Emergency Exit

Gonyaul immediately froze, his Vauxian training kicking in, at the jug that came flying in unexpectedly and crashed on the ground. He arched a brow in confusion, his eyes not sure what to make of this scene. His nose though picked up on the cue before his eyes did, noticing the vile scent a split second before a flaming arrow flew in to validate his suspicions.

Gonyaul’s visage was immediately illuminated in the flame’s light, as it took to life like an aggressive creature about the room. He locked eyes very briefly with Voah. His expression spoke volumes. Firstly, it conveyed that whatever trouble Voah had been credited to her was suddenly coming to collect. This meant it might very well be the end of them and what dreams they might have had of love and a life; therefore, there was a sadness behind his eyes along with the worry. In addition, he took that moment to take in as much of her as possible, if this was their end he wanted to savor the best of her.

His shadow was cast behind him on the interior wall and it moved faster due to the difference in distance to the open flames. Gonyaul had moved into action. He was only able to grab a few thing on route to their pre-made emergency exit. One was his robes, now dry, that he slid into in one quick motion. Fortunately the jade comb, gifted by Voah, was securely braided into his hair and his pouch of lion fig seeds that he had been planting throughout his travels on occasion were already safely tucked away inside the robe pocket. Based on where he was located when the fire struck, there was nothing else that he could either get to or hadn’t been licked by the spreading fire. Even the staff, which may have come in handy based on their perilous predicament, was beyond his reach.

In two bounding acrobatic leaps, he made his way across the perimeter of the interior to their table made of rubble. It had a duel function, a table and a stepping platform to get up to the roof. Gonyaul understood the value of having an emergency exit, every place he ever lived he always had at least one alternative way out. It was a trick he learned not just from his people, but also because some of the burrowing animals they would hunt in Kru’ll used similar tactics to avoid predators.

Gonyaul assumed Voah would be coming right behind him, like they practiced, as he jumped up and gripped onto the interior wall handholds that he had carved out. The grips made it easier for the hands and feet to work together to scale up through the hole onto the open roof with a raised ledge around its perimeter.

Gonyaul pulled himself onto the rooftop and remained low, crawling along his belly to avoid detection. Until he was far enough from the emergency exit to crawl quickly to the side closest to the large ruins adjacent to their place.

Since he had started working at the docks, there was never a shortage of coming across pieces of discarded net or broken pieces of wood from crates. Gonyaul had slowly been bringing these findings home and had reinforced an area inside the ruined neighboring building, basically constructing a landing platform for what he was about to do next.

Gonyaul, with nimble and limber acrobatic skill, took to running low and on all fours like an animal. When he got to the edge of their hovel’s roof he dove off of it through a large hole in the bigger building. He landed on his makeshift platform. It groaned and gave a little to his impact; however, held solid enough. He rolled out of the landing and up to his feet in one continuous motion with the momentum. It carried him a few more steps until a wall stopped him unpleasantly but thankfully; some of the wall and floor cracking and crumbling against the force.

He didn’t bother to dust himself off as he leapt across another large hole to get to the other side of the second story room he was in. Unfortuantly the ruinous state of the architecture was not making this escape route very stealthy, the groaning sounds of the building could be heard along with the falling debris knocked loose and falling down onto the first floor below, sending a dust cloud out of the neighboring building’s base.

Gonyaul reached out and around a window facing a back alley and in parkour like fashion made his way downward. With as sure-footed as he was, the crumbling building made it difficult and he ended up falling the last little bit. He fell silently and landed well into a roll which kept him from getting the wind knocked out of him. The robes he was wearing were now covered in dust and sand as he rolled and plastered himself against the shadows of the alley’s wall and hid behind a small barricade of crumbled building.

He peaked over the top and looked around first and then glanced quickly up. Voah should be right behind him. What was taking her so long?