Deadly Duel

Drevir staggered forward, gasping for breath.
The thing had finally stopped moving.
Drevir wiped the blood away from his eyes and glanced around, trying to see where his gun had fallen- he wasn't going to take any chances. As soon as he found it, he'd blast the thing's head to pieces to make sure it was dead.
Blast it, he thought, who knows where that stupid gun went. This alley's covered with garbage, how am I supposed to find it?
He took a few steps in the general direction of where he thought it might have fallen, and realized that his body was still shaking. Badly.
"Your gun fell over there," a voice said.
Drevir straightened up and looked towards it, but he already knew who it was- Yeteh, the Tareki of Life and Death.
"Thanks," the elf said, half stumbling to the place Yeteh had indicated.
"A hard fight?"
"Yeah. Worse than the one with Carad. Harder, I mean. But at least this time only my life was at stake."
Yeteh nodded, silently watching Drevir fish his gun out of a pile of junk and dust it off.
"You are going to kill him?" the Tareki asked when Drevir started turning back towards the limp thing.
"Yes," he replied determinedly, "if it wakes up... there's no way I can fight it off again. No way."
"I would not advise that."
Drevir stopped. He turned to face Yeteh in disbelief. "What?"
"There is nothing wrong with your intentions, as they are for self-defense. But do you not think that he- Vitid- deserves another chance?"
"That thing only wanted to kill me- that's what he was made for!"
"So what, do you think, would his life have been like up until now? Do you not think it would be similar to Kaude's?"
Kaude. That was another thought entirely.
Drevir heaved a deep, painful sigh. The blood running down his face, arms, legs, and back had finally begun to clot. His legs still shook, but not as hard as they had before. He was just managing to get control of his body and mind after a fight against something made with the express purpose of killing him, against something that had anticipated nearly every move he made, against something that had come closer to killing him than any other physical being ever had before, and yet Yeteh wanted it to live.
Drevir glanced at Yeteh again, doubtfully, and silently made his way to the unconscious body. Drevir's muscles were already beginning to stiffen and begged him to find a safe place and rest; his mind screamed at him to empty the rest of his shots into the thing's head and be done with it.
Drevir holstered his gun. He bent down, got his arms around the thing, and heaved it up. He struggled to ignore the pain ripping through his muscles at that moment, thinking ruefully how in former days he would have instantly murdered for much, much less....
"A good choice," Yeteh said, smiling. "I think Dr. Salayni is not far from here."
...of course, in those days he would have also threatened, if not killed, anyone who in any way suggested the idea of his being a Follower and taking orders from anyone besides himself.
Drevir nodded, shifted his load, and slowly made his way in the general direction of the doctor's apartment.
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An idea I've been playing with for Whisper, concerning Vitid's arrival in the story. In this version: Drevir has long been a faithful Follower, constantly fighting crime because he knows quite a bit about it himself, as he used to be on the top of it. But, stuff changed and with new laws and such cutting down on religious freedom (especially against Followers) he was given the choice of keeping his job or keeping his religion. He chose his faith and quietly disappeared to who-knows-where (how anyone expected to arrest him in the first place, I don't know, considering the fact that he was never caught in the first place...). However, he continued going after dangerous criminals and stuff because he felt that it was his responsibility, and he unintentionally influenced people even more to the Followers' side. This put him up at the top of the Most Wanted List (for the 2nd time in his life) and Froshun figured that the only way he could get rid of Drevir was to 'make' (genetically engineer) something for that purpose. So then came Vitid- faster, stronger, and more agile than Drevir, trained especially to combat the techniques Drevir uses. Vitid came closer to succeeding than anyone else had, but still didn't.

Drevir had every intention of utterly destroying Vitid (or at least, killing him beyond any shadow of doubt), but Yeteh convinced him otherwise. Yeteh is Drevir's patron Tareki, meaning that Yeteh acts as Drevir's conscience and guide, if Drevir lets him. They're sort of like good friends by now, and Drevir has learned not to argue with him. Followers are 'assigned' their patron for a lot of different reasons, usually something to do with their job, a theme of their life, or their personality.

Btw- Kaude is Drevir's adopted brother-in-law (adopted by Drevir's wife's family) who is more like a little brother that is extremely close to Drevir, even after Avaia, Drevir's wife, died. Kaude's birth father was Carad, a notoriously cruel kidnapper/blackmailer who is one of a very small number of people who genuinely scare Drevir. There's a long story in that.

*sigh* and this is what comes of my promising myself to sketch at least one thing a day using reference. I've been playing with this 'sketch' since yesterday morning and finally told myself to stop messing with it. I want to do something more with it, but I can't figure out what 'more' is. Comments/critiques would be nice.

Art/characters/story are mind, don't use.