Enigma of Fate - Chapter 0.

Chapter 0 – “Same old same old.”

It was night time in Negav and there was a hooded woman walking alongside the pavement in one of the streets in Negav. She was dressed in a dark coloured robe and it was really dirty and torn in some parts. She was looking at the stores and shops as she walked past them, they all seemed to be closed until she came across a shop that was just about to close. She hurried over and stepped inside, being quickly greeted by what seemed to be the shop owner.

“Uhh I'm sorry but we're closed now, you'll have to come again tomorrow.” He told her with a gruff voice, he was tired from working all day and just wanted to go home right now.

“Oh... I'm sorry b-but can I just ask if you have any job openings?” The hooded woman asked rather hesitantly, the shop owner groaned and was going to quickly dismiss her but before he could guide her outside the woman stood her ground and wouldn't move. “Please! J-Just tell me what I have to do and I'll come here early in the morning and work straight away!”

“Look there's no job openings here right now... If we were hiring then there would have been a noticeboard or something similar outside of the shop.” The man firmly stated. “So please leave, or I'm going to have to call the authorities.” He said, getting his mobile device out. The woman didn't want to move, but didn't want to cause trouble either so with a sad sigh she turned around and walked out of the store.

The robed woman continued to walk down the street, her head pointed towards the ground. There was hardly anyone around, and each place she passed seemed to be closed. Suddenly, she picked up chatter in the distance and she lifted her head back up. Ahead of her was a bar and it looked like it was still accepting customers. She hurried over and stood outside of it, looking at the drunken Negavians who in turn looked at her.

“H-Hey! Whaddawe got 'ere?” One of the drunks slurred, the woman turned her head away to ignore the drunk, going to walk inside the bar. “Ohhhh I see 'ow it is!” He hiccuped. “Go get sssshat out by a Naga!” He drunkenly shouted. The woman continued to ignore him as she had already entered the bar, leaving the drunken men outside be as they started talking about if Naga's could even poop. They didn't seem to agree with each other and it just ended in a drunken brawl.

“Hmm...” The woman looked around, it was quite lively in here despite what time it was. She walked over to the counter, being greeted by a Human woman.

“Well you're a shady looking person, we seem to get you people a lot.” She laughed. “So, what're you buyin'?”

“Um... I'm not here to buy anything... But I was wondering if this place is hiring anyone.” She asked.

“Hiring? Uhh I think you'll have to take it up with the owner of this place, who unfortunately isn't here right now.” The lady explained. “I could hand him your resume if you have one on you.”

“I don't... I could write one though, I won't take long if you'll allow me.” She said, the barmaid shrugged as she started to clean a glass.

“Sure I guess.” She answered. The robed woman nodded as she went over to the nearest table that was free. She put a hand inside her robe and brought out her satchel, getting out a really worn out pencil and a dirty crumpled piece of paper. She opened the crumpled piece of paper up and started to write on it as best as she could, but it still wasn't very neat at all. As she was writing, she felt something fall on top of her head. She reached for it and placed it next to her work in progress resume. It was a Tomthumb, and he was stumbling to his feet.

“U-Ugh... D-Dammit Jerry! Dat w-was cheating!” He hiccuped, the woman suddenly felt another thing drop on her head. She grabbed it and rolled her eyes as it was Neera, she placed the Neera next to the Tomthumb.

“C-Cheating?! I-I'll cheat on your wife in a minute!” The Neera drunkenly shouted.

“Y-You'll do wat?! W-Why I oughta feed you to a Neko!” The Tomthumb argued back, the two Tinies carried on arguing until they were interrupted.

“Uh... I'm trying to concentrate here so... Could you two please fight somewhere else?” The hooded woman asked.

“Y-Ye 'ere dat Jerry? S-She wansus ta move!” The Tomthumb drunkenly said.

“Why we oughta s-show her 'oos boss!” With that, the two Tinies drunkly dived off the table and in to the woman's robe. Startled, the woman was about to take her robe off but stopped herself from doing so. She didn't want to take it off for some reason, and she growled to herself as she tried to put up with it. She tried to focus on her resume, but the Tines had somehow managed to climb up in to her hood.

