Chapter One: Pilot

It was especially dry on that day, the slums smelled like shit, but after awhile you get used to it. The roar of the dirt ridden market was louder than normal. This meant only one thing, there were nobles in this part of the city visiting the market. This was not unheard of we have some particular items that they could not acquire elsewhere. I was running my older brothers stall today; he is a so-so artist and decided to apply to the artist's guild. I was also very artistic, but I wasn't very creative, but if I saw something I could draw it. Zark, on the other hand, he was extremely creative I had a great admiration for him and I envied him. He had the world by the balls and always trekked through life with a smile on his face. So I straightened up the stall and hoped that something might catch a noble's eye.
We sold carrier birds and other odds and ends. Just the other day we found a scarlet amulet, with a real ruby in it! We didn't normally have it out in fear of thieves, but today, I set it out for display. Soon after I did this I noticed a lot of people were crowded around outside the pub across the street. I heard chanting and cheering. There was a bar fight I really wanted to go watch, but I dare not leave the stall unattended. There were guards with the royal coat of arms on. The coat of arms had a black crow with its wings spread out on top of metallic helmet of a knight under the helmet was a shield that was white like snow with a blue triangle coming from the bottom and in this triangle there was an olive branch with a wall shaped like a crown on top of it and two black lions in the silver part of the shield. There were blue ribbons coming from the helmet that extruded outward in all directions. To many this symbol represented hope and freedom. To us of the slums, it represented oppression and fear.
King Toth never cared about us and we hated him for it. There was allot of talk about a rebellion, but we didn't have the manpower or resources to start an uprising so the talk was just that, talk. We would continue day after day with our miserable lives hoping things would get better. Anyway, I'm getting off track so the guards were decked out with chain mail that was hidden underneath the piece of cloth that had the royal coat of arms on it. They had iron boots, helmets, and steel short swords. They were trying so fiercely to push themselves through the crowd, but the crowd gave no ground, wanting to continue watching the fight. Suddenly the captain of the watch pulled out his sword and yelled
" STEP ASIDE!"
He was a man about 6ft tall with long blond hair and blue eyes. He wore no helmet and he had a long scar that ran across his face. He supposedly got it from his time he served in the military. His name was known to all in the slums, he was hated more than Lucifer himself. His name was Shamin. He once everyone realized who was speaking the crowd dispersed and all the stall owners started packing up and hiding certain goods that were considered contraband. I hid my ruby amulet in a sack of food for the birds. When the crowd disappeared, I saw the guards pulling a man away from his arms. I assume he was one of the men who were fighting. I saw another man on the ground cover in blood when he stood up I realized who it was. It was my best friend Kanine he was 18 and actually older than me and my brother. Our families have been friends for as long as anyone can remember. He was disowned by his family though after failing the entrance exam at the Bard's College, but we still accepted him. I never heard the whole story of why he was disowned by his family, but then again, it didn't really matter, I wasn't about to give up on him and neither was my brother. He practically lived with us when he wasn't wasting away at the pub. I quickly ran over to him helped him onto his feet.
"Kain what-at are you do-ing here," he said.
Then, before I had a chance to answer, he took off his shoe and threw it at the man the guards were taking away. It didn't hit him in fact it only went about a foot away and Kanine fell to the ground in the process.
"You sack of s-hit."
I helped him to his feet again. "I think it's time to go to doc Jaklans," I said.
" I don't need any crummy doctor, I'm fine" He commenced to throw up right there in the street.
"I'm taking you to the doctor you are legitimately bleeding from your fucking drunken face."
"Doctors are for the weak!" he said.
"Well after that fight you're looking pretty damn weak to me right now."
He shut up pretty quick after that. He was ashamed he knew I was right. I walked him over by our stall and he leaned up against it. I couldn't just leave my friend alone like this no matter how mad I was at him getting into another bar fight. He was tall with medium length brown hair and strong as an ox. His main problem is his alcoholism. It causes him to get into a lot of trouble and normally he could beat anyone in a fight if needed to, but once he gets himself drunk his coordination is off and he ends up causing a lot of troubles.
I started to pack up the stall and I dug through the feed bag and grabbed the amulet and put it around my neck, but under my shirt so no one would know I had it. I had Kanine lay down on the cart and I started to push in toward doc Jaklans's place.
Jaklans was another friend of mine Kanine didn't like him much and it wasn't just because he was a doctor. He was stubborn with a know it all attitude and he seems he just likes to argue whether he is right or not. He was smart as hell he taught himself everything he knew about the medicine using a book we stole from a rich doctor that was traveling through the slums this one time when there was an outbreak of the plague. Which killed my parents. The slums got hit hard by the plague it is a miracle that any of us are still alive. King Toth didn't even try to help us, he set up a quarantine. One doctor decided to break the quarantine and try to help us, but he couldn't save our loved ones. In the end, the doctor despite his efforts fell to the plague as well. Jaklans decide to try to assist the doctor. He learned as much as he could from him before the doctor died.
We did our best to try to keep Jaklans stocked up on whatever he needed. A lot of things we stole, or rather my brother did. He was very stealthy and could sneak into anything at night. I did most of the planning so he wouldn't get caught and I could also act as muscle if Kanine was too into his cups to be of any use. I really find it strange that even though Kanine is older than me that I have to come save his ass a lot of times and he comes to me with his questions about life. But I'm not sure what I'd do without him in a strange way he was a part of the family he was like my little brother. Zark being my older brother was the breadwinner and was basically like our father. I feel really bad for him, he never really got to be a kid he has had allot of responsibility put into him after our parents died. I really do try to help him as much as I can.

