Blue

Atlas

Atlas reeled in shock when Talon said that. He knew it wasn't meant for prying ears, but this kid had been abused?

Talon was a natural fighter, he'd had Atlas on his knees within seconds and the ground seconds after that, and his upbringing explained why. His upbringing explained the scars as well. Poor kid must have had to keep to himself a lot.

Mykel and Ander shared the same looks. Pity. It was the same look he received when the kingdom heard of his father's death.

"Is that how you got the scar on your face?" Mykel inquired. Atlas wanted to tell them to shut it but refrained.

Talon must've not realized they could all understand what he had said.

"Uh...yeah, I uh...I came home too late one night and my stepfather rammed my head into the table corner," they all cringed at that. How unlucky was he?

"Why didn't you say anything to anyone?" Atlas asked.

"Because I was afraid. Once I became older and started to fight back, I was essentially kicked from the house," no one said anything after that. So that's how he ended up on the road with almost nothing to his name. There was something else, he felt it, that the boy wasn't mentioning but didn't pry. He knew Talon was a private person.

"Do you still want to spar?" He asked Talon.

"No, I'll just watch, don't let that deter the rest of you from sparring," was his response.

Okay.

Mykel and Ander were formidable opponents, but they didn't have the same zeal that Talon had. They were very uniform in their tactics instead of sporadic, which is probably why he was easily thrown off of Talon's fighting.

Afterwards, Talon was once again sleeping away from them all.

They knew who he was. At the inn he hadn't realized who they were until they introduced themselves and once on the road they were able to talk openly. He made sure they knew not to mention his status to Talon. He didn't want it to change the way they interacted. He liked being treated as someone's equal instead of their superior for once.

It was such a nice change. How would Talon react to who he was? Was keeping his identity secret a good idea in the long run? Probably not, and he would face the consequences for it when they arose.

He knew Mykel from court, and Ander was his mate. His parents did not approve of it at all, which is probably why they sent him for the draft instead of Mykel's younger brother Roderick.

The draft overall had surprised him, he wanted to know why his mother set it up, had there been an unexpected change in the war with the elves?

This also brought up the question, how long would this war drag on? Wasn't losing a king bad enough for them? He was ready for this war to be over. Once back in Aria he would mention the idea of a treaty of sorts and hope discussion amongst his commanders would gain support for this. He would only have to persuade his mother after that.

While he wasn't ready to be back in the throngs of politics and war, he was ready to fly again. Had he traveled alone he would've flown with Ronan in his claws, but upon meeting Talon, that changed. His beast was unsettled under his skin, and could use a stretch, but not now.

He wondered how the reunion with his mother would go, it was now encroaching on almost a year since he'd seen her last. His last letter was sent before he set out for Aria and he wasn't expecting a response until he saw her in person.

"So, what do you think the kid went through? To react like that? There has to be more than what he said about his father. I mean by gods, he's clad head to toe in things too large for him and it covers all but his face and hands," Mykel said once the night became black and it was clear none of them were getting much sleep.

"Only he knows, and it's not likely he'll share anytime soon," Atlas responded.  

"I don't know about you, but maybe we should try to get him to open up a bit more? He seems to seclude himself, but we also didn't try to include him either in our conversation during the day," Ander suggested. Atlas had to agree. He had gotten some conversation out of the boy, but once the other had joined them it was back to seclusion.

"We can definitely aim for that tomorrow," meaning conversation was going to be forced and awkward, but it wasn't like conversation with Talon wasn't already like that anyways. 

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Kind of an introductory chapter to our other main character, I know it wasn't all exciting, and while I will go back into this at a later date to tweak things around, I do hope you've enjoyed it.