A corpse had been lying on the road since morning and no one paid it the slightest bit of attention. Sunlight shone on it brightly, illuminating the flies and birds scavenging upon its spilled guts and organs.
Xena Mirelli stepped over it without a second thought.
People walked around it, unbothered. A merchant even set up a small shop a few metres away, shouting offers over the smell of rot as if nothing was wrong.
No one could keep count of the amount of dead bodies they had seen, nor did they want to. In the Undercity, bodies were just another obstacle on the road.
"20 coppers per serving of soup! Best soup in the city, I tell you!"
The smell of food drew hungry eyes from every direction. Xena ignored it. Twenty coppers was three days' worth of food if she was lucky. One man reached for a bowl, but a sickly woman cradling a thin child slapped him away.
"Wait in line like the rest," she spat at him, her eyes sunken yet fierce.
The man lost his footing and stumbled down to the ground, causing grime to cling to his freshly cleaned tunic. Pulling himself off the ground, his face went beet-red in anger at the mess on his clothes.
Just as he clenched his fist and began to raise it, he noticed the cold gazes that some bystanders were sending his way. They said nothing, but their hands edged nearer to sheathed weapons as he stepped closer to the woman.
Deciding to let it go, the man dusted himself off and disappeared into an alleyway, failing to notice the shadow trailing right after him.
Xena had watched the entire exchange in silence, her face unreadable. She was watching even now as the man pulled out cigarette and flicked open his lighter.
She emerged behind him, her fingertips brushing the knife at his belt before settling on the coin pouch.
By the time he took his first puff, everything of value was gone. Xena was already stepping out of the alley when he realised what had happened.
The man reached into one pocket and then the next.
"No..."
His calloused hands flew over every inch of his tunic, growing more frantic with each empty pocket. When he found nothing, his face drained of colour.
"It's gone," he whispered.
The whisper became a flinching roar.
"IT'S GONE!"
The thief that had just robbed him didn't bother looking back. The desperate cries of her victims were something Xena had grown used to. But then another voice joined the commotion. And another.
Soon those voices started shouting towards her. Heavy boots thudded against cobblestones, signalling that multiple people were in the victims party.
"She went that way!"
Xena frowned. If she could hear their footsteps then they sure weren't far behind, and she didn't want to see what would happen once they caught up, so she broke out into a sprint.
Minutes passed and still she had not shaken her aggressors off her tail. Tiny beads of sweat glistened on her brow.
'Seven blights!'
What do those fuckers want?!'
Xena's foot pushed off hard against the floor as she raced down the street at full speed, shoving past startled passerbyers.
Vaulting herself over a pile of crates, she kicked them back into her pursuers to buy some much needed time.
Wrapped in tight black clothing and an oversized, tattered jacket, she was equipped with the perfect combination for quick and unpredictable movements. The wind pushed her hair behind her back in a flurry of light brown strands and hit her eyes directly, causing them to water.
It would have been a nice, peaceful, sunny day if she weren't currently being chased by a mob of people trying to brutally dismember her.
A gap had formed between her and them, offering a sliver of protection.
"FUCK! HURRY UP!"
"BREAK HER LEGS IF YOU HAVE TO!"
"GET IT BACK!"
The angry shouts rang through the alleyways of the Undercity from the group of thugs running after her, each voice growing fainter the longer the chase went on.
Xena didn't even know what had set them on her trail, whether it was something she'd taken, someone she'd crossed, or simply the misfortune of being in the wrong place and at the wrong time.
'What did I take?'
Thoughts raced in her head about the reason for the pursuit. Half of her brain was focused on the present situation while the other half pondered on what detail she must have missed.
'No.
There must've been a mix-up.
They've gotten the wrong person.'
Her pride stopped her from double-checking her actions. Xena had always kept a cool head and never made any mistakes or slip-ups, so she refused to let that streak end now.
Behind, the men's breath came in short huffs and wheezes of air, hearts beating so fast that some of them thought it might burst out of their chests.
But Xena's footsteps were silent, and so was her breathing, giving no sign of exhaustion even after going at full speed for far longer than logically possible.
She turned sharply into a different alleyway. Two gamblers playing poker barely moved as she sprinted past, causing her to shove between them. She was met with a dead end on the other side.
Only a few handful of paces remained between her and her pursuers, the distance lessening with every heartbeat.
'Shit!'
Frantically twisting her head, she spotted a nook in one of the walls and latched on, violently pulling herself up. A hand grabbed the back of her jacket. Xena twisted wildly and tore free, leaving a strip of fabric in the thug's fist.
Sweat dripped down her temple, but she didn't slow.
With her nimble body, she scaled it fast and soon made it to the top. The rest of the group reached the wall seconds later, but none were agile enough to follow.
