A murky past is better left forgotten.
Chapter Two - Ignorance is bliss.
Authors Notes: This story is based off of a Fullmetal Alchemist fanfic by Rose ( Spaceroses) a friend of mine;
The story is an AU set in a more medieval fantasy-like era and focuses on the Fullmetal Alchemist characters within this alternate universe.
This following story is a gift from me, and it follows the past of this story universe's version of Shou Tucker.
I hope you like this Rose! ^_^ :: Hugs::
And also to everyone else who reads the story; enjoy!
Shou Tucker and Yoki belong to Hiromu Arakawa, BONES, Square Enix.
Jacob Tucker and Emily Tucker belong to Rebecca Mason ( me!)
In the first chapter; Jacob Tucker had made plans to sell his only son, Shou, to a local slave-market...just how will that turn out? read on to find out.
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Exactly three days had passed since the birth of the young Prince and already things within the kingdom had returned to normal; people were going about their everyday business, shops were open and selling their produce...and the local slavemarket was up and running in town once more.
And that was precisely where Jacob was taking his unsuspecting young son on this dry but cloudy day.
Along the way, Jacob was lost in thought as he reminisced about the other night that he told his wife, Emily about his plan to sell their only son to the slavemarket in order to get some money in return...naturally that ended up not going over so well.
" He's our own son! how could you even think of doing something so selfish?!" his wife's upset words echoed through Jacob's head.
" Do you really think he could survive out there? you'll be sending little Shou to an early grave!" there was no denying it, her reaction was no different from how Peter's had been... but again Jacob failed to understand the reason why.
" This will be better for us in the end Emily...I mean if we get money and save it up, then we would eventually have enough to buy him back...right?" he'd asked her with a hopeful look in his eyes.
Yet Emily had still disagreed with her husband and said something about how his idealism clouded his own sense of right and wrong; the arguement between them had carried on nearly all night until Emily had just ended it with something that sounded more like a guilt-tripping statement along the lines of " If you go through with this, let it be known that I'll never forgive you, Jacob" towards him, before marching off to bed.
Yet throughout it all, Jacob had done his best not to let it get to him...but the entire ordeal had been extremely aggravating.
' Women...they never listen to you, never listen to reason and when there's something they adore, they cling to it and refuse to give it up' he inwardly grumbled as he held onto Shou's hand lightly, his thoughts now feeling anger towards the two people who had gone against his decision.
' As for Pete...I should of expected him to be like that, he was raised by his mother afterall...perhaps it is a good thing I'm doing this, Shou won't grow up to be like a wet blanket!' for all Jacob knew, this experience as a temporary slave would toughen the boy up to be a proper man in Jacob's eyes.
' You can't hide behind your mother's legs forever, my boy...this is a chance for you to see how the world really is' the young man thought as he glanced down at his young son, who seemed more interested in looking at the surroundings they passed rather than their destination.
The scenery remained pretty much the same as Jacob and Shou made their way down the cobbled streets, past houses bunched together in groups and a few shops; down dreary-looking back alleys where a few rats could be heard scuttling about, and finally to the town square where horse-drawn carts were being unloaded and a variety of people at different ages were being led to wooden stalls, although while some of them seemed healthy enough...there were others that looked completely weathered personality and physical-wise.
Other people (dressed in more wealthier-looking clothing) seemed to gather in crowds and just talk about all sorts of things that went completely over little Shou's head...but he hardly had any time to stop and listen to them as Jacob seemed to be heading towards a tent that had been set up and just pulled his son along with him.
Once inside the tent, one of the first things Shou noticed was how clean the floor looked in comparison to the dirty streets outside, as the ground had some sort of material laid on it...and another was the small table that had been set up at the other end of the tent's interior.
A few sacks of gold coins lay, littered on the floor and another few were on the table, admist a stack of papers ( some written on and signed, while others were blank) and a quill pen neatly kept in it's holder.
Although it soon turned out that Jacob and Shou were not the only people in the tent, as a man looked up from counting a few coins that had been spilt out onto the table just a few moments prior to the father and son's entrance; dark eyes that belonged to a pale man with a black moustache and receding black hair, narrowed and stared hard at the newcomer's before a slight smile finally spread across the man's face as his eyes got a look of realisation in them.
" Ahh Mr. Tucker, it's good to see you...I was afraid that you'd decided to pull out of our little business trade"
" My apologises Master Yoki, I had to clear a few things with my wife before coming here...but that and a few other complications have been sorted out now" Jacob confessed, bowing forward slightly in an apologetic manner.
