All right. Yes, it's me again XD! All in the same day, too. Isn't that interesting? Meh, not really. So anyway, do you really want to read this? Raise your hands if that's a yes *Everyone raises their hands* ^?^ Ty XD! I luvvers you all. So anyway; why aren't you reading?

Chapter Two: A Forcing of the Truth

Silently as possible, Halt crept through the door of the small apartment he and his mentor shared, and concentrated on getting to his chambers without being seen by Stenmin, his mentor who liked to scold Halt as much as possible.

Everyone always thought that Stenmin was a mommying, bad-tempered worrier that doted on Halt. Oh, how wrong they were! Halt marveled at how nobody seemed to hear Stenmin screaming at him, the rare crash of items breaking as Stenmin threw Halt's belongings to the floor, or the cries of pain as his mentor hit him.

After going from being a pampered, quiet Prince to an abused, silent, small boy, Halt's sense of reality was seriously screwed up. He was halfway to his bedroom when a snide voice caused him to freeze where he was standing, open-mouthed, eyes wide in horror.

"What are you doing, boy?"

"I'm, um..." Halt didn't know what to say, and made the mistake of turning around, sporting his bloody hand and arm, torn tunic, muddy cloak, and scuffed-up leather boots. Then he realized he had left his throwing knife at the edge of the forest. Damn it! Stenmin would kill him!

Of course, Stenmin noticed this just as Halt did. "Where is your throwing knife, Halt?" he asked in a dangerously soft voice. "And why is your surcoat torn up? Were you out with some girl?"

"N-no, Sten—" Halt was cut off as he received a sharp slap across the face, and pressed his non-injured hand to his smarting cheek, only to have it shoved away. Hard punches showered his head and face, giving him a bloody nose and chipped tooth. Stenmin only stopped when Halt's head hit the wall with a small bang, and Halt slid to the floor, holding his hands and arms in front of him for protection against the beatings.

After a moment, Halt realized that the apartment was silent, and then slowly stood up, holding one hand beneath his nose to make sure none of the blood dripped to the floor, and crept to his bedroom, fighting against the howl of pain and misery that was struggling to rip its way out of him. It would have to try a little harder; Halt wouldn't give in. Not until he was completely positive he was alone, at least.

Very quietly closing the door behind him, Halt backed onto his small bed, taking a deep breath before gingerly touching his wound; Stenmin had dug his nails into it while he had been punching Halt, and it ached and throbbed so much that Halt could hardly remember what it had felt like when it was not hurting. It was bleeding again, too, harder than before.

Halt leaped a foot into the air as there was a knock on the door, and then went to answer it, opening the dark, oiled door only slightly. What he saw made him want to die: Crowley was here, as well as the girl, and a young woman who was, no doubt, a physician. Crowley grinned at him, but his smile faded when he saw Halt's more recent injuries.

"What happened?" he asked immediately, looking shocked. Halt shook his head slightly, and said in a quiet voice, "Battleschool apprentices caught me on my way back to the apartment. I'll be fine, don't worry."

Crowley could never know what Stenmin was really like. Nobody could.

"Well, can we please come in?" Crowley inquired, and Halt nodded, opening the door a bit wider. The three came in, Halt backing away warily to the couch, and with a rush of pure hatred remembered that Stenmin had just been sitting there.

"So," Halt said in a slight mumble when they were all settled. "Why are we all here, then?"

"To stitch up your hand," the girl, Pauline, replied brightly. "Did you hurt it again? Illidia will be able to fix anything that's hurt; she even knows cures for colds and bruises! You'll be good as new in no time at all, Halt."

The physician, Illidia, nodded cheerfully, and smiled at Halt, who felt very uncomfortable. He didn't like visitors, and Stenmin would be back at any moment, he knew. What would Stenmin do after Crowley and the other two left? At this thought, Halt knew he had to keep these three here as long as possible. And to do that he would have to stall for time, struggle when they tried to treat him, and keep them talking.

"So, how do you cure a cold?" he asked casually, trying to overcome his shyness to save his life. The woman Illidia launched into a full-blown, detailed explanation, and Halt pretended to be listening carefully, intrigued, while silently applauding his cleverness. Sadly, Crowley knew exactly what Halt was trying to do, but suspected all different reasons.

"Illidia," he said loudly. "Don't you have to leave in half an hour? We're wasting time here, you know."

"Oh!" Illidia blinked, and then grinned. "Sorry."

Halt swore to himself; stupid Crowley. Stupid, dumb, foolish Crowley. Of course, when he glared at his friend, Crowley only smirked at him, thinking that Halt merely didn't want to be babied by Illidia. At the moment, Halt didn't exactly care who babied him, or how. Pauline was silent, gazing at him thoughtfully, and he glanced at her for a moment.

