I no longer feared that the walls of the alley would suddenly come crashing down on top of me.
Ironically, that was almost exactly what happened.
The explosive charge struck the corner of one of the buildings, sending debris raining down around me like concrete hail. Smoke filled up my lungs and my eyes, blinding me. I couldn’t see, I couldn’t breathe, and I felt myself stumble, heard the sound of the rest of the brick wall crumbling, preparing to bury me completely—
--and almost in the same instant I was flung forward, almost like somebody had thrown me, and I found myself skidding an impossible distance down the length of the alley. My eyes were watering so much that I still couldn’t see, but I could breathe, and I wasn’t crushed…
When my vision finally cleared enough for me to raise my head, I looked over my shoulder and felt my stomach lurch. The place where I should have been was buried under a mound of brick and concrete, the entire mouth of the alley clogged with what used to be the wall of the local pawn shop. If I’d stayed there just a second or two longer…
I pushed myself up onto my knees carefully, rubbing gingerly at the ruins of my clothing and the scrapes that were dripping blood onto the ground. I could already feel some of the worst bruises starting to swell, and there was something warm and wet trickling down my cheek. But I was alive, when I really shouldn’t have been, or at least I should have been in a lot worse shape than I was. I told myself that it must have been the concussion from the blast that threw me out of harm’s way. I thought I remembered hearing about other people being saved that way, a seemingly miraculous rescue explained into the realm of plausibility by the laws of physics.
I didn’t even manage to convince myself.
I had more practical problems at the moment, though. Like the fact that there was, as far as I knew, still some lunatic chasing after me. I could hear somebody yelling in the distance; for all I really knew, it was one of the other people from town, calling out for a friend or loved one separated from them in the attack. But I knew, with my luck, I should probably assume it was said lunatic, so I took off again….albeit at a considerably slower pace.
That was the only reason why, when I rounded the corner and bounced off something soft and covered in fabric (and smelling faintly of something sweet), I managed not to fall on my ass.
"You seem to be bleeding all over my shoes, child." The man's voice was deep and richly amused, gloved hands automatically smoothing the wrinkles out of his clothing where I’d run into him. "Perhaps you'll let me help you with that...?"
