"RUN! Take Aldis away from here!"
*people screaming in the distant*
The mother crouched holding the arrow sticking from her chest.
"I love you both!" "Farewell my dears…" the mother stood still.
The father approached with a broken shield and a bleeding head.
"The defenses won't hold, we've already talked this over…"
A flaming arrow pierces the fathers broken shield.
"Argh… Arlo, take your brother away, take care of each other."
The father yells and charges into the flaming battlefield which used to be a village.
"Bro…" Aldis was asking his brother for a hand.
Arlo nodded and helped his brother get on his back.
Aldis's amputated right ankle is visible as the brothers walk away.
—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Bro, wake up!"
Arlo groans. "I'm up…" he tightens his muscles.
The makeshift bed beside the little bonfire scratches with the now standing young man.
"We have mushrooms for food!" Aldis smiles with the goldy yellow hair that got into his mouth.
"Wha- bleh!" he spits the hair out.
Arlo smirks and starts to eat the mushrooms.
"How is your leg project going?" he asks
Aldis smiles "This? uhhhh slowly." he shows a boot looking wood piece that has a belt attached to it.
"Well when you are done with it we can keep going, i won't carry you anymore." Arlo smiled.
"oooh? Am I too heavy for prince Arlo? I'm so sorry mah majesty…" Aldis joked around while trying to chop a part off of the wood.
The wind gushed.
"Well you are a healthy 16 year older, so yeah you in fact are pretty heavy Aldis." Arlo smirked while softly punching Aldis's shoulder
Aldis continued to work on his leg while Arlo decided to explore for some mushrooms.
"I'll be back at Aldis." He said and walked into the forest.
After some time of scavenging Arlo noticed the developing fog.
"İt is becoming hard to see."
He retreated to the campsite with some horseshoe mushrooms in hand.
"Hey Aldis! I've got some shrooms!" he called out.
No answer.
İt was strange for Aldis to stay silent like this, he was way too slimy after the events…
Arlo became anxious. "ALDİS!" he ran to the campsite worryingly. Since the event Arlo developed a state of constant worry for Aldis, he was trying to make it invisible to Aldis so he wouldn't worry too.
Arlo heard people talking and faced a sheepishly smiling Aldis who was busy talking to these armored people.
"WOW so you guys are the royal guards!" Aldis said in admiration.
Arlo approached his brother. What was in that dull head of his! Talking to strangers? more like getting himself killed!
"Aldis, who are these people?" Arlo asked while getting in between the guards and his brother.
"Ah, This is my brother Arlo." Aldis ignored Arlo.
Arlo glanced at the horse cart that the guards came with.
"Are you with royals?" He asked.
"Yes kid, but you better lose that tone when the duchesses cart gets here." The guard said under his thick helmet.
"A DUCHESS?" Aldis seemed to be about to start bouncing with excitement.
"Why would a high class royal want to travel in the woods in the middle of nowhere?" Arlo dropped the negative tone, rather he was curious.
"Well she is also the captain of one of the divisions so why do you think so shorty?"
Arlo opened his mouth to say something but Aldis stuffed it into his mouth.
"Some carts are arriving!" Aldis seemed even more excited, he struggled to put his still not finished leg on.
"Arlo help me out!" Aldis called out to his brother with some desperation.
While Arlo helped Aldis the carts stopped right beside the other one.
Guards flushed out, they were setting up a camp.
Aldis pulled his brother's ear to whisper to it; "Do you think they can take us with them to a city or something?"
Arlo seemed confused "Why would they do that?"
"Well aren't they royal and stuff?"
The guards looked like moving pillars with the sunset.
"Captain, we are finished!" a guard called to the fanciest looking cart.
The door opened, "Let the steeds rest…"
The guard hurried away.
"So what do we have here?"
A young woman who was in under armour stepped out of the cart while two others waited outside.
Arlo kneeled immediately and tried to grab Aldis's hand to make him do the same.
The brownish soil seemed dry.
Aldis did not kneel, he slapped Arlos hand. Maybe he was overwhelmed with the woman's beauty.
"E- Eh, we are brothers travelling to the nearest city." Aldis seemed overly confident while pointing to the half-assed camp materials they had.
The woman smiled, "The nearest one hmm?" her answers were absurdly slow.
'Maybe she is trying to be charming?' Arlo thought.
"Well you see, we are on a mission to raid a dungeon." The sorcerer bodyguard.
"The dungeon is connected to the town Araha…" she said.
"Take us with you!!" Aldis tried to put on his best puppy face.
The other bodyguard; she looked like a paladin; seemed like it wasnt a good idea.
"No- civilians are n-" she was stopped by Aldis.
"We can help!" Aldis said.
"Arlo can scout or gather items."
The duchess seemed to be enjoying Aldis's desperate tries to persuade the paladin.
"What will you do little boy?" she asked.
"Eh?" Aldis was bothered by the 'little boy' comment.
The birds chirped as the young duchess's face became serious.
"Why only your brother?" she said "What would YOU do hmm?"
Arlo felt disturbed.