Silence Chapter 7
"What do you want?"
"It looks like that weird kid is with him!"
"I can't stand him! Don't let him near me!"
"They're acting suspicious. Something's not right..."
Isaaac looked at Ivan. Shaking his head, he started to approach the men cowering behind the bedstand.
"Aaagh! He's coming!"
The men ran to the other side, and a minor chase ensued. Isaac would just slowly walk towards them, and they'd scurry to the other side. Eventually though one of them got themself stuck in a corner, with Ivan barricading the other exit.
"W-w-w-w-what do you want?"
He was truly in fright now. All he could do is stare at Isaac in panic, and his eyes half rolled into his head before he settled down again. He snuck a quick glance at Ivan.
"Wha-What is this? What is he doing?!"
The other men hiding behind the other bed exclaimed, "He shut his eyes... What's he doin'?!"
Isaac fixed them with a stare, and they shut up. At a tug on his cloak though, he turned around and saw that Ivan had finished. Isaac stalked out of the inn, with Ivan running behind him.
"Geez, wait up, will ya?!"
Later, crouched in a remote corner of the town, Ivan relayed his report.
"It's them all right. I think they took a lot of other things, too. It looks like they're hiding it all somewhere near this inn... But they won't let me near them again."
"It's all your fault, Isaac, for being so scary!" Ivan punched Isaac good-naturedly in the shoulder. Instantly he cringed when Isaac fixed him with a stare. However, he became relaxed again when he saw, he didn't know, something in his eyes that seemed warm. And Isaac's demeanor was rather complacent. He even punched Ivan back some few minutes later.
"He-ey! That hurt!" Ivan stuck his tongue out.
A small smile, contorted with ages of unuse, struggled onto Isaac's face.
Somewhere, a hairline crack made it's way through the bronze seal covering a door.
"Uhnn... Uhnn..."
The man was gradually awakening to the fact that there were two blond boys standing over him. Groggily he looked up into their faces, as the blond with purple eyes asked him how he'd gotten like this.
"I came into this loft while I was fixing the roof... But I found I couldn’t get all the way to the back of the loft... So I was looking into it when WHAM! Someone whacked me in the head from behind! When I came to, I was all tied up."
By now he was fully awake and stood up, balancing against the wall for support. Looking around he announced, "Strange... I don't remember all these crates being here before."
Isaac headed off and started prying off the lid of a crate. As he did so, Ivan mused, "Maybe all that stolen stuff is in these crates..."
Suddenly the slamming of the trap door caused all three of them to spin around instantly. The thieves were standing in the doorway, two of them slightly behind the other, who was obviously their leader.
"Looks like we've been found out!"
One of the thieve's glances rested on Ivan. Sneering, he said, "You’re pretty persistent for one of Hammet’s whelps,kid! Why are you working so hard for Hammet? What’s it to you?" As if emboldened by his remarks, the thief stepped forward. "Anyway, Hammet’s already been caught by a worse bunch of thieves
than us!" He smirked at Ivan.
"I hear Hammet fled to Lunpa after the eruption."
At this, the man leaning against the wall, already shaking, started shaking even harder, until it was palpably visible to everyone in the room."
"Did you say Lunpa? A man with Master Hammet's money shouldn't go anywhere NEAR Lunpa!"
Worriedly, Ivan glanced at Isaac, the other boy returning his glance after a moment. It was at this moment that the thieves decided to attack.
"Get 'em!!!"
Lunging, the leader thrust out his knife and attempted to stab Isaac. Isaac merely stepped back, and with a lightning quick movement took out his sword. Neatly he knocked out the thief's knife and swiftly he came to rest the tip of his sword on the thief's neck.
Ivan was having a harder time fending off the other two thieves. They accosted him constantly, and he was having trouble blocking their small daggers with his wooden staff. Before long I'll have to get a new one... Bemoaning his misfortune, he cast Whirlwind, and the thieves stepped back in horror and amazement as a miniature tornado engulfed them and threw them against the wall.
Ivan was on them in a second before they could recover, thwacking them as hard as he could with his wooden staff. They got up quickly though, and seemed ready to go at it when their attention was diverted by the sight of their frozen leader. One of them rushed to help while the other returned his attention to Ivan. He was too slow though, as Ivan gave him a resounding hit on his head that knocked him out before he could react.
The other thief leaped for Isaac, causing him to be momentarily distracted from the leader, which gave him just enough time to jump for the knife embedded in the nearby wall. Calmly Isaac deflected the blade that slashed at him and hit the minor thief with the flat of his blade, promptly knocking him out. With the other he pointed to the leader, who spun around and tried his best to fight back, only to be hit from behind by another one of Ivan's Whirlwinds. The battle altogether took the time for the terrified townsperson to sink to his knees from his standing position.
Shortly after they came to (Ivan unfortunately didn't have very much power in his hits, and Isaac had been concentrating more on not killing something than properly knocking someone out)
"They... They got us..." Dejectly, he looked at the ground. Another thief piped up.
"Actually, for a second there, I thought we were goners..." He looked at Isaac reverently and fearfully.
