It seemed that when Ricky joined the group, James was the one least pleased with it.
James was a practical man, and he seemed to be the only real voice of reason in the group of the men. He had been the one that was the most disapproving of the Commander inviting Richard to travel with them. James seemed more than uneasy about the boy's presence, and always kept an eye on him at all times. Honestly, he was the only one that seemed to know Ricky would end up being trouble.
Ricky was still pretty cold towards the group, and it was obvious he was trying his hardest to remain distant. James kept silent about this, as he knew that Crash and the Commander probably weren't keen enough to pick up on it. This forced coldness was enough to make the blacksmith wonder about this new addition to the group. Most of the boys actions raised lots of questions, like why did he seem so freaked to pass near anything that looked like nobles were involved? And why did he WANT to keep away from everyone when he so obviously didn't want to.
The biggest question he had, was what had happened to the boy's arms. James wondered if he had been injured, or if the bandages were just there. This kid raised a lot more questions than answers, and the man was bothered by it.
James liked to consider himself a scholar, a man who liked to know most everything. He was the one everyone turned to when they needed answers; and he liked it that way. So, having someone like Ricky who he just couldn't figure out, was more than unpleasant.
"Jimmy, buddy, don't worry about it. The kid will come around soon." The Commander had reassured him one night after Ricky had gone to bed.
James made an displeased face, turning his head over to the Commander on the other side of the dim fire. Crash was usually the first to fall asleep, and Richard was always soon to follow shortly after. James and the Commander knew that this was practically the only time the two of them could talk, so that's what they did. This however wasn't always the case, as the Commander was a childish man and sometimes would be the first to go to bed and wouldn't hesitate to complain if someone so much as breathed above the volume of a whisper.
"Yes, but" His eyes flickered over to the sleeping boy only a few feet away. "when?"
"It'll be fine." Following James' gaze the Commander laughed, just loud enough to warrant a 'sh' from the other man. "Don't worry about it."
James grumbled, laying down. "I hope so."
It was hard dealing with Ricky most days, he was an angry and rash child. James had practically taken up job of trying to 'parent' him, but nothing seemed to work.
No matter how many times he scolded Richard, nothing worked. It always ended with James being infuriated and Ricky just kind of giggling to himself.
"YOU KNOW," James practically screeched one day after Ricky had taken another thing from one of their bags, something that was practically a daily occurrence at this point. "I AM SO SICK OF THE WAY YOU ACT."
"Oh?" Ricky sneered back, the short boy standing up from where he had been lounging on the ground. Crash had practically run from the scene when he saw how mad James was, and the Commander was standing back and watching the scene unfold rather uncomfortably. "What are you going to do? Lecture me?"
Suddenly, James was right in front of Ricky. No one even had time to comprehend what had happened in between him getting there, and the loud noise of an obvious smack.
There was complete stunned silence from all three of them, Ricky holding his face in obvious shock and hurt as he looked up at the quickly calming down James.
"I-" The blacksmith suddenly choked out, realizing what he had done and all rage deflating from him immediately. He raised an arm, and Richard backed up like a startled animal. His eyes were wide, hand still plastered to his cheek where he had been slapped.
James could barely take a step forward before the boy shot off like a bullet, running away as fast as possible and disappearing into the nearby wood in only a moments time. James, obviously still in shock and regret, turned his head over to the Commander and just stared at him with a slack jaw.
"R-Richard!" The Commander called out after the boy, but he was already long gone.
They both stood there silently. The mustached man just looked over to James and shook his head, causing the latter to look down at the dirt in complete shame because of how he had acted.
Crash dashed up moments later, panting and leaning on his knees for support as he came to a stop. "What'd I miss?"
They hadn't told Crash what had happened until they had already been searching for about thirty minutes. James was obviously still quietly beating himself up for the mistake, and Commander was feeling a little uncomfortable about having to say what happened.
"Oh man..." Crash mumbled after everything had been retold to him, glancing over to James with a pained expression on his face.
