Hadric had always enjoyed the night market for it has always appeared to be the kind of place where disharmony and struggle stayed outside, where people left their thoughts about the distant past and the far future behind in order to focus on the present, to banter or even just to talk to each other. Even for someone who considered himself to be a longer in comparison to many others, this kind of atmosphere below the pale moon's night had its own attractivity hard to find elsewhere.

Yet these days were gone. The sudden change in atmosphere across Lunidio clearly coincided with its new ruler's rise to power, but from a rather austere point of view, Hadric had difficulties blaming the prince for this all alone. Instead it seemed to be the people following him and his proclaimed intentions all too willingly. Didn't they think ? Had they just made their minds stop working ? It almost felt like a betrayal: Had all the calmness and happyness he had experienced on this market for many months prior been nothing but a facade, a thin outer crust hiding the ugly truth ?

Speaking of ugly, this late evening cleary fell into that category as well. Hadric had not come here with any intention to get involved into fighting, but lycanthropes could smell each other and the pack mentality had somehow taken over. He had become involved into the fighting too, throwing his not exactly humble self into the struggle. The rational part of his mind said no, but the social part said yes: What kind of fellow werewolf would he have been had he just kept to his own business and tried to ignore the mess around him ?

Hadric had been about to deliver a hook to the chin of a vampire he had not really seen before but who seemed to be just as eager as him to keep going when they both heard the sudden shout. Over all the turmoil, the words were difficult to pick out even with sensitive hearing, but the fragments that got through were enough to cast sufficient doubt on whether things should proceed as they were. The two combatants canceled their next moves and turned their heads to look at whom was shouting.

Another bloodsucker, Hadric thought. Great.

[color=yellow]"Who's asking ?"[/color] the lycanthrope's dark voice hollered across the market. Now maybe this particular individual actually had some good intentions, but Hadric's expectations were not exactly high at this point. If only this pale individual would not actually start using his fancy sword, otherwise... things would probably escalate even more quickly than his boiling werewolf blood would have liked at this point.