Yafid hocked a big lugie and spit out his wad of chewing tobacco. He had used it up and he wasn’t particularly looking to keep it in without the taste left.
He took up dip some time ago. Not as a big habit, but any time he was feeling frustrated, he would pack a fat “lip” as the humans who brought it to the world called it. It was after Vadim died that he realized he might as well just go for it. Life isn’t worth living if it can’t be enjoyed every now and again.
Yafid had stayed on his own for a bit, but without his friend, he wasn’t having the success he once had in staying fed. He was caught a couple of times, got thrown in jail once even. That was where he met the crew. He joined the gang to stay safe in jail while he was there, and when he got out, it was made painfully clear that the only way to stay safe was to stick to them.
It was more than worth it, really. Now, he had actual money for himself, he could eat without trying or scavenging, life was easy. He was able to get them to go easier on the people who owed them protection money, but hey, they still needed to pay up. Other gangs were always trying to move into the area and they were the ones who scared them off their turf.
“Yafiiiiiii~” a lady griffon called softly from behind on the bed. “Come baaaaack~”
“Ah, you always know just how to get me going,” Yafid said, lying back. Yennifer always knew just what to say, as long as you paid the right price. “That’s why I just have to come back.” Yennifer cuddled up to him.
“Baby you know it,” she said. “How’s business these days?”
“Why you always asking that?” Yafid replied jokingly. “It’s always good. No real trouble, easy money… YOU should know all about that.” Yennifer pushed Yafid with a giggle.
“Yeah, right,” Yennifer said. “YOU’RE the only one who’s easy money, ya know.”
“It’s true,” Yafid said. He made a bad habit out of visiting her almost daily.
“I heard there’s been another crew trying to move in lately,” Yennifer said.
“You probably hear that every day,” Yafid said. “It’s always true. But it never goes anywhere. We don’t take their turf, but maybe we should to teach them a lesson.”
“Maybe,” Yennifer said. “Take them out, keep some for fighters, and get even more capital.”
“Listen to you with the fancy words,” Yafid said, grabbing her and getting a giggle. “Maybe I should show you something else to do with that m-“
“YAFID!” a voice shouted. Yafid’s attention whipped to the door and he jumped up.
“Gotta go, hun,” Yafid said. “I’ll talk to you later.”
“Always a pleasure~” Yennifer said.
Yafid left the room and went downstairs to the main room of the gang’s house. It was a pretty sweet place, kind of like those frat houses from the stories of colleges in Equestria. That was sort of the goal. They were here for money, chicks, and hanging with the boys.
Downstairs, there were a dozen gangsters all waiting in the main room while Yafid rushed down. When he reached the base of the stairs, they all looked his way.
“Yafid, how do you have ANY money left?” one asked.
“Maybe because she actually likes me,” Yafid shot back, getting some laughs.
“Shut it,” the gang leader, Nafiq, said. Everyone shut up. No one did anything when he said not to. Scary dude.
“What’s up?” Yafid asked.
“That rumor of the Backstreeters coming? It’s true,” Nafiq said.
“..And?” Yafid asked. Did they interrupt his session for minor pests?
“And it’s true that another crew has human weapons,” Nafiq said.
Yafid stopped in his tracks. Human weapons; the sharpest blades, best armor, and worst, guns; were a game changer for anyone in this city. They hadn’t seen a gun in a long time, and even then, the city sent a full on SWAT squad to come take it. They ended up selling it to some Equestrian collector.
“What kind?” Yafid asked.
“No guns, thankfully,” Nafiq said. “But they have Katanas and Kevlar.”
“Where did they get those?” one gangster asked. “That’s such a weird combo.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Nafiq answered. “Black Market is as Black Market does.”
“Whose job is it to make sure WE get that stuff?” Yafid asked.
“We’ll deal with that later,” Nafiq said. “They’re coming to the house as we speak. We have to set up a perimeter.”
“Got it,” Yafid and the others all said.
Nafiq was ex-military for some other griffon colony somewhere. He was kicked out for whatever reason; no one asked; so when he slipped into military talk, you knew it was serious. He killed a lot of dudes in the past.
Everyone went around and took whatever weapons they could grab. They had some knives, but because they already had talons, and Kevlar is cut-resistant, they picked up heavy objects to either throw or bash the other crew with. They had to avoid close fighting because of the Katanas. If they got in the house, they would need to take the fighting into the halls to keep the other crew from swinging their new swords.
