《Forward March》


 The Beginning

    Standing in the middle of the road, a child wearing what was basically rags was staring blankly at a food stall. The food stall had a large selection to choose from, ranging from all types of produce, sweets and meat. It was an odd commodity due to to the fact that the other food stall only sold a certain type of product. Some sold weapons, others sold hot freshly made food, where others sold produce and meat.


    The food stall clerk looked at the boy who seemed to not pay any attention to his surroundings.


    Looking closer the boy had short black, messy hair. Sparkling Emerald eyes, set adorably within their sockets, that were staring hungrily at all the food on the stall, seemingly contemplating how to get his tiny little hands on anything that can sate his appetite.


    The tiny boy wore a large black scarf around his neck and had it wrapped around his face, covering everything below the eyes. The scarf was torn and tattered, but still in decent condition compared to the other clothes he had on.


    Under the scarf was what used to be a white shirt, now a ruffled mess of loose fibers, dirt stains and holes. It barely manages to hang from his shoulders, like a discarded old towel. And underneath what was left of the shirt was a obsidian necklace hanging around his neck. Attached to the necklace was a pendant with a obscure creature on the front, and on the back there was a name etched onto it, Griffin.


    His black pants were a mess. Dirt stains, holes and tears were scattered all over. But at least he had a pair of black boots to protect his tiny feet. Although they seem old and worn, barely the right size and the sole of the right boot has started to come loose at both the heel and toe. At the very least, they protected his feet from the environment. But anything was better than being barefooted.


    Noticing the way the boy was looking at all his products, the stall owner yells at the child. "Boy. Come here" the man behind the stall waved at him. "Me?" The boy was shocked out of his daze. "Yea, you coming or not?" The man inquired. The boy hoping that the man was going to give him something to eat, slowly but steadily made his way over. He was starving, not having eaten in a couple of days was taking its toll on him. But this was a normal occurrence for him. Most times, he tries to steal when nobody''s looking, only to get caught or chased down by a angry mob of stall owners.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.


    Standing next to the man, the boy barely glances at him. His full attention was towards the food in arm reach. "You thinking of stealin anything?" The boy was startled, ''how he know?'' Seeing the shock in the boy eyes, the man broke out laughing "hahahaha!" After a few minutes the man finally stopped laughing. Staring at the boy he finally asks, "what''s your name?" "M-My name is Griffin." "Nice to meet you Griffin, my name is Rayver. Are..." Before he can even finish with what he was about to say, he was interrupted by a customer.


    "Ayeee Ray lemme get a basket of apples, those green sour one." Rayver looks at the person who came in front of his stall yelling. "Shut it you ol coot, gonna make me dead in der ears." Looking back to Griffin , "boy what you waitin for, get him some damn green apples and remove the scarf from your face, you gon scare my customers away lookin like that." Griffin hesitating, hears "No thinking bout stealin now. You help me sellin an collectin da coin and ill give yer food. Ayy, now stop hesitating we got customers."


    Finally with what Rayver said, Griffin gets to work but freezes. "H-How much apples do i put in the basket?" "You stupid? you just put apples in a basket till it fills up. Ayyy now hurry up. Time is money."


    Seeing a bunch of baskets next to the stall, Griffith grabs one and starts putting in the green apples. "Done" Handing the basket to the man called old coot, or what Rayver called him.


    The man grabs the basket and hands 3 copper coins to Griffin . "Cute kid. whose he, your nephew or slave?"


    Rayver tells the man. "No I caught him starin at my stuff, you know one of those thiefs that be swiping." "How you know he''s one of those thief''s?"The old man asks Rayver.


    Rayver explains to the old man, "Well, I saw him tryna steal from that old crazy lady who sells those delicious pastries down the road a couple days ago."


    "They just hungry, no? Put em to work with pay as food, you''ll get a whole bunch of these little fuckers. Hahahaha!" Laughing together with Rayver, the old coot continues "maybe I should try it too. Could use the extra help at the inn. Hahahaha."


    Rayver shaking his head says, " you try it? You be too scared that one of the fuckers will still your goods." the old coot waves his hand at Rayver, and said" shut up you fool, that''s money so of course ima be scared of some fuckers stealing from me. Oh right, you coming later for food and ale right?"the old man asks. "Yea, make sure everything is hot and ready for me." Rayver damands. "shut it you old fool, of course the food will be hot, I run a tight ship." the old man left while waving goodbye to Rayver.


