The Wilds (Part IV of the Runner Series)

Chapter 4

all places, characters (except my oc's), and terms, belong to so1tgoes
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The City has changed.

That's the first thing Kay notices when she and Luca take the usual route towards the glass Palace. It's bustling with a lot more people than it was before the Rebellion, each one resembling some sense of Miner or Waster or Babelonian. They have all congregated here, at some point during her leave. It's what she's wanted for years. No more Court or Commons. But now all it does is give her head a strange sense of apprehension.

Green sprouts from the sides of buildings, wrapping around the whitewashed stone like it's trying to snake its way to the top. It's something she never thought she would ever see, and the sight is enough to lift her spirits, even slightly.

The air tastes the same in the City. The way the wind whips her hair into a frenzy as she sprints across the rooftops—Luca by her side—is so familiar it makes her feel like, for a split second, she never left.

Maybe the feeling in Kay's chest is a way of telling her that the City will always be a part of who she is as a person, no matter where she chooses to venture.

Kay swings herself over the lip of a roof and drops, the familiar impact jarring her bad leg only slightly. She tucks her telltale hair into the scarf wrapped around her head and weaves through the throng of people. The contrast between Miners and Wasters is still easy enough to distinguish, and Kay would be lying if she said it doesn't pain her heart when she spots Babelonians within the Walls. She had to force them out of their homes when she destroyed Babel, and Kay doesn't think they will ever fully forgive her.

Forcing the feeling from her mind, Kay pulls Luca closer and loops her arm through his, smiling up at him with her eyes. "Hungry?" she inquires, the familiar skill ready to jump out.

Luca's blue eyes scan as much of her face that he can see with the bandana over her mouth, but he raises a brow at her nonetheless. "What do you have in mind?"

She doesn't waste any time. Kay squeezes Luca's arm before walking ahead, towards an oncoming former Courtier with an ornate pipe protruding from his thin lips. The old man takes a drag from it and blows the smoke into the face of a Common merchant offering dyed fabrics. The Courtier sneers at the young gentleman's goods and waddles away, closer to her.

Perfect.

Kay pretends to stare at a woman's goods in the stall beside her before landing her shoulder into the large Courtier's. A shocked sound escapes his mouth while his pipe clatters to the ground, spilling fine-looking tobacco onto the floor. "You insolent, clumsy Waster!" he exclaims, and Kay notices her target laced onto his belt when she bends down to retrieve it for him. "You made me drop my pipe!"

Kay tries not to smile too hard behind her scarf as she dusts off the pipe, slowly handing it back to him. "My sincerest apologies, sir."

The old man sneers once more before plucking the pipe from her hand, stuffing it into the front pocket of his coat.

When he's fully out of sight and Kay brings Luca towards a secluded alleyway, she dumps the coins from the Courtiers purse into his hand, throwing the useless leather behind her. "What do you think?" she says, pinching a coin between her fingers before bringing it to the sun. "Enough to buy us a feast?"

With the bandana pulled down his face, Kay can see when his lips tweak into a smile behind his beard. He drops the gold coins into her satchel and says, "You are amazing."

They make their way further through the City, keeping their profiles low as Kay heads straight for a familiar merchant and his goods.

Harry's rotund figure is easy to spot, standing tall above his customers as he gestures wildly and speaks passionately about bread and pastries and which flour to use for the best loaf.