The sun rose across the horizon, the roosters cawed loudly, waking up the residents of Lumina City. Those who are immune to the rooster's caw don't mean it's immune to the loud sickening chimes of the city's clock.
Of all the people, only one's ears were the most sensitive.
Inside the palace of Lumina City, the first one who woke up was a teenager about the age of 15, who curled up in his soft and comfy bed, purring.
He slowly got up, hearing the rooster's caw a few miles away.
Harith got out of bed and went stumbling into the bathroom, brushing his teeth and washing his face. He even decided to take a short bath.
Leonins hated baths, including Harith. But life in Moniyan Empire turned that whole thing around, (And because Granger forced him to take a bath) leonins never took baths much as they are always clean and smell fragrant even after they climbed a hill and ended up sweaty.
But in a while, Harith liked baths. The bubbles the soaps make, how it smells like, and he felt so refreshed after taking one it's like he's on a cloud.
After he dressed and got out of the bathroom, he took a while to look at a picture of an elderly leonin, expression melting. A while after that, he went for the door and opened it-
"Mornin' Harith!" Alucard tackled him with a rib-breaking hug.
"Why do you keep doing that every morning?!" Harith howled, trying to wrench out of the hug.
"Because I care about you and I was looking out," Alucard backed up. "can't expect a time when I find you kidnapped, what then?"
Harith grounded his teeth but didn't reply until a moment later.
"Were you sleeping outside my room?" he said, seeing something behind Alucard that resembles a pillow.
"Uh..." Alucard hesitated. Harith saw his chance and lunged to look at it but Alucard was faster. Both of them wrestled for a long time until Harith finally pulled at the pillow. It fell to the ground and he gave Alucard a withering look.
"I can explain," he started.
"The damage has been done," Harith turned and trotted away. Alucard caught up with him.
"I'm sorry, I was just trying to protect you," he said.
"From what?" Harith snapped.
"These are dark days Harith!"
"You're right, and it just got darker because of you!" he speeded up, trying to keep a distance from Alucard but he clung on, following.
"Listen to me!"
"I just did and it wasted my time."
"I have a reason!"
"A reason that I am not interested in." Harith spat, walking faster. Alucard held him back with his metal claw hand. Harith wrenched away and glared at him.
"What do you want, why are you so overprotective?" he shouted, adrenaline rising-
"Because you are our only hope."
Harith stopped, ice-cold. Alucard sighed.
"When your village burned down and you are the only survivor, I had to protect you. I told you, these are dark days. Because you don't know when will Helcurt come to finish you off. he said. "It might happen as the day Prince Dyrroth was kidnapped here before, you wouldn't know when will it happen to you."
The two stood in silence. Before Harith broke it and bent on one knee, eyes on the floor.
"I'm sorry," he whispered.
"It's okay, I do understand when you reacted that way," said Alucard.
Harith got up and ran, not looking at Alucard while doing so. He was mortified. He never thought about it. He fought so hard to forget it, to never remember that day... but he knew better.
He had a reason when he wanted to seal away all evil, he had a reason why he hated Dyrroth when he first saw him in the treehouse again... Because that wasn't the first time he saw him. The treehouse wasn't the first time. The first time... was the war.
Harith heard swishing behind him and turned to see Fanny flying towards him, with the cables supporting her.
It disappeared when she reached Harith and dropped beside him.
"It was Alucard again, wasn't it?" she said, looking at Harith's expression.
"Oh no, not you too." he groaned.
"Look, whatever you both exchanged is none of my business but whatever it is, Alucard is always right." warned Fanny. "He knows better and we should heed him."
"Okay, okay, enough of it, can't I get out of this palace without anyone else in my way?" Harith stalked away, heading for the entrance. He did it without a glance behind him and into the lively crowd below.
🧊
Harith was sitting on the edge of a pond, throwing stones in it and gazing at his reflection pitifully, thinking of what Alucard said. All this time, he was watching over him and not stalking him like a creep, all this time, and he never thought of it, and yet he lashed out at him just like that, at the person who cares about him.
He threw another stone into the pond, then buried his face into his hands, ashamed.
A few moments later, Harith's ears twitched, He uncurled from his ball to see a blue butterfly flapping its wings in front of him. His eyes narrowed.
Then the blue butterfly flew away with a soft meep! Harith followed it, trying to catch it along the way. Cats can't resist it nor do leonins.
Harith followed the butterfly, eyes not peeling away from it. He didn't care how long he was following the butterfly, his only objective... was to catch it.
Now the butterfly flew high above the heads of citizens moving around the place, Harith hot on its wings. When he saw the butterfly flying low enough, he pounced, hands outstretched.