" I only hope that my son lives up to your standards..."
Of course what Jacob didn't know at this point in time was that while he and Shou had been going out to the slavemarket, Emily had been sitting at home and sobbing her heart out; her husband really was going through with selling their only son...and that had really broken her trust as well as her heart.
" How could he just go about treating his own child as if it was nothing but livestock?!" she more or less cried into her hands, her palms turning even more moist by the second as the tears kept coming.
" Nothing will ever replace our son...why can't that pig-headed husband of mine see that?" the one-sided questions carried on and pretty soon those feelings of sadness and grief were starting to mingle with feelings of anger...and the more Emily thought about it over and over again, the worse it got.
By all accounts, Emily Tucker was not a tough woman by nature, nor was she the most out-going...but the young woman could think for herself, and right now nothing mattered more than getting even with the man who took away her pride and joy...but how to go through with it?
It was common knowlege that there had been a few executions in the past of men or woman who had murdered their loved ones for whatever reason...although some had often claimed that demons had convinced them to do it...but they were executed regardless as those people were then rumoured to have devil familiars; or they were recommended to a doctor to have the 'demons' exorcised from their head...only to die or end up physically damaged ( often by getting holes drilled in their heads) during the process.
No, murderering her husband by her own hands was not an option and neither was stealing his money, but something had to be done to bring justice for Jacob's actions...and Emily wasn't going to be satisfied until she got what she wanted.
' The best revenge is one that will affect him on a personal level...' the young woman thought to herself.
' He's already hurt me on a personal level by taking our son away...so perhaps if I was to take myself away from him?' that sounded awful to think of...but in some sick sense, it made sense.
" Jacob probably thinks that we can just have another child to replace the one we lost, anyway!" Emily suddenly blurted out to herself in a shocked yet reasonating tone as she finally got up out of the chair and grabbed ahold of a small pouch of money.
It was nothing but an out-of-the-blue suspicion she had that probably wasn't even true...but to Emily; it seemed only too probable enough for Emily to come to her final decision as the young woman made her way out of the front door and onto the streets of East City.
As she walked along, Emily just smiled rather eeriely as she finally formulated a promising ( yet somewhat idealistic) plan within her head...she'd fake her own death by pretending to poison herself, somehow get Jacob framed for it...and provided that she didn't get buried alive first; Emily upon her awakening, would then go and look for her little boy and get him back...then the two of them would live happily in their little home without the fear of Jacob selling anyone!
With that final comforting image now transfixed in her mind, Emily had no intention of backing out of the plan as her travels began to take her down a lane that led towards the local monastery ( which grew all kinds of medicinal herbs within it's gardens) that was safely tucked away behind a big wall and a number of oak trees.
Of course this wasn't the first time that the young woman had visited the monastery...the last time she had visited had been around four years ago, just before she'd given birth to Shou and it had been to buy two herbs; Chamomile ( to help her through the pains of labour) and Rosemary ( to protect her infant son from being taken away by faeries) but now the herb Emily hoped to find was of a different nature altogether...
This really was the only place where a peasant woman such as Emily could look for herbs, the only other place that sold such things was an apothecary...but they only served men and woman of high importance or social status; they were also more reliable too...a fact that made the chestnut-haired woman frown by just thinking about it.
But no...Emily Tucker couldn't worry about that now, she had other important matters to attend to.
" The monks here have never let me down before, please don't let them fail me this time..." the young woman prayed outloud as she finally reached the entrance's gate...and didn't hesistate in going in.
While Emily was arriving at the monastery, Jacob awaited for Yoki's decision as the balding slave master did a small check-up on the four year old boy...the bespectacled man could only watch in silence as Yoki studied the eyes of Shou, as well as the muscles in his arms and how healthy he seemed to be; this check-up routine was required of all slaves when they were sold to the market and the price often depended on the condition of the individual too.
There wasn't much Shou could do in retaliation as the older man checked him over, aside from let loose a small startled squeak when Yoki had squeezed one of the boy's chubby arms in order to check the muscle mass; but it was very clear that the four year old didn't like this one bit...what kind of person went prodding and poking another person as if they were some kind of experiment anyway?!
' I want to go home...' Shou murmured to himself inwardly, he just wanted to be back at the family home with his mother and if the man in-question wasn't acting too weird, his father; and just play with the few toys that Shou could actually claim that he had.
