Tom

Tom began to panic,

“We have to evacuate the city, Billy. Once Tactzo comes back he won't rest until every citizen is killed!”

The city and its king were in chaos. Filled with worry that now they were sitting ducks for when Tactzo came back.

“I can’t leave because this is my city. I’m a prince so my duty is to stay and protect the city but I’ll try to talk to my father about it” Billy said nervously.

The door to Billy’s place opened up and they saw a familiar face.

“Antok! Where have you been? We have been looking for you!” Tom stood up.

“We have to evacuate the city, get every young child, women and elderly out of here. They are going to die” Antok said out of breath.

Tom raised his hands in the air “Don’t you think we don’t know that?!” 

Billy stood up more urgently “Okay I’m going to go talk to Father about this. You two stay here” 

As Billy left Antok turned to Tom and stabbed his chest with his index finger.

“You! it’s all your fault”

Tom stepped back “W-what?”

“You shouldn’t have ever come to this city. Your presence here doomed this city since the moment you stepped into it”

Tom was lost for words “I-Antok what do you mean?”

“You are Tactzo’s brother aren’t you?”

Tom paled and he felt his heart drop.

“H-how do you know?”

“Tactzo mentioned he had a little brother in this city. I thought really hard about who would that be. There aren’t any other boar hybrids in this city so I started to think, what if his little brother looked like Phill? You practically look like a younger version of him but without wings!”

“H-how do you even know Phil’s name? Everyone just calls him crow man and when did Tactzo mention that he has a little brother to you?“

“That’s not important! The important thing is you should have never let your father be captured! And you should have never let Tactzo be captured! Aren’t they your family? Your betrayal to them has doomed us! And now I’m going to lose my home because of you!”

Antok shoved Tom hard enough to make him fall on his butt.

“I was doing the right thing! My family had to pay for the injustice they caused. Tactzo deserved death for the people he has killed-“

“And your father?”

“H-he deserves what he gets for enabling Tactzo to become a killer!”

Antok narrowed his eyes “You don’t believe that. Tactzo I understand but of your father?”

“I do. He deserves anything he gets.”

Antok sighs “And you don’t even know what they are doing to him”

“W-what?”

“If you have a single care for your father visit him in the jail cells.”

Tom said nothing.

“And about Tactzo? Who ever asked you to be a hero? You took a big risk by getting him captured but did you ever think of the probability of him escaping and killing us all?”

“I-I didn’t expect for him to escape-“

“Well you thought wrong and now he’s more pissed than ever. Congratulations little hero now you’ll have the blood of thousands on your hands”

Antok began to walk away. 

“Where you going?”

“To try to convince my friends and people who are like family to me, to leave the city while they can” 

With one last glare Antok left. 

Tom felt like he had failed, 

He wasn’t a hero was he? 

He just wanted to do the right thing.

Tactzo did deserve death.

Maybe Antok was wrong, he was still a hero. He might be partially fault for all the blood that is about to spill but he isn’t the one holding the sword that will shed innocent blood.

“I’m still a hero” Tom whispered to himself.

“I have to be and I have to try!” Tom said louder to himself.

He might be partially at fault but he’ll fight! He will fight till his dying breath to protect this city.

“If you have a single care for your father visit him in the jail cells.” Anton’s words echoed in his head.

He didn’t want to go but he had to visit his dad. Tom did say he wanted to help his dad escape but didn’t know how or when. 

He stood up and began to walk out of Billy’s place and walk towards the black castle. He didn’t even need to ask permission to go to the jail. The guards let him pass.

He stood at the door and his heart almost didn’t want to open the door. As if he could maybe be faced with something he wanted to ignore and be ignorant of. Somethings his naive heart didn’t want to face the reality of.

Maybe his father was being beaten? Maybe he’ll see something he didn’t want to see. 

When his dad was captured he tried to ignore the idea of thinking too much of what his experience in jail would be. 

But Antok said he had to visit him so it had to be bad if he said that. 

He pushed the door opened and automatically he could hear sounds of struggle. 

He looked at the empty cells and walked toward the cell where he heard the noises coming from.

What he found horrified him. 

It was Axel on top of his dad on the floor and in an obvious compromising position. They at least still  had their clothes on. 

“What are you doing?!” Tom said grabbing onto the cell bars.

“Tom! I didn’t expect you to come down here,” he laughed, “What do you think I’m doing?”

Axel’s hand gripped harder on his dads wrists making his dad wince. He obviously looked disoriented maybe he had potions of weakness, slowness and drowsiness in his system. 

“I don’t think the king would like what you are doing” Tom said angrily 

“Tom who do you think gave me permission  to do this?”

Tom stepped back “The king wouldn’t do that-“

Suddenly the king walked in and Tom turned  to him.

“Okay what in the hell is going on here?”

“King!” Tom slightly bowed.

“Axel is doing an evil deed with the prisoner! He must be stopped!”

The horned man looked over the two on the floor. He laughed “well well well if it isn’t the great crow being taken advantage by a mere kid! This is too funny”

“I’m not a kid! I’m 19!” Axel grumbled.

“Compare to him you are. He’s like hundreds if not thousands of years older than ya” The king snorted.

“Wait so you aren’t going to do anything?” Tom blurred out.

The King shrugged “no” 

Fear washed over Tom and he felt like he had been punched in the gut.

“B-but we are the good guys! We’re not like them!,” Tom pointed at his dad.

“You are right about that Tom we ARE the good guys. And this is our enemy, any punishment that he faces isn’t our problem as long as he is being dealt with”

Tom’s mouth became dry.

“But if the people find out about what Axel  is doing they will think otherwise!”

The King crossed his arms, his face looked confused.

“They would be disgusted but they wouldn’t do anything after all crow man is our enemy and like I said as long as he is being dealt with people will turn a blind eye to it”

Tom watched in horror as he watched Axel’s lips connect to his fathers.

“Do what you want but don’t kill him. I need him alive for some experiments” The king said as he started to take out medical equipment from the drawers at the far end of the room.

The whole scene made him vomit right there. It brought Both men attention to him.

“Aww man Tom what the heck! You are going to stink up the room!” Axel said.

The king laughed “Tom, Tom, Tom you have such a soft heart, why don’t you take a break. I don’t think you are built to watch things like these” the man said.

He had to do something he had to stop all of this, he knew he wasn’t much of a good fighter and it would be 2v 1 but if he didn’t do anything then- it would be trully be over with him and his dad. 

They would never forgive him if he didn’t do something to stop this.

He gripped his sword handle, took one step forwards but his legs gave out and he passed out. 

In his panic Tom hadn’t realized him heart and breath had picked up and he wasn’t breathing right. 

The king shook his head.

He picked up Tom and called for a guard to clean up the mess.

“Goodness I’ve had way too many interruptions already” Axel whined.

The door closed and Tom didn’t stir in the King’s arms.