Hey people. Yay, it's the second year anniversary! We really are starting to near the end now.
And by 'nearing the end' I of course mean 'Yaaay sequel!' Oh sequel, I am so excited to get to you, but we still have a bit more to go through here before you can make your grand entrance.
Well, here's the chapter, and as always, thanks everyone who's read and stuck with this story. I feel like it takes more of a leap of faith to read and stick with a story about Keane than a story about Husky. Since Keane is like… mine. I know he exists in the book, but so much of what I think of him and how he acts and his weird little talents and nervous ticks are not in the books. And that's not even getting started on Straton (who makes me sad that he's not in the books, but also kinda happy because if I ever want to write something of my own, I can take him with me).
Point is, I appreciate all of you, and I hope you like the next chapter.
Chapter 34- Of Moving On and a Third Option
When Keane woke up the next morning, Straton was still asleep. The redhead couldn't help but be a bit relieved whenever he woke up before the younger boy, since that meant that Straton had actually slept. Thankfully that didn't seem to be much of a problem since he'd first found out about how he'd been staying up those few days, but he still didn't want to really chance it much.
Keane didn't immediately go to wake the blond up though, instead taking the moment to try and think about just what was going on. The Kim-un-kur had all but agreed to help them get to Asteria, so he guessed there wasn't really anything else to do but wait for whatever they had come up with and follow their lead.
It was definitely a very strange feeling. Not having to constantly think about how they were going to survive the next couple of days, or even just the next couple of hours or minutes at times.
To think he used to go without ever having to think about it at all. It was weird remembering about back then, all of the classes he went through because apparently those were what was going to tell him what was good for the country. From what he'd seen, they hadn't really been all that affective. Even if he hadn't been able to see anything, revolutions don't happen in countries that are happy and healthy.
Actually remembering any of the times before that was even stranger. Was he really the same jealous brat that had inadvertently driven a boy to suicide? It almost didn't seem possible, looking back on it all.
Running a hand through his hair, the redhead tried to shake away all of those thoughts. It didn't really matter anymore anyway. None of it affected his future anymore, so as odd as it felt to just try to put it all behind him, there really wasn't any point to dwell on the past anymore.
He couldn't even go back to Sailand ever again, yet alone home. There wasn't even anyone to go back to, expect for possibly a bunch of graves. The only family he could know for certain that was alive was the half-brother -the half part of that seeming increasingly less important - sleeping next to him.
He knew he'd never be able to go back when he first left Stella, but none of that really seemed to sink in until now. With all of the constant terror and adrenalin keeping him moving forward, he never really got to actually think about it.
They were going to live in Asteria now. A country he'd never even been to before. Sure, he knew a few things about it, although those were mostly political. They had a king and a single queen, no harem like Sailand did. The current crown prince was about four, since his older brother had died a few years ago. There wasn't any slavery, and the climate was very different from Sailand, allowing the country to have a stable agricultural centered economy.
He had a feeling those facts wouldn't really be the most useful knowledge to have when starting out there, though.
At least both he and Straton could speak the language (or well, he assumed Straton could seeing as he'd seemed to always be reading his Asterian textbook back when they still lived at the palace, although he'd never actually heard the boy speak it). He hadn't exactly practiced it quite a while though. Hopefully he wouldn't stand out as a foreigner too much…
And even if he didn't, a whole new country was still probably going to be crazily different from anything he was used to.
Keane felt himself sigh, leaning his chin to rest on his knees as he closed his eyes. It would be fine, there really wasn't any use getting nervous about it now after all. They didn't have any choice but to move forward anyway.
"Are you okay?" Keane's eyes flung open at the sound of the slightly slurred voice, not having realized that Straton had woken up. Looking over at the younger boy, he had pushed himself so that he was now sitting, looking over at Keane with a slightly confused expression on his face. The redhead quickly forced himself to smile, nodding as he did so.
"Yeah, I'm fine," he insisted, although even in his only half awake state it still seemed like Straton didn't immediately believe him. "I was just thinking about how we're going to be living in Asteria soon, it's kind of crazy," the older boy added. Straton stayed quiet for a moment, appearing to think over what Keane had said before nodding in agreement.
"Yeah, it is pretty crazy. It's great that we actually managed to survive all the way though," he said, Keane instantly agreeing. That certainly was great, and something he'd thought many times wasn't actually going to happen.
"I guess we should go see if that Chief Shikoba has decided how to get us across the mountains yet," Keane said after a moment, pushing himself off the floor as he did. Straton quickly nodded, standing up as well.
The redhead stared down at the mats and blankets they had slept with for a second. He couldn't remember where Akule had gotten them out from, and quickly decided to just leave them where they were for now. If they wanted them to put it away, they could tell them where it was supposed to go later.
The two brothers left the small back room after that, although they didn't immediately see anyone in the main room of the house either. Keane decided to just call the buildings houses, even if they didn't look like most of the houses he'd ever seen, seeing as that's what they were mostly used for, he guessed. He'd spent most of his life locked away in a huge palace anyway, what did he know about what was normal?
