It was still before dawn, when Angel woke Nick up with a cry. At this moment they were soaring above few scarce clouds. When Nick carefully looked over the side of his basket, many tiny flickering lights could be seen around them on the ground covered by a layer of snow.
Aurora, the capital of the Sun kingdom, was said to be the biggest city in the world. Nick would've loved to say 'what a breathtaking sight' or something similar, but this was not the 21st century's Beijing or San Francisco and there was no electricity to light up the whole city. Therefore he could tell this was Aurora, because of the small star-like glimmering lights stretching all over the white land, but that was it.
"Let's go a bit lower, we have to find a spot where you can safely let me out with a lesser risk of getting noticed."
When they flew on a lower altitude, Nick finally could discern buildings and the almost empty streets. Although he started to practice Qi some time ago, his eyesight was miles and miles from Angel's.
"Angel, maybe you see some small forest with no people around? Or maybe an empty beach?"
The shadow eagle flapped his wings and changed the direction more towards the east.
Aurora was a port city. Similar to the city, the port was also the biggest in the world and was the main trading destination of the ships from the Eastern continent. The Sun kingdom had quite good relationship with both Styx and Lethe kingdoms from the Eastern continent, but it was different with the Nestri empire that was ruling over the Nestri continent.
When they neared the coastline and the sun started to come up, Nick saw the Aurora bay in the distance and tens of ships docked in the harbor. This time he took a deep breath – it really was an impressive picture.
Some distance away to the north from the harbor, there was a bigger complex of white buildings that were located on a mountain that had high cliff walls at the coast in the east and towards the south. The north-west side was covered by forest.
Angel appeared to target that forest. When they flew closer, the white building complex turned out to be a large palace surrounded by dozens of smaller buildings. Since everything was covered in a layer of snow, Nick couldn't tell if it was beautiful or not, or if the walls and buildings were all high and mighty. He decided to check it out later.
After few more minutes, Angel landed with a swoosh near a small frozen pond within the forest behind the palace. Twisters of snow flew to all sides when the huge eagle flapped his wings. He chose a good, quiet place behind a larger pile of rocks where it was unlikely for anyone to notice them. With the dawn Angel's feathers were turning dark gray and he almost looked like another big rock on the snow.
"You are not throwing me into the water again, are you?" Nick smiled while climbing out the basket. Angel squinted his eyes as if smiling back.
"Ok, we are short on time – the sun will be up real soon. You should fly to the Northern mountain range and recuperate, I will detoxify poison and grow stronger. At the moment I am, let's say, seven years old. After ten years I will go and find you – it might not be easy and it might take some time, but it is a promise! Ten years, deal? After that together we'll go back and wreck havoc in that sect of murderers!"
Nick quickly told what was on his mind, except, that he didn't really want to part with his only friend in this world. But they would meet soon enough – it just had to be done this way.
Nick stretched his small fist out towards Angel, but the latter for some reason was also reluctant to part. They looked at each other for a while, then Angel returned the 'fist bump' and gently pecked Nick in the chest.
"Oh my God!" Suddenly a loud scream woke them up from the touching bromance.
A man in his fifties with a bow on his back and a bundle of dead white rabbits in his hand had come out from behind the rocks right next to them. He was staring at Angel, his legs visibly shaking.
"Go!" Nick touched Angel's beak, "Stay safe!"
Angel took off soundlessly while creating a small snowstorm and almost instantly disappeared above the trees.
"What happened?" Nick turned towards the stupefied man and inquired.
"A goblin!" Man shouted again and seemingly only now noticed Nick, and this time the legs failed him. Rabbits scattered around while the shocked hunter fell on his butt.
"You are the goblin!" Nick retorted and went towards the hunter to help him gather the game, "What is wrong with you, haven't you seen a child before?"
Apparently hearing the last sentence helped the man to get back to his senses.
"S...sorry." He stuttered, "What was that? Did it attack you?"
"What are you talking about? Look, let's gather your rabbits. They are already dead so you should think of them as a food. And you can't just randomly throw food on the ground!" Nick tried to pretend that hunter was seeing things.
"The big bird! I am talking about the big bird! It was standing right there!"
"Man, you should drink less. You are a hunter, you should be capable of noticing tracks. There are no tracks around here, only dead rabbits." When he discovered that Angel was infusing Qi to hold the basket together, Nick was fully confident that the rank six beast's Qi control was way better than that of an average Qi master and maybe even better. Therefore already based on his instincts it was impossible for him to leave any footprints if he didn't want to.