"It was an accident." The blacksmith mumbled quietly, frowning deeply at himself for letting that happen. James had always liked to think he was a bit more...in control of his emotions than the other two, and while that was still true it was evident he didn't have as much control as he would have liked to think. Before now Crash had always been the one to lose his temper and do rash things, and it was a little more than uncomfortable and strange to see the same thing happen to their always level-headed James.
"Maybe...this was a mistake." Crash said quietly, looking over to the Commander.
"Wh-" The man in front stopped, turning on his heels quickly and faced the other two men as they nearly ran into him. "We're the Aquabats. We help people in need, and if that kid isn't in need; I don't know who is."
They all stood there, just looking at the Commander's stern face. That was that conversation, he obviously had his mind set on keeping the boy around.
"I agree." James interjected suddenly as everyone looked about ready to move. "If anyone can help him it'd be us."
The Commander smiled wide, throwing an arm around the man who had just spoke."There you go, Jimmy baby!"
"Please don't call me that."
And with that, the kept moving. Even as the sun began to set they continued looking and calling out for Richard. As it got darker and darker a terrible gnawing feeling at the back of his throat saying they'd never be able to find him; the boy was much faster than any of them were and he was also incredibly sneaky. If Richard didn't want to be found they would most certainly never find him.
It had been hours wasted trudging through the woods with no real success, and everyone was getting tired. The Commander continued to try and encourage everyone, but it was fairly obvious that even he was getting exhausted. No one really wanted to give up, yet they all knew that they couldn't keep this up and were going to have to.
Defeated and spirits low, the three men traveled back to the place they had set up camp. A quiet air of uncomfortable and unpleasant depression seemed to loom over their heads as they realized that this meant they would probably not see Richard again. James quietly stared at the ground above his shoes, knowing full well that it was all his fault that any of this had happened in the first place.
The trip back was filled with silence as they all came to terms with the fact they had practically just given up on finding Ricky. Even if Crash had acted like it wasn't a smart idea they kept the boy around, even he felt saddened that the possibility they wouldn't see him again loomed over his head.
The Commander however, seemed to be the most upset. Not only had he been the one to say that, hey he should hang with us, he was also the only one so far Richard had KIND OF warmed up to (that meaning when they walked he stood closest to the mustached man and liked being near his side rather than anyone else's).
Maybe that's why when Crash looked up and said "THERE HE IS" the Commander was the first one who's head shot up to look in record time.
"Richard!" The (fake) mustached man called as he realized that, yeah, there the boy was; poking at a fire with obvious disinterest.
Just as it had happened before, no one really had time to react to James breaking into a sprint and running towards the boy. However, at least this time around there was no slapping.
It took Richard's brain a few seconds to comprehend what was happening. He sat there in shock as he realized that James was...hugging him? And was he...crying?
"I'm so sorry." The man repeated over and over, into Ricky's shoulder as he rocked them both back and forth. Crash and the Commander seemed about as shocked and confused as the rogue was at this display, both men standing there with a slack jaw as they quietly looked over at one another from time to time.
"Okay." Richard grunted, scrunching up his nose and beginning to push at the larger man's chest trying to peel him off. "Okay. You can stop."
James continued holding him for about thirty seconds longer than was necessary, then he finally let go.
"I'll never do something like that again, I lost my temper. I'm so sorry." The man gushed out before grabbing Richard for a second time.
Crash and the Commander exchanged looks with each other, still not having moved since James had grabbed the boy. They were both snickering quietly behind their hands.
No matter how many times Richard pleaded with the other two to help him, or asked James to get off, the man seemed to stay more firmly attached to him than a leach.
It would be easy to lie and say that since then, Richard and James had begun to see more...eye to eye. That, however, was as far from the truth as possible. If anything Ricky seemed a little bit more wary of the blacksmith afterwards, and kept even more distance. James didn't acknowledge this and continued on as normal, not feeling the one sided tension from the boy.
Normally James would be incredibly perceptive to other's emotions, but for some reason he never seemed to detect almost anything that Richard felt. It was okay, not like the rogue had opened up to any of them enough for them to outright tell when something was wrong with him (he always seemed pretty fussy and upset as far as they could tell). They just kind of always assumed the boy was fine, because that's all they really could do. Even if Ricky had been traveling with them for roughly a month or two, they didn't know much about him. All they really knew was his name and that he had been a thief.
