Notes: Lampo is about eight years old in this chapter, and Giotto and G are still about ten years old. And while I worked hard to make the others not carbon copies of their Decimo counterparts, I sort of failed with Lampo. But don't worry, he'll turn into the lazy prat we met in the anime later down the road, and you'll see the signs of it in this chapter. And it might be enough to go without saying, but this is also the reason why Lampo hates Lambo. Likes repel, right?
I really appreciate the support of everyone who has reviewed and favorited and alerted. I'm happy that you're all liking this so far!
By mid-afternoon, Giotto and G left Racale with a bag of food slung over G's shoulder and one of the bags of coins attached to his belt. Giotto held onto the other bag, just in case one of them was robbed during their travels.
When they reached the next town over, Giotto told G his idea of selling the box and keeping the bullets in a bag instead. G loved the idea and managed to sell the box for a decent sum, but he held on to the bullets almost exclusively.
"It probably works best on you," said G, "and I'm the one with the gun. In case something happens, I can load them up quickly and shoot you with them!"
The thought of being shot in the head again terrified Giotto, but he said nothing and let G carry them in his pocket. If nothing else, G at least seemed completely enthralled by the bullets, always taking one out to scrutinize every time they stopped to rest, jotting down his notes in a journal he bought in one of the villages they visited. Sometimes G discussed his theories with Giotto, but most of what he said flew right over Giotto's head. Giotto only minded the topics and paid attention whenever G talked about testing them or said something about looking forward to seeing them in action again.
In those instances, Giotto said, "Hopefully we won't have to use them again, though."
G blushed. "Well, yeah. Hopefully we won't have to."
But since he always started back on the subject within the hour, Giotto knew G really wished otherwise.
For many days, the two boys made their way across the Italian countryside, sometimes managing to catch a ride with a cart driver after G convinced him that they were brothers visiting their sick grandmother. Most of the time, they walked.
Those days, their schedules varied in the details but remained constant no matter the weather. At sunrise, they rose and ate a small breakfast before starting their long day of walking. Neither of them talked, G busy examining one of the bullets and Giotto deep in his own thoughts about everything from the path that led him to here to what he wanted to eat for lunch. They stopped for lunch, and if they stopped in a village they stayed for the night. Otherwise, they had a much, much bigger meal at noon and then continued on their way.
If they still did not reach a town or a village before sunset, G scoped out a good place away from predators and bandits that covered their heads and there they settled for the night. Since the sun had disappeared over the horizon and only darkness enveloped them, Giotto and G talked about any number of topics before they drifted to sleep.
Despite the long and repetitive days, Giotto could not be any happier. G was one of the best friends he ever had, never mind the only friend he ever had, and he was always looking out for him and always making him smile and laugh. Giotto did what he could to return the favor, but he rarely had the opportunity. At best, he made G smile, and Giotto decided that for now, that was good enough, because G did not seem the type to laugh anyway.
One day while walking down a dirt road with wooden fences lining either side, Giotto caught sight of a lone little boy with big, lime green hair kicking around a bright red ball in the middle of the road. He dressed like G used to, before the Medici, but Giotto knew better now: that did not mean that this boy was a prince or nobility. But somehow, he had the feeling that he was no mafia son, either.
The little boy took notice of them immediately, and a wicked and proud grin spread across his face.
"Aha!" he shouted. "Minions come to play with Lord Lampo! Play with me, minions!"
"What the hell," G muttered, taking his eyes off of the bullet in his hand and scowling at the little boy.
When the two stopped walking and only stared at the little boy, the little boy placed his hands on his hips and scrunched his face into a pout.
"You're not playing with me! I, the amazing Lord Lampo, order you to come kick this ball with me!"
Giotto glanced at G, looking for an answer. G shook his head.
"We have no time for this, you little brat," G spat at the boy. "Get out of our way."
"No!" the little boy yelled. "Lord Lampo wants to play with you, so play with Lord Lampo!"
"Quit referring to yourself as 'Lord Lampo'!"
Giotto had never seen G lose his temper quite so easily before, but unlike the past few times, Giotto did not cower or have the need to build up the courage he did not think he had. This time, he had to keep from laughing. The little boy was harmless; what was G getting riled up for?
