Lesson 52- When someone says "no," listen and accept it.

We both fall to the floor and I hear a horrible sounding thunk that I think was Kyle’s skull hitting the ground. Shit I hope he’s okay! He’s half on top of me and while he might be short, he’s fairly wide and heavy so I’m scrambling trying to get him off of me so I can get to my feet and so I can see past him. He isn’t moving which is very concerning. I manage to escape from underneath him and I can see who shoved him. Standing in the doorway is a man… Or creature. He is very tall and sickly pale. He is so thin that he looks emaciated although he somehow still has a distended belly. He has eyes that are so white it’s not clear to me if he can actually see or not. He also has horns, or maybe antlers would be a better word? I look over him and he grins revealing sharpened teeth that look out of place in his mouth. They just seem… Way too big.
“Miss Akari I presume? You need to come with me.” He says smoothly his words carefully enunciated. I have no idea how he speaks so clearly with those huge teeth. How is he not talking with a lisp or something? I’m so busy thinking about this that it takes me a moment to realise what he just said.
“What? No thanks.” I answer, kind of confused. How does he know who I am? I am so not sober enough to be thinking this hard.
“I wasn’t asking.” The man says, his tone is super threatening while still sounding completely polite. I shake my head and scramble backwards.
“No!” I squeak out. The man takes a step over Kyle’s leg so he’s standing inside and my eyes widen. I thought there were spells and stuff protecting this place! How did he just walk in? Laura steps out of the bathroom.
“Sorry Rina. I shouldn’t have had so much to- What the hell?” Her eyes widen and she immediately throws up her hands. There’s a flash of light and the man is pushed backwards out of the doorway and into the alley. There is a glowing barrier over the entryway, although it’s a little bit flickery and seems a lot less solid than I’d like considering it’s the only thing between me and this creep.
“Well that wasn’t very friendly.” He comments casually, getting to his feet and dusting himself off before stepping right up to the edge of the barrier. He taps it lightly with his knuckles and frowns at it when it holds form.
“Get the hell out of here!” Laura yells. The man laughs and the grin returns to his face.
“Oh I will. But I can’t go back empty handed…” He trails off and glances down towards Kyle who is still unconscious.
“The dwarf looks tasty. I think I’ll take him as a consolation prize.” The man smirks, bends down and grabs Kyle’s ankle which is sitting just outside the glowing barrier that Laura made. With strength that belies his appearance, the man begins to drag Kyle forwards. Unlike the man, he moves easily through the barrier which flickers even more.
“Shit! Magic doesn’t work on dwarves. The barrier won’t stop him!” Laura yells. I launch myself at Kyle, wrapping my arms under his armpits and leaning my entire weight backwards trying to stop the man from taking him. It slows his progress, but it doesn’t stop him. Now we’re both being dragged across the floor despite my scrambling attempts to stop it. He’s just too strong.

I’m struggling to breathe, but I pull in the biggest breath I can manage and I scream.
“TORIN!” I have no idea if he will hear me or not. It is fairly loud out in the bar. Between the music and the rowdy customers there is every chance he won’t hear me calling his name. But what else am I supposed to do? I can’t let him take Kyle and Laura is too busy holding up the glowy barrier spell to help me any further. Not to mention she’s as drunk as I am. Honestly I’m impressed that she can manage a spell at all. She can’t even walk straight. To my relief, the door at the end of the hall slams open and Torin comes thundering through. He quickly takes in the situation, Laura holding up the barrier, me on the floor, tugging back on Kyle while the man tries to drag him away. I’m quite literally in tears. My heart is racing and my chest is aching from the exertion and fear. My feet are braced against the doorframe to stop either of us from being pulled through and I don’t think I can hold Kyle much longer. The creepy man sighs when he sees Torin and in a sudden movement, releases Kyle which sends me flying backwards with Kyle once again stuck on top of me. Torin advances down the hallway, past Laura. The man takes a few steps backwards and for the first time, I see a flicker of fear in his expression.
“Drop the shield spell.” Torin orders darkly. Laura lets her hands fall to her sides and the glowing barrier flickers one more time then vanishes. Laura stumbles sideways and catches herself on the wall. Torin steps around me and over Kyle, careful not to step on either of us and heads out into the alleyway. He lunges towards the man but just misses him as the creep goes running. He moves what seems to me to be impossibly fast and before I know it he’s gone, completely out of sight.

Torin curses under his breath and comes back inside.
“Are you hurt?” He asks me gruffly. I shake my head.
“N- No.” I tell him breathlessly. He looks me over for a second then turns to Laura.
“Go get her inhaler.” He demands. Laura rushes off to my room. Meanwhile, Torin picks Kyle up and moves him inside properly then kicks the back door shut with his foot.
“Lock it.” He grunts out and I rush to comply. Torin carries Kyle into the kitchen and lays him on the floor. I kneel down next to him and I’m struck by a sense of deja vu as I remember my first night here where I woke up on this very floor. Larua returns and pushes my inhaler into my hands. I take the medication and there’s a sense of relief as the medication slowly starts to do it’s job. I’m not actually sure if my breathing difficulty was from asthma this time or just from pure panic, but either way I’m starting to feel better. Kyle however, still hasn’t woken up.
“What happened to him?” Torin asks, kneeling down next to me and looking Kyle over for signs of injury.
“That… The door was pushed into him. It knocked him backwards and I think he hit his head.” My words come out a lot quieter than I intended. Torin looks up at Laura.
“Call an ambulance. He could be badly hurt.” He instructs her. Laura nods and follows directions. She is still out of it but fear can be pretty sobering.
“Do hospitals know how to deal with magical people?” I ask, worried. Torin nods.
“Emergency rooms tend to keep at least one person around who knows what’s going on. Dwarves have fairly similar biology to humans anyway, so unless they look really closely, no one should notice anything is amiss.” He assures me. I nod, accepting his explanation.

Not long later, an ambulance arrives and under Torin’s careful supervision, they take Kyle away. Laura wanted to go with him, but she’s still drunk and we decided that she should probably stay put. She can go check on him in the morning. Torin did make the paramedics promise to call as soon as there is any news. Once he’s gone, Torin wants an explanation.