Free Victor Deus (Heritage of the Blood Book 1) by Brent Lee Markee Page B

“Kid, stop!”
    Victor ran through the streets, and alleys. He ran until he couldn't run anymore, and then he ran some more. He didn't know where his feet were taking him; he just knew he had to run. He ran straight into the back of a familiar twelve-year-old boy.
    The boy turned around to see who had dared run into him, and he saw an annoyingly familiar face. “You?! What do you want now, you want to make fun of me some more?” The large boy cooed before realizing that the child in front of him was crying. “What happened to you?” He said with worry coming through his voice. It had not been that long ago that the boy himself had lost his parents, so he listened to the young boy's story with a knowing nod. The evening sun was just reaching the peaks of the far hilltops. Dusk had begun, and it was going to be a long night. 

Chapter 2
    Getting a Little Dirty
     
    Year 3041 AGD
    Month:  Year's End
    Fourth Eighthday
    Eve of New Beginnings
    Continent of Terroval
    Docks District
     
    So that's what all the hub-ub is about eh?” The older boy looked down at the crying boy in front of him and tried his best to put on a welcoming face. “Them's the strokes of life though, lost me pa' to the army, and me mum to a bad cold. Been on me' own for near enough to four months now. Guess we poor uncivilized folk ain't the only ones who get a bucket of waste water dumped on our lives.”
    Victor had told the older boy his story, using as few words as possible so he could be understood through his sobbing. He kept trying to pull himself together, but it just didn't seem to be working. The first thing he had tried was the breathing technique that Shaylyn had taught him. When he had started the process he had started remembering all of the lessons that Shaylyn had taught him over his few years of life and the tears would come back with a vengeance. Victor realized at that moment that everything he knew, he knew because of her, and now she was gone. Taken by the man in the blood red robes. Where have I seen those robes before? Trying to think of anything but his loss was nearly impossible and this made him so frustrated that he felt like he'd never stop crying.
    “…. And that's when I met Ol' man Walkins. He's been teaching me and a few of the other boys how to survive on the cold hard streets. It's kind of him to take us in; he says so all the time. He says that the world belongs to rich men, and as long as it does they won't miss the things we take. Why just yesterday he had us…”
    Wow he talks a lot. Victor was trying to listen, he really was. For some reason however, his mind wouldn't let him concentrate on anything. The only time he had ever felt like this before was when he had accidentally burned himself with a fireball that went off too close. It took him a moment to register what the big boy had been talking about. “You mean that you're thieves?”
    “No, no, we aren't thieves. I asked the same question myself once, then Ol' Walkins he set me straight. He said that rich men were decent enough folk most of the time, and that if they knew of our… of the… damn what's the word he used… anyway, if they knew of the bad way we was in…”
    “Plight?” Victor asked quietly
    “Yeah that's the word… dang you sure are smart for a little kid. Anyway, if they knew of our plight they'd be givin' us stuff anyway. So, since they'd give it to us anyway there's no need to bother 'em about it. So we just slip in at night and take what's coming to us anyway, or we slip a wallet from a pocket here or there and lighten a gentleman's load for 'em.”
    “So what your saying is… that you take someone's property without asking them, and your not thieves?”
    “Exactly, see I knew you was a smart one. Ol' man Walkins is gonna like you. You're small and smart, and he says that's the best qualities for what we do. I'll bet he puts you at the head of the boys, under me of course. It's a really nice place, we got…”
    A thief, I