From then on, the distance between them steadily widened until Xena vanished from sight. A few minutes later she decided she'd finally put enough ground between herself and the thugs.
She sank onto the rooftops, allowing herself to pant and shudder, her body trembling with the aftershock.
Only now that she was out of sight did she let weakness show, because letting others see her falter was a mistake she couldn't make. Here in the Undercity, one hint of vulnerability was all it took.
Staring at the ground before her as waves of pain washed over her, a faint sense of déjà vu crept in.
It was times like this that reminded her of when she was younger, fending for herself on the streets—of the night she was cornered by a notorious gang after foolishly staying out too late.
Bruises, cuts and broken bones, she got them all.
And after suffering for a few hours, she got a truly brilliant idea. Couldn't she just push the pain away?
Another memory surfaced like a shark attack.
Boots slamming into her ribs hard enough to break bones.
Laughter.
So much laughter.
"Stay out of our territory, little rat."
Xena buried the memory the same way she buried the pain.
It might've been unfair for such things to happen, but it wasn't like she had the power to do anything about it. She wanted that to change.
Over time, she trained her body to ignore useless things like her exhaustion or her agony.
Xena closed her eyes and let it gnaw at her muscles until all that remained was the slight shake in her legs.
'Enough.'
Returning to her previous state, she got on her feet and scanned the area. A small, cozy home made of brick appeared from behind a couple of bigger constructs, perfectly hiding it from public view.
It was a place she knew well.
There was no space for a proper door, so a small entrance had been cut into the corner of the roof instead.
Xena relaxed slightly as she leapt across the rooftops, careful not to draw attention from the streets below.
The closer she got, she found that she could hear the light clicking of footsteps on floorboards. Peeking her head inside she was met with an old, dark-skinned woman who had grey hair and warm eyes. It was her Grandma Meyna, or Mimi for short.
She had lived with Mimi for as long as she could remember.
When her own parents threw her aside like trash, it was Mimi who picked Xena up and gave her a home, it was Mimi who taught her how to defend herself and attack when necessary, it was Mimi who nurtured her into the young woman she was today, and Xena would never forget it.
She rarely let anyone get close to her, but Mimi would always hold a special place in her heart.
The delicious smell of homemade stew entered her nose the second she moved into the house. On a battered stove in the small area that they called a kitchen stood a pot full of food. Mimi hovered near it, checking on its condition every few moments.
Then she noticed Xena standing just a few meters away. Her face lit up with joy as she rushed toward her granddaughter.
"Where have you been! It's so good to see you safe, baby girl."
A smile crept on Xena's face when she heard these words, and while they embraced each other for a few seconds, her mind worked overtime trying to figure out how to break the news that she had been chased down.
"Ahem." She cleared her throat nervously. "I...I got into a bit of a scuffle today."
"What!?! What did you do?" Mimi pulled back from the hug with a frown.
"See here's the thing, I don't...actually...know." Xena drawled out.
Unsatisfied with the dry response, Mimi patted her down to search for anything important Xena might have accidentally taken. Her hand hit something solid in the left pocket - a piece of unusually sturdy paper.
'When did that get here?' Xena thought.
"What's this?" she muttered, pulling out the scrap of paper.
Mimi turned it over once, then twice. The surface was thicker than ordinary parchment, almost like thin metal.
"Just something I grabbed during the scuffle," Xena spoke unusually quickly.
Mimi studied it for a second longer than necessary before handing it back. "Strange thing to grab at a time like that."
She moved back over to the stew and gave Xena a chance to catch her breath.
'Geez. That was a close one. But seriously, why were those people chasing me for so long?'
Tucking the object back into her pocket, Xena paused. The paper felt faintly hot in her hands, almost as if it had been sitting in the sun.
'Weird...but today's already been insane.'
Dismissing the strange feeling, she walked to her room. A narrow hallway stretched down the middle of the house with doors leading to each room on the side.
There were no spare cabinets or carpets. Gods knew they couldn't afford such things.
Only four rooms were built in the quaint little home. A combined kitchen/dining room, two small bedrooms and a dusty bathroom. Xena didn't dare use the bath to wash herself as water didn't even come out of it.
Instead, a strange, stinky brown liquid squirted out in large bursts. She had learnt that lesson the hard way.
Thinking back on it now made her retch, and knowing the amount of disgusting muck that had built up inside the pipe, she was surprised she hadn't gotten ill.
None of the rooms were in good condition and had faults here and there, but it was the best that they could hope for in the place that they lived in.
Her movements slowed as she flopped down onto her bed, taking a few moments to process everything that had happened in the past hour.
'Oh, what the hell.'