the towering brick walls of a building that had long lost its roof blocked out what little light remained of the day. Inside sat three pudgy boys, and Damien. the boy didn’t have any tremors, and his head looked straight at the pudgy three.
The three were mostly confused, but they were all waiting to see what Damien had prepared. Surely, he wouldn’t have called an adult…. Right? Surely not, such an action guaranteed that they ALL were getting a beating.
Soon what little orange light that came through one of the windows was blocked out. The figure that appeared inside the building shortly after had blue and red eyes. Ciaran took one look at Damien, and then another look at the three.
The three didn’t remember Ciaran’s features due to their rather… fleeting, first meeting. Not matter, he just had to “remind” them who he was, but that came later. Violence was an option, but Ciaran didn’t know if it would work. It was also just a lot of effort. Instead, he took the first steps towards mediation.
“So, what’s your name?”
Ciaran’s cheery voice left furrowed brows all around him. the absence of a response that also followed left a stale taste in Ciaran’s mouth and he changed the topic.
“Well, that’s not important anyway, so why did you guys start beating up Damien?”
“He was picking a fight, it’s not our fault he was weak as shit.”
The pudgiest of the pudgy three answered for the group.
“No, I mean before that.”
“Oh, ah, not telling?”
“Wrong answer, pick again!”
“How about no?”
Ciaran gave a smile at that answer, it seems plan b was the better option. The boy walked over to the three and with a light thud he knocked one of them on the head. whatever it was meant to be, the result left a pudgy mess on the floor.
Ciaran looked at the boy whose lights had gone out and uttered.
“Oops?”
The sheer absurdity of the situation finally flicked a switch, and the other two boys remembered a certain rainy night. Well… one of them did, the other wasn’t conscious long enough to have anything to remember.
Ciaran looked at the two boys and asked again.
“so, why do you go around beating people up?”
“WHY DO YOU?!”
“I don’t know, you started it.”
Ciaran’s tone was much too serious for the bewilderment that covered the other boys faces. Nevertheless… sounds? Yeah, sounds came out of the boy’s mouths.
“Ah, e, oh, uhh, I DON’T KNOW!”
Ciaran raised an eyebrow; it seems that it was his turn to be confused. How could you not know why you were beating someone up? Ciaran’s mouth mirrored his thoughts, and he blurted out.
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“How is that even possible?!”
Two answers came as tears welled up within one of the boys’ eyes. the other boy was much too okay with the situation though.
“WE DON’T KNOW!?” “he’s weird”
Ciaran gave the boy that gave a decent answer a decent smack on the head. Ciaran also uttered a word to compliment his smack, just one, one very important word.
“No.”
The boy was still conscious, though he was now on the floor in a tight ball holding onto what was left of his shattered skull. the boy’s skull wasn’t actually shattered, well, Ciaran didn’t think it was at least.
Looking at the boy that was still standing but in tears Ciaran decided not to push him. instead, Ciaran looked to the boy on the floor.
“Weird is but one reason, surely you would have another. Do tell.”
“It was fun?”
How the boy managed to get those three words out in his state was a marvel. Nonetheless Ciaran awarded him with another decent smack on the head.
“If you find it fun to beat people up, then I can surely find a way to make beating you up fun if you don’t stop. Actually, now that I remember it, you don’t get that option. On the bright side you still get to beat people up, this time they are going to fight back though.”
“What are you on about?”
“I’m going to get you to beat up the other bullies until they stop being bullies.”
“What if we don’t want to?”
“Then I will just beat you up until you want to.”
“Then what’s the difference between you and us?”
Ciaran raised one brow and lowered the other. the boy then looked up then shot his head down to look at the boy again.
“I’m stronger, duh.”
Damien exhaled deeply in an attempt to hold in what little laughter he could. The boy had a smile reminiscent of the morning sun stretching across his face. the fools were trying to use logic on the one that logic simply didn’t apply to. Damien had known Ciaran for a little while, and what drove his brain to make such decisions was beyond him… then again, he couldn’t make sense of why most children did things.
Damien closed his eyes and shook his head, just existing as Ciaran made all his problems disappear. That was of course until Ciaran called out to him.
“Hey, Damien, I think I am done here. I have to run, we’re having fried Sarafrey for dinner tonight.”
Damien groaned inside, not only because he most definitely had to clean up the mess, but Sarafrey sounded so nice for a night like tonight. Ciaran was so lucky!
“Yep, sure thing boss!”
Ciaran turned his head to Damien just as he was about to hop out the window he came in through and queried.
“Boss?”
“Oh, sorry, just kinda called you that since you keep being the one to actually get things done.”
“Really? I heard from Dad that most often the bosses didn’t do much other than paperwork.”
“Oh, are you sure? Most of the people that run the shops around here do the work themselves.”
“Yeah, but that’s all-small scale. Don’t you think once you grow up there’s going to be a bunch of people under you.”
“Yeah, but even then, I heard that the boss of the Ironworks is the mage strong enough to run the forges.”
“Fair point, have a good day then.”
Ciaran fat the rest of his body out the window and took off. For a moment it looked like dust was trailing behind the boy. Another thing Damien so wanted to have, Ciaran’s strength.
With saliva thick in his throat Damien wiped his mouth with his sleeve before looking at the pudgy three.
Two of the boys had gotten quite far considering they were dragging the third. Nonetheless Damien stood up and walked over to them with a delightful smile on his face.
“Hey guys, so that’s Ciaran. You wouldn’t do anything dumb like call an adult… would you? Not that it would matter, his dad’s going to be a noble soon.”
“…”
Their silence only fed Damiens smile, that and the fact that the two hadn’t let go of the third one yet. The two were holding an arm each and looked rather out of place, or actually quite fitting for an abandoned building.
“if that isn’t reason enough, then surely you should know how wealthy they are. You know those fruits Mr Smithson brought in from the south?”
One of the boys gulped and slowly his mouth opened.
“Yeah, what about em?”
“Ciaran has plenty of them, I am sure he will give you plenty if you do what he says.”
The two boys looked at each other and hesitantly, they nodded. The other boy then looked to Damien.
“We won’t be under you forever, we can guarantee that, but as long as you deliver then I am sure we can work something out.”
The two boys then resumed with their efforts to leave. The boys however did so walk backwards, their eyes locked with Damiens. Only one of them did this intentionally, the other was still thinking about the juicy, juicy blue goodness… who could have known that food would be so effective on them?