Glamour § Gold // Sheith

2. Seashells

Keith awoke with the feeling of sand mushed in between his toes. He twisted onto his stomach so his eyes wouldn't suffer from the sun's rays. With slitted eyes closely resembling a snake's, Keith looks to his right. To his surprise, there is an indent in the sand beside him; a large indent from an animal. In the middle, a small seashell laid harmlessly. Keith grabbed it without hesitation and flipped it over in his palm, studying carefully.

His heart dropped to his gut at the realization of where the seashell came from. It had been a idea for a hobby, as most boys needed one. Keith had told Erebus about it.

"I need a hobby and I think I want to start a collection. I'm not sure yet of what it will be, but maybe it can be something small; something that not everyone thinks of. Maybe a seashell collection! What do ya think?"

That was another one of his unanswered questions. He never went through with it, considering school became more important. He didn't have the time to create a collection of seashells, though he had wanted to.

"Oh my gods." Keith muttered wordlessly. He tried not to think anything of it as he stood to his feet. He looked out at the sea, swearing he saw a head poke out. He blinked and the head was gone. Creepy. He looked down at the indent again and then the seashell. Clutching it in his right hand, he started the  the walk towards the city.

He brought it home.

***

Kieth tried not to think about the seashell beside him at night, but the longer he ignored it, the easier it became for his thoughts to betray him. There's only one person who ever knew about that collection, they would say. One person.

Seashells belong on shorelines, he told himself. There's nothing out of place about a seashell. I liked it, I picked it up, and I brought it home. Nothing odd about that at all.

Not every seashell lays inside the indent of a large animal, his thoughts snickered.

He stopped thinking about the seashell when he was home.

***

One night, as Keith walked among the lit torches of the city, he started to note small things about the people that he walked pass.

There was the Market Man; Keith didn't know his real name. He was a brute. Square shoulders, towering stature, and his biceps were like clouds gathered in a darkened sky. The only thing that lead you away from believing he wouldn't rip you in two was his charming, disarming smile. Women flocked to his stand whenever they could just to ask about his prices for their dinners. His stock of fish was important within the city so it wasn't a big surprise that they often fled to him like sheep to a shepherd.

Then, you had the blacksmith. He was the one you had to be careful of. He was three times more menacing than the Market Man; without his smile. His skin was constantly covered in soot, as were his clothes. His eyebrows were the furriest creatures on him, besides his hair. His muscles came from all the labor put into making swords and shields.

Then again, Keith wouldn't of put it past him if he did small little workouts when he wasn't constantly working on the most current sword or armor for their warriors. The poor guy needed to make sure he didn't get a strained tendon or pull a muscle. Aside from those two, the rest of the people surrounding him were familiar enough. The council members, the soldiers off-duty and the town boys that ran through the cobble streets. It sometimes brought a smile to his face whenever he saw them playing. He missed it, really.

He was now considered a citizen and he merely felt like he was a young boy again. He was reborn as a person and people knew his name. If that wasn't the weirdest feeling in the world, Keith didn't know what was. Perhaps the weirdest feeling in the world was feeling eyes on him wherever he went. He was well aware of the gaze held with a passerby on the street, but this gaze—it overflowed with a sense of possessiveness and pride. It would watch him for hours and the hairs on the back of his neck were always raised in caution because of it.

Keith visibly slumped his shoulders as other thoughts processed through his brain. Gods, what if it watched him sleep? He shivered in distaste. That wasn't a pleasant thought. He didn't even know who the gaze belonged to, much less did he want to find out whom. The idea of a person watching him in the middle of the night made his skin crawl.

"Okay, okay," He whispered to himself. "Enough with that. Happy thoughts, Kogane, happy thoughts." As he took the time to relax his mind, a certain figure up-ahead caught his attention. His lips split into a grin, immediately taking off to tackle the man. The man turned in his direction upon his name being yelled out and he grinned wide in return.

"Thace!" Keith slammed into Thace's abdomen with the grace of a chicken as his arms wrapped tightly around his uncle. Thace's chest rumbled from laughter as he clapped Keith on the back with a soft smile.

"Hello Keith. How's Rome treating you and your mother these days?" Keith leaned back and released his uncle from the hug.

"We're doing well. I can imagine you are as well?" Thace nodded and smiled. He then frowned, his lips turning down in a type of pout. Keith stares at him for a while before raising an eyebrow.

"What's wrong?" Thace then sniffled, his pout becoming bigger.

"I missed your citizen validation," He muttered, as if horrified by the notion. "I can't believe it. I missed my own nephew's ceremony for maturing into a citizen." His face contorted in fear, then. "Oh my, your mother will be furious with me." Keith stared at his uncle for a long moment.

"Uncle Thace, I'm sure you'll be fine." Thace's eyes almost bugged out of his head at that. He stepped closer into his nephew's personal bubble and his eye twitched from doubt.

"Keith, have you ever seen your mother angry?" Keith stopped for a moment, trying to remember a single time she had ever got mad at him. He shook his head. Thace only stared back.

"You had best be grateful. She was born directly in Mars' orbit." Keith's eyes widened in sympathy.

Before he could ask another question about his mother's fury, Thace ruffled his hair and smiled brightly.

"It doesn't matter at the moment, however. She will confront me sooner or later, but it will be later. I have to take you on a small trip that I took with my own son. You need to know what the ocean holds. That's why we're going on a little excursion in a few days time." Keith's eyes brightened at the idea of traveling on open saltwater with his uncle for days.

"Really?" He choked out. Thace grinned wide.

"Really." Keith almost squealed in delight as he hugged his uncle the second time that evening.

"Thank you so much, uncle." Thace smiled softly and gently ruffled his nephew's hair again.

"You're welcome, Keith."

-

Oh, I am so exited. This just keeps building. The chapters will get longer, but for now, this is the best I can do to start it out. I'm starting the boundaries and more plot will eventually set itself into place. Thank you all for reading and I'll see you in the next chapter ^^

PSA: I love this story too much.