"That's probably his name, G," said Giotto, grinning.
G looked exasperated as he turned back to Giotto. "That's the most ridiculous name I ever heard."
The little boy cackled. "Yes, I am Lord Lampo, the most powerful and amazing lord of the lands that has ever existed! Hey, kid, you seem smart, so you can just call me Lampo! Now I order you to tell me your name!"
"You little—!"
Giotto cut in, "My name is Giotto, and this is G. Lampo, was it?"
Lampo made a face. "G? That's not a name! That's a letter! What a dumb name! Because you have such a dumb name, you have to call me Lord Lampo!"
"You're one to talk!" G exclaimed. "Giotto, let's just get out of here. We've wasted enough time, and I want to get as far away from this brat as possible before sunset."
"No!" Lampo yelled. "You haven't played with Lord Lampo yet and Lord Lampo demands that you do! Only then will Lord Lampo allow you to pass!"
"And what do you think you can do about it?" G snapped. "We're both much, much bigger than you, and there are two of us!"
"Lord Lampo is amazing and can defeat both of you with his hands tied behind his back!"
"Oh, yeah? Prove it!"
Giotto cringed. He did not like where this was going; he never wanted to become like the older children back home. He pulled at G's sleeve and said quietly so Lampo could not hear, "I don't think we should bully Lampo out of the way just because we're bigger than him."
"But he's starting it!"
"G," Giotto pleaded.
G scowled and crossed his arms.
"Fine, fine," he conceded, and then he turned to Lampo. "You're lucky that my brother is feeling generous today. We'll just go."
Lampo laughed again. "I knew it! You're afraid of the great and amazing Lord Lampo! But since you surrendered, you have to do everything I, Lord Lampo, tell you to do!"
"That's not how this works, you brat! And no one surrendered!"
Giotto sighed as the two continue to bicker. The sun already started dropping towards the horizon, and at this rate, they would not make any more progress by sunset. But, Giotto wondered, maybe they were fairly close to a village or a town by now. Lampo came from a rich family, that much was clear, and rich families never lived too far away from more people. Maybe Lampo knew where to go, but he knew they would get nowhere with G antagonizing the boy at every turn.
"Okay, Lampo," said Giotto. "You got us. We surrender. What do you want us to do?"
"Giotto!" G exclaimed. Giotto only smiled at him, silently asking him to trust him. It was his turn to do something useful. G gave him a helpless look but said nothing more.
"That's what I thought!" said Lampo proudly. "First things first, you, too, Giotto, shall call me Lord Lampo, having surrendered to my greatness! Next, the idiot with a name that's not really a name, I want you to do a trick with my ball! Make it a good trick, or you will be my slave forever!" And he cackled yet again.
G glared at Giotto, and Giotto only offered an apologetic look and a small, "Please?"
G rolled his eyes and dropped his shoulders.
"Okay, fine, let's just get this over with," he grumbled as he approached Lampo.
Before G could get within arm's reach of the little boy, Lampo tucked the ball into his chest, ducked under the wooden fence, and ran through the trees lining the road.
"I changed my mind!" he called behind him. "You have to catch me first!"
For a moment, Giotto thought that G would let Lampo go so that they could continue down the road. Which would have been fine, since Giotto was sure they would run into a nearby town fairly soon anyway. But then G cried out in anger and frustration and perhaps a little embarrassment and hopped the fence, chasing after the little boy.
"Get back here!"
Giotto felt his jaw dropped as he tried to make sense of G's actions. Was this not kind of what he wanted, for Lampo to do something to let them get past him in peace? But though G dropped the bag of food when he bolted after Lampo, he still had half the money and the bullets and the Medici Family could still be after them, and while Giotto did not think that G could easily get lost, Giotto knew he had to at least follow him. So he picked up the bag of food and awkwardly ambled over to the fence, struggling to get himself and the bag over or through the fence.
As soon as he made it over to the other side, Giotto worried that he had taken just long enough that he had lost G. Then he heard the playful shouts of the little boy and G's angry slur of unpleasant words not too far away, and Giotto made his way to the source of the noise.
