"Well? Aren't you going to say hello back?"
The man's direct eye contact and smile did not diminish, further fueling Aaron's discomfort and worry.
"Hi." Aaron finally managed to muster, his voice taking on a familiar tone of pitiful meekness.
The man too close to Aaron and his three comrades erupted into an unnatural laughter at Aaron's response.
Aaron turned to Iccos, who had a determined and focused expression Aaron had not seen before. There was certainly worry to be found on his face, but also a sense of certainty.
Aaron's focus on Iccos was broken, when the press of cold flat metal was felt upon his face.
With the knife, Aaron's head was slowly guided to turn back around to the man sitting next to him.
"Don't look away when I'm talking to you, I wasn't done speaking yet."
The rest of the tavern took notice of the altercation that was taking place. Most left, and the barkeep simply hid under his bar, clearly accustomed to this type of event in his establishment.
Iccos stood up from his stool suddenly upon seeing the knife.
"Not another step scaly, or we'll find out how easily blood can be washed out of floorboards."
Iccos' face took up into a snarl.
"My comrades and I," the man took a pause to theatrically motion towards the other men who seemed to share his enthusiasm. "Are always doing small jobs around town. It doesn't pay too well, but it's enough to keep the drinks coming and the girls easy."
"We normally don't go for bounties, but when we heard that a pacified scaly had broken out of jail with some moron, we figured it'd be easy pickins."
"And now that we found ya," He paused again, pressing the knife even harder against Aaron. "You all are certainly no challenge."
A sinister chuckle came from the four men.
One of the men started to walk over to Iccos.
Aaron's usual brand of internalized paranoia was silent, as his entire focus was directed to the current situation and his paralyzing fear.
The man stepping over to Iccos pulled out some rope from under his cloak, making their intention clear.
As the man went to put the rope around Iccos' wrist, Iccos spun and whipped the man back with his tail.
"Aaron, now!" Iccos barked.
Aaron understood, Iccos' command, but could not move. He watched in horror as Iccos began to strangle the downed man with his tail.
The man holding Aaron at knife point must have felt a similar level of surprise, as he didn't move and barely reacted.
He finally snapped to attention, and turned the knife's blade to face Aaron's exposed throat.
"Boys! Get'em!"
Before the other two cloaked men could draw what Aaron figured were knives, the one on the left had something fly into them as what looked to be an even smaller knife was know lodged in his chest.
As his comrade fell on his knees, bleeding out from the wound, the other cloaked man barely had time to react to the strike from the cloak figure Aaron had noticed sitting at the bar.
The figure seemed to leap out, striking hard and fast with an open hand to the man's nose. The blood was almost instant.
The man who had blood pouring onto the part of his face from his now broken nose, staggered back, his hands cradling the space in front of his nose as if there were pieces that needed to be put back into place.
"You...you...you..." The man's words were as lost as his sense of balance.
Before he could finish what was a most likely crude and meaningless insult, the cloaked figure pulled out another small knife and cut the throat of the man open in a methodical and practiced way.
Iccos had taken note of the blood shed, and unretracted his claws.
Iccos' tail fell down from the man he had been strangling, who took in a sharp unsteady breath.
Before he could exhale, Iccos dug his claws into the man's throath, and pulled his hands apart like a person opening curtains.
Iccos pushed the man off of him, and his now completely opened neck was gushing onto the floor.
Iccos and the cloaked figure now turned to face the man who was holding Aaron with a knife, both of whom were sweating profusely.
"St-stay back." The man managed to blurt out.
He now had Aaron's back pressed up to him, the knife now drawing drops of blood from being pressed too hard.
Aaron could feel the man's racing heart, practically matching his own.
Aaron felt disgust at not only his own weakness in the situation, but also in that he was sharing feelings with the man who was threatening his life.
Even Aaron didn't know why or how what he did next.
Aaron shot his hands back behind him, his thumbs prodding into the man's eyes.
The man dropped his knife and stumbled back, his hands trying to rub out the pain.
"Ow! Fuck, damn...fuck."
Aaron acted without thinking, as he once again put out his hands and brought the man's head to the ground. He put his knees on the man's chest in such a way that he couldn't fight back with his arms.
"What are you-"
The man's cries of pain and horror erupted, as Aaron plunged his thumbs into the mans eyes.
Aaron did his best to block out all of his senses; the man's screams, the texture that his thumbs were feeling, and the gruesome sight that he was causing.
Aaron didn't stop, he just kept pressing until the man stopped fighting and the screams were heard no more.
When it came to a standstill, Aaron had a sudden realization of what he had just done.
His epiphany combined with what he saw when he looked at the man's barely recognizable face, caused him to vomit, onto the face of the corpse no less.
"Aaron?"
Aaron turned to look at Iccos, who's claws still slowly dripped with blood.
Aaron looked at his own hands, which were also covered in blood and bodily fluids Aaron didn't know the names of.
Tears started to come from Aaron's eyes.
Maybe it was the vomit still burning in his throat, maybe it was because this was the first time Aaron had killed someone, or maybe because Aaron knew that he'd never again have a life in which he knew what the next day would bring.
He'd never know.