With their bellies full of scrambled eggs and cooked sausage, Ren and Bethany backtracked through the mildly bustling village plaza— the limited number of market stalls they had lined up along the edge of the spacious area were all tending to the wants and needs of the locals. Thankfully, the two of them being impoverished meant that the temptation of possibly buying any unnecessary goods wasn't even thought of.
Not too far off from the two-story tall village hall— where the sermon had taken place earlier— was the only wooden gateway that led in-and-out of the walled off village. Under the looming shadow of the upturned logs that were buried halfways underneath the Earth, guards that had been stationed at the village were either nonchalantly drinking in broad daylight, or occasionally wasting their munitions to take potshots at the open flatlands that were residing just outside of the village entrance.
Instinctively reaching down to grab a hold of Bethany's hand, Ren pulled Bethany behind him, shielding her as best as he could from the eyes of any drunk guard, who might see her as an easy target. "Avoid looking at them if you can, okay...?" Ren whispered subtly, to which Bethany first acknowledged by momentarily squeezing his hand.
"Kay, Ren…" Bethany whispered in a hushed voice, and kept her head tilted downward as she followed behind the eleven year-old in front of her— her pink eyes fixating on the heels of his leather boots, as the two of them drew closer to the guarded entrance.
Although he was doing his best to keep his head down in both the figurative and literal sense, upon drawing within less than a few meters away from the twenty foot-tall archway that had its heavy wooden gates spread outward to the frontier beyond, Ren still decided to quickly flick his gaze upward— just in time to take notice of a group of three guardsmen standing between them and the dirt road ahead.
"Oi ye' lil' brats; where do ye' think yer' goin'?" The tall, lanky guard to Ren's right asked in a condescending voice that reeked of alcohol; his iron chainmail and cuirass covered beneath his white surcoat that bore the emblem of the King loosely fitting him, as a crooked smile appeared over his visible lips. Feeling an immediate sense of unease, Ren stiffened a low whimper as he actively avoided eye-contact— attempting to not antagonize the man, which did little favors for him. "Oi, ya lil' bastard! Why ain't ya talkin'?!"
With the King not being discriminating of who serves him, the five-foot tall female guard— whose hair was concealed by her iron helmet— cackled at her colleague's insulting inquiry. "Lil shite ova' t'ere looks lioke 'e's t' take the bloody piss, wit' the way 'e's got 'es lil girlfriend be'ind 'em," the woman mused teasingly— sounding even more drunk then the previous guard. "Ooooo, 'm fuckin' quakin' in 'm boots, lads!"
Letting out a goofy and full-bellied laugh at the way his female colleague was playfully raising her hands up defensively in front of herself— as if though Ren and Bethany actually posed a threat to her— the lanky guard immediately began tapping the third man of their trio on his chainmail covered shoulder.
"B-Bruno— m-mate, mate! Sound the fookin' alarms, ya?! We got ourselves a bloody BADASS over 'ere— AH, HAHAHA, HAAAA~!" The lanky guard laughed drunkenly alongside his female comrade— the two of them perpetuating one another's laughter to the point of tears.
Luckily for Ren and Bethany, the more muscular of the trio appeared to be completely sober in comparison to his two colleagues— even appearing unamused to the two children, as the large guard rolled his hazel eyes at his two friends.
"Bloody loons— the lot of ya are," the sober guard muttered with an endearing smile beginning to grow beneath his thick handlebar mustache.
"Ignore their idiocy, children, and instead take these two morons as prime example as to why you should never touch alcohol while on the job," Bruno quipped with sass hidden behind his gruff voice, as he gave a side eye glance at his drunken companions— who in turn only found the man's jab at them to be nothing more than fuel for the fire of their laughing fit.
Making sure to steady the leather sling of his musket by grabbing it along his chest, Bruno knelt down on one knee to get on the same eye level as Ren— a soft chortle of approval escaping his nostrils, as he took notice of the way he pulled Bethany closer behind him.
"Good on you, son; it's a man's job to protect the women in their life. You do well to remember that, you hear me boy?" The muscular guard asked in a sincere voice; speaking to Ren in a warm and fatherly manner, and beginning to lower the eleven year-old's guard.
Softening his hardened glare ever so slightly at the pair of hazel eyes across from him, Ren nodded slowly at Bruno' remark, and quietly responded with, "Y-Yes, sir..."
