The Knight's Cross

Part V

                “Pay proper attention, August,” Alistair snarled as he glared down at the lad who was still lying in the dirt. He didn’t think much about running into the lad who had been mentioned in conversation not five minutes before, other than it being inconvenient. He didn’t have the time to entertain the thought of his younger brother being around – not when his thoughts were focused on the newly received information.

                August, still slightly dazed from being knocked to the ground, stared up at Alistair with surprise. He was well aware of whom he had run into, though it was certainly the last encounter he ever expected to have. He knew this was his brother, the elder son of his father, Andrew Knight. The only reason August knew he had a brother was because his mother had told him years before. As a boy, he had wondered who the lad aboard his father’s ship was, and it was explained that it was Andrew’s first son by his now deceased wife.

                Despite knowing he had an older brother, August had never met him officially, until now. Their lives had never had reason to intersect, and with the considerably few times that the Ghost Runner even came to Halifax, there weren’t many opportunities for them to meet regardless. August remembered seeing his father’s ship, and his brother, once a year before, but he hadn’t worked up the courage to make himself known. What good would it have done him? He still had his mother, and Eli, in Halifax. And at that time, he hadn’t been looking for an apprenticeship or passage to leave.

                But now here they were – each knowing who the other was and yet still feeling like the complete strangers they were.

                “Sorry,” August muttered as he sat up slowly, feeling mildly intimidated by the angry glare from the man that loomed over him.

                Alistair looked him over, unsure if his anger resided in the clumsiness this boy possessed or in knowing that this boy was his half-brother. He supposed he shouldn’t be so quick to dislike him, understanding that August had no say in their father’s actions. Holding to that thought, he tried to not be horribly unkind to the lad.

                “Should I expect a legitimate reason that you would be running through the streets blindly?” he asked with a heavy sigh as he grabbed August by the arm and pulled him off the ground.

                “I wasn’t running blindly,” August objected, pulling his arm away from his brother’s rather firm grip.

                Alistair gave him a rather skeptical look. “Then what were you doing?” he questioned.

                August lowered his eyes. “I was…chasing a…rabbit,” he answered softly.

                “A rabbit?” Alistair scoffed. “What for?”

                “It belongs to a friend of mine,” the lad answered as he gathered the courage to meet his brother’s stern gaze. “I was chasing to catch it.” He looked around quickly, realizing that the creature had likely gone off too far for him to find it. A sinking feeling settled in his heart as he thought how he would have to go back to Nikole and tell her that he had lost her rabbit.

                “I…I have to go,” he said quickly, trying to step around Alistair and take off running again, but his path was blocked by his brother.

                “Don’t think you’re getting off so fast,” Alistair snarled. “No rabbit’s worth you running into someone less considerate than I.”