Anyway, there, I am again getting off track. So when we arrive at Jaklans's house, where he worked out of I yelled
"JAKLANS, YOU HOME!?"
"YEA!"

He popped his head out of a window from his home, he was only a little taller than me with brown hair and he wore glasses.
"WELL GET DOWN HERE KANINE GOT INTO ANOTHER BAR FIGHT!"
"UGH ANOTHER ONE THIS IS THE 5TH TIME THIS WEEK!"
"I KNOW JUST GET DOWN HERE ALREADY"
He emerged from his home with a doctor's bag and I realized Kanine passed out on the cart.

"He fell asleep on my cart."

Jaklans went over and slapped Kanines bloodied face and then commenced to wipe the blood off of his hand and on his shirt. Kanine immediately woke up
"WHAT THE FUCK!" he yelled in frustration.
He then grabbed Jaklans by the collar and held his fist right next to his face.
Jaklans just stood there and laughed hysterically at what was going on. Kanine brought his hand back, he was going to punch the doctor. I immediately grabbed his fist and said
" NO! cut it out both of you."
"This is stupid the only reason why I'm here is because you're forcing me to Kain and you wonder why I hate him," Kanine said annoyed.
Jaklans replied "Well-"
I gave him a glare and he knew I wanted him to shut up and he did.
"Just sit still and let him fix you up"
"Whatever,"
Kanine said, pretending he didn't care anymore, but I could just tell he mad as hell. Jaklans came over with a wet rag and started to wash the blood off Kanine's face. Once the blood was washed away we could see there were two big gashes, one under Kanine's eye and the other on his forehead.
Jaklans said, "Damn he kicked your ass pretty good didn't he?"
"Shut up" Kanine replied.
Jaklans started to wrap the cut on top of Kanines head with a gauze.
"Ok I need you to be a big boy and sit still you're going to need some stitches," said Jaklans "Don't treat me like a damn child" replied Kanine.
I just can't stand the sight of needles.

"Umm I'm going inside I need a drink is that ok Jaklans?"
"Oh ah sure" he replied.
I just wanted an excuse to not watch Kanine get stitched up. In a couple of minutes, I emerge from the house.
"Ohh I get it you didn't want to watch," Jaklans said.
"No! I … umm I was just really thirsty" I replied.
"Ok Kain whatever you say" Jaklans replied sarcastically.
"Whatever. Is he good to go?" I questioned.
"Yup," he replied.
"Ok we will be on our way, then, thank you," I said.
"Alright, next time I guess," Jaklans said.
"Well, there isn't going to be a next time. Right Kanine!" I said
"Sure whatever, let's just leave this godforsaken place," Kanine replied.
Then I started to pull my cart back toward our home. Kanine decided to sleep on the way home. The sun was starting to go down. I drew nearer on the dirt roads toward all of the broken down shacks where everyone in the slums lived. I noticed there were guards around. Normally they only come to strong arm business owners during the day, break up fights, or collect taxes. I kept going down the road closer to our house and a guard approached me he yelled
"YOU THERE STOP"

I woke Kanine up whispered to him.

"We may have a problem"
"What?" he questioned confused and tired.
He then he saw the guard approaching

"Oh I see" he said.
"Just stay put I'll take care of this."
I then noticed a man behind the guard approaching us. He was at least 6ft tall in a complete plate mail with a large great sword he was holding a piece of paper I couldn't make out what was on it. The man was clearly part of the royal guard. This was worrisome the royal guard never comes here.
The man who was approaching reached me now said
"What are you doing out here with that cart at this hour?" he questioned.
"Oh well you see, sir, my friend, here got roughed up pretty bad, so I had to take him to the doctor and we are just now returning home," I replied respectfully so as to not draw any suspicion.
"So I'm assuming if I go talk to this doctor, he would confirm your story then," he said in an annoyed tone.
"Of course sir," I said respectfully again. Although at this point I'm wondering what kind of window licker I was talking to here.
"Is there some way I can be of assistance to you? Are you looking for someone?" I said.
"Oh, Yea actually we are looking for this guy he is supposed to live around here," he held up a piece of parchment that looked identical to the one the royal guards had their hands. I took it and saw a crude drawing of my older brother Zark! It said WANTED for the kidnapping of Lady Yuno. at the top and at the bottom it said BOUNTY 100 gold pieces for information 1,000 Gold Pieces for capture. I handed the paper back to the guard.
"Never saw him a day in my life, sir,"
He nodded and said "Ok you're free to go."
I went back to the cart. Kanine said,
"What's going on?"
"I'll fill you in when we get back home"
We opened the door of our small shack it only has 3 rooms in it. The floor is all hay and dirt, but secretly underneath the dirt there is a wood floor and a trap door that leads to our basement no one knows about it except for Zark, Kanine and myself. So I figured I'd check to see if my brother was hiding there. The entrance to the basement is hidden underneath our table. I moved our table and start to brushed the hay and dirt away. There was a small handle that revealed itself, I grabbed it. I pull the entrance open, climbed down a rope ladder into the darkness of the basement. There was a little light that shined into the basement from the opening. A figure approached me, that was hiding in a shadow.
"I've been through some shit today Kain let me tell you"
It was Zark.