Yafid took the rear door in case of a sneak attack from behind. The rear door was by the kitchen, so while he was there, he grabbed a quick snack from the fridge. He did a brief check of the fridge and found a nice bit of cold beef, so he put it down really fast. If he was about to get cut in half, he wanted to have eaten something good before dying.
Next to the fridge they had a window. When he took a look outside, he spotted two griffons outside trying to sneak up on the building. They spotted the door to the kitchen and started sneaking in that direction.
Yafid rushed as quietly as possible to the side of the door that would put hi behind it when it opened and waited. In moments, the door started to creep open, inches at a time, and a griffon snuck through. Yafid didn’t attack yet; another was just starting to come through as he stood there. Neither of them saw him behind the door.
They were, in fact, wearing Kevlar and had Katanas. But the best weapons and armor won’t save you from a sneak attack. Yafid leapt forward and shoved his right talons into the neck of the rear guy, right into the base of his spine at his neck, and dropped him instantly. He made no noise until he actually hit the ground, drawing the forward one to turn.
He shouted out as Yafid pulled his talons from the one’s neck and grabbed the katana off the floor. As he shouted, Yafid could hear windows crashing and door exploding open elsewhere in the house. Yafid held up the sword and stared his enemy down.
The guy screeched as he lunged forward and brought the sword down. Yafid dodged the vertical strike and spun to the side, following with a sweep strike diagonally across the griffon’s side. He just missed, by mere millimeters, and spun into a guard to block the inevitable counter strike.
After blocking, Yafid lunged forward and pecked at his opponent’s eye. He just missed, but tagged him right above the eye, causing the blood to flow right down into the griffon’s eye. The griffon was forced to fight with one eye closed.
The griffon tried to go for a stab, but Yafid parried it and brought the sword up into a rising arc, slicing the griffon badly all up its midsection and face, but missing the neck. The griffon fell back and put its claw to its chest and then face.
While it was distracted, Yafid rushed forward and swung the sword around, catching his opponent right on the neck and definitively ending his life that moment. As the parts separated and fell to the floor, Yafid listened to the rest of the house. The fighting was still raging on the floor above him, but it sounded like the next room was almost done.
Yafid quickly took the Kevlar off the griffon he killed first and slipped it on. He understood why everyone wanted this tuff so badly; it was basically invulnerability incarnate. Nothing could cut him, only crush him, and if he was flying, nothing could really crush him. The weapons capable of that were too heavy to carry flying.
Yafid stepped to the door to the next room and looked in, ready to get the boys and fight upstairs. What he saw didn’t indicate that he would be doing that; the boss was on the ground, arms tied behind his back, surrounded by Kevlar-clad griffons. Yafid quickly moved away from the door to avoid being seen and just peeked his head around the corner.
“Do it, you pussy son of a bitch,” Nafiq said.
“Aight,” his captor said coolly.
Yafid could only watch as the captor took his sword and slowly pushed it into and down Nafiq’s throat, making a sickening crackling and slipping noise as it went in. Nafiq had just enough time to look at Yafid once before the light left his eyes. His eyes said to get the hell out.
Yafid took the advice he assumed he saw and ran out the back door. In the upstairs section of the house, he saw blood on the windows. From Yennifer’s room, he heard screaming, and then silence. The crews all had a rule, no hurting the biddies, but they could have hurt her to make her stop screaming. In all honesty, Yafid did not care in the slightest. He paid for her company, he could pay for someone else.
Yafid left the property and ran. His crew had all been killed. He liked those guys; it was a shame they were all killed. And by a weaker crew, too. Even if they had human equipment.
Yafid couldn’t stay here in the city at all any more. He was the only survivor of his crew. Any other crew would kill him just to make a point. These guys would pay others to find him and bring him back alive. Staying was a death trap.
Yafid stopped by the shed in the back really quickly. He and the others stored their money bags here because they all trusted each other not to steal them. The guys wouldn’t need them any more, and this would serve as one last screw you to the other crews who would want their hauls. All together, it was about eight hundred gold coins. Enough to start a new gang somewhere else.
Yafid took his massive haul and silently ran away. There was nothing here for him any more, and he was no longer limited to where he could go. This was his chance to start anew, to make a whole new life. And in that life, he would own every. Single. Thing.
With blackness in his heart and a sack of gold to spend on it’s desires, Yafid knew that the future would be plentiful. What would be plentiful, however, would not be what he expected. His life of suffering, started by a fateful encounter with a human, would be destroyed by yet another human one day, along a road of suffering paved by anger and hatred and violence.