" Hmm...well this seems to be a promising sale" Yoki finally spoke up as he finished checking Shou over and just turned to face Jacob with a hint of a smirk on his face.
" We don't often get them as young as this, but the young lad certainly seems to be more alive than the latest purchases we've had here, a slave dropping dead within a few days of working as a result of physical weakness is never good for business..." however...as he noticed Jacob's expression go to that of a shocked one, Yoki quickly changed the subject for fear of losing another sucker...erm...I mean, customer.
" But your son looks extremely healthy...at the peak of it even!" Yoki insisted with as honesty as he could muster, which in reality wasn't a lot...but Jacob and a dozen other people didn't need to know that.
" However... I also couldn't help but notice that he has a few Xing-like qualities in him; more so in the shape of his eyes than anything else, such a person of that descent is worth a lot more money than your ordinary run-of-the-mill Amestrian..." one dark eyebrow raised somewhat questionally as he looked over to Jacob with a serious expression, if this kid was really Xingnese...then the deal would be even more profitable than Yoki first thought. such a thought made him rub his hands together somewhat gleefully.
" Of course...the final price will all depend on his blood purity"
Jacob's attention had occasionally been drifting from Yoki as the slave master just seemed to warble on about something, to little Shou...who was now tugging quite firmly on his father's arm, the frightened look on his chubby face seemed to suggest that he didn't want to be here anymore...and just wanted to go home.
Yet just as Jacob softly ruffled his four year old son's hair and gave a look to show that he really was considering on just going back home with Shou in tow, Yoki caught the bespectacled man's attention once more with the talk of high prices and Xingian blood purity.
" Blood purity?" that seemed like a rather strange thing to associate with a price.
" Well it's true that Shou has some Xingian blood in him...but what's that got to do with anything?"
It was that particular response from Jacob that Yoki then just gave a look of disbelief for a few moments...had this man not understood him at all, even though he had spoken in proper english?!
' Wonderful...I finally get a promising purchase come up, and the vendor happens to be an idiot' he mentally grumbled to himself and just did a rather strained grin.
" Let me offer you a better explanation..." he spoke up again with a slightly nervous chuckle in his voice.
' so hopefully this time, it will get through your thick head'
" In more recent years...the slave market has started to rely on blood purity within the more foreign slaves that it takes on; in other words...the purer the blood, the higher the price" the balding middle-aged man explained thoroughly, making sure not to leave a single bit out.
" For someone of Xingian descent, the price is definately high...especially since they're so exotic and all" however his thoughts seemed to say something completely different.
' Still, it doesn't make them any more important than anyone else...the only thing good about them is that they make me more rich!'
" Say for example; if a person was to sell a pure-blooded Xingian...the amount of money they'd receive would be equal to that of a Lord" he told Jacob with a knowing gleam in his eyes, he then smirked when Jacob seemed to give a look of awe in response. ' Finally, the little worm has taken the bait...'
" If they were to sell a half-blooded Xingian, then the price wouldn't be as much but it would still be a substantial amount, yet if someone was to sell a person that only had about a quarter of Xingian blood within them...the price would cost more or less the same for say, a week's worth of food? not a lot, I'm afraid..."
At that moment, Yoki looked Jacob right in the eyes and just gave a rather smug-looking smirk.
" And judging from your looks Mr. Tucker, I would say that you're definately a full-blooded Amestrian...so you receiving the full price is definately out of the question..."
Cussing mentally to himself, Jacob just looked down at Shou again as he tried to come up with a believeable enough lie concerning his son's Xingian heritage.
He knew only too well that Emily was actually half Xingian...but to tell the truth and say that Shou was a quarter-blood would mean that Jacob would get less money for his sale.
' I'm not doing this to get a small amount of money...if I was to get that, then there would be no use in selling Shou at all, I might as well say he's half Xingian.' yet as Pete's story about the rabbit and the fox came back into his mind, Jacob just seemed to smirk slightly as he finally noticed the comparison between himself and the fox.
' That's not how the story's going to end for me though...' he inwardly told himself as he ruffled his son's hair softly.
' Once I get that money and save it up for a few weeks, I should have enough money to buy Shou back from here...then the fox would of finally got revenge on the rabbit' it was a plan that seemed almost way too idealistic too work...but the young man had a lot of confidence in it.
