Lowell

Chapter 19

When Estelle sees him that morning her face turns red. "What are you doing up?" She scolds and he momentarily juggles his cup of water.

It's well past sunrise and close to noon and Yuri will admit he feels like shit. He hasn't slept more than maybe two hours in the whole night and still hasn't recovered entirely from yesterday's fiasco. He gives a wide sleepy smile. "It's fine. We gotta get moving to Aspio."

"No it's not!" Karol flinches. "I've never seen someone try so hard to destroy their own health." Clearly, Estelle has yet to see Flynn drink. She snatches the cup from his hand and glares at Yuri. "You're going to sleep at least three more hours! And, no fighting! It's obvious that your body is exhausted Yuri."

He brushes off his pants and stands up. "We don't have time to waste on stuff like that." He yawns. "Once I get that core back can sleep in. Besides, if I we stick around here we'll miss our chance to catch up with Flynn."

"YURI stop being an idiot and sleep! Aspio can wait!" Her voice pierces through and he cautiously gets back down on his sleeping mat. "Good now close your eyes and sleep."

Yuri lies down and closes his eyes. He tries to stay awake, but the tiredness he's been feeling takes a hold and he finally drifts to sleep. When he wakes up it's been long enough that the day's heat has peaked and the hours of daylight left are few. He huffs in annoyance partly because he did need that sleep and partly because the day has been lost.

They travel as much as they can before stopping for the night. Karol has been giving him odd looks the who day.

"Um... so Yuri I was wondering..." The boy continues prodding a stick in the soft earth. "Are you half-Krytian?"

Yuri nods. "Yep. What gave it away? My ears?" Yuri's ears had gotten long and more pronounced over the last year. The people in the Lower Quarter kept asking if this was illness or natural. Or worse. People started avoiding him on sight when they saw the ears poking out from behind the hair. It seemed ironic that it was his ears that made him look like a monster.

"Isn't it hard living in Zaphias?" Karol asks never quite looking at his ears. "I mean, the empire hates Krytians."

Estelle is listening too. "I've been wondering that as well."

Yuri leans back. "Where was I supposed to go? If you're an orphan you either die in the streets or get lucky and find someone to feed you." Yuri had considered running away many times, but there was always someone worth staying for. Be it Olive, Norien, Hanks, Flynn, or anyone else. "I can't let being a half-breed ruin my life."

"But, you were in the knights! Wasn't that awful?"

"Well, there were a lot of jerks…" He chuckles to himself. "During training, some guys tried to wheedle me out, but I held on." Because, even when those assholes tried their best to put him down through cruel pranks and insults Yuri found more reasons to stay.

"Then why'd you quit?" Karol said with a raised brow.

"I realized sticking around wasn't getting me anywhere. There's not enough you can do as a knight…" and Yuri had needed to find out things about himself. He needed to start asking questions. He needed to get away from people whose biggest question was which one of his parents had been human. A silence took over the group as they started eating their simple meal.

"So why did you get sick last night?" Karol slips out casually and Yuri looks at an angry Estelle.

"I also would very much like to know this."

"Not this again." Yuri huffs. "I told you I'm allergic to aer."

"That's bull." Karol says flatly as he bites into his dinner. Estelle gives the boy a scolding look for his choice of language, but stays silent. "If you were allergic to aer you wouldn't be breathing."