None of them could have guessed what had happened to him before he had joined them. So, one night while everyone else seemed to be sleeping, James was surprised to wake up to the sound of...someone crying?
The blacksmith moved to a sitting position. He squinted a moment and tried to adjust to the darkness to find out exactly what was going on, but to no avail. It was pretty obvious the noise was coming from Richard; and it was also pretty obvious that the noise was a sob. But why would the normally hard-shelled rogue be up so late crying?
"Richard?" James tried calling, surprised to find the noise came to a very sudden and abrupt stop, followed by quiet sounds of Ricky rubbing his face.
"What?" Came the pretty obviously disgruntled reply. "Shouldn't you be sleeping?"
"Shouldn't you?" James responded with no hesitation. Ricky scrunched up his nose, invisible to anyone else in the night. He knew the man was sassy; so he probably should have seen something like that coming.
"Yeah." The boy muttered to himself, pulling his legs closer to his chest and looking at the ground. "Can't sleep..." He said just a little bit louder.
James was curious if the boy was alright, but he knew better than to go near him and find out. Richard was a bit like a cat, fickle and usually not happy to have someone initiate contact with him.
There was a pause, the only noise was the quiet sniffles Ricky was trying to hide.
"...Are you okay?" James finally asked, just staring in the area the sound seemed to be coming from. His eyes still hadn't entirely adjusted to the dark forest yet, but they were slowly getting there. Very slowly.
Ricky paused, stopping what he was doing rather abruptly, and made a strange face. It felt...weird having James show any concern for him. The man had done it before, a lot actually, but it still felt weird. Richard had tried distancing himself from the three men as much as possible, but it was pretty obvious they weren't trying to do the same. The boy just kind of wasn't used tot this level of concern, things had honestly been pretty different back in the desert he used to call home. Maybe that difference had something to do with the fact that since they didn't all sleep in the same place they never heard him upset. Then again, he wasn't upset very often back then either... it was kind of weird how things changed.
"I'm fine." Came his response after a much too long silence to seem convincing. Plus the response came out a bit more...bitter than he had initially intended.
James didn't respond, and just raised an eyebrow. The Commander always insisted that he give Richard space, and not to pry when the boy didn't want to talk. He wondered if the rule still applied now. Deciding against saying anything else in fear of bothering the boy any further, James just held his tongue and carefully moved back to lay down once more.
"Alright. Goodnight." He said as he closed his eyes, never hearing anything come back from the boy a few feet away from him.
It took about five minutes for the sounds of quieter sobs to start back up, and though James wanted to help the other he didn't dare speak up and eventually just fell into an uneasy sleep.
The next morning, James chose to never bring the incident up or act like it had even happened. Ricky was quietly very thankful about that since he was more than well aware James knew about what had happened.
While they were walking Richard slowed down enough to walk side by side with the blacksmith, something he rarely ever did.
"Thanks..." The rogue said uncomfortably after being by his side for a while in silence. James just looked down at him and smiled softly.
"Anytime." The man said, and Ricky couldn't help but smile back just a bit as well.
It seemed after that night Richard was just a little more trusting of the blacksmith, and no longer avoided him at all costs. It wasn't like they were best friends or anything, everything was just a little more...comfortable. Richard still preferred staying by the Commander more though.
Most of the trips through towns were rather uneventful, they'd go in, buy things, maybe talk to a handful of people and then leave. It was a pretty common thing, they did it often enough and nothing fantastic usually happened. Most the time everyone didn't even go; James seemed to venture into many of the towns by himself. Crash had a bad habit of spending money on things they didn't need, and the Commander was guilty of the same thing. Richard just never showed much interest in it; but they probably wouldn't trust him to go in alone anyway.
So, when he did show interest one day, James signed himself up for going as well.
"I'm not a kid you know..." Richard grumbled.
"Yes you are." The blacksmith replied simply to him, not even bothering to look at the scowl that had formed on the boy's face.
"I don't need a babysitter."
"I'm not being a babysitter, I'm just making sure you don't forget anything. Or buy things we don't need. I do this for the other two as well, don't worry."
