Year 765 Crawlers Sing

That is what she wants to feel, so it was strange when she still felt the pain of something missing. This wasn't it; this couldn't truly be my home....

Anukrin wanted to make sure she knows that very well, because after she had those conflicting feelings, someone barges into the front door without knocking. A young man, around maybe his fifteenth birth-moon, charges right in and face them all. His hair is cropped haphazardly on his temples, leaving a mess of straight black hair on top of his head. He really did not look menacing, cheeks full of his youth and youth blemishes around his face. He might've been slender and meek underneath that giant gray cloak of his. The only glaring concern was the new twisting tattoo that ebbed on his young face; it was a corkscrew insignia going from the bottom of his right eye all the way past his exposed neck. A mark was still fresh, redness forming around the edges.

The tattooed lad glares at each face till he found the Vicar. The boy commands, "I need to speak to ya...outside."

"Oh...alright." Vicar had no fear in his posture; he got up and walk behind the tattooed lad right out the door in complete silence.

It was Grace Risa who shows every emotion. This time she tears are in her eyes. "What have they done to my poor, Ranko?"

"Big brother Ranko..." Mumbles a few of the children. Rhea wasn't part of this adopted household for long, obviously never learning of the identity of the tattooed lad. She did find it strange that whenever Vicar Jal went to town for some supplies he would always come back with a gray hooded figure. This figure only helped bring the supplies to the door and leave before the old man could thank him. Rhea felt too out of the link to ever ask about the identity of the individual but based on the way they all sulked, suggested a few things.

Rhea must do something; it was the least she could do for them. So, she got up and search for the stairs to the hatch ignoring every question sent her way. She isn’t  ready to give them answers if she is wrong to be concerned. She climbs the steps and closes the hatch behind her, moving towards the edge of the roof and listen to the conversation between the Vicar and the long-lost child.

"Ranko...you look gaunt. Have they been feeding you?" Vicar asks right away, with hands lacing behind him. Based on how tight his shoulders are, he was fighting every urge to hug the boy.

"I'm fine, Vicar. They're my real family..." The boy forces this out, hiding his face away from the Vicar. Struggling to keep a tough appearance, something about the way the boy struggles suggests that he was lying through his teeth.

"I...know that your mother and father were part of this gang. But Ranko, you don't have to force yourself to be with those people. Come back home, we can find another way to keep you saf-"

"Shut it old man." The boy turns towards the Vicar, dark eyes hot with anger and pointing a knife to the center of Vicar Jal's chest. The only way to tell that the boy isn’t  going to act on it is the way his hand shook, " I'm here to inform ya that this is the last time ya will ever see me again! Don't come looking, don't even mutter my name! It's better this way!"

"Oh...Ranko-" Vicar looks ready to cry just like the Grace. Neither could ever be able to keep such a demand.

"There is no Ranko." The boy pushes the old man, making him fall to the ground. For a split second the boy looks guilty, but he stuffs it just as quickly as he stuffs away the knife. He left the old man on the ground, vanishing in the alleyways.

Rhea hops off from the rooftop and ran towards the Vicar. The intention was to help him up, and the Vicar didn't take her offering hand. He just sat there in shock, "The town wasn't good enough apparently. They took Ranko too..."

"Who?" Rhea knelt next to him, peering at his body for any injuries. When she saw nothing, she fails to recognize the true injury here. The Vicar was in a lot of emotional pain; it was obvious by the tears that wells up in his button eyes.

"The Death Twister Gang...they took our Ranko..."

Rhea learned that gangs can be just as terrible as slavers. Gangs are disloyal, and they bleed a town dry if the Chimera Empire ignores them. Exactly what she had been taught in the last weeks, this town currently has a serious case of gang empowerment. They ruled the very corners of this poor town and dried out the finances, controlled the market, and even delegated the rules. There was nothing the Chimera Knights could do, and some of them were bribed to keep silent.

There is nothing that the locals could do to stop them. Rhea mulls over her options. If she does nothing, this orphanage is at risk of being targeted. Who is to say that the gang will not enlist any more children?

However, getting involved meant that she would be back at square one. Her notoriety will rise, meaning that she will be chased around again, then she truly has no choice but to move to the next town. Who is to say the next town would be any better?

What is more important?

You know better.

Her naysayer mind prods at her thoughts like the times before, her lonely life had birthed this inner monologue in her that kept her from feeling too lonely. Sometimes pretending that it is her father or mother speaking out, making sure she always does the right thing.

Or at least as close as the right thing as possible since it didn't abstain her from harming terrible people.

"Vicar..." Her hand reaches for the man's shaking shoulder, pulling him out of whatever mental spiral he was in. Her silver eyes burn with conviction, and the reckless smile reaches her face. She didn't have a good plan, but that didn't matter to her, just that she wants to clarify this to the distraught holy man. "Ranko will be back!"

"Rhea...what do you mean?"

"Go get some rest." Rhea dismisses his prying, helping him up to his feet now. "It is as you state every morning, the gods ordained the future...Ranko will be in your future."

Or engulf me in the earth for assuming, Chemuk.