Kin’s P.O.V

I was born in the capital city or at least I think I was. I really didn’t know where I was born or what day I was born on, or even the name my parents gave me (if they even gave me one), you see I’m an orphan abandoned on the door step of an orphanage. The workers there named me Kin; meaning gold, because of my strange golden eyes. I’m not going to go on about how terrible it was, or how awful it is that I don’t know my parents because it wasn’t terrible or awful. I couldn’t care less for my parents. They clearly didn’t give a shit about me and being in the orphanage wasn’t bad, the other kids and I were well looked after and educated (even if I didn’t pay attention in lessons.) I was also fairly popular with the others and I had a big group of friends. I have a lot of good memories from that orphanage and I still keep in touch with the friends I made there.

My childhood wasn’t overly interesting; I was just your average orphan boy who enjoyed stealing things. I started out easy; stealing from the kitchens, then slowly moved up to bigger things. I really had no motivation other than the thrill of it, breaking into something and just taking stuff, or heck just breaking into things to see if I could do it, then leaving without doing anything was fun. I knew that if I ever got caught it wouldn’t matter, I had nothing to lose, I had no family or anything of worth myself; so if I went to jail, who cares? Nobody. I guess that should make me sad but it didn’t, I’d come to terms with no one really caring a long time ago, when I was still just a small child. So I took the thrills as they came and I left the orphanage when I was ten years old. Why? Because I felt like it, sure I had tons of friends but it wasn’t like I’d never see them again, I visited regularly and went traveling.

I would go to towns and villages, but I never went too far from the capital. Everywhere I went I stole things; from necessary things like clothes and food, to random stuff like jewels and things of value; only to dump or sell it later. It was fair to say that I got a reputation as a bloody good thief and soon there was wanted posters of me in the streets. So I kept moving around to avoid arrest, and I even stole myself a knife to defend myself with. I never killed anyone, even when soldiers attacked I never killed them, wounded a few maybe but never killed. I was a thief not a murderer. The knife was purely for self-defence.

I lived life to its fullest and didn’t give a shit about the possible consequences of my actions; after all you only live once, so you might as well have fun. I took everything as a challenge, no matter what it was. I guess that was what got me into one crazy adventure; I guess you could say it was a good thing really because if I wasn’t like that, I never would have met him. But now I’m getting ahead of myself. Anyway, now that I’ve introduced myself and gave you some background knowledge, it’s time for the start of my part of the story. My story starts later than Angelus’s, when I was sixteen years old…

*~*~*~

I was walking to the next village when I heard a loud sound, I turned to see a small army running towards me. I knew that I should get out of the way, but it seemed like it would be fun to stand there to see how close they could get to me, before I jumped out of the way. They kept up their charge and when they got dangerously close, I jumped out of the way and into a nearby ditch. My sudden movement scared one of the horses and it reared up onto its back legs; causing the rider to fall to the ground. The whole army stopped.

The solider who fell glared at me as I stood. I knew that this would not end well. I recognised the armour these people were waring, black armour that showed they were the army of the king’s most brutal general. I took a deep breath, and prepared for the worst possible outcome.

“You, kid! What the fuck is your problem?!” the solider shouted at me.

I knew that I should run but it was more fun to argue with him, so I shouted back “My problem? You were the ones who came charging towards me!”

“Insolent brat!” the solider drew his sword and, I drew my knife ready to fight him when another voice yelled.

“What’s the hold up?!” I saw a young man about eighteen or nineteen walk towards me, his dark grey cloak and jet black hair blowing in the wind. His creepy white eyes stared at me.

The soldiers stopped and bowed down to him. The one who I argued with, spoke calmly “My apologies, Lord Yokai. This brat got in the way.”

“Well kill him and let’s be on our way! We must bring the one father desirers to him soon.”

I knew who this guy was; he was the son of the barbaric general who owned this army, there were rumours about him all over the place; that he was ruthless and manipulative, and that he had a strong desire to rule. I had also heard that he was a pervert who enjoyed having male sex slaves and male mistresses. He made them do totally humiliating and disgusting things.

Before he walked away I spat on him, it seemed to piss him off. He gripped me by the shirt and put an expensive looking jewelled dagger to my throat, it didn’t scare me and I simply hissed “Bastard!”

“You know, you look familiar,” he said slowly.

“Really, My Lord?” the solider asked.

“Yeah…” he replied “He’s a common petty thief who causes trouble in the towns and villages. It’s fair to say that the people would pay well for his arrest, with all the wanted posters that’re all over the place.”

“Do you wish to take him with us, My Lord? If he is worth something it may help our cause to have the money.”

“Go burn in hell” I hissed and spat on him again.

Yokai tutted: “Well it would be nice, but I don’t think he’s worth the trouble. We’ll bring the body and hopefully we’ll be paid just as much for him dead.” He pressed the dagger to my throat, I felt a little blood run down to my chest. I wasn’t about to let this mad man kill me, so I kicked him as hard as I could in the balls. While he doubled over in pain, I ran, hearing him shout. He sent about five of his men after me.