Recognizing his defeat, Ricky just sighed quietly. He could deal with this, it wasn't that big of a deal. Besides, he could probably use the help. He would never admit it but he honestly didn't know what the heck he was supposed to be getting from town anyway; he just wanted a change of scenery.
The inside of the town wasn't very crowded, a few carts here and there and a handful of people looking at each table of goods with interest. Ricky was a bit in awe at the scene, he had seen towns before but being a thief that only dealt with the rich he just wasn't used to seeing markets and things. Plus he had never had the pleasure of buying things from one. Or buying almost anything. The High Five Fingers never really dealt with the more 'legal' ways of obtaining goods.
"We don't have much money," James began, looking around at all the tables and people trying to get others to buy their things.
"Can I buy something?" Richard asked the man, looking up at him with awed eyes.
"I- Well...if it's something we need I suppose." James smiled a bit when he realized just how EXCITED Ricky seemed about that idea of paying money for something. It was a weird childish reaction, like the first time a kid ever got a hold of their own money and could spend it on anything they want. Except it wasn't exactly his and he couldn't buy anything he wanted, the excitement was still there.
Ricky held up his bandaged hand with a little bounce, looking up at the blacksmith with the biggest smile the man had ever seen on him. Who knew making this kid happy could be as simple as saying 'go buy that tomato over there'.
By the end of the trip Richard was still bouncing and smiling like a giddy child, and James was surprised tto find they had just a little money leftover from what they had set aside for this trip. Even if the man knew he SHOULD take it back with them and put it back with the rest, he couldn't resist putting it in Ricky's hands and saying he could get whatever he wanted.
"Really?" The boy eye's lit up even more, a feat James had not thought possible considering how he looked before hand.
"Really." The man watched as Ricky dashed away with and incredible amount of speed, and was a bit surprised to find the place he stopped was a stall full of books. James didn't take Ricky for the reading type, heck he didn't even think Ricky COULD read.
The boy ran back, somehow even more excited than before, and held up his purchase. James found himself somehow more shocked to find that the thing the boy chose out of all of the things in the world, was a romance novel. The blacksmith just smiled to himself and shook his head.
As soon as they returned to the other men, Richard immediately dashed up to the Commander and Crash, showing off the book and rambling excitedly. The men exchanged a confused look, and glanced over to James as if asking what the heck was going on. None of them had seen the boy this happy and excited before, and it was kind of cute.
"What's it called?" Asked Crash looking at the cover picture curiously. The large man couldn't read, which was pretty common for everyone actually.
Ricky stopped bouncing, turning the book around and looking at the cover and scrunching up his nose. "Uhm..."
Everyone stopped, staring at the boy in silence. Ricky was obviously a bit disgruntled at this and his cheeks turned a shade of pink.
"I...uh...I can't read." He confessed, looking at the dirt under his feet. "I was...hoping one of you could read it for me." He looked up at the Commander with a guilty smile.
"Oh- kid I dunno..." The mustached man responded nervously, not sure how to respond to that. He knew how to read, and in most cases he'd probably be more than fine reading something to the boy, but the thought of reading some gushy love story was a little... unpleasant.
Noticing the slight falter of the smile on Ricky's face, the Commander tried smiling but just made a strange grimace face. "I guess I could...try?"
The boy began bouncing once more almost immediately.
The Commander tried his best to read to Ricky, he really did, but after about twenty pages he realized he really couldn't handle reading something like this out loud, and got pretty embarrassed and flustered rather quickly. After hitting page twenty-three he honestly couldn't deal with all the romance stuff, and had asked James to take up the duty instead.
Ricky didn't complain much about it, he was still hearing the story so why would it matter who read it?
Unlike the Commander, James had no problem reading something like this. It was a little embarrassing, sure, but he could handle it. Well, okay, maybe he was kind of flustered by it too, but Ricky seemed so entranced in the story. It was a standard love story about a pirate who fell in love with some girl or something, and they did stuff and things so they could be together. It wasn't James' cup of tea, and it was a little weird, but he wasn't going to just not read it to him when he was pretty into it.
