-Chapter 6-

“I lost Marquis’s wallet,” I said aloud to myself when I sprung awake late that morning. Shit. There was no time to lose, I scrambled out of bed and quickly got myself dressed and ready for the day, all the while stressing over the fact that I had lost Mark’s wallet after attacking the prince of Deautschria. Mark was definitely going to be pissed at me. While I was hopping down the stairs and doing up the fly on my jeans I remembered about Winfred. Shit. I swung by the door and grabbed my father's flat cap and smacked it onto the top of my head to cover the mess of brunette hair that needed a trim so desperately and got ready to run out the door.

“Oi’ Burt!” My dad shouted from the kitchen right as my hand touched the door knob. It seemed as though my parents just knew my every whereabouts.

“Aren’t you going to eat breakfast? You’re in an awful rush for someone who got beat up last night,” He asked. I watched him approach me from the kitchen.

“I gotta go and meet Walt in town,” I said with both ears pricking forward.

“Walts at Mark’s house…” Well shit.

“Uh… it appears I’ve been mistaken,” I stated tensley.

“Mark has another girl at his place doesn’t he?” My dad asked through a long sigh. I decided to play into this, I don’t think Mark would mind if it meant keeping all of us safe.

“Uhhhh yeah… he wanted me to keep it a secret. Oops.”

“I’m staying out of that. I’d rather not get involved with that boy’s girl problems,” My father scoffed, shaking his head. He looked at me, his eyes passing mine and looking to the top of my head.

“My hair’s a mess,” I told him before he would snatch it off like he usually did when I stole one of his hats. He squinted.

“Fine,” He rolled his eyes. “Only if you go eat breakfast that your mother made,” He said. Rather than digging myself a deeper hole, I complied and dragged myself into the kitchen. Our kitchen was tiny, but kept clean and nicely decorated. It was always bright in the morning when the sunrise shined through the long windows over the sink that looked out into one of the horse pastures where two of our mares would be out grazing. My mum was turned towards the window watching the two with the table made with one meal left that had gone cold. My ears lower. The front door closed causing my mum to pick up her head and look over, being caught off guard by my presence.

“Good morning Burton! You caught me off guard there,” She said, placing a hand on her chest with a smile forming on her face.

“Sorry about that,” I said quietly, tugging on the sleeves of my jumper.

“No worries, I made you some breakfast, it’s gone a bit cold. I didn’t think you’d sleep in, which is a bit silly of me. I can heat it up again if you like,” She offered me as I got myself sat down.

“No, no, it’s fine, don't worry about,” I said with a sigh, followed by a yawn.

“How’s your back feeling, Burty,” my mum asked and placed a hand on my back ever so gently.

“It’s fine, everything feels in top-shape,” I said, full well knowing that was a blatant lie. Once the initial adrenaline rush of realising I’d lost my best friend’s wallet had faded I was feeling achy and stiff all around.

“You sure? I don’t want you hurting in any way… I imagine it’s frustrating enough on you just having been beat up, I don’t want you physically hurting along with it. We may have some painkillers if you need them,” she offered, petting my back. I was quiet for a brief moment.

“I’m fine, honest,” I insisted with a little shrug, struggling to get some food in my mouth with the bandages on my lip.

“Okay….” She said softly. “You need to take it easy today Burty. I already spoke to your father about it, he says the same. You need to get some rest today,” She advised me. My ears lowered.

“Ehm, Mum?”

“Yes?”

“I have to go into town today, Walt needed me.”

“Oh no you are not!” She said, her voice remaining soft and quiet as worry set in. “You can’t go back out anywhere until we figured out who did this to you. If they could do this much damage to you in one night who knows what else they could do. We don’t know who this guy is or what he wants with you!” She stated. My tail tucked. One of those questions I knew the answer to, the other one- not so much. My stomach tightened when I realised I really didn’t know what Sir Rosco wanted with me… “I saw your tail tuck, you’re scared of that guy too,” She stated. My ears pinned back. I gave a long sigh, shutting out the thoughts of Sir Rosco.

