[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

Thire sighed in frustration, as he waited for the crowd in front of him to clear. The fear the other slum-dwellers had held had been short-lived, and he was back to being treated like dirt again. This morning, however, he was simply being ignored by everyone, as if he was invisible, and it was getting annoying. He hadn't slept well since the shadow incident, and his dreams had been getting worse... In them, he had become a demon, and was either terrorising a town or killing a defenceless maiden, though he always woke up before dealing the final blow.

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

The crowd finally parted enough to let him pass, and he grit his teeth as he noticed the aloof expressions on the crowd's faces, and the hidden glances of disgust he received. He didn't know what was being said about him, about how his figure had changed so drastically, and how he never seemed to run out of food... Though the figure talk wasn't too far from the truth, the slum-dwellers neglected to include how often he hunted, and dug through trash to find what he had. Or how he carefully preserved food and made it last, whilst they simply ate till they were full and then starved later. Indeed, he never went completely hungry, but he never really ate enough either.

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

He made his way through the streets until he reached the edge of town, and followed the path that wound into the rainforest. This time, he was gathering firewood, and looking for certain berries to make his poison darts with. He had used up most of them on his last few hunting trips, and they made his life a lot easier... He paused, as he realised the rainforest had gone silent around him. That could only mean one thing... moonlings!

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

Thire stiffened, then choosing a direction randomly, began to run. It didn't matter where he was running to, but he had to get away from them... Everyone had heard the warnings about the moonlings. About how they would eat you alive and play with your innards whilst you looked on. About how they would trap your soul forever, as a screaming toy for their young...

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

He caught his foot on a root, and tripped, twisting as he fell. Hitting the ground hard, he had just enough time to drag himself, limping, into the cave he had fallen beside, before the moonlings swarmed overhead. He crouched low, praying to whatever deity would hear him that he not be found. Surely he wouldn't be forsaken, purely because he had the misfortune to be born the offspring of a demon? He held his breath as he closed his eyes, and waited to be found and torn to shreds... Only to be greeted by the normal cacophony of the rainforest, as the moonlings retreated into the canopy.

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

Thire collapsed into a sitting position, breathing rapidly. He hadn't even been aware that he was holding his breath until then... He shrugged it off, and looked at his leg. It...didn't seem to be broken, though the ankle was painful, swelling up, and twisted at an odd angle. He winced; though it wasn't broken, it wasn't going to be easy to walk on either.

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

The first thing to do would be to put some sort of supportive pressure on it. Thire looked around from where he was sitting, to see if there was anything in reach he could use... Unfortunately, of all the places in the forest to fall, he had managed to pick the one with the tallest trees. Even the lowest branches were well above his head when he was stood up, which he was reluctant to do at this moment in time. Not to mention that the canopy was so thick, it was quite dark on the floor, and very little seemed to grow there...

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

Thire sighed in annoyance and frustration. He wasn't panicking just yet, but he could feel it rising inside him. Nobody wanted to be caught out in the rainforest at night, especially injured... After all, moonlings weren't the only dangerous things here... And he could guarentee that nobody in the village would come looking, especially since it was him that was missing.

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

He forced himself off the ground. Limping and wincing, he slowly made his way back along the path he had run when the moonlings came, stopping every now and again to pick up a piece of dropped wood. After all, he still needed firewood, and that need wouldn't go away just because he was injured... He winced, and then scowled, as he stubbed his injured toes on a rock. No, nothing would change just because he was injured, other than to be that much harder.

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

Eventually, after a lot of limping and silent cursing, he made his way back into the slums and headed for his shack. His foot by this time was quite swollen, and he was starting to feel nauseous from the pain. He collapsed just inside the doorway, panting with exertion...

After physically dragging himself to the shelves where he stored the first aid things, he opened his pouch and swallowed some willow bark, to kill the pain. He then went about preparing a support bandage for his ankle, but found it too painful to apply... The last straw was when he stood up to place the pouch back on the shelf, and stubbed his toes against the unit, causing him to black out from the pain...

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

Thire slowly opened his eyes to complete darkness. A pounding headache thumped through his brain, matched (or possibly surpassed) by a savage pain in his foot... Groaning, he dragged himself off the floor and limped outside, to use the moonlight. His foot was severely swollen and purple, but... it looked odd. Like it wasn't quite real, as if it had... some sort of aura pulsating around it...

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

A strange... lack of light seemed to draw in and distort the light around his foot, and before his eyes, it began to deflate. He stared in shock, and then growing horror, as his severely injured foot returned to normal...ish. There was still that pulsating darkness around it, and as he watched, it retreated into him. Thire wasn't superstitious, but this had him in a panic... What was happening to him?

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

He forced himself to calm down and breathe normally, though he could feel the rising panic in his chest. Could this have anything to do with that shadow he had seen? Or was it something to do with the father that had never bothered with him... Could the two of them be connected? Or were the slumdwellers right; was he really a demonic spawn of corruption?

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

He was pulled from his panicked thoughts by a loud scream coming from in front of him. A little girl had fallen over whilst staring at him, and her eyes were wide as she stared at the broken arm she now had... She looked at him in fear as she cried out, and her mother ran towards them, crossing herself as she shouted abuse at him. As he watched them walk away, he was filled with guilt... Though he didn't t see how he could have caused that, after tonight he could no longer be sure the slumdwellers were the ones to blame for all the misfortune that had occurred...

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

A shiver ran down his spine as he thought of what the slumdwellers would do when they heard this latest story... But what could he do about it? And where else could he go? He had nobody to take him in, and he would never survive on the streets or in the rainforest... No, he had to stand his ground... this was his home!