A Tale of Two Brothers: Volume I

Chapter VII - Shopping

Erwin and Zeke were descending down the building rapidly before coming into contact with the ground. Rolling, they softened the fall before continuing their way through the courtyard where men and women were out working while the few children of the derelict Trinity Towers played games.

The duo were walking through the courtyard towards the gate as some of the children greeted and waved at them, "Hi, Mr. Erwin! Hi, Zeke!"

Erwin quickly glanced at the children as he walked whereas Zeke stopped and interacted with the kids. The tiger knelt down on his right knee with his arms stretched out as the handful of children ran at him and embraced him. Zeke wrapped his large arms around the children and lifted them up garnering cheerful laughs and giggles; this brought a smile upon the feline's face as his ears wiggled joyfully.

The tiger nuzzled the kids with his snout, tickling them with his nose wiggles before pulling his head away to look at them, "Zeke, will you do the thing? Please!" One of the small boys looked into the tiger's bright lime green optics pleadingly.

Zeke glared at the boy in a soft scolding manner, "Please! Pretty please!" The boy got his friends to join him in begging with puppy dog eyes.

The white and black feline sighed and rolled his optics as he smiled softly; he looked down at the kids he was holding that were grinning ear to ear. He sighed once more, puffing warm air into their faces before setting them down and crouching down with his paws resting on his knees. He eyed each anticipating child before deploying his metal face shield and activating his combat protocol which turned his optics a deep black with his irises glowing a bright crimson.

The kids all jumped as the face mask closed rapidly with Zeke flinching at them causing them to scream and laugh. Zeke deactivated his combat protocol and retracted his face shield as his optics returned to their normal color; he looked at all the giggling children which made his ears wiggle in joy.

Erwin was watching the whole interaction unfold as he leaned up against a beam with his arms crossed and a soft smile across his features; he chuckled at seeing the kids laugh at Zeke's antics. As he was watching the endeavor, Margaret, one of the elderly women that lived in the towers, walked over to the German and rested her cold and callused wrinkly hand on his forearm gently, "It's good to see you smiling, dear."

Erwin tried his best to hide his emotions as a red tint came over his face slightly, "Y-Yeah, whatever." He brushed the woman's words off and walked away from her not without holding onto what she said.

Margaret sighed and shook her head, "When will that boy learn? Oh well." She went back to tending to her garden.

The German walked over to his tiger companion and tapped him on the back, "Wrap it up. It's time to go." He walked away towards the open gate.

"Bye, Zeke! See you later!" The kids hugged the feline's legs quickly before rushing off to continue playing.

Zeke had waved goodbye to the kids of the village before jogging up to Erwin who was already outside of the gate.

Erwin walked up to his shed and slid open the rusted garage door before walking in and grabbing the handlebars of his bike to walk it outside. After walking the gray and black dirt bike out of the shed, he turned around and closed the garage door. Turning away from the shed, he saw Zeke had joined him, "Look who decided to join me." He had glanced up at Zeke with a smirk.

Zeke huffed a chuckle while rubbing his nape.

Erwin kicked up the stand and threw his leg over the rear of the bike and rested his right foot on the foot rest, "Ready to go? We've got a busy day ahead of us."

Zeke wiggled his ears as he nodded in confirmation.

"Alright, then how about we knock out two birds with one stone, hm?" Erwin smirked and raised his eyebrows quickly, "I have to go to the tower and meet a contact there. I want you to head to the bandit camp I cleared out to get the crib that's there; the camp is twelve klicks due Northwest." Erwin looked down at his wrist tablet and began typing on it, "I'm sending you the coordinates now."