Looking back to Yoki, an almost smug grin formed on Jacob's face as he then folded his arms and spoke up once more.
" If you want to know, Shou's half Xingian...his mother was imported from Xing years ago to initially work as a slave...but she managed to escape the market and I was the one to find her" oh this was one heck of a spun-out lie...but the bespectacled man was doing everything he could to make it sound believeable.
" She was a little wary of me for quite some time...but we did eventually grow close to one another" and with a swift motion towards his four year old son, Jacob just did a rather bashful grin.
" I should think my son's existance is proof of that, huh?"
Yoki just looked to Jacob with narrowed eyes as he looked at the younger man's body language...his tone may of sounded convincing, but was there really a reason for him to be as nervous as he was letting on?
" I see...I have to say that it is quite an interesting story Mr. Tucker, but if your wife was once a slave herself...don't you think she'd be rather wary of you sending your own son to the very market where she was destined to go? I should think that if you sold your wife, you'd be nearly as rich as I am"
Jacob had dreaded what Yoki's reaction to that would be...but the answer to the moustached man's question came out much more naturally then he thought it would.
" I'm afraid that we already took our wedding vows a long time ago...and another reason is that my wife has been rather ill lately..." it was at that point that he grinned slightly.
" And you said so yourself...healthy slaves tend to have a lot more promise than those that are ill"
As Shou just listened to the two men continue on with their talking, his need to go home grew even more.
' Why did Daddy mention Mommy just now? what's an Xingian? and what's wrong with my blood? it's red, just like everyone else's isn't it?' the questions just seemed to spin around like crazy in the little boy's mind so much, that the poor thing had actually started to feel physically dizzy.
He honestly couldn't understand why his father was acting so weird all of a sudden, or the reason as to why money seemed to be heavily involved with what Jacob and Yoki were talking about.
Toddling away from his father's side, Shou walked over to one of the big money bags that were open and just sat down on it; his attention shifted down to the floor as he drew his legs up and rested his chin on his knees.
' I just want to go home...or at least go out and play, it's boring in here...' but as much as he wanted to go out, his father had said for him to do nothing of the sort and chances are that if the little boy did wander off, he would only get into trouble...and so Shou just remained sitting on the open money bag; hoping that Jacob would take him home soon.
Yoki's eyebrow twitched in annoyance slightly when he had heard Jacob's words...if there was anything he hated, it was being being corrected by someone of a much lower social class than him, and while he really wanted to punch Jacob for that...the balding man remembered that this man before him was willing to sell his only son for a price, not many customers ( let alone sane people) did that so that in itself was somewhat respectable to the slave-master's slimy world of business; besides...the concequences of this event would be on Jacob's shoulders, not Yoki's.
" Yes you're right...so I suppose this means that we have a deal then, don't we?" he asked with a sleazy grin speading across his features.
Glancing over to Shou who was still sitting on the money-bag, Yoki couldn't help but do an amused look when he and apparently only he managed to see the cruel irony in that little sight.
' The child has more or less set himself up to be sold!' he thought to himself as he shook hands with Jacob.
" That bag of gold that your son is sitting on is now yours...I believe that it is the right amount of money for a half-blooded child such as himself" but by the sounds of things, the deal wasn't finished there as he looked back to the bespectacled man and spoke up again.
" However...there is one more thing I require all my customers to do before this deal is over" and with that, he walked back to his table and pulled out a piece of paper.
" Please, come over here..."
Jacob had gone from doing an excited smile at the prospect of the deal finally being over and done with, to an uneasy expression when he saw Yoki beckoning him to come over to the table...although when he saw the piece of paper, Jacob gave a small nod and walked over to where Yoki was.
Once there, his light-blue eyes glanced down at the writing that was on the paper. " An-and this is a?"
Giving Jacob a rather unimpressed look, Yoki just gave a sigh of disbelief and shook his head slightly...were the poor people in this city really this dense?!
" It's a contract to end the deal, all I need you to do is sign on that line at the bottom of the page and then you can receive your money" yet his mind couldn't help but make a nasty jibe. ' That is, if you even know how to write!'
' So signing this is all I need to do and then it's all over...' Jacob told himself mentally as he gingerly picked up the quill pen from it's holder and glanced over to Shou with a lost expression forming on his face...oh he knew what this meant alright, once he signed this contract; Shou would no longer be apart of a family and Jacob would finally be able to pull himself and Emily up out of poverty.