“Hey actually the owner is here now, he left something here and had to come back.” The hooded woman turned her head with a startle to the person who spoke. She saw the it was barmaid, and there was a Human man in a suit standing next to her.

“I hear you would like to work here, we actually do have an opening soon so if you've got the required experience I wouldn't mind hiring you once the time comes.” The man told her. The woman's heart raced, she had been searching for such a long time and someone was finally offering to hire her. Suddenly, her hood fell back and it revealed her head. A lot of people stopped what they were doing and stared at the woman. She had long orange hair and big pointed ears with white tips on her head which resembled a fox's ears. Her skin was Caucasian but slightly darker toned and her eyes were light brown in colour, however, the shape of them started to slowly change and soon they looked like eyes from a wild snake, she also whiskers too.

“W-What fiend is that?!” Cried the barmaid, taking a step back in shock. The woman coward back in her seat a bit as she knew what was going to happen, and it did. The people inside the bar started getting rowdy and the woman was suddenly grabbed.

“Sorry but we don't accept your kind in here.” The bar owner coldly stated as he tried to drag her out of the bar, however he couldn't seem to move the woman out of her seat. She had grabbed the edges of the table and wasn't budging, starting to get really upset. People in the bar started throwing stuff at her, one even throwing a half full glass bottle and it hit her over the head. It hurt her and blood started dripping from her head, but she still wasn't budging as she started to cry. It had been years and years, and finally she found a place that was going to offer a job but because of her appearance it suddenly denied her all chance of ever working here.

“She isn't moving... Samantha, call the authorities.” The bar owner ordered, the barmaid was the one to nod and quickly grab the phone. The robed woman heard the order and it frightened her, she didn't want any trouble but it was all she was doing at this point and now it started to anger her. She rocketed up from her seat and glared at the bar owner, grabbing the upper part of his blazer.

“Listen here, I'm sick of being treated like this everywhere I go! I've done nothing wrong! Is it my ears that offend you? Is it my eyes that annoy you?” She suddenly let go of him and took off her robe, folding it up while keeping her eyes glued to him. There was also a loud gasp as people saw something on the woman's lower back. “Or is it my tails?” She had five long orange tails, all of them slowly waving about. “I should just demolish this disgusting place for what it is, but you know what, I'm better than that, better than all of you scum!” She reiterated by glaring at everyone else in the bar, turning her head back to the bar owner. “I am going to leave you all be... But listen mister... If you, or anyone else in this bar treat anyone the same way you treated me today, you will all wake up with these jammed in to your throats.” She opened her mouth, hissing loudly as two large fangs descended from her upper canine teeth. Her ears then flicked as she heard sirens outside of the bar, it seemed the police were already in the area and she had to make an escape. The woman looked around for a back exit and luckily she saw a door near the back of the bar and she ran towards it, barging through it with her shoulder and ending up on an alleyway. She put her robe back on and ran onward, unfortunately she heard people behind her running after her.

“This is the MSD! Stop right there!” The lead officer called, the woman didn't do what she was told though and ran on. She sprinted through a very linear alleyway, knocking over whatever she could behind her to slow the police down. Eventually she came to a dead end and she leaned her back against a large wall. She panicked and looked around, she was trapped and she could hear the police getting closer and closer until.

“There's nowhere left to run! Put your hands! ...Huh?” The officer blinked as he reached the corner and he got his flash light out. The woman who he was chasing after had vanished. He turned to his fellow policemen with a confused expression on his face. The other offices wondered what was wrong, until they looked around the corner themselves to see the woman had gone.

“Dammit! We were right behind her! How could we let her escape!” The lead officer complained. “I mean... She was in our sights...” He groaned, looking at a fox that was walking past. He kicked it as hard as he could in frustration and the fox flew, slamming in to the wall with a loud whine. “Let's go back to the bar... We've lost her, but she won't get far when get some details about her.” With that the officers walked away.

After a short while, the fox that was kicked slowly got to it's feet. It limped around, looking like it was checking the area. After it finished checking, it went to the back wall and suddenly it started to morph. It's paws became hands, it's hind legs turned in to Human legs and it's chest turned in to a Human woman's chest. It had transformed in to the woman that was being chased by the police.

