Charlie Ewing certainly had no intention of sticking around to be beaten to an unregonizable lump. Swiftly he elbowed the man who was attempting to use him as a meat shield in that oh-so-special place just between the curve of the ribs and struggled to break free.

Beefman stared at Viktor with an incredulous huff. Then another. Then he roared, spit flying from his mouth and veins pumping in his strained neck. He tapped the sword on the ground like a club, grunting his breaths as he turned red in the face.

"GIVE 'IM TO ME!" The massive hulk of a man thundered, beginning to run at Viktor, building up momentum as he went, sword lifted above his head.

Behind Charlie, the wirey man made a wheezing expulsion of air, collapsing in a breathless heap.

"You...clock...stopper!" He gasped, groaning as he began to crawl, broken arm dragging limply along the ground. A panting pathetic crying whined from him as he tried to escape the rolling onslaught if it got past the blacksmith.

Freed from the weedy little man at last, Charlie felt a renewed sense of vigor and self-preservation. The absolute last thing he thought he'd be doing was running after Havek and the child, but that was exactly what he did. Charlie Ewing ran like his life depended on it-- which was not entirely untrue. "I hope he breaks your other arm!" Charlie shouted as he passed, pelting headon into the crowd trying to catch up to the wicks.

Havek was like an excruciatingly polite little gazelle. Long-legged leaps over downed bodies and abandoned fishes, muttered apologies to the handful left standing as he plucked his way through. The vision of the open street might have been like seeing Hulali himself. It was like being able to breathe again.

Now freed, his legs ached to carry him away swiftly. Run, run away, go to work like a responsible adult, never get drawn in to stupid decisions by the sweet smell of fish flesh again. He almost did, was two steps into it before his mind strayed back to the tiny witch. What few morals that still lingered in him bristled to attention. He cast an exasperated eye up to the cloud-thick sky before shuffling over to where the grizzled husk of a pirate and the tiny girl were gathered.

He towered over Aye, peering down at her with all the concern.. The concern might have been difficult to spot, however. That one eye was hard pressed to show any emotion at all, and Havek looked more like a gaunt carrion bird than the protective mama hen he was inside.

He extended a hand.

“Let me look at your nose, please.” Spoken quiet, maybe muffled by the Beefman’s renewed shouting. He didn’t have much concern for the blacksmith, not really. Let foolish men fight their battles, he thought. So long as it kept trouble off his own back, that’s all that mattered.

There was a hitch across his face when he heard the thunk of nearing boots behind him. A slow glance over his shoulder, a twitch fluttering across his cheek. His flat glower flickered up to Sparkles.

“Make that,” he gestured vaguely to Charlie, “go away, please.”

"Hm?" Sparkles had been distracted by the fight. He was on the verge of cheering for the big fellow when Havek spoke to him. He glanced up and noticed the golly on his way over, "Ah, sure."

He made it to Charlie just as he came bursting out of the crowd. In a quick step of surprising grace, he whipped Charlie's right arm up over his head and held it in his right, and wrapped his own hooked left arm around his back, narrowly avoiding piercing his side, "Ack, y'made it out! Less'go f'r'a drink o' celebration, hmm?" He started walking down the boardwalk toward one tavern or another, trying to take Charlie along with him.

She nodded at Sparkles when he set her down, and looked up at Havek when he walked over. It seemed silent for a long time, him staring down at her, her staring up at him, looking over at the mob a few times, and then back to him, until he spoke. It had actually only been maybe a few seconds, but time is different to children.



She nodded and went to move her hand, but the blood had dried and stuck her hand to her face. She had to carefully peel her fingers away from her nose, wincing a few times as they bumped it wrong.



She looked over at Charlie and watched Sparkles try to drag him away, moving her fingers around, trying to scrape off some of the dried blood with her other hand.

"Oi!"

Charlie was not particularly pleased with the filthy pirate laying hands on his person. For one thing, he did not wish to be any more diseased than he was already. For another, Sparkles had managed to grab the arm that had been grazed by a clocking bullet. Not his favorite place to be touched today.

"Don't you fucking touch me you deranged codger!" He snarled and thrashed, the sting in his arm making him more vicious. Why did everyone want to grab onto him today? He wanted a drink, sure, but not with someone like Sparkles and not when he was being dragged by his injured arm after just wriggling out of the grasp of a different godsdamn human.

