From Liverpool To Athena

Chapter 14

"stab it!" I yelled to Tim when a goblin stumbled in front of him. We are on the fourth floor hinting down a two-headed goblin, I have no idea what that would look like. Is that two heads side by side or one head facing forwards and the other backwards?

Timothy pulled out a dagger, it looked smaller than the other daggers I have seen around the guild in the past few days. And he clumsily rammed it into the goblin's head. He huffed and puffed and smiled at me wiping away the puff of smoke. For the past four days, Timothy and I have been down in the dungeons all day fighting everything that comes along and taking on guild quests and even a few at once. Tim's confidence has been growing slowly and he has even been losing weight, the guys who bullied him have been kicked out of the guild and every day when we get home Tim thanks me for letting him live with me.

"Help!"

"Do you hear that?" I asked Tim

"Help!"

"Is...is... Is that a child shouting?"

Oh god, it's a child I can hear a kid screaming for help in the dungeon what is a child doing down here? Without a word being spoken Tim and I ran towards the direction of the screaming. We rounded the corner and saw a husky-looking young boy, in rags, standing over two smaller children in similar clothing, the husky boy was bravely clutching a broken sword trying to fend off 3 goblins.

I punched a goblin with my magic-filled gauntlet and it exploded on contact, the other two goblins ran away instantly.

"Are you okay? And what are you doing here?" I spun on the kids.

"We are here to make money!" The husky boy said, a little too aggressive for my liking.

"Money? You are a child, where are your parents?"

"Dead"

Oh fuck me, what can I say back to that.

"We need money so they won't hurt us" I different more frail young male voice said, I looked down at the feet of the husky one. And saw where the frail voice came from, this one couldn't be any older than 7. His blue eye looks scared and defeated.

"Who is going to hurt you?" I asked softly, kneeling to the little boy.

"Ricky Roarton"

"Who's that?

"Oh no," Tim gasped. "That's not good" I looked up at Tim.

"He is the boss of a gang, a nasty man"

"We had no food and he offered us a gold coin to pay for some food". The 7-year-old said.

"Shut up," the husky boy said, "he told us we can't tell anyone"

"He told you that you can't tell anyone?" I said in shock. I then went into my pocket and pulled out a gold coin and gave it to the husky boo "Give that to Ricky"

"He wants 5 gold" the frail boy said. Tim had been checking over the other child it was a little girl with red hair all matted and dirty, she must be around the age of 8.

"5? Okay," I pulled out another 4 more gold and gave it to him, "if I give you this,s, will you go straight to him and give it to him?".

"Yes," the husky boy said,

"Good! Tim can you carry the little girl, what is your name?".

"Jonathan," the husky boy said,

"Jonathan can you help the little boy out of here and I'll take care of the monster, okay?"

"I can," Jonathan said. And then lent down and helped the little boy up.

"While we leave here you can tell me all about three, sound like fun?" I asked with the biggest smile on my face and in the softest tone I can muster. And then shifted my gauntlet into a more comfortable position, the urge to show the kids that they would be safe swelled up inside of me. I felt a goblin creeping up behind me, I turned around and hit it with everything I had, the echo of the bang rang around the dungeon and a gust of wind travelled down the tunnel.

"Wow," I heard the frail boy whisper.

So Jonathan is 10 years old, and the two little ones with him aren't his siblings. Just little kids whose parents died and the three of them had to stick together to survive and this Ricky prick is going to force the kids into work to pay back 5 gold pieces for the one he gave them, he is scum! The little boy is called Alfie and the girl is Clare and they both are 8 and 7 respectively. We got outside the dungeon and found that the kids had to go through a dodgy guild to be allowed into the dungeon and the dungeon guards couldn't say anything about it if they had the right paperwork.

I made the kids take us with them to Ricky's place. A shithole building in the rough part of town, shit on the floor, litter all over the ground, grown men sleeping drunk on the floor. I offered to go in with Jonathan Ricky's building looked like a dirty pub but Jonathan was determined to go in by himself. So Tim and I waited with Alfie and Clare outside.

Five minutes the door was flung open and Jonathan was thrown out by a tall orge-looking man and behind him was a fat prick with drupey eyes, no lips and a stupid fucking smirk.

I caught Jonathan before he hit the ground, he might look husky but he is very light.

"You will be back you pathetic piece of shit," the ugly prick said.

"I won't Ricky!" Jonathan shouted back and the orge-looking man stepped forward to Jonathan"

"Watch how you speak to Ricky" he growled with an incredibly deep tone.

I pushed Jonathan behind me and stepped to the orge, face to face, he orge face, was wonky and ugly looking.

"Like to pick on children do you," I said coldly, "let's see how you get on with me"

"Ronnie no" Tim called out. "the kids will get caught up in it"

"You should be worried about yourself" Ricky said smugly and more men appeared from behind him. Tim picked up Clare who was asleep, or passed out might be a better word, and then he scooped up Alfie, and said "Jonathan come with me please"

"But..., he will be alone," Jonathan said I could hear how concerned he was about me.

"Please don't worry, Ronnie will be fine, I'm going to take them home and make them some food Ronnie"

"Sounds good Tim, I'll catch you up"