Woo
Second installment, the POV has changed here but you'll get the hang of it after a couple chapters.
^_^ Enjoy.


He stared into the bonfire flames with a glowing gaze. Those around him assumed it was merely peculiar the way the fire light reflected off his pale green eyes but they were really glowing in a fit of suppressed anger. He wasted so much time sitting there with no leads to follow. No jobs to occupy him. It made him anxious.

Pulling at the strange clothes he grimaced at the feel of them. They were worn and old and he'd only added to the brutality of their life span. The only thing that remained of his original attire were his black boots that no one paid much attention to. The garb was simple but at the very least had a place. He arms were covered and when he felt the need he could draw up the back of his cloak to keep his face hidden. Not that it mattered, after a week he had gotten so dirty that he was sure no one would recognize him anyway. He'd been spoiled with showers and hot meals his entire life and roughing it pissed him off a tiny degree more.

Now he sat on a blanket that was spread out across the grass and dirt and that was his world. His house, his bedroom, his bed, his temporary territory that told all others to keep away. Days were pleasantly warm and nights were colder then he would have liked. It would have been easy if he had packed the way he wanted, but it would have made it harder for him to blend in. He could have materialized tents and other equipment he had at home but that damn blending in problem…

On his person, he had a few weapons hidden but he realized quickly that that wasn't going to feed him. Living off the land might have been easy on a land you were familiar with but there were fruits and shrubs he'd never seen before and had little knowledge on whether it would be the stuff of life or a poison that would kill him on ten seconds flat.

Dying really wasn't on his to do list. He was a strange boy like that.

He watched the flames move hypnotically while he reflected on his time here. The world was strange to him despite that tiny tingling sensation that should have made him feel at ease. The air smelled nice and the world almost sang to him. The trees swayed in the breeze and the rustling of the branches in the nights sky. Magic was in the air he breathed and it was a familiar feeling that should have soothed him; instead it made his throat dry.

The memories were supposed to be nothing more than a child's faint dream but he found himself remembering more than he ever thought he would. He wanted to return home as soon as possible back into the safety he'd grown accustomed me.

"Baron? Are you hungry?" Lavender asked, her voice oddly accented. She was a tiny little girl with soft skin, hair and features. When he first laid eyes on her he had thought she was only fifteen or sixteen but he was shocked to learn she was actually twenty, a year older then he was.

Hesitantly, she sat next to him, a plate in her hands for him. Realizing he had little knowledge over the surrounding area, she took it upon herself to see to it that he ate daily with the others.

"Thank you." He said softly. "I appreciate it."

She smiled a little, brushing her hands against her skirts. "It must be hard from you out of the mountains."

"I never said I was from the mountains." He said with a small frown, taking a bite from the plate and staring at the contents for a moment. The taste was good but never what he expected it to be.

"Well you're not from around here." She smiled. "You're voice is strange. Your tone and even the words you use sometimes are strange. The mountains are the furthest place you could have traveled from."

"Maybe so." He agreed. It was almost easy how everyone would explain away his presence themselves. He didn't need to make up an excuse or story when others did it themselves. It was easy enough to go along with whatever anyone said. He never directly agreed anyway.

Lavender smiled gently and he had to wonder if she was so nice to every stranger she came across. Her family and friends had stumbled across him after his first week and happily invited him to travel alongside them. They were nomads. Kosans, they called it, but he heard the words as nomad. There were many words that happened with but they never seemed to notice when he referred to them as such.

He'd come to think of them as gypsies. Many of them were performers by nature, roaming around to perform dances and songs for profit. The songs were strange and their instruments were stranger but he never said a word, hoping everyone would mistake his confusion for wonderment.

They'd grown in numbers over the years. Whenever a village was destroy or a home ravaged those people had nowhere to go. Traveling so their home were never again in the same place twice seemed ideal for them.

When they weren't performing then jobs were taken, some less reputable then others but then most or the newcomers were thieves. Those he took part in against his better judgment. Those would be details he would not share with his mother. Her soft heart didn't need to hear such things. Still, it was a good way to make money—regardless of the fact that he'd yet to figure out the currency system—and to be of some use to the nomads.

"You don't have to stay by yourself, Baron." She said softly. "You know you're welcome to join in on our nightly festivities."

She often tried to include him in things and as much as he normally would have hated to be rude, he couldn't help it now. There was too much on his mind for him to even pretend to be so carefree.

"Kind of you to offer, but no." he muttered, taking another bite from his plate.

She nodded slowly and her smile slipped. "I know you are searching for something or someone, but I hope the quest doesn't consume you."

"I hope it does. I've gotta keep looking." He muttered, running a hand through his ashy blond hair that touched the back of his neck. He smiled faintly at her, being sure to keep the top of his hand covered. It was the only part of this birth tattoo that was visible the moment. "Thank you, for the food and the concern."

She nodded, getting up slowly and reluctantly. He hated to think she was getting fond of him but he knew she was. She gave him the same look he'd gotten from girls since the seventh grade. The only difference was that those girls he saw moderately often, and he didn't have any plans on ever coming back here once he was done.

Lavender headed back over to her sisters to chat, no doubt about him. He was used to that but it wasn't just the girls that had an interested in him. Moss had been watching him on and off and it was unsettling. Moss was the Kosan leader. He was probably in his late forties but you wouldn't know it by looking at him. He'd long since lost his home and had turned to this life decades prior.

It was his final word that allowed Baron to travel with the nomads but he got the feeling that the man felt wary of him.

Over the last few weeks of his stay Baron had become something of the nomad loner and that was just fine with him. Everyone was polite and offered him a smile but they were still uneasy with his presence at times. But like many others, they assumed it was merely because of something semi traumatizing in his youth that made him that way. They knew enough not to pry.

