Cearbhail: This didn't take me all that long. I had in mind what I wanted from this chapter. The hardest part was thinking up a name for the boy. Anyway, this should explain itself soon enough.

[Malik Ishtar]

Dear journal,

I have infiltrated King John's castle and eavesdropped on his conversation. He seems a strong leader. With the way he ran through all the problems I had created, I actually found myself respecting him as a leader. I have done nothing but hurt everyone in this town and the King seems to be correcting it. Although he's done terrible things to the outcasts of the town, taxed the hell out of the populace, and forced teenage boys into joining the crusade (found that out while I was leaving the castle).

There is also the fact that the King is somehow connected with Wolfe. I knew that Wolfe ran slaves to other countries and delivered the funds to the King, but I did not expect that the two of them were connected past that. They both belong to the same organization, and looking for three objects that I do not know anything about. They have some plan but I have yet to learn about it. I think I will keep an eye on the two of them and see if I can learn more about their plan later on. But for now, I will just keep running interference around town and helping the people of this city. They need my help.

At any rate, I have decided to walk around the town and see what I can do to make it better. I should get back to the camp to inform the witches that they're in the clear now. I don't know if it's safe to bring them back into the town yet, or if the hunt for them is over. Hopefully, my time around the town will answer my questions.

…

The town seemed more relaxed now. The King has sent some knights up to the mines to prepare it for more mining. I told Locksley to allow the mining to continue for now. After all, destroying the mines took a lot of economy from the town and the people that lived here. And since destroying the mine took iron away from the town, the King robbed the civilians of their iron. I should have noticed that something like that would have happened, so now, I have to think of different ways of messing with the King. And I think I have a solution: sabotage the deliveries after they occur; intercept the shipment before it gets to their intended destinations. That should have no repercussions on the people.

My actions of freeing the witches from Wolfe had some repercussions as well. It led to the death of the Coven Mother. I should have planned something better or at least improvised once the plan came against us. But, there were things that I did not do: like crashing the ship into the harbor. I did blow up the wall though, and killed several knights while in the spotlight.

I walked through the busy streets. I had forgotten to take off my robes once I left the castle, and I did get some weird looks, but no one said anything to me. Almost all the knights were out at the harbor and the mines, securing both locations and doing all that they could to fix them. I think I was safe as long as I stayed away from the courtyard. All the while, I was doing all I could to make the city forget about the witches. So, whenever I came up to anti-witch propaganda, I destroyed it and moved on. And I ran across a few town criers that were still screaming about how witches blew up the harbor, the mines, and the wall to the town. I bribed them to talk about the crusades instead. It was moments before the attitude toward witches changed. That should loosen the witch hunt a little. If I do more, they may even be welcomed with open arms.

As I scanned the market for more anti-witch propaganda to tear down, I saw a tiny shadow drift over a market stall. I tend to notice thieves. And there it was, a boy hiding near the alley. He was watching the market stall, the one with rolls of bread. I knew exactly what the boy wanted. And I knew that I could get him that bread. So, I started walking up to the stall. But the boy beat me to it. He snuck up, and while the baker was talking to some woman, he grabbed a loaf of bread and dashed off into the alleyway. I shook my head and decided that I should help the boy. So, I walked into the alley to find him. If he was desperate enough to steal bread, there must be something wrong with him. He could be homeless and need a place to live. If that were the case, he'd be welcome at the camp. We have enough refugees at the moment, one more wouldn't hurt.

So, walking through the alley, I didn't hear much, and I didn't see the boy. So, I kept walking. I eventually got to the other side of the alleyway, walking into more alleyways. Oh joy. It was like a maze back here. How was I going to find this boy? I shrugged it off and decided that I was best on the rooftops. I could run across several alleyways quicker that way.

So, I looked up for something to climb up. And once I was up on the roofs, I was able to look down at several different alleyways a lot quicker than someone could run through them. Upon looking down at the alleyways I found nothing. It was crazy. So, I gave up and told myself that if I saw the kid again, I'd offer him a place to live if he needed it. But until then, I was going to head back to the camp and try to make the lives of the people living there easier.