“Mum, I’m 23, almost 24. I can handle myself, I don’t need you babying me,” I said, still trying to sound polite even as I was becoming frustrated.

“That doesn’t change the fact you’re my son,” her ears turned back. “I don’t want you getting hurt anymore!” I began growling quietly, my nose scrunching up with my ears sticking back tighter. I tried holding myself together and took in a deep breath. “...Seeing how beat up you got last night, it doesn’t seem like you really can handle yourself.” That remark hit a place it shouldn’t have.

“I can handle myself! If I was living all by myself by my lonesome and not being forced to stay here and work I would be absolutely fine! I am completely capable of handling the world, I’ll have you know! I’m not a child any more, you can’t keep treating me like I’m 13! I’m an adult!” I snapped. My mum went quiet. She was speechless as a melancholy hue formed in her eyes. She took her hand away and stepped back, entwining her hands together. The swift realisation of what I’d just done was like a jagged boulder maneuvered itself into the deepest pit of my abdomen.

“Wait.. Mum, I didn’t mean to snap like that,” I began to apologise worriedly, getting up from my seat slowly. That pit in my stomach was slowing me down.

“No, no, you’ve made your point Burton,” She sighed, looking away from me. “I’ll leave you alone.”

“Mum, honest! It just came out!”

“No, I shouldn’t bother you, you’re an adult,” She said, continuing to turn away. I frowned, not knowing what to say to her with my tail dropping between my legs. Good going, Burt, I sneered to myself internally

“Mum….” I started. I stopped myself. I had nothing else to say.

“Just go out, I’m not gonna stop you,” She said softly with her head low before walking out, her claws quietly clicking on the hardwood as she left.

I stood at the centre of the kitchen next to the wooden chair, my hand placed on it’s roughly carved back. My ears went back and my eyes looked down to the dark hardwood. I just sort of stood there for a moment. I didn’t want to think about it for too long, but the airy feeling in my stomach felt like it was going to be sticking around. I glanced around for a quick moment before going to clean up. I figured the least I could do after being a little shit was clean up for my mum. With dishes in the sink, I took one final look around the kitchen, glancing out to the horses once more before trotting outside in search of Marquis. A queasy feeling remained in the pit of my stomach as I meandered around the property. It felt like it was going to be one of those days where everyone I come across was going to be pissed at me, rightfully so. However, it didn’t mean I was looking forward to it.

I found Marquis out at the horse’s stables filling a cat bowl with one of the cats on his shoulders, a tiny brown and white tabby that he named Wheelbarrow. I took a deep breath and approached him with hands shoved in my pocket, his grey ear perking up as he stood up. He smiled brightly and waved at me, putting down the bag of cat food. Wheelbarrow hopped off his arm to go eat.

“Good morning, Burton, you doing good?” Mark asked with his tail held high, his ear relaxing. “I heard what happened last night,” He added, his ear lowering even more.

“Oh, yeah, I’m doing fine now, hah..” I said anxiously, putting my hand on the back of my neck.

“Are you both okay?” Mark asked, tilting his head. I nodded.

“As far as I know…” I mumbled. “Uh, where’d my dad go?” I asked in an attempt to make some small talk before smacking Mark in the face with the news.

“He just left, he was heading into town to talk to some officers or whatever about what happened last night,” Mark explained, putting his scarred hand to the pocket of his light coat, his other hand brushing back some wavy black hair from his forehead.

“Shit..” I said under my breath.

“What? Did you need him for something?”

“Oh.. you’re gonna kill me,” I braced myself, Mark’s expression of happy confusion turned to flat out confusion. “So, hah.. About last night… so, I know exactly who it was who beat me up-” I started, watching his confusion turned to curiosity. “Uhm… it was Sir Rosco.” His ear went back flat and his eye widened. He blinked.

“What,” He mouthed slowly. I swallowed hard on my saliva and nodded.

