The first thought she had as she woke up was, she should stop drinking. The second was she should have closed the drapes after she came in last night.

The bright light filtering in from the windows was too sunny, too yellow, and too warm. Perfect for a morning person. Which Desa was adamantly not. She liked the dark starry sky too much to cheat on night time with day time. She rolled over onto her back and let out a long groan. Everything hurt. Not as much as it should've but it still hurt nonetheless.

Her elven blood had already healed most of last night's shenanigans. She was still hungover but that was hardly her genes' lack of trying. She always had too much to drink, just in case her high didn't last enough to get her through the night. She slept like the dead or didn't sleep at all. The nightmares were too bad to just have a normal night.

She turned her head into her pillow and considered wasting the day away by sleeping. Then her stomach grumbled and made the decision for her. Getting up it was then. She nimbly sat up and looked at the clothes scattered around the bedroom. Everything was in a disarray. She didn't have much in furniture just a bed a dresser and a carpet in her bedroom.

She looked down at herself. She was wearing a long oversize shirt which she had on backwards. At least this time she wasn't naked. She tended to just strip down before crashing because the alcohol made her whole body heat up like she was lit on fire. Another bonus of being intoxicated, feeling like being burned alive every night like she deserved.

She shook her head to get rid of the remnants of sleep and stepped around the mess scattered on the floor making her way to the bathroom. She turned on the shower to a numbing cold before stripping herself of the long shirt and getting under the stream. Goosebumps formed all over her from the ice cold shower but she forced herself to relax under it.

This was the fastest way to get herself to wake up and she had work to do. Her wet hair clung to her back as rivulets flowed down over her face. It was morning, she had nothing to worry about. Another night passed and another day came. Just like nothing had happened.

She roughly rubbed out the dirt and grime off of her skin along with the stench of alcohol from last night. When all of her body was red from the rough treatment and she felt like she had successfully scratched down to a new skin, she closed the tap and left the shower.

Grabbing a towel, she dried her hair and and body. Then she wrapped it around her body. Finally taking a deep lung full of air, she felt like it was easier to breathe again. That was until she caught sight of herself in the mirror. Her wet black wavy hair framed her face and fell down to her waist. Her lithe but muscled limbs from fighting and killing were strong but covered with countless nicks and cuts. A rather big one slashed down her forearm along with smaller ones. Everywhere she looked, she found scarred lines. Her white skin was riddled with them. Some dark, some light depending on when she had them.

She looked back at her face and gritted her teeth when she saw the red eyes looking back at her. She would never be able to fully describe just how much she wanted to kill the reflection for destroying everything she had.

She turned her head and went back into her bedroom to get dressed. She decided to wear all black since she was probably going to be out all day and night and she was going to need to blend in with the night.

Pulling on the black pants and a simple shirt, she strapped a few of her throwing knives into her boots and then strapped her belt on picking up two daggers and her leather pouch filled with money.

Desa pulled her still wet hair into a high ponytail and grabbed a hooded jacket. Heaving a sad sigh for the fact that she had to leave the her house, she pulled the door open and stepped out.

The streets were already bustling with life in the mid morning sun. She had slept more than usual which was a blessing. The sun didn't bother her eyes as much. Still she pulled up her hood to hide her face and block out the sun. She made her way further away from the abandoned warehouse that sat below her apartment and walked towards the bazaar. Every stall was selling mouth watering wares, with their sellers shouting their prices to get the attention of passer-by's.

She walked between salty fish smelling carts and fresh flowers sold by bouquets to newly baked breads and pastries. She stopped by a fruit cart to buy an apple. She picked out a green one and asked the forest sprite in charge of the stall for the price. As she pulled out the coin, Desa looked at the sprite. She had bright green curly hair with flowers and vines woven into it. Her almost bark like dress was reaching her knees and flaring out like a mushroom head. She had bright pink cheeks that resembled tulips and a heart shaped face.

The forest sprite handed over the change and Desa tilted her head back down to hide her face. She made sure that her red eyes stayed hidden most of the time. It either scared people to death or made out her identity for the people who worked in dead of night. She made her way leisurely strolling by the wares and picking up a few other things to eat. As she bit into a particularly tasty puff pastry, a familiar voice spoke from her right.

