And the World Shall Forget You

[Nayt]

In the end, it was all more of a surprise to Noah Herst than it was to anyone else. Sure, the burly fellows here were put off by Eld turning one of their comrades into a rag-doll, but they didn't know the kid. Noah did. He knew that the last time he saw Eld, he wasn't able to do something like that. Under these circumstances, though, it was a pleasant surprise. Now at the very least, he no longer had to worry about Eld getting his face clobbered in. In fact, he might have even been able to depend on him a little bit . . . assuming he had the physical clout to deal with the threat from below:

The burly man that'd been thrown down didn't just decide to get back up, he decided to do it at Eld's expense. He hadn't hit the ground that hard and was far from falling in battle. If Eld didn't pay attention whilst he had his back to the downed man, he'd feel a sharp pain behind his knee, one powerful enough to knock Eld down. The man was outright trying to punch Eld in the knee-- and assuming he was able to, he'd go so far as to stand up, get Eld in a rear choke hold, and confine him there 'til he was out of fighting condition.

Noah could only devote so much attention to Eld's problem, though. If he was in a bind he couldn't get out of, Noah could probably help out, but he had to get around the "leader" of this troupe, first . . .

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld had been keeping an eye on the fallen man, fortunately, knowing that simply getting knocked over was probably not going to put him out of the fight. One quick hop put him out of his reach, forcing him to get up and move if he wanted to continue to harass him.

Which was ultimately the best thing for Eld; he didn't want to really injure these guys, thuggish or not, so he limited himself to knocking the wind out of them. His best way to do that was by throwing them, which sadly meant he had to let them get up. He sort of hoped that they'd get angry and lunge at him, which would make it easy to toss them, as the more force they put into an attack, the more force they'd hit the ground with.

"What did you do to get them so riled up, anyway?" he asked Noah, seeing as they were apparently done responding to him. If he was calm, it was because he was confident that he could take on one of these brutes without problems. So long as the other two were focused on Noah, he'd be able to deal with the remaining one.

[Nayt]

In a flash of a second, Eld tore down the growing respect Noah had for Eld's own fighting prowess. Whoever taught him how to fight clearly never told him to keep his head out of the clouds. He was about to get punched in the back and it was his own damn fault.

Eld was getting a bit cocky. He wasn't taking into account that only one person was actually focusing on Noah at this point, and he not only faced his back to the other smaller thug, but he even took a moment to talk . . . and way too casually, to boot. The man he'd put his back to would slam his fist into the center of Eld's back in a heartbeat, hard enough to knock the wind out of him and throw a wrench in his spine for the next couple of hours. Without skipping a beat, the man would wrap his arms under Eld's armpits, bringing his hands up and crossing his forearms behind Eld's head to establish a full nelson. Unfortunately, this was one of the harder locks to get out of . . .

Noah sighed audibly.

"Focus, man!" he shouted between dodging the large man's fists.

[Zach Kaiser]

"Urk-!" The punch to his back caught him completely by surprise; he thought that guy was still focused on Noah, but he'd apparently decided Eld was a better (or easier) target.

Rather than resist the force, however, he went with it and rolled forward and to the side, avoiding the grab. This put him a little too close to the guy he'd floored (who would probably be getting up) so he backed up a bit as he caught his breath and made small noises of pain. That could have been much worse; if he'd been clocked in the back of the head, he'd probably be out cold. Or at least too disoriented to do much.

"J-Jeez, I'm just trying to defend myself. If you'd all just calm down I'm sure we could work something out." He really didn't want to fight in the first place, and now with two people intent on hurting him he wanted to even less. That was a fight he was likely to be on the losing end of, if he didn't come up with something and/or Noah didn't end up beating their leader first.

[Nayt]

Eld ducked away from the man, but regrettably towards the guy that was in the process of getting back up. He got back up, all right. He got up by grabbing Eld in the midst of his ducking away-- grabbing him by the collar and attempting to drag him down enough to slam his knee into Eld's gut.

"You busted in here, tryin' to get involved," more like trying to break it up-- but hey, that was getting involved, too, "And now yer involved. Sorry, kid. Them's the breaks."

Crap, maybe he will get his ass handed to him, Noah thought regrettably.

