Stories of Kings

The Forest Child

[Author's Note: This story contains depictions of child abuse and abelism. It takes place after "The Raven and the Dragon" and "Move Forward."]

Kit didn't leave the castle grounds very often. He preferred to stay places he was familiar with and with people he knew. But he was also trying to make friends, and one of the other Queen's Guard invited Kit to come into town with him. He was nice, so Kit swallowed his nervousness and went.

The other guard, Elijah, had asked Kit to come because he needed advice about hunting bows. He was commissioning one for his son. The boy was old enough to hunt on his own now. "Where did you learn to shoot like you do?" Elijah asked. He had eyes like Bo, but he was taller, with darker skin and curlier hair. He was nice, but he talked a lot. "I don't think you've ever said where you're from."

"Sierdan," Kit said. He wasn't sure if the town he'd lived in had a name; he'd only ever known it as "Town." The place mattered to him, of course, but he sometimes wondered if anyone outside of it cared enough to name it. That made him sad to consider. "I was the hunter's apprentice."

"Was he any good?"

"Very. And his son was always kind to me. He's my friend." Having friends was a rare and beautiful thing. He was aware of that more and more with every friend he gained. "Did your son learn under a hunter."

"In a way. His uncle is one of his majesty's...her majesty's archers. So he trained under a combat archer, but he's a decent enough hunter." Elijah stopped outside the blacksmith's building. "Are you going to be all right with the noise? I think he's working in there."

He was right; Kit could hear the noises from outside the door. He chewed on his lip as he considered the situation. "If we're fast," he decided, "I'll be okay."

He could handle it for a short time. That didn't stop him from covering his ears as they went inside, in the hopes that it might help.

The first strike of metal on metal coming from out back made him wince. Kit tried to focus on the wall of display weapons. The bows were a decent distraction—not quite enough to block out the noise, but almost enough to make it bearable. Most of them were hunting bows of varying types. The Raven Isle didn't have the same kind of heavy forests that Sierdan had. They were a little heavy, to be sure, but not so much that someone might need a smaller bow to account for the tighter spaces. He wanted to point to the best looking bow, but that would mean taking his hand off his ears. Elijah had to keep pointing at bows until Kit nodded.

After that, Kit had to rush out of the shop. He had to walk away from the shop a bit as well—even though he couldn't hear it as loudly, he could've sworn he could feel the vibrations in the air. Besides that, it was hot, and smelled of metal. It was still warm outside, but it wasn't that molten heat. There was definitely a difference.

That kind of feeling had never really bothered him—or it hadn't before the mountain. A lot of things bothered him after the mountain.

"Is it the noise that made you do it?" Elijah asked after he joined Kit outside. "Become a huntsman, I mean. You seem to like the quiet. I know the woods are good for that."

He wasn't wrong, but that wasn't the reason. "No one else wanted me," Kit explained. "A lot of people thought I was bad luck or a Changeling."

Elijah looked surprised. "Huh. Well, that's their loss. I think you're quite nice to have around."

Kit was surprised to hear that. Surprised, and grateful. "Thank you."

Elijah grinned and nodded. "So, they say they can get the bow done in time..."

"Excuse me?"

Elijah and Kit turned around in unison. A woman was approaching them—dark hair, dressed neatly but plainly, dark eyes. "I need help from someone with the Crown," the woman said. She was polite, but there was a slight tone to her voice that set Kit's teeth on edge. She sounded like the kind of woman who would aggressively haggle down the price of fish and make the poor fisherman's daughter cry from how unkind she was. "It's very important."