Viktor gripped his hammer in his right hand, the muscles in his arm tightened. It was almost too easy, the fool was committed to the overhead swing leaving his entire body open for attack. Given the man's speed, an attack against the stomach or legs would leave him in a heap.

Vik ran forward to close the distance and slid on his knees. His hammer swung up at the Beefman's lower abdomen. A solid strike should bring the man down in a flash. If it landed.

Sparkles didn't release Charlie-- in fact, his wiry hand grasped him all the tighter. He prodded his hook in Charlie's side indicating that any struggle would be met with a good hard poke.

"Ach, now, try'n relax," Sparkles eyed him in warning, "An' jus' come 'long all nice-like. I'll even buy th'firs' roun'. 'Ow's'at sound, hm?"

He grinned at Charlie, completely unworried about the fact that the golly could blast him where he stood.

Havek blinked over at Sparkles and Charlie for a few long moments. Whether this turn of events amused him or not, it was hard to tell. Havek didn’t seem like the type to crack a smile at anything. Without a word, he sank to his knees in front of the girl. Even from there, he had to stoop down awkwardly to get at a good level to view her nose.

Of course, he didn’t like what he saw. It was broken, that much was painfully obvious. A hard swell along the right side, the slight bruises forming under her eyes, the wave rippling down the bridge. She’d busted it alright. Busted it hard.

There was a small part of him that thought just to reach out and re-break the bones, shift the cartilage back into place with bare fingers – but he had nothing on hand to set it with it, and he wasn’t too keen on the idea of manhandling a little girl’s face. Maybe she had parents stationed in the outskirts of the harbor, among that colorful coterie of kints? Perhaps. She could run on home to them, but it wouldn’t be too pleasant. He called up the all too familiar spell, still fresh and clean in his mind though it had gone a few months unused.

“This won’t hurt.” He’d muttered these words almost as a preamble to the spell so many times, one might think they were inscribed into the the monite itself. It was a lie.

The dark bird of his hand fluttered up and touched her nose before Havek quietly recited the monite for Big Fix. She'd be grateful for this later. Surely.

...maybe.

As Vik came towards the Beefy onslaught, a crazed grin came over the huge mans face. He began to swing, grin turning to confusion as the smithy dropped down under him and pelted his hammer into the soft underside of his belly. A sound not unlike beating tough steak came from the connetion, and Beefman made a loud sucking gasp. Stumbling, he crashed fowards, sword skidding away and blood spewing from his mouth. Lifting himself on all fours, the giantesque man turned to Viktor, spit and blood dripping from his chin, eyes wide.

"TEAR...YOU...Uuuhhh..." He croaked, standing in a crouch and moving towards the smithy with intentions of pulling those godsbedamned arms from their sockets and beating the man to death with them.

---

As the spell weaved its wick magic, Aye would taste cherries and dried fish, before she would feel a sharp and very intense pain in her nose, followed by the pop and crack as the cartlige slipped back into place. It felt worse than having it broken, but at least it was fixed.

Aye swallowed hard when he looked at her nose, she was afraid of what it looked like. The way she had hit the ground, it couldn't have been good.

"Is it too--..", she didn't get to finish before Havek spoke.



She nodded, a grave look on her face. Her eyes brightened when she realized he was using magic, oh how she wanted to learn it! She blinked and wrinkled her nose when he touched it, which she immediately regretted, that had hurt. She grimaced.

The taste of cherries was good, But the fish taste didn't go well with them. She was just thinking of how she now wanted a cherry, When pain cut her thoughts off and made her grit her teeth.

"Ugh!"

Her nose cracked and popped again, and than slid itself back together. The popping threw her off balance, and she fell backwards into a sitting position. It felt horrible, worse then scraping your knee or cutting your finger with a knife. It burned and stung, and blended into an ache that pounded into your cheekbones and wound itself up into a killer headache. Air flew out of her lungs as if the first pop had punched her in the stomach, she breathed in sharply, and then screamed.

The girl knew Havek was trying to help her, and had helped her a lot by healing her, but she wanted away from anymore painful magic for the moment. Her eyes teared up and her face hurt badly, she didn't notice right away but the pain was going away. It was really only a sharp ache now.

"If you could you would have already, you goney lugger!" Vik shouted in response.

Not one to play defense, Vik closed the distance and threw a hard kick to his opponents side and then followed up with a two handed hammer strike to the side of his head. If either hit connected, the stupid ape of a man shouldn't be able to continue the fight for much longer.

Or so Vik hoped.