Which would be horribly unfortunate, and really go against the whole point of Noah's getting these men out here for a brawl. Noah tried not to think about it, though. Instead, he focused on ducking left from the big man's next punch and throwing his own jab at his ribs. Fortunately he landed a shot this time, and a fairly good one, to boot. The "leader" of this troupe grunted, took a couple of steps back, and rubbed his side. The acknowledgment of pain was enough to give Noah the confidence for a counteroffensive . . .

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld let out a small noise of surprise as the back of his collar got grabbed by the guy he'd intended to avoid by wider of a margin. But as the man pulled Eld in, he'd find he only had that: a collar, with a shirt attached. By what was more luck than design, Eld had worn his favorite outfit, a black, unbuttoned shirt over a wide undershirt. The man who'd grabbed him had the former, now.

This left him enough time to finally put a little distance between him and the two men who were intent on causing him harm. Now, they'd have to close the gap, and that would give him a chance to...well, do something he hoped.

"That's kind of unreasonable," he complained, but he left it at that. Noah was too intent on his own guy to talk, and they clearly weren't going to back down regardless of what he said. He just hoped if Noah got their leader the two facing him would run or give up or...something.

[Nayt]

On the counteroffensive, Noah threw a punch into the leader's face. He took a step back, covering his face with his forearm as he did. Noah struck the man's forearm, but didn't stop there. He threw a blow at his gut, causing the man to grunt-- then a shot at his diaphragm, knocking the wind clear out of him, and then after a second's pause, wound up a left hook and let his knuckles fly into the man's temple. He nearly wiped him out right then and there, throwing the big man off of his feet and knocking him to his side in a slump.

"Wha--?!" one of the still-standing few cried as he spun around.

"Boss?!" shouted the other one.

Those Noah had already knocked down were slowly starting to get up, themselves. They crawled to the side of the large and barely conscious fellow. He was dazed and tattered, barely able to see, and bleeding from the side of his head.

"Ya stupid punk," one of them spat.

Noah breathed heavily, panted even, as he slumped his arm down. Nearly fell forward, too-- shoulders first. Setting his hand upon his knee, he steadied himself to the best of his ability. It was difficult, but he managed. He managed to do a lot of things, really. Like keep those guys from getting on Eld's case any further.

"C'mon, boss-- we gotta get you outta here," said another, whilst trying to help his boss to his feet.

They clearly had no intentions of going to Eld's parent's clinic, though. Especially as once their boss was up and on his feet (with the help of a smaller man, of course), they started migrating in the opposite direction. Probably best if Eld said nothing about it, though. He'd probably just attract misplaced and frustrated ire.

[Zach Kaiser]

"J-Jeez..." Eld was glad to see them go; he'd been getting worried that he was going to look like Noah before the end of the fight. One guy was one thing, but two at once probably would have pounded him into the ground.

He had no intention of suggesting they go to the clinic further; the last thing his parents needed were some ruffians camping out there. They weren't seriously injured, so they could go lick their wounds at home. However, it did leave Eld alone with Noah, which made him mildly uncomfortable.

Should I thank him? Well...I did distract those other guys, so I suppose we're even. "Why were you fighting those guys?" Eld couldn't help but ask. Noah was...well, he liked to talk big, but he couldn't imagine him picking fights for the fun of it. Especially as he didn't see any girls around for him to impress. Which was for the best, as while he may have won he didn't look terribly impressive, bruised and bleeding as he was.

[Nayt]

Well . . . that was over. Thankfully. Noah checked his lip, finding that it was still bleeding a bit. He almost winced at it. He wasn't quite so bad off, though. He just had a few nicks and bruises, but he'd had worse wounds in his life. Honestly, with a fa--

. . . That wasn't worth thinking about right now.

"They're an out-of-towner gang. They came here for drinks and wound up getting rough with a couple of girls. One girl refused the big guy for how he smelled. He hit her so hard he damn near took her head off," Noah said with a sigh. Incidentally, that'd been the last straw for him. The second they got physically rough with someone was the second he had to put a stop to things. "The only language these types know is fighting, so . . ."

Noah rolled his shoulders. He felt a crack in his upper back and released a sigh. He'd been trying to work that one out for days. It damn near took him getting the crap beaten out of him to actually take care of it. Funny, that.

"I called them out, they, uh, kindly asked if I'd like to take it outside, and so I did. Stupid, yeah, but it was the only way to keep anyone else from getting hurt."