Yet as much as he looked forward to getting the money, a sick feeling of guilt was starting to form in Jacob's stomach and didn't seem like it was going to stop anytime soon...
' It has to be done...I've already made up my mind, there's no going back on it now' he adamantly kept telling himself in his mind; no matter how bad the guilt was getting...Jacob was going to remain by his decision and his plan, he wasn't going to throw it away now.
' Shou my boy...don't think that just because I'm doing this, that I don't love you because I do...but sometimes one must lose the most precious thing in their life in order to obtain something just as precious, things will get better once I've earned enough money to buy you back from here...I promise' those apologetic and rather regretful words failed to leave Jacob's mouth as he took a deep breath and scribbled out what could only of been assumed as his name, on the line of the contract and then just put the pen back into it's holder.
And once that was all done, Mister Tucker looked to Yoki with an almost tired yet mournful expression now on his face.
" Forgive me for my poor handwriting, but the deal is done...he's all yours"
The words about the deal being done was all Yoki needed to hear in order to do a genuinely pleased smile ( although it didn't really make him look innocent) and he came forward to shake Jacob's hand.
" Right then it's all settled... it's been a pleasure doing business with you, Mr. Tucker!" and with a motion towards Shou and the bag of money, Yoki just did a low chuckle.
" Well the money is yours now...best to take it and get on with your life, yes?"
Jacob just winced at that as he could practically hear the gleeful tone in Yoki's voice, but just gave a nod and started to walk towards Shou with that regretful look still on his face.
' I'm sorry Shou...I'm really, really sorry' he thought to himself as he knelt down to the boy and just gave him a sudden hug, it would probably be the last time in a long while that he'd get to do something like this; so Jacob thought he'd make the most of it now. " Shou...you do know that I love you, right?" the bespectacled man found himself asking in a slightly uneasy tone.
Shou had been rather surprised by the sudden hug from his father but made no attempt to squirm away from it...perhaps he'd finally figured out that the little boy didn't like it here and was ready to take him home to Emily!
Although at Jacob's question, Shou's eyebrows furrowed upwards into a worried frown and he just gave a nod. " Of course I know that you love me, Daddy...and I know that you love Mommy too" he responded, his tone sounding as reassuring as a four year old could get.
Jacob seemed to grimace at the mention of how Emily loved him too...and that just got the young man to hug his son just a little bit tighter.
' You may love me, but your mommy might not when I go back home without you...' it was ironic really...earlier on, Jacob had told himself not to be so concerned over what Emily would do about this, being as Jacob was the man of the house, yet now he was mentally quivering with fear over it...funny how having time to think over things rapidly changed someone's mind.
But it was too late to take Yoki back on that offer...Jacob had officially sold Shou and it was now time to face the concequences that awaited the man back at home, whether Jacob liked it or not.
Pulling back from Shou slightly, Jacob tried to smile at his son...but it could only come out strained as the guilt was making it hard to even look at the little boy now; how was he going to go about this? explain to the boy that Daddy had to go somewhere...or just start walking without offering any explaination to the child? ...of course no matter which option he went with in the end, the outcome would most likely be the same.
' What can I tell him? what should I do? the last thing I'd ever want to see is my son wailing like a baby...there has to be something I can do that will mean easy-leavings for me...'
However...with a child as young as Shou, Jacob soon began to wonder if it would make a difference if he was to phrase things a bit differently rather than saying a flat-out farewell. ' It's not like I'd be doing anything illegal or anything like that...I could just tell him a harmless little white-lie, keep his hopes up...I mean, it's not like he's going to be in here for the rest of his life!' the young man's mind reasonated to himself, still so sure that things were going to run as smoothly as he imagined them doing.
" I'm...I'm glad to hear that" Jacob finally responded and after patting Shou on the head, stood up to his full height again.
" Because...because Daddy has some things that he needs to take care of and while he does that, you have to stay here" well as far as Jacob was concerned, his words weren't that much of a lie...just how wrong could it of been to do this?
The smile on Shou's chubby face faded a little and took on a more quizzical look instead...his father needed him to stay at this scary old place? well that was new to the four year old; normally when Jacob needed to do something, Shou just stayed in his mother's company while Jacob worked in the small study area...obviously whatever Jacob wanted to do didn't include reading books.
" You have to take care of some things?" the little boy repeated and just put his hands behind his back.
" What kind of things, Daddy?"
