"Hey, Jiggan." Teerom tried to grin the frustration on Jiggan's face away.
"Teerom," Jiggan replied sternly, grabbed him by the collar, and lifted him up so that they were face to face. His hand was larger than Teerom's face, and his arms were just an inch smaller than Teerom's torso.
This was because Jiggan was abnormally tall and - according to him - had begun lifting weights at the age of 4, which Teerom knew wasn't wholly the truth; the multiple scars that Jiggan had tried to keep concealed on his body suggested a similar but very different story. Though Jiggan was a giant, Teerom too was skinny and small due to being picky with food and running around far too much after failed attempts at pickpocketing civilians.
"You little Twiglet. What were you going out so late? Do I seriously have to explain it to you again?" Jiggan seemed angry, but there was a hit of parental worry in his tone.
"I have a good reason!" Teerom flailed his legs as Jiggan threw him at the rotting sofa in front of the fireplace.
"You realize you could've died, right? Maybe worse, you fucking idiot." He ran his hand through his hair, taking a deep breath.
"I know, I know. But check this out." Teerom took out the coins he stole, making Jiggan's expression loosed up with surprise, "Hah, you proud, Jiggan?" He smiled half-innocently.
"You little..." Jiggan gave up and sighed in frustration, sitting down and taking the coins from him, "You stole this?"
"Mhm." Teerom nodded, expecting a pat on the head, but instead, he received a chop down the top of his skull. "Ow!" He fell back, holding his head with a pout on his face.
He'd tried to pickpocket people many times before, even trying to rob a gardener's shop once who turned out to have a knife that came out of his sleeve. Every time, he failed comically and received a beating by his victims and later Jiggan.
"I can't understand you." Jiggan picked the coins up, "I've said it a million times, but you just don't listen. You're not cut out for stealing, Teerom."
"Yeah, yeah, I'm not that guy," Teerom rolled his eyes, "Well, what if I am, but you just don't know it yet?" He stood up and began punching the unamused Jiggan's shoulder; his punches barely moved him, "Just you wait until I awaken my magic! Hya!" He tried to chop Jiggan's head but ended up hurting the bottom of his hand on what must've been the hardest skull in the world.
Jiggan flicked his forehead, making him lose balance and fall backward onto the rough carpet that covered the rougher wood floor.
"I should've never told you about Aneros." Jiggan placed his palm on his forehead stressfully before standing up and telling Teerom sternly, "Maybe when you're older, you can go and… do whatever, but right now, not only are you way too young but look at you!" He motioned to Teerom's skinny body, offending him, "Do you really think you can take someone in a fight? Anyone?"
"Of course! I'll blast them to hell with my magic!"
"You're 11. Well past the awakening age. And you know how expensive Awakening Rings are. So tell me, how are you, magicless, going to blast them to hell? You aren't ready. Period." Jiggan thought he was done speaking, but he saw Teerom beginning to tear up and felt a pang of fatherly guilt rise up from within him that made him crouch down and pat Teerom's head. "I'm happy that you're trying. Hell, I'm proud that you managed to steal all this." He showed the coins, "But I cannot let you come to harm. You are family to me, Teerom."
As the tears streamed down Teerom's face, he bought him close and held him tightly against his chest. "I just wanna help, Jiggan," Teerom mumbled and gripped his shirt.
"I know, buddy. I know. But just listen to me for now, okay?" He smiled warmly and patted his shoulders, "Now go. Your sis is waiting for you." He sent Teerom, who was wiping his face, toward a door on the left of the entry door.
Teerom opened it quietly in case his little 8-year-old sister was asleep. The room was about 2 by 6 meters. At the end, against the wall, there was a bed on which lay Seima, resting under the mostly white sheets.
There were two sleeping bags on the floor in front of the bed, one much bigger than the other – though the smaller one was much newer, for Teerom and Jiggan.
"So you're still awake, Sleepyhead." Teerom pulled a stool from the corner of the room and took a seat next to the side of the bed she was turned to; he didn't want her to go through the effort of turning around to face him.
Seima was an incredibly cute girl. She had long dark hair that despite being grimy and unwashed remained healthy. And she had big, kind eyes. "Mhm." She nodded her head that rested on the back of her hand, "Where've you been? I had to listen to Jiggan complaining about you all day." She was incredibly soft-spoken, a result of her illness.
"Oh, you know, the usual. I went to this weird place called Mulalaland. The people there wear their clothes in the wrong order. They tried to put my underwear on my head!" He joked and laughed with her, though her laugh was more of a fragile yet cute wheeze.
"Stop lying," She took a deep breath to recover from her laughter.
"Okay, okay, you got me." He began lightly caressing her cheek, "So, how are you feeling?"
"Do you really have to ask me that so much?"
"I'm your brother, Sei. I'm always worried sick about you."
"…I could be better." Seima turned to the ceiling, staring into a hole where there once was a hazardous loose plank. "Can you read me Aneros' next chapter?"
"I'd be honoured to,"
Teerom grabbed Aneros' tale from under her bed and opened it to the page he marked – he made sure to not fold the corners of the pages and use a folded piece of paper as a bookmark instead. He told her about Aneros' stay in Posiedis, a city that he failed to save from a giant snaky fish demon.
However, before he could reach the tragic end of the city and Aneros' oath to never allow another to die, Seima had slowly drifted off to sleep with a pleased smile on her face. He quietly closed the book after marking the page he was on and placed it under her bed.
