So Appalled By A Damsel

The Castle of Mischief

Nero and Frides were walking through the woods and Nero didn't know what to do. He was hungry, he got kicked out of his house, and he was poor.

"I'm homeless" He said to himself. "Can my life get any worse?"

Then it immediately started raining. Urs ducked inside of the bag. Frides looked in his bag and pulled out a conductor's hat.

"Oh, it must be nice huh?" He said like a jealous child. "The only reason I'm carrying you now is because one day you'll be big like your mother and I'll ride on you and be comfortable. I️ wonder if they make saddles that big." He thought.

Frides noticed someone coming up behind them. More like Frides was on a normal amount of alert and Nero was as carefree as always, seemingly not concerned about his surroundings in the slightest. Nero noticed a huge deep puddle and stopped to jump over it in dramatic fashion. As he did a girl ran in between them. Not expecting Nero to stop she bumped into him and he slipped and fell forward. Because of her momentum she was sent sliding face first into the mud.

Frides rushed over to her. "Need a hand."

She pushed herself up. "No, but we need to hide there are some guys chasing me and they killed my handlers." She stood and looked back with her body facing the opposite way, ready to run. She grabbed Frides' hand and pulled him to the shrubs on the side of the road. "Wait weren't you with somebody? Where'd he go?"

Before Frides could answer she pushed him down and multiple pattering feet in the rain headed their way. She put her hand over his mouth. As she did he looked her over and didn't notice before but she was kinda cute.

One of them stopped and the other two kept running. "Wait you idiots." He yelled forward.

"Why are you stopping? She had to have gone this way hurry up stupid." He retorted.

"What are you brain dead? You can see for miles on that road and it's the only one. So do you see her, stupid."

"No." They responded hesitantly.

"Then she must not be on that road. Or she just got that far ahead of us that fast. Or she's in these bushes." They looked over and began to walk over towards the bushes.

"Hurry up and look."

As they walked closer one of them saw some Glow coming from the water. He looked up. "Hey. Ting is this one of those old battle grounds?"

"What? No. Those are only up north. Dad said the War never made it down this far." Ting replied as if it was a dumb question.

"Then what's this." They all come closer and see something that looked like the top of a walking stick made of Glow. Then Nero popped out covered in mud.

They all screamed from surprise. Nero still had mud in his eyes and couldn't see them but was startled by the sudden screaming and let go of his Glow and fell back in a little.

They looked at each other and screamed. "Swamp Monster!!!!"

Swamp monsters are a bed time story people tell their children. It rains a lot and the swamps are dangerous and should never be visited.

They ran back down the road. Bumping into each other as they went down the road.

The girl removed her hand from Frides' mouth. They stepped out and watched the bickering bandits bump down the road, and the coast was clear.

Nero emerged from the puddle again this time slowly. He didn't hear any sounds and wiped the mud from his eyes with his free hand. He looked around and saw Frides and a girl. He didn't recognize this girl?

He jumped out and ran up to them. "Which one of you pushed me in there." Then he looked at the girl. "Who is she?"

Frides shrugged his shoulders as the girl looked sheepishly at the ground. "It was me alright. I'm sorry! I was being chased by those guys."

"What guys?" Nero interject and looked around to see no one.

"The guys that were chasing me. The guys that you were screaming at." She said.

"What?" He looked around again confused. "Oh. I didn't know where those people came from or why they were screaming at me. It scared the shit out of me. Who were they and seriously who are you??"

She looked at Frides, who had a similar look of curiosity weighing in his eyes. The rain still slowly drip dropped on their heads.

"I'm a lady of a small village a little north of here. I usually go down to the coast with Warren once a week but.." She broke down and started crying.

Frides looked at Nero. Nero shrugged his shoulders and mouthed. "What'd you do to her." Frides had a look of confusion and mouthed back. "She grabbed me."

Nero placed his hand on her shoulder. "Is everything okay?"

"No, obviously!" She snapped back at him. "I just go around crying my heart out In front of strangers in the middle of the road, in the rain!"

"Well, what am I supposed to do? Because for some reason, I don't know why, but i must look like I care. Come on frides lets get out of here." Nero spun around and started walking. "Good thing it's raining. I'll be able to get this mud off of me in no time."

"Oh your such a jerk. And useless. Just go away."

Nero stopped in his tracks and a vain popped out on his forehead. "Jerk? I'm a jerk? You uppity little crybaby. I don't care if your a lady of whatever place in the middle of wherever. That's not the way you treat people and that's not how you act when you want help. Look just cause you need help doesn't mean you deserve to have it." Nero walked away and Frides shrugged and followed Nero.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Thanks for reading!