Doom was entering the market area, heading straight for the place where he arranged to meet with his informant. Being the leader of the newly formed Resistance, he needed to keep himself as well informed about the current situation as possible. Starting an organization, especially an illegal one is extremely hard. Recruiting members by far prove to be the most problematic. He couldn't exactly hand out leaflet and randomly ask everyone on the street to help defeat the Shadow Lord, could he? Of course not. Most of his last few months were spent on this matter without producing much result, and it didn't help that Grey Guards were swarming all over most cities. On top of that, he didn't have his memories from before, which meant he had absolutely no one he could count on. Well, he had managed to gather a handful at least, all of whom came from some villages that had been destroyed and were forced to live as fugitives. Given his situation, that had to count for something. For the moment, he had his men scattered throughout the land to gather information to prepare for their next move. And now was time for one of his scheduled meeting with one of them. The place changed every time for security reason, and each and every one of those times was carefully planned to avoid the possibility of something going wrong.
That was it. He couldn't risk these meetings going awry. Which is why he wondered, as he glanced over his shoulder, what on earth made him agreed to take Dain along? The boy in question was currently tagging a few steps behind him, walking with an air of great anxiety. This was the first time Doom let the boy go with him, instead of dropping him at some inn with instruction of staying there and wait for him. A little boy definitely didn't seem fit for these kinds of things. And so, Doom spent the good part of his trip convincing himself that Dain would had to get used to this sooner or later and he brought the boy out of his own desire to train Dain as his assistant, and DEFINITELY NOT because he gave into the boy's pleas to follow him. Oh well, Doom heaved a sigh, that hardly matters at this point, does it?
They finally reached their destination. It was a little store with hardly anything to sell, and it was marked with the Resistance symbol that Doom had invented for communication purpose. The shopkeeper greeted him with a smile and lead him into the shop as a customer, then after some brief exchanges, he and Dain were lead into a small room at the back. His informant was already waiting there. He gave Dain a curious look and after a nod of confirmation from Doom, they sat down to business. From the report, it looked like things weren't going well for them. Security had been tightened-as if it wasn't hard enough to operate as it was- and the number of raids was increasing. Houses were burned down and those living in them captured, forced to work as slaves and a good deal of them was sent to the Shadow arena to fight for amusement. People lived in fear everyday, not knowing when it would be their turn. He needed to find a way to strengthen the Resistance force. They were badly in need of equipment supply and it would be bad if he didn't find any solution soon. He needed more people, but knowing who to trust was a challenge in and of itself.
A slight tug on his arm made Doom look down. Dain, who had been trying his best to listening to their every words for the past half hour seem to have finally grown bored. He was leaning against Doom with unfocused eyes. Doom shrugged his arm slightly to shake the boy off and Dain quickly straightened himself, but he turned his gaze longingly to the other busy stores at the market, which didn't go unnoticed by Doom, but he tried to ignore the boy until Dain started to make soft tapping noise on the floor with his feet. Doom put his face in his hand. This was a bad idea after all. Sighing, he took several coins from his pocket and handed it to Dain.
"Go and buy something you like" Doom said. Dain's face immediately brightened with delight and the boy ran off. And Doom thought, as he made his way back later with Dain who was happily nibbling a candied apple, that no matter how mature Dain might seem, a child was a child after all.
Just something that popped into my head. I'm thinking of adding a few more chapters to this story. Dain is real in here. And sorry for any mistakes. I'm not English.