"Goddammit! You snot-nosed little monkey, I'm going to beat your grimey little face to a pulp!" The roar broke through the normal chatter of the market like a hammer through glass, and a hundred cloth-wrapped and sun-leathered faces turned as one towards the towering hulk by the fountain. The spider's-web of scars on his face gleamed white against the ruddy tones of his rage.

Someone was in trouble.

That someone made a beeline for the nearest dark ally, bare feet slapping on the hard-packed dirt. Those that noticed him quickly un-noticed him, turning their heads away, eyes downcast; the last thing anyone wanted was to get involved in a conflict that involved making Fadgha the Beast angry. That was never good for one's health, and more than a few people clucked their tongues in sympathy for the unknown focus of the giant's ire.

They shouldn't have bothered, because he was having the time of his life.

"Come get me, you pox-riddled ogre!" Two things were clear in the young man's voice: arrogance and confidence. He didn't sound nearly as insane as his actions determined he was. He didn't even look insane, his pitch-black eyes gleaming mirthfully under matching, unkempt hair. No, instead he looked dangerously dashing and incredibly fast as he dodged and weaved through the milling throng, the roaring behemoth hot on his heels.

He probably should have regretted his goading words a few minutes later, when he made a wrong turn and ended up with his back to the wall. He probably should have meekly begged forgiveness for his mischief and prayed to Alah to survive the inevitable thrashing. Instead, he folded his arms across his thin, tanned chest and leaned back against the rough clay tiles. His teeth gleamed white against the darkness of his skin as he watched Fadgha stalk forward.

He wasn't reacting properly at all!

"You little whelp. You good-fer-nothin' son of a mangy desert rat!" They were probably the biggest sentences Fadgha had uttered in ten seasons.

"Tsk, tsk... you should know better than to talk about a man's mother like that, Beast. It might anger me to hear you say such things." The wiry young man laughed as his opponent's shadow darkened him. He was more concerned, however, with a spot of dirt on the tan fabric of his open vest.

That was probably a mistake.

"Yoooooooooouuuuuuu!" Lacking eloquence in his rage, Fadgha settled for a mighty roar and an elephantine charge, lowering his head and shoulders as he lumbered towards the trapped young man. All things considered, it wasn't the smartest move, as his much-faster antagonist had plenty of room to dodge. Fadgha could have found himself on the wrong end of a collision with the wall.

But, since when did the lad do as expected?

Still wearing that cocky grin, the young man pushed away from the wall and brushed a hand through his unruly hair. His eyes gleaming, his back straight, and his vest now blessedly free of dirt, he watched the giant rumble towards him and reflected on the comedy of the moment. All of this over a stolen kiss with Fadgha's little sister. With a twitch of one curved brow, he wondered what the man's reaction would be if he knew what they'd been doing all night last night. He pictured that scarred head exploding in a fit of apoplexy and chuckled.

Then he balled his fist and swung.

Fadgha's jaw held, surprisingly enough, but the forces of gravity didn't last long against his opponent's superior strength. It was quite comical to watch his still-flailing feet catch up to the rest of him as he lifted into the air, sailing up and back the way he'd come. It really would have been an impressive flight, and probably would have broken a number of records, if not for the inauspicious placement of an overhead covered walkway between the buildings. Instead, Fadgha slammed into the structure hard enough to crack it and hung there for one heartbeat before he slid off and fell face-first to the dirt alley below.

The giant landed like a sack of clay bricks and stayed just as still.

"Well, that was ... interesting, brother. May I ask if there was a point?" The wall beside the fallen man grew a face, offering a rueful smirk to the lad as he sauntered over. The face grew into a head, shoulders and eventually a body as another young man stepped into the shadowed alley, his features clearly establishing his relationship with the young powerhouse.

The djinn grinned a wolfish grin and stared down at the prone giant, nudging him with a naked toe. "Sometimes, you just need to hit someone."