Line Hunters

9. The Morning of the Trial

Existing the small restaurant was a happy adolescent with light green hair holding his sweetened iced coffee with a straw. Today, Ian was planning to head to the Line Hunter Trial and wanted to get his favorite drink before heading there. Ian didn't need to bring anything with him for the trial, so all he had on him were casual black pants and a white long-sleeved shirt, and two hair ties on his wrists which his parents insisted on bringing in case he'd need for his growing hair Ian refused to cut. Ian was about to take the card containing the Line Hunter Trial location in his shirt's pocket—he had forgotten where it was despite staring at the card all night—but his hand paused when Ian tasted his iced coffee. Ian stared at his drink. As much as Ian liked his iced coffee, he always got vanilla iced coffee, and the one he had now was caramel iced coffee.

Ian thought of going back to get the right flavor, but he had never stopped walking and in his small distraction of realizing the flavor wasn't right, Ian bumped into the strong, older-looking male in front of him, and his iced coffee spilled on the man's shirt.

"Sorry," Ian said.

"You got my shirt dirty runt! You think a sorry is gonna fix it?" The man stepped forward, about to grab Ian, but one of his friends grabbed him by the shoulder.

"Quit whining and just deal with it, we still have to find the trial's location."

Trial? Ian looked up at the older men expectedly.

"Are you participating in the Line Hunter Trial?" Ian asked.

"Oh yeah, then you had to ruin my shirt," the man, whom Ian spilled his drink on, said.

"Me too," Ian said with a smile.

The three men looked at each and burst out laughing.

"Haha! You hear that, guys? A weak fellow like him is actually thinking about taking it!"

"H—He won't make it p—past the beginning of the first round," his friends added, unable to contain his laughter as he spoke.

I can't understand their humor. Is this funny enough to laugh about? Ian looked down at his drink. There was less than half of a cup left and the hem of his sleeves was stained from the coffee.

Seeing that there was a trash can across the street, Ian walked over there, forgotten by the men who continued making jokes about him. As Ian threw away the cup, he was surprised to see a boat next to him. (There was a riverfront next to where Ian was standing). The mean-looking elderly man sitting on the boat looked up at Ian and spoke to him in his rough, flat voice.

"Would you like a ride? It's free, " the man said.

"Sure," Ian said politely. He had never been on a boat before, and he was curious enough to take the chance to experience it, especially being on it in the city.

While the man waited for Ian to get on the boat, he silently studied Ian's physical features. Like the young men earlier, the old man also thought Ian was too thin and incapable of enduring harsh activities, but he did not make fun of him.

"How far do you think you can go through the Line Hunter Trial?" the man asked.

"You know I'm taking it?" Ian replied, surprised once again.

The man scowled, more confident than ever that the frail boy would horrendously fail the trial. "Course I do, I'm your guide to the trial! Didn't you get on this boat to get there?"

Ian remembered the card and took it out; sure enough, the card had the location of where Ian would go to get to the trial.

"Oh, you're right," Ian said, showing the man the card which had a picture of him.