When he finally caught sight of G and Lampo, G was still chasing Lampo around a small clearing with a mansion just smaller than the Guinizelli's down a long, shallow hill. That must be Lampo's house, Giotto realized as G tripped over a rock and tumbled to the ground. Lampo barely noticed and kept running and laughing, paying absolutely no attention to where he was going. Finally, he ran right in front of Giotto, and as he passed, Giotto grabbed the red ball from his hands.
Lampo stopped when he realized that his hands were now empty. He turned, and upon seeing Giotto holding his ball, grinned.
"You have outsmarted me!" he exclaimed. "Okay, you don't have to call me Lord Lampo anymore, Giotto!"
Giotto smiled. "I'm glad, Lampo. Now, I was wondering if you could tell me something—"
Before Giotto could finish, Lampo ran off with a giant, bright smile on his face, more childlike and innocent than the ones he flashed at Giotto and G. Giotto followed Lampo's trail with his eyes, and he saw the boy run up to a tall and skinny man in elegant clothes, with long, shaggy dark green hair and kind eyes, picking up Lampo with a jovial laugh.
"Papa!" cried Lampo.
As G trudged next to Giotto, Giotto gaped, wondering what to do next. Maybe Lampo's father could help them out instead, true, but Giotto never met a nobleman out of the blue before. To be fair, G was the only person who came close to fitting the description, but that only made things worse.
"I am going to kill that little brat," G hissed. Giotto looked at him and saw that his fall had not left him unmarked; he had green grass stains and specks of dirt and mud all over his face and shirt. "What was the purpose of humoring him again?"
Giotto opened his mouth to apologize and to answer, but Lampo's father approached them with a grin and Lampo in his arms.
"So you're my boy's new friends, are you? My name is Lord Piero, but please, no formalities are necessary."
"Nice to meet you," said Giotto, but G just scoffed next to him. "I'm Giotto, and this is my, er, brother—" He was still trying to get used to lying. "—G."
"Hey, Papa," said Lampo, "they're staying the night tonight."
"No, we are absolutely not. We never said anything of the sort," G quickly protested.
"You are my minions, and so you're staying the night tonight."
Lord Piero's face was unreadable, which made Giotto uncomfortable enough to step in.
"Um, actually, if you could tell us how to get to the nearest town, we would really appreciate it. See, uh, we're on a trip to see our grandmother…"
Before he could finish the story G often recited to cart drivers, Lord Piero finally smiled again.
"The next town is a half a day away on foot. Why don't you stay the night tonight, and I can have one of my carriages take you to the town first thing in the morning?"
Giotto balked. "No, that's fine, really. We can just walk."
"Yeah," said G. "We're fine. We can take care of ourselves. We have so far. We even have our own food and some money. So we can just go now. We won't impose."
Giotto was surprised that G admitted all of that. Usually he would try to trick people into giving them free food or coin, but Giotto had a feeling that G just did not want to deal with Lampo anymore.
"Nonsense!" Lord Piero exclaimed. "My poor boy can't seem to make friends easily—"
"Gee, I wonder why," G muttered under his breath. Giotto gave him a look.
"—so if he wants you to stay the night, then you shall stay the night! Besides, I can't leave two boys to fend for themselves when I can offer them at least a roof over their heads and warm meals in their bellies. Please, it'll be no trouble at all."
Giotto and G exchanged glances. G shook his head, but Giotto remembered that the past couple of nights had been rainy nights, and though they kept themselves and their food mostly dry, a roof sounded like a good idea if tonight shaped up to rain again. And Giotto, quite frankly, was getting sick of the same old food every day. Besides, they never turned down anyone's kindness before. Just because Lampo was annoying, they had no reason to start now. So, Giotto nodded, ignoring G's exasperated sighs.
"We'd love to, thank you," he said.
They immediately went to the house at the bottom of the hill, Lampo babbling incessantly along the way. Lord Piero eagerly listened to every word he said, only laughing whenever Lampo said anything negative about Giotto or G. Giotto was pleased that Lord Piero reacted that way; while he knew that G would have been more than okay with Lord Piero changing his mind about his hospitality and turning the boys back to the street, Giotto found himself looking forward to a warm bed and a hot meal. Was it truly that Lampo never had anyone else to play with that Lord Piero cared not for their unwillingness to deal with him?