The moment their eyes met Pauline looked away, and Halt concentrated on struggling with Illidia, who grasped his wrist and tried to do her work on him. Crowley, of course, didn't notice how Halt didn't look angry, but horrified, and that his eyes were locked on the tall figure that stood in the doorway.

Stenmin stepped into the room, closing the door softly behind him, eyes burning. He was quite obviously drunk, Halt saw with terror; Stenmin was going to beat his ass like there was no tomorrow. It had happened last week. Crowley had been over, just like this, when Stenmin came back drunk, and when Crowley left Halt had received the beating of his life.

And this time he had two women in the apartment, even though they were only trying to stitch up his wound. Like Stenmin would notice.

Oh, dear God. He was going to be killed ! What would Stenmin do to him this time? He definitely wouldn't stop at merely beating him; last time another boy his age had been in the room with him, and Stenmin had destroyed him. This time girls were involved, too. And knowing his mentor, the wrong idea would most certainly be thought of.

"You—you should all go," he managed to stammer, and Crowley trailed his gaze over to where Stenmin was. "Thanks for stitching up my hand," he said, gazing down at the half-finished work, "and I'll see you at dinner tonight, Crowley, since I'm sleeping over there. Remember?"

Crowley nodded, and the others stood up to leave. "Good-bye, Halt," Crowley said brightly. "I'll see you later, all right?"

"Yes, yes," Halt said hastily. "Good-bye." He shut the door firmly behind the three, and then turned to face Stenmin, who smelled strongly of whiskey, and was fuming with drunken rage and fury.

It was like a bomb had gone off.

After what seemed like years, the beating was over, leaving Halt unconscious on the floor, face-down, his mentor breathing very hard, standing over him, and half the apartment quite literally torn apart from Stenmin's wrath.

It was two hours from sundown when Halt finally drifted away, his eyes fluttering open as he slowly lifted himself off the ground, gazing around for Stenmin. He was alone in the apartment, thankfully, and Halt hauled himself up off of the ground, heading to the washroom to clean himself up so he could get ready to go to Crowley's apartment, across the castle.

Scrubbing the dried blood off of his face, Halt winced at the various injuries and bruises as he ran the rough, damp cloth over them, but was soon looking a lot better. He didn't bruise easily at all, and when he did they were always hard to see, unless he was hit extremely hard. And Stenmin wasn't one to do that; he never let bruises show on Halt, or else somebody might get a bit suspicious.

Briefly washing his hair, Halt gazed at himself in the mirror for a moment, and then nodded. He looked all right. A bit shaken, and his sharply-shaped eyes looked a bit larger and more wild than usual, but all right.

Then he got ready to go to Crowley's own apartment that he shared with his perfect, kind mentor, of whom Halt was jealous of. He wished his mentor was like that. Why did he have to get stuck with Stenmin anyway? But oh well; it didn't matter. It wasn't like anything would change. Not for the better, anyway.

Trudging out of the apartment, Halt swiftly navigated the way to Crowley's chambers, and soon found himself knocking very quietly on the door, trying to look as if he was perfectly fine, and not as if he had just received a beating half an hour ago.

Crowley opened the door immediately, and Halt saw very quickly that Pauline was there as well, almost smiling. Halt, for some strange reason, felt very left out, but went inside the apartment anyway, glancing around briefly at the familiar surroundings.

"Well, what are we going to do?" Crowley asked brightly, happy that Halt was now here. Pauline's mentor was gone for the night, and she was always lonely when alone, so Crowley had invited her over as well. She was a good friend of his, and perhaps something more.

Halt raised an eyebrow, something he did a lot. "Do?" he said. "What is there to do besides do what we always do?"

Crowley grinned; he and Halt always played pranks on Crowley's mentor, since Halt had firmly refused to let them do the same on Stenmin, whom Crowley had always wanted to pull a good prank on.

"Sounds good," he said. "Balinor isn't here right now, so we have plenty of time to set it all up. Want to join us, Pauline? We're pulling pranks on my mentor. He thinks it's funny, so don't worry about being in trouble."

Pauline shrugged slightly. "Of course," she said. Crowley went to get the supplies, and Pauline turned to Halt, whose shyness crept back. "So, you're a Ranger's apprentice?" she asked curiously.

Halt nodded, and mumbled something. Pauline looked a bit confused, and Halt spoke up a bit. "Yes. You're a Diplomat, aren't you? Apprenticed to Lady Jasmine?"

"Yes," Pauline said with a smile that didn't seem quite real to Halt. "I am." She looked more closely at him. "You know, you're a bit small for your age, aren't you?"

