An Island for a Cloud

2.1 How to be a Good Friend

Thank you very much for reading this chapter. If you spot any spelling mistakes or awkward sentence structures, please be nice and let me know :)

Leivrat. Two days before the Dark Night.

"I have a bad feeling about this. We should not have come here, I tell you! Oh no." complained Luykan. "Bad feeling!"

"Shut up, Luykan. If anything happens, just say I made you come," responded Jule, hardly trying to hide his irritation. He had a severe look of someone used to getting his way and his will done, and his eyes spoke of a sense of entitlement that ran deep within him. His dark wavy hair fell over his forehead, shimmering slightly from the oils that the servants had applied to it since the day he was born.

"If we get caught, you better get us out of this. No canning for me, you hear?" told him Luykan.

"Our father would kill us if that happened. He says "Family honour can only be bought back with coin. Lots of coin"," said Visakis, Luykas's twin brother, imitating his father's voice. "And you know how the old man hates to part with his beloved treasures. You better make sure that our arses do not get a public parade."

Visakis and Luykan were almost identical in appearance. Both were broad shouldered and of tall stature. Their dark hair was long and braided in the Aleutan fashion; pulled tightly behind their heads, it was hidden under the hoods of their cloaks. In their nature, the brothers were as different as the two sides of the coin their father so cherished. One was restless, seeker of danger and thrill while the other was fearful and cowardly.

"...bad idea... I should not have come..." continued Luykan his lamentations. He kept his gaze firmly on the ground, afraid to dirty his new shoes. It was a gift from his mother, and mother would be unhappy if the shoes got muddy, or worse, got scratched.

Listening to Luykan's whining, Jule wished he could kick him all the way back to Aleuta. Yet, Visakis never did anything without his brother and it has always been either the two of them or none. This time it took the boys a lot of coercion to get Luykan to join and he made sure they knew how little he wanted to be here.

"I said I will get you out of this if need be and I will," Jule promised. "Haven't I saved you often enough before?"

"And you have ridden us into trouble often enough, too," pointed out Visakis.

"Wonder why we are still your friends," mumbled Luykan more to himself, but Jule heard him.

"Just shut up and keep moving. No one will recognize us here. Nothing to worry about," told him Jule, confidence ringing in his every word.

It never crossed the boys' minds that the fine black cloaks they wore were not something one saw often in Leivrat. And despite all of the precautions they took, those cloaks gave them away as highborn Aleutans and the word of their presence slowly crept through the underground world of Leivrat.

"Patys, how much further?" Jule asked the fourth member of their small party.

Patys, a chubby fellow who was a head shorter than his friends, walked ahead of the other three hooded figures. In his hands he held a piece of parchment with a hastily drawn map. He rolled his dark-brown eyes at Jule's impatience and responded for what felt like the hundredth time, "Almost there."

The narrow streets of Leivrat were pitch-dark and the cobblestone was covered with filth. Rats slinked off from under the boys' feet, only to return as they passed to rummage in the smut and waste. The dwellers of Leivrat were too poor to keep the streets lit up at night. It was easy to stay hidden in the dimness and it gave the boys a false sense of safety from prying eyes.