Actually, Ricky's interest in books was a good thing. James' loved passing on knowledge, and what better a chance to do so then to teach Richard how to read? Plus, at least if the boy could read he wouldn't need to have anyone else deal with reading these types of books out loud.
So, without any real need for convincing, Richard eagerly agreed to learn how to read. James told him it was going to be a long and probably frustrating journey, but Ricky insisted that he was a fast learner and that he could probably master reading in no time.
That, however, was pretty far from the truth. Just as James had predicted, teaching the boy to read was a bit more complicated than it sounded. For one, the boy was still frustrated pretty easily. And not to mention learning to read was always a little bit harder the older one got. It seemed that this was going to take a lot more time than reading the book to him would take.
Getting money travelling as a group of minstrels wasn't easy, and a lot of the time the group barely had enough money for a lot of things. On the bright side, since they were technically vigilantes, they did sometimes get gifts and free food after helping people. It was never a whole lot, but it was always nice.
The money issue was only kind of a problem before Ricky had joined as the fourth member. More people meant more food, more food meant even less money than before. The first month of the boy in the troupe was filled with him insisting he was an amazing thief; but they never really listened to him. It was hard to accept that the kid they had met from a failed robbery was really as good as he claimed.
But, eventually they realized that they were probably going to have to trust him as they quickly realized just how little money they had at this point. James cursed to himself silently for giving Richard the money for all the new books they had ended up buying, but he knew that either way this problem would happen.
They were nervous the first time they told the boy he could go steal, but Ricky seemed more than confident in his own abilities.
"Don't worry, those rich people never even realize they're missing things they have so much." He tried soothing their concerns with a large grin. It had been a little over 3 months since Richard had joined them, and though he was still pretty fickle and distant at least when they did interact for an extended period of time it wasn't as forced as it used to be.
"Only rich people- got it?" James said sternly, just wanting to make sure the boy understood they wanted to HELP the poorer people, not ruin their lives even more.
"Yeah, I know." Ricky replied with an uninterested hand wave. James just made a thin line with his mouth, but didn't say anything.
"Alright, well." The Commander smiled at the youngest of the group. "You should get going, you don't want to walk around here in the dark do you?" Ricky just shook his head.
The three men waved as they watched the boy grab his daggers and sprint away, tattered scarf trailing in the wind behind him.
"Do you think he's really as good as he says?" James asked with obvious concern as he looked over to his companions.
The Commander looked over to the blacksmith and grinned, answering with a very confidant "Of course I do".
Both men looked at Crash who just shrugged. "Maybe."
They all turned back to the direction Richard had ran, and began to wait for his return.
This town was rather unfamiliar, but then again all towns were unfamiliar to Ricky now. They had traveled so much and been so many places in such a short time that Richard had just gotten used to not exactly knowing where they were. Even if this place was a complete mystery to him it wasn't very hard to find where all of the nobles and other rich people lived. The largest buildings and homes were obviously just what he was looking for, and it was pretty exciting he had reached them so fast too.
James had told him to just get some food, wood, and maybe metal if possible. Even thought he was rather rusty; it wouldn't be hard to get those things. Back when he still had the thieves this was pretty much a daily occurrence and it just became like a second nature to know how to get more than enough food to survive without getting caught.
He glanced down at the measly burlap sack Crash had handed him to put things in, and while it wouldn't hold much Richard was glad the large man had thought of it. He was probably going to be able to get a bigger bag or two while he was taking things, but that was still awful nice of the man to think of.
Richard ducked into a nearby bush, looking at a particularly huge house in front of him. It seemed to be the largest home in the whole area, and even though there was smoke rising from the smoke chimney the boy didn't hear any noises coming from inside. This caused Richard to smile as he thought of how easy this was probably going to be. He felt a rush of adrenaline, and it was almost as if he was back with the High Five Fingers. As if nothing had changed and this was just another day back then, just another trip to get food. That time seemed as though it had been so long ago, and not just a few short months back.
Hoping his skills were just as good as they had been back then, Richard carefully and quietly made his way to the closed door of the large building. There didn't seem to be anyone around, and the house was definitely silent as Ricky could actually hear the crackle of a fire come from inside.
