As they ran through the mud, they heard the distant yells of guards trying to track them down.

Eric ran as fast as he could to catch up, eventually asking, "where are we going?"

"We?!?!" Asked the Elf, shocked,

As they bickered, they soon notice lantern light and footsteps coming closer and closer, and upon this discovery, elf turned down a new alley and began bolting. Ericson was not far behind. 

As they ran Ericson took a second to look behind him, promptly running into the elf's back. 

"Watch it!" The elf hissed

"Sorry I was a little distracted by the fact that we are being chased down, my bad- I'm so sorry!" Whispered back Ericson, voice dripping with sarcasm. 

The elf's ear twitched with annoyance. The elf then shifted to show Ericson that the alley ended with a large wall in front of them. 

Ericson had to grab onto the wall to keep his knees from buckling. After regaining his composure, he scrambled up, asking, "now what do we do?" 

The elf investigated their surroundings, perceiving every crack in the wall, every groove in the mud, and dust particle in the air. The elf, soon after, turned towards Ericson, stating, "yeah your screwed." 

"Wha- IM screwed? Why just me?" Questioned Ericson 

The elf help up a finger to hush Ericson, and said, "Well, at the very least, you're safe if you can climb." 

The elf said this, winked at him, and then began to gracefully jump from crack to groove to crevice in the walls around them, quickly making his way to the roof.

"Wha-WHAT?!?" Gasped Ericson in a shocked whisper. 

"Good luck man." Called down the elf, with actual sympathy in his voice. That's surprising he thought.

The boots were getting closer, the lamp light hitting his back. Ericson couldn't climb like that, but he had a better plan. An, albeit, far simpler plan, but better none the less. 

As the guards approached Ericson, exclaiming, "There's one of 'em! Chain him up!" While pulling out manacles, Ericson turned towards them, doing his best to look calm.

"Heya! Do you all like jokes?" Said Ericson in a jolly voice.

This gave the guards pause, clearly confused. One of the guards, a Dwarvish man who's beard wasn't even fully grown yet, started to raise his hand, as another one, an elven women, pushed his hand down. 

"Ya see, I've kinda hit rock bottom." Explained Ericson. "But, there is only one way left to go from rock bottom. Can anyone answer me which way that is?" 

A deathly silence filled the air, and Eric could hear the facepalm of the elf above him, who he can assume has guessed the punchline.

"Man, tough crowd... well, I can only MOVE-!" Eric yelled and swung his quartz like an uppercut as hard as he could, and was violently thrown upward. Now, Eric had planned to yell "UP!" to finish that exchange, but what he didn't expect was how hard he was truly hit. Eric has never had to use this much force on one of his "moves". However, in order to throw himself up a building, he put in much more effort than usual. Effort enough that he felt he had been hit by a runaway wagon. 

Breathlessly, Eric starfished up to the roof, landing on his back and rolling on his butt, his tunic flap covering his face. As he reminisced how much better being numb from a hit was than just having the pain, he hears the disappointed voice of the elf ask, "please for the love of all that is good in the world, don't tell me you were actually attempting to make that a 'nowhere to go but up' joke." 

Eric took a few deep breaths, and jokingly replied, "well, it may have been a bad joke, but it helped me from-" Eric paused for dramatic effect, "RAISING the stakes!" 

The elf stared blankly at him, and only after a few moments replied with, "oh gods, and I was actually hoping the guards wouldn't get you." 

"Aww, well arnt you a darling" Eric said sarcastically.

Soon after, the door up to the roof, which was a couple building away but the easiest way to get onto the ling line of rooftops the were on, started getting busted open. 

"Time to go!" Yelled Ericson.

"Couldn't agree more," said the elf, "I insist that you tell them another joke. It'll give me more time to run." Said the elf over his shoulder. 

As they kept running, they realized they were soon running out of rooftops to run on. 

The elf turned to Ericson, asking, "do you trust me?" 

Ericson turned back and answered, "not at all, why?"

He could tell the elf smirked, retorting with, "good, this'll make this a lot scarier for you." As he tackled both Ericson and himself off the roof.