"You seem less scary in the daylight. More normal." Said Niam. Desa looked sideways at his bright smiling face and frowned. Then she tried to make an angry face which only resulted in Niam laughing.

She turned and swiftly tried to make her escape but the annoying water sprite was hot on her heels. She turned around into a tight dark alleyway.

"Hey wait up!" She heard Niam say from behind her.

She waited until they were fairly hidden away from the public eye when she unsheathed one of the daggers on her waist and turned around swiftly like air and slammed Niam's back against the stone wall. He was still reeling when she pulled back her hood and pushed the dagger a little bit further onto his neck, just at the height where his gills were located.

"You must be either really stupid or suicidal to seek me out again." She said seething.

Niam just smiled, albeit nervously but still smiled. Desa looked at him and raised her eyebrows. Yes he was definitely stupid. She sighed and let him go with a push.

"See you didn't punch me this time." Niam said cheerfully.

"Believe me I'm still considering that decision." She rubbed the bridge of her nose to work out the tension forming on her face. Too much frowning. That was probably it.

"You are really beautiful you know." Niam said still smiling. Desa whipped up her head. She was right back to frowning.

"Is that why I am blessed with your annoying ass right now? Because you find me beautiful?" She pointed the dagger towards him. Niam laughed and shook his head.

"Although it's a special treat to see you in daylight, I would still like to not get maimed thank you. I just saw you in the bazaar and you seemed more approachable than last night." He shrugged as he placed his hands in his pockets.

Desa gave up and sheathed her dagger back onto her belt. "I knew I should have broken a few of your bones last night." She muttered more to herself as she pulled her hood up and side stepped him in the alley and made her way back out into the busy street. Of course Niam followed suit like a shadow because she was just lucky.

"That wasn't very nice you know." He said with a little pout of his pink lip. He looked like a real fish with his blue skin and pouty lips. He was missing the scales, though, his skin glowed in different hues of green, blue and purple under the bright sunlight.

"I'm not nice." She simply replied. Picking up the apple she had stored away in her jacket's pocket she bit into it. Chewing and walking as she tried to ignore the blue cheery figure beside her.

"I'm so glad I finally got to meet you, everyone keeps talking about you but no one that has seen you really wants to talk about you, which is weird but now that I got to meet you, I kind of get it. You're intense. And grumpy. And-"

"Do you ever stop talking?" Desa groaned. He was like a very loud and annoying cricket that wouldn't shut up.

"Do you know how much money they gave me to deliver that message to you?" He kept on talking like she hadn't said a word. She let out a deep sigh and bit off another bite of the apple.

"How much money would it take for you to not talk to me?"

He seemed to think on the question seriously for a second rubbing his chin, "A lot."

"Figures."

"Anyways I thought if they keep paying me as much as they did, I'll keep volunteering to deliver messages to you." He actually smiled like that was a brilliant idea.

She stopped and turned to fully face him. "Were you exposed to too much air when you were in a tadpole phase or something? You seem to be missing a few brain cells there." She made a gesture showing the general area of Niam's head.

He laughed again, he was in a chipper mood when he wasn't being punched. Even if he was being insulted.

"I thought maybe I could get paid coins and you wouldn't feel the need to beat me up if you got to know me. And you wouldn't have to deal with new couriers every time a new job arose. It's a win-win." He shrugged rubbing his shoulder. He still had a faint bruise on his left cheek from last night but it was fading. Her elven blood made her wounds heal faster than his.

She wasn't going to admit it but dealing with new couriers every single time was such a pain in the ass. They all tried to order her around and it pissed her off. She would have beat them up anyways for the fun of it but, there was always a troll or an orc who wanted to wrestle in the tavern.

"And what do you know, maybe down the road, we could also become friends!"

That was where her train of thought screeched to a halt. The muscles in her right hand where her missing pinky was twitched. "I don't need friends." She said and turned around continuing down the streets towards the coast.

"Of course you do! Everyone needs friends, even broody elves with anger issues such as yourself." He made a gesture to poke her in the ribs but with lightning speed she grabbed his index finger and painfully twisted.

"Ow, ow, ow!" Niam shrieked.