Out of the corner of his eye Keane caught sight of one of the curtained doorways moving, Akule stepping out afterwards. The older teen instantly had an annoyed look on his face at the sight of the brothers, but Keane pushed that to the back of his mind.
He was just like one of the princes; he'd dealt with people like him before. He was someone like him before. It wasn't acceptable for Akule to start an actual physical fight with them now either, so that would make the whole thing even easier.
"Good morning," Straton said before anyone else had a chance to speak. The Kim-un-kur teen rolled his eyes slightly, but nodded at the younger boy none the less as he walked past the two without a word. Keane couldn't help but think that Akule seemed even less friendly in the morning than he was normally.
Despite this, the redhead quickly went to follow Akule outside of the building. He would have tried to see if he could talk to Naira instead, seeing as the young girl was just all around nicer to them than her brother, but he had no idea if she's already left yet.
"Hey," Keane said once he'd caught up. Straton was still a few steps behind, but so far the blond had seemed content to let Keane do most of the talking, only stepping in when there was an obvious argument brewing. This made sense, seeing as he seemed to like to listen to everything before making any real decisions, if he could help it, that is. Most of the time they hadn't really had that luxury, having to make almost all of their decisions on the fly with little to no planning involved at all.
"What, Red?" Akule asked. Keane ignored the annoying nickname for now, instead deciding it would be best to just get straight to his point instead.
"Your chief said that he would figure out what to do about our problem, I was wondering if there was any specific time we were supposed to talk to him about this today or anything," Keane said. Akule stopped walking for a moment, seeming to actually think the question over before shaking his head.
"Not that I know of yet. Just don't go too far from the town, alright? Whenever the chief decides what to do I'll come get you," the teen said, actually sounding rather helpful for once. Keane quickly nodded, Akule walking away from the two without another word afterwards.
"I guess we should just wait then, maybe see if we can get something to eat," the redhead said after a moment. Straton nodded in agreement, having turned away from watching Akule once the boy was out of view.
The rest of the morning was strangely calm. Naira had found them – turns out she had still been in the house earlier after all – and helped them get some breakfast. Apparently she had to go do some chores afterwards, but the two boys were allowed to check out the town or anything else they might want to do.
They ended up walking around the perimeter of the main part of the settlement, or at least, that's what Keane assumed it was. There were a few paths that led off in different directions every so often, as well as where the river was, but Akule had told them not to go too far off on their own.
The two were sitting down next to the small house that they'd stayed in the night before when Straton spotted Akule walking towards them. They hadn't really been talking, there seemed to be a lack of things to actually say when they weren't planning. What had they talked about back in the palace? Neither boy could really remember anymore.
"Hey, the chief wants to talk to you two now," Akule said curtly. Keane and Straton quickly stood up, following the Kim-un-kur boy as he started to lead them towards the same place where they'd spoken with the chief last night.
Walking into the building, Keane saw that Chief Shikoba was standing across from them. This time there wasn't any of the other men standing by his side, which made it slightly less intimidating. That might have just been because he knew that the man wasn't going to immediately try to throw them off of the mountain though.
"Good day," Keane said, bowing his head slightly, Straton following his lead. Akule had left the room quickly after bringing them there. The Chief smiled slightly at the two before saying hello back.
"Good day," he said, "I've spoken to the other men of my tribe about your predicament," he started, both boys instantly focusing solely on the older man. He motioned both of them to sit before taking one himself behind a small table that Keane hadn't actually noticed before. The two quickly sat as well, waiting for the chief to continue.
"It's clear that there's no way for you to go back into Sailand, so that's of course out of the question," he started up again. Keane nodded very slightly, unable to keep the relief at actually hearing him say that from filling him. There was no way they were ever going back to Sailand. That was a good thing.
"So, we were able to come up with two options," he said. Keane saw Straton's head tilt slightly out of the corner of his eye, showing the same confusion he now felt. Two? They hadn't expected that, they'd only been able to find a single one, besides of course going back. But the chief had just said that they couldn't do that, so somehow they must have found some sort of third option.
"There's, of course, going to Asteria, as you two have already mentioned. If you were to choose this, then there is a path that we could show you. It would take about two weeks total before you were able to exit of the Asterian side of the mountain range. The trek is rather dangerous in areas, but not impossible, although I wouldn't recommend you traveling the whole way alone. If you wish to go this way, I'll arrange for you two to have a guide until you've reached where the path is safe," Shikoba explained.
Keane nodded as the information sunk in. Two weeks to get through the mountains. They could finally get to their destination in just two weeks. And the Kim-un-kurs were even willing to take them most of the way too.
This was much, much better than anything he'd thought that was going to happen when they finally reached the mountains, or even when the fact that they'd have to cross mountains was first brought up.
Even still, he managed to keep himself quiet in order to listen to whatever other option they had come up with. He actually found himself rather curious about the whole thing, since no matter what, when he tried to think of what it could be he just drew a blank.
"Or, if you'd wish to, you both would be welcome to stay here," he said, greatly surprising both boys. Once again, although just barely this time, Keane managed to keep himself from saying anything, asking questions, in order to let the man continue.
