10.Lukius

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He had done a poor job of concealing the damage caused by a tree branch when it had fallen on the house, leaving a large dent in the wooden roof. This was something Lukius noticed as he made his way up the path that lead to the small building. Despite this fact, he thought it to be a rather nice place to live, with plenty of frosted over windows, and icicles that fell like icing on a cake. It wasn't huge, but it had a large covered outdoor space that made up for the lack of physical rooms inside.

Sat under this covered set of logs, were his dogs, who came running as soon as he was in sight, barrelling into him and knocking him into the white ground, barking and yipping in greeting as he cast aside his recent success and began rolling around with them, for a dog without affection soon became aggressive to its owner, and that was not what his clients wanted.

He looked up at the small clock perched on the side of the structure and his eyes went wide. He should have left for a meeting by now, to hand over 2 of the well trained animals. He shoved the dogs away and stood, brushing the muck off of his trousers and jogged over to the house, grabbing the rabbits on his way and pulling his keys from his pocket, ramming them into the lock and turning.

He pushed open the door and propped it open with the nearest thing he could find before grabbing two leather strips off of the decaying table, kneeling down to fasten them around the necks of the two nearest to him. It didn't matter which ones he brought with him as this particular customer knew his work well and trusted Lukius not to cause a problem.

Although only two of his pack had been collared, he would be taking all of his companions with him, because there was nothing that he loved more than the feeling of riding with his friends. And it seemed the sentiment was shared as the dogs leapt up around him in visible glee, prepared to follow the boy wherever he may go.

He laughed again and beckoned them to his heel, starting the walk to the nearest settlement, which was a long way away. The journey to this particular client's house was long, a day or so to be precise, but it payed well, very well indeed and there was no way that he would give up that amount of money.

And so he and his dogs set off, running away and toward him as he walked, occasionally straying to chase a small animal, yet immediately returning at the sound of his whistle. It took a long while to reach the nearest village and even longer to borrow a horse, after trying in vain to convince the pack to stay near the outskirts.

He shivered slightly as he crossed the boundary of the hire stables, leaving the warmth behind and exchanging it for bitter cold, it didn't take much to realise that unlike his animals, he had not yet adapted to this weather, not to mention the fact that he was somehow more aware of his senses when surrounded by the cold. It seemed like the snow worked with him, but in doing so, he gained large, painful headaches from the constant whispers.

Lukius swung his leg up and heaved himself into the saddle. He wouldn't class himself as an amazing rider, but he liked to think that he had some skill, especially when paired with the horse he'd chosen, a pale-as-snow male with a slight attitude problem that was compensated for by his bravery.

Zav was the only horse in the place that wasn't scared of being surrounded by vicious dogs, and in Lukius' eyes, was highly useful for long journeys. He was tall, and lithe while posessing powerful legs tat could propel him through the snow at a rapid pace.

After several hours of being the only group of living mammals for miles, surrounded only by the trees as company, Lukius and his group came to a halt outside of a large manor, built on top of a hill. Much like the rest of the Kingdom, it was draped in blankets of pure, white snow, with a very obvious set of footprints sunken into the snow by the guards. He slid off of Zav and patted his neck before handing the animal off to a short, pale boy and striding away.

As walked, he could feel each individual flake of snow being compressed further into the ground, creating a small crunching sound before abruptly stopping in front of the door, his pack not far behind him. He grasped the large, dark metal knocker in his hand and lifted it, letting it swing down on the wood twice before releasing. Almost immediately, the door was opened by another boy, almost identical to the one from before, with pale, skinny hands and cheeks flushed by the cold.

Lukius smiled at the boy and chuckled when the red from his cheeks spread to his ears, creating a rather endearing picture before him. He thanked the younger teen before continuing into the house, only to be greeted by a pair of dogs leaping up at him, almost knocking him over while smothering him in their kisses. He grinned and looked down at them, before patting them both on the head, in between the ears and gently pushing them away.

In doing so, he revealed the man stood behind them. He was a tall, battle hardened duke who had purchased pairs from Lukius several times in the past, some went on to be sold again whilst others stayed with him or his family, but all of them were treated well, which was why the pale eyed boy bent slightly into a bow of respect, greeting the client before him,

" Its a pleasure to see you again sir."

It was customary for him to greet the duke in this way, but every single time, the bearded man would protest, for he saw Lukius as perhaps what one may call a close family friend. He would insist that he only be called Markus and yet, to his dismay, lukius never listened.

"I have told you once, and I will tell you again, you need not call me sir, Markus will do quite nicely. Now, where are my two new puppers?"

There he went again with the puppers. Gods only know why he calls them that, for they were as far from pups as they could be, furiously loyal to their master and painfully vicious to all those who may oppose him.

Lukius ushered the pair from earlier towards the duke, giving both a scratch behind the ears as a goodbye and softly smiling as the frequent customer knelt down and hugged both of his new companions, pulling back to look over them once each.

He'd given the duke two of his best, one was a tall, muscular male, with grey markings, decorated by the occasional fleck of brown and almost white eyes, while the other was also a male, but significantly smaller. He was pitch black with unnervingly blue eyes and a patch of white at the tip of his snout. They would work well for their new master, and he, in turn, would treat them well. Lukius was content in the knowledge that they would have a good life.

He took the heavy bag of coins from the outstretched, scarred hand in front of him and tested the weight- there was certainly more than usual in there.

"There's a bit extra in there for how wonderfully you raise these dogs. Thank you."

The dog trainer smiled, said a short, but sweet goodbye and promptly left the manor again, where Zav was waiting, fully watered and fairly rested after the encounter taking a bit longer than expected. He swung himself back onto his horse and clicked out of the edge his mouth. He kicked the horse lightly on the side and left.

As they came to the gates, Lukius noticed a rather large commotion and then he was stopped. A guard with dark hair and eyes silently approached, wary of the now-defensive dogs surrounding the young and inexperienced looking boy in front of him, lips drawn back ever so slightly to reveal a glimpse of the deadly teeth in there.

The man spoke.

"I'm sorry sir, but I cannot let you leave just yet. We must test you for traces of magic."

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AN- after I realised that I could no longer attach banners, I decided to make a Pinterest board to give a rough idea of what I pictured each character to be like. Its under the name of AGOP and is sorted. The user is E11ie4804 or something like that. 

Thanks for reading I guess.

-E

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