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld stiffened at the explanation; if Noah was telling the truth (and despite his dislike for the man he didn't think he was lying), then those guys deserved a lot worse than what they'd gotten. He suddenly wished he'd done a bit more; he probably could have worked the one he'd knocked over pretty good if he'd had the mind to.

"H-How is the girl? Is she still inside?" he asked; despite his feelings of anger and frustration coming back, he tried to do what needed to be done. "I can get her to the clinic if she needs it...you should probably go yourself," he pointed out. "You look pretty beat up."

He didn't have any intention of going back home just yet himself, not unless he had to physically bring somebody there for their own good. "If you do go, just...please don't tell my parents I was involved," he requested. They were probably angry enough at him already, there was no need to make it worse.

[Nayt]

"It's fine, she'll be okay." Noah waved off the concern, "The barkeep had someone escort her to the clinic. She's probably there by now."

Which meant a little more work for Eld's parents tonight, but that was fine. They could always use the money. Which reminded him . . .

"Hey, tell you what," Noah decided to be "reasonable." Sort of.

He reached into his back pocket, where he procured the only two gold coins he had on his person. Two gold coins could go a long way in this town. Not that he really needed it. Noah wasn't too interested in material goods nowadays. He had what he needed and that was fine.

"Throw this your parents' way. That should cover her clinic bill. Do that, and I won't tell 'em you were involved." Not that he was going to rat Eld out in the first place, but Eld was a pretty strange agent sometimes. He probably wouldn't let Noah front the girl's bill if he wasn't given the right reason to.

[Zach Kaiser]

"Ah! But-!" Eld really wanted refuse this; the clinic didn't need any charity, and two gold coins was far, far more than it would cost to patch up a single person no matter how badly she was punched. If she'd managed to avoid having anything broken they probably wouldn't even charge her at all.

Unfortunately, he had little choice; he couldn't risk Noah telling his parents he'd been in a fight. He didn't want to even imagine the trouble he'd see for that. "F-Fine," he agreed reluctantly. He'd have to come clean about at least seeing the fight, but seeing as he only took a punch to the back (even if that punch was still hurting and would probably continue to do so for a bit) he figured he could reasonably came that he'd just witnessed it. Which mostly he had; he'd hardly contributed anyway.

"And what are you going to do?" he asked. Since he was giving him money for the girl, he assumed he didn't intend to go to the clinic either. "You need to get patched up. Can you do it yourself?" As far as he knew, Noah didn't have any first aid training (other than the very basic stuff one of his parents taught to students once a year), though he supposed he could have learned while he was at college...or whatever he was doing now.

[Nayt]

Noah grinned some and shook his head. Yeah, he wasn't going to the clinic. It seemed Eld had guessed that much, too. At least he wasn't fooling himself.

"Kageko knows first aid," he said, "She's pretty good."

That didn't exactly explain where Kageko was right now, but if Noah was telling the truth, then she was at least around. It'd make sense for her avoid Hillcrest, though. The last time she was in town, she wound up attracting a fourth of the population to come stare in wonder . . .

"And hey, maybe she'll think it's attractive, the whole scruffy and beat up look," Noah smirked. It was pretty clear he was joking, though.

[Zach Kaiser]

Kageko's with him? That raised all kinds of other questions in Eld's head, as he'd sort of figured someone as smart as she seemed to be would have dumped Noah shortly after meeting him. Well, maybe she'd change her mind upon seeing him, then. He didn't think girls tended to for the "got the crap beat of you" look.

...Well, maybe Sarah.

"S-Sure," he replied skeptically. And then he just didn't know what to say; it was a rare day for him to hold a conversation with Noah Herst that didn't involve the liberal tossing of insults by at least one party.

[Nayt]

It was probably about time they went their separate ways. Noah couldn't help but feel like something was missing, though. Something else was necessary here before they said their goodbyes and take cares. It took him a second of thinking before he realized it.

"Oh, uh, Eldridge?" Noah began.

He paused a second. He might have been nicer to Eld than he'd been in years, but it still felt weird to do this. But he wasn't one to be discourteous in the face of assistance. He now owed Eld enough respect to at least voice his appreciation. Noah extended his hand to Eld.

"Thanks," he said sincerely, "Those guys would've . . . well, I couldn't take much more, to say the least . . ."

This was a step in the right direction, no doubt about it.