Gently he pushed the wooden door open with a squeak, careful to pause and peer in before actually stepping inside. Just as he had thought, the whole place appeared to be empty. His grin grew as he stepped inside, pushing the door closed with his back as he looked around the strange room.
Whoever had this place definitely loved food, that was obvious from the strings of meat, vegetables, and dried fruit that were hanging from each wall. Curious, Ricky stepped forward and hesitantly grabbed a bulb of garlic in one hand. He inspected it, and realized that it was, indeed, just normal garlic. He scrunched up his noise in distaste as he let it go, wandering over to another hanging display of more food.
This whole room seemed weird, and Richard wondered if the rest of the house was anything like this. Deciding he would come back and grab something at a later time, he made his way through a doorway to his left.
The door lead into the room with the fire, the whole room warm and much too loud for Ricky's taste. This area was pretty similar to the other one, just with a bit less covering each wall. Whoever owned this place was probably huge, Ricky decided as he exited through a different door.
It was when he entered the next room he realized his awful mistake.
There, sitting in a chair and whittling a small piece of wood, was a large man with a large beard to match. The man looked up at the noise, and seemed almost as startled to see Ricky standing there as Ricky had been to see him sitting there.
"Hey-!" The man shouted as he stood up, knocking his chair over from how fast he moved, but he was still too slow. Richard had already dashed out of the room at full speed, ripping off a few strings of food from the wall as he ran out of the house. Ricky was hidden in the bushes safely by the time the man reached the doorway.
"Get back here! Thief!" The man's deep voice seemed to shake the ground with how loudly he yelled. "Someone come quick- I've been robbed!"
Richard didn't stay around long enough to find out if the man ever got the help he was calling for.
Luckily, the things Richard had grabbed were good enough to let him return earlier than planned. It wasn't a whole bunch, but it was enough to hold them for a while and also prove his worth as a thief. He strolled all the way back to the men with a certain sense of pride in each step.
"Ricky!" Crash shouted as he jumped up upon spotting the boy, and the other two did the same thing once they also realized the rogue had returned.
"It's not a bunch, I only went to one house..." Richard muttered as he handed the bag over to James, who just happily went through the dried foods.
"See?" The Commander smiled his goofy signature smile as he wrapped an arm around James and gently shook him a little. "I told you." The man turned his attention to Ricky with an even bigger smile. "Great job."
Crash grabbed the sack after James appeared to be done with it and just peered inside. "Cool..." He murmured as he pulled out one of the ropes and looked at the food on it.
"So," Richard was practically giddy at this point, infected with the excitement and joy from the others. "does that mean I can go back to stealing? Trust me, I can get us enough food!"
James looked from the boy worriedly over to the Commander and Crash, both men having already been looking at him with hopeful eyes. The blacksmith sighed, and looked at Ricky once more.
"Yeah, I guess you can..." They all stared as the boy practically jumped with joy. It was getting a little less rare to see him emote, but this was just wild.
"I promise I won't let you guys down, just you wait! Soon we'll eat like kings!"
Maybe 'kings' hadn't been the best way to describe the new amounts of food they had, but it was pretty damn luxurious.
The group continued to travel normally, but instead of having James shop they sent Richard to steal. It was a less costly improvement for sure, and now they had more money for...everything else.
However, their sense of 'normal' was about to change.
Richard was still pretty new to the group despite being with them for months. 'New' meant they still didn't know a whole lot about him, and he still didn't seem that open with everyone. Recently he seemed to hang around James more and more, but he still seemed closer to Crash and the Commander. Closer meaning he talked to them a bit more, since when around James the two just seemed to...sit quietly.
The blacksmith liked the rogue just fine, he just...didn't quite know how to talk to him was all. But that was fine with both of them apparently, it was like they had just formed a silent bond, though neither of them were quite sure how or why. It was a little weird to be quite honest, but it happened anyway and they accepted that.
