The rest of the time that they were there, he spent healing, and being surrounded by people. Liam new that Thomas was uncomfortable, so many times he made up excuses to get Thomas out of there.

By the day it was time to leave, Thomas’s bandages had been taken off to leave one long scar on his torso, and a small one on his arm. He was happy to be leaving. He didn’t really like the attention he was getting.

Their trip home wasn’t as eventful as the first one. They did encounter a bandit or two, but the soldiers picked these ones off like they were nothing.

They got home, and the soldiers and Thomas were welcomed by their fellow soldiers. They were happy to have their commander at home, and happy to have the entertainment of the stories that they could tell.

One of the first people Thomas noticed was Kyra. She ran forward and hugged the life out of him. “I was worried about you!” She said with false indignity.

“You shouldn’t have been. You know that I can take care of myself.”

“That’s what I’m worried about.” She said pulling away from the hug and holding Thomas at arm’s length examining him. “What is this?” She said looking at the edge of the scar on his arm.

All the other soldiers looked at him with faux pity. She grabbed his arm and pushed up the arm of the short sleeve tunic he was wearing. “Thomas, what happened?” She asked quietly with concern in her eyes.

“Nothing Ky. It was just an accident.” If there was anyone he didn’t want to tell about his escapade, it was Kyra. Then he glared at the soldiers as if daring them to tell her differently.

“As long as it was an accident. You had better be more careful. 

Later on, Thomas went back to his house where the maid had already unpacked his stuff. He laid down in bed and took a nice long nap. When he woke up, it was a jerky wake up because he had felt a hand go around his neck.

His eyes snapped open to see his brother Johnathan holding him to his bed by his neck. Thomas reached out and grabbed his brother’s hand. He squeezed it until his brother couldn’t take the pain and let go.

It was then that he realized that it wasn’t just Johnathan in his room. It was also Antoine, Jeremy, Gareth, and Saul. He was badly outnumbered, and they wouldn’t be tripped up like the horses had been.

Thomas jumped from his bed and ran past his baffled brothers. He streaked through the house with almost nothing but his underwear on. He could hear his brothers panting behind him, but they couldn’t keep up because they were terribly out of shape.

Thomas heard his sister yell, “What are you guys running after?”

Thomas ran straight into the woods where he met his last brother Danny. No matter how much Thomas tried, he couldn’t break the grip that his brother Danny put around his neck. Danny was the tallest in the family, and with that height, he lifted Thomas clean off his feet.

There was nothing he could do, and by then, his five other brothers had arrived. “Hahaha.” Laughed one of them. “Lookey here. We got ourselves a cornered rat.” Another taunted

“You’ll pay for what you did to my hand.” Said Johnathan.

He socked Thomas, who was already having a hard time breathing in the gut. “What is that!” Said one of his brothers, pointing to the scar on his chest. “What’d you do to get that?”

When Thomas didn’t answer because of his lack of oxygen, Antoine punched his in the face. “He asked you a question.”

Thomas was already on the point of passing out, and the punch to the face made it all the worse. Then Jeremy said. “It’d probably help if he could talk at all. Danny hold his arms down, don’t choke him to death, or there’s no fun for us.”

The grip around his neck relinquished. He just about made it to the ground when his arms were pulled behind his back.

“My turn.” Said Gareth who punched Thomas in the face. Thomas felt his lip split and blood run from it.

Saul stepped forward. “So, what’s the scar from?” Before Thomas could even answer, Saul punched him in the stomach. “Well?”

“Bandits.” Thomas spit out through his numb, puffy lip.

“That’s a lie if I ever heard one.” Said Johnathan. “And what does the king do to liars?”

“He kills them.” Offered Saul.

“Right, but being the kind and generous people we are, we won’t kill him, we’ll just burn him. Go get a torch Gary.”

A couple minutes later, Gareth came running back with a torch. He handed it to Johnathan who took out a dagger. He then stuck the dagger in the fire until it turned red.

“I’m thinking a big red x on his chest. To make him remember that we don’t accept liars. You agree boys?” They all nodded.

He took the flat end of the dagger and placed it on Thomas’s chest, searing the skin. Thomas screamed, tears running down his cheeks.

Then Johnathan put the blade back in the fire to heat it up one more time. When it was red. He put it back to Thomas’s chest, where it burned the other half of the x to his chest. Thomas screamed one last time and broke down into sobs.

Danny threw him to the ground, and each boy kicked him one last time before they left. Thomas curled up into a ball and sobbed.