49th Of Winter 504 AV
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It had been another long day in the great city of Syliras. The hallways were filled with people returning to their apartments after a long days work. On the third tier of the great citadel, where the Syliran Knights lived with their families. There in one of the dim apartments a young girl sat on her bed reading a book about the origans of Syliras, or atleast pretending to. In actual fact she was just pretending until her parents who were both Syliran Knights left the house to go to their posts. A few minutes later their mom popped her head into the doorway. "Okay Raven your father and I are leaving now. You know the rules no leaving at all!...Bye" the sweet looking woman said.
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The girl looked up from her book and smiled at her mother with her amber eyes. The girls skin was somewhere inbetween fair and tanned, giving it a rather warm honey like colour. Long, waist length hair sat tied in a messy high ponytail. The girl's hair was dark, unaturally so, it looked as if actual darkness grew from her very scalp. This jet black hair was the reason the girl had been given the name she had.
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Raven Nightfoot smiled back at her mother and father who were both walking out the door, "Bye!" she shouted in her girlish voice. The moment the door was shut Raven jumped up from her bed and moved toward her chest. She pulled off her bland brown dress revealing a slightly toned body. Quickly she pulled on a tight black strappy top, most would argue this type of clothing inappropriate for a fifteen year old girl, especially for the daughter of two knights. The daughter of two knights, the girl huffed at the thought of this as she pulled on a pair of tight black pants followed by matching boots. Raven hated that she was expected to behave like a knight just because both her parents were. This hatred was actually what lead to her newest hobby, sneaking out and exploring the city outside of the citadel.
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A minute later the door to the Nightfoots residence opened slowly and a head popped out. Raven saw two knights walking through the hallways, probably returning home after a long day. She hid back in her home closing the door until she was sure the knights had passed. When she was sure no one else was approaching she quietly closed the door and began running down the dimly lit hallways as quietly as she could. Down the stairs to the ground floor and finally out to the Wharehouse District.
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Raven had taken a liking to sneaking out to the warehouse district to traverse the multiple buildings. She enjoyed the feeling of freedom it gave her, it was her drug. Quietly running into an alley way she hid behind a large crate as some more knights walked by on patrol. Once they had passed Raven's small figure emerged from behind the crate, well hidden by the darkness. Today was the day, the day she would climb the tallest of the warehouses in the district. She continues sneaking until finally she arrived at the tall building.
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The young girl looked at the seemingly impossible task at hand. "Here I go." she whispered to herself, slowly she began to climb the building, finding something to hold on, followed by finding a foothold and then continuing the process until she was about a quarter of the way up. There was the sound of rattling metal as some more guards approached, Raven panicked for a second having nowhere to go.
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The guards took a corner and turned into the alley the girl had been in and looked around, after a few seconds they decided there was nothing out of the ordinary there and left to the next alley. After the guards had left a small figure moved from the building with a small sigh of relief. Raven had pushed herself against the side of the building still holding on tightly. Luckily the shadows had hidden her well and the guards hadn't noticed.
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Slowly the girl began climbing again, her muscles and arms beginning to ache once she had neared the halfway mark. Halfway up the building was a ledge jutting from the wall of the warehouse. Raven was just beneath this ledge now and was trying to figure out how she would get past it. After a few seconds she took a deep breath and took the leap of faith. Jumping upward she flexed backwards reaching out for the top of the ledge. Those few seconds when she was in mid air felt like hours to Raven. A fall from this height could easily cause a broken bone, or more likely death. All she had now was hope and sure enough her hands met the cold stone of the ledge and tightened their grip as her legs swung outward. She was now dangling, suspended halfway up the building and with no small amount of effort she managed to pull herself up onto the ledge.
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It had been easy, almost trivial from that point on, she was now about a foot from the roof of the tall building. She pushed up with her foot and grabbed onto the edge of the rooftop. It was felt icy cold on her fingers as she reached with her second hand. With both hands now on the edge of the cold roof Raven attempted to pull herself up, but it seemed the due had other ideas for the young girl. Raven's hand slid from the roof and for a moment she hung by one hand trying to get her second hand back onto the roof in a moment of panick. She found a foothold and slowly settled before trying to climb the roof again, this time pulling herself up onto the large rooftop.
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Filled with happiness the girl run to the top of the warehouses roof, in the center of the building where the rooftop arch peaked. The view of the Suvan Sea was beautiful from here. The stars blinked overhead watching Raven in her moment of triumph.
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After a few minutes of relaxing and enjoying the view Raven decided it was time to leave and began her walk to the edge to descend. But, one paricularly slippery roof tile caused her to slip, and quickly she began to slide down the side of the roof panicking and searching desperately for something to grab onto as she slid.
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From a street view of the the warehouse a figure could be seen popping out from the rooftop above. Raven, now hanging from the edge of the building by a single hand searched desperately for a foothold or any type of object or crack to grab onto, but she was not so lucky. Her hand slipped from its postion on the roof and the girl began her ungraceful fall toward the street. Suddenly their was a hard slam and the wind was knocked out of her as she landed on a wooden beam. She took a few moments to catch her breath before attempting to get up again slowly crawling across the beam.
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About an hour and a half after she began climbing the towering building Raven's feet touched down on firm ground. Another sigh of relief escaped the girls mouth as she began making her way back toward the citadel. Unfortunately for her she was spotted by two guards in the distance and before they had a chance to respond Raven bolted down the stone paved street. The guards were forced to give chase to the short unidentifiable figure. Raven ducked and dived from street to alley and back to street as she began to heave due to lack of air. She had put a rather big gap between herself and the guards but decided it best to make one more round trip to throw them off her trail for certain.
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About twenty minutes later the door to the Nightfoot's residence swung open and shut quietly as Raven entered her home and walked into her bedroom. She jumped on her bed happily, laughing out of pure joy. "I can't believe it! I did it! I climed the tallest warehouse building AND I escaped a couple of guards!" her adolescent voice shouted happily as she began to undress from her night clothes. She was covered in a thick layer of sweat and still rather out of breath but she was filled with joy at her success. As she pulled off her shirt she noticed a large bruise on her stomach area which began to sting lightly once she noticed it, but to Raven this was a small price to pay for the amount of happiness and the feeling of self-accomplishment she was currently experiencing. This was what she wanted, a life of excitement and surprises.
THE END