The butterfly slipped through his fingers and flew away as Harith fell right into someone. He dazed, slowly grabbing ahold of his consciousness. He realized who the person he fell on was.
"H-Harley?" he gasped, immediately getting off him.
"Ahh..." Harley got up, lost in a daze. But he snapped out of it when he saw Harith. "Oh, it's you."
🧊
Both of them walked in the crowd with other residents of Castle Grandrock, talking about what happened in their day before.
"Chasing a butterfly?" Harley scoffed. "Then not paying attention to anything until you stumbled into me, how pathetic can you get Harith?"
"I can't help it," said Harith, sheepish. "It's my nature."
Harley huffed. "Did you eat anything for breakfast yet?"
"No."
"Well, good. We can have peaches for breakfast," he said, pointing at a big sakura tree in the distance.
"I don't think having peaches for breakfast will do good for the stomach in my opinion-" but Harley was already pulling Harith towards the tree, pushing past other citizens.
Once they were there, Harith rested his shoulders against its stump.
No one knew why a sakura tree that sprouts peaches was in the middle of Castle Grandrock a few yards away. Maybe because someone from the Scarlet Shadow planted it there, or some other reason that they don't know about.
Harith didn't care about any of that, he just liked the peaches that the tree grew. It was juicy and tasty, and it quenched Harith's thirst.
The two boys sat in silence, munching on peaches. When Harith attempted to start a conversation, it rained suddenly, as if the weather wasn't allowing him to make a conversation below the sakura tree.
"Okay... let's go to my home then," said Harley, getting up.
His home. Harith had never been to Harley's house before, yet he would love to. All this time, it was treehouse, treehouse, treehouse, and he never bothered asking how does Harley's home look like. For a second there, Harith thought it would be a treehouse too until he saw the mansion.
He looked at it in awe, following Harley inside past glaring guards and into double doors.
"Surprised, aren't you?" Harley grinned.
"Who wouldn't be?" Harith replied, body turning into butter just by looking inside the ludicrous mansion.
"Vance is an honored name, one of the noble families in the Moniyan Empire, my bloodline has everyone born with a very special talent that outshines any other. In my case, it's magic," he said. "Come to think of it, I'm the first one with magical powers, odd."
"Odd indeed, but you are spectacular."
"Thanks," Harley flushed at the compliment. "I don't know where my magic powers came-to-be, but I'm glad I have it."
"What do you mostly do here?" Harith asked.
"Oh, I just read books. Before that, before I discovered my magic powers, I invented any kind of game to play with my sister," said Harley, glancing at a guard beside the door leading to a library. "Have you ever played And Now We Run?"
"No."
"Oh, it's simple." Harley suddenly floated off the ground and snatched the helmet of the guard beside them with his staff.
"And now we run!" he exclaimed, bolting off the corridor and pulling Harith along with him before he understood what's happening.
The duo charged down corridors, barreled through random rooms, dodging servants, maids. and guards along the way, narrowly knocking into breakable things and furniture. (Harith knocked shin first into a table before Harley waved his staff and dragged him along.)
Harith didn't know what was the point of this, and he felt sorry for the guard chasing after them, but he was having a lot of fun despite that. Their adrenaline rose more when the guard got closer and closer. But eventually, they became too tired and collapsed onto the floor.
Harley surrendered the helmet and the guard headed back to his post, cursing.
"That was the best game I've ever played." Harith cracked.
"I know, and it never gets old," Harley grinned.
"I can't imagine what those guards will think of you, it must be terrible."
"Please. At least he got a free workout." Harley pooh-poohed. "Okay, of all that, you should see my room."
The mage escorted Harith into his room filled with floating stars, purple curtains, sheets, rug, everything purple. The walls were all covered by bookcases, all shapes and sizes, fitting into every corner and literally every corner. There was even a bookcase in his bed and one embedded in his chair.
"That is a lot of books." Harith gaped.
"When you're a prodigy like me, then your room will be like this," Harley sat on his chair.
"How obnoxious," Harith flopped onto Harley's bed and spotted a wooden owl on Harley's desk. "What's that?" he pointed out.
"Oh. It flew into my window last night," he took the owl into his hands, touching the texture. "How weird, Diggie can't have thrown this into my window could it-" he was interrupted by the wooden owl as it let out hoots and chirps.
"Oh my, it must be busted," he put the owl back on his desk.
"No it's not," Harith said, expression falling. "I know what it means."
Harley jerked his head in his direction. "What?"
"I knew it," Harith stood up, grimacing. "Diggie left us something bad."