Giotto realized that he felt sorry for Lampo. He knew what it was like only having himself to play with, and it was a lonely existence. Giotto had a feeling that G was not unfamiliar with it, either, being the only child of a mafia family.
As they entered the extravagant foyer of the mansion, maids and servants rushed to greet Lord Piero and Lampo, a handful of them immediately tending to Lampo's every need and desire. Before Giotto knew it, Lampo was carried off by the servants, and his never-ending stream of commands faded into the rest of the house.
"These are our guests for tonight," Lord Piero told a maid who looked a lot like Auntie. "Please make up their rooms so that they'll be as comfortable as possible."
"Yes, my lord," said the maid.
She approached Giotto and reached for the bag of food that G had still forgotten about, only for G to suddenly remember as he stepped in between them.
"No," he said. "These are ours. We earned them. You can't use them for cooking dinner tonight, or to have for yourself, or to replace with 'better' food."
"G," Giotto hissed, but G ignored him.
The maid stared blankly at G for a moment, and then she turned to Lord Piero. "My lord?"
Lord Piero laughed.
"Oh, let them hold on to it, if it makes them feel better," he said. "Now, go and fix up their rooms. I'll give them a tour of the mansion in the meantime, and then I'll let them play with Lampo after dinner."
She nodded and scurried off, and G leaned towards Giotto. "Alright, here's the plan. After dinner, we get the hell out of here."
"That's the plan?" Giotto whispered back incredulously. "I'm sure playing with Lampo will be fine, G."
G scowled, but Lord Piero gently pushed the boys towards a long hallway to the side of the foyer and excitedly began talking about how wonderful it was to have guests again, and how much they would love the many, many treasures he and his father and his father's father have gathered over the years, and how lovely it was that Lampo finally had friends, even if it was only for today since they had to leave tomorrow.
Giotto and G remained quiet during the tour as they walked past paintings and weird statues and other random little trinkets that Lord Piero would often linger on, telling them stories of wars long past and of kings of countries now long gone. Giotto recognized some of the stories as ones that Grandpa used to tell, and others were new to him. He listened to every word Lord Piero said eagerly, but even though G did not speak, Giotto had the distinct feeling but the distant look on his face that G was not paying attention.
An hour or two later, after they explored what had to be nearly every hallway of the house upstairs and downstairs and most of the rooms, Lord Piero led them to the biggest room yet. The room had a shiny, wooden and long table stretched along the center of the room with big, red chairs lining either side. The walls were covered with more paintings, and a couple of the weird statues lurked in the corners. Maids and servants hurried to and fro through the door on the other side, carrying plates of food that made Giotto's belly rumble.
Lampo sat at one end of the table, bossing around the maids and servants who heeded his every order. Lord Piero paid no mind to his son's behavior and directed Giotto and G to the seats next to Lampo before taking his own on the other side.
Once Lord Piero was out of earshot, G turned to Giotto and said, "It's official. This place is hell."
"It's not that bad—"
"Hell, Giotto. Hell." He waited for a maid to finish placing a plate of steaming carrots on the table, and then continued. "We have to entertain his sorry excuse of a son not only here at dinner but all night long, the man himself is insufferable, the maids and the servants are probably going to rob us, and everything in this house is pure junk."
"Really? I thought he had a lot of amazing things," said Giotto. "Like that statue from, where was it? Rome? The big man with the huge beard and the thunderbolt in his hand?"
"Jupiter," said G, "and it's junk. It didn't even come from Rome, I don't think. It looks too new. So, junk. Just like that cloak he had on display in his office. It looks pretty, but the jewels are too obviously fake. Junk."
Giotto frowned. He did not want to bring this up again, but G needed to quiet down before Lord Piero overheard him.
"But, G, didn't you say that once about the bullets?"
"But they were obviously made out of a special type of metal. I only called them useless, not junk. Even before knowing what they could do, I knew it was worth a lot of money."
"But you were still wrong about them."
"I…" said G, and then he sighed. "Fine, I get it. I still don't think that this family is going to last another fifty years or so."
He glanced at Lampo, who had already started digging into the food without waiting for the last plate to be served and continued to shout orders and nonsensical things.