Satisfied with what he heard, the gate guard gave the boy a confident nod back before rising up to his feet. "Right then— onto business, innit?" Bruno mused, before using his iron gauntlet-fist to reach out and sock his lanky companion on his arm.
"Oi, fuck mate…!" The slender guard yelped out with a wince, before immediately turning to face Bruno with an annoyed scowl. "The hell was that for?!"
"Zéphyr. The list. Let's go, yeah? Ain't got all bloody day to muck around like you two sods," Bruno commanded in a stern voice— snapping his armored fingers, which prompted not only the lanky guard to stop laughing, but the five-foot female between them to do as well.
Muttering bitterly under his alcohol breath, Zéphyr reached down to his leather belt— retrieving an unrolled up piece of papyrus paper that was attached to a thin wooden board from one leather pouch, before taking out a quill from another.
Without having to ask, the female guard assisted with the lanky guard by reaching into another one of his leather pouches along his belt. "'Ere mate, oi' gotcha," she quietly said to Zéphyr, before uncapping his glass bottle of black ink and extending it out for him.
"Appreciate it, Colette," Zéphyr quietly replied with an appreciative tone in his voice, and sunk the tip of his quill into the small bottle of ink before retracting his hand away from hers. "Eugh… Right then… Ready when you are, Corporal."
"Aye, Zéphyr," Bruno acknowledged, while silently approving the unspoken agreement to square themselves. "State your name, and reasons for departing," the corporal ordered the children, while Colette quickly capped the ink bottle as she turned her head over her shoulder to squint her eyes over at the large candle that was mounted along the inside of the log wall near the opened gate.
"Time 's… 'Bout Ten o' twenty, mate," she quietly informed Zéphyr.
Nodding his head while recording the time beside the blank spaces where he would scribe their names, the lanky guard nodded his head and mumbled, "Ten o' twenty— aye," before stroking the ink-top of his quill along the final zero.
"R… Ren Ashta…"
"Ren Ashta— aye."
"Uh… B-Bethany… Bethany H-Heim…"
"Bethany Heim— aye," Zéphyr repeated back, before impatiently signaling for one of the children to state their reason for leaving the village.
"I'll be walking her back home to the Heim Family Farm, and I should be back before sunset," Ren explained in a slightly droning voice, after making sure to include the time when he's expected to be back inside the walls of the village.
"Expected to return to "Maggiore Village" at approximately sundown— aye."
"Ren," Bethany whispered quietly into his ear, and waited until he slightly turned his head over his shoulder before reminding him, "tell them that you'll be bringing back vegetables…"
"Oh, right…" Ren whispered back, and gave her a subtle nod to voice his gratitude before announcing to Zéphyr, "I'll be bringing back vegetables from her farm as well."
Motoring his lips in an exasperated and annoyed tone, the scribing guard rolled his eyes as he quietly muttered, "Hopefully my relief shows up in time today— I bloody hate writing import reports," under his breath, as he wrote down the last of what Ren said. "Bringing back an undisclosed amount of vegetables from the Heim Family Farm… Aye…"
Satisfied with the process that had just transpired under his watch, Bruno raised his hand to signal for both Zéphyr and Colette to step aside— opening the path back to Ren and Bethany, and smiling down at the gray-haired boy as he said in a militaristic voice, "Carry on, then."
Giving the corporal and his two underlings a feigned smile, once Ren and Bethany distanced themselves from the trio, the two of them immediately let out sighs of relief.
"Thank god— that could have gone far worse than it did," Ren remarked, as he finally let go of Bethany's sweaty hand— subtly wiping his palm along his pant leg, as the red-haired girl momentarily sped up to begin walking by his side, rather than behind him.
"Yeah, heh…! Tell me about it," Bethany said with an uncomfortable laugh, and reached up and behind her head to interlace her fingers together. "Remember that one time I told you about how one of the guards tried getting me to follow him alone into the barracks?"
"V… Very much so, yes," Ren replied with a knot of discomfort mildly forming within the pit of his stomach, as let out a quiet sigh while walking further along the dirt path leading away from the village.