I ran into the nearby woods and there I had the advantage; I knew these woods well and I wore light clothes making it easier to run fast, and easier to get over the uneven ground the men chasing me were wearing heavy army; which slowed them down, and made movement over the terrain harder. Luckily, they didn’t have bows and they weren’t mages; so I got away with ease.

Once I was safe I burst into laughter that was so much fun, I had so much adrenalin it was one of the best thrills ever! I smiled to myself as I walked to the next town happily, but once I got there my happy mood changed. The town was a mess; some buildings had been burned to the ground, others were charred, rubble littered the ground as well as dead and dying bodies.

“What happened here?” I asked a man as he passed me.

“It was Prince Yokai!” he said “He and his army came and demanded supplies, but our town is loyal to the real King and we refused. He attacked and stole everything!”

I stared in disbelief “What? Since when was that Yokai bastard a prince? And what do you mean real King?”

“Didn’t you hear?” the man asked me.

“Hear what? I’ve been traveling for a few days.”

“That Evil General betrayed the King, and murdered him and his whole family!” he told me “He now clams to be the king and Yokai is now first in line to the throne!”

My heart skipped a beat; this was bad, really, really bad. I was a peasant and I didn’t give a shit about the Royals, but they were good rulers who helped us orphans by giving money to the orphanages and gave us a fair chance of getting work (I just choose to steal because it was more fun.) They also helped single mothers and the poor. Now that these guys were in power everything would change; those who needed help wouldn’t get it, orphanages and homeless shelters would have to close down due to lack of money. These guys would probably start a war and anyone who opposed them, would be killed.

I felt faint, to think that I had encountered them, spat on Yokai and lived! I was shaking, and then suddenly I thought about my friends who lived in the capital, were they okay? They relied on services provide by the, now, old monarchy and I was worried about what could happen to them, or what had happened to them. What if they were dead, killed by the army for resisting? “Are you ok?” the man asked me. I hardly heard him, the world was getting blurry.

“Yeah… I uh… I…” the next thing I knew was darkness.

~*~*~*

I was running, I don’t know where to, or what from but I was running. I went around a corner, then another; it was some kind of maze and I was lost not knowing where to go. I stopped to catch my breath, when suddenly I heard a scream for help. I ran in that direction, until I saw a door.

I ran to the door, I was so close and soon I was there standing in front of it. I looked down and saw a single pure white feather about the size of my forearm. I ignored it, when I heard the cry for help again. I put my hand on the door knob.

Then I was somewhere else, sitting in darkness unable to move or see anything but I could hear it; the screams of pain, someone was in pain. They were crying and begging for help. I knew that I had to help them.

*~*~*~

I awoke and sat up so fast that it made my head spin. I groaned and put my hand to my head. I looked around, I was in a house that I’d never been in before. It looked nice, there wasn’t much, but it was nice.

Just as I was going to get out of the simple small bed, I heard the door open “Oh you’re up!” a women said smiling at me, “We were worried about you.”

“We?” I asked, “Where am I?”

“My house. My husband brought you here, he said you fainted.”

“Oh,” I replied simply.

I heard the door open again. The man I had spoken to came in and said: “Ah, Kin, you’re awake!” I froze. I never told him my name, so how did he know it? He must have seen my fear, because he handed me a poster; my wanted poster, with my name, a sketch of my face, and a promise of five thousand gold for my capture. “Don’t worry, I’ve taken all of those down,” he told me.

I tilted my head to the side, “Why?” I asked.

“You’re an orphan from the capital aren’t you? You must have friends there and the change in rulers will be bad for them. Those of us who are willing, and can fight are setting up a Rebel Army. It’ll take a few years to get it together and organised, and a few years to train, but we’re not going to let our home be ruled by mad men. A thief might come in handy, if you want to join us?” I thought for a moment, was it a good idea? Sure it sounded like a great thrill, but there was something about that dream… plus the fact that I was a known thief, which would make things harder for me to help.

“Oh, honey!” the woman sighed, “The boy just woke up; you should let him rest more before asking him to make such big decisions!”

“No, it’s okay,” I said having made up my mind, “This Rebel Army sounds fun, you can count me in!”

“That’s good news, Kin,” the man said smiling kindly at me.

I was quiet for a moment, before I asked: “Do you know what they were doing here or where they were going?”

“We assume that they were just going round and confirming that they rule now,” the woman said.

I shook my head, “If that were the case they wouldn’t have the ‘Prince’ with them, it’s too much of a risk, a Captain or something would do. You’d think that Yokai would have more important business in the capital to attend to.”

“Then what do you think, Kin?” the man asked.

I shrugged, “I don’t know but I encountered them on my way here. I would have been killed, had I not kicked Yokai in the balls. He said something about bringing the one his father wanted as soon as possible.”

They both looked thoughtful, “Perhaps it was a high ranking Noble, who got away during the fight and that could pose a threat?” the man said.

His wife shook her head, “No they wouldn’t need the Prince for that. A General would do.”

I had no idea what was going on or who this ‘one’ was, but I had a really, really bad feeling about it. On top of that I hoped that my friends were okay.