OUTCAST

Curtis sat in his carriage as he waited to see if the man he had seen in the cafe was going to stay long. It was not his place to tell him to stop bothering Erin but someone had to do it.

If she couldn't protect and stand up for herself he would do it.

If she would have known what he was about to do she would be mad at him for a long time. He saw him leaving and he told the servants to follow him closely behind.

He wanted to know who he was because he had never seen him before. He was not the type of person that would go unnoticed which only meant one thing.

He was new in town.

He saw him stop at one of the shops and told the servants to stop.

Edmund could feel that someone was watching him but he didn't know who. They were not something on his agenda though since he had done things to do before the day ended.

The easiest way to find what he needed was to ask around. The funny thing was that people were giving him funny looks and he wondered what it was all about.

He approached a shop where a bunch of women was seated probably gossiping and they all went quiet the moment he approached them.

He called u to one of them and she reluctantly made her way to where he was standing.

"Hello ", he said to her.

"Hello ", the woman said back looking uncomfortable since she kept glancing back at her friends.

"What's going on ?", she asked her.

She muttered something under her breath. She opened her mouth to speak but couldn't find the words to say and she just looked at him.

"What were you guys talking about ?", he asked her again.

"There are rumors about you we were trying to know if they are true or not ", the woman said.

Of, course there were rumors. Someone had already come up with things about him and he was curious to know what they had said.

"Okay what were they saying ?", he asked her.

"That you are an outcast ", the woman said as she took a step back a clear indication that they had believed it.

"Do I look like an outcast to you, do they even look like us? Who said I was an outcast ?", he asked her.

"There is a bar at the corner of the street the guy that works there, his name is Arnoldo", the woman said.

Of course, it was him. Who else would stoop so low to spread such rumors if not the good-for-nothing Arnoldo?

"Thank you ", he said as he turned and left.

Outcasts were the other creatures apart from human beings. It was hard to tell so human beings had just called them that.

No one ever talked about them because people always believed that they were not real. At least they did until Arnoldo decided he wanted to do an introduction.

A carriage stopped before him and he wondered which princess had heard of his arrival but when the door opened it was Curtis.

The smile on Edmund's face disappeared as he wondered what he had come to tell him now. Had he been sent by Erin to scare him off?

"What was your name ?", Curtis asked him.

"Edmund why do you ask", Edmund asked him.

"Okay Edmund look here I don't like the way you talked to Erin can you have done manners when talking to women", Curtis said to him.

"Am sorry what?"_asked Edmund chuckling.

He could not believe that Curtis had stopped him in the middle of the road to tell him that. What was he now a fighter for women's rights?

"I said talk to women with respect or else don't bother talking to them and oohhh don't go back to that cafe ", said Curtis.

" Did Erin send you to tell me that ?", Edmund asked him.

"How did you know that ?", asked Curtis.

"Well she is friends with my sister ", answered Edmund shrugging his shoulders.

"You know if I offended her she would tell me herself right ?", asked Edmund.

"No she wouldn't she is too polite ", said Curtis.

"She can talk for herself and if something is bothering her she will say it. You don't need to jump in and be the hero ", said Edmund as he walked away

He did not have time to stand in the road talking to a guy who liked a woman who did not like him that . He saw the way that she looked at him and the way he looked at her.

He was not a master in reading women but he knew when a man had fallen in love. He had seen his brother do the same mistake over and over again.

What shocked him was the fact that he never learned.

.

He saw the bar where the woman had told him he would find Arnoldo and he went in. It was filled to the brim and you couldn't hear any coherent thing that was being said.

Men were slurring as they talked and others were fighting each other. As he looked around he was sure no one in there was important.

Most of them had abandoned their families at home. He glanced around until he saw who he was looking for.

He was behind the counter talking to the people that were seated there.

"Hey. "said Edmund.

"Hello too ", said someone only that it wasn't from Arnaldo. Edmund turned around to be met with Mateo.

"Great it's a family reunion ", said Edmund sarcastically.

"What are you doing here, you know you could easily get hurt here and no one would know", said Arnoldo as he poured Mateo a whiskey neat.

"Oooh yeah am scared ", said Arnoldo.

"Okay enough with the chitchat what do you want ?", asked Mateo.

"Oooh right that, would you care to tell me why you are going around town telling people that I am an outcast?", he asked as he looked at Arnaldo.