You are a phantom. You are just a figment of imagination. Unseen by the rest, your true worth is much more.

Inside a certain room was a boy crouched behind a wooden cabinet, sharp-eyed and alert. His tightfitting, dark clothes helped him blend in with the shadows of the cabinet. His breathing was calm and it seemed to match the speaking inside the room, allowing him to mask his timed breaths. Straining his ears, he hoped to catch the words exchanged by two people in the room.

The pair that he was currently eavesdropping on were two men. One was a blond young man around his early-twenties while the other was a hardened-looking warrior who seemed to be past his prime. No other observations could be made due to the boy’s reluctance to risk himself being caught. Aside from their garbs, which were respectively green and a dark shade of red, and their general form, the hiding boy was unaware of their detailed physical descriptions.

The candles illuminated them and cast their shadows upon the wall. A youthful voice, in a hushed tone that made it hard for the boy to hear, said, “The boy has been quite the talk recently…”

One of the shadows on the wall nodded. Then, the very same shadow seemed to be in the motion of opening its mouth. “I wonder what the lord saw in that peasant,” a low voice growled. “Though I wonder what kinds of trickery the child used to convince the lord into accepting him.”

“Who knows? It may just be his skill ‘cause I heard that he was able to take down a mounted soldier,” the youthful voice remarked. A low grumble of discontent emerged. “That may be so,” said the low voice, “but I don’t like this one bit.”

Their conversation drifted from the somewhat heavy topic and they started chatting about trivial things. The boy in hiding, as he listened for more information, realized that they were not going to talk about the things he wanted to hear. So, he sneakily crept towards an open window while making sure that he was not detected. Going out of the window, he stepped on the grassy ground, making a bit of noise in the process. He stopped in his tracks and listened for an indication that he was found. Nothing? He sighed in relief. He continued to flee from the place but this time he made sure to step on places where grass was sparse.

He entered the vicinity of a thinned forest, not one you’d get lost at, and continued trekking towards a castle of some sort. This time though, he had no real need to hide himself so he stopped trying to mask his presence. It wasn’t too dark for him to traverse the forest as the moon shone its light upon it, illuminating the thinned forest.

The tall yet thin trees poked out of the ground, towering over the boy as he trod over the crunching grass. The shadows of the leaves partially covered his body and it seemed like they were attracted to him as it looked like they were following his small body. They seemed to be going closer, and closer, and closer. A small gust blew and the shadows pulled back, leaving the boy alone. The boy had already noticed the anomaly and thought, I really hate this eerie forest, speeding up his gait in the process.

Due to his speeding up, a trip that would have usually taken half an hour was shortened to half of the expected time. His destination was a fort-castle that had encompassed a large amount of land. Its stone walls soared to a tremendous height and the boy walked towards a reinforced wooden gate that seemed to be the only way to enter the fort-castle. The boy knocked at the giant gate and waited for someone to let him in. No one answered. Somewhat irate, he started banging on the gate rousing the guards from, what it seemed to the boy, their sleep. The sound of metal clanging was heard and after a couple of moments the gates slightly creaked open, allowing the boy to enter.

As he entered the fields of the fort-castle he looked towards the crank that opened the gates. There was an armoured man at the crank, closing the gate as soon as he saw that the boy was in. The boy glared at the armoured guard and the guard, catching the unfriendly glare, rubbed his metal helm that showed his face and gave an apologetic look. The boy just sighed and, with a dark look etched on his face, walked towards the middlemost and largest building in the compound.

The building was, from the outside, bare and undecorated and it seemed to place more importance on practicality rather than image. As he reached it, he opened the door at the front. The interior seemed just like the outside, grey and dull. Inside, there were a few servants going about and some sentries standing guard. The boy ignored the people and made his way towards one of the corridors of the place.

Through the winding corridors of the fort-castle, he arrived before the door of what he identified as ‘his’ room, one of the only ‘decorated’ rooms in the place. Grumbling, he twisted the brass door knob and entered. There was a person in the room and the boy sharpened his eyes but ignored the person and went straight for the bed. He laid on the bed and he closed his eyes.

