Close calls

Little Nights had been the place Sir Percival Douglas Scarletwing called home for many years. In his youth, his father had insisted most vehemently that he attend MoonFang academy, despite both of his parents living in Mahou Wando, rather than Little Nights, and once he was old enough to get a more formal education, he returned to that realm of eternal night to experience all of its sides.

It was during this that he would meet his dearest Justice, but he would also meet the cruelty of the criminal underbelly of the realm. Specifically the mafia families. This had set the young bunbat on an enteral rescue mission, to save as many from the crime families’ clutches as possible.

He was indeed still on this mission. Even if he no longer considered Little Nights his home (and hadn’t done so for several years), and even if he now had a family to look after as well. This hadn’t stopped him from taking his regular trips to rescue some poor soul from an untimely demise. It could not stop him. His conscience and moral code forbade it. Giving up was not in his nature. Not when the task was this important.

However, these trips were, as one might expect, not without risk. 9 out of 10 times, no, closer to 99 out of 100 times, at the very least, he’d return home completely unharmed. Today was not one of the 99, however. Today was one of those remaining ones.

The train ride back from Little Nights had been a pain, in the most literal sense. Changing out of a disguise, when one’s body is riddled with bruises, scrapes and cuts of various sizes, was no easy feat. Every movement was painful, and dragging the fabric of his get-up across his injuries was enough to make even the paragon of self-control that was Sir Percival, groan and flinch in agony. Every time the cart shook, his body ached, and by the end of the ride, he swore he could count exactly how many turns the train took, and exactly how many bumps the demmed tracks had. “We’ve had worse, Sir Scarletwing,” he had at one point assured himself, “even if the precise whens and whats of the situation escapes us, then believe you me, we’ve had worse than this, and lived to tell the tale.” He had added the last part with a somewhat dampened version of his good-natured laugh. His thoughts were crowding his head with far too many anxieties, for him to properly let out one of those inane laughs he had become quite synonymous with. And they proceeded to do so for not only the duration of the train ride but for the entirety of his trip home to The Scarletwing Estate in LongHua, robbing him of any chances he might have had to get some rest before reaching home.