*Julius Comet*
*Several Months Earlier*
The air was cold but the air here within the confines of my Father's estate had always seemed cold. The night stood still as the other occupants of the house were sleeping. My hands shaking uncontrollably as I packed the last items into my backpack. I'm not doing anything wrong. I'm not doing anything wrong. I thought to myself as I fastened the leather straps on my shoulders. I'd be back before morning. Before my Father realised I was gone.
My Father has been strict and overprotective ever since my Mother had passed away when I was younger. The cause of her abrupt death remained unknown. The tragedy had left my Father a fractured mess of a man. He became paranoid with the world and buried himself deep into his work. Although, I still wanted to see the outside world. I wanted to see why my Father hated the outside world so much. With my Father in his current unshaken mental state, the only option I was given was to sneak out. He would never have approved of my trip anyway.
I escaped through my window dropping down to a tiled roof below. My feet slipped on the brownish-red tiles as my shoes struggled to regain its grip. The lack of grip below made me unbalanced. Straight away I began sliding down the tiled roof. The rough tiles scraping along my butt and backpack. I outstretched one of my hands behind me and one in front of me. My hand outstretched behind me caught grip upon one of the tiles sending my body into a jerking motion. My shoulder slightly aching from the impact. I glanced over at my backpack checking for damage. Once I was sure my backpack was okay. I swung my other hand around with my body to steady myself as I began to regain my grip on the tiles. Left foot. Right foot. Left foot. I continued counting my steps as scaled the tiled roof back to where I originally was. From there I followed the spine of the tiled roof to the front gate. Inside and outside of the gate stood two guards on either side of the gate. I knew them very well. I did grow up with them after all but regardless of how well I knew them I knew they were just men doing their job. Their job was to ensure no one entered or exited my Father's estate without his permission. I had to think of a way to get past them. I looked around me for something. Anything that could be of any use to me. There was nothing. In defeat I looked down to my feet which stood perched upon the corner of the tiled roof. Tiles. I crouched down and started clawing at the tiles underneath me. Finally I found a loose tile and removed. I stood up again. Taking aim. I threw it left of me. The tile shattering against the stone surrounding my family's koi pond. I wasn't that worried about the koi pond as it was old and in desperate need of an update.
"Hey! Who's over there!" One of guards yelled, from how the sound bellowed I believed it was Marcus. In a flurry all four of the guard on both sides of the gate scurried over to the noise near the koi pond. This was my chance. Adrenaline coursing through my veins, I hurriedly dropped off the tiled roof and exited through the front gate silently closing it behind me. I was outside. I ran down the street. I had made it. I was no longer in my Father's estate. I was now in the streets of Ryone. The imperial city. As I ran down the streets it gradually became more noisy and more crowded. It was both exhilarating and overwhelming. I could hear people laughing. I followed the sound of the laughter to the end of the street. It brought me to a man. A performer wearing an oversized burgundy coat. A large crowd of people packed around him as he pulled a tabby cat from his hat. The tabby cat was very grumpy sporting an unamused expression. The surrounding crowd broke into laughter. Before I knew it I was laughing too. The unhappy cat swiped his claws at one of the performer's hand, the hand which was holding him. The performer dropped the cat. The feline landing on it's feet then strut away from the performer. The crowd remained tranced with the performer as my eyes chased the alluring feline. The cat lead me down street after street. Until it stopped. Twirled around and began purring at me while rubbing itself up against my legs. I raised my head from the cat to see where it had led me. I was standing outside of the entrance of a building with the words 'Ryone Royal Phoenix Nursery' ingrained in the stone of the doorway.