' I forgot how perceptive the boy was...' Jacob muttered inwardly to himself before laughing nervously and just gave a small shrug of his shoulders. " Now, now Shou; you know that being nosey towards others isn't very polite...Daddy just has a lot of grown-up work to do and your mother can't have you running around her legs all day, we need to give her a rest for a while...that's why I brought you here"
Emily needed a rest and his father needed to work? Shou still seemed a little puzzled as to why he'd been brought to such a strange place if that was the case, surely his parents would still be able to work even if he was there, right?
But Jacob's words seemed convincing...and eventually, the little boy just gave a understanding ( yet somewhat uneasy-looking) nod.
" O-okay...so you'll be coming back later to bring me home?" Shou responded...yet that question ended up slipping in there at the last minute, his blue eyes seemed to look hopeful of Jacob's answer being a good one.
Jacob had just smiled a little at that, although he winced when he heard a rather annoyed 'Hmph!' from Yoki, obviously the other man was growing impatient with the young man for stalling.
" Yes, yes I'll come back to take you home again soon...you, me and Mommy will all be together at home again and enjoying a nice supper! that'd be nice, huh?" his words came quickly and slightly awkward sounding but incredibly sure-sounding, having already creating a seemingly ideal image of that situation within his head, even Jacob himself was nearly falling for his own lie...if only it would of been possible for him to buy back his son on that same day...
" But I have to go for now...be a good boy for me, okay Shou?" and with that, Jacob waved to Shou and started to head towards the tent's opening.
" Uh-huh, I promise to be good boy, Daddy!" the little boy responded and started waving back; well of course he'd have to be a good boy...even at the age of four years old, Shou had long since realised that you only ever got praised for good behaviour...and he happened to enjoy being praised quite a bit.
It wasn't a crime, it wasn't something un-natural for a child his age, Shou just liked it when his parents and other people smiled at him gently...he liked it when they talked in friendly voices, patted him on the head and told him what a good boy he was.
So perhaps...perhaps if he was a good boy and stayed at this place like his father said for him to; maybe Jacob and Emily would get Shou something nice as a present for good behaviour...needless to say that little Shou liked that thought a lot.
However...as much as he looked forward to the possible praise, Shou also felt quite nervous about being more or less left alone in a strange place that he'd never been to before and it was only natural for a child to miss their parents, and as the realisation was finally starting to sink in; Shou didn't like the thought about being away from them at all...surely Jacob wouldn't leave him here for long, right?
" But...but it won't be for long, right Daddy? promise that you'll come back soon!" his expression had now gone to looking rather worried, a look to fit his words as he looked to his father...Shou longed to run over to his father and give him one more hug, but no...he'd have to be a big boy for the moment...stay brave, he had to stay brave for this!
That got Jacob to faulter somewhat as he finally reached the tent's entrance/exit...and as Shou had said those words, Jacob winced and seemed to grip onto the tent's material slightly...a promise, why did Shou have to say the dreaded words of a promise when everything from this point seemed so uncertain? but if a promise was what would make the child happy...
" I promise...you won't have to wait long" Jacob seemed to strain with his answer a little and just did a saddened smile ( although he tried to put on a brave face) and then just turned to walk out into the street.
Jacob's steps quickened in pace as the man's thoughts began racing through his mind yet again, doubts anew were rising and of course there was confronting Emily when he got home...the guilt was starting to make his stomach churn, oh how he thought he'd managed to get everything sorted out in his mind, how he thought that he'd finally feel much more braver after the main hurdle was out of the way...but with how he was feeling as he started to break into a run away from the slave-market, Jacob was beginning to wonder if he'd been oh so very wrong.
And while Jacob walked on to an uncertain future...Shou could only wait in the slave-market, having not caught the strain in his father's voice...or the fact that Jacob had been very hasty on leaving, the four year old remained hopeful that his father would keep that promise...yet oblivious to the fact that his life was now going to less easier than it had been; much less the fact that it was his own beloved father who had sold him off for a better life...
But for the moment, believing in hopes and promises was the only thing that the little boy could do...after all, his father would come back to get him and take him back home before sunset...wouldn't he?
" You promised me Daddy, so come back soon..." the child murmured quietly as he just went over to the tent's opening and stood there, looking out at the street and some other people as they just bustled along, too busy caught up in their own business to even pay any mind to the rather sad-looking child looking out at them all.
To be continued!