"Faster slave! Build that furniture robot faster!"

Tino sighed as he scrubbed the side of the old dilapidated chair with a sheet of sandpaper "Ya know, this game isn't a very fun one. I'm not even really sure this will turn into a robot if I keep doing this-"

"FASTER!" Mathias yelled with an exuberant grin as he twirled across the treehouse floor, waving a plastic sword in the air "I am the king! You will do as I say or I will have your head!"

Tino sighed again and continued scrubbing as Mathias danced around the room. Life is hard when you're a delicate flower of an eight year old with only scary roughhousing ten year olds to play with.

They always do this… Tino lamented silently I always have to be the thing that's the least fun. Why did Eudard have to move away? I miss having a friend who is nice and stuff…

"Hey," Lukas walked in with little Emil in tow "I found this. It's weird."

"Lemme see! Lemme see!" Mathias ran over excitedly to take a look "It's a…it's a little red fish!"

"Not a real fish though," Lukas pointed out "My bathtub is full of real fishes, and this is not a real one."

"Ha ha! You're a freak Lukas! This fish looks like candy, I'm gonna eat it!"

"Gross. I found it on the ground."

"I'm a king! Kings don't have to worry if it was on the ground-duh!" Mathias grabbed it and stuffed it in his mouth "Mmm! This is super delicious!"

Lukas gave him a sour look "You are really, really gross."

"I want more! Your king wants you to find more tasty red fish that are not real but are TASTY!"

Emil spoke up "In the forest, there were more of them and they led out into the forest in a line-"

"Yah, there was a trail of them leading into the forest-"

"Yah."

"…back into the forest."

Mathias gasped "No way! Come with me and we will follow them and I will eat ALL the fishes. Come with me EVERYBODY-not you Tino. Stay here and work on the robot. FISH CANDY!"

The door slammed shut, leaving Tino alone in the tree house with the sandpaper and the broken chair.

Maybe I could run away-no they'll catch me again. Stupid smallness!

Then Tino heard a tapping noise on the back window of the tree fort.

"Hello?" Tino called.

No response. Tino stood up and started walking over to the window

"Mathias? What are ya doing ba-? AIHH!"

Berwald frowned as the boy behind the glass screamed upon seeing him, tripped and then fell out of sight.

Oops. Guess he doesn't like m' face…

Despite this, Berwald had not given up on his plans to rescue the younger boy. He walked around to the front of the tree house and was about to come in when Tino came bolting out of the doorway screaming and ran straight into him.

"Wha-AIH!" Tino started to scream again, but the tall, scary-faced boy put a hand over his mouth.

"Shh. If ya scream they might come back. Don't ya want to get out?"

The boy drew his hand back and Tino looked up at him with large, confused eyes.

"Ya...ya came to get me out?"

The boy nodded and held out his hand. "Come with m'."

Without thinking things through Tino took his hand and let his terrifying rescuer pull him out of the tree fort. The tall boy led the way as they ran far out into the meadow, across a stream, through a sunflower field, and then back across the stream.

"Need t' take the long way," the tall boy explained as they ran hand in hand. "So they can't follow our tracks."

"Are ya the one who made a trail of red fish candy into the forest?"

"Yah. Needed a distraction." They came to a wooden fence, probably the back of someone's yard.

"Huh..." Tino pondered as the tall boy fetched a key from his pocket and undid the lock on the gate. "That's a good idea. Ya must be pretty smart."

"Thank ya," the boy replied as he held the door open for Tino. He wandered through the gate, looking around at the yard.

Berwald felt a surge of victory and relief as he locked the gate door behind them. "There," he turned to face Tino "They can't get t' us here."

For the first time the younger boy smiled at him "Really? I'm so happy! Thank ya! So this means I'm not their prisoner anymore, right?"

"Yah," Berwald agreed "Ya don't have to be their prisoner anymore. Now ya can-" the ten year old paused and looked away as he felt the blood rising to his face.

"-now ya can...be m' wife..."

Valued Readers: This story is an exercise in character voice for me. I'm trying to make the characters act like themselves while also having them act like actual kids. Please tell me how I'm doing! I want to write the best I can for you guys. : )

Love all around!