“Yep! Walt had to go meet the whole ass Prince of Deautschria!” I exclaimed tensley, balling my fists.

“You’ve gotta be shitting me.” I shook my head at him, and that pushing back of hair turned into a grip. “What the fuck,” Mark mouthed.

“If it can get any worse… I uh, I lost your wallet and coat,” I said.

“Fuck. Seriously?” I nodded. “Fuck,” He repeated, looking away from me. “My wallet, the thing that has my ID in it? The thing that shows I’m allowed to be in Deautschria as a Fenlish man?” I bit my lip and nodded.

“I’m really sorry, Marquis…” I said quietly. He shook his head.

“No, I’m not mad at you at all, but holy shit. We’ve got Winfred hiding here and first night here Sir Rosco Eberheardt has a direct link to me, I… I don’t know what to do!” Mark exclaimed, beginning to stamp his foot repeatedly. I looked at the ground and went quiet. I had nothing to say. I was going to say “Yeah we’re fucked,” but I think he knew that alreadt. I let him panic about it aloud while I panicked internally. The vision of Marquis and I being thrown into a jail cell was becoming increasingly clearer in my mind. As for Winfred, I could only imagine the worst punishments. I shuddered.

“Winfred and I have to leave today,” My friend said abruptly. That was not what I was anticipating; I thought we were both on the same go-to-jail page.

“What? For Britain?” I asked, perking up.

“Yes! We’ll head for Amsterdam. Winfred and I will travel through the north of Germany, get to the Netherlands, we’ll head towards France, and bam, we’re in Britain!” Mark said confidently, stopping in his tracks.

“Today?” I asked.

“We can’t stick around Burton, if they’ve already blocked off inter-empire postage, they’ve probably already started to protect empire borders,” Mark explained. My ears went down.

“But Mark, that’s… that’s insanely risky!” I said. He stopped. He was quiet for a moment.

“Actually…” He said under his breath. He looked at Robin in his stall, then looked to his burn-scarred hand. His ear went back, he looked stumped. Mark squinted.

“Marquis…?” I asked quietly, listening to his foot repeatedly stamp down onto the dirt covered floor.

“That’s a hard choice,” He mumbled to himself softly.

“Marquis.”

“Yes Burton,” Marquis replied, lifting his head to look at me.

“You’re not thinking about leaving us again, right?” I asked, unknowingly frowning while I grabbed my arm. He was quiet for a moment.

“Burt, I.. I gotta get Winfred home.”

“Mark, you’re the closest friend I have, you’re my best friend. You can’t just leave,” I reminded him. Mark let out a long sigh.

“I’m not trying to leave, I’m just trying to help Winfred,” He said with a disgruntled frown. “I can’t let him get hurt, I may have not seen him for years but he came all the way out here to do something for me, how could I just say ‘tough luck!’ and throw him under the bus,” he explained.

“You know Walt sees you as a brother,” I brought up.

“Burton.. Come on,” Mark said softly, his hand dropping to his side. “Can you please go tell Winfred we need to be prepared to go by noon?” My tail tucked. I tried to keep my ears forward.

“O-okay…” I said quietly before beginning to turn away.

“Thank you, I really appreciate it,” He said, giving me a smile, his crooked canines showing. I pursed my lips and nodded as I went on my way.

I found Winfred sleeping quietly on the couch in Mark’s house with two big blankets wrapped around him. It looked like he had gotten the chance to take a shower, his curly blond hair looking brighter and fluffier than it did before. He looked so happy and content sleeping that it was hard to make myself wake up the guy. I was anticipating him to be grumpy as most people are when you wake them up, but when he looked over at me he looked rather cheerful and all smiles. I noticed he had a new set of clothes on and he was quick to inform me that Marquis had lent them to him.. or “Ki” as Winfred was calling him. We had some small talk, finding out the mug on the table which I thought had coffee in it had hot chocolate in it… well, cold chocolate as proven by Winfred’s cringe when he tried it. He just seemed so happy, and I figured he’d be even more overjoyed when I told him he was going to be heading home. That was not the case. Winfred didn’t appear happy to go home- rather he seemed just as worried as I did, even a little disappointed and anxious. He was quick to try and play it off with a forced smile but his reaction had already said what it needed to say.