"Make that twenty, or however long it takes for his father to kick the bucket."
That was the last of the openly rude things G said for the rest of the night. Lampo lost interest in playing with either of the boys after dinner, and Lord Piero apologized and instead showed them to their rooms. Giotto's room was bigger than the whole of the little house Grandpa bought for Grandmama and the bed softer and with more pillows than he ever thought a single person could ever need. The maids even made sure to leave him the whitest and silkiest nightclothes at the foot of his bed, and Giotto enjoyed the feel of them on his skin. No sooner had he dressed, a maid swooped in and took his dirty old clothes and left him with a tray of desserts and drinks in its place.
Giotto grinned as he dug into the cake left behind, the sweet crumbs in his mouth bringing a smile to his face. And G wanted to turn down Lord Piero's offer! Though Lampo was annoying, at least for this one night, they could live like royalty.
G came into his room after the maids had taken the desserts away, every last crumb in Giotto's belly, with his journal and a bullet and Giotto was certain his gun, too. As they sat on Giotto's bed, G talked more about his theories regarding the bullets, and Giotto nodded along. It was just like if they were sitting underneath a tree or in a small cave, just with fancier and cleaner clothes and with a much softer bed than the dirt. And just like usual, both were quickly fast asleep.
Unlike usual, however, Giotto did not rise from the sun's rays hitting his face or G nudging him awake. A loud crash and a little boy's wailing from the other side of the wall woke him, and he sat up, rubbing his eyes and taking a moment to remember that he was in a fancy mansion. More screams and wailing came from the other room, and Giotto remembered that Lord Piero told him that their rooms would be right next to Lampo's just in case the boy changed his mind.
"Great, that brat can't even let us have a good night's rest, can he?" G mumbled as he groggily sat up. "Can I go kill him now?"
A loud, dull thud resounded, and Giotto cringed.
"Um, maybe something's wrong," he said.
"Yeah. He woke us up. That's what's wrong."
"Listen, G. Something about what's going on in there doesn't sound right."
Both of them listened for a short moment, hearing only more wailing and screaming from Lampo and then they heard a couple of male voices that definitely did not belong to Lord Piero.
"Maybe someone's trying to beat me to it," G growled. Giotto hopped off the bed and headed for the hallway. "Wait, where are you going?"
"I'm just going to make sure he's okay," said Giotto as he pushed open the door. He left into the hallway, G's protests following him.
"And what if he's not? Giotto, it's not safe. Come back here! That's what his servants are for! Damn it."
Giotto reached the door to Lampo's room, and with G right next to him now, he slowly opened the door and peered inside. In the middle of the room, three big, black-suited men struggled to put a piece of cloth into Lampo's mouth, but Lampo kept spitting it out and only screamed louder. Another man held a bag big enough to fit Lampo. His dresser and nightstand had toppled over, and a huge hole was in the glass of his window.
The men, too preoccupied with Lampo, did not notice the door open, so Giotto knew that they were safe for now. G pulled Giotto away from the door so that the kidnappers could not see and swore.
"I was only joking!" he exclaimed in a harsh whisper. "What do we do? Should we get Piero?"
Giotto shook his head. "I don't know. Probably. But would it be too late?"
That was when Lord Piero came running down the hall, a candle in his hand and a funny-looking nightcap on his head.
"What is it? What's going on? I thought I heard Lampo screaming."
"I, er, well—" Giotto started, and then he nodded towards the door. "There are bad men in there—"
Lord Piero did not need more of an explanation than that. He threw the door open, and, upon seeing the sight of the men manhandling his son, yelled, "Unhand him, you bastards!"
The men in black froze, and Lampo stopped wailing and stared at his father blankly. Giotto sighed with relief. Maybe the kidnappers would be scared off, he thought. But not another moment passed before the man holding the bag pulled out a gun and aimed it at Lord Piero.
"We were hoping it wouldn't come to this, Piero," the man snarled. "But it looks like we have no choice but to kill both you and your son, now."
Lord Piero's face turned white. "Wait… wait! Why are you doing this? What do you want?"