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“How rude,” said a woman’s voice. She was ignored. Nevertheless, she said, “Well, you better wake up ‘cause the noble sire is waiting for you.” The boy muttered something that the woman didn’t catch and stayed lying on the bed. The bed was soft and comfy, a nice break from all the boy’s ‘escapades’, which allowed him to disobey the woman in charge. His ‘break’ was interrupted as his body suddenly neared the ceiling. Huh?

It seemed that the woman had been irritated enough to throw the kid off the bed and into the air so she did just that. The woman looked at the boy in the air with a devious gaze and smiled cruelly. She whispered, “That’s what you get.”

Bang!

“Ow, ow, ow…” The boy glared at the woman. Earlier he had just ignored her but now he was able to take a good look at the woman that threw him off the bed. The woman had a lithe body with little-to-no bosom, brown hair that reached her shoulders, and sharp hazel eyes. She wore a casual red dress with long sleeves that reached her wrist along with a peach sash tied at her waist.

“The hell are you looking at?” said the woman, looking down on the boy on the floor. The boy kept quiet and stood up, dusting off his garments. The woman, who took that as a sign of obeisance, exited the room with the boy gloomily following. They went through a series of winding corridors before they reached a room with a well-polished door and some metal hinges. The woman knocked on the door and the rustling of clothes was heard.

“Come in,” said a man in a commanding tone. They did so. A red-haired man with a scar on his face was sat behind a desk full of stacked papers. He looked up at his visitors and said, “How nice of you to cooperate Charles.” The boy, Charles, shifted his eyes. The man, also known as Rey Falin, took notice of the boy’s actions and smiled a smile that could not be considered as a happy one. He shifted his eyes towards the female and asked, “So, Lora, how was he?”

“Sire, the boy grasps the basics exceptionally well,” reported the woman named Lora. The report, however, was not done as she added, “His attitude and behaviour, unfortunately, is quite lacking.”

“Is that so?” Rey muttered, looking once more at Charles. The boy avoided making eye contact by looking at the floor. Keeping his tone a ‘jovial’ one, he asked, “What is it that you want?”

“To go back,” was the immediate reply. Lora showed a face of shock and reproach. As she was about scold him, Rey chuckled and said, “You should have said so earlier.”

Charles looked up in amazement as he did not believe that his wish was going to be granted. Suddenly, Rey smirked. “Why do you want to, though?”

Charles gazed at him murderously. Rey dismissed it and continued. “Everything is much better here. You have an ample amount of food and necessities and there are even some things that are much better in here than in that town.” He paused for a moment. “So why? Why do you want to go back?”

“I have a family,” said Charles. Rey widened his eyes and gave an awkward laugh. In an unsure voice he inquired, “Wait, so you’re not an orphan?”

“No, I have a mother!” Charles felt dumbstruck at this revelation. It seemed that his captor had wrongfully assumed that he was parentless. This is the guy that does paperwork? Rubbing his left temple to alleviate a sudden migraine, he eyed the red hair once more. The guy was shifting awkwardly in his seat.

“I’ll bring her here,” said Rey resolutely, though he was sitting in an uncomfortable position. “Where is she?”

“The east of the village, about an hour away. There’s a small wooden house which you can’t really miss if you have any sense of directions.” Rey started taking notes on a yellow parchment while Charles’s face brightened. After the note was finished, Rey gave it to Lora and told her to pass it to a messenger. The woman complied and left briefly. The two males were left alone and the older one scratched his head and said, “Sorry about that.”

“It’s fine,” the boy replied.

The man said, “With this you’ll have to do the missions tasked to you.”

It was met with silence and the man, Rey, took it as a tacit agreement.

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Author's Note: I'll try to keep to the every-other-day schedule but I can't make any promises.

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I can't decide on where to take this story... :(