Venno Rapter - The Hellish Series Returns - Series Two

Rad's Jade Gem (Story 14 - Chapter 5)

With Rad, Jade and Harper: 

The three were walking down the street, on their way to their next location on the short tour when something from the corner of Jade’s eye caught her attention. 

Halting, the green Harpy blinked a few times when she turned to stare across the street from what looked like a large stone building with stairs leading up to the large wooden doors. 

“Hey, Rad, what building is that?” asked Jade, the green Harpy now feeling curious as she continued to examine every aspect of the exterior of the largely impressive building with its intricate looking stone carving designs. 

Rad and Harper both stopped, having not realized the green Harpy had stopped following them. 

The Toxic Sludge and pink Harpy both came over and looked at the same building that had intrigued and caught Jade’s eyes. 

“Oh, that’s the courthouse. I’ve never been inside myself, which is a good thing in my opinion, but from what I know is that it’s one of the original buildings that have been here since before the more current renovations and restorations of the city. It’s basically sat untouched, but maintained properly to remain as though it had been newly built” said Rad, the Toxic Sludge trying to recall exactly what he remembered about the Terronto courthouse from when Venno had to attend a court hearing as a witness when Mr.Falcone had gotten attacked by that Flame Dragon over six years ago. 

To say the least, the Falcon had gotten full compensation after getting attacked, and the Flame Dragon HAD been charged for assault as well as going away for his bounty at the time. 

“What do you do when you go to the courthouse? I never even knew one of these existed before, since...you know, I’ve been living inside the apartment ever since I was born and was hardly allowed to leave” asked Jade, the green Harpy crossing her arms and glancing away, now feeling embarrassed about the fact that she knew almost NOTHING about the city she had lived in since her birth. 

“Let me think…It’s like when you get in trouble and a group of people and a judge have to decide what punishment you should be getting. If you do something like…let’s say…accidentally hitting someone with your car and they’re only injured, then the punishment isn’t too bad compared to some other forms of punishment for other crimes such as murdering someone” explained Rad, the Toxic Sludge doing his best to try and explain what goes on in the courthouse. 

The Toxic Sludge then shrugged before crossing his arms. 

“There are other things that go on inside a courthouse, too, like legal rights on who gets what after a divorce, custody over children and the emancipation of kids, although I’m not sure entirely if that last one you can do in this country since some countries require you to apply through the court” said Rad, the Toxic Sludge resting his hand on his chin as he tried to recall. 

He then shrugged, now smirking. 

“Ah well, let’s continue with the tour, then. We’ve only got fifteen minutes left before you gotta go, and there are still two stops left that I want to show you both” said Rad, the Toxic Sludge gesturing for the two Harpy cousins to follow, Harper smiling and nodding but the two were quickly stopped by another one of Jade’s questions. 

“What is this ‘emancipation’ you speak of? I have never heard of that word before” asked Jade, the green Harpy tilting her head to the side as she tried to guess in her mind what the word could mean. 

Rad thought for a moment, trying to recall exactly what it meant himself, but he just shrugged, deciding to go with a short gist of it. 

“It means that after a certain age, kids can choose to live on their own without their parents' consent” said Rad, the Toxic Sludge completely missing the fact as to why Jade would be so interested.