“Are you okay with that?” I had to ask. The red-bearded blond took a moment to look over the sketches scattered on the table before replying with a simple nod.

“Just wish I had more time to rest from being on my own for the past two months. I trust Marquis though, so it's not a big deal,” He told me with a nod, the tired showing under his amber eyes. I frowned. I recalled to myself on how Winfred had expressed how grateful he was to finally have some food and a place to sleep… it made me feel that pressing feeling in my chest. “Poor guy,” I thought to myself.

“It’d be a lot safer for you back in Britain though! Surely, I mean, it’d be less stressful!” I said, forcing a smile on my face. Winfred’s forced smile vanished, his ears lowering and he looked away. He gave me a small shrug before his tan ears went back.

“Yeh’ I’ll be alright…” He said softly in his low voice. “Just overthinking a wee bit, I’m so exhausted from the last month, I guess,” He explained. I nodded.

“I’m sorry… I couldn’t imagine how tired you are. Something happened last night and we don’t want to risk your safety,” I explained. He perked up.

“Oh, that’s why your lips is cut? Was everyone okay?” He asked urgently. I nodded.

“Yeah, yeah, everyones totally fine, don’t worry about that at all,” I quickly brushed it off in hopes of not embarrassing myself anymore.

“Well that’s good at least,” Winfred mumbled, returning to his slouch. There was an awkward silence between us for a moment besides the quiet ticks of a broken clock in Marquis’s kitchen. It never showed the right time, ever. It was inconsistent in it’s keeping of time, one day it’d be a few hours ahead, others it’d be an odd number of minutes ahead. Yet somehow Marquis knew how to read it. “Uhm, wait. Marquis is coming to Britain?” Winfred interrupted the silence, jolting up once more with his already bright amber eyes gleaming brighter than before. My response was instant.

“He’s only taking you halfway.”

“Oh…” Winfred said somberly before hanging his head again. It didn’t take a genius to realise I had acted like quite an ass right there.

“But… yeah, he looks like he’s got it all planned out already,” I said quietly. “I think he’s getting everything ready, he said he wants to leave by noon.”

“Oh- wow, that’s soon,” Winfred gawked.

“Yup… Mark is rather ambitious with this. He wants to get you home as quickly and as safely as possible,” I explained.

“Does he need help getting ready?” He asked, tapping his thumb against his lap.

“I’m sure he’d appreciate it, but you should lay low and maybe snag a quick nap before you gotta leave, aye?” I asked him, shifting the weight on my gravel blistered paws. “I can make you some breakfast if you’d like,” I offered with a smile. I saw a small grin peak through his messy beard.

“That’d be lovely, thank you,” He said, looking back up to me.

“Fantastic, and, by the way, if you want something so you can shave I can run up to the house real quick,” I offered, beginning the short walk to the kitchen I’d left a mess the night before.

“Oh, no, I’m very proud of myself with this,” He said, getting to his feet and following me, a hand on his chin. “Didn’t even know I could grow one until suddenly, bam! A beard. I’m keeping it,” He explained proudly. Now that he was standing next to me I could tell he had to be a good few centimeters taller than me, I had to look up a little to make eye contact and the mane of hair atop his head added some height.

“I’m just suggesting you try to tame it a little,” I shrugged.

“Is that a thing you’re supposed to do?” I gave him a nod as I started scavenging for food. “Well, looks like I need to learn some things.”

“Too bad you’ll have to wait till you get home for that, Mark knows nothing about it,” I said with a little smirk.

“Huh,” Winfred said, putting his hands on his hips.