Hunter got up, with incredulous look on his face checked the surrounding snow and then kept staring at the tree tops where Angel disappeared.
"Am I also going to be like that when I grow old?" Nick turned to the technique that worked well at his last residence – insult.
"I am not old! What does a kid like you know? And why are you here? Who are you?" Seemed that the 'insult technique' still worked like a charm.
"Should I answer all the questions at once or you prefer one by one?"
"All at once!" Hunter wasn't the brightest one or simply decided to ignore Nick's sarcasm.
"I am Nick, nice to meet you. I got lost here. How about you – are you lost too?" Nick finally tried to be more child–like. He was not the Primeval demon Belial or Baal anymore, they were filming a different movie around here.
"What do you mean 'lost'? These are the Royal woods! It's the forbidden ground for commoners. You will be in a lot of trouble if someone finds out."
"I am sorry, uncle, how would I know where I am if I got lost? Can you help me get out of here?" Nick tried to be as pitiful as he could while gathering rabbits and passing them to the hunter.
"Don't call me uncle, I am not that old yet! Call me Ben." Seeing Nick trying hard to help out, Ben softened up a bit. "These are Royal woods and regular people can't be here. I would bring you out, but first I got to deliver the game to the kitchen. Sun is rising up and soon I'll be late."
"Then bring me along. I am just a child, no one will care. Tell everyone that I am your son or the son of your sister."
"Everyone here knows I don't have any children, but my sister's son … won't work. Your skin is too dark, you are probably from the southern nomad tribes." Ben scratched his head trying to figure something out.
"My skin is like that, because I got poisoned by the people who killed my family." This time it was not a lie, "All I had was some food in this basket, but I am all out. I came to Aurora to find a way to cure the poison."
One had to be a monster or a regular person from the Holy Order to not feel for a child with such pitiful background and the story behind it. Ben was neither so he tied up the rabbits, looked over the tree tops once again, sighed and tried to take the basket to help Nick to carry it. But as soon as he touched it, it turned into small pile of sawdust.
"Woaa. You are so strong! But now you broke my basket so you owe me breakfast! Let's go!" Nick kicked the sawdust and it scattered on the rocks and snow.
Ben looked at his hand, then the place where the basket once was. It took him a while to pull himself together again.
"Sigh, let's go Nicky." He patted the little bald head, then took Nick's hand in his, like a grandfather walking with his grandchild, "If anyone asks – you are my sister's son the visiting capital to see a doctor."
Nick got startled when the hunter took his hand, but, since he had a kid's body, he had to act like one. Then he cheered and pulled the still confused Ben towards the south where the palace ought to be.
Turns out Ben was something like a supervisor in the Royal woods. His main task was to control the populace of rabbits and deer, and to bring surplus to the palace's kitchen. There were no natural predators here because Royal woods were separated from the rest of the world by cliffs on the east side, guarded by high and long wall on the North and West sides and the palace complex in the south. It was something like a park for royalties to spend their leisure time or do some easy hunting.
Ben had a small house in the city, but came here every day early in the morning to check the traps and maybe hunt something on the way as well. He seemed to be quite proud of his archery skills and, since Nick didn't know anything about it, he decided to trust the old man on that.
Aurora was a coastal city thus the seafood was important and a big part of the diet here. But the palace was big and usually there was someone bored of the fishes and wanted a real meat. Of course, they were talking about the regular kitchen – the king had his own cook and suppliers.
Ben was right, the palace guards knew him well. While the pair was maneuvering through labyrinths of pavilions, corridors and halls, guards teased Ben for finally showing his illegitimate child. Ben, on the other hand, replied that it was just a random goblin he picked up in royal woods and was bringing to cook in the kitchen.
When they finally got to the kitchen they were greeted by annoyed voice, "Why are you so late? If the nightmare wakes up and sees you, you won't be able to get away this time."
But Ben just threw the batch of rabbits toward the source of the voice as an answer.
"That's Nigel, the best cook in the palace and an old friend of mine. Even the king's cook is not as good, it's just his character is bad and people don't like him, hahaha!" Ben explained as he started to laugh.
Finally Nigel appeared in Nick's sight. Contrary to the expectations or the usual cook stereotypes, Nigel was a short, thin man, approximately the same age as Ben. He was wearing a green apron colored in flowers and a brownish hat that looked like a beanie. If not a fat man, Nick expected at least a white apron and chef's hat, but this was also all right – Nigel didn't try to look 'cooler' just because he was a palace's cook. Probably he was cook because he liked his job. Nick respected these people, they were simple, honest and had good sense of humor.