Chapter 24: How come I see you and ache instead?

Nate POV:

The food I ate came from Naschestan. The condoms, which Lars wanted me to wear one day, but apparently only after we became 18, came from Arkano. I honestly didn't want to hear that the clothes on my back were from Boran. Well, produced ten years ago, but still… Fate was rarely nice to me.

"We produce nothing, Nate. The war made us so poor, that a temple mouse seems rich in comparison," Lars kept on talking, my nose kept on twitching. I still had him in my arms, safe and sound. 

I wanted more than that, yes, but I couldn't get it. Lars had his rights, was his own master. He made it clear that I am not allowed to so much as kiss him before we turned 18.

My nose kept on twitching.

"But we can change all that," Mike's voice brought me out of this cursed circle of nose twitching and listening with just one ear. I narrowed my eyes, for I knew that he would ask something of me. 

Mike was not like Lars. He was the son of a loyal general. As far as he was concerned, Lergo was my problem. Well, I didn't think he'd say it that way, but I was pretty damn sure that he thought like that. 

"I live under a bridge," some things had to be made clear. 

"We live in abandoned buildings because the good spots under the bridges are full of racists," said Basil, who had gotten some of his good cheer back. "Honestly, why did you say it like that? One can start a fire under the bridge. In the most holes we sleep in, that is too dangerous."

"Do you think I care about two illegal immigrants?" I snapped. The people of Lergo had taken a lot from me during my short life, but no one could take my citizenship from me. I was born in Lergo, had the right documents somewhere, hidden in a dusty cabinet. If anyone wanted to argue the fact, they would find it hard.

"Oh, that was nice of you to say, little Prince!" Basil clapped a couple of times, then bowed. "Very nice! But there is this slight little problem, and I am not saying this to insult you, but at least we are not half-breeds!"

"Basil!" Rowan was the nicer of the two, which made him a bit of an enigma. I was certain that he had lost as much as I had. Maybe even more. Still, he tried to be polite to me. Why, I didn't know. Still, he tried.

"No, no! The kid had a tough life, true. But he still has it in him to turn up his aristocratic nose at us! We told him the truth, so he wouldn't keep on going through life so, as if his mother did no wrong! So, he could understand that he had a lot to atone for! And he..."

"Nate has done nothing! Take your words back, you Halfling!" I heard Lars's yell. Well, the situation could have been saved before those words, yes, but now things were out of control.

Long story short, I had to let Lars down because Basil tried to kick him in the ass. I got the kick meant for Lars. Basil had gotten his iron inlaid shoes back...

"At least in the cells it is warm," and we were sharing a cell once more. I just thought that the guards hoped that we will kill one another.

"Yes, it is still raining outside," Mike was very calm for someone who got bit in the arm. Basil could have passed for a demon. Of that I had no doubts.

"At least it is bright in here," said Rowan. It was a miracle he could talk. Considering that, Lars managed to give him quite the mean right hook.

Straight to the jaw. I was proud of him, really.

"Lights out!" We heard the guard. Soon we were in complete darkness.

"You jinxed it," I blurted out. I had no idea why I was so calm now. Why I treat these two, people who had fought against us more than once, so, as if they were good acquaintances. 

Still, the only thing I knew, was that we all had to wait on Jean to figure out that we were missing. Jean, who napped at every given moment.

Jean, who didn't even have money...

Yeah, we were spending the night in the cell. At least it was dry here.

Drip.

And then a drop of water fell on my head. Oh, God, darn it all.

I couldn't control myself anymore. I just started laughing. It was a hysterical laugh from someone who just didn't know what they could do. No, it was my way of coping with things. 

"Nate?" I heard Lars' voice next to me. Since when had he crawled to me? For he couldn't do more currently. Basil did manage to kick him in the jewels, after all. Despite my best efforts to protect him. I couldn't imagine that Lars will ever use the word Halfling in the same context ever again.

"Fuck it all!" I was just a kid. Practically, a toddler in demon years. Still, these words, which everyone told me were just for adults, made me feel older, somehow. "Fuck it all to hell! Let the devil have a grant time! I refuse to die!"

I had no idea to whom I promised this. Certainly, not to Lars, who had never doubted something so simple. Mike believed in me more than I believed in myself.

For Basil and Rowan, I was just a dumb kid. Jean... maybe I was something like a cousin to Jean. A very distant cousin, who wanted to hang around with his cousin's boyfriend. 

"That is good to hear," I heard Basil's sarcastic drawl in the darkness, but for some reason I didn't feel any hate towards him. No, he was someone I had gotten used to. 

Not only that, but he had proven his strength time and again. I knew what I wanted; knew I needed his help.

"Hey, Basil, Rowan?" Still, I was unsure. The two were probably twice as old as me. What right did I have, to offer them something like that? "Why don't you join our party?"

"I don't know, do you have a place we can stay at?" Asked Basil, so, as if we spoke about the weather.

"Lars, do you think..." I started, but then I heard a huff.

"He kicked me in the ass. With boots with iron soles," which was an excellent argument, I had to admit.

"We have no money for trainers, Lars," my argument was just as good.

"Let us let Mike decide," said Lars. Which could normally mean that I would have won because Mike was my man through and through. But... getting kicked in the family jewels twice by the same man made one think over stuff like loyalty and honor.

"Why not?" Mike was a treasure, and I was going to make him pancakes one day. Well, after I learned how to make pancakes.

And so, the Travelers Party was born.