II.

~Killjoy~

Espio the Chameleon awoke before sunrise to attend his duties. His master was hosting a celebration and he would be needed to set up the decor. He was also required to dress in clothing that matched the blue theme for the party. He hated blue. Regardless of his opinions, though, he had to wear it or his master wouldn't be pleased. His apparel consisted of blue bands around his wrists and heavy blue jewelry around his neck. He also had formal blue shoes.

Espio felt that this kind of clothing was humiliating to wear. He left his tiny, one windowed room and headed into the dining hall to begin putting up decorations. Espio, as always, was the first servant awake. He would require assistance on a few of the tasks for the day, but he did whatever he could by himself. The first job was to do a thorough sweeping and dusting of all of the rooms in the house. All except the master bedroom which no servant was allowed entry.

The boring job became a breeze with all seven of the servants awake at this point. The next job was to dress the house in blue decorations and to set the tables for the dinner guests. Espio's main priority was to finish decorating because the festivities were happening later that day. After they were completed, he planned to go gallivanting with his two closest friends: Charmy Bee and Vector the Crocodile.

Espio wasn't the only employed member of their clique. Charmy was a squire for one of the four Royal Knights. As for Vector, he did whatever he could do to scrape by. Vector never was able to keep a job simply due to his obnoxious nature, but with the help of his closest companions, he has been able to survive this long.

Hours passed and the project was progressing well. Only one room was left unfinished. Impeding good progress, one of the servants knocked over a very expensive looking vase. It shattered. At this point Master Sullivan, as Espio called him, was awake and was overlooking their progress. Master Sullivan exploded striking the servant across the face with a gloved hand.

"How dare you ruin my vase, you clumsy oaf!" The hawk kept his face turned away from his master where it had been moved.

"Apologies, Master."

"You are not to roam the house for the rest of the day! No, meals either!"

Espio saw an opportunity and leaped at the chance, "Master, I would be willing to take the punishment in place of him. Give him a second chance, m'lord."

"I don't care who takes the punishment, but someone is going to pay for this. He walked away fuming."

The hawk-servant looked down shamefully and shook his head. He rose it again to look at Espio, "Many thanks, Espio. I have no words for your generosity."

He bowed.

"Don't thank me," he said, "I did this for selfish reasons, not for you." The hawk gave a confused look, but disregarded it and returned to his duties more carefully this time.

Espio headed back to his room and locked the door. He was gratified that he no longer had to wear that dreadful array of clothing. He changed into his street clothes and waited for Vector and Charmy to come as soon as darkness fell upon Novella.

Charmy's day was just as average as Espio's, but instead of decorating a house, a hedgehog had to be decorated, so to speak. Charmy is lucky enough to be the squire of a Royal Knight. Specifically, he is the squire of Sir Knight Shadow the Hedgehog, a friend of the King and Lieutenant of his army. Shadow looked into the silvery mirror and inspected his armor. It was all black with subtle red gems encrusting some parts of the armor. It featured red-orange filigree to contrast from the harshness of the black in his outfit. He also had a black and gold cape draped over his missing right arm that he had lost in battle years ago. The theme of the celebration was supposed to be blue, but Shadow could hardly imagine himself in such a dreadful color.

"How does it look, Charmy? Be honest with me now. I must be presentable."

"You look stunning as always, Sir Shadow!"

"Charmy, you always say that. Are you being truthful?"

"Always, Sir Shadow," he replied enthusiastically.

Shadow walked over to his balcony and rested on his left arm on the railing there. He peered down at the lesser townsfolk. His suit gave him a non-physical empowerment. He felt as if all should kneel before him. He turned around and walked back into his room.

"I would like to commute, Charmy. Fetch my horse and be ready within the hour," Shadow ordered.

Charmy acknowledged and buzzed off to ready the horse. It was a fine one with perfectly white hair in perfect contrast with Shadow's garments. Charmy bowed to Shadow while still floating in the air, "Your horse awaits, Sir Knight Shadow."

"My thanks," Shadow said before mounting the large animal and gestured for it to move. Shadow's intentions were to impress the local women on his commute through the city.

"The pleasure was mine," Charmy replied.

For hours they walked around and Shadow boasted his new attire to the masses. Many praised Shadow. Their comments inflated his already large ego. Often times Shadow would get off of his horse in an attempt to swoon the local maidens. Though he was betrothed already he still enjoyed the admiration.

The next member of this tightly woven group was Vector the Crocodile, or as many others know him, Vector the Vagabond.

Vector walked aimlessly through the streets of Novella looking at the individuals surrounding him. He saw nobles and peasants like himself, but mostly just nobles with nothing better to do, except chat in the fall sun with their equals. The air was cooling and Vector was starving. He hadn't had a single thing to eat all day. He saw a fellow vagabond with few possessions sitting in the shade of a building. A sudden urge to speak to the man came over him. The man was a hooded scorpion with sandals on his feet. He watched suspiciously as Vector sat next to him.