    "You done starin kid? I got more customers," Rayver exclaims while shaking his head. Looking at Griffin, Rayver tosses a red apple to him. "Here, eat this and get back to work. Cant havin you drool on the goods. When we finish here, i''ll take you to that old coot inn, let you get some real grub in yer belly." Rayver waves the boy away seeing tears in the corner of the boy eyes.


    Griffin stares at Rayver wanting to say something but doesn''t. Instead vowing in his heart, ''if Rayver ever needs help, i''ll do anything to repay him.''


    Griffin looking at the next customer and asks,"w-what c-can I get you?"

 A Quiet Guy

    The next customer in line takes a couple steps towards the stall, then looks at Griffin, then at Rayver and ask questioningly," aye Ray, who''s this child?" Before Rayver could answer, the man continues, "Never mind it doesn''t matter."


    Glancing briefly at the man who was taking his time on deciding what he wanted to buy. Griffin takes this chance to go grab another basket. While holding onto the basket, Griffin stared curiously at the man.


    The first thing Griffin noticed was that the man wore a sheath on his waist. The sheath was wrapped in strange, white wolf leather, and was carrying a sword which couldn''t be seen. Besides that the blade had a spiked, twisted cross-guard. The cross-guard has an ornamented cross on each side, along with a small pommel that is decorated with gilded linings.


    Other than how elegant and expensive the weapon looked, the most noticeable thing about the man was his strange aura. His strange aura attracted many gazes from both men and women, but mostly women. His aura was attractive, powerful yet calming.


    Other than that, he was a handsome middle-aged man, with silver flowing hair that was in a tight ponytail. Squinting blue eyes, set high within their sockets. A scar reaching from just under the right eyebrow, running towards the tip of his nose. He wore a white shirt that fit perfectly with his body, and black pants with black leather boots.


    Briefly glancing at Griffin, then at the crowd, the annoyed Rayver signs. Then yells at the man revealing his name," Aiden hurry up and decide on what you always get. I got more customers that are looking to buy shit. Your slowing the line down."


    "Ray, I''m a customer too." Aiden replies nonchalantly without even a glance at the annoyed Rayver.


    "Kid, get him two sweet rolls, a slice from the pig ass and some black berry wine" Growled the annoyed Rayver, and continues after momentarily looking at Aiden with a helpless expression," make sure you hurry it up so we can get rid of this bothersome person."


    Griffin proceeds to do just that. Firstly with the basket in hand, he went to go grab the black berry wine that was placed on a shelf. Putting it into the basket, he grabs two sweet rolls that were just right next to the wine. Finally, he went towards the pig that was on the rotisserie, but just as he was going to pick up the knife he hears Rayver, "kid I got it, don''t want you to cut yourself and bleed all over my goods."This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.


    Rayver goes and picks up the knife, then proceeded to make a cut in the roasted pig ass. While doing this, he explains to Griffin the proper way of handling the knife. "You have to hold the knife here, like this. The grip is simple, it''s just like making a fist but your just doing it on the handle of the knife. This way you have grip on the knife. When your ready to utilize the blade, you point the blade forward. Otherwise, you keep the blade facing downward. Ok?"


    Listening to Rayver explaining the proper way to handle to knife, Griffin repeats it multiple times in his head to make sure he remembers.


    After finishing cutting the meat, Rayver grabbed the slice of meat with one hand then with the other hand, grabbed a flat metal piece that was next to the rotisserie to use as a plate for the meat, and places the slice onto the metal plate. "Here kid, put it in the basket."After saying that, he hands the metal plate to Griffin.


    After placing the plate inside of the basket, Griffin then sets the basket on top of the stall counter. Afterwards Griffin looks at Rayver and asks him," How much do I charge him?" Rayver who doesn''t even look at Griffin replies," four copper coins."


    Before Griffin could ask for the money, Aiden hands him five coins. "Here''s five coins, the extra one is for you to keep. I know how stingy Rayver can be and he probably doesn''t even pay that good either."


    During their conversation, a luxurious carriage rode up and parked on the other side of the street. The coachman hops down and opens the door while calling out."Master Aiden, it''s about time to go."


    Hearing his name called, Aiden turned around and looks at the coachman and nods his head in acknowledgment. Turning back around facing Rayver and Griffin he said,"ill be back tomorrow."


    After saying that, Aiden picks up his basket and walks towards the carriage. The people who were crowding around to look and stare at him opened up so he can leave.


    "No way, I don''t need a pretty boy buzzing around my ear every day."


    "Go actually do your job for once and stop bothering me, this old man is tired of you."


    " I don''t have time for you."