Halt began to scowl, and she said quickly, "Not that it's a bad thing, being small. Smaller people are always funny and smart and..." Crowley had come back, and was gazing curiously at the two, but then shrugged, holding out the pranking items with a grin.

"All right," he said with a small laugh. "Pauline, you prank up the washroom; Halt, you go to Balinor's chambers; I'll get the living room. Let's get to work! Balinor will be back in an hour, which will give us plenty of time." They all split up, arms full of prankster's items, and came back in close to an hour with grins. Even Halt was smiling faintly.

It was ten minutes later when Balinor came back to the apartment, and he smiled at the three before moving to the couch, which gave a wet-sounding fart as he sat directly on an air-filled cushion. Crowley gave a muffled snort that nearly passed as a sneeze, and Halt concealed a grin behind his hand. Pauline was looking a bit mischievous.

Balinor moved from room to room, coming across fake animal dung, disappearing ink in his small ink bottle, tripping strings, and air-filled cushions throughout the apartment. Crowley was on the floor, laughing, Pauline was grinning, and Halt was trying not to laugh.

After a moment, Crowley's beloved mentor came back into the room, feigning a stern look at the three who were lying on their backs, looking brightly up at him, and said in a mock-severe voice, "How did all these pranks get in my apartment?"

"Maybe magical elves came!" Crowley suggested innocently, as if he had done nothing wrong at all.

"Or maybe the baron decided you need to lighten up a bit?" Halt said, equally innocent.

"Or perhaps the food came to life and decided not to borrow your fake eye, so they instead pranked up the apartment?" Pauline added, and Crowley had a snot-explosion/sneeze/snort/laugh attack as he doubled up on the floor. Balinor grinned.

"Perhaps they did!" he said in his goodhearted fashion. "I say, we have magical food in here! We'd better be careful or they'll eat us in our sleep tonight. But before they can do that, why don't we cook them up and eat them instead? I don't know about you three, but I'm hungry."

They had 'magical' potatoes, beef, and green beans that night, and Halt, once again, wished fiercely that Balinor was his own mentor. Stenmin was cruel, neglecting, and abusive; Balinor was kind, joking, and had natural urges to feed things, no matter what they were. Balinor would have made a great Shepard, Halt mused.

They sat and talked after dinner, and after a while Balinor went to bed, telling the other three that they should do so after a little bit as well. The three got ready for bed, tired after a long day, and, in Halt's case, after two beatings. Rolling up in their blankets on the floor of their little camp they had made, Crowley was soon asleep, and Halt and Pauline were awake.

"What is Stenmin like, Halt?" she asked sleepily, turning over on her side to face him. Halt met her eyes, and rolled over onto his back, gazing up at the ceiling. He didn't answer. "When he came home, you looked so scared. Why is that?"

"I'm afraid of needles," Halt lied. "That's all."

"You weren't looking afraid when we started to stitch up your hand. You didn't even seem to feel the pain. How is that cut, anyway?"

"It's all right," Halt replied, glad that the conversation had turned away from his mentor. He cursed silently as Pauline continued to talk about him, though.

"He doesn't hurt you, does he?" Pauline asked in a serious, but very soft voice. Halt replied far too quickly, with a sharp little,

"No."

"He does, doesn't he?" Pauline whispered, gazing at him. Halt clenched his teeth. "It's all right if he does; I won't tell. My mentor, Lady Jasmine, purposely forgets to feed me all the time. She really hates me for some reason."

"She and Stenmin should get married," Halt blurted out without thinking. Pauline gave a small laugh, and agreed with him quietly. "I just don't know why he likes to hit me so much," Halt said in a miserable voice. "It's not like I've done anything wrong. He just hates me for some odd reason. Why is that, do you think?"

Now he had gone and told, by her gentle persisting, though in his opinion it had been forced out of him. Damn it!

"I don't know," Pauline replied thoughtfully. "You're funny and nice, like Crowley, and sweet. There's no reason for him to hate you, just like there's no reason for my mentor to hate me. We just got unlucky, got stuck with them. Crowley got very lucky; he could have been the one to get Stenmin. Would you want that?"

"Of course not!" Halt said immediately, and a bit too loudly. Crowley rolled over, awake now, blinking sleepily and gazing at him as he yawned.

"Why are you too still up?" he asked drowsily, lying back down again. "It's late. What were you talking about?"

"Nothing," Halt and Pauline said together, and the matter was over.

Did you like it? XD! I hope so. It was a bit long, but I was pretty happy with it when finished. So yeah lol. R&R XD! I luvvers you all (in a friend way O.o)

Velvet out!