“Ugh... Damn... He kicked me hard...” She shook her head, she was also naked as well since transforming in to a fox made her lose her clothes. She quickly found all her clothing though and put it all back on, sighing once she put her hood back up. “Guess... It's time to head back home...” With another sigh she began to make her way out of the alley. She made sure to check her corners, and with some luck she was able to get away from the area stealthily. She was holding her side where she was kicked, it was hurting a bit which then suddenly reminded her, she had been bleeding from the head. All the adrenaline from before had made her forget all about it, and now that she had remembered it was starting to sting. “Oww... Hope I heal soon...”

It was a long walk, but eventually she was almost home. She had walked from Negav's middle tier to Negav's lower tier, and finally to the entrance of Negav's underground. She walked on through, having gone in and out of this passageway many, many times before. She travelled down, and down, and down until she reached the enormous cavern known as The Pit. As she walked down she noticed that there was a lot of people sleeping, but the sad truth was that she could never tell if some of them were actually sleeping, or if they were dead. The only way to find out was to wake up in the morning and see who was up and who wasn't. There seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary for the woman though as she had seen everything that needed to be saw. As she walked deeper and deeper in to the cavern, she saw a familiar person ahead who was sitting on a large rock that was attached to the wall. He was an Elf with pale yellow skin and navy blue hair. His green eyes spotted the woman and he hopped over to her with a grin.

“Heyyy sexy~ You're back late! How'd job huntin' go?” He asked with a joyful smile. The woman shook her head with a sad expression.

“Not good... So same old same old.” She sighed. “Why are you up so late?” She asked him.

“Well I was worried about you of course haha! It's all doom and gloom down here and you're one of the more nicer people who lives here, plus we're friends! We've been over this many times!” He smiled. His clothes were all torn and dirty, but he wore black and red coloured trainers with dirty white socks, short pale green cargo pants, a dirty red vest and a short torn green sleeveless denim jacket over it that didn't seem to fit him at all considering it only reached down to his waist. He also wore dirty red goggles on his forehead too.

“You? Worried about me? Look Zach, I have told you many times that I can take care of myself. And... I'm really tired so I just want to go get some sleep.” She yawned.

“Hmph, well look, Layla, at least let me escort you to your bed.” He pouted, the woman who's name appeared to be Layla gave a sigh, but nodded.

“Fine.” Layla replied and the two walked deeper in to The Pit. It took a bit of walking, but they eventually reached Layla's sleeping bag. It was incredibly smelly and dirty, and it was never ever pleasant to sleep in. It was also surrounded by other smelly sleeping bags with people sleeping in them, so she didn't have almost any space for herself.

“Right, here we are, hope you have a wonderful sleep my love.” He laughed quietly, Layla rolled her eyes.

“I'm not your love... If I was, you wouldn't wake up to breakfast in bed every morning, but I would.” She shown her fangs as she teased. Zach cringed from the thought.

“Alright alright, I'm sure there's a even nicer Vampire Kitsune out there just waiting for my affection anyway.” He grinned as he began to walk away. “Cya later then.” He waved, Layla watched him go before carefully treading over to her sleeping bag. After awkwardly making it without stepping on anyone, she took off her robe and lied down, taking off her dirty black and incredibly worn out boots as well and placing them near her legs. She used her robe as a blanket and hid herself under it. Layla closed her eyes and sighed, thinking over today's events. She had survived another day in The Pit, and had walked around Negav almost all night searching for a job that didn't end well. Suddenly, she felt something moving about on her body, it was probably just a couple of bugs which was nothing new, but she felt them crawl on to her face. She lifted her robe up in annoyance and grabbed the couple of bugs in her hands, however she was shocked to see that these weren't insects, these were the two Tinies she met in the bar.

“Ugh... My head... Damn I drank too much...” The Tomthumb groaned.

“Same here... Were are we...” The Neera muttered.

“...What... Are you two...” Layla said dumbfound.

“... Uh oh...” The tow Tinies gasped in union, the first thing that came to their heads was that they got captured while drunk and were now going to be some woman's midnight snack. They tried to struggle, but they couldn't do much due to their migraines. Instead, they both ended up vomiting on Layla's face.

“...Are you kidding me...” Layla moaned, she didn't seem very impressed. The two Tinies realized what they had done, and both just gave her an awkward smile.