    "Don''t comeback, you hear."


    Rayver kept yelling to Aiden who just kept walking. Griffin watched as Rayver yelled, wondering what''s so bad about Aiden. Aiden seemed to be a nice guy, the only problem that you can make about him was that fact that he blunt and straight to the point. In most cases, that wasn''t a bad trait to have.


    Aiden did not even look back when he left, he just kept walking directly towards the open door of the carriage. Everyone including Rayver and Griffin watched as he got into the carriage and the door closed right after he entered.


    The coachman gave a slight bow to Rayver and then hopped back into the carriage seat. He whistled at the horses and whipped the horse to get them moving.


    Slowly the carriage drove away and disappeared from their view.


    Seeing that the carriage disappeared from their view, the crowd finally dispersed.


    Rayver who was still annoyed yelled, "good riddance!"

 3. A Dream?

    After Aiden left, there wasn''t anything interesting or eventful that happened.


    Time quickly passed by, before Griffin knew it, the sun was setting.


    Looking at the last customer walk away, Griffin notices the sunset into the distant sky.


    Boom!


    It was like the world froze at that moment for Griffin.


    He was lost, staring blankly at the sun set into the horizon. It was as if his spirit left his body to bask in the embrace of the sun''s warmth. His left hand was raised as if he was trying to grasp hold of the sun''s warmth, or maybe it was a memory in the recesses of his mind that he forgot that he was trying to grasp. Like something trying to surface from the bottom of his conscious but couldn''t breakthrough the surface.


    Slowly bits and pieces of what appeared to be an image of both a man and a woman hovering over him. Although it was blurry at first, gradually it became clear.


    The woman had tears running down her face, with her hand covering her mouth. The most eye catching thing was the obsidian pendant hanging from her neck.


    The man on the other hand had one tear each crawl down from each eyeball on his deadpan face. The most noticeable thing however, was that he had piercing emerald eyes.


    Slowly the image in his mind started to recede back to the recess of his conscious. Griffin tried his hardest to maintain the image. But begrudgingly, he stopped his useless struggle. Only thing that he could do was memorize the faces of the two people with the little time he had left before the image vanishes.


    Rumbling


    He was woken up out of his stupor from his stomach telling him to eat some food while still staring at the sun set in the distance.


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    The sun was quietly falling asleep in the sky. Many different colors ranging from orange to blue illuminated the sky for the final moments of the day.


    The sun was then shielded behind a massive mountain range, with a forest protecting its front. The forest was like a snake, going across and in between the mountains with a large river in between splitting the ocean of trees in half.


    The sunset was like an old friend or parent beckoning him, as if there was something for him if he went there.


    Griffin whispers, "so beautiful, yet so lonely." Slowly dropping his hand to his side.


    "Beautiful isn''t it." Rayver exclaims standing next to Griffin while placing a hand onto his shoulder. Lost for words Griffin could only answer with,"y-yeah."


    A pause settles in as they look on as the sun sets  behind the mountain range with that last bits of warmth radiating from it.


    After what appears to be only a few moments, Rayver looks at Griffin and tells him, "Every sunset brings forth the promise of a new dawn."


    "What does that mean." Griffin asks confused while still staring at the sunset.


    "Nothing, just something to think about." Rayver tells Griffin while staring at him dismissing what he just said.


    "Let''s finish up here so we can get some good food and drink in our belly. Oh. Drink for me, juice for you." Rayver adds while moving towards his stall beckoning Griffin along.


    Hearing Rayver, Griffin trails behind after one last glance at the mountain that''s covering the sunset from view with an unconscious motion of placing his left hand onto the pendant hanging around his neck.


    Rayver begins to explain the process of cleaning up with a simple" this goes here, that goes there" repeatedly pointing at a couple things in succession.


    Time passed and in no time they finished packing up everything around on the stall cart.


    Rayver double checks that everything is in place somewhere on the cart where they won''t fall off, then proceeds to pull the stall cart towards the closest alley way and pushes it inside.


    Griffin looks questionly at Rayver actions wondering why he would put it there.


    Rayver proud of his so called concealment of the stall claps his hands together. Glancing at Griffin who has a questioning look on his face. Waving his hand dismissively in the air responds to Griffin expression," it''s just wood, if somebody steals it I can always make a new one or pay someone to build one for me."


    "Ok." Griffin replies seeing how Rayver wasn''t going to offer a better explanation.


    "Let''s go, I''m hungry. I''m sure you are too." Saying that Rayver walked away while Griffin trailed behind him.