Still in shock, the townsperson was murmuring to himself, "Wow! We won!" As if he had suddenly attained enlightenment, he stood up and said, "I... I’ll get the mayor!" He rushed out of the room, which left Ivan and Isaac to muse over the situation.
"After the trouble we went to,stealing all this stuff..."
"Sheesh! I told you... I told you we should have skipped town...."
As the thieves argued amongst themselves, Ivan glanced at the crates and said, "If you give me Master Hammet’s rod, I’ll head to Lunpa now."
Isaac did not reply, lost in his thoughts. Exasperated by the silence, Ivan went up and waved a hand in front of Isaac's face. When this failed to elicit any response, he backed up and studied Isaac.
Isaac, while quite handsome, really didn't seem to be the kind to break hearts. In fact, if anything, he looked like a child who had his heart broken repeatedly. His face was expressionless staring at the ground, but the cast-down blue eyes and the way his hair fell in a crazy mop around him made him seem so piteous that Ivan could not help but feel guilty for leaving him - he couldn't remember the cold silence Isaac greeted with everyone, nor could he recall the terror upon seeing him in his mind as a monster.
Ivan's thoughts were interrupted when the man from before stumbled in, gasping, "These are the thieves, Mayor..."
The mayor walked with the slow steps of one who had authority and was annoyed. Very annoyed. "What you did was horrid. Stealing? In the middle of
a disaster!?!"
The leader apparently thought that the mayor was in err, as he retorted, "Hey, you’re the ones who left all your doors open! You were practically begging us to - OUCH!" The man had kicked him fiercely.
"Sorry... I couldn’t help myself..."
He wasn't helping much before... Sighing to himself, Ivan resumed watching the exchange of words as the mayor decided on a sentence for the thieves.
"What should we do with them?" The man was almost tugging on the mayor's sleeves, completely ready to obey the mayor's will, whatever it might have been.
"We’re going to lock them up for a long,long time."
As if cheered by this prospect, the man bounded over to the thieves and kicked them again. "Hey, wake up! Let’s go - get up! Get up!"
When the thieves refused to budge, he looked helplessly at the pair. "Hey, can you help me tie them up?"
Ivan almost bristled at the thought of helping such a man, but since Isaac strode over, he supposed he might as well help. After all, he didn't want to be associated with that kind of person.
Such a sniveling coward! In his indignation he accidently tied the rope too tightly, causing the thieves to yelp.
As they were dragged away the leader glared at him.
"Hey, you! Isaac, right? I won’t forget this!"
They'd gotten the wrong name. Isaac lifted his head and looked at the leader readily. Whitening, he hurriedly urged his cronies to move faster and hobbled out of there as quickly as he could.
"Take them away!" The mayor called, seeming to need closure. Then, turning to face the two, he said, "Thanks for catching the thieves! You have our sincerest
gratitude."
The man from before popped up behind the mayor with his own compliment. "Really, you were a big help!"
"Let’s take a look at what they stole."
An assortment of items fell out as Isaac pried them all open, among them Hammet's Rod. Clutching the item to his chest, Ivan danced around, happy that his journey was over.
Until he spun around and caught sight of Isaac. He was walking out the door without a backwards glance as the mayor and the man marveled and fumed over the stolen treasure.
I need to thank him! He ran after Isaac, only dimly hearing the mayor yell at them, "Thank you both. You have my deepest gratitude! Before you leave town, please come and see me. I have something for you!"
Rushing down from the ladder, he very nearly crashed into Isaac when he stopped at the gate out of Vale. A tumult of syllables rushed out of his mouth, as he tried to formulate the words Thank you.
A hand on his head shut him up, (he hated it whenever anyone put their hand on his head because it only served to remind him how short he was) as Isaac pointed towards the direction of Lunpa.
Sighing, he looked at the rod still clutched in his hands. He didn't hear Isaac move away though, so after a moment he lifted his head to face Isaac's pointed stare. Feeling as if Isaac wanted an explanation, he said morosely, "I just want to rescue Master Hammet... That’s all... But I couldn’t ask you to help me. Not after what you've done for me already." And I don't think you would help me if I asked you to anyway...
Nodding, Isaac touched his shoulder, then walked off on the cobbled path, in the opposite direction of Lunpa. What's he searching for anyway? Ivan was almost tempted to ask, but Isaac obviously wouldn't answer, so all he did was yell after him, "Good luck! Thank you for all your help!"
All he got in reply was a nod.
I have just realized how very fickle I am. Very very fickle. My interest waned in this fic (all my fics actually, though I only have two I'm working on right now) so suddenly it was almost kinda scary. Reason was cause I watched Noir, and so I was almost completely engrossed in it. I wish I'd spaced out the 26 eps more though, because it's finished so... suddenly. Like my attention span, ne? :p
The chapters are therefor unregulated, as in an indeterminate amount of time will occur until the next one is updated. I will continue to try to keep it to a max of two weeks, although that will in all probability fail. I still promise to finish the story before next year rolls around...