The young man wakes up with a panicked breath. He’s got a horrible headache. The young man, who could count as a boy’s left arm and leg has gone numb. It feels like needles are pinching his skin. He blinks his eyes a couple of times before he realises where he is. The ground is cold under the boy’s body. With his back towards the ground, and face up towards the dark wooden ceiling. His body is covered in dirt and some mud. Cold, humid winds are coming from the doorway, which is missing a door. It’s the early morning and a few voices can be heard from the street by the alley, where the small storehouse is located. The young man can just barely lie stretched out on the ground in the small storehouse being a bit tinier than others. His body is shaking from the cold, only wearing a thin layer of clothes.
Sitting up by pushing himself up with his hands he can see inside some boxes full with potatoes and other root crops. Feeling his stomach ache from hunger he reaches out and takes some carrots. He puts half of them in a small pouch tied around his small waist, and starts to eat the rest. The ground is covered in red coloured signs and patterns in a big circle, with the boy sitting on it. On the tips of the boy’s fingers are small cut wounds. Overusing such a thing as magic makes one hungry like the young man. When finishing his carrots he starts to hear footsteps walking in the alleyway towards the storehouse. The boy instinctively stops eating to not make a sound. He then puts the carrots he didn’t manage to finish in the pouch. He presses his hands together and closes his eyes, then starts to whisper words normal people cannot understand. When nothing happens the boy swears under his breath quietly, “Fuck…”
The steps start to sound like they’re getting closer to the storehouse. It’s late fall and still dark, the sun only shines for a few hours during the colder half of the year. It’s not many weeks left until it will snow and winter starts. The boy does not feel too positive about that since he already freeze a lot during the nights. He does sleep most of the nights away from being exhausted, mostly from the spirit calling every night. The dark helps the boy hide easier. Without taking a breath, he tries to get into a corner which could possibly hide him somewhat, but if the person outside goes inside he will definitely be spotted. The steps stop behind the storehouse. Some things are being moved around just behind the boys back behind the thin wall. Outside are some empty boxes and other junk. When it seems like the person outside is finished looking around, the steps walk around the storehouse toward the doorway. A small light shines through the dark. Cramping into the corner like a small ball the boy hopes that he won’t be found. The person looks inside with a lantern in his hand, inspecting. When they look down on the ground and see the symbols and circle. A man says with a dark voice and eyes filled with fear, “Get out, you scum!”
Once again, boy swears quietly, “Fuck.”
The boy sits up from the corner seeing the old man holding a kitchen knife in his other hand, standing in the middle of the doorway. He’s wearing an apron, probably working at the inn that owns the storehouse and it’s root crops. Before the old man can react he’s lost his knife into the hands of the unknown intruder standing in front of him. After taking a shaky breath that causes smoke to come out from his mouth, he feels a sting to his stomach. Looking down, he sees that his stomach has been cut by the knife. Falling onto the ground with a groan blood is pouring out of his stomach and mouth. The boy drops the knife onto the ground and jumps nonchalantly over him. Speaking to the soon dead man, “Sorry, can’t have you make a ruckus and expose me hiding.”
Walking away on the muddy ground, in the dark, the boy thinks irritatedly to himself, “Crap, I don’t have anywhere to sleep tonight…”
An idea strikes him and he walks back to the man. He feels in the now dead old man’s pockets for some money. Just some coins worth of one or, if lucky, two nights. But it’s something, since he doesn’t feel like sleeping outside anyways. He’s already got what he wanted from the spirit that he summoned so he doesn’t have to try summoning it every night anymore. That makes it so he can take in at an inn. The boy was lucky he managed to stay in this storehouse at night without being found for a while. In the man’s other pocket, is a key most likely to the inn. He says goodbye to the dead old man before walking away and says, “Thanks for this, I’m guessing you won’t be needing it no more.”
Sneaking away from the storehouse and out from the alley he looks to the side and sees the inn. Looking at it from the street it looks big. Windows cover the walls on the bottom floor where they seem to serve food. There’s no one inside the bar from what the young man can see. The only people awake at this time are some merchants setting up for their stores. In the dark, not much can be seen. Not wanting to attract attention to himself by walking inside, he chooses to go to the backside of the inn. Walking past the storehouse again he comes to the backside. With the key that he got from the old man, he goes inside. Walking into the back of the inn he comes into a small room with clothes for the people working in the inn. There’s rows of hangers with grey, white and black colored clothes. Pants and a shirt. Taking some clothes and a pair of shoes with him he goes through another door that takes him behind the bar counter. He can see out from the window he looked into before. Walking out from behind the counter he goes further inside to find a sign with “bath” written on it. The sign is over a door that seems to lead outside. Looking at his dirty arms and clothes he walks through the door to the “bath”. The boy’s surprised that no one seems to be here, not even in the bar to receive early morning guests. Maybe the personnel is slacking or maybe he killed the one working this time of day.
