It wasn’t the most pleasant day to be out and about in the city; dark clouds hung overhead, the humidity levels were quite uncomfortable, and the air was thick and almost oppressive. Nevertheless people went about their daily lives and in the modern steel forest thousands of people passed one another without incident. Yet between the tall buildings, in the alleys they created, there was something something happening that wasn’t quite the usual. 

A young tanned man with dreadlocks, quite an eye-catching hairstyle in this country, jogged through the backstreets. Most probably would have thought his clothes to be too thick for the weather, but Alam found comfort in the thick hoodie and jeans. He jogged at a brisk pace and despite the maze that was the city's backstreets he navigated it in a manner that spoke of experience or perhaps just natural intuition. His pursuers, a half a dozen or so boys, didn’t have that advantage and the distance between him and their group steadily grew. Yet Alam didn’t give them a moment’s pause to catch up - he just kept on running.

He had stopped muttering his mantra of, “Crap, crap, crap, crap,” a while ago, after it became clear he wasn’t in danger of losing the lead he had on the boys. Still… they were persistent if anything and Alam didn’t know if he should feel annoyed or impressed. For one reason or another, generally because of his appearance, a few people had seen him as a target after the move to the city. Yet most of them tended to back off after he put up a fight, or simply give up after it became clear he was quite the runner. These high schoolers seemed pretty hell bent on paying him back for the broken nose he had given their buddy though. 

And as much as Alam enjoyed a good fight, a five against one was a great plan to end up at the doctor’s or worse. With that in mind, Alam had bolted immediately after he had smashed the one’s face in with his knuckle duster. It was annoying how he couldn’t go more than a week or two without running into or having trouble come looking for him. He kept his mouth shut and didn’t tell his parents though, he could manage it so far and they didn’t need to deal with anymore stress. The jobs that had moved them to the city was more than enough.

Alam was so lost in thought that he very nearly ran past a turn he needed to make and into a dead end, only realizing thanks to the sudden flash of light to his side. There was an awkward stumble forwards from his sudden stop, but it was better than the faceplant that might have happened instead. He backtracked towards the turn carefully, there was an odd, green glow to the ground around it. Peeking around, he noted quickly enough that, yes, the air was in fact glowing green just past the wall he needed to climb. He rubbed his eyes furiously, blinking quickly, but when he checked again the glow was still there and now he swore there were small glowing particles drifting upwards. 

[b]“What…”[/b]

There wasn’t really another appropriate response to the situation in Alam’s mind and despite the rational part of his mind that argued he should just make a detour, his curiosity would not be so easily deterred. He ran forward and jumped for the ledge as usual, fingers finding purchase before slowly hauling himself up and onto of the wall. He didn’t know what he expected to find, but what he saw only made Alam even more confused. There was… a magic circle? He didn’t have anything better to describe what the array on the ground below him was, and it certainly resembled what he saw in games and shows. It was right then and there that Alam just stopped to observe and decide to get the hell out; dealing with a few high schoolers was much preferable to getting involved with whatever was happening here.

When he shifted around to hop off the wall and back track some more though, he nearly smacked something in the face. [b]“Woah!”[/b] Scrambling backwards, he was exceptionally careful not to throw himself off either side of the wall in surprise; one would do god knows what, while the other would just hurt like hell. Now that there was some distance between him and it, Alam got a better look at what had nearly given him a heart attack. A dark furred dog with purple eyes stared at him, and if the whine it made was anything to go by, Alam would have swore the canine was disappointed. “Wha-” he began only to be cut off the dog hopped off the wall and onto the side without the “magic circle”. Raising an eyebrow, he stared for a moment before he smacked himself on the forehead and shook his head, marvelling at his silliness. 

Tempting fate wasn’t really a good idea.

Before he could even finish the thought of, [i]‘Really, who would make the connection between a ran-’[/i] the damn dog hopped back onto the wall, only this time it seemed to like the spot where Alam was. The problem was… well the wall wasn’t big enough for the two of them, and lost in his thoughts, there wasn’t much Alam could do except tip over and off the wall. Not to say he didn’t make a vain attempt to save himself, but off balance and surprised he didn’t even come close. The last thing he swore he saw before he was swallowed was the damn dog grinning at him.