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(Yes, I'll do that)
Felix finally emerged from the trees a bit and looked down over the sloping hill.
"Well, this is it. I have to talk to a guy to get my money, and then, we'll be free to go."
He started down the hill.
"You can come to town if you want, but I need to talk to this man alone."
Eclipse hummed nervously, before deciding to stay close to Felix, pulling up his hood and keeping his head down.
Felix started towards the town center and after passing a certain point, he asked Eclipse to stay behind while he went to collect.
Eclipse nodded, staying where he was told to anxiously, hoping he wasn't too suspicious.
Felix smiled and waved back to Eclipse.
"I'll be back soon, hopefully much, much richer," he reassured the prince.
With that, Felix disappeared around the corner and headed into a tavern and inn, which was a front for a little assassin cohort, led by a man named Iulius. He would collect assignments and dish them out, and take a portion of the bounty for killing targets. He was perhaps a little stingy, taking more of the money than he deserved, but because of him, Felix had been able to sustain himself for this long.
After a quick exchange with the bartender and asking for a room that didn't exist as code for his association with the cohort, Felix was sent down to the basement room, where Iulius sat at his desk.
"It is done," Felix said, "Surely you've heard the news by now?"
Iulius folded his hands. "That you didn't do your job correctly? I did. The prince is missing. No one found his body."
"I did my job. I was told no correct way. Sometimes it is best to kill them in more secret manners."
"Where is your proof that this man is dead?"
"Trust me, Iulius. He will not be returning to that castle. Ever. The prince is long gone. Pay up, old man."
"I'm afraid I can't do that. You lost me my bounty, you scoundrel! Now what did you do to him? Where is he?"
Iulius pulled out a knife, got up, and pointed it at Felix.
Eclipse, meanwhile was waiting outside with increasing anxiety. He really hoped none of the royal guards came by, but he knew it was inevitable this close to the castle. What he really hoped, was that they wouldn't recognize him.
Felix backed up a bit and drew his own closest weapon, which was a small dagger strapped to his belt.
"Back off," he demanded, "Take my word for it, the prince is gone. You won't pay me? Fine. But you are not going to kill me over a few gold, understand?"
"A… a few gold?" Iulius laughed, "That's not a few gold. Neither of us would've ever had to work again. You lost us one hell of a bounty, boy."
Iulius was not backing off, and after a couple more paces towards Felix, he was on the offensive. Felix barely dodged the first strike, and he was left just defending himself, not even having the time to look for an opening during which to attack.
The man pulled a second blade, a smaller knife meant for throwing, and he tossed it at Felix. Felix barely dodged, but as a result walked right into the next attack, a strike aimed at his lower chest. He moved just enough so that it went into his side, missing anything vital, but it was still nothing short of terrifying. Felix stumbled back into the wall, the weapon still piercing him. Iulius tried to grab the knife back, but Felix wouldn't allow it.
"Out of knives?" he asked, panting, "Here, you can have mine."
He lunged forwards, knowing that he now had the upper hand to actually kill, despite his injury. Felix backed Iulius into the desk, making sure to deliver a few small slash wounds along the way. Then he stabbed the man right in the heart. As he pulled the dagger out, Iulius slumped over the desk.
Felix looted the man's pockets and desk for any compensation he could manage, and he left,covering the dagger in his side with his cloak. He was in a bad way and wasn't sure who he should ask to help. First, he would at least reunite with Eclipse and tell him what happened.
(I will reply ASAP I promise, but I can't rn!)
(Okay, understandable!)
Eclipse was currently panicking, wondering where Felix was, and staring at a patrol of guards, who were a few feet away from him, and he was frozen, on the edge of a panic attack.
Felix rounded the corner again and found Eclipse.
"I'm back, let's get going," he murmured, holding a hand to his side.
He saw the guards and almost froze up again too, but he thought quick.
"Come on, brother. Mum said she'd be waiting for us at home. She doesn't have all day."
Eclipse didn't seem to hear him, only barely able to keep from panicking more as he nodded tensely to the other, silently begging him to take him away from here, especially since the lead of the squadron was one who really really liked to hurt him, almost as bad as his father.
Felix grabbed Eclipse's hand with his hand that wasn't covered in blood and began to take him the opposite way.
"Just stay with me, We're going to stop somewhere else for a bit first before we leave," he whispered, his breaths coming a bit ragged.
Gods, it hurt. Felix needed to get this taken care of, and soon. He did know one old woman on the edge of town who healed people and always looked the other way when it came to cause, which was perfect, but then again, it was on the outer edge of town, and Felix wasn't sure how far he could make it.
Eclipse was too busy focusing on breathing to notice the other's ragged breaths as he was led away, too scared to really be a functional human, or wolf, or just to be functional in general.
Felix kept leading the way until the guards were well out of sight. They were a few blocks away, but Felix was starting to stumble a bit and was feeling dizzy.
“E…clipse…” he managed, “I’m about to fall over here… a hand, please?”
Eclipse blinked a little, seeming to snap out of a spell, suddenly noticing how pale the other was, immediately moving to support him, taking most of the other's weight for him. "W-What happened???"
“Things went bad when I tried to collect my payment… I can… I’ll explain the rest later, okay? Right now, we’re getting me to a doctor…”
Although doing little of the actual walking, Felix was at least directing Eclipse towards where they needed to go.
“And don’t worry, he… he didn’t hit anything important.”
At this point Eclipse really was on the edge of an anxiety attack, but he managed to stay calm long enough to follow Felix' diretions, though his entire body was tense.
Once they were there, Felix looked around. The streets were fairly empty at the moment. He knocked on the door, still using Eclipse for support.
With that, an elderly woman opened the door.
“Oh, Felix! I’m glad to see you again, but I know you wouldn’t have come unless-“
She looked across his pale face and down to his hand and how it covered his side.
“Come, come on in,” she said hastily, “and you too, dear.”
Eclipse helped Felix inside carefully, keeping his eyes trained on the floor submissively, doing exactly as he was told.
“You seem awfully nervous. Go to the kitchen and my granddaughter can serve you some tea. Don’t worry too much about Felix. This one’s a fighter.”
“Thyra, sorry to rush you but…”
Felix showed her the knife still embedded in his side.
The woman nodded and started to get to work on his injury. Felix had lost just enough blood so that he was teetering on the edge of consciousness. His vision would occasionally darken, especially around the edges, and he felt slightly sick to his stomach.
Eclipse didn't move from the room, too afraid of what would happen if they found out who he was.
“I-I would prefer if you left. These are people to be trusted,” Felix insisted.
His mouth twisted into a hard grimace as Thyra pressed clean linens up around the dagger to suppress the blood flow.
Eclipse tensed, but nodded quietly, going into the next room as he was told to really trying not to have a breakdown.
Thyra gently kept to work on Felix, not asking what kind of trouble he’d gotten into.
“Alright, this is going to hurt,” she warned, a hand over the knife handle, “Brace yourself a bit.”
Felix looked away and grabbed at the edges of the cot he was on as she removed the small blade. Although he tried to suppress it, he let out a couple of pained yelps, though a slight scream caught at the back of his throat at first.