decchi

Eyes about him
A woman stares
A young man glares
Wondering why he hides his face
and his limp

Pant leg sodden with blood
He trudges through the mixing of dust and water
mud
upon his scorched boot

Young boy with bruised knuckles
The old beggar grins and chuckles
Wiping a finger through the soot upon the boy's cheek

The gimp of a stranger hobbles by
Voices behind him breaking the humor with a sharp and terrible cry

"There he is!  Shoot!  Shoot!"

    Zedwary jerked away from the old man as a stray round caught him beneath his great, fluffy white beard.  The man with the limp drew a weapon from beneath his cloak with a smooth measure of experience and fired a few shots at the half a dozen men down the street before ducking into the alley.  Even for a backwater shipyard, Port Colspring wasn't wild enough yet for a young boy from the hills to be used to hard eyed men shooting it out in the streets.
   
    He heard a scream from within the dark alley, a few shots echoing from the shadows and into the street.  Zedwary lay still on the pavement, his breath coming fast and hard as gun toting, cursing men ran past him and into the darkness.

And that was how the son of the farmer met the captain of the ship named peace, but not just peace, Shalom.