Rooster liked being needed. He tried his hardest to do what people expected of him, so there was always a small fear that someday there would be nothing left to do. However, today Ghaleon had summoned him personally. The leader of the Death's Shadow had asked for<span style="font-style: italic">him</span>, the rookie. A huge mission, very important. And Ghaleon had asked for him.<br/><br/>Rooster was happy. He hurried along Cobbler's Row, jumping over a small dog that yelped in surprise, and then he spun left and ran down Fish Street and from there into the crowded Main Street, where he nimbly dodged out the way of the pedestrians without losing speed. Ghaleon needed him, so he had to get to the Great Oak as quickly as possible before they all took off and left him to be alone forever.<br/><br/>He squeezed through the narrow space between the bellies of two fat monks walking side by side, and tried to increase his pace to a sustained sprint, but instead had to screech to a halt. Some sort of street performance, which had attracted a noticeable crowd, blockaded the rest of Main Street. In the second before Rooster resumed his dash for the Great Oak, he noticed that pickpockets were busy too, taking full advantage of the roadshow, and he even noticed a few familiar faces from Death’s Shadow, although he had spoken to none of them before.<br/><br/>He caught himself guffawing and he reminded himself there was no time for laughter. He had no idea why Ghaleon suddenly wanted to see him, but the dark elf had insisted it was more important than anything Rooster had ever been a part of, ever, ever. The whole mission depended on Rooster, she had said, and he was not going to let anyone down.<br/><br/>He dashed forward and jumped. Whomever it was Rooster landed on fell to his knees, but Rooster was already jumping away, from shoulders to shoulders of the crowd. As people became aware of this practice, they tried to grab him. Unacceptable; too much time would be lost. Rooster aimed for the tallest nearby person; a bald man who looked equal parts fat and muscular, and using that man’s head as a stepping stone, Rooster launched himself upwards towards a balcony where a middle-aged woman stood in a flower-patterned dress and looked with amusement at both the magic show and the crowd-jumping Rooster below. She gave a shriek as he jumped towards her and got a hold of the balcony floor, and then she tried to stomp on his hands. He had to grab hold of her leg to prevent himself from dropping to the now-hostile crowd below and use her weight to pull himself up, which she seemed to not appreciate, chiefly because his hand had gotten a hold too far up her dress. She turned bead-red and started to scream. Rooster lifted himself up to a sitting position on the balcony fence and she immediately tried to push him off it. He dodged left, used her shoulder as a new springboard and jumped further up the building towards the second-story windowsill and from there climbed to the rooftop. The woman lost balance and fell over the side.<br/>Rooster would never learn of it, but the fat-or-muscular man on the street caught the woman in the flowery dress in his broad arms. She was unharmed and from this point on the two started a whirlwind romance, and three months later they were be happily married.<br/><br/>From the rooftop, Rooster jumped and climbed from building to building, until he was four stories up at the end of Main Street, looking down at the Great Oak, which blocked his view of Ghaleon, and made Rooster afraid he had arrived too late and everyone had left him behind.<br/><br/>Frantic to be on time, he jumped from the roof towards the Great Oak’s branches below. If he missed the Oak, he would die. Even he could not survive a fall from this height, but the risk was worth it in order to reach Ghaleon before he left town. Besides, he would not miss.<br/>He caught the top-most branch with his left hand and it altered his trajectory so instead of slamming into the ground he was en route to slam into the Oak’s trunk. He reached out, his foot found another branch to swing around, and for the next 20 seconds Rooster Fairbarn was like a brachiating gibbon swinging around the treetop trying to reduce his velocity. Wherever he touched the tree, he made his limb as strong as a mountainside. In the end, he landed on the ground, unharmed, besides Ghaleon.<br/><br/>Rooster was taller than most humans were, but seemed average for an elf. He carried the typical lean figure of his race, but with noticeably more muscles. From the moment he had learned to walk, the monks had drilled him for strength. They talked about mastering of the self and spiritual enlightenment through physical perfection, but Rooster had never understood any of that. They told him to kick ironwood trees so he kicked ironwood trees, and they told him to catch fish barehanded from the river, so he caught fish barehanded from the river, and it had made him strong and fast.<br/><br/>He was bare-chested save for a small, green vest that someone in the Death’s Shadow had said he should wear. Rooster was not sure if it was a good-looking vest and at first, it did not seem to fit the aesthetics of the group, but Rooster wore it anyway and was a bit uncomfortable in it until he saw Delphine one night and noticed she too was more naked than dressed. Rooster had never spoken to Delphine, but she had been a great comfort in making him feel at home, nonetheless.<br/><br/>The only thing he still owned from his days in the monastery were his bronze armguards, and his functional kicking shoes. Someone had tried to make him wear pink slippers that curled upwards and inwards by the toes, but they were too small for him and Rooster had politely pointed out he needed his feet for breaking the legs of his enemies. Rooster was not sure why, but this information had come off as a threat to the other thief who did not press the issue of the pink shoes any further and never spoke to Rooster again.<br/><br/>He was once bald, but since the monks were no longer around to shave him, his blonde hair had been allowed to grow uncontrolled, but as it often was with elves his hair seemed to fall nicely into place regardless of how little attention he paid to it. Even after swinging through the treetop, twigs and leaves seemed to disentangle naturally from the young elf who smiled at his leader with a mixture of awe, dog-like affection and shyness. Now that Rooster had found Ghaleon he was unsure of what he should say to him.<br/><br/>He scratched the back of his head, as he often did when nervous and kept on smiling widely. He snickered a bit, because he did not know what else to do and then scratched the back of his head again before finally announcing why he was here.<br/>“Lilith said you needed me.”<br/>His smile widened as he said it. It felt good to acknowledge that he was needed. He then scratched the back of his head for a third time and added quickly, interrupting whatever Ghaleon was about to say:<br/>“… Boss. For the mission. With the gold… She said I was essential… Boss.”<br/>And Rooster smiled proudly because he had made it in time.