"So, this was your grand plan? " Arron was saying to a Russell squatting on the ground, "to look so Pitiful that people start giving you alms?"

If Russell could produce fire from his eyes, Arron would've been turned to ashes where he stood.

Russell crumbled the bits of paper he held in both hands. They had numbers from one to thirty written on them, every number twice.

The plan was to arrange a lottery, selling every ticket(the bits of papers) for One Stone Tile. That means thirty Stones for one rabbit skin; a steal.

In the capital this would've been a really good plan. Because there are a lot of people in the capital who could do nothing particularly productive, or had lots of free time and money. Russell saw many of the older boys make a good fortune out of it. Like, minister level good fortune.

Only one problem.

This was a trade town.

People here were mostly traveling merchants and carriages carrying good to and from the capital. They did not have time to chat in bars, much less participate in lotteries.

Arron took a page from Russell's notebook, scribbled something on it with the piece of charcoal, and stood in front of the crowd with it in his hand. People passing by seemed to read it with interest. Two of them threw coins at them. Russell didn't want to read what was on the paper.

"Oi, how's it go..." Vivi's words stopped flowing. She was to their left. The princess was a few steps behind her. She looked to their direction and made a sound that sounded suspiciously like stifled laughter.

Vivi was frowning, like she was reading something. It slowly morphed into a smile, wide enough to reach her ears.
She looked at Arron and said, "Well, now you officially have my respect."

If somebody gained Vivi's respect, it was concerning news. Russell stood up and snatched the paper from Arron's hands. It read,

"My cousin is mentally Retarded. We are lost and hungry. Help us by sparing Some change."

Russell's expression must've been something 'cause Vivi pretty much rolled on the ground laughing. Russell wanted to shove that piece of paper into Arron's mouth.

"At least we got some money," Russell grumbled, "All you got is.."

"Sixteen stones," the princess interrupted.

"What?"

"All we got is sixteen stones." The princess was holding up a cloth pouch.

Russell blubbered, "How did you..."

"I had the maids teach me, back at the palace," Elli jingled the pouch, "Turns out, these merchants are quite superstitious. If you dangle a necklace in front of them and say it's a good luck charm, they'll take it for two stones."

Then a tiny, red fire slithered around her fingers, "And the fireworks helped."

"Wow, a three stones coin! Someone was feeling generous today!" Vivi had picked up one of the two coins that were lying on the ground near their feet. She picked up another. "One and three makes four. Congratulations, you managed to trade your dignity for a quarter of what we made." She said, clearly to add salt to his wound.

"That makes a total of twenty.", Elli was counting, "and each bread is five stones. So that means four of us would get one bread each."

"Is it lunch time yet?" Arron asked dubiously.

"I think so," Russell was trying to make a comeback ass the apt one,"I mean, I don't seem to have a shadow, so it means mid noon, doesn't it?"

"Mid noon and no sign of this Warden guy." The princess reminded, "I don't understand. If we're so important, why doesn't he come and find us? Why do we have to look for him?"

"Maybe he's not in town?" Arron peeked in the conversation.

Russell thought about it. But it didn't make any sense. If this Warden guy wasn't in town, why would Laa drop them off near it?

"Anyways, since Russell contributed so much to the stock," Vivi was changing the subject to her own favor, "Maybe he should the honor of going and buying the bread."

Nobody objected, neither did they volunteered. Elli put the two coins in the pouch and handed it to Russell.

"Flowers, sunshine, bloody axe!",Russell mumbled some meaningless words in a low voice, just to show that he was grumbling, and took off .

The bakery wasn't hard to find. Russell just followed his nose and soon enough, he was standing in front of a wooden shop house. The breads were on display behind a transparent glass at the front, showing off to lure in hungry customers. The place was drowning in the smell of freshly baked bread, over Caesin. The hearth of the fire inside could be felt from in front of the shop. Russell found himself looking expectantly at the exotic Casein or berry jam breads at the display, full knowing that he couldn't afford it. He walked into the shop.

When he first crossed the door, the first thing he noticed was how the inside was less crowded than outside. Probably because most of the people outside were just there to watch the breads, not buy any.

