Broken Faith

Lesson 2: A World Noble is the definition of perfection

The silence deafened you. It sucked in all the noises that you didn't want to hear, and made them louder. The rustling. The chirps of insects and birds. The low growls. The silent laughter. The shallow breathing of the two boys behind you. Your own pounding heart.

Quelling your instincts to run, you held your ground. You would not run. Running when caught is shameful. Besides, it wasn't like you had done anything wrong. It was self-defence. You had to fight, or you'd get eaten or worse. They had to understand that much, they could tell by the boar corpse next to you.

So why were you terrified?

Schooling your features to hide your internal conflict, you slid your pistol neatly back into its holster. Once that hand was free, you scooped your metal arm behind the safety and security of the poncho. You let go of the breath you were holding. You felt much better already.

"Was that you?"

You span to face them, your manners kicking in automatically, "I'm sorry?"

The dark haired boy pointed his metal pipe towards the position on your leg where your pistol was now strapped, "The gunshot. Was that you?"

Hesitating for a second, you nodded.

"Right." Sabo grimaced, "We should finish up here and scram before anyone finds us."

His companion grunted, before storming forwards towards you. His grip on his pipe tightened as he lowered his head.

You twitched, and took a shaky step back. What was he doing? What did Sabo mean by 'finish up'? Were they going to attack you?

Were they going to kill you?

He marched straight past you and knelt by the boar.

Oh. You inclined your head up to look at the fading light through the foliage instead of the two boys. Not that it did much good. Once you lowered it back, you found a pair of eyes glowering back at you.

You bit your lip to stop yourself from crying out. That level of intensely burning hatred, of disgust...

It reminded you of Mother.

And then he glanced away.

"Right." Your eyes widened as he hefted the large creature over one shoulder and sprinted off into the undergrowth as if it weighed nothing. "Time to go."

Sabo grinned at your dumbfounded expression, "Leaving scraps may have been alright when you were a noble, but out here food is hard to come by. We're hardly gonna turn our nose at a perfectly good cut like that. Now come on! You wanted Ace to show you to Dadan's, didn't you?"

Yes. No. You weren't so sure anymore. What if she hated you...

You nodded.

"Follow me then. I'll try to pick an easy route," Sabo made sure that you'd understood before turning and running off after his friend, with you hot on his heels.

The forest was both easier and harder to navigate than Gray Terminal. On the one hand Gray Terminal comprised of loose rubbish, which means you have to watch your footing. On the other, you at least knew what looked sturdy there. In the forest, branches broke, or just turned out to not even be branches at all because they were snakes the whole time. A patch of sudden moss might make you fall into a well placed animal trap. Anything with bright colours might be a predators lure.

You were lucky you had Sabo to guide you safely through. You dreaded to think of what might have happened if you'd gone alone.

However, you frowned as you jumped over a log, how was he going to find his friend-who-you-suspected-was-Ace? Mount Corvo was a big place after all; he could be anywhere.