Tales of Hex

The beginning of something new

Normally Ezra wouldn't have cared. He just wasn't that type of person. He didn't care about others and others didn't care about him. That's just how it was and that's how it would always be, at least that's what he thought. This time he was intrigued. I mean why was this boy here during school hours? This little crybaby didn't run away right? I mean he couldn't have, right? He looked about five years old he couldn't have run away from school, right? "Hey" Ezra said in his unusually deep voice (for a nine year old). "What are you crying about, you know you don't have to cry right?" And as you can probably tell by that sentence, Ezra isn't that good at social interactions.

The small boy look up to reveal a big bruise around his left eye. He looked horrified at the sight of the small dragon standing in front of him. "Oh" Ezra said realising that he probably still had blood on his lips from when he bit his classmate. "Don't be scared, I'm not gonna do anything" Ezra said as his words were muffled by the sound of him trying to wipe the blood from his lips. The little boy moved slightly backwards in an effort to get as far away from The dragon as possible. "I'm Ezra by the way, what's your name?" Ezra still had no idea why he was choosing to continue this conversation, normally he would have already flown away by this point."M-Marcus" The boy stammered, his voice sounded shrill and pretty high pitched. "How old are you, Marcus?" "Nine". Marcus mumbled as he dried his tears of with his sleeve. "No way!" Ezra shouted, clearly scarring Marcus. "Sorry but I legit thought you were like five or something". Ezra sat down on the wooden floor. For some reason he wanted to talk more he didn't know about what or for how long. He just wanted to talk.

"What happened?" Ezra looked at Marcus curiously. "Uh, -I uhm, -I just..." The butterfly looked like he was about to start crying again. "You don't have to say". Ezra said quickly. But why did he care about other peoples feelings all of a sudden? Maybe it was just with this little boy, but why? "I get it". Ezra said confidently. Marcus looked at him with a look that clearly said: No you don't. Ezra ignored this look and continued. "Something bad happened and you're scared, right? But guess what? Bad things happen to me all the time and I'm not scared. In fact I think those experiences have taught me a lot. I think they taught me how to be a better fighter". Marcus looked slightly calmer then before. "You're not really helping". Marcus said. "Well at least you're speaking in full sentences now". Ezra said jokingly. Marcus smiled a little. "Fo you wanna know why I'm here?". It wasn't really a question since Ezra was already planning to tell him, but Marcus nodded anyway. "I got into a stupid fight with one of my classmates so instead of listening to some boring lecture I just ran away". Marcus stared at him blankly before responding: "I got in a fight too". "Yeah I can tell". Ezra said as he pointed at the black eye. Marcus quickly brushed his curly hair over the bruise in an effort to cover it up. "I ran away too". Ezra smiled. "Well I guess we have a lot in common then". Marcus nodded in agreement.

"Do you wanna like, play a game or something?" At this point Ezra started to realise he was probably just stalling so he wouldn't have to go home. "We could play smash bros if you want to?" Marcus said as he took his backpack off. "You want me to beat you up?" Ezra asked confused. "No,no super smash bros is a video game", Marcus clarified. "You're allowed to play video games?"
"Yeah, you aren't?"
"Well my parents are quite strict"
"Oh I could teach you how to play if you'd like?"
Marcus said as he pulled his switch out of the front compartment on his backpack. "Really?!" Ezra said. He had never even held a gaming console before.

Hours passed by like seconds as the two boys played together. At first Marcus would end up victorious after every game but as they played more Ezra started to get the hang of it (he still couldn't win but he was getting closer). "I should probably go". Marcus said in a disappointed tone of voice. "But next time I'll beat you for sure!" Ezra said smiling. "Next time?" Marcus asked as his eyes lit up with excitement. "Yeah sure, I'll meet you here tomorrow after school". Ezra said nonchalantly as he hid his excitement. Marcus joyfully bopped his head up and down in response. He stuffed the switch back into his backpack and walked to the door in the treehouse. "Well, see you tomorrow then", Marcus said as he spread his beautiful butterfly wings. With a small hop he jumped out of the treehouse, his wings caught air and lifted him up into the sky. As he flew trough the thick forest he already started coming up with ideas of what they could do next.

The next day Ezra showed up as promised. And the day after and the day after that and the day after that... The boys became very close friends, though there was one rule. A rule Ezra had set in place in order to keep Marcus from coming to his house. The rule was that their friendship only existed within the forest. Outside of the forest they would pretend like they didn't know each other at all. Marcus thought this was just a fun little game they were playing to keep their friendship interesting. But in truth Ezra just didn't want Marcus to meet his dad. Ezra's dad would often be aggressive even when they were out in public. Ezra didn't want to worry his friend so he just pretend that the bruises were from something else. He felt bad about lying but he also felt like there was no other choice.
He just wanted to protect his friend. Wow, that was the first time he had ever seen anyone as a friend. I mean some kids followed him around on the playground but they were just scared. Not like Ezra cared, he didn't need friends right