Time (part 1)

First part of the story about a boy living on the street, trying his best to survive without getting in too much trouble. Will involve magic and fantasy, just not yet =) Will be continued.

“How the hell am I still alive?” was his first thought, slowly opening his eyes in the new day. Morning was pretty chilly and his nose and fingertips were freezing. He shook his head like a dog, getting a small pile of snow off his white hair. He should really get a robe or something like that and he was seriously considering stealing a scarf. He thought he'll die that night, but even death was too busy to care for some scruffy kid like him. He slowly moved his fingers and tried to warm them up a bit. He was seriously in need of food, clothes, shelter and some money. The corner of a dead-end street where he was sleeping that night was a bit warmer due to the inn on the opposite side of the wall. He got a bit lucky finding it. There were hundreds of homeless kids like him on the streets and when winter came, most of them froze to death or killed each other fighting for food and little warm corners like this one. Kids usually teamed up in the groups of three or more, as they had more chance of winning the fights and consequently, survive. 

As told already, he got lucky this time.

The corner was guarded by just two skinny boys, who hadn't put up much of a fight as he seized the place for himself. He was just as weak and hungry as they were, but his odd appearance scared them away. He grinned while thinking of that. The same colorless eyes, skin and hair white as snow and his a bit crooked and pointy teeth that convinced his parents he's a monster and who then abandoned him, was helping him survive on the streets. Not that he'd want that, but death clearly wasn't interested in him. 

After few minutes of thinking he stood up and circled the neighborhood. He knew that in the same moment he'll leave that warm corner a gang of boys will quickly occupy it and he won't be able to sleep there anymore. There were also almost no other corners like this in that town and even those which existed were already taken by boy gangs who he wouldn't be able to beat. He considered all of his possibilities and left the street. He had to find some food or get some quick money to buy something warm and at least partly eatable. 

He smirked as he walked pass market stalls full of jewelery and useless crap that just nasty rich b******s with topped hats could afford. If he had this much money, he'd buy himself one good coat, lather boots and warm socks, maybe even a nice blue hat to cover his ears, that were a bit pointy as well. He'd also buy not one, not two, but as many chocolate bars he could get. He once tasted it. Chocolate. It was a bit bitter but yet so sweet his mind was completely overcome by pleasure just by thinking about it.

As he was wandering in his delusions and fantasies, he wasn't very careful of where he was walking. Suddenly he bumped in an older man wearing a black coat with fur collar. The boy stretched his hands, trying not to fall, but the stranger forcefully pushed him away. Boy fell in the pile of wet snow by the road and clenched his teeth, trying not to scram in pain when gentleman's hobnailed boot hit his chest. “You little stinking brat! You tried to rob me, didn't you!? Here! This is what you get!” shouted the old guy, forcefully kicking in the lad, until he stopped moving. 

This happened to him a lot. People in this town extremely hated street children and pickpockets who were nearly excluded from the society. People didn't pretend they don't exist. Oh no. It was much worse. They were looking at them like at some wild beasts, claiming they need to be hunt down or locked up, without realizing, those are their own children. 

Lad quietly waited for beating to stop and the man walking away before he dared to get up. His chest has taken the most damage and by the pain he concluded he might have some broken ribs, but his hands and legs seemed to be fine. He forced himself to breathe normally and walk straight before he curled up in the nearest park. There he slowly looked around, confirming that there were no oder people around and took something gold from his pocket. He smiled as he examined his treasure he just got from that polite gentleman who gave him a beating just a few minutes earlier. He got it from him when he accidentally bumped in him and it just happened to get in his hands and in his pocket in less than a second. He had a big grin on his face. It was almost too easy. 