"It's not very rare for +animas running from Sailand to incorporate themselves into Kim-un-kur tribes, and this would not be the first time it has happened in this very tribe. I'm not going to make you choose now, of course. No matter what you decide, stay for a few days and think it over," he finished. The redhead didn't know how many times he'd nodded, but he forced himself to once again.
"Thank you, um, if you don't mind, is it alright if Straton and I talk about it?" he asked. The chief smiled softly before answering.
"Of course, and as I said before, take your time deciding," Shikoba said. The two boys quickly but politely excused themselves at that. Once they were outside of the building though, Keane grabbed Straton's wrist, pulling the blond over towards the outskirt of the town, just barely into the tree line.
The entire way there, which really didn't take very long at all, Keane's mind was completely abuzz in confusion. Stay here? They couldn't stay here, could they? They knew next to nothing about how the Kim-un-kur lived, not to mention they stood out so much. Of course, he barely knew anything about how the people in Asteria lived either, and chances are their accents would stand out quite a bit to most people.
"Keane?" Straton asked after a moment, knocking the older boy out of his thoughts.
"What do you think we should do?" the redhead ended up asking back. Once again Straton's head tilted slightly in confusion. Keane hadn't really noticed how he did that when he was confused until now. Of course, back at the palace he never really seemed to be confused, and while they were traveling across Sailand they didn't have time to be confused.
"I thought we were going to Asteria," he said back. Reluctantly Keane nodded. He knew that was the original plan, but they didn't have to anymore.
"Yeah, I know, but we can stay here now. He said we could," the redhead said. Straton was quiet for a moment, seeming to be thinking the two options over now. Keane wasn't sure why, but the idea of staying here was starting to get more and more alluring the more he thought about it.
They didn't have to travel anymore at all. They could just relax, and the Kim-un-kur seemed like nice people. They didn't mind that he was a +anima, or that Straton wasn't one. They wouldn't have to adjust to a new language or anything like that. Even if they got to Asteria, what were they supposed to do then? They didn't have anywhere to go. They would just have to keep traveling until they eventually found a small town or something where they could get some jobs that paid enough money for them to live off of. Who knows how long that would take, since who would want to hire a couple of kids?
"Do you want to stay here?" Straton asked quietly after a while. Keane frowned slightly at the question. Slowly, the older boy started to nod.
"I… I think I do. What are we supposed to do in Asteria anyway? We'd just have to keep traveling, and we'd have to use another language all the time and just… I don't know. It seems nice here, and the Kim-un-kur are willing to help us," he said.
"I guess… what about Akule?" Straton asked after a moment. Keane frowned a bit once again, glancing back over to the main cluster of buildings that made up the hidden town in the mountain. He didn't see the teen, but that was just fine for now.
"I don't think we really have to worry about him, he'll get over us being from Sailand eventually. He's just like the other- the others, you know, from back home?" he stumbled, just barely able to keep himself from saying princes. "As soon as he knows we're not a threat, he'll leave us alone," he finished.
Straton was silent for a few moments, simply staring off towards the east; towards Asteria. They really didn't have anything forcing them to actually go there. It was the closest place without slavery, where they didn't have to fear that someone was going to recognize them. They didn't have to worry about that here though either. They could help out here too, even if they didn't know much yet.
And… if they ever wanted to… they could go back to Sailand, even if just to visit.
Finally Straton turned back towards him. The redhead wasn't quite able to read the expression on his face though.
"If that's what you want to do Keane… then sure, I don't think it'd be bad staying here," he said. A small smile spread across the older boy's face. He had no doubt that Straton would be able to talk him into doing something else instead; he'd done just that before after all. That made the fact that he'd agreed with him an incredible relief.
"Thanks, but the chief said that we can think about it for a few days, so let's not set anything in stone yet, okay?" the redhead said. Straton quickly nodded in agreement, seeming a bit more at ease with the fact now that they weren't planning to decide for sure right then and there.
"Okay," he said back, now smiling a bit as well.
Keane almost felt like collapsing from the sudden relief that came down on him. They had a place to stay now. Somewhere safe. They could finally move on with their lives. Sure, he knew that the Kim-un-kur probably lived very differently than what he was used to, but pretty much any life he would be able to live now would be very different from what he was used to. That didn't mean it would be bad though.
Even though they'd been running away from the past this whole time, it didn't feel like he could really put any of it behind him until they could finally stop and start their new life. He could now though.
He could forget about the slaughter at the palace or watching his mother die or that he was a prince or the classes he'd had to go through or how mean he used to be or the way Myrrha had died. He didn't have to think about any of that ever again.
He could finally move on with his life.
Just so you know, I ranked getting this chapter done on time as the same level of importance as finishing an assignment for math on time. I kept going from one to the other to make sure they were both getting done. In fact, I might have just ranked this one a little bit higher.
Yes though, this is a bit of a twist, isn't it? Will they even end up going to Asteria at all? Haha, I'm not gonna answer that here of course, you'll have to wait to see. Like I said before though, thank you to everyone who likes this story. It means more to me than you think.
And of course, I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and please review.