The King

It was nearly midday when two boys in tattered looking clothes made their way aimlessly towards the outskirts of the kingdom. They were talking and laughing quietly amongst themselves, not a care in the world as to what was going on around them; everywhere people would turn their heads, looks of disgust flashing across their faces at the two dirty young men. But the boys were used to it by now and knew there was nothing they could do to change that.

"So I'm telling you, this girl…" the tallest of the two boys continued, his hands moving as he told his story. "She had the most-"

"Wait…do you see that?" the shorter one asked, his eyes fixed somewhere in the distance. He paused a moment, holding his arm out in front of his companion to get him to stop as well.

If his eyes weren't deceiving him, there was a body lying slumped against the wall of a building, partly in a pile of garbage. It wasn't moving, so he couldn't tell if the person was even alive.

"As I was saying," the taller of the two continued, clearly agitated by the interruption, "I was looking through her window while she was-"

"I think it's a dead body," came the other's voice again, trying to get a better view as he crept forward.

"So, leave it to rot, Zach. Come on."

"Hold on just a minute," Zach said, continuing to inch closer. He could definitely tell it was the body of a man, possibly not much older than himself. Crouching down to get a closer look, he recognized the clothing material on the boy to be one associated with some form of royalty. Looking up into the face, Zach didn't recognize the high cheekbones or rounded nose, nor the dark hair. Reaching out, he decided to try and find a pulse. It was reasonable to believe the boy could have passed out after a long night of drinking too much ale.

"Zach," his companion hissed, nearing. "Don't touch it. He could be…diseased."

"With what, Matt?" Zach asked as he paused his pending investigation. The boy didn't look ill.

"I don't know," Matt answered indignantly. "I heard the plague was going to surface again." Despite his words, Matt decided to crouch down next to his friend, trying to get a better look.

"Well, whatever he is, he's dressed too well to be a peasant," Zach stated, catching the way his friend nodded in agreement.

"Where do you think he came from?"

"You ask me that like I'm supposed to know, Matt," Zach said pointedly with a small glare to the other. Looking back a the body, he shrugged his answer. "Maybe he was banished from wherever he came from. Maybe he did something horrible."

"Wait…" Matt said, eying the stranger carefully. He could have swore he saw him move. Noticing the subtle rise and fall of his chest, Matt lightly shoved his friend in the arm. "He's breathing. Look."

"We should take him back with us. At least get him somewhere safe, so he doesn't die," Zach reasoned, and it took quite a few minutes of convincing with Matt to get him to agree. So the two grabbed the stranger at both ends, hoisting him up, and began to carry him back toward the kingdom.

The looks of disgust only doubled as the townspeople watched on, thinking of the horrible things the two orphans could have done to that boy.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

It took quite some time and quite a few breaks until Matt and Zach had carried the body to the river. They slowly took him down to the water's edge, laying his body down on the soft grass.

Scooping up a handful of water, Matt doused the boy's face with it, waiting for him to gain consciousness. He and Zach had checked him the entire way, making sure he was still alive. Only moments passed before the young man jerked awake, coughing and spluttering as he tried to shield himself from the onslaught of water.

Slowly Brian sat up, taking in his surroundings; the river, the bridge above, and lastly, the two boys sitting at his side. On any other circumstance he would have frowned upon the state of the boys, their clothes, skin and hair tattered, matted, and filthy. But the grief of the death of his father and the words of his uncle were still running deep in his veins, and he found he had no strength of will to even do that.

"Hey there, are you alright?" Matt asked, concern crossing his face at the lonely look that flashed across the boy's face.

"Yes…I suppose," Brian sighed, looking away from the boys and out toward the rushing water of the river. He seriously contemplated tying some sort of weight to his legs and throwing himself in. After all, there was no going back.

"You probably would have died if we hadn't found you when we did," Zach said, grinning to try and cheer up the sullen look on the boy's face.

Looking down as he had begun to stand, Brian couldn't bear to smile back at the two young men.

"Oh. Well thanks for the help," he muttered, walking further down the shore of the river. He secretly wished they had just left him there to die. That would have been the least of his worries. Now he didn't know where he was or what he was going to do, and that seemed worse off than death to Brian.

Confused as the boy they saved just walked away, Zach and Matt shared a glance before quickly getting up. Brian was beginning to climb the bank, and if he got too far, they'd surely lose him.

"Hey!" Matt called out as they neared, following him down the street. "Where are you going?"

Brian couldn't even feel annoyance that he was being followed. It was like his emotions, besides grief and pain, had been shut off.

"Nowhere," he answered dejectedly, kicking at a loose rock as he continued down the lane, having no clue of where he was headed.

"So, I'm Zach, and that's my friend Matt," Zach introduced.

"Brian."

"So, Brian, where are you from, and why were you unconscious in a pile of rubbish?" Zach then asked.

"Doesn't matter where I came from," Brian muttered. "I can never go back there."

"Ah, so you're an outcast. We're both orphaned, so I guess we're about the same."

Brian felt that they were entirely the same. Orphaned was exactly the way he felt.

"Why can't you go back?" Matt pressed.

"I'd rather not talk about it, if it's all the same to you," Brian nearly snapped. "I just wish there were a way to change the past."

"Well, you can't, so there's really nothing you can do about it. You just have to leave the past in the past and get on with your life," Matt explained with a shrug, Zach nodding along with him. There were things in his past he'd wished he could go back and change, too, but he'd come to the realization that it was never going to happen, and so had moved on.

"Anyways," Matt continued with a sigh of reassignment, "we won't question you further. But…you're welcome to be one of us. It's just Zach and me, and we really don't have a place to stay. We figure…the world is ours, and we can stay wherever we want. No rules, no responsibilities. It's really not so bad."

After thinking it over for a few moments, Brian realized that he could either go on his own and end up dead. Or he could, at least, try to let go of the things that had happened, the things he could not change. He was in a new place, with new people that didn't know of him or his past. It was the chance for a new life.

And so, he took it.