Navigating out of the system of alleys was simple since I had been paying close attention to exactly where Koyl turned and which paths he chose. Just a few minutes later I walked out into a small street which, surprisingly, was not completely filled with people. Okay, I need to find a good spot to climb up on the roofs, I thought while looking around. Since the buildings in the city were so close together as long as I climbed onto a sufficiently large block of them I would have no trouble finding a good spot to wait out the night. I don't want to do it until I can get rid of this idiot though, I grumbled.

“Hey, why did you stop?” Koyl asked from behind me.

“If you're going to try to rob me again, would you just get on with it?” I snapped, turning back to face him. Koyl was holding his tunic together using his right hand so that it didn't fall off his shoulder, and carrying his “walking stick” in his left hand. He gave me an incredulous look before responding.

“You thought I was serious?” he asked.

“Even if you weren't at that moment, the likelihood that you would attack me again is high,” I stated. “So, either leave or draw on me so that I can kill you with witnesses.” A man walked by us and turned his head to listen in on the conversation, looking disturbed.

“I'm not going to-” Koyl started, but then he stopped abruptly. My stomach growled very loudly from not being fed all day, which apparently disrupted his train of thought. “Do I look suicidal enough to attack someone who can use sehpztaazmoydh as well as you can?” he sighed.

“You asked me to kill you multiple times,” I replied frankly, “I would consider that suicidal. Besides, I have no idea what sehpztaazmoydh is. Eventually, you would have figured that out anyway, so if that is what is making you hesitant I suggest we get this over with now.” Koyl once again looked at me incredulously.

“You're using magic to help you fight,” Koyl stated. “It's obvious by the way you move and attack, nobody is that strong. A normal man would break his wrist or elbow swinging that ridiculous weapon.” That’s similar to the explanation I got in Suwlahtk. So that's really what it means? I asked myself. Thinking back to the other instances where I had heard the word it did make sense. But that's not what I'm doing at all, I thought, I'm just stronger than them because my body is different.

“I was just testing you,” I lied. Koyl's stomach then also growled loudly and he looked away in embarrassment for a moment. I suppose he really is broke, I thought.

“You're hungry right?” Koyl asked out of the blue.

“Yes,” I replied. Though I could probably last another day without eating before I began to suffer ill effects, I wanted to keep my nutrition topped up.

“I know a place where you can get a meal,” Koyl said, “I'll show you where it is.” I narrowed my eyes at him. “I'm not going to try to rob you again,” he insisted. “You can stay here for all I care, but if you need some food I know where you can get some.” True to his word, Koyl turned around and walked away from me. I stood in place for a moment, weighing my options, then decided to follow him.

Unlike before, Koyl didn't pass through many alleys. Instead, he stuck to the main roads, which were growing less populated by the minute. It seemed that nighttime was more of an impediment to activity in Vehrehr than in Frahmtehn, though I couldn't figure out any reason why that would be. Of the people still on the street, most wore hoods and some were visibly armed. He did say this was the slums, I thought, maybe there is a high crime rate. Before long Koyl and I stood in front of a small stone building with a sign above its single wooden entry door. Beside the words, which were unreadable to me, was a pictogram of some kind of bird.

“Alright, follow my lead,” Koyl instructed. “Just walk inside and take a table with me, agree with what I say, and we'll get some food.” He looked back and I reluctantly nodded, then we both entered the building.

The interior was paneled with wood and illuminated by hanging iron lanterns, much like the other buildings I had seen. Superficially it resembled the inside of the inn I had stayed at in Frahmtehn, though it lacked a long bar along the left side and instead had a smaller one in the back. Koyl walked confidently to an empty table and sat down, and I followed and sat across from him. There weren't many patrons, perhaps one-eighth of the available seats were taken, and none of them so much as looked at us.

A young woman in a bleached, hooded cloak approached our table. “Blessings of the spirits be with you,” she said softly.

“May they be with you always,” Koyl replied. An awkward silence hung in the air, and Koyl stared at me intently.

“May they be with you always,” I echoed. The woman, whose face was partially obscured by the hood she wore, smiled at me. Koyl quietly exhaled and tightened his jaw, staring at me as if to chastise me.

“Apologies about my companion,” he continued, “as you might be able to tell, he is not from this country.” Koyl's whole demeanor shifted as he spoke to the woman, opening up and exuding friendliness. It's so obviously fake, I thought, he overdoing it tremendously. Apparently, the woman didn't share my thoughts, because her gentle demeanor responded positively to the display.

“It is no problem, we accept all decent people here,” the woman assured him. “Though, I must ask, are either of you followers of Rehv?”

“No,” Koyl answered.

“No,” I echoed again, my voice firm.

“Very well, I will bring your meals out to you momentarily,” the woman said. “Please know that you must eat everything if you wish to return. Our charity is not for those who are able to sate their hunger by their own power.” Koyl smiled at the woman in a copy of her own expression, and she walked off to the back of the building.

“You aren't a follower of Rehv, right?” Koyl whispered at me once she was out of earshot.

“I am not,” I replied, “why do they care?” Koyl scoffed a few times as if he found my question funny.