Walking out to the bath is not pleasant with the cold biting the boy’s fair but dirty skin. There’s a fence around the small area for bathing. The ground isn’t covered in mud but instead there’s stone blocks. In a corner stands some buckets close to a well. This place isn’t the fanciest but fancy enough for the young man covered in dirt. He throws down the bucket into the deep stone well. When he can feel that it’s filled with water, he starts to drag up the bucket with a rope tied around the bucket’s handle. He fills a bigger bucket by taking up water from the well with the smaller one. Taking off his clothes and shoes, he starts to wash himself using the water and his hands. Lastly he’s washing his black short hair. The boy freezes and hurries to take on a pair of pants. When turning around he sees a girl with black, grey and white colored clothes. She’s quite pretty wearing her dress with her long dark hair. Her face is red from seeing a young man halfnaked. The young man is quite handsome with fair skin and a good looking face. She hurries to turn around and says panicked, “I’m so very sorry! I didn’t mean to look!”
Answering her with a nice tone the boy says, “It’s okay young maiden.”
The woman, “Then who are you?”
The boy lies, “I’m the grandson of the owner, I’m here to work.”
With a still nervous and uncomfortable voice she says, “Oh, you’re the grandson of old man Venn? I haven't heard of you but I hope we can work well together.”
“Yes, I do hope so.” agrees the boy.
“I’m sorry to have disturbed you, see you Inside!” she says not wanting to disturb, before walking back inside.
Feeling lucky, the young boy lets out a breath of relief then puts on the rest of the clothes and the pair of shoes. If he gets to work here for a short while then he will have money to travel and sleep inside. Not only will he get paid, he will also be able to steal the place’s money before he leaves. He feels stupid for saying he’s the owners grandson only hoping that the old man he killed was the owner. The old man must also hopefully not have anyone who knows him too well or they should know that he isn’t the old man Venn’s grandson. He’s so stupid and uncautios sometimes.
Going back inside he meets the girl who has gone behind the bar counter to wipe some glasses dry. The place is more lit up with the girl having lit a couple of candles. The counter is of dark wood and high chairs are stood by it. Lots of tables are spread around the bottom floor all the way to the front door. The boy can imagine the place full of people who have come here to eat and drink, both travelers and locals. Further back is a staircase that goes to the second floor. He would assume they have rooms there. The boy breaks the silence by asking, “Can you please teach me how to do my work here?”
Looking up the girl says kindly, “Of course, just do as I ask you to and you’ll learn.”
Plastering on a big cute smile the boy says, “Thank you, ehm, I’m sorry, I don’t think I caught your name…”
“Oh, I’m so very sorry, just call me Miriam.” says Miriam with a sorry voice.
Still acting cute he says with a smile, “My name is Larius, Larius Venn.”
Miriam looks quite happy and says, “You seem nice, Mr Venn. But let’s get to work, can you cook?”
The boy who claims his name is Larius has lived his life to have never cooked, only ever stolen or gotten food. Not wanting to lie and be bad at cooking, he says, “No, not really.”
Pointing at Larius she says nicely but ordering, “Then you’ll wash the ingredients, can you go and get one box of each, root crops and vegetables?”
Larius feels like it’s a bad idea to go there alone and find the dead old man. If he ignores the dead old man, it would be weird that he didn’t say anything and if he says anything then he might become suspected by the soldiers. They wouldn’t recognise him but his story can’t become completely waterproof either way since Miriam first met him after the old man died. To maybe make his situation better he says, “Oh, but can you go with me so I don’t go into the wrong place and steal theirs?”
Miriam seems nice and understanding so of course she agrees to come along. With a soft tone she says, “Of course, let’s just go before someone comes to take in here.”
Miriam goes out from behind the bar counter and towards the backdoor with an oil lamp in one hand. The boy follows after her. The two go through the room behind the bar counter where he took the clothes. He sees that they have got a layer of alcohol in one part of the room. He didn’t notice it before when it was so dark. Miriam points to it and says that if the alcohol in the bar is out then they take it from backhere. When it’s busy nights sometimes even the extra layer of alcohol can be out by morning. The bottles are stored in boxes on timber shelves which cover most of that wall. The boy’s never really gotten drunk from drinking alcohol but he’s seen what alcohol can do to some people. They usually get crazy and violent.
Miriam opens the door outside and the two of them go around to the storehouse. The ground is still pretty muddy everywhere. It rained some days ago. Now that the rain has stopped it’s as if the sky is preparing for even more rain, or snow to come down. When they see the storehouse blood on the ground can be spotted. It seems to have flowed along the ground. The boy waits for Miriam to see the blood before saying anything. A hasty breath can be heard from her before she runs up to the old man's dead body. Larius runs after her and stops her just a few meters from the corpse by holding her arm. She lifts her hand to her mouth and covers it then starts crying uncontrollably. Larius turns her around and holds her. He lets her cry and scream all she wants and needs. It continues and continues and never stops. Her tears never end and the pain in her heart has never been greater, not even when her father abandoned her and her sister.
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