Rae
~
Just as the first rays of sunlight started to peak over the castle walls, Ivory and Vermilion mounted their horses and sat there patiently as the castle mage casted a protection spell on them both. Swords on their sides, bags of food to last them a week, cans of water, and a change of clothes. The brothers were ready for their journey.
The king had personally come to see them off, and it warmed Ivory's heart, while Vermilion and everyone else were shocked at this. "Safe travels, my friend," the king addressed Ivory, who simply nodded at him with a childlike grin before turning to Vermilion, "You both stay safe, okay? And if things start to go downhill, you can come back to the castle, and I will send some of my soldiers to go instead."
Vermilion bowed his head to show his appreciation for the king's kindness but his brother had to still be half asleep because he answered the king like he was just another one of his friends, "oh you don't have to worry about us, my king. We will find Raven and bring him back with us safely and sound. And we can definitely handle a little trouble if we run into it."
"I am not worried about you running into trouble, Ivory," the king chuckled, "I am worried about you causing it."
Ivory had the gull to look offended, but his brother wholeheartedly agreed with the king, Ivory had always been a little troublemaker.
"I shall keep an eye on him, sire, do not worry," he said.
"I'm counting on you," the king smiled at Vermilion too before patting the side of Ivory's thigh in affection. With that, the king bid them farewell one last time before heading back into his castle. And the two brothers were off.
They followed the trail that led them from the castle into the bustling capital of Goldinfüld, Wenberg. Even this early in the morning, the people of the town were already hard at work, shop owners cleaned their shops getting ready to open their business for the day, while vendors set up their carts and stalls, others already calling out to customers. There weren't any children playing around yet, but Ivory knew they usually came out to run around and play between and around people's legs, the unlucky even tripping over some of them. Vermilion had been one of those unlucky fellas the first time they had come to the capital. Ivory remembered with a fond smile how his brother had blushed furiously and grumbled in embarrassment.
Ivory spotted some fruit on a stall to his left and he told his brother he wanted to buy some, Vermilion voiced his disapproval but he got off his horse to hold the reigns of both the horses while Ivory bought his fruit anyway.
Vermilion tapped his foot impatiently as he waited for his brother. He hadn't known buying fruit could take this long! What was Ivory even doing there? All he had to do was pick some fruit and they'd be off, but knowing his brother, Vermilion could imagine him looking closely at each fruit, comparing them to each other to determine which one was the best from the bunch. He sighed. He would be standing there for at least another ten minutes.
Vermilion watched the street ahead of him as he waited. The Capital really was a busy place. Back in their small hometown of Dorion, the shops didn't open till the sun had completely risen, and the stalls would be mounted only at midmorning. No one bothered to get up this early, but it seemed this is just how things worked in the Capital.
He was watching a man carry a chair out of his shop when he felt it. Someone bumped into him hard, and in the next moment, they had zipped right past him. Someone behind him yelled, "STOP HIM! THIEF!" And Vermilion didn't think twice about what he did next. He simply let instinct take over, and he teleported the thief back to him. He quickly grabbed the thief by the scruff of his neck just as the people chasing the thief reached where he was.
"Thank you very much, kind sir," an older man, probably in his forties, said, and the rest of the people with him nodded their heads in agreement. "I'm sorry if this is rude of me to ask, but how did you do that?"
"It's my special ability," Vermilion answered nonchalantly.
The small crowd around him gasped, and the man again spoke up, "Does that mean you're one of the Chosen?"
"Yes," Vermilion answered again, just as flatly as before.
"Oh wow, it's good to meet you, future hero," the man exclaimed. He smiled genuinely at Vermilion, which left him wondering how he was expected to react to that. He simply nodded his head in acknowledgement of the man before turning his attention to the person he held down.
"Hey you, give the people back what you stole from them and hand back what you stole from me," he said, shaking the lad a little. The boy seemed very young, maybe 14 at best, he was all skin and bones, he had no fat on him but that was to be expected from a street rat. Without a source of income, food was scarce, and without shelter, their skins turned hard and callused in order to survive the elements. Vermilion could feel how rough the kid's skin was as he held him by the back of the neck.
The boy, with shaking hands covered in grime, offered back the bread he had snatched off one of the stalls and the bag he had grabbed off of one of the horses in Vermilion's care, the vendors looked on in disgust, and none of them reached out to get the bread back.
"Look at how filthy he is. Even if I take the bread back now, no one is going to want to buy it from me!" An outraged vendor said from behind the older man.
Vermilion watched on in disinterest as he took the bag from the lad and checked to see what it contained. The boy had probably been looking to steal the bag containing their food but he had taken the one with a change of clothes for them instead, he would have been very disappointed once he got back to whatever hole he crawled out of. Focusing back on the noisy crowd, he listened to them rally on about how the young boy needed to compensate for the bread he had stolen, the vendors at this point we're agreeing on whether to beat up the kid or get him arrested. Most wanted to beat him up.
"What is going on here?" Ivory demanded, splitting the crowd so he could get to his brother.
