I'll probably develop a better time sequence to post my chapters, but for now I just want to post the second chapter while I have ideas~
The Honest Lie
Chapter Two: Introduction of The Smallest Vargas
All of the guilds woke up before the bell tower rang and were eating breakfast in the main halls, voices filling the room as people began waking up from their sleepy state.
Lovino and Femke trudged to The Guardians table and sat down haphazardly across from each other, "It's way too early for this shit." he groaned, resting his head against his palm.
Femke gave a sort of nod and reached for her goblet, almost knocking it over in the process, getting a small glare from her friend.
Soon, Elizaveta and Roderich woke up and come down to get breakfast, along with the rest of the guild and filled in the table. The Elites table stood up and pushed the long tables together and began filling in again, this time mixing with the other guild.
Antonio seemed to notice a group of men eying a certain Italian that were members of his guild, so he kindly asked a man to scoot over and sat down next to Lovino. The group to give a surprised look and try to avoid the emerald eyed glare. He sighed and turned to the Italian, giving a small smile.
The man just scoffed and sipped from his goblet, muttering something under his breath.
"Oh! You're the commanders son from The Elites, right?" Femke asked, giving a bright smile and setting down her cup.
Antonio smiled, "I am. Are you friends of Lovino's?" he said, looking at the blonde and the brunette, which both nodded.
Lovino scoffed, "So, why are you here?" he grumbled, shooting a look at him that was a bit skeptical.
"Aw, you don't want me here~?" the Spaniard pouted but chuckled, "I want to spend the morning with you while our guilds get things for the travel." he said, gently tipping the goblet that the smaller boy was trying to use as a shield to hide his face.
"Who said you could come in the first place?" he said, putting the goblet down so none of the wine would spill on Antonio, or himself.
Antonio paused and chuckled, "Me? I am on of the few who are leading the way, so I can help you get what you need for the rocky landscape." he said, placing his elbow on the table and leaning his head against his palm.
Elizaveta and Femke whispered something to each other and giggled softly, taking a sip of their drink.
The guilds agreed to meet up at the town stables when the bell struck noon, which was about two hours for them to get items.
After arguing about it, Lovino finally gave up and decided to let him tag along. When the guilds began filling out of the headquarters to get the things they needed, Antonio took a glance at Gilbert and Francis and pointed to Lovino when they gave a confused look.
Lovino sighed into the foggy air, "Shouldn't you be with your guild since you're the commanders son?" he asked, making his way to his house. He felt mud beginning to suck on his boot and make it heavy, but he continued.
Shrugging, Antonio hummed, "They'll be fine by themselves for a while." he glanced over at him, watching as they soon stopped at a stone house and he unlocked the door. Before he went in, he scraped the mud off of his boot on a rock and demanded the older man to do the same, which he did.
Immediately, the Italian was surrounded by warmth and the smell of spice causing him to sigh contently. He noticed a small familiar head that peeked out from the kitchens door, then a gasp.
"Fratello~!" the small boy grinned and ran over to the man and waved, asking in Italian about the man next to him to not seem rude.
Lovino blinked and bent down, "Hm? Oh.. He's nobody." he said, hearing a loud whine from behind him. He ruffled Feliciano's hair and smiled down at him.
Antonio watched as the two brothers talked in Italian, but he felt his cheeks heat up at the sight of Lovino smiling. He seemed dazed until he noticed the eldest brother standing up and going into a hallway, then disappeared behind a wall, leaving him with the smaller boy. He bent down on one knee and noticed him smiling brightly at him.
Feliciano looked behind him, then back at the man, "Are you one of Lovi's friends?" he asked, giggling as the Spaniard blushed.
"Well," Antonio raised a brow at the name, "I think I am.." he chuckled, "So what's your name, little guy? I'm Antonio, or you can call me Toni." he said, holding out his hand.
The smaller of the two grinned, "I'm Feliciano~" he put his tiny hand in Antonio's and laughed.
Finally, Lovino came back with a few small pouches and hooked them to his belt, scowling at the other man before turning to Feliciano and kneeling down in front of him.
The smaller Vargas frowned, "Are you leaving again?" he asked, saddened that his brother came back, then was leaving again.
The Italian sighed and nodded, pulling his little brother into a tight hug. It may be his last time seeing Feliciano, but he tried not to think like that. He bid his farewells and stood up, about to walk out the door when he heard the boy giggle and turned around, confused.
"Big brother Lovi is really short next to Toni~" he chirped, laughing as his brother turned red and growled something under his breath while Antonio cooed about him being adorable with the nicknames.
After the two left, Lovino seemed to be checking his height with the man next to him as they made their way to the shopping square. The top of his head reached to at least the bottom his chest, so he wasn't that short.
The two men walked around the square, buying a few things before going to the potions shop. Both of them decided to pair their money and buy healing potions, and getting a few other ones.
When the bell tower rang, the armored men walked to the stables which was built outside of the city. It wasn't small, or large, but it only had several horses for sale in their stables.
Lovino looked to the owner of the stables, who smiled and nodded, and went towards a rather large brown and white patched horse. He gently scratched her forehead and took off his shield, hooking it on the saddle, along with his bag full of items, before taking her reins and gently leading her towards Antonio, who was getting his horse ready.
The Spaniard looked up from hooking his saddle on and smiled, "You have a very beautiful horse." he said, standing up and moving towards Lovino's horse, gently rubbing her cheek and muzzle.
The younger man huffed and rolled his eyes, swatting his hand away, "Let's just see what the commanders are saying." he murmured, pulling his horse to where the crowd was forming with Antonio following.
The two commanders seemed to agree on something and raised a hand to silence to chatter. The first one to speak was The Elites leader.