He focused on his newly gained treasure, founding out, it's a golden pocket watch. Very very expensive golden pocket watch. “Well well... what do we get here? I guess I should have thanked him for such generous gift!” he laughed with throbbing pain in the chest. He clenched his teeth once again, forcing himself to smile. This b*****d will definitely suffer for humiliation and pain he put me through, he thought and the man's face got stored somewhere in his brain. “But for now, let's see how much I can get for this beauty.” He opened the watch and surprised noticed, there are no pointers in it. “That's odd. Who'd have a pocket watch which can't tell time?” Watch was pretty, expensive but useless. He thought he herd something and nervously rose the watch to his freezing ears. Now he could hear it clearly. The clock was actually ticking, it worked. It had no pointers, no way to tell time, but it worked. “Oh well, old jerk probably just had too much money,” he said to himself, avoiding unpleasant feeling he had about this. “All that matters is that I get some money from it.” He hid the watch back in his pocket and went to the old part of town. The really old, stinking and dangerous part of town, where a little shop was. 

Bell at the doors jingled as boy walked in, carefully closing the doors behind him. The shop he walked in, was pretty small and had no windows. All there was in the room was one small coffee table with an expensive looking tea set on it and two wooden chairs beside it, that looked a bit too pretty for a wet, dirty and stinking boy to sit on it. There were also another doors, that lead in a big spacious room with just one big bed and enormous wooden closet. This was his, almost, home. 

He casually knocked on the table to force a big guy with glasses to get up from his obviously comfortable bed. “Get out you stinking little monster this anin't the place for thieves like yourself!” started screaming the guy the moment he noticed a boy. By rolled his eyes and poured himself a cup of tea. Sour. There was no sugar on the table. Damn. He glanced at the wooden chair and decided he won't ruin it with his wet and dirty clothes. “Max get up and shut up already, it's just me for god's sake,” he muttered and sat on the floor. 

His chest hurt like hell and he was so dripping wet, he could feel the dampness slowly making it's way in his bones. Max finally took a better look at his visitor. “Mother of gods! Frost! What happened to you? You seriously look like s**t, and that's a nice way of putting it.” Frost grinned and carefully hugged the big guy. “Well I thought I'll be dead by now so this is nothing.” Max smirked and poured himself a cup of tea. “You know I would be always glad to help a friend, all you need to do is say.” Max's small, clever eyes pierced through his young friend, but he just grinned like it's nothing. He didn't trust Max this well. He knew he was working with some very dangerous and suspicious people, which Frost would rather avoid. Max has offered him a permanent job plenty of times, but he turned down all of his offers. He liked to be free and come in and out whenever he wanted, even if it that meant starving and freezing on the street. His pride was like a curse, preventing him from working for anyone. 

“Thanks again for the offer, but I'd like to get to business.” Max just nodded and the kid pulled out his newly earned treasure. One glance at the watch was enough for max to froze completely. Frost carefully placed it on the table, without noticing Max's reaction. “It has no pointers, but it looks expensive, so give me a fair price.” When there was no response, Frost looked up at the man's face and narrowed his eyes. He could smell something is wrong. “Max? Please explain to me your dumb face,” he snapped after a moment, making a man to flinch and spill the tea. “This watch.... you don't have any idea what this is? Who it belongs to?” asked max in a low voice, like he'd be afraid someone could hear him. Frost just shook his head look at him with uncertainty and doubt in his eyes. Max took a moment to calm down and pour himself another cup and then almost cheerfully said: “Simply said, you just got yourself in some pretty big trouble, kid.”  

Author's Note

Please ignore bad grammar or some speling mistakes. It happens. (A lot XD) Thanks for reading!

Reviews

[Meeks]

Hey Lero, another sixteener like you here. I'll try to send a review by PM, since it's easier for me to type there. Soon...

[wolf5252]

hey thanks for the review. overall your writing is pretty good. i like how you add description to your writing. just the little things like "Frost looked up at the man's face and narrowed his eyes." sounds awesome and i hope you write more because reading your writing definitely is influencing me on changes i would like to implement in my writing. please write more to this story, im honestly intrigued by the characters that you have in your story

[Lero Ro]

Thank you for the review! You're very kind and I'll continue with the story, but I'm more interested in what you didn't like or found it disturbing or what could be changed, so I can improve. =)