Blood Ties

Chapter 16

He stared, not caring if she noticed.

Who was she?

Her skin was a deep tan, like she had been out in the sun for a long time. In the shadowy lighting, her eyes were a vivid green, almost glowing in the dark. His skin prickled at the thought of her being a little more than human. Her hair was a short mess, tumbling around her head and only meeting the nape of her neck in length; light like honey at the ends, but a darker variation of it at her roots. She was very pretty for a child, not that he noticed or anything. But she still invoked an instinct within him that bordered on afraid.

She was also unnervingly quiet. Her breaths came out controlled and steady; she has done this before. Titan, in all his worry and alertness, kept an arm's length away from her within the tree's hollow. There wasn't much room, and more than once he had felt the sensation of something crawling on him, but it would do for the night. If they survived that long.

He found it almost funny how desensitized he was to these kinds of situations. The usual eight-year-old would be squirming and crying. But for him, having lived in worse environments with even less space to sleep, he had almost grown accustomed to the small spaces. Almost. Just because it was familiar, didn't mean it wasn't extremely uncomfortable, especially with a stranger.

"Who are you?' He decided to ask. He would only ask three questions, maybe four. She seemed more of the silent type, the kind that after three questions would ignore you. He would make them count. But he wasn't expecting much. She wasn't a genie. And if she was, he would've already left by now.

"Corinth." She said simply. He frowned. He already guessed as much. He was an idiot. An extremely uncomfortable idiot. But at least he was kind of cute. He at least had that going for him.

He guessed that she was a servant, at least, judging by the way she addressed the brute and by the scars on her wrists. The men must have been slave traders. Normal men didn't walk around with little girls who wore drab clothing and had incredibly green eyes. But then again, no child he had met in the slums were normal. Actually, up to this point, everyone he's met hasn't been normal. Sorry, Athy. Onto his second question then.

"Who is he meeting?" She turned and regarded him with a look that said, 'I'm glad you ask good questions, but I don't know'. How he interpreted that, he didn't know. He nodded and she went back to her lookout stare. Though he doubted she could see much through the intense rain.

He thought over what had happened so far. Teleporting to who knows where, weird dreams, weirder men, even weirder girls with weird eyes that captured flashes of light, talks of masters, slave traders, hidden cabins in the forest. Why was he here? And what the heck did he do to deserve this?

How did he get here? He was an eight-year-old boy who could barely control his magic, even with the help of a magician like Lucas it still ran rampant. He couldn't cast spells, he didn't really know any, at this age it would be nearly impossible to generate the mana needed to do so. So really, how did he get here?

"Is this meeting only about slave trading?" She whirled to stare at him now. She wasn't expecting him to ask that, apparently. She shook her head.

"No. They are not quiet when they speak. The man they are meeting is looking for a boy, one that arrived here not long ago." She gave him an assessing look. Titan had already guessed it, and she had as well. He was the boy they were after. Fourth question. The one he wasn't planning on asking.

"Anything else?" He asked quietly. She nodded, eyes locking with his. His breath caught.

"The master wants him captured, restrained, cuffed to a tree. He said whatever worked, so long as he wasn't too damaged."