Novels

Tieall banished the thoughts that constantly plagued him today and focused on the market that lay before. Sitting in the middle of the hundreds of ladder-like walkways that spanned the enormous cliff city, Ralif; the market was central to the lives of his people, the Drouall. It filled an entire avenue that was almost double the size of its neighbors. Because of excavations into the cliff face, there was a large stone shelf for the merchants. The marketplace overflowed these days and hundreds of stalls were placed everywhere leaving the smallest of walkways between them. 

Like a stick thrown into a field of

boulders, Tieall jumped into the sea of bodies and shouts of the merchants. Normally he would avoid large gatherings because of the pain and humiliation associated with them but Thude, the epitome of Tieall’s fear, hunted him, and that fear drove him to desperation. Tieall was different, and like chickens in a pen, differences were violently pecked at.

“Get away, you tall freak” said a squat lump of a woman that looked as if she were carved from the stone behind her. She pushed Tieall from her shop.

“Touch me again, you skulking weakling, and I’ll break you like the stick you are,” said the lumbering man that was as wide as he was tall, as he tossed Tieall forward into the milling crowd.

Cursings followed Tieall while he narrowly avoided the outstretched hands of his unwilling catchers. He dropped to the stone floor crawling under tables and behind stalls to avoid any more attention. He had reached the far side of the marketplace putting him on opposite ends of where he had last seen Thude and his large friends.

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