“Okay, hurry up and teach me already. If I can do it like you then I’ll never go hungry on porridge days again.”

“Porridge days?”

Jaden explained how he lived in an orphanage and that over half of the meals that they served were the same sort of sweet porridge. Interestingly enough, it wasn’t just him that lived there. Woods, Corrie, Helen, and Emely had also grown up in the same place, all having lived there for long as they could remember.

“It’s why we all have the same last name.”

“What is it?”

“Scuff.”

A panicked jolt of excitement sprang to life within Alistar’s stomach. “Are you guys related to Servan?”

“Who?”

“He’s…a friend of mine from Crystellum. His last name is Scuff, too.”

“Then he’s either an orphan like us, or a bastard. Far as I know, no matter where you go in the world all orphans and bastards are called Scuff. Wasn’t that your last name before the count adopted you?”

“You don’t know anything,” called Zech, who dove to the side to avoid the makeshift spear that Jaden had just thrown at him. “Whoa, what’s the matter with you? That’s dangerous!”

“What’s the matter with me? Do you ever stop running your mouth?”

“You’re asking me that?”

So Servan had been an orphan? The young man had mentioned that he’d found himself in a rough spot during his childhood, and that Alistar’s father had been the one to lift him from that perilous situation. Suddenly he understood, at least in part, why Servan had gone to such great lengths to attempt to save his family.

So that’s how it was, he thought, feeling deep in his heart that his assumption was correct. To Mr. Servan, we were his family. Many conflicting emotions began to swirl within him, though it was a melancholic sort of sadness that won the fight to the surface. Alistar wasn’t one to pray, but he hoped beyond hope that Servan, Kaila, and Talon were still alive and that they were doing fine. Even so, he knew that the chances were slim.

“What’s the deal? Are you okay?”

Jaden was giving him an uncomfortable look, which told him that his eyes had grown moist enough to betray his mind state. He seemed to be the only one of the two boys to notice, as the other was busy nursing a little flame that was steadily spreading throughout the rest of the kindling.

Alistar blinked away tears that were threatening to fall and cleared his throat.

“Hey, I’m sure your buddy Severn’s okay.”

“It’s Servan, and I’m sure you’re right.” Seeing that he was making the other boy ill at ease, Alistar nodded and thanked him for his words. Clearing his mind with the same methods that he relied on when he practiced with the sword, he threw his most recent catch at a patch of grass near the fledgling campfire and then handed his bloodied spear to Jaden.

“Look there.” He pointed at a fish that was idling above the riverbed a few paces away. “Try again. Remember, aim for its head and worry more about hitting it than throwing the stick hard.”

Zech rushed over and barely grabbed his fishing rod in time as it was pulled into the water. Walking back onto the riverbank, he dragged a sizeable fish out after him. “Let’s hope you can learn to use that spear, Jaden, because I’m already at five fish and I’m definitely not lending you my rod.” Laughing loudly, he let out an excited whistle. “Hey, maybe one of the girls can help you write a poem for Lily, you know, to confess once you lose the bet.”

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After working the fish free from the simple hook at the end of his line, he dug a worm out of the earth nearby and baited the hook once again before dropping it back into the water and placing a rock on top of the rod’s barky handle to hold it in place.

“You’re lucky that I care more about catching fish than teaching you a lesson,” Jaden snapped before he returned his attention to Alistar. “Sorry about him. His manners come from a dustbin.”

Alistar and Zech exchanged exasperated looks as the other boy directed his focus at the fish in question, though the latter quickly called out, “Hey Jaden, if you actually manage to catch one, then you should thank Alistar by being his friend.”

“Wh—stop saying nonsense! I’m trying to do something here.” Casting Alistar a sideways glance, he muttered, “And aren’t we already pals? We’ve been hanging out for months already.”

Alistar kept quiet as he tried to fight off a sudden blush, though his relief was interrupted when Jaden managed to spear the target on his next attempt.

“Haha, see that, Zech?” He removed the still-squirming fish from the tip of the spear and then threw it at the other boy as if it were a ball of snow, its scaly body slapping against his back with a grotesque smacking sound before it fell to the dirt and began to flop around in bloody desperation. “You might as well not eat any fish, so you can save room for all of the dog droppings that I’m going to collect for you!”

Zech appeared a bit worried, but eventually rolled his eyes and returned to spitting the fish on carefully angled sticks, the butts of which were buried diagonally about a hand’s length into the soil so that the flesh wouldn’t burn.

The next hour or so was very enjoyable, the entire time spent catching and cooking fish. Evidently Jaden’s early success had been a fluke, since he hadn’t managed to catch any more while Zech had caught twelve. Eight of these remained in the bucket so that he could bring them home to his family. Zech claimed that his father bought a lot of fish off of the fishermen that frequented the Greyline, which he then served as one of the main meal options at their tavern. As the boys had seen today, the river was rife with all sorts of aquatic life, to the extent that anybody could catch a fish or two by simply trying their hand, even with a shoddily-made rod like the one Zech was using.

“How much you think one of these fish would sell for at the market?” Jaden was picking at his teeth with a small fish bone, his freckles highlighted by the firelight. “Probably a good way to make some money, that. Maybe I should become a fisherman?”

The sun had taken on a golden hue as it crept ever closer to the western corner of the cloud-filled sky, where it slowly sank toward the jagged peaks of the massive mountains that surrounded Distan. It was around this time that Alistar was usually expected at home, though his uncle Caedmon had been busy as of late and was usually away from the estate until the early hours of the morning.

“Sounds like a boring life,” said Zech, cradling the back of his head with his hands.

“Sounds like a safe life.”

He, Jaden and Zech were laying around the fire in a loose triangle, all of them staring up at the golden sky as evening transitioned into gloaming.

“You think they’ll let you live at the orphanage forever? You know they make you leave when you turn fifteen, right?”

“How could I not know that?”

“What are you gonna do, then? You’re a terrible fisherman, so that’s obviously not in the cards.”

“What’s it matter? That’s over four years away, anyhow.” When his friend rolled his eyes, Jaden became annoyed. “You make it seem like it’s weird that I haven’t thought about it. We can’t all be Lawsons, you know.”

Zech gave him a distasteful look. “You act like it somehow makes a difference for me.”

Seeing that it seemed as if a taboo topic had been brought up, Alistar looked from one boy to the other and then asked, “What are you guys talking about?”

“Nothing.”

“That Zech’s a part of the Lawson clan.”

“Thousands of people are.” Zech looked over at Alistar and sighed. “It’s one of the biggest families in the kingdom, just like your family. Honestly, though, it’s not a big deal.”

Alistar recalled that Tramon had the same last name. “Are you related to Master?”

“I wouldn’t know. We come from a branch family, but my father had some problems with everyone there so we left the capital and came to Distan when I was three.”

Tramon had also left the capital, Civus, due to an unknown dispute that he’d had with the king. Could it have had anything to do with the reason why Zech’s family had left?

“He doesn’t think it’s a big deal,” said Jaden, a bit of jealousy in his voice. “But that clan’s been around for ages, and most of their people are in the military.” Glancing at the boy in question, he said, “I don’t know why you’re so in love with the idea of being a frontiersman, Zech. With your last name, you can become a guard in any city. All the guards here in Mayhaven live in nice houses.”

“They’re also busy all day doing whatever they’re told to do. I’d rather go out and see the world.”

“More like, die to the first danger beast you bump into.”