When I was halfway back to the camp, I head several kids screaming. It was an alarming war cry that I recognized from my years back at the academy. They had found someone to beat up. So, I followed the sound until I heard more screaming and the sound of someone getting beaten up. Looking down from the roof, I could see that same boy from earlier pinned against a wall as several older boys took the loaf of bread from him, slamming him against the wall.

One of the boys pinning him to the wall, said, "We saw you steal this bread, thief. It would figure, the son of a witch would steal bread."

The boy screamed, "My mom was not a witch!"

The other boys all started laughing at him. One of the boys in the back muttered, "Then how come she was taken from your house and beheaded?"

"She's not a witch!" The boy screamed again.

"Whatever." The bully pinning him to the wall said. "You're just an orphan. No one cares what you think."

"My dad will come home. Once the Crusades are over, he'll be home and you'll be sorry you ever messed with me." After the boy made that statement, three of the boys started throwing him to the ground, pounding his face in. I decided that I have had enough. I pulled out a throwing knife and threw it against the wall near the boys.

When the knife clanged off the walls, the boys all stopped and looked at the wall in surprise. "What was that?" The bully said.

Another boy pointed down at the knife lying on the ground. "Someone threw that knife. Do you think it was a curse? Do you think his mother is cursing us?"

The boy, now bleeding from his nose and mouth, spat blood out as he groaned in pain. When he tried to get up to run, one of the boys grabbed him and pinned him against the ground. So, I decided to throw another knife. It hit the wall near the pinner, and he jumped off the boy as quickly as he could. "It's true. His mother is protecting him. The devil is near. He's come to take our souls." He screamed as he turned around and took off. A couple of the other boys all screamed and ran off with him, now scared for their lives.

The bigger bully looked around like they were idiots for running away. He looked at the boy that was trying to get back up, saying, "You think your dead mother will protect you from me? I'll teach you not to steal from my father."

The boy looked up at him, blood dripping from his mouth. "I would have paid him back once I made some money, but I needed to eat first. The knights took everything from our house when they took my mother. They would have taken me too if I hadn't been out feeding the pigs. I hate the knights! If my dad were here, he wouldn't have let them take mommy! I need to do what I can to survive, and no one cares about me now that I'm the son of an accused witch."

The bully smirked at him. "I don't care about your situation. You stole from my father, prepare to be beaten senseless."

"Just get it over with. Don't think I won't fight back, though. Now that it's just you and me, it's a fair fight." The boy said, raising his arms in a defensive way.

I decided that I'd just sit and watch. The boy was defending his honor after all. I would have been rude of me to just go down and save him. I helped by scaring the other boys away. Now the rest was up to him. So, I watched as the bully charged up to the smaller boy, tackling him. The boy flung himself backwards, kicking the bully off of him and into the wall. He rolled up on his feet, saying, "My dad taught me the ways of the knight. You, the son of a baker, cannot beat me in a fight. I'm too well-trained."

The bully stood up, rubbing his slightly bleeding head. "You're just a squirt. Stop talking like you're a hero. You're just a thief that needs to be punished for stealing bread."

"I was going to pay him as soon as I could." He threw back.

"And pigs will fly one day." The bully said, picking up a brick off the ground. He threw it at the boy, hitting him in the leg. The boy cried out in pain and fell to his knee as the bully charged into him, punching him in the face. The boy blacked out and crumbled to the floor. The bully pinned his lifeless body to the ground and started punching him in the face. I decided that this had gone on long enough.

"Hey you! Scram." I screamed from the roof.

The bully looked up at me, squinting. Then his face turned white, screaming, "An angel of death!" He turned around, running away. I guess that because I was wearing all white that he had confused me with an ethereal being, like an angel. Weird, but kids will be kids.

Once he left, I started climbing off the roof. I walked around the alley, collecting my knives. As I was collecting my last knife, I heard the boy mutter before opening his eyes and glancing at me through a blackened eye. "An…angel?" He muttered in a hazy voice, like he was dreaming. His eyes rolled back before passing out. Well, at least he was still alive. And I was right: he did have a bad situation. No kid would risk stealing something as trivial as bread unless they had no other choice. And I couldn't just leave him alone in this alley. With the beating he had gone through, he would suffer more injuries if he was left unattended. I had to get him back to the camp where we could treat his wounds. From what I gathered, his father was out in the war and his mother was killed in the purge. I wonder how many other children were orphaned because of that purge. Would I run into more children like this one; homeless and fighting to survive?

