Hani opened his eyes, blinking the sleep away from the corners. He could hear Ethelred snoring from a few feet away. Panic suddenly flooded his system as he realised he must have fallen asleep and to his horror he had absolutely no idea how long for.

"Fuck!" Hani exclaimed, launching himself forwards and immediately having to steady himself against the stable door due to his somewhat disorientated and sleep-addled brain.

He managed to further wind himself in his effort to squeeze back through the narrow gap and out onto the decidedly colder street. The entire town seemed a lot quieter than it had been earlier. Worryingly so, as Hani still couldn’t work out for life of him what time of night it was.

He jogged back down the darkened streets, wondering with a twinge of guilt whether or not Levi had already returned from the gambling parlour and if he had been looking for Hani? Given that Hani's life was directly linked to Levi's, he could imagine that the other man might be a little tetchy regarding his whereabouts.

Hani hurtled round the final corner and screeched to a halt as he spotted a cluster of obviously inebriated men barring his way to the inn's entrance. Hani knew he could handle himself well enough in these types of situations, but he had a bad feeling about these particular men. Besides, it had always been Muna that had somehow gotten them out of any trouble.

Hani’s heart only fell further when one of the men noticed him and immediately turned to elbow the others. Hani felt the hairs on the back of his neck bristle as all four of the figures turned to face him. The trouble was that he really didn't have a clue how else to get to the inn. If he backtracked and tried another route, it was quite likely he could just get lost or run into worse.

Flexing his fingers and feeling the absence of his magic more than ever, Hani steeled himself to take a step forward.

Almost immediately, he knew he had made a mistake. The men seemed to take Hani's movement as invitation to descend on him in a threatening circle.

"Hello girlie," one of the men rasped in a rough desert dialect.

Hani realised belatedly that he still had the shawl wrapped around his head. He wasn’t sure if it would make much difference if he revealed that he was actually a boy. However, he quickly pulled the rough fabric down anyway to around his narrow shoulders.

His worst fears were confirmed when the men reacted with delighted cheers, crowding in closer to him.

"What are you still doing out?" the same man asked, his breath uncomfortably warm and damp in the night air. "All the whores have gone home for the night."

"Where did you come from?" another man growled curiously. "Haven't seen you around here before."

"Maybe he's a Sand Sprite?" the first man suggested with a leer as Hani flinched.

'Sand Sprites' were mythical creatures that were meant to crawl out of sand dunes once a year, seeking and venturing into nearby settlements with the sole purpose of seducing human mates in order to fall pregnant. In recent years the legend had become nothing more than a crude joke for dirty limericks or desert town graffiti.

Hani knew that the men were trying to provoke a response out of him, potentially gauging whether or not he was in possession of any powers they should be wary of. Hani bit the inside of his cheek as a panicked and wholly unwelcome feeling of helplessness took hold of his chest. It wasn’t like when he imagined being overpowered by Levi. The men made him feel wrong, like he was close to tears.

Hani moved a step forwards, meaning to make his way between the men. However, a moment later he found himself roughly slammed up against the nearest wall with a harshly murmuring mouth up against the back of his neck.

"If he's a whore going back to his pimp then he'll have money on him," one of the men announced nastily. "He'll have pulled in a tidy sum if he's new in town. Everyone likes fresh meat."

"I like fresh meat," the man directly behind Hani purred threateningly, jostling his large and rancid smelling body further into Hani's space.

"Check his pockets for coins," someone hissed urgently.

"Check everywhere," stated another lecherously.

It was with a flash of shame that Hani realised he hadn't even tried to struggle free since finding himself in this position. The shock of being in danger and not feeling the familiar protective thrum of magic in his veins had rendered him motionless, caught like a panicked animal.

He didn't know how angry the men would be when they realised he didn't have any coins on him at all. Hani tried to butt his head back against the uncomfortable weight behind him but the man dodged out of the way just in time.

"Little shit! an angry voice snarled. The man placed his large hand across the back of Hani's scalp and slammed him face forwards into the crumbling stone of the wall in front. Hani let out a cry of pain and shock, coughing as he felt blood flowing freely from his nose and down his throat.

They're going to kill me, Hani thought miserably to himself. He was jerked backwards and thrown down to the floor before metal tipped boots started propelling themselves against his chest and stomach. Hani cried out in pain and covered his face with his hands as best he could, trying to work out how he could possibly escape without any powers.

"Any of you boys looking for a good time?" a seductive voice purred noticeably over the sounds of grunts and violence.

Hani felt the men falter in their incessant beating of him. However, it wasn’t until he could actually hear them moving away that he dared to lower his hands and crack open his eyes.

Hani felt his mouth gape open in surprise as he saw the owner of the voice. Just across the street from him and the men was a sultry looking blonde woman with bright red lips and a figure hugging dress. The first and most ridiculous thing Hani thought was that she must be freezing with the night chill. The second thing he realised is that she obviously had no idea what she had just walked into.

"Run!" Hani managed to hiss at her, spitting blood across the ground. He needed to warn the woman just how much danger she was in. However, from the way she sauntered to the nearest wall and propped herself in a suggestive position, she clearly didn't seem to care.

Hani watched in horror as the men turned their interest from him and started to stalk towards her aggressively, calling out the same lewd banter they had been using on Hani just a moment ago. Hani shuddered at the implications of what they were saying. He struggled to try and haul himself up from the street, to put himself between her and the men.

"Only it seems wrong," the woman pouted, her voice dripping with something deep and sensual, but now Hani could tell that there was a slightly strained and angry vein to it. "Picking on a cute kid like that when there's four of you and only one of him."

The men started to laugh, clearly not paying any attention to the way the woman's posture had started to change, her expression growing less flirtatious and more furious. There was also something piercing about her grey eyes that Hani couldn’t help but feel like he recognized.

"So I thought you might like to try someone your own size," the woman sneered finally, however the honeyed, alluring voice was gone and now her pitch dropped down into something of a masculine growl.

Hani stared dumbstruck as the woman waited until the last possible moment. For the approaching men to be lured close enough towards her with their guards down, before she morphed back into Levi.

There was a strangled shout of surprise, that Hani belatedly realised must have come from himself, as Levi pulled a thick iron bar out from behind his back and smashed it against the first man's head. The other men were still clearly too inebriated and confused to have figured out what had just happened so Levi had the edge on them too.

Hani staggered forwards to help but the men were already down by the time he got there. Instead, Levi was rounding on him furiously.

"And where the hell have you been?" Levi shouted, his anger echoing around the otherwise empty street.

"I-" Hani opened his mouth to answer but coughed again as he choked on more of his own blood.

"Fucking hell," Levi bit out, rushing forwards to catch Hani before he did something embarrassing like collapse back down to the dirtied street. "Fucking assholes, what have they done to you?"