Key of Liberation: Beyond the Savannah (A Key Keepers novel)

Episode 2

"Eir!" a little blond boy whined.

"I'm coming!" He mumbled, "Rugrat..."

Alastair remembered when he used to consider Noah one. He even wanted to get rid of him at one point by trying to send him back to the hospital.

The young man looked at his watch as he picked up the ball. "Ah! I got a text from the princess! Come on, rugrat! We gotta go!"

"I am not a rugrat!" a brown haired boy whined. His hair reminded Alaistair of cookies, not too dark nor too light.

Princesses text people in this world? Wait, there's a princess here? Who was the king or queen then?

Alastair wished his phone was working. Then he could find that out for himself. Of course, it would break when he didn't have En around to fix it for him!

Why didn't things seem to want to go the way they were supposed to? The cub was sad when he left, and he couldn't do anything about it without his phone.

"Do we gotta go?" the boy asked as his big brother took his hand.

"Of course we do. I can't leave you here alone. Plus, who would you play with? None of your friends are here."

"I'll find somebody!"

Alastair said, "I could watch your brother for you."

"That's a nice offer, but I don't know if that's a good idea," big muscles guy said, scratching his blond hair. "I barely know you."

"You can trust me! I won't let any harm come to him."

He tilted his hand and hummed. "You seem trustworthy, but I'm still not sure. A lot of people seem good, only to turn out to be creeps."

"I'm not a creepy person! I adore kids, but not in that yucky way."

He smiled slightly. "It won't be an inconvenience?"

Alaistair shook his head. "Nope. I gotta wait for my family's friend to show up."

Big muscles raised his eyebrows. "They won't be here any minute?"

"Not sure. I've waited a good while, and they haven't shown up. I even left and returned, only to not find them."

"You sure they didn't leave while you were gone?"

Alaistair frowned and lowered his head. "I hope they didn't. Not like I took forever getting my coat."

The young man's eyes glanced at the bag beside Alastair. "Hey, my friend has a similar coat!"

He smiled. "I saw someone with it."

Muscle man sighed. "So I narrowly missed him, huh? Wonder what inspired him to leave?"

Alaistair shrugged.

The young man smiled and ruffled his hair. "Oh, maybe it was this nice shade of red! Or is it orange?"

"Both!" Alaistair said, grinning.

"I see. Say, why haven't you tried to call your family friend?"