Survival

The boy raced down the alleyway. The slapping of bare feet on the cobblestone and heavy breathing were the only sounds that could compete with the pounding of his heart as he fled from his pursuers. His sister was running ahead of him with their baby brother in her arms.

"Come on kid, just give up now, let us have your sister and maybe we wont kill you or that baby" Ivars henchman shouts. Hes still about ten yards behind him and closing fast as the boy follows his sister around a corner, down another alley.

At this point the boy knows that they will be over taken. Him only being eleven, there's no way he could out run a full grown man without some kind of edge. His sister was only fourteen, so she didn't fare much better than him. Besides she had her arms full. Luckily their baby brother was as still as could be. Not even making a noise.

Two men round the the corner. "Ivar will treat your sister real nice! He'll be sure to take care of his prized pig! With that power of hers, every guy in the city will line up for a turn!" one of the men shouted.

At those word the sister turns her head to look at her brother. What she sees in his eyes is such determination, that she knows that not only does she not have the time, but dissuading him from what she knew he was going to do, would just get them all killed. Crying out to the heavens she turns her head back around and runs harder.

With a heart set fire by anger and determination the boy spins around to face his pursuers.

Everything happened in the blink of an eye. Using the momentum of his spin, he launches an object from his right hand. It's a small knife. Though only someone who lived on the streets would consider it such. It was more accurately a piece of jagged metal with a point on the end, bound to a makeshift wooden handle.

The leader saw the throw was way off, so he didn't even bother to move out of the way, he just kept running towards the boy, sword arm raised. Just as he was about to cut the boy down, his legs felt as if they were pulled from beneath him, and he crumbled to the cobblestones.

Having his sword arm raised in a killing blow, the grown man had only one arm to catch himself with, falling hard and hitting his head because of it, sword flying from his hand upon impact.

He quickly tries to get up and to realize his legs are immobilized. Frantically looking at them he sees they're entangled in a thin rope like material. If he would have done his research about this boy instead of just his sister he would know that it is a rope made of animal sinews, mostly rats, which made it extremely strong. The strange thing about the rope, and what was making the guy freak out was that it kept getting tighter! Now it was painfully digging into his skin.

He forces himself into a kneeling position to see the boy five feet away with his arm still outstretched as if he had just thrown the knife. At his feet was the man's sword. He looked into the boys eyes to see the fire of hatred burning in them, but his mouth was shaped into a smug smirk.

That smirk is what made the grown man look behind him to his friend he had thought was watching his back. Said friend was laying face down in a pool of his own blood, with no injury showing. Neither the man or his friend could comprehend what was happening. The friend because he was dead. The leader, because he was an idiot. Though it's not entirely his fault. How would he know that this boy had such a developed ability?

When the boy threw the knife, he threw it way off course intentionally, so that the leader wouldn't think to intercept it, and to take the friend off guard. As soon as the knife passed the man in the front, it changed course in mid air to make a bee line for the second man's right eye. Happening so suddenly, the only thing he could do was let out a strangled noise as it pierced his eye, to follow through to his brain, killing him instantly. Attached to the end of that knife was the rope that was now disabling the leader. The rope only stretched about ten feet. As the knife was killing the one man, the rope went for the first man's legs, making him fall.

If they had done their research on the bounty, instead of getting blinded by the high reward and apparent low risks, they'd know that the boy and his family survive solely on the animals that he kills with that rope-knife. If you talk to the right people in Cheap Side they'll tell you that it's down right scary how accurate he is with it. Or tell you how none of his family ever look hungry, even though they live on the streets. Though that probably still wouldn't have helped them. No one expects an eleven year old to be capable of something like this.

As the man looks back to the boy he is greeted by the makeshift knife in his face. It was floating there in front of him point first, between him and the boy. The rope attached to it was trailing from the man's feet, though it was still binding him.

Before the man could even make a noise it plunged into his left eye killing him, then again into his right one making sure the deed was truly done.

Only then did the boy lower his arm, to immediately slump to the ground.

The moment he did a cloaked figure landed next to his incapacitated body. They had come from the rooftop three floors up, and had landed without making a sound. Scooping the boy up and tossing him over his shoulder, the figure left the two dead men to search for the boys sister.