As if his words were a jinx, Greyson ran into 4 more bandit groups on his way to Sirius. Of course Lucius easily took care of them, but when he ran into the last bandit group Greyson was about ready to scream in annoyance. It was like a terrible case of deja vu. They had the same goals, same starting words, even the same look. Somehow it felt that he was repeating the same part of his life over and over.Finally, after a long month of traveling, Greyson could see the large and imposing Sirius City in the distance. Just a little further and he could reach the entrance. Relief evident in his face, Greyson started running towards the city. Lucius, rudely awoken by the sudden movement, was going to complain before he too saw the city in the distance. Similarly excited, Lucius decided to swallow his complaints and looked towards the city while thinking of a warm and comfortable bed at an inn.
...
"Halt!"
After waiting in a long line with other villagers coming from different surrounding areas, Greyson reached the gate of the city at last. However, before he could walk through, a guard yelled out and stopped him. Looking confused, Greyson turned towards the guard who ordered him to stop.
"What seems to be the problem, sir?" He politely inquired.
"Take down the cowl and show us your face. It"s not that you seem that dangerous but it would be suspicious if you continued to cover your face." The guard clearly explained.
Greyson grimaced and instead asked, "I have a disfigured face thus I normally cover it, is it possible for me not to show it? I"m really only a young villager who came out to see the world. I have no intention to harm the city and I really doubt I would be capable even if I wanted to." The guard heard his words and looked conflicted. The child didn"t seem threatening, but he should follow protocol...
"How about this, I"ll take you to the side room and you can show me your face just so I won"t feel nervous later. That way if it is really as you say only I would see your face. Would that be okay?" Greyson could see that the guard just wanted to do his job and he thought the solution was very fair, so he nodded and followed him to the side room. Once they were inside the guard turned around and said, "We"re alone now, you can put your hood down."
Greyson paused then explained, "Guard, sir, it"s not that I wanted to lie but I am in a tough situation. I"m not really disfigured, but... My looks tend to draw trouble towards me so I cover them normally."
The guard seemed angry about the lie at first, but he wanted to give the kid a chance so he let it go saying, "Just show me your face already. I don"t understand what the big deal is..."
Before he could finish his sentence, Greyson pulled down his hood showing his face. His silky white shoulder length hair and large deep blue eyes were suddenly out in the open. Greyson had clear pale skin, red lips, and pearly white teeth that only magnified his cute looks. The guard was shocked, but suddenly understood.
Coughing in embarra.s.sment after realizing he had been staring, the guard responded, "Uhhh... okay... I can understand why, young miss. You seem to not be suspicious. You can pull your hood back up. Young lady, your idea to cover your face is very intelligent. There are a lot of sick people in the world. You may go" Greyson clenched his teeth in anger at being mistaken for a girl again, but quietly put his hood back up and left.
The guard went back out to join the rest at the gate again. His friend smirked at him asking, "so was the kid"s face so scary, you"re still in a daze now?"
"Yeah... scary" Beautiful... But the guard swallowed the last word and left his words at that.
...
Once they were out of earshot, Lucius couldn"t control his giggling anymore.
"Yes, young LADY, you should not stay out too late either. Who know what perverts will come. Hahahahaha...."
Greyson blushed while glaring at Lucius, "Shut up you stupid old cat! It"s because I"m young! When I"m older I"ll be an incomparably cool and manly adult. No one would make that mistake then."
"I don"t know... You were blessed with such pretty features that maybe it would too creepy if you grew up to be a buff man. You would just look like a woman with too much muscle... Kakakakaka..." Lucius continued laughing when picturing a muscular Greyson. Finding his laugh grating, Greyson grabbed Lucius and dropped him off his shoulder then continued walking away.
"Hey! Can"t you just take a joke? Hey, wait!" Lucius protested while still giggling away, but he quickly noticed Greyson wasn"t stopping so he chased after him. Still fuming from earlier, Greyson kept stomping away. He was just walking to blow off steam so he wasn"t paying attention to where he was going until he slammed right into another body.
"OW!" Greyson heard a young voice shout out in pain as he slammed into the ground as well. The force from hitting the person made his hood fall back without him realizing.
The voice continued, "Why don"t you watch where you"re going?! Daring to hit this young master, you"re... dead..." The young boy started trailing off as he looked upon Greyson"s face. Greyson was still rather distracted and did not notice the change in the boy"s eyes.
He did know it was his fault though, so he quickly got up and apologized, "sorry, I wasn"t paying attention to what was in front of me. Are you okay?"
The boy quickly recovered saying, "Of course I"m fine, I was just overreacting since I was surprised. It wasn"t that big a deal anyways. Are you okay?"
Greyson was rather surprised by his answer and warmed up to the other boy thinking he was kind, "yes, I"m fine. Thanks for not blaming me."
"Ah, no big deal, no big deal. You know, you seem to be a good person and I feel like we could be friends. I"m Claude Devereux, the young lord of Sirius City. What about you?" Claude blushed a little while he held out his hand looking friendly.
Greyson smiled while shaking his hand, "I"m Greyson. I"m just an orphan from a village far away from here so I don"t have a last name. It"s nice to meet you. I don"t know if we can be friends since I have to leave here quickly tomorrow but maybe we could meet again later."
He then smiled saying, "Nice to meet you, Grey. Oh you"re leaving? Where to? I"m also heading out tomorrow to the capital."
Greyson"s eyes widened in surprise, "Capital? Wow, so am I..."
"You are! Fantastic! You should travel with me! What are you going to the capital for?"
"I"m going to try to get into Dalia Magic Academy."
"Oh so you can use magic? We must really be fated. I"m going to get tested as well. I"m a water magician. What about you?"
"Hmmm... I also use water magic..." For some reason, Greyson felt that for now it was better not to reveal how many elements he could use.
Claude"s face brightened even more, "Yes, come with me tomorrow! I will meet you at the gate at sunrise!" After saying this he turned around and quickly ran off to get ready.
"Wait! I didn"t even... say... yes. Hah?" Greyson tried to stop him but he was already gone. At this moment, Lucius jumped back up onto his shoulder. Greyson looked over at him and asked, "Lu, should I trust him? We only just met. He seems rather nice, though."
Lucius smiled mysteriously, "Well he doesn"t mean any harm (yet), he"s like a cute puppy (in love). I think you should go with him. Plus, he"s rich so he can let us travel in comfort."
Greyson didn"t notice the weird tone to Lucius"s voice and just nodded. He then walked to find the cheapest inn and paid for one night.
...
The next morning, Greyson and Lucius walked over to the gate at sunrise. They quickly saw Claude waiting with an entire entourage of carriages and servants. Claude noticed them and quickly waved excitedly, "Grey~ you"re here! Come, come! This is our carriage." He grabbed Greyson"s hand and pulled him into the carriage.
It was finally at this point that Greyson felt like something wasn"t right. He looked over to see Lucius laughing and then looked over to see Claude"s sparkling eyes.
Something wasn"t... right... but he couldn"t put his finger on what was wrong just yet.