The Boy's Home

The boy then looked around, trying to see if anyone had any other intentions. His eyes looked at each person's face for a few seconds. After he was seemingly satisfied, he nodded his head and began to walk out of the hall, the entire group followed behind him. Leaving Pavitra and Shourya alone together, in the vast open hall.

He looked over to her, slightly smiling face, and could not help but feel warm a little inside of his heart. At least to him that sight was beautiful. The warmth though was soon buried out as he remembered that he was just a small lord, well not really that. He was no near the status required to be with her. Inside of his heart, he sighed and then turned around, aiming to follow the group that had just left.

Pavitra though, watched him struggle with something inside. His face looked hilarious, it was like he had just eaten something that tasted horrible. In the end though, whatever he was feeling died away and he returned to normal. Though as he left to follow them all, her smile slowly sunk as she wished he would just stay with her for a bit more.

Shourya slowly followed the large group at distance. It did not feel right to him, to be with them. Not yet at least, he just felt that if he did join them, it would cause them to be more tense and less talkative. 

Soon they entered into a different part of the city, it was more rundown compared to the rest and that was really saying something. A lot of the houses that they passed by all had sunken in roofs and a lot of the walls had gone moldy if not worse. Then the boy turned into an alley, the whole group followed behind him. Shourya just stopped outside of the alley though, he had seen one of the rats before. He just hoped that they all had been killed within the alleys, not leaving one or two.

Then he walked in, it turned out that the alleyway was just a small shortcut, the boy had quickly taken them out onto another road, not going into the main part of the alleyway. If Shourya was near him at the time, he would understand why the boy had a small look of fear on his face. He probably had seen the rats or at least heard some stories of them.

Then he stopped outside one of the dilapidated buildings, the walls were black. Not even a trace of the normal wall could be seen through all of the mold. It was at this moment that Shourya had caught up and blended himself in, with the rest of the group. He was curious about what was going to happen.

As it was, already they had drawn the eyes of a lot of the people who lived here normally. Quite a few of them were just standing in the street and watching on, curious about what was going to happen.

Then the boy pushed open the door, only to be met by a man standing there. The man was fairly tall and was scared a lot. Seeing who it was who had pushed the door open. The man's face suddenly turned horrible. 

"Boy! Where have you been? Get here now!" The man as he was yelling, grabbed the boy, by the back of his neck and began to drag him into the house. The man had not seen or more likely had just ignored everyone who was outside. As he was being dragged away, the boy suddenly yelled out.

"You can not do this to me anymore! I am here to help her! Let me go!" His yelling surprised the man, who looked down at the boy as if he was stupid.

The man sneered as he spoke again. "And how will a runt like you do that?" 

It was at this moment that people outside finally decided to intervene. It was the same old soldier as before.

"Why is our comrade a runt? He passes the trial for the personal guard of her highness when men and women double his age and experience failed. So let my comrade go!" The man spoke clearly and loudly. His words did not just shock the man who had the boy but also all of the people who were watching on.

Shourya just smiled to himself as they all started to mutter and talk to each other. The man himself was just looking outside at all of the people. The boy with him being distracted struggled and got himself out of the grip of the man, he then ran inside of the house looking for his mother and other family members.

The man though, was just staring at the group who was outside of his house. He looked kind of funny and stupid. He just did not believe what had been said.

"How can you prove that? I bet he has paid you? How much?" The man just refused to believe it, the old soldier I could tell was beginning to slowly get annoyed that the man refused to believe him.

It was at this point that I finally decided that I should intervene. With that, I slowly pushed my way through the crowd. Getting closer to the front of the crowd as quickly as I could. Once I was there, the old soldier gave me a surprised look. 

I ignored his look though and focused straight on the man. Going by his face he clearly did not know who I was. I just smiled to myself at that.

I then took a small badge out of my pocket and waved it around for a second before putting it away. "That was proof that I am the commander of what will be the personal guard, of her highness. The boy and the people behind me, all passed the trial for the training for the unit. Now, do you believe me?"

The man just dumbly nodded. Seeing this, I smiled and began to walk to the back again. The old soldier followed. Once we were far enough away, he whispered, "We have a badge now?"

I just looked at him for a second, then whispered back. "No, there is nothing of the sort like that."