"We have agreed to set my guild first, then The Guardians will follow behind us, just for protection. Those with horses, which is few of you all, will patrol the sides of the guilds."
The Guardians guild leader murmured something to Antonio's father, who nodded.
"Gilbert and Francis will patrol the front half of The Elites, while Ivan and Natalia patrol the back half of our group." he said, turning to his ally who nodded.
"Lovino and Femke will patrol the front half of The Guardians, while Antonio and Daan will patrol the back half." the older man said, allowing the eight of them to get situated with their partner.
Antonio grumbled something and huffed, but shot a small smile to his friend before he went off and stood beside a slightly taller man who seemed to not be very pleased with his partner as well.
The Italian found Femke standing beside Elizaveta and Roderich, who seemed to be blushing and talking softly to each other. He winked at her, causing her to laugh and wink back.
Quickly, the guilds formed their groups and all the patrols got in place. They began to slowly start towards Rayington, chatter beginning to form in the groups as some of them laughed and joked around.
Lovino crossed his arms and rested them on his horse's neck, putting his chin on top of them so he could see the path that led them towards a forest like area. He heard a whistle to his left and turned towards Femke, who was laying on her back, waving teasingly.
Chuckling, he lifted his head to look behind him, shivering under Daan's glare. Trying to ignore the rather hard glare, he turned to Antonio who seemed to be giving the larger man a cold look.
Finally, Antonio seemed to notice Lovino and lost his cold glare, emerald eyes glimmering again as he gave him a grin, which was met with a scowl. He pouted and winked, laughing when his friend stuck his tongue out at him.
The two guilds came up upon a river a few hours later and the patrols got off their horses to let them drink and rest while the warriors and archers ate lunch.
Antonio pulled his horse to graze beside Lovino's, then went and sat down next to him, grinning. "Hey~" He said, happily taking a bite of his tomato when he got a glare from the younger boy. Together the two talked quietly until it was time to load the horses and groups again.
They all went back into position and began walking again, and as they started to get closer to the mountain range, the temperature slowly started decreasing to where they could see they breath vapor in the wind. At some times, snow bits of snow would fall on them.
A sudden loud bark made Lovino quickly turn his head to the forest to his right, then turned to Daan who pulled out his sword. However, he frowned and pulled his horse in a slow walk.
Wolves don't bark. By the time Lovino had figured out it wasn't a wolf, the canine darted out of the bushes, it came out as a blur at first, but once he locked his eyes on it, it wasn't a wolf. It was a large dog and how Lovino could tell it wasn't a wild wolf was because of how the pelt was colored differently, and it seemed to have an odd texture to it.
The Italian turned to Daan, who had made his horse start towards the canines direction and had his dagger and sword out. Quickly, Lovino swerved his patched horse in front of Daan's, causing both of the horses to rear and make both of the soldiers to be thrown off of their saddles.
The young man groaned in pain as he pushed himself up from the small pile of snow he landed in and looked towards the older man, who was standing up with the help of the group. He hissed at the burning in his cheek, but turned to the dog, which was stopped about a foot away from him. He could feel the stares, and some glares from the two guilds.
The large canine watched him warily, its brown eyes scanning the mans movement as if it was debating whether he was the good man, or the one trying to kill it.
Slowly, Lovino sat up fully and reached his hand out. Once his fingertips brushed up against the dog's ear, it moved its head to lick his fingers. It was obviously once a pet by how it trusted humans quickly. Suddenly, he was yanked back by the collar of his armor and brought back to his original height.
"What the hell do you think you're doing, Vargas?" the man growled, letting go of his collar and glaring at the dog, then back to him.
"Wh- I-I.."
"Back off, Daan." the man was pushed away from him and Lovino recognized the familiar armor. Antonio glared at the blond man, "It's a dog, not a wolf. It may be one of the villagers pets that got loose, and you were going to kill it." he said, looking down at Lovino with a rather odd look in his eyes.
The commanders came over to them, "What's the meaning of this?" he asked, narrowing his brows at his son for lashing out at one of his members.
"It was my fault, commander. I thought this dog maybe one of the villagers pet.." Lovino murmured, placing his hand on the dog's head.
The taller man noticed the look in his sons eyes before sighing, "Just don't do it again." he gruffly said, making a movement to Antonio and Daan, in which they nodded and went back to their horses.
A bit surprised, Lovino numbly nodded and gently called the dog over to his horse and mounted it, making sure his dog was following before starting to follow the rest of the guild. He rubbed his face to get rid of any snowflakes, but moaned in pain when his cheek began burning and throbbing. He pulled his hand away and looked down to see his fingertips smeared with blood, not catching Femke's or Antonio's worried glance.
When the commanders agreed to stop at a cave to rest, they made The Guardians guild and The Elites guild have separate sides just for the sake of the incident from earlier. However, this didn't stop Antonio from sneaking over to sit beside Lovino once he thought everyone was slipping asleep.
Antonio quietly sat beside the younger man and noticed the dog from before laying on his lap sleeping. He looked up to see him blinking rather lazily at his emerald stare.
"What do you want and why are you over here?" Lovino whispered, yawning into his hand.
The Spaniard smiled, "I just want to sit by my friend, and It's pretty lonely over there." he pouted, watching as the flames light flickered on the side of Lovino's face.
"Whatever.. Just get back to your side before they all wake up." he huffed and closed his eyes, letting sleep slip to him and the small rubs to the dog's ear slowly stopped, his breath evening out and the vapor coming out steady.
Antonio grinned and gently moved Lovino's head to his shoulder from the rather uncomfortable position and put his blanket around both of them to keep them warm from the cold wind that managed to push into the cave.
This took pretty long because I procrastinated, but, until chapter 3!