The Sweet Tale of Zenro

| Chapter 1 | The Encounter |

Kurose
I went to sleep in another alley tonight.... It's getting pretty cold lately, and all I'm wearing is not enough to keep me warm. I went all the way to the back of the alley. I sighed as I fell down to the ground. I'm probably going to die in the next week or so. I will starve to death or maybe get a cold. My stomach grumbled at the thought of it. I started to drift off to sleep but felt a drizzle of rain fall from the sky. I quickly opened my eyes and realized that it is not rain but snow. My eyes lit up as the snow fell. I got up and touched the snow with my hand. It is cold I thought, but I did not care. I started to go forward as the snow started to pile up. It is so beautiful! I didn't realize that I went into the road, because I was enjoying the snow. But a carriage came from the left of me.

"STOP THE CARRIAGE!!!" Someone screamed. Other people were screaming around me. I couldn't move, I was frozen in place. The carriage managed to stop a few inches away from me. My heart is racing. Everyone turned blue as they witnessed what had happened. Someone came out of the carriage. He was handsome, he wore a cape, a beanie, armor, had white hair, blue eyes, and looked to be around 16 or 17. "Hey are you okay?" He said to me.

I just stared at him "Uh.. Y..yes!" He looked at me from head to toe.

"What are you wearing it is about -25°c out here! Are you crazy?" He said.

"Uh I don't have any money to get any clothes." He looked at me with sorrow in his eyes

"What about you parents? Aren't they worried about you? Shouldn't you be at your house or somewhere where there is shelter?" I looked at the handsome man with a painful expression.

"I don't have parents." I was fixing to walk away but he grabbed my hand, "Hey wait, do you want to come with me I will give you clothes, food, and a place to sleep?" He asked. I don't know how to answer this.

It sounds nice but I must be a burden. He looks really rich, but he is very handsome and generous. "O..Okay." Is all I could say.

"My name is Zen! And what is your name?" The handsome man, Zen said.

"I'm Kurose, nice to meet you. Thank you so much!" I said as I bowed. Zen grabbed my arm and got in the carriage.

In the carriage there was two others. The one on the right was a girl with a sword, blonde hair, and purple eyes. The one on the left was a boy with a sword as well, blue hair, and brown eyes. "Look, come sit next to me Kurose." He said.

"Zen why are you bringing him along." The boy said.

"Because he doesn't have a home to go to and I offered to help him. Owe and by the way Kurose this is Kiki, and the other is Mitsuhide." Kiki and Mitsuhide looked at me with strange looks on their faces.

"Can we trust him? Are you sure he is not an undercover agent or something for the other princes?" Kiki said.

"I'm sure!" Zen said. "You can start the carriage again Yuta!" Zen said to the driver of the carriage.

"Okay!" Said Yuta. The carriage began to move.

"So what happened to your parents?" The one named Mitsuhide asked.

"MITSU!-"

"No it's ok." I said. I looked out the window of the carriage. "It started on Christmas of 2009. That day my father was killed. When it happened he was just getting off of work and on his way to the car he was shot and stabbed multiple times. My mom was never the same after that. She didn't care about me anymore. She acted different everyday and would work all day and all night. Sometimes she would come home at mid-night acting strange. And most the time she wouldn't come home at all. I couldn't go to school because even though she worked hard for money, she never got paid much, and she didn't even want to sign me up for school. Then on my 13th birthday she didn't come back home that day. I wasn't expecting her to anyway. But then she didn't come back for 3 months and no money was being paid for the rent so I had to end up living on the streets. And ever since then I have never heard a word from her, and have been traveling city to city, sleeping in the alley ways." I told them my story of how I ended up the way I am. I turned to look at Zen and realized he had a sorrowful expression, but then he got rid of it with a smile.

"That is sad, but no reason to be down about it right? It all happened in the past, and you couldn't have done anything about it." Zen patted my head like a little kid.

Kiki said "Well I guess I'm ok with you staying with us. But, only for a little while!". I have never been in a carriage before. It looks beautiful though. I wish I could have kept my sketch book when I left the rent house. I forgot to bring it with me. I really loved to draw and write stories, even if they were bad. It would always cheer me up and make me happy. Lots of other kids in the other rent houses made fun of me because I would often draw and write outside instead of playing with the other kids. Some of them even called me "stupid" because I did not go to school like the others. But drawing always calmed me down. Oh well.. I will get another sketch book another day. I looked outside the window and my face lit up like fireworks as we moved forward.