Crownless: The Fallen World - Chapter 31

“Your… uncle died and this happened?”

“Yeah… it happened to you too, right? Since you have a big family and all.”

“No… it didn’t. I only put the contacts of my schoolmates in my Holowrist. But seriously, this is bad news and why am I so calm about it? Seb must not be that important to me.” Kassean sighed but shivered when he felt it, something about what… he said.

“Sht… what the fck was that?!”

Hale turned his attention towards Gavin City and saw how the clouds decreased in size but not by much. Is the storm nearing its end?

“Nothing in particular,” Hale deadpanned, his eyes were red and his breathing was pretty much calmed down. There was already a sting he felt in his eyes as he softly caressed the little boy’s head.

“Just… when the storm died down, we can look for his body or any DNA samples left behind. If he’s alive… which could be impossible according to you, then it’s a miracle. We can only hope by then… I should hang up now,” Kassean’s voice was filled with horror and fear for the result, but he couldn’t let it get to him as his people needed him to be calm. After all, they lost their home and might migrate or build a new one here. The decision was all up to him, the burden he felt was too much to be handled calmly, but he still tried his best.

“Yes, thank you.” Hale hanged up and sniffled as he rubbed his nose. He squeezed the boy tightly as he kept on reassuring himself that everything will be alright and wished for a miracle to happen that Aires was alive.

He thought of digging a tunnel underground to enter the city if the wall wouldn’t obstruct him underground. But he was in no condition to even dig, he was just a weak and pathetic excuse of a being.

5 hours had passed since Hale lost his consciousness from fatigue. The boy carefully ripped himself off Hale’s grip and trotted into the forest. His nose picked up a peculiar scent and went into a certain part of the congregated trees. He saw a lot of patched dried leaves, each had their own colors which was weird for him. He marked a tree with his sharp and strong nail that grew out of his forefinger.

With that, he went back to Hale who was still sleeping so soundly. His deep blue almond eyes looked at the city where he lived his life poorly in 9 years. It was all coldness even if he was put into the orphanage until he felt the true warmth from Aires when he was saved back in there.

He remembered how his little body relaxed under the touch of the taller male, how he felt so loved and secure with just that protective embrace. It was the first time he felt like he had a family. After all, he was discriminated against with his looks; white hair, deep blue eyes, and his feeble and tiny body. Even though he was 9 years old, his body looked like he was 6.

He was abandoned in a tiny shed outside of the city and was sheltered by some farmers who he thought as his family too but gave him away from the instant they thought of having a baby was too troublesome and expensive.

The taller male saved him even if it cost his life and never loosened the hold around his tiny body, this truly touched the boy. It even made him decide to be the other’s family when the taller promised him that he would protect him and he would be safe with him.

His deep blue eyes reflected the fire in Gavin City along with the fire in his heart. He walked back to where Hale was, peacefully curled up on the ground, his breathing was shaky and his body was trembling as few tears escaped his eyes.

The little child softened as he nudged the older male, “Mister, wake up.”

Hale slowly opened his eyes and blinked his tears away before sitting up on the dirty ground. He groggily looked at the small child in front of him, he felt as if all of his energy left his body, “What’s wrong?” His voice carried exhaustion.

“I have news for you,” The child announced with enthusiasm to the older who was confused as he looked at the city. The cloud decreased a lot in size, it was already 3 meters away from the opaque wall and the icicles and tornado were still there. There’s nothing to be enthusiastic about this…

“What?” He replied with his raspy voice.

“I found an entrance towards the underground tunnel,” He squealed as he tried to pull Hale off the ground. He groaned cutely, “Oh, come on! Hurry, Mister!”

Hale was stiff at first but hurried himself to stand and let the boy pull him wherever he was going. He saw strange claw marks around the trees on the path that they were taking. A den?

There were patches of dried leaves when they stopped. The child released his huge hands then skipped over to the larger patch. He lifted it up with great force, which wasn’t much help as he was a child, and saw a huge circular stoned hole and bar ladders. He decided to use a bit of his strength, but secretly, and slipped it away.

Hale’s nose scrunched when he smelled the stench from it. He covered his nose but it was ineffective which irritated him, “Is this a sewage?”

“It is. I’ve been in the underground before, so trust me to be your tour guide to enter the city,” The boy proudly patted his chest.

The older’s face blanked when he tried to picture himself walking inside the sewage. Nope! Nope! Nope! Impossible! He shook his head as tingles invaded his spine, “Uh… is there any way?”

“Nope!” The boy popped the ‘p’, “This is the only one we found and I never tried going outside the boundary of the underground tunnel anyway.”

“Then how’d you know this will lead to the sewage in the underground tunnel?”

“It was when I escaped from a group of people, I smelled a strong stench and hid beside the metal barrier. I did escape them but the smell lasted for 3 days… it was horrible. I almost puked that day,” The boy fake gagged then coughed, “This is really the only way we got to enter the city. Are you in or not?”