CHAPTER 1
Misdirection Breeds Deception
Not long after the sun reached the center of the sky, a young Tulio steps out from an alley slowly strutting down the street. He takes a shaky breath trying to ignore the muffled squabbles of civilians and tourists and bards, simply trying to make a quick buck. Casually sporting his tall and lanky body hunched over with a faded blue shirt, torn to the point of it practically being wrapped around his chest. His pants, as he clearly had grown out of them, were tight and barely fit him. He made his way through the crowds, dropping himself back against a wall of beggars, huddled together to avoid getting kicked by the many passing on the busy streets of Spain. His vision comes and goes, fading to dark then light multiple times right before a flood of cold salt water smothers him. Snapping into consciousness, he gets a quick look at a few kids laughing and running from the dust cloud in front of him. The men sharing the corner with him groan as aggravation and annoyance go across the lot. They shake their hair and squeeze their sleeves one by one while Tulio quickly shoots up, chasing after the little jerks.
"Hey! Get back here!" He yells at them as they disappear through the distance.
Now back to reality, he hears the many sounds of instruments and people speaking loud enough for you to go deaf after too long of time spent there. During the strumming of a common obnoxious lute, an uncomfortable twang emerges with a crunch of wood soon after.
"You think anyone wants to hear to the horrible slop you call music?" A loud voice yells from around the corner.
Tulio looks around the corner to see a frightened young boy wearing a dirtied red shirt with messy honey blonde hair, standing there defenseless against a group of three men towering over him.
"I.. I uh..." Miguel stands up straight and cramped tight up against the wall as the other stragglers in the alley shuffle their way out, hoping to not get involved in this mess of a matter.
Tulio stands there at the alley entrance and watches, hoping the men just go away and leave the poor kid alone. They begin to push Miguel around as tears nearly emerge from his eyes.
"You dumb peasant boy, you're not worth nothin'. You're not evn' worth that crushed lute." Enjoyment grows along their face with the easy target of Miguel not anywhere near strong enough to fight back, but they still hope he goes for a swing. "Whatcha gonna do? We'v saw ya here before, we know you have no place to run to. No one to protect ya, huh? No mother to go cry to."
Miguel suddenly jumps and tries to run, briefly locking eyes with Miguel before a fist presses into his gut, causing him to crumble into the ground. Tulio knows he could never take on even one of those men by himself, forget the whole group. He looks around the alley quickly, seeing nothing he could easily accomplish. The only advantage he seems to have is his words assuming his running speed is good enough to follow up afterword.
He hunches into the ground, hitting himself in the head repeatedly while muttering the words "Come on Tulio, think!" to himself. He looks over again to see Miguel get kicked in the kidney by one of the thick leather boots.
"WAIT!" The words fell out of his mouth. He screamed so loud that the people in the next alley could have heard him over the roar of the street crowds. A silence goes amongst the group of men as they stare at Tulio, standing over Miguel curled up tightly into a ball.
...
...
...
After a few more moments of silence, Tulio begins to keep talking again, just letting the words slide from his tongue. "Did you say... HIS horrible slop?" Tulio points at Miguel as they all stare at him with confused expressions. Tulio tries to give Miguel a face translating to 'Come on, just go with it.' "Excuse me," Tulio begins again, "that's... MY horrible slop..."
Miguel begins to stand, hunched over with his hand on his stomach, still looking at Tulio with great confusion along with the other three men. "So... what you're telling me is you stole MY horrible slop and began to play it to other people pawning it off as your own?!" Tulio asked still trying to emphasize his awful attempt to help Miguel.
Suddenly Miguel's mind clears and he responds, "Wait a bit... you're horrible slop?" He coughs as dust gets caught in his throat. "I wrote that horrible slop myself fair and square WITHOUT your help, thank you very much."
"You lying, heathen!" Tulio exclaims stepping closer looking toward the other three men. "You must understand, I was playing that horrible slop last WEEK! He must have heard it and taught it to himself!"
Miguel steps from the men closer to Tulio, "If I may, I have never seen this man in my life, this horrible slop was quite simply my idea entirely."
"That cannot be the case, I had crowds all around coming to listen to my... horrible.. slop... you could just ask anyone and they would know it was me who played it first!" Tulio said nudging Miguel around the men slowly and naturally.
One of the men spoke up, "Wai-"
"And who's to say I didn't play it two weeks ago at another street where you had heard me playing it?" Miguel quickly interrupts, still in pain from the first punch, feeling around to see if he has a cracked rib.
"Come on, I see you three are men of culture. You should know a slop thieving rat when you see one. You believe me don't you?" Tulio asks.
"Well, weu..."
Miguel interrupts again, "Oh please... you're just as pitiful as any slop thief I have ever met. Isn't it quite obvious that HE is the thie.."
"ENOUGH OF THIS!" The forward most man goes for a swing at Miguel who quickly ducks the large fist. At that same moment, the two men behind him rush Tulio who slips left and pushes the first man during his swing to catch him off balance.
"RUN!" Tulio exclaims, pushing the uncomfortably aching and stumbling Miguel down the alley behind them. The other two men instantly take chase as the initial frontman gets back to his feet. They take a sharp turn right down a thin strip, Tulio purposely lagging behind and pulling down barrels and crates to get in the way of the men. He pulls off his, quite literal, thickly soaked shirt of rags and throws it at the men behind them. Getting lucky, it crosses over the new man in front and causes them to trip over each other allowing Miguel and Tulio to get through and on to the next few alleys over in the maze of backroads.
Catching their breath, Tulio asks, "Hey, are you okay?"
"I think at least one of my ribs are broken..." Miguel coughs and winces, "That run definitely did not help. But you did, thank you."
"Hey, it's not a problem. Us slop thieves gotta look out for each other, no one else will." Tulio smirks, "Do you need a doctor?"
"From my perspective, I do not believe either of us could afford it," Miguel gives a cheeky smile, "but I suppose... we could find a way to get by the cost as we did those men?" Tulio gives a cocky look back at him while Miguel then says, "And by we I mean you, you find a way. I am not one for planning."
"Yes of course. I wouldn't want it any other way. Just make sure you listen to me and follow along with whatever I say." Tulio says.
"Got it." Miguel reaches out his hand to shake Tulio's. "My name is Miguel, it is surely a pleasure to meet you."
Reaching out and grabbing Miguel's hand, "Tulio, my name is Tulio."
"Well Tulio, congratulations on being the quickest close friend I have ever made."