"I told you to stand up!" A sound of a whip and a horrendous scream echoe through the mining grounds.

It's a usual sight, a discipline soldier beating on the labor force. I looked up to see who was the newest victim, it looked to be a old man in his late 80s or 90s.

No wonder he can't keep up, a man that age shouldn't be working.

That's probably what any normal person with a reasonable amount of moral compass should be thinking, right? Well not me.

What I'm thinking about is what an amazing feat it is to reach such an age as a Red.

No wonder the guards are beating on him, they must be very frustrated and offended at the mans age. After all the usual life span of a Red is 20-30 although there's a very high possibility that it could be earlier than that.

The soldier probably sees the mans age as a act of rebellion, because it almost amounts to theirs.

I think as I quickly load the crystals up the thought of helping the poor man hasn't even crossed my mind. After all, there's no heroes among the misfortunate.

I learned that the hard way.

I quickly loaded the crystals up and started my two hour walk to the likeware factory. I had to hurry home to keith an- "Noy, Noah!"

I turned around to see who so rudely interrupted my train of thought, I had already narrowed it down by the nickname they called me.

It was Roy, Roy underbridge to be exact.

We were teammates on a hunting expedition I saved him from a couple of wolves and ever since he's been stuck to me like a magnet, although I'm not complaining. After all you gotta have someone you can trust around here.

"What is it? Roy, are you trying to have the guards beat me too?" I asked.

"Sorry Noy it's just I've finished my daily duties and was wondering if I can sleepover yours tonight?" I can bring food."

I looked at him uneasily before responding.

"I'm not sure, today's not the best day," I say. "I was just about to walk to the labor factory to hand over these crystal cores, and then find keith so we can go home together."

I just don't think this is the rig-," I don't get to finish my sentence, before Roy adds to it.

Please my dad just went to a interview to try out for a higher position."

I eyed him a bit confused.

"But Roy isn't that a good thing?" I inquired.

"I know what a drunkard he is but isn't it a good thing that he's trying to better himself for yo-."

"He's not trying to better himself!" Roy yells out.

And at this point I'm convinced he's trying to get us a beating.

"At least not for me," Roy says in a quieter voice.

And at this point I'm starting to feel imaculately bad, but I'm still curious so I ask.

"Okay I get that but I still don't understand why you're asking to stay the night I mea-. "

"Because I know that he's not gonna get it and once he's been rejected he's gonna take it out on me," Roy says his hand formed into a fist.

I look Roy up and down, and admire the way he has made me full of guilt already. But I can tell he's feeling bad about asking this of me.

This is a sad day for me, and my family. He knows it too, But he is my friend. "Think tha-," I try to speak but I'm interrupted.

It's alright I know it's a sad day and I'll probably be a nuisance, I'll just find another place to stay at," Roy tells me.

"It's really no bother, you know. I can always find another place to stay a-,"

"You know you're really starting to piss me off underbridge."

Roy looks at me confused, "What?"

Clearly not understanding the problem.

"Your constant interruption is not helping your case, it's just making me wanna punch you."

Roy chuckles at that.

"Yeah sorry about that, I was just really nervous," Roy says continuing to rub the back of his head.

"Why on god's green earth would you need to be nervous with me? Aren't we like brothers?"

"Of course we are, I was just really nervous asking this on this particular day," Roy says rubbing the back of his head.

"Next time just be nervous without the interrupting part."

We both look at each other for a few moments in silence before bursting into fits of laughter. After we both calmed down a bit we stopped holding our stomachs and straightened our backs, there were still a few chuckles and snickers here and there.

"Yeah sorry about that Noy, really." You could see the sincerety in his eyes when Roy apologised, I couldn't stay pissed that long.

"Apology accepted and of course you can stay at our place," I said sincerely.

"You're pulling my tail now aren't ya," Roy asked seemingly serious.

"You have such weird comparisons," I say mockingly.

"Just answer," Roy says, I chuckle at the unusual expression.

"No Roy I'm not pulling you're tail." I say trying to maintain a serious expression. But before I can get my poker face on he jumps on me inevitably making us both fall to the ground and making a loud thud noise.

"This is why you're my best friend: you're the best."

I didn't even hear what he said, I was too busy trying to look past his shoulder to see if the soldiers heard the loud noise. Luckily they were too busy watching the other soldier beat the old man.

We were lucky this time, I think to myself.

"Roy have you lost it?" I say with a grim expression.

"Noy were having a moment don't ruin it," Roy says with a earnest face.

"If the moment is going to lead to me being beaten to death than I would rather not have it," I say with sarcasm.

"You're no fun," Roy says with a pout.

"Indeed, now get off me,"

I demanded.

"Yeah yeah," Roy said as he gets off of me.

"Wanna walk to the factory together?" Roy asked.

"As long as you don't jump on me again, I think I can," I said contemptuously.

"I'll try my best," Roy says with a laugh.

I don't reply and begin walking towards the labor factory.

While me and Roy were talking a boy ran up to us and jumped on my back. "Explain the six factions standings to me again," the boy demanded.

I wasn't surprised, the boy always came up to me and asked me to explain the social hierarchy of the 6 factions. For what reason I do not know.

Even though it was tiring to explain the same thing over and over again, I wouldn't dare refuse. Not because of his age, but because his old man is good pals with the guards.

The first time the boy came up to me I didn't know about it, so I ended up swearing at the kid. The boy started to cry and ended up telling his father which ended up in me being beat half to death by the guards, and the dad.

Recalling that memory I didn't waste time and just started explaining, while also giving the boy a piggyback.

Roy didn't look surprised, it wasn't the first time it happened and certainly won't be the last. But he erased all those thoughts and started listening to what I was saying.