"We wanted you to step down as lord of the land," said the man. "We were hoping to kidnap your son and hold him for ransom to get you to concede, but it looks like death is how we'll get you to resign."
"G," said Giotto quickly. "Shoot me with those bullets."
"Wait, what?"
"Shoot me with one of those bullets, G," said Giotto again. "Hurry. We don't have much time."
G hesitated, and Giotto almost started yelling, until he answered, "I… I don't think these bullets work like that."
"What?"
"Something you said last time you were hit by them… I don't think it works the way you think it does."
"We won't know unless we try, right? So shoot me!"
"But you might die!"
There was a click of a gun that was not G's, and the two boys snapped their attention back to the kidnappers. The man had a fiercely determined look in his eye, and he spat as he said, "You die now, you son of a bitch. You die and so does your son and these other little boys you have at your feet. Your nephews? Never mind, you'll just lie to save them because they are your heirs, too, somehow. So die."
"No!" Lampo screamed, and he pulled a chain around his neck out from under his shirt and stuck his finger through a ring attached to it. "No! You leave Papa and my new friends alone!"
As he yelled the last word, a flash of green lit up the room as spikes radiated from the ring. Soon, the spikes jetted out and away from Lampo in all directions, hitting all four kidnappers and any object in the room. Lord Piero yelped before the green lightning reached him, hopping to the safety of the hallway where Giotto and G stood. The three of them gaped as the kidnappers screamed from the electric shock before falling unconscious and smoking to the ground.
The green spikes receded, and Lampo, now on the ground, sniffed and said under his breath, "Leave Papa and my new friends alone."
He, too, fell to the ground unconscious, and Lord Piero quickly ran to him and called out for one of his servants to grab a doctor.
G turned to Giotto wide-eyed and said, "Well. I was not expecting that."
Giotto and G, having not been able to get back to sleep after the servants helped Lord Piero make sure Lampo had not suffered any real damage from the attack, had to be helped into the carriages that Lord Piero arranged for them to take to town. He handed them an extra bag of food and a small bag of coins to help them on their journey, on top of a new set of clothes because their old ones just could not be cleaned well enough.
"Thank you," said Giotto. G, grumpy from the lack of sleep, said nothing.
"And I have something else to give you," Lord Piero said, waving a servant over. The servant carried what looked to be another bundle of clothes. "This is my appreciation, for helping my son yesterday."
"Helping?" Giotto asked. "You mean last night?"
That was when G spoke up. "We didn't actually do anything."
Lord Piero only responded by handing the bundle to Giotto. "You are a true friend to Lampo, and because of that, I wanted to give you some of my treasures. One is to help when the winter comes, in case you don't get to your grandmother's in time. The other, well, the other is a companion to Lampo's ring."
Giotto gaped as he noticed that on top of the bundle laid a ring, a sky blue jewel in the center and with a rainbow of colors on its border. It was shiny enough that even G leaned forward to examine it.
"Not junk," he cooed. "Lampo has one like it?"
"His is a little different, and green," said Lord Pielo. "A peddler sold them to me for a decent sum of money, and I would have passed them up had something not… called me to them. I had no idea what it could actually do. I'm holding on to Lampo's, for now, but I have a feeling that it's time that I pass that one onto you."
G fingered through the clothes beneath it.
"Hey, this is the cloak from your study," he said. He frowned. "You're just giving this to us? Isn't it worth a lot of money?" He mouthed to Giotto, "This probably isn't junk, either."
"Money is no object when it comes to my son," said Lord Piero. "There's another one beneath it, which is Lampo's, which cost me a fortune more than the other one, but they'll keep you warm. And who knows? Maybe you'll unlock the secrets with them."
Giotto mustered up the best smile he could.
"Thank you," he said. "Thank you very much. This is… this is too much, but thank you."
"No, no, I'm the one who should be thanking you," said Lord Piero with a grin. "You're welcome to my estate anytime. I do hope you come by when and if you make your trip home from your grandmother's. Lampo would love to see you again, and I would love to see if you can make anything similar happen with the ring I just gave you."
Giotto nodded. "Thank you, and we'll try to come by again," he said, and G snorted beside him.
The carriage drove off, and Giotto put on the ring Lord Piero had given him and smiled.