They continued to spend most of the day traveling, just wandering aimlessly from town to town. Richard always quietly wondered where they were going and why, but he never vocalized the questions. He didn't need to know the answer, and besides he was pretty sure none of the men knew either. He wasn't complaining, it was fun. They did lots of weird things and met lots of equally weird people, and there never seemed to be a dull day with the troupe. This excitement had just become a part of his daily life and he loved it. But sometimes things got a little too weird.
They had been traveling down the same small forest path for hours now, and daylight was beginning to fade.
"Are we gonna stop soon?" Crash grumbled, looking down at his dirty feet with a cringey-pained expression.
"Yeah, yeah soon." The Commander said with a dismissive wave of his hand, obviously barely paying attention to the bigger man's complains.
James smiled, something about the Commander's perseverance to keep going was kind of...endearing, like when a cute puppy chews on your shoes and yeah you're mad but it's CUTE. He was pretty sure no one else agreed with this opinion, considering both Ricky and Crash groaned at the Commander in unison.
"Were going to stop right up there, right Commander?" James interjected before they decided to have a complete argument or complaining fest.
"Mmmyeah, right up after those- whoa!" Crash, James, and Richard all watched in confusion as the Commander suddenly broke into a sprint and ran forward to where he had just been pointing, obviously worried about something.
"What-" James started, before he took a closer look to where the Commander was headed toward. He quickly realized what it was exactly he was looking at, and then took off in a run as well.
Ricky and Crash exchanged a puzzled look, before just following the other two's leads and running to catch up with them.
There, on the ground, was an injured man. The Commander of course was the first one to reach him, and was desperately trying to figure out what exactly was wrong with him.
James arrived only a few seconds afterwards, running up and sliding to the ground next to the injured man quickly. "Crash!" The blacksmith was obviously disgruntled as he looked over to the large man jogging up. "I need you to carry him, we have to do something. I don't know how badly he's hurt-" The Commander set his hand on the man's shoulder, successfully making him stop his worried rambling.
Crash carefully picked the injured stranger off the ground, careful to mind the large gash on his chest. Richard, who had been watching everything from behind the largest man, seemed pretty interested to see who they had just found. He made his way to Crash's side, and stretched trying to get a good look at the stranger.
It was only when he had completely craned his neck to the front of the giant that he realized that he recognized the man they had found. "M-Monty!?"
Something about that name made the Commander look up in surprise and practically jump out of his skin when he realized he recognized the man as well. "Jimmy! We gotta help him, quick!"
James and Crash exchanged confused, worried glances with each other at the reactions of their companions. They shrugged and quickly decided they had more important things to worry about then how they knew this guy's name. Story time could come later, right now they had a life to save.
Setting everything up as a makeshift hospital of sorts wasn't an easy thing to do quickly. James, who served as the troupes 'doctor' spent the whole setup time just panicking. The fear certainly rubbed off as everyone had began to nervously run around like a group of ants whose home had been stepped on.
Richard and the Commander were the most nervous of course, eyes flickering over to the unconscious Monty every now and again just to make sure they could still see the very faint rising and falling movements of his chest as he took in fast breathes.
All they really had to do to prepare was find the tools, and lay down cloth. Very simple tasks that seemed to be a lot easier said than done. First of all, the group had a lot of things. Four people didn't just travel around with nothing, and second of all it had honestly been a while since anyone had needed any serious medical attention. Most of the time everyone just needed a bandage or something, it's not like they found people with huge holes in their chests everyday. Nevertheless, once they finally did find everything James was able to quickly patch him up.
Later that night, as the four vigilantes sat around a fire, Crash finally asked the question he and James had been wondering about all day.
"How do you know that man?" The Commander glanced over to Ricky, having been wondering the same thing about the boy. Richard just shrugged rather casually, and then said "He saved my life."
They sat in silence for a few seconds, before everyone realized he wasn't going to elaborate. So, the Commander decided to share his story instead.
"Monty and I came from a small island of the coast named Aquabania." James and Crash must have heard this part before, because they both immediately seemed pretty disinterested. Richard on the other hand, who loved hearing stories, seemed to lean forward with intrigue.
"We've been friends for as long as I can remember." James and Crash exchanged a look at this, and began acting a little more interested as he continued. "He's the reason I left home." The Commander's gaze wandered over to where the man lay under a tree on a makeshift 'bed' of cloth. "I haven't seen him in years, not since I started wandering the world."