"Yeah… I really don't like the way the King rotates the guards out every two months," Bethany mused on a tangent, before getting back to the conversation at hand as she remarked, "I wish that the good ones like that Bruno guy would stick around to knock some sense into the dumb and creepy ones that get sent here a lot."
"As do I," Ren said in a slightly bothered voice, and began narrowing his eyelids as he recalled the feelings of inadequacy and helplessness from earlier. "S… S-Sorry, by the way…"
Hearing the subtle embarrassment in the boy's low and barely audible apology, Bethany blinked her eyelids a few times while turning her head over her shoulder to stare silently at Ren with a perplexed look across her face.
"… What are you saying sorry for?" She asked, while sounding genuinely confused.
Not answering right away, it took Ren a few moments to reluctantly gather up enough humility to somberly admit to Bethany, "It's just… I… I didn't really… Uh… Y-You know…? P-Protect you, as much as I would have wanted to…"
"Really now…?! Is that the way you saw it…?" Bethany asked with a comforting chuckle, and greeted Ren's confused stare with a warm grin across her lips.
"I… I don't get what you're trying to imply here," Ren said with slightly furrowed brows, as he softened his gaze at her.
"Really?! Sheesh— and here I thought you were pretty smart for a boy, Ren," Bethany mused sassily with her hands still resting behind her head, before chuckling as she made sure to add, "Kidding~!"
"… Buuuuut seriously; I think you're being a SMIDGE too hard on yourself there, pal," Bethany said on a more serious— albeit, still lighthearted— note. "And I mean, it's not like you DIDN'T protect me!"
Unable to hide his skepticism, Ren met Bethany's reassurance with a raised brow— taking a few moments to silently decipher whether she was joking again with him, or not— before finally asking her, "And do tell: how exactly DID I protect you then?"
"Well, for one they made fun of you instead of me," Bethany replied half-jokingly with an apologetic chuckle, and began conveying a sense of further gratitude in the way her smile seemed to suddenly become less whimsical.
"Plus… You pretty much did all of the talking on our behalf; you put yourself between me and them, and… And I could tell that you were ready to shield me, if it came down to uh… T-To that," Bethany trailed off while her smile slowly faded away, and soon became visibly upset before quickly shaking off her feeling of discomfort that her intrusive thoughts brought upon her.
"… But like you said: it could have gone a LOT worse than it did! So if anything, I'm just thankful that you didn't actually have to prove yourself to anyone," she said with her spirits rising back to how they were moments ago, before shrugging her shoulders as she loosened her fingers from behind her head.
"And besides! You did alright by me, AND by Bruno— for what that's worth!" Bethany mentioned enthusiastically, her pink eyes sparkling underneath the light of the shining sun above; her optimism alone being more than enough to melt away Ren's remaining insecurities, as it slowly felt to him as though a weight was being lifted from his chest.
"Now come on! Enough moping around already; we've got ourselves a creek to play at!" Bethany exclaimed with one first raised up high, and the other cocked back down to her hip; earning herself as much of a bewildered look from Ren as his usually emotionless face could express.
"… We're going to the creek?" Ren inquired with furrowed brows, and took notice of the way Bethany began power walking toward the direction of the woods that resided off of the beaten path towards her family's farm. "I thought we were supposed to pick vegetables?"
"Yeah! We're still gonna do that boring stuff too!" Bethany said with a smug look across her face, and soon turned around and began jogging backwards with a mischievous look across her grinning face.
"Right after we splash around, and play a game of "Adventurers", that is!" She revealed, and winked playfully at Ren's conflicted expression before immediately turning back forward.
Gathering his thoughts and selecting his words carefully, Ren let out a quiet sigh before telling Bethany, "I really don't think we should-"
"-Bet I can be you there!" She interrupted— cutting him off, as she looked over her shoulder to flash a daring look at him.
And before Ren could object, Bethany lowered herself down to get into a take-off position. "ReadysetGO!" She shouted as quickly as she could— stumbling over her own words, and leaving Ren feeling even more bewildered than as he before, as he watched her kick up a cloud of dust in the wake of her mad dash toward the forest.
Seeing no other than option that didn't require him to abandon her, Ren rolled his eyes and tried his best to ignore the more childish side of him that enjoyed the thrill of trying to catch up to the farm girl— the warm morning wind blowing against his pale skin and though his thick, scruff gray hair, as he pursued the speedy redhead.