Being standoffish wasn't in his normal personality but being in a new place made him anxious. He only needed to get closer to his goal before he could go.

As he went on jobs with the others and observed, he learned. He knew enough to never show the mark on his arm that he was born with. That was asking for a death sentence but there were other things he learned quickly enough. Things like where the King put prisoners and who the bounty hunters in the area where. If nothing else it was helpful in learning who to avoid. These nomads even knew a handful of bounty hunters and that could have been useful to him.

Much of his time he spent on his own, reminding himself that this wasn't really a time for him to be making friends. So far only one man really talked to him and that was only after watching his back on a job. He had reached out and grabbed Baron by the scruff of the neck to keep him out of arms way.

"Instinct, maybe." Dusty had just shrugged it off. He was in his early thirties and Baron found out his wife was about to give birth to their first child. It was news the man was excited about and Baron could only imagine the news.

Dusty was a standoffish sort of man himself. He liked his privacy and wasn't open with his business but Baron couldn't stop himself from talking to him. He was rarely around a man who was happy to be a father, and he hardly remembered his own father. It was a nice way to replace those memories he couldn't remember.

Baron stared at the fire and wished he had the energy to entertain himself. He needed to get closer to the castle, and needed to find a way in.

A shriek jerked him from his thoughts and he looked up to see the women running about in a hurry but most of the men merely look uncomfortable. Getting up slowly he wandered closer, wondering if it was something as simple as a snake scaring one of the woman.

"What's going on?" he asked.

Moss turned towards him, rubbing a finger down his chin. "Nothing to concern yourself it. Ribbon has going into labor."

"Dusty's wife?" Baron asked, he hadn't thought she was even eight months along but what did he know about that. "Is it her time?"

"Obviously so." Moss shrugged.

Baron nodded. "Right." He muttered, making a mental note not to ask potentially stupid questions around these people. They didn't know things the way he did, and it made him worry about poor Ribbon. Scary things like going into labor needed to be done in a hospital, but there weren't hospitals here, only midwifes who supposedly knew what they were doing.

Everyone scattered out to give them privacy but Baron hesitated to leave and stayed close. There was nothing he could do to help but it was better to stand there close just in case rather than to wander off completely.

This wasn't his areas, but he couldn't bring himself to walk away.

Dusty stayed inside the tent, holding onto Ribbons hand while the midwife coached her instructions. Her screaming would be enough to put anyone off and Baron was thankful for hospitals if there were to ever happen to him. He could imagine Dusty pulling his hair out.

Nothing had ever sounded so painstakingly hard to him before. A place like this really needed to invest it's time in pain killers, but then he wasn't sure how they could work their own magic to benefit them.

Over three hours later the midwife slipped out, a deep frown on her face as she went straight to Moss to speak with him quietly. He could hear the crying, everyone could and he couldn't help himself anymore. There was no real way to announce yourself before slipping into a tent but he tried. Clearing his throat and moving in slowly.

Ribbon laid back still, her blond hair matted down from sweat and tears pouring down her face silently. Dusty looked sadly stoic, his eyes on the twin babies and lay on a large cushion.

Twin boys, born with joint magic, the proof running down their opposite arms in their own unique pattern.

It made sense to him now, this was a death sentence plan and simple for one of them, maybe both of them. Dusty and Ribbon had been so happily excited and it was all about to be taken from them.

"They're perfect." Baron commented, remembering it was always what his moma had said when she saw a newborn baby.

Dusty's eyes widen when Baron reached down to pick one of the boys up. "You shouldn't."

"Why?" Baron asked, smiling down at the baby who stirred and gagged. They'd barely been wiped off and Baron took it upon himself to do it. He felt a small connection with the babies and wouldn't see them so neglected.

Moss was the next to enter the tent but he said nothing, choosing instead to watch.

"They'll be killed." Ribbon sobbed, her cries suddenly louder. "My babies. Their just babies."

"Dangerous little brutes aren't they?" Baron chuckled, setting the first down and reaching for the second. "You're gonna need to feed them, aren't you?"

"Would a missed meal change anything." Dusty whispered. The words were cold and heartless, but Baron heard the voice in his friend breaking.

"Considered they won't be killed tonight, I'd say so." Baron said, wiping off the second boy.

Three pairs of eyes remained on him.

"Are you going to be the one to kill them, Dusty?" Baron gazed at him.

"Certainly not." Dusty answered so quickly that it surprised both Ribbon and Moss.

"Then I very much doubt they'll die tonight. They haven't gotten a chance to do anything but be born. Aren't you supposed to protect them?" Baron smiled a little. "C'mon, you're their parents. If you don't, who will? They can't defend themselves yet, they don't even have balance yet. Are you going to let them lay here and never know a touch?"

Ribbon reached out instantly, crying harshly. She didn't want her babies to die. She couldn't handle being so cold hearted even if it was expected of her.

Baron leaned forward, passing the boy along to her and picking the first up again. "Like I was saying, they're probably hungry."

Moss left without a word, seemingly not willing to argue with them.

Dusty reached out and held his other son in his arms for the first time. He cradled the boy and stroked his fingers down his cheek at the impossible small boy.

"I'm not about to watch these two die." Baron said softly. "Not for not good reason at all."

Ribbon cried still, rocking her baby in her arms. She looked up at Baron and smiled through her flowing tears. "Thank you so much…"


Thanks for reading.

I don't think the word code was used much here but I'll put it up anyway.

A E I O U B C D F G H J K L M N P Q R S T V W X Y Z

I O U A E F G H J K L M N P Q R S T V W X Y Z B C D

And so no one gets confused…titles…are their own made up word….

King- Raaie

Kosan-Nomad

It's other random words that use the letter mix.