The Blind Boy's Beginning After The Blind Man's End

On a far away world, on a certain continent, in a certain forest; there was a carriage being pulled by grotesque looking creatures. Inside the carriage was a girl with gunmetal silver hair and elongated ears. She was quietly sobbing in the furthest corner from her captors, making herself as small as possible.

"Mom...Dad...Grandpa...*Sniff* I'm sorry. I shouldn't have run off." the girl said, setting off a another wave of tears.

"Boss, we got a situation!" one of the captors said.

"What is it?" the man driving the carriage said.

"There's a kid passed out over here! What should we do with him?"

"Hmm, what's he doing in the middle of this god forsaken forest? Oh well. Throw him in the back with the other one!"

The man pick up the ragdoll body of the boy and tossed him in the back along with the girl. She wasn't paying much attention though, as she was on guard in case the man got too close to her. The man closed the barred door behind him and continued walking along with the vehicle. The girl breathed a sigh of relief as he did so. Then, she looked toward her fellow inmate with restrained curiosity.

They kept going until the sun began to set, and decided to set up camp. Just as night fell upon the them, the mystery boy they picked up began to stir. The silver haired girl watched with rapt attention, ready to make a move. He sat up and looked around, it almost looked at if he had a big question mark over his head.

"Haaaaaaaaaa..." the boy sighed as he plopped back down on the bed of the carriage, making a large *thunk* sound. Alerting the others that he was awake.

"Hey, looks like the other brat is awake!" one of them said.

"Quiet down will you? I have a headache." the boy grumbled while messaging his neck.

"Hahaha, the balls on this one. Boss, looks like the that one doesn't realize the situation he's in."

"Just don't touch his face, looks like he will sell for a lump sum." the Boss said offhandedly.

"Don't worry Boss, I won't ruff em up too bad." he said, walking towards the caged carriage.

The boy in question didn't seem to be paying attention, on the contrary, he looked as if he was in a world of his own. The silver haired girl was watching everything unfold with bated breath, hoping that she would not be noticed.

*Cluck*

The cage was unlocked, "Come here!" he said while grabbing the boy violently by the hair.

The slave trader held him by the hair with one arm and took a knife out with the other. He looked to be between the age of 4 to 5 so he was quite easy to lift.

"Do you feel like talking back to us again brat!" he yelled, probably in a attempt to scare the child. It would have worked too...if it was an ordinary child that is...

"Stanley Pardue..." the boy mumbled.

"What?" the man said confused.

"Stanley Pardue, the disowned son of a farmer from Valden. The bracelet you're wearing was given to you by you childhood crush whom you killed at the age of 16, along with her lover. You took up a life of crime to make ends meet. That brings us here, quite the tragic story, don't you think?" the boy said in a mocking tone.

"What? How? What the hell are you!?" Stanley said in a panic.

"Names Charles, world traveler, nice to meet you!" the boy said, silently taking the knife from the stunned slave trader.

Just as Stanley realized that the knife was no longer in his grasp, Charles slit his throat in one clean swipe. He fell to the ground, not understanding what just occurred. The only thing he could see in his last moments was the boy, Charles, standing over him, looking off into space as if he could see nothing at all.

"What the hell?!" the Boss said, looking at the scene of his dead companion.

He felt the blood rushing to his head as he sprinted at the boy at an inhuman speed while drawing his sword. It didn't take long to reach him; his sword was quick to follow.

"DIE!" he yelled.

But in that moment, another player entered the field. A young boy with auburn hair, about the same age as Charles, leaped from his perch high in the trees and stabbed the Boss in the neck. In his rage, he could not sense the boy's presence fast enough to stop it, and he died while cursing his luck.

"Oh, hello there." Charles said, looking at a far away tree.

The newcomer looked at him weirdly and said, "uh, hi?" they couldn't trade small talk for long as the other slave traders were now running to attack them as well.

"You brats will pay for this!" one said. "Little bastards!" the other said.

The boy quickly dispatched them with little difficulty with his unnatural speed and skill with the sword.

"It's all clear now. Are either of you hurt?" he looked at the girl that was still in the cage with concern. Then, he looked over to the other child with a confused look.

"Nah, I'm all good, the trees are a bit loud though." Charles said as if were obvious.

"The..the trees? Huh, did you hurt your head or something?" The auburn haired boy said with increasing confusion.

"Nope, I'm perfectly sane, my name is Charles by the way."

"Arthur, nice to meet you. I'm gonna go check on the girl." he said while walking toward the girl who had long since curled into a ball for protection.

Arthur picked up the keys and opened the cage, "Hey, you're safe now." he said to the girl as she looked up.

"Safe?" she said doubtfully.

"That's right, all the bad guys ran away, you're safe now." Arthur said soothingly as she burst into tears and hugged him.

He brought the girl outside the cage and took her behind a tree so she didn't have to see what came next.

"Stay right here, I'm going to get us some food, ok?"

"Don't be away too long...please." she said with a shaky voice.

Arthur smiled and walked back to the camp, only to see Charles talking to the blood hounds that were pulling the carriage.

"Wow, you guys have had it rough, huh? You said you wanted to eat the bodies right? I'll get that ready for you." Charles said.

Arthur didn't know what to say, so he ignored him and started looting all the food and supplies that he could. He looked over at Charles who was roaming around aimlessly, seemingly looking for something.

"Charles, what are you looking for?"

"Oh, Arthur, you're here! Help me find all the bodies and drag them over to these poor souls here?"

"What do you mean 'find them'? They're right next to you?" Arthur said, even more confused.

"Oh, I'm blind." he said flatly.

"Aah, oh, sorry." Arthur said apologetically.

"No biggie, what are you doing after this anyway?" he said while helping Arthur drag the bodies, well, trying to help. He was a small child after all.

"I'm thinking of taking the girl home. As much as I want to get home to my family, I can't just leave her here." he said, depressed.

"Aah, I see. Well, I guess this is goodbye then. It was nice meeting you." he said while offing a handshake...in the wrong direction.

"I'm over here..." Arthur said wryly.

"Haha, my bad." he said while turning to shake the boy's hand.

While shaking hands, Charles accidentally grabbed Arthurs sleeve. He froze for a second, and then shook Arthur's hand normally. Arthur just added it to list of weird things about the boy. Just as he was about to go back to the elf girl, Charles stopped him with his words.

"Good luck getting back to your family, Grey." the boy said mysteriously as he walked towards the blood hounds.

"Wait! Why did you call me by that name? Who are you?" Arthur said defensively.

The boy mounted the now freed blood hounds and said, "I'm Charles, an unwilling world traveler. Bye!" He said as he rode away, disappearing into the trees.

Arthur stood in a daze for a minute, then he shook his head. He didn't have time to worry about it now. Too much had happened and he just wanted to go home. Maybe they would meet again?