"This kid stole bread, the vendors want him to pay, but since he can't..." Vermilion let his sentence hang in the air. His brother could figure out the rest.
"What!? Because of one loaf, you all want to harm this kid? Did it not occur to you that he did it because he is hungry from possibly days of starvation!" Ivory made sure to look them all in the eye as he stood in front of the kneeling boy as if to shield him. "No one will lay a finger on him."
"Look 'ere, hero," the man said as if mocking Ivory, "I understand your all purpose is to save people, but this one can't be saved. I'm not runnin' a charity stall, so the lad pay or we 'ere will teach 'im a lesson."
Vermilion didn't like the man's tone at all. He liked even less that the man had mocked his brother in front of all these people. Luckily, he had a good head on his shoulders, so he managed to remain calm. Otherwise, he would have liked to kill the bastard where he stood. "How much?" He asked, cutting off whatever Ivory was going to say.
"What are you-" Ivory tried, but Vermilion cut him off again.
"In case you have forgotten, brother, we are supposed to be on our way out of here already. We don't have any more time to waste with these people, so " he looked directly at the man who had dared disrespect his brother, "how much for the bread?"
"Two coppers," the man answered with an attitude. While Ivory protested saying he knew the actual price of bread and the man had asked for a greater amount, Vermilion fetched two copper coins from his pouch and handed them to the man before making a shooing motion with his hand and dryly telling them to leave.
"You shouldn't have paid him that much. He just scammed you of your money, brother," Ivory said with a scowl.
"Leave it be we do not have the time for trivialities," Vermilion answered him as he placed his pouch securely in his shirt pocket again. " Now, what do you intend on doing with that," he pointed at the street rat.
"Help him, of course." Ivory said before turning back to the boy. "Hey there, you can get up now. You're safe."
The little vermin scoffed at Ivory's words, but he stood up nonetheless. As he straightened his dirty old shirt, the brothers observed two lamps on his chest that suggested the lad was actually a lass.
"Y-you're a girl," Ivory gawked at her.
"Aye, so?" She said with a very bad attitude. She kept eyeing the bread as if wondering if and when she could eat it.
"It's yours. You can eat as we talk," Vermilion suggested.
The street rat simply glared at him before starting to shove chunks of the bread into her mouth.
"Isn't it dangerous for a young lady to live on the streets?" Ivory asked, and the girl simply glared at him as she continued to chew on her bread. "If you answer my questions, I might give you some fruit," he coaxed.
She eyed the plastic bag full of fruit that he held and nodded her head slowly at him. "So tell me, why are you on the streets stealing and trying to get yourself killed?"
She flinched at his words but answered anyway, "I have no other choice but to live on the streets. My home is far from here and it is even more dangerous for me to live there than here. This is the lesser of two evils."
"How old are you?"
"16 summers old,"
Vermilion noted that she spoke like she had been to school. He also noticed how, like them, her hair wasn't the usual brown and blind of this kingdom. She must have been a foreign aristocrat, "Ivory, time's ticking, hurry, would you?"
Vermillion continued to look at his brother even though he could see in his peripheral that the street rat glared at him heatedly. He paid her no mind.
"Okay, okay, just give me a second to think," Ivory wacked his forehead a few times as if that would get him to think something up, seemed it worked, "I've got it!"
He walked to his horse and looked for his bag, but it wasn't where he left it, Vermilion held it out to him, explaining that the thief had tried to steal it too. Ivory ignored what his brother said and ruffled through his belongings until he made a triumphant sound when he found what he was looking for.
"Here," he handed the girl a cloth that had embroidered on it, a sword and stuff crossing with a shield just below them. This was supposed to be the official emblem of the Chosen heroes. Giving it to her meant she was now under their protection, and whoever dared to harm her risked their wrath. "Take this and go up to the castle. This will grant you an audience with the king. Once there, ask for shelter and food in exchange for work. I'm sure there's enough room to accommodate you there. It's better than the streets, and you are guaranteed more than one meal a day. Here," he handed her the fruit as well, "just like I promised. And one more thing, what's your name?"
The theif watched this man who smiled brightly at her, his eyes so pure and genuine that it brought emotions to her own cold eyes, she wondered why he had chosen to help her but she didn't ask, she could tell they were in a hurry to leave if the insistent tapping of the other man's foot was anything to go by. "Rae, my name is Rae. What's yours?"
"My name's Ivory, and that's my brother Vermilion. It is a pleasure to meet you, Rae. I will come and look for you first thing when I get back, farewell for now, and make sure you do as I have told you." Ivory instructed as he got on his horse to continue his journey.
"I will, thank you." She waved them goodbye before turning in the direction of the castle. She wasn't about to miss this opportunity to get off the filthy streets of Wenberg.
Vermilion watched as his brother smiled the whole way out of the capital. Doing good deeds really did make him happy. That was what a true hero was supposed to be like. It often made him wonder if he too was truly a hero or if there had been a mistake somewhere. As the capital remained behind them, they ventured on into the rolling fields as they headed west for the city of Galoria.
The day had started out eventful, Ivory wondered what else was in-store for him and his brother.