Winfred was like my shadow the whole time I was trying to make breakfast for him. I didn’t mind it all that much, we had some pleasant small talk which was a welcomed change from everyone yelling at me. Winfred was no longer all jittery and rambly like he was the night before. Not to say he didn’t ramble, but now it was significantly easier to follow and frankly, I quite enjoyed listening to him. I enjoyed listening over speaking, it was nice to just smile and nod while I cooked as Winfred went over mundane things like all sorts of pets he wanted to have, or how he twisted his ankle when he was seven, and his especially long rant on where he wanted to live when he was older. Did I take it all in? No. Though I think he enjoyed the fact that I was there to listen.

I left him be once I’d finished making him a simple plate of breakfast, informing him of the homemade jam Mark had in his refrigerator that my mum always made for him. He thanked me for making him breakfast and letting me stay the night, expressing his gratitude for me having to deal with him. I told him it wasn’t a big deal, told him I enjoyed meeting him, and went on my way in hopes he’d take my advice and go for a quick nap. While I was pulling shut the big sliding barn doors that I knew Mark had no problem with, but my spindly self always had some difficulty closing, I began to feel uneasy. Instead of getting in my head I found something to distract myself for the time being. I headed into Marquis’s back garden where we kept Winfred’s horse, who I had found out was named Ginger through Winfred’s stories, to clean her up for him.

The pinto mare had a makeshift three-hoof hobble on and was quietly grazing with an old head collar on her head with a name of a childhood pony engraved in the leather. Ginger was an awkwardly built horse, I figured she had to be some sort of odd grade. She had a long ewe neck and a clunky roman nose, big feet with odd leg conformation, with an awkwardly thin barrel and high set tail and big ears. I couldn’t think of the kind of mix you’d need to throw together such an atrociously built horse, but I could at least admire her colours. Even if Ginger looked like the result of mixing a giraffe with a donkey, she had this lovely rich flaxen chestnut coat with prominent white tobiano markings to die for. It was rare to find any sort of pinto horses where I lived, well… perhaps it was more so in my family. My mum adored her fancy warmbloods and so did my dad, I’m sure if they saw this cluster of a horse they’d be appalled. Though I thought she was cute, she fit her rider quite well. I imagined Winfred probably picked her up for cheap from a slaughterhouse.

I spent a good while cleaning her up, keeping my mind off the current situation. I took her off her hobble at some point and threw on Winfred’s tack to give her a quick ride out of sheer curiosity. She wasn’t a smooth ride at all, unresponsive and jumpy, with an uneven gait. I had become so accustomed to the weird horse in the last hour that I’d forgotten how a well bred horse looked when Mark and his world-class stud trotted down the gravel road with saddlebags a’plenty. He spotted me and turned Robin my way and trotted over, casually hopping over a small ditch on his way over while I tried to halt Ginger square. He greeted me happily as he halted Robin besides me, happy to see I had already gotten Ginger all set up. Rather than feeling excited like him, my ears pinned back and my uneasiness returned and filled my stomach. He seemed set on leaving right that instance. Thankfully, I managed to bring his ambitious head back to the real world and out of the clouds.

“Give Winfred some more time to rest up. He’s a big guy I imagine he needs some lunch before heading out,” I told Mark.

“Already packed lunch. We can still get moving and take a break!” Mark insisted, lighting back up with anticipation.

“No, no. Mark, you can’t just stop to eat out in the open!” I told him. “They’ve already got a description of Winfred out there… the neighbours would be on the lookout.”

“Nothing a quick distraction can’t handle,” He beamed.

“Oh come on. You don’t think the poor guy wants to sleep more?” I asked.

“I think we’ll be fine, all he needs to do is sit on his horse and I can pony her along. He can figure out a way to take nap astride his mare!” It looked like nothing was going to get through his headstrong skull. Though his positivity eased some of my worryful …but rational… doubts. It was only so long before he flew his hopeful mind right back to the clouds. I already eased him down once but he was back up. He knew what he wanted to do and he knew how to do it. I had to think about it for a moment before sighing and popping off of Ginger and doing up her stirrups.