"This spot taken?" Vector asks hopefully.

"I would say yes, but seeing as that's an obvious lie, no. It is not." The scorpion spoke with a tangible amount of annoyance.

As Vector slid closer to the scorpion he could see him tense up. He leaned away from Vector and looked away. His body language alone told the entire story, but Vector didn't catch on. The uncomfortable situation was avoided by the scorpion by simply ignoring the annoying croc. Vector continued to blabber on about nothing to the scorpion until he eventually fell asleep. Upon waking up, the scorpion and all of his possessions were gone except for a few coins under Vector's hand that weren't there before. Vector thanked whatever god he believed in and kissed the money in his palm. Perhaps the Scorpion showed him a little pity despite how invasive to his privacy he was.

Soon, dusk fell upon the city. Espio was being patient waiting for the exact moment he was sure his master was asleep, Charmy had just finished his jobs for the day and he was headed to the place he usually waited for Vector and Espio, and Vector was strolling through the mostly empty streets to rendezvous with the group as well.

Espio vaulted from the window of his room on the second story. He also hopped the high wall that sectioned off Master Sullivan's house from the rest of the city. Covered in his ragged street clothing, Espio made his way to the meeting point.

"Espio!" said the high pitched voice of his bee friend.

Espio waved as he silently approached the two loiterers. He was unusually happy to see them. Espio gave them one of his all too rare smiles.

"Long time no see. What has it been? A week?" Espio considered.

"Longer. At least two," said Vector.

The reunited trio began walking and talking about the intricacies of their lives. Somewhere in the conversation, Sir Knight Shadow was brought up.

"That Shadow is such a show-off. Today I saw him roaming the streets acting like he's all high and mighty. His ego is bigger than the entire city!" Vector swore.

Espio spoke up, "He can be boastful, but you ignore the fact that he is high and mighty. He's a Lieutenant of the damned army! Obviously, he's there for a reason. Especially since he isn't part of the royal family. That just proves that he excels in whatever he does. The only reason he isn't the commander of the army is because the King doesn't know if he's ready to fill those kinds of shoes."

Charmy changed the direction of the conversation, "I'm starving. Do either of you have rings on you so we can eat? I only have five."

"Ugh…" Vector moaned, "I wish you had said something sooner I haven't eaten all day either. I got seven rings on me. What about you Espio? You hungry?"

Espio got a small bag of rings it had about thirty rings in it. "I've got this meal covered."

"Wow, Espio! How did you get so much money?"

"Master Sullivan leaves money everywhere. I just help myself to some rings every now and then."

Vector looked at the bag of rings. His eyes were lit up like the night sky, "That's great Espio. We can feast!"

Their 'feast' was just two fruits for each person. No one was at the stall where they would usually sell fruits, so they just left a few rings for the vendor to find in the morning. The rest of the evening was very enjoyable for the group, but unfortunately, Espio was the first to depart. The group shared a brotherly hug.

"Vector. Charmy. Be safe I'll see you both in a couple of days," Espio said before heading towards his master's home under the cover of darkness. It was just Charmy and Vector for the rest of the calm night.

They took a detour down a dark alley. Charmy wasn't afraid because of his large company. Two soldiers strolled up to them and halted their advances.

"Is there a problem?" Vector asked defensively.

"Right you are," said one of the soldiers, "We've been gettin' sick of seein' your ugly face 'round here so, in the name of the King, you and your little friend are being arrested."

Vector put his hands up in the air as if he surrendered. As soon as the guard-dog was unsuspecting, Vector punched the guard-dog directly in the face throwing him to the ground.

"Run Charmy! I'll be right behind you!"

Vector turned and ran out of the alley following Charmy closely. The soldiers were in pursuit and were yelling loudly drawing attention. Soon, another five guards were chasing them. Vector caught up with Charmy and picked him up. He turned another corner that lead to a dead end. Luckily, there was a small hole that lead to a drainage system that Vector hid Charmy in. The seven guards cornered Vector. He swung at the two guards that stepped up first he knocked one out and gave the other a set of broken ribs. Inevitably, though he was beaten down. He suffered a few lost teeth, three sprained fingers, and an uncountable number of bruises. Even after all of that abuse, Vector was still dragged off to the dungeons.

Charmy was powerless to do anything for the poor crocodile. He felt guilty but knew that he would have only gotten captured. Charmy knew that he had to get the news to Espio, so a plan could be made to get Vector out of his imprisonment. He hoped Sir Knight Shadow wouldn't be too angry for his unscheduled absence, but he had to do this. Charmy headed to Master Sullivan's house to find Espio.

To be continued…

xXxXx

If you enjoyed, leave a Review. Many thanks!