OOC: You took that "run into" part literally, didn't you Wolf?
Aw, poor Claec is being stereotyped as a bad guy.
Claec felt a presence in the corner of his consciousness. Someone was watching him. It wasn't often that a person was able to percieve his presence. But as long as they didn't interfere, he had no inclination to stop. After all, he had a mission to carry out.
It didn't take long for Claec and his troop to leave the town far behind, to be replaced by wide, open prairie. With no rooftops to glide between, the group simply sprinted low to the ground, eating up the miles. In the near distance, a group of cloaked figures could be seen, darting quickly between sparse patches of cover. Claec estimated there were about 4 people in all. He looked to the shadows on his right and left, and they immediately dispersed, splitting off in opposite directions. Claec surged straight forward, straight past the group of refugees. He didn't recognize any of the faces, so he'd obviously never encountered them before.
There were a number of ways to deal with escape attempts at CAA. With first-time offenders, Claec usually tried to go easy, otherwise Cece would never let him hear the end of it. That girl could talk anything to death...As it was, Claec simply decided on the simplest, least traumatizing solution.
Claec stopped on a dime, turning to face the rag-tag group of members, who were now a few paces off. He crouched down, balancing on the balls of his feet, with his arms resting on his thighs. They stopped short when they saw him, unsure what to do.
"Hey, who's that guy?" One of them said.
"I don't know," another replied. "Do you think he's here to join the group? I didn't hear anything about anyone else wanting in on it."
They stood for a moment, then the one who appeared to be the leader shrugged, stepping forward.
"Hey, how's it goin?" When Claec remained silent, he cleared his throat. A visible chill went through his body, and he turned his eyes away from Claec, looking instead at everything around him. "Um, are you here to cross the border with us? If so, you might want to bring some supplies." He gestured toward the pack he had slung over his shoulder, indicating the kind of supplies Claec would need. "And you might want to keep hidden, instead of standing out in the open like this. You don't want to get caught."
Claec stared up blankly at the boy for a moment, as if he'd lost his train of thought. The kid shifted uncomfortably, unsure how to react. But then Claec rose slowly, startling all of them. He reached out and clamped a hand down on the boy's shoulder, ignoring his effort to shrug off his grip.
"The one who should worry about being caught," he whispered hoarsely, in a low, even tone, "is you."
One of the kids yelped in surprise as the shadows closed in around them, an instant before they were engulfed. There was a brief struggle, and suddenly there were four ninjas standing in front of Claec, each with one of the escapees slung over a shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
"Take them back to the Center," Claec nodded to the ninjas, and they dashed off into the night. Claec waited a moment, staring off into the horizon, beyond the borders of CAA. Then he pulled out his cellphone.
"Yeah?" Cece answered, holding the phone to her ear.
"Four, huh? Good work. Just make sure they don't get hurt, okay? I don't want them to never come into Chat again, just because your ninjas roughed them up! Really, you can be so difficult sometimes." Cece humphed, mashing the off-button. Then she crossed her arms, unsure what to do next. She was getting bored...
Claec stared apathetically at his phone. There was no way of knowing what he was thinking by looking at his face, but chances were it was something akin to bewilderment at Cece's outburst, which he'd done nothing to provoke. Then he simply replaced it in his shirt, diving into the shadows.
Kaimyn grunted in surprise as he narrowly escaped colliding with another person. He looked up from the book he was reading, noting the long silver hair, as well as the rather sharp looking sword the man carried. After a moment of taking it all in, he smiled politely at the man, casually closing his book and placing it under his arm.
"Ah, Silver," he greeted him, his voice smooth as silk. "Wonderful day, isn't it?"
"It?" Kaimyn scrunched his eyebrows, thinking. "Ah, you mean Claec? You rather dislike that fellow, don't you? Though I'm not sure what he ever did to you." The truth was, Kaimyn wasn't fond of Claec either, but simply because of that uncomfortable feeling he always got when the ninja was nearby. The few times he'd run across him, he'd never had reason to directly dislike him. And either way, he wasn't going to admit that someone other than himself was unnerving.