“Marquis, I trust your judgement but I want to make sure you know what you’re biting off. I don’t want to discourage you because I trust you, you’re my best friend, but I think for Winny’s sake maybe give him an extra hour of sleep, it’ll make sure he’s just as bright and confident as you are about this,” I asked of him, letting my ears relax to the side. His ear lowered and his eye looked over Robin’s grey and white mane. He nodded.

“Okay, Bee, you make a good argument. I could use some refreshing on my aim,” He nodded to himself, his small smile returning, referring to me with one of his many affectionate nicknames for me.

It was only less than an hours time however, before Winfred walked himself outside fresh as he could’ve been with some of the sleep from his eyes having left. Meanwhile, I had been keeping Mark company as he practiced his already immaculate marksmanship. That of which he insisted wasn’t anything extravagant with majority of arrows released hitting dead centre of withered and rotting hand-painted wood targets he had amongst his back garden. It was an aim to kill. Whether it was how he weighted his arrows or the magic Moulin touch- his shots were accurate and deep. Yet he insisted it wasn’t good enough. There wasn’t anyway to convince him otherwise. “It wouldn’t be accurate enough for far range,” He would insist with arrows heads grazed up against one another. Although… being reminded of my best friend’s archery skills made some of my worry diminish. He could defend himself surely. I’d seen Mark get in street scraps and bar fights and I knew he knew his way with a fist and could pack and take a punch.

Mark gave Winfred a few example shots on request. The tall and rugged blond looked delighted to see Marquis had kept up his marksmanship. Though the excitement of flying arrows was over when it was time for the two Brits to pack up the bows and hope on their rides.

The air gained a crispy chill that made me purse my lips to avoid getting chapped. A white overcast loomed over us, yet everything was still bright and welcoming in the Autumn air. I shoved my hands into the pockets of my trousers with ears lowered back to avoid the cold breeze entering, yet it didn’t do much to protect the long white tufts in my ears to be flicked around. Shuffling through rain moistened leaves and dead weeds and I went up to the two high on their steeds, Mark and Robin covered in supplies with Winny packing nothing more than a backpack as he walked to his chestnut pinto mare.

“You guys finally heading out?” I asked softly, my head tilting to the side with my ears held low.

“Yep, think it’s about time I get this guy home,” Mark said with a smile, patting Winfred’s back and gesturing him to get on his mare. I sighed. Mark walked up to me, holding Robin's reins and opened his arms for a hug. I forced a smile onto my face and opening my arms wide before securely wrapping them around my friend. When he put his arms around me tight he held me a bit more secure. I put my head on his shoulders as we remained in a tight embrace.

“Hey, Mark, be safe mate,” I told him quietly.

“Same goes for you, Burt,” He said and gave me a squeeze. “Don’t do anything dumb, I’ll miss ya” He told me, rubbing my back.

“I’ll miss you too, Marquis,” I said with a small purr before we pulled away.

“Please watch Walt for me, make them stay here while I’m gone. I don’t want them getting hurt or in trouble while I’m gone,” Mark instructed me, keeping his hand on my shoulder. I nodded.

“I’ll try my best to keep them in line,” I joked with a light chuckle.

“Same goes for you, don’t get hurt or anything while I’m gone, no losing limbs,” He joked with his bright smile and tail shuddering.

“Already failed at the losing limbs part,” I teased. He snickered and shook his head, patting my shoulder.

“Right, I gotta quit stalling and get on this mad man,” He said, jerking his head towards Robin as the stallion looked about with eyes wide.

“See you again soon?” I asked. He nodded, backing up Robin so he could hop on.

“Of course. Take it easy while I’m gone, mate,” He advised me with a sweet smile before he stuck his foot in his irons and swung himself onto Robin. I gave him a nod before looking down to my feet to conceal a frown. “Be safe,” He ended with and the two Fenlish men were on their way, trotting their steeds down the gravel driveway under orange and red leaves, snapping twigs under their hooves. I waited till the shuffling of hooves on gravel was nothing more than I whisper in my ears.

⇠ Previous Chapter

Next Chapter ⇢