"Next time you try something like this, I'll break your wrist and then tear your webbed fingers apart down to the bone." She angrily whispered into his face and then let go. Niam rubbed his left hand as he cradled it to his chest.

"That is some very visual imagination Desa." He said half scared, half laughing.

She stared into his black eyes, and schooled her face to show that she wasn't joking. The colour almost drained from the blue of his face and became as white as his hair. "Oh you weren't joking." He said. His gills were working overtime again. It was obviously a nervous habit of his, Desa noted.

She turned around again to walk away from him but he still wouldn't stop following her. He coughed to nervously dissipate the gloomy air hanging around her. It didn't go anywhere. "Still, maybe I can help you locate your next target." He suggested.

She didn't say anything. If he knew something that would be of use, maybe she wouldn't waste a day's worth of time scouting and asking around in the shadows. She chucked the apple core towards a tree and wiped her hands down her black pants.

She grabbed him by the elbow and pulled him towards the back of a store. The street was abandoned except for one or two occasional passers. She leaned on the wall and crossed one boot over the other.

"Give me some useful information and I just might not kill you the next time I see you." She said in a menacing tone.

By the toothy grin Niam was supporting right now, Desa knew that she had said the wrong thing.

"Great! So I don't know much about why your employer wants him dead but I know that he has a small fleet of cargo boats by the coast. On the other side of town." Niam explained.

A trader then. Niam couldn't make the connection but Desa had done enough of her employer's dirty work to know that he didn't need a reason to want someone dead. His name was Sorreno and he was the bane of her existence. His biggest income was smuggling illegal substances and if this new target was getting bigger and taking over the trading routes between the other islands, Sorreno was losing money. That was enough reason to get killed.

"Anything else?" She said as she mentally traced the route she was going to take to the harbour on the other side of town. She wanted to get this over with tonight. The less she had to think about the killing the better. It's not like she had a choice. She would have to do it eventually. It hadn't worked well in her favour the times she had disobeyed Sorreno.

"He also lives close to the harbour. Always seen around his ships. He has black hair, he's an elven too like you and... well thats all I heard about him. He wasn't from here, came from one of the islands according to rumours. He settled here a few years ago and expanded his business as he bought more ships."

"I don't need to know about his life story anyway. The less I know the better." Desa said as she stared off towards the direction of the coast. She wondered what it was like to be a an islander. To be cut off from the mainland and live in a secluded paradise. She hadn't left the mainland since she was born.

Niam stepped in-front of her vision, bringing her back from her daydream of white sand beaches and palm trees. "How does killing a person feel?" He asked as he nervously scratched behind his ear.

"Why do you want to know? Do you have someone you want killed?" Desa asked casually. She wasn't open to killing for other than Sorreno, she never was but it was fun yanking Niam's chain. It was plain as day he wasn't the type of person to have an enemy nor a killing tendency.

His eyes almost popped out of his head as he immediately replied, "No! No I don't want anyone kill-" Desa pulled one of the strings on his shirt and looked pointedly at a passing dwarf. Niam and Desa politedly tipped their heads as the dwarf looked at them both suspiciously. When he had walked a few paces away and they were sure he was out of earshot, Niam breathed a sigh of relief.

"I'm sorry. Shouldn't have spoken so loudly. I just haven't met a renowned killer before." He looked sheepish as he admitted it.

A killer. Yeah that's what she was. Niam didn't even know the half of it. How easy it came to kill people and bury the emotions down. She hated how empty she felt after a job well done. How monotonous the day to day life of working as a lap dog for a man she detested became and she had no way out of it. She had tried.

Before the familiar panic and anxiety of helplessness settled in, she stood upright and dusted the arm she had leaned on the wall.

"Don't interview killers Niam. The answers won't help you sleep better at night." She said and side stepped him. Before he could make a move or speak she turned her head and looked into his blue eyes.

"And don't follow me or have anything to do with me if you value your life." She put all the seriousness she could muster into the intensity of her red stare.

She took off towards the other end of town without sparing a glance back to Niam. And this time, he didn't follow her.

So I used ai to generate character images.

^this is Niam.

^And this is Desa.

These are just fun visuals i wanted to put. You are more than welcome to imagine the characters in your own way.

Thanks for reading! ❤️