The inner walls of the shop were colored bright yellow. The floor was wooden, but if it creaked when Russell walked, it couldn't be heard over the crowd noise.

There were all kinds of people here; not all human. Russell thought he spotted an elf near the counter.

Russell walked to the counter. And yes, the person behind the counter was indeed, an elf, pointy ears and chalk white skin and everything. He paced back and forth with breads and cakes, serving customers; agile as elves are.

The elf scowled at Russell, clearly not expecting Russell to have enough money for anything at all. Suddenly Russell wanted to see the expression on that face when it the sees his coins. Vivi's attitude is strangely contagious.

But first, the dramatics.

Russell held his breath, trying to make his chest look bigger. He raised his head unnecessarily high, standing on his toes to height to his lanky five foot six body stature. His hands banged on the wooden table so hard it sealed a jolt of pain into his palm. He looked up.

A head above him, the elf's face was stuck in an annoyed frown that said I don't get paid nearly enough for this.

Russell reached behind him and pulled out pouch of coins. He dangled it for two solid seconds before letting it drop on the counter table.

"Four breads," he said in a voice too obviously deepened by attempt, "plain."

The elf sighed and said something in a low voice; probably cursing in elvish. He reached down and pulled four breads one after another. They had a golden brown crust. It cracked and crunched audibly as his white slender hands grabbed them.

Soon Russell had a paper bag with four breads in it in front of him.

Russell's toes hurt. As he turned around he switched to his heels.
Something soft touched his feet.

Russell almost jumped backwards into the counter. But he managed to restrain himself at the last moment and looked down, lifting his feet.

Sitting crouched on the wooden floor was a girl; about his age, could be younger. She was wearing what looked like a jute bag with sleeves and a collar cut out. She had sun burned and dirty skin; white cotton-like hair ran down the length of her back. The strands of hair were knitted together among themselves. She was reaching down to a piece of bread.

So, there are ones like us here too, huh?

Then he saw her ears.

And the tail.

And the collar.

Where a human would have ears there was bare skin. The ears further up, under her hair. They were like a dog's. Right now they were standing in attention.

And there was big, furry, white tail sticking out of her back.

Lycanthrope.

A leather collar and leash was attached to her neck. The leash ascended upwards to the hand of a man in front of the counter.

As Russell moved the Lycan girl looked up. Her pupils were light pink. Left eye looked like somebody had punched it. The lower lip was torn. Her expression was unreadable. The tail went still.

Then it gave a wave andShe looked back down to reach for the bread.

Now Russell isn't a particularly kind person, neither does he treat girls any different from boys. But if he sees somebody eating stuff from the floor and there is something he can do about it, he, even if it's reluctantly, would do something about it.

Why?

Well, why not?

Russell broke off a piece of bread and held it in front of her face. She looked up, confusion in her pink eyes. Her tail went for the sky.

"Take it." Russell said, without knowing whether she understands human language or not.

Appearently she did. The tail went back down and She reached up and took the bread. She sniffed it twice and took a bite. It definitely tasted better than whatever she had been eating for awhile because her face lit up with delight.

Only for a moment though.

She almost choked as the man holding her leash pulled on it. She Yelped and fell backwards on her tail. But the man didn't cease pulling. The Lycan girl scrambled to her feet and ran to follow up with him. Soon they were out of sight in the crowd.

Russell sighed. If it were Vivi, she probably would've walked up to the man, beat him senseless, freed the girl and looked glorious while doing it; Elli and Arron were probably the same.

But Russell wasn't. As much as he wanted to, he wasn't the sort to go in punching.

He wasn't that brave.

A pang of resentment stung him. He thought about following them. But it was in vain. They were already lost. Sometimes opportunity to show kindness only lasts for a moment.

The outside air felt cool as Russell stepped out of the heat of the bakery. The sun was still shining brightly overhead. He navigated through the streets and found the place where everybody was standing.

Russell stopped in his track when he saw the person who was talking to Elli.

Now it was mid noon. The place was incredibly hot. Russell hadn't drunk water in a while and he was sweating profusely.

So might have been seeing things.

Protruding from the man's back, coloured brown with strikes of silver, almost the same height as the man even when folded, were a large pair of wings.