Tempest

Chapter Eight

I’m not sure why, but Taz’s hackles rose and he seemed to bristle, and Kyran snapped to him with in inquisitive look. Taz shook his head, relaxing. I took a deep breath. “ If you two are quite done reading each other’s minds, can we go?” I asked them exasperatedly.

“Yes,” Taz sniffed and pranced past me, daintily stepping over a mound of dirt. Kyran looked at me, bemused, and both of us shrugged simultaneously before stumbling down the hill after the miffed rich boy.

I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised on the looks we got. It was a rather large town, bordering on a city, and a lot bigger than my little town back home. People were richer, classier, and looked rather surprised to see three rather disheveled teenagers appear at the town entrance, considering Kyran had ended up tripping and toppling into me and I had toppled into Taz and we had rolled partially down the hill. So all of us were covered in dirt, Kyran had bits of leaves in his long hair and Taz looked like he was ready to self-combust from the filth that was coating his body. I appeared to be the only one at ease, not having grown up in a gigantic mansion with servants to dote over me and probably bathe me. People were staring at us, and there was one kid in clean white clothes that was gaping at us in horror. Kyran looked rather self-conscious; Taz looked twitchy. “Well,” I said brightly. “Let’s find an inn,” I chirped.

Kyran nodded eagerly. I led the way, Kyran dragging Taz behind him, who was trying to hide his face, and we managed to find an inn near the water. It was fairly quaint, with a total of twelve room, six of which were occupied and another two we got, one for Taz and Kyran and one for me, which I thought was extremely generous of Taz, but he didn’t seem to mind counting out so many gold coins that the innkeeper’s eyes grew to the size of saucers. It was made out of wood and had a little fire going in the main entrance room, with two sofas and a table filled with food, which Kyran immediately veered towards. The rooms were nice too, with a medium bed and a dresser, and Taz let me have the room with the window that overlooked the sea. The rich boy was taking a shower now, actually, far more disgusted at his dirty state than I was. I had taken a shower and gone back down to fetch Kyran from the food table, which he had not left, when I heard something quite interesting.

“Yes, luck on your trip. Remember, stay away from the harbor,” the innkeeper was saying to a crisply dressed man with his black hair slicked back who had a carriage waiting outside.

The man checked the clock that hung on the wall, then turned back to the man. “Why?” he asked distractedly, straightening his shirt collar.

The innkeeper leaned across the counter, his aged face in the younger man’s. “Because the pirates will get ya,” he whispered.

Kyran’s gaze snapped up from the food table, his mouth covered with pastry crumbs. “Yes, well, I’m not planning to be ransacked by any of those filthy men,” the man snorted, standing back up, having craned over to hear the old man’s words.

The innkeeper yanked him back down and the man gave him a disgusted look. “But there’s a rumor goin’ around. Rumor has it that one of those pirates is justa kid,” the innkeeper grumbled, looking around warily, his eyes flickering from side to side.

You could practically see the man’s this person is incredibly drunk thoughts written on his face, and the innkeeper shook him. “’M serious. Stay away from the harbor. That kid might get ya.” And then he pulled away with a rather loud cackle, took another swig of his bottle that was sitting on the counter next to him, and retreated into the back room.

Kyran stared after the man with wide eyes before standing up and beginning to follow him, until I veered over and looked at him. He stared back inquisitively. “You need a bath,” I said, pointing out the obvious. I picked up a lock of his long white hair and twirled it, brushing off some of the twigs. It was strangely soft. “And a haircut,” I sighed, glancing back at the back room, where a loud crash had just sounded.