“You know, I called you a forest man to try to make you angry so you'd screw up in the fight,” Koyl told me, “but you really must have been living in the woods to be so unaware.” Koyl made a hand gesture at me as he finished talking, and I saw out of my peripheral vision that the woman was coming back. In each hand, she carried a wooden platter with some kind of food on it. She set them down in front of us, revealing that the meal was some kind of meat accompanied by as a fluffy white paste. Wooden utensils, a fork and a spoon, sat on the left and right sides of the platter respectively.

“Please leave the platters and utensils when you are finished,” she instructed.

“Of course dihyeyl,” Koyl replied politely, “thank you for the food.”

“Thank you for the food,” I repeated, not needing to be glared at to know that I should respond the same way. The woman nodded and walked off. I immediately reached out and picked up the cut of meat with my hand. Ribcage, I thought, are we supposed to eat the bones as well? Bringing the entire thing up to my mouth, I took a bite of both meat and bone, easily shearing through the softened calcium with my teeth. This is good, I thought, maybe I should try boiling meats as an alternative to cooking them over a fire.

“Are you an animal?” Koyl hissed at me. He was looking at me angrily while using the fork and spoon to pull apart the meat on his own plate. “Stop drawing attention to us and eat the same way I am,” he commanded.

“Who cares?” I replied, “I'll use the spoon for the white stuff.” Koyl inhaled sharply through his teeth and began to eat quickly, practically shoveling the food into his mouth. He couldn't match my pace though, my mouth was simply larger than his, and I had more practice at speed-eating. This white paste, it's the tuber roots, I realized, they're crushed up and mixed in with fat from the meat. While not as good as the meal at the Frahmtehn inn, everything certainly tasted much better than the food I usually made for myself.

I finished my plate, scraping it clean with my fork, while Koyl hurried to get as much food into his mouth as he could. It was only when I stopped eating and paid attention to him that I noticed he was closely watching the back of the building and appeared to be panicked. “Shit,” he swore as another person in white stepped down the stairs, and he began to eat even faster.

“What's going on?” I asked.

“Get ready to run,” Koyl grunted with his mouth so full that I could barely understand the words. The person who had just walked down the stairs was now coming towards our table, and a peek under their hood revealed them to be a bearded man with white-translucent hair. Judging by the expression on his face the man was not happy to see us. Damn it, I swore internally, I should have just let him leave on his own.

“Koylzmeyl!” the man yelled. “You worm, I told you what would happen if you set foot in here again!” Koyl scrambled to his feet and the man began running towards us, pulling a knife out from under his robes on the way.

“Run,” Koyl commanded, then he burst into a sprint for the entrance. I momentarily debated trying to explain myself, or trying to fight the man off, but decided that it would be easier to flee. I began sprinting, pushing tables and chairs out of my way, and almost knocked the front door off its hinges as I passed Koyl and exited into the street. “Follow me!” Koyl yelled from behind me, taking a right and running down the road. With all options appearing equally viable, I followed.

“How in the names of the gods are you not exhausted?” Koyl panted sometime later. The man had chased us through the streets and alleys, finally losing our trail due to Koyl's haphazard twists and turns. We ended up hiding behind a stack of old crates that were at least a kilometer away from the building by my rough estimation. The man had walked by us three times in five minutes before finally leaving.

“I could have run for twice that amount of time before stopping,” I told him. “Why didn't you just outrun him in the street?”

“I was going as fast as I could!” Koyl snapped. That was his maximum speed? I thought with a quiet snort, in that case running for around twenty minutes isn't too bad for a creator human. “Don't you laugh at me you giant freak,” Koyl spat. “You don't even know how to eat like a civilized person.”

“You have a poor eating technique,” I shot back, “you didn't even finish everything on your platter, it’s no wonder you were hungry.” Koyl frowned and took slow, deep breaths to gain his stamina back. Now that I had done the same technique myself multiple times I recognized its utility. “So, am I going to have trouble with the guards?” I asked him coldly.

“Yes,” Koyl replied. Seeing my facial reaction, he quickly elaborated. “You'd have trouble with them anyway,” he said, “you look suspicious.”

“I meant concerning this incident,” I clarified.

“Just don't go back there for a few weeks and you'll be fine,” Koyl snorted. “They really do take that rule about eating everything seriously. Can you believe they banned me for not eating the eyeballs in a soup they gave me?”

“But I did eat everything,” I replied factually.

“Yeah but now they'll think you're one of my friends,” Koyl explained. “Don't give me that look,” he added after I narrowed my eyes at him, “you still got to eat, right?” I could just kill him right here, I thought, I could blame it on that lunatic who was chasing us.

“Just to be clear, that man tried to murder you because you didn't want to eat some eyeballs in a soup?” I asked. These people have irrationality practically built into them, but that seems like an overreaction, I thought.

“Oh no, he wasn’t angry over that,” Koyl laughed, “he tried to kill me because I seytm his daughter.” I suddenly felt very tired and propped myself into a resting position against the crates, while Koyl continued to laugh even harder and grin widely.