Ericson may not have to most masculine of screams, but it was soon twisted from horror to surprise. As they fell, the elf pulled out a feather that looked to be from a hawk, and yelled, "ßłœvįén!" After that, the elf's eyes shined a vibrant orange, and soon enough their fall began to slow, until the gently hit the ground. 

"Let's go!" Said the elf, waving to Ericson to get up, and then continuing to run down the road. Ericson complied in a bit of a stupor. That was new, he had never had anyone else use Magic on him before. 

Ericson tried his best to catch up, but the elf was fast enough to keep him just seven to ten feet in front of him. As they ran, Ericson noticed a guard upon the roof they just jumped from readied a longbow. As the arrow flew, Ericson flinched, only to notice it fly over him. Towards the elf man. Panic filled Ericson for some reason. Ericson flicked his wrist, yelling "MOVE!" Sending the arrow a different direction. After seeing the arrow embed itself into a wooden wall way down the road, relief began to fill Ericson, who was happy to have repayed the elf for saving him, only for that relief to get squashed. 

"Freeze!" Yelled a guard, standing in their way about 90 feet in front of them, bisecting the road from their two options. They could either continue down the road, upon which two more guards were running towards them from, or duck into an inn.

Eric grasped his quartz and yelled, "MOVE!" While stabbing it like a knife. 

The guard was quickly shoved back with a blue line of force, leaving enough of a gap for Eric and the elf to run into a nearby inn.

As they ran inside they quickly turned to a bedroom that wasn't being rented out and locked the door. As they leaned against it, the elf turned to Eric.

"You know how you said your an 'accomplice'?"

"Yeah?"

"Well,  you are not an accomplice. At least, you weren't until you attacked the guard with the flow." 

Eric facepalmed hard, and whispered sharply, "You could've brought that up!" 

"When in the 5 minutes that we've spoken to each other has the topic of  'your not an accomplice unless you do this, this, or that' come up! By the way, what kind of spell have you been using?" Asked the elf, appalled. "mOvE!" He repeated with an outrageous voice. "That's not a spell!"

"I don't think this is the time to talk about that. I don't know about you, but I think we just dead ended ourselves." Said Eric looking around the room panicked. All he saw was a dresser, a bed, a barred window, and below the window a large trunk. 

"Oh hush." Said the elf, reaching to his side, only to bring his hand up empty. "Æith!" He said under his breath. 

"What's wrong?" Asked Eric

"I left my dagger at the tavern." 

"So?!??"

"Ok look, your gonna get us out of this." Said the elf, firmly grasping his hand, and leading him to the barred window. The bars were think cast iron rods bolted into the walls. The bolts were rusted, making the option to use tools go out the window.

"Heh, out the window." Eric giggled to himself,

"...what?!?!" Hissed the elf through his teeth, "never mind, just break the bars over the window." 

"Wait what?" Eric protested,

"What do you mean what? Grab your- what is that? Quartz?!? Whatever, grab it." Eric complied. "Now just use the flow." 

Eric hesitates. The elf, noticing this, is stunned. 

"Oh gods WHAT DO YOU KNOW?!?" 

"I know 'move'!" 

The elf pinched the bridge of his nose, mumbling to himself, "goddess of the sun give me the strength to deal with this man." Returning his attention to Eric the elf asked, "do you need me to teach you or something?"

"I mean, we've got nothing but time." Said Eric, optimistically. 

There were three loud pounds on the door, as a voice from the other side said, "Get out here right now, your under arrest!" 

"Nothing but time huh!" Mocked the elf, 

"Whatever hold it towards the window. Focus on the window, focus your channel -"

"My what?"

"Shut it, now prepare your catalyst-" upon seeing the confusion in Eric's face, the elf clarified, 

"The quartz! Prepare for the command črâkìtöń." 

"Excuse me?!?" Objected Eric.

"Now make sure not to mess up the command word otherwise parts of the flow will go wild and splash out." 

Eric felt as if he were in a maze, but like if he was blind, couldn't feel anything, and it wasn't a maze, it was a coffin 6 feet under. 

"....could you maybe start from the beginning one more time?"

The elf threw his hands up in the air, stating, "welp, that's not our escape, any other ideas?" 

Eric looked around the room, and a very dumb idea dawned on him. Dumb enough to just work. "well, maybe one."