I lifted the kid up gently and traveled through the alleyways and backyards until I reached the wall. There was light security since all the knights were out at the harbor, so scaling the wall with an unconscious boy was easy. Traveling back through the woods with him was easier too. And while I walked, I continued to think about just how I had brought this upon the boy. Sure, his father joining the Crusades was not my doing, but I got all the witches killed. His mother died because of my actions. I had to take care of him because this was my responsibility now. I had to clean up my mess.

…

Once I made it back to the camp, I was welcomed by a few of Locksley's men. They took the boy from me and found him a comfy cot to lie down on. A few of the more experienced witches came by to rub some green stuff on his face that would heal and cleanse his wounds. When that didn't work, I settled for just waiting in the tent for him to wake up. But, as luck would have it, our newest resident came by to see what was going on.

The tiny Mother Goose walked into the tent, her face etched in seriousness. "I heard you found this boy in an alleyway, getting beaten up by several kids."

I nodded. "I did indeed. They were beating him up because he stole bread from a baker. The son of the baker was defending his father's reputation, while the boy was trying to survive."

She walked up to the boy, running her hand across his face. "And when he blacked out, you stepped in and saved him?"

I nodded. "Yes. I thought it was necessary to thin the ranks, so I scared some of the other boys away until it was only one-on-one. The boy is the son of a knight, so he has this sense of honor and pride. Obviously not enough if he's willing to steal, either that or he decided that because he was going to pay the baker back later that it justified his stealing in the first place. But either way, he went up against the bully and was doing pretty well until the bully chucked a brick at him. That's when the bully knocked him out and started slamming his face."

Mother Goose nodded, still running her hands across the boy's face. "You did the right thing. Pride is a hard thing to deal with. It can easily be damaged, even more so than the body. If you had interfered with this boy's fight, his ego may have been bruised. And that may never heal…his cuts and bruises will." She pulled out a small bag and stuck her fingers inside it. She pulled out her fingers, covered in a lighter green paste than I remember seeing earlier. She ran it across his wounds gently, saying, "I can tell you're analyzing my paste. In York, we use a different recipe for skin and muscle damage. It's more effective than what the covens use here. This should heal his wounds in a day's time. For now, we should let him rest."

The boy's eyes opened and he gasped for breath, throwing himself up off his back. Mother Goose reacted by jumping back a little, grabbing her own chest in surprise. When she settled down, she screamed, "Don't scare me like that!"

The boy ran his fingers across his face, dabbing at the green paste on his wounds. "What is this?" He asked before looking around. "Where am I?" He finally looked at me and then Mother Goose. "Who are you?" He looked up at me, pointing. "I…I remember you. You saved my life."

I nodded. "I was there when the bully knocked you unconscious, yes. And I couldn't leave you there, so I brought you back to our camp to have your wounds treated. That stuff on your face will aid in your recovery. If you're hungry, we have fresh meat from some squirrels we hunted earlier today. We saved some stew for you in case you woke up today."

The boy started smiling. "You have food that I can eat?" He started climbing out of the cot.

Mother Goose rolled her eyes before pushing him back down into his bed. "You stay here and rest. Half of the battle is rest, the other is medication. Let me take care of you and I'll tell you when you can get up."

"What if I need to pee?" He asked.

She blushed before turning away. "Ok, fine. Do whatever you like. It's not like I care what you do." She stomped her way out of the tent, muttering, "I'm only trying to heal your wounds."

I found myself chuckling. That was entertaining. I looked back at the boy, saying, "You are welcome to stay with us, if you wish. I know you don't have a family to take care of you right now, so you may stay here until your father returns from war."

He looked down for a second. "I'd be too much of a burden."

I shook my head. "If you feel that way, you may help us hunt animals and collect berries, or help set up tents and wash clothes. You don't have to just sit here and do nothing. You may help in any way you feel necessary."

The boy finally looked up at me, nodding. "Ok then. I'll work for my stay." He stuck out his hand, saying, "My name is Brian Simmons."

I nodded back. "I'm Malik Ishtar, welcome to the camp."

Cearbhail: Did anyone catch the classic tsundere comment Vicky said? Can you guess what might happen in a few years? Anyway, things should start picking up now.