Young Writers Society

James only nodded at Aen's reply. It was obvious that he was lying, but he also sounded worried, and for a child as transparent as he, there was a good reason for it. It was also possible the kid was a runner.

He approached the bed slowly and put a hand on the headboard, looking down at the kid. "You really don't have any trusted friends or family? I only ask to offer help to return you to them if you're lost, or anything."

"I don't," he earnestly said. Now that his lie had been completely forgotten, he dove right into the truth. The man made it sound like it was a bad thing to not have those, but he was wrong. It was kind of fun when it was just himself! He could do whatever he wanted whenever he wanted, and he no one could stop him. The only people he had to worry about where them, and they weren't exactly family or friends. "I don't have a family, and I don't have friends! It's just me."

He turned to Kratzer. "And what's a pig?"

He blinks, a little surprised at the inquiry and having a moment where he thinks he might've said the wrong word. It's been a long time since he's messed up his English like that, but it isn't his first language, and it always had the potential to happen.

"You know, four-legged cloven-hooved stinky animals Jews won't eat?"

Hali stood there awkwardly, as Aen was not translating this conversation. He brushed his hair out of his face and coughed pointedly.

"You haven't been a translator before, have you?" Kratzer asked the kid, shifting his position with a grimace. He probably wouldn't have noticed the fact that Aen wasn't relaying the conversation to Hali had he not been on the receiving end of that, multiple times - but he was young, and had time to learn. Lord knew that he'd been guilty of the same thing many times over.

"I think what they're meaning to say, is Hali hasn't been told what all of us are saying. So if you could tell him what's going on that would be helpful for communication," James elaborated.

"Oh!" he said. He didn't know why Hali hadn't just asked him to translate, but he'd happily do so - especially when he was helping out someone so cool. He quickly told Hali everything that had happened in the conversation.

"You have no family?" said Hali, frowning. Poor kid. He didn't know what he'd do himself if he couldn't make it back to his family and their sea. His fists clenched.

"I don't," he earnestly replied, adding in a nod for good measure. Why did they keep focusing on that? He didn't have a mom or dad or multiple ones or anything like that.

Odris kind of counted, he guessed. He had been the one to give him a name. But Odris and him weren't like all the families he had seen in the city! They hadn't ever played in the square, or gone for treats together. (It wasn't like he could eat them, but that was definitely a family thing right there.) All he ever got on holidays was a pile of stinky old books, and Odris always stopped him from doing the fun stuff he wanted to do.

Yeah, Odris definitely wasn't family.

"But that's alright!" he added, seeing the sad look on Hali's face. "I've got myself and that's good enough! I don't need any family."

James gave Aen a pat on the shoulder.

"It's alright, Aen. We'll stop asking about family."

James took in a deep breath, and looked around at the others. "That said, I'm confused as to how I got here. I don't know where here is. And none of you know either?"

He gave a big nod. "Yup! I just was running and running and ended up here." He paused and gave the three men a nervous look. "Not that I was, uh, running from anyone! I just like running. A lot."

"Right," Kratzer says, nodding his head slowly. "You need to work on your lying skills, kid, but if you don't want to tell I'm not going to pry."

"And neither will I - unless whatever is after you has some relevancy to our collective safety. Otherwise, don't worry about it."

"I'm not lying!" he protested, crossing his arms and staring up at Kratzer and Luke. "I just really like running." He was lying, but not completely. Running really was something he enjoyed - it just wasn't why he was out here in the first place.

James let out a small sigh. Clearly, the kid was insistent on keeping whatever or whoever he was running from a secret. He looked to Kratzer.

“Okay. Well how about you, Kratzer. How did you arrive here?”