Ryan Blackwill

Shian and the blind boy in the conical hat fell on their butts with a thud, the sound waves from the shout was that powerful. Luckily their ear drums didn't burst.

Grandpa Enzo could be seen standing in front of the open double doors, he walked down the stairs and stood between Shian and the blind boy.

"Why where the two of you fighting?!!" Grandpa Enzo said with a vein bulging at the side of his head at the lack of a reply from any of them, he was getting really angry that they where just staring at seemingly nothing in particular without even making an attempt to answer him.

This was the first time Shian saw this part of Grandpa Enzo, he always appeared to be a gentle old man, but when he snapped, all the image of a gentle man was replaced with the aura of a predator ready to pounce on its prey, Shian was terrified to the point where he answered automatically without thinking of what he was about to say.

"I don't know." Shian said.

This reply seemed to only make Grandpa Enzo more angry. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, then he turned to the blind boy and spoke to him.

"Ryan, do you mind telling me why you two where fighting?"

The blind boy in the conical hat who Shian came to know as Ryan gulped before answering.

"I thought he was an intruder, so I attacked him to test my skills."

"Hmm...Let's say he was actually an intruder" Grandpa Enzo started while making funny hand gestures. "And he was more skilled and wasn't interested in entertaining you..., What do you think would have happened?" He ended his talk with that.

His question seemed to have struck a chord in Ryan as he just sat there seemingly deep in thought, well, Shian couldn't be sure if he was actually deep in thought or if he was just 'looking', he couldn't tell with the expression that was on his face.

Grandpa Enzo then turned to Shian and spoke to him also.

"Is this how you go about fighting with people?" He asked.

Shian gulped before answering. "No, I...was just interested in his fighting technique and got a little bit excited and when he attacked me, all thought flew out of my head and all I could think of was to fight." Shian explained.

'Hmm...a battle maniac, he's not like all those brats who only know how to use their abilities but do not know how to even hold a sword properly. Training him will be worth my time.'

"Get up!" Grandpa Enzo ordered. Shian and Ryan stood up with some effort, the sound waves from Grandpa Enzo's shout had done a lot more than they imagined. After standing up, Grandpa Enzo turned to Ryan as if expecting something from him, Ryan sensing his gaze abruptly turned to Shian, cupped his hands and with a slight bow he apologized.

"I'm sorry for attacking you irrationally, Please accept my apology." Shian was surprised, he wanted to rebuke him and tell him that he didn't need to apologize because his reaction was justified, but, he didn't get the chance to as Grandpa Enzo was staring at him as if trying to bore a hole into his soul. He shuddered and reciprocated Ryan's gesture.

"I'm sorry for attacking you also."

Grandpa Enzo suddenly grinned widely, the sudden shift in his expression made the two boys flinch.

"Now that that is over, why don't we have dinner together" Grandpa Enzo proposed.

'Dinner!!?' Shian screamed in his head and looked up at the sky, the sun was disappearing in the horizon.

'How long has it been' Shian was at loss, he didn't know what to do, so he just sulked and followed them. Before entering though he finally figured out something that had been bugging him since he stepped outside, the air here was very thin and he was almost struggling to breathe, if he was to fight at full strength he would not last as long as when he was breathing well.

As they walked in, he turned around and saw the doors closing without any external force, at least not any that he could see, but that was not his main concern for the moment, the door was inches away from closing when it struck him like a bolt of lightning...

...the family's crest, a mountain with a black moon behind it.

'Mountain!?'

That was the only thing he could deduce before the doors closed with a resounding boom that travelled down the hallway.

__________

Inside, Ryan and Grandpa Enzo had already walked leaving him behind and not wanting a repeat of what happened when he was left behind, he ran and caught up with them. When he got close to them, he continued his train of thoughts and didn't notice that Ryan was looking at him.

"What are you thinking about?."

Shian turned and looked at him, trying to probe him to find out why he suddenly asked him that kind of question. Not getting anything, he answered since he also needed answers to some questions.

"Where are we right now?" Shian asked.

"That wasn't what I asked" Shian was surprised by the answer but he hid his expression perfectly and replied calmly.

"Because that was not what you expected to hear."

Ryan was confused. 'Weirdo' He thought.

Seeing the confused look on his face Shian chuckled lightly and continued.

"I was thinking about where we are right now." Shian explained.

"Oh...now that you put it that way, it makes more sense" Ryan exclaimed.

That comment made Shian cringe inwardly and he mumbled. "So I wasn't making sense to you before, BASTARD!!"What Shian failed to know was that blind people tended to have their other senses enhanced, so Ryan heard Shian's mumblings clearly and frowned.

For some seconds there was tension in the air as they kept walking, each boy was angry for their own reasons, Shian was angry because Ryan unknowingly said he wasn't making sense previously.

Definitely a petty reason.

While Ryan was angry because of what Shian mumbled under his breath.

Fair enough.

They eventually reached a giant hall that served as the dining hall, Shian began to wonder how many they where in their family for them to have such a grand hall, besides, he hadn't met anyone else so far apart from Ryan.

"Perhaps they all where busy." He satisfied his curiosity with that assumption.

A sumptuous dish awaited them on the large rectangular table, they sat on one side of the chairs which were so soft that they made one not feel like standing up.

"Hmm...., Sandra really has outdone herself once again. Well then, shall we?." Grandpa Enzo said to them.

Without further ado, Shian immediately started eating without a care in the world.

Ryan could not see the way Shian ate, but he could hear it, loud and clear. A frown crept up his face as he heard Shian munching vigorously, he heard a very loud slurp from Shian's direction, his anger seemed to have reached its limit as he stood up with force, blasting his chair backwards almost causing it to break.

"Look you FREAK!!, I don't know who you are or where you came from, but you better have some manners or I'll teach you some!!." Ryan barked.

Shian looked up from his food and saw Ryan standing, he seemed to have not heard Ryan's statement because he was too engrossed in his food so his next words made Ryan want to just kill him there and then.

"Aren't you going to eat that, well if you're not I can help you."