"Goodnight, Seima." Slowly and carefully he kissed her on the forehead and made his way out of the room to meet Jiggan brooding by the fireplace. "Hey, Jiggan…" He greeted awkwardly and sat down next to his guardian.
"Hey. How's Seima doing?" Jiggan asked, still brooding into the fire.
"Could be better."
After a hesitant pause, Jiggan seemed to make a decision. "Teerom."
"Yeah?"
"Wake up early tomorrow. We're going to practice." He said resolutely.
"Practice what?"
"I'm going to teach you everything: stealing, fighting, how to survive on these streets, and running away. Though, you don't need to learn that last one."
Briefly pausing to take this new development in, Teerom jumped to his feet. "For real!?" He brimmed with excitement.
"For real."
"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you, Jiggan!" Teerom jumpily hugged him.
"Oi, oi. Don't get too excited now. Tomorrow, I'll introduce you to some of my old friends. They're… gangsters."
Teerom turned pale at those words. "Gangsters?"
"Don't worry, buddy. They're my friends."
"How come you never mentioned them before?"
"We kinda had a fight a while back. I don't wanna talk about it."
"So, they hate you! I don't wanna meet them." Teerom bit his nails nervously.
"I said don't worry, didn't I? Don't you trust me?" Jiggan sighed.
"Y-Yeah. I trust you…" Teerom resigned himself to his fate.
The next morning, Jiggan took Teerom through the Crasca territory, all the way to its border with the Rager territory – there weren't any physical borders apart from gang members hanging around the general border area; they didn't feel a need to control the population of Rukae.
The streets were fairly packed since it was morning, but that didn't pose much of a problem as most people moved out of their way, even some of the threatening-looking gang members. Teerom assumed it was because of Jiggan's overpowering stature – the man stood at 6'5 and had some of the largest yet sharp muscles you'd ever seen. Next to him, Teerom looked like a dwarf.
In fact, as they walked, Teerom tried to mimic Jiggan's powerful stride with one hand in pocket and the other swinging heavily. However, Jiggan's power actually resided in his gaze, the gaze of a man who had been through it all.
They crossed the border to the Rager territory with ease and continued to a large tavern.
Teerom was eager to enter the tavern but paused when he saw Jiggan standing there, staring at the doors. "Beyond these doors are the three people who I hate and love the most in the world. Fuck me, this is nerve-racking."
"Why'd you guys stop seeing each other?"
"Long story," Jiggan, a fearless man, was showing slight trembling at this particular social interaction. He walked past Teerom and entered the tavern, bracing himself.
It was cosily lit, and it was fully packed, but out of the numerous tables full of rough people, one table called out to them.
"Jiggan!" A woman shouted with joy in her voice. She was slightly hidden by a wood grate separating running halfway down the middle of the ground floor, but Jiggan could tell exactly who she was just as she could tell who he was from his enormous figure.
He crossed past the grate and saw his three old friends. The woman, who was still waving at him, was named Baluchta (Pronounced Ba-lus-ta). She had short curly hair that formed a neat yet messy line of bangs on her brow line. She wore thick eyeliner only on her right eye since a long scar ran down through her left brow and eye to her jaw. A shirt with the top buttons undone and baggy, light pants adorned her. She also wore heavy thick gloves, one of which had a slice down the wrist.
There was a big man next to her – nowhere near as big as Jiggan – who had a thick and fluffy beard and lopsided hair that permanently tilted his head a slight amount. His name was Aleed and he was Nijian; he seemed to have a constant smile on his face as he had just been told a killer joke by the next man to be introduced.
An elf from Vrige, one of the few countries in Eri that allowed non-humans such as elves and dwarves to live alongside humans. His name was Aywanaperios Cradithasargormaeked, but he liked to be called Aywa. He had long fluffy hair that he tied up into a samurai bun except he looped his hair only once at the back, leaving a big fluffy mess of hair back there. He had a beard too, but it was much thinner than Aleed's and much messier. The only other notable things about him were the droopy and long ears of a Kelifer Elf – the weakest population of elves.
"Long time no see, Jiggan." Aywa set his drink down beside the cold plates of food they ordered half an hour ago.
"Long time no see…" Jiggan said as he grabbed a chair from the table behind him for Teerom to sit on – their table was placed against the wall and had dining sofas instead of wood seats, "I see you still got that dogshit hair going for you." He joked.
Teerom watched as a tense silence ensued; he had been sitting nervously, slightly hurt that they didn't take notice of him.
"HAHAHA!" Aywa and Aleed burst out into laughter, "I see you're still an asshole!"
The four Jagged Gang members had been reunited and they were the exact same as long past; the three men laughed and verbally assaulted each other relentlessly as Baluchta quietly listened with a smile on her face, taking sips of her drink. She was the first one to notice Teerom sitting idly - almost soullessly.
"You must be Teerom." As she said that, the other three stopped monkeying around.
"Oi, oi, oi!" Aleed grinned, "Look how you've grown! Barely!" He laughed with Aywa.
"Jiggan, have you been feeding the kid!?" Aywa asked.
"Of course, I have. The little bastard just likes to get himself in trouble." Jiggan replied.
"Look at these skinny arms," Baluchta grabbed his left arm and managed to connect her middle finger to her thumb around his bicep – though, her fingers were long and slender. "Has he been abusing you?" She asked, getting a furious response from Jiggan.
"No such thing happened!"
Jiggan's anger bought about silence for a moment. Another tense quiet that filled Teerom with anxiety. But the group burst out into laughter once more.