As if on cue, there came a groaning from the man. Richard and the Commander hopped up quickly and raced over to him immediately, leaving the other two to come over more slowly.
"Where am I?" The man sat up, causing James to have a mild freak out.
"Hold on-" The blacksmith stopped mid-sentence and stared in horror as Monty undid the the bandages around his torso- revealing his chest to be completely flawless with not even a scratch.
"That's impossible." James said with mouth agape in shock.
Ricky smiled proudly as if he had been the one to do it, the Commander having a similar look and laughing boastfully.
Monty looked from the horrified James, over to the happy Richard and Commander. He himself felt a smile make its way onto his face as he recognized them. Monty opened his mouth as if about to say something, only to be shushed by the mustached man.
"What happened anyway?" The rogue asked with a curious expression and tone. Monty didn't answer and shook his head instead.
"What's going on?" James sounded aggravated and confused at this point more than anything else.
"You did a great job." Crash said in awe, earning three baffled and dirty looks.
Monty, choosing to ignore everything the others said, just smiled up at the blacksmith before standing up himself. "Thank you for your help."
"Not that you needed it." Ricky quietly interjected, earning an elbow to the side from the Commander.
"You seem to be a man of scholar." Monty continued, looking down to his bag of belongings someone had moved with him. "I think I may have something for you- if you so choose to accept." James seemed surprised at this sentence, and looked at Monty with slight suspicion. The Commander, Crash, and Richard looked between the two men with wonder and interest.
James watched all of Monty's movements with closeness and narrowed eyes. Monty reached into his rucksack, and pulled out a smooth, wooden box. It shined as it reflected the dim light of the nearby fire. The blacksmith seemed hypnotized by it as he stared with a slack jaw.
"This," Monty opened the lid of the box, revealing a beautiful velvety inside and round object resting in the center. "is the eye of knowledge."
If the box itself seemed to put James in a trance, then his reaction to the gift itself was indescribable.
He reached forward, eyes looking directly at the small orb with complete desire. Monty pulled the box closer to his chest, seemingly breaking James from his spell.
"I can't just give this to you-" The men watching let out a string of confused noises, Richard even letting out an "aw man, what?" before getting nudged once gave them all a sideways glance, but said nothing.
"The eye of knowledge requires a sacrifice if you will- I shall give it to you, but in return you must give up your arms."
Everything suddenly stopped, the world full of stunned silence. The only noises seemed to be from the fire cackling nearby- as if even all the animals were interested in the choice about to be made.
"I-" James' tongue felt heavy and dry, too big for his mouth as his eyes flickered between the box and the man holding it. He was a blacksmith, his skills came from his hands. He had spent years learning and perfecting the skill of crafting metal, but it was a trade from his father- he loved it, yes, but his heart yearned for knowledge. For knowing the unknown- he wanted to understand the world around him in more detail than others even dared to think of. He had his skill, that much was true, but how could he choose that over this? Over everything he had ever wanted, here it was- in his graft- just a few words away.
There was never any doubt in anyone's mind over what what he would pick, but it was still a bit shocking to hear the words come out of James' mouth.
"I accept."
As promised, James received the eye and lost both arms. There had been so much screaming that none of the rest of the group could tell you exactly what happened- they had all fled in hopes of not hearing the unbearable agony in the voice of their friend.
Monty seemed to have disappeared shortly after it had happened, though none of them complained about it. All the group were understandably sour about what had happened.
The eye itself was a brilliant blue, glowing and shining like nothing any of them had seen before. It was absolutely stunning and definitely stood out against his other normal one.
It didn't take long for James to realize just how inconvenient everything was with no arms. So, with no delay, he asked for help in making replacement prosthetics. With the help of Crash and the Commander, they were able to make a working pair pretty quickly. Well, quick given what was being made and how much knowledge they had on the subject.
This change in the group certainly caused a bit of a ripple in the status-quo, but it wasn't THAT hard to adjust to the changes. James was still himself, and everything found a new routine of 'normal'.
