Rise of the Darekian's, The Read Online Free PDF

round eyes following him down the road.
    Finally entering back in through the city gates and up the main street, now starting to fill with traders and the customers to whom they shouted their w ares. Luken heard a man yelling, and then a small child ran in front of their horses, "Gotcha you little brat, I'll have you flogged" a rather large balding man shouted as he shook the child in question. Noticing the Captain the man turned to him, "You guard. I want this brat arrested, for stealing..." Luken became enraged, "Sir you will stop man handling that little girl, now!" he shouted, behaving completely out of character. "Oh and who might you be you pompous little youth..." the man was cut off again as the Captain of the guard drew his sword."You sir, are speaking to Prince Luken, son of King Sethin, and if you so much as open your mouth again I will run you through here and now." The man's face drained of colour, realising how costly his words could prove to be, so he quickly dropped to his knees, "begging your pardon your highness, please forgive me" he begged pathetically to the sneers of the gathering crowd.
    Luken was not a man of violence and nodded to his captain , who replaced his sword in its scabbard, "now tell me why a grown man is chasing a little girl, and manhandling her in the street", he asked. "I'm a boy," said the child, in a small quiet voice. With long scraggly dirty hair, and filthy ragged clothes it was difficult to tell what the child was. Having long hair, Luken had assumed incorrectly it being a girl.
    Dismounting from his horse, he walked over to the child, and kneeling down to its level "please my young friend accept my apologies, now perhaps you can tell me why this man seems intent on doing you harm?" Flicking the dirty hair off his face , the boy slowly held out his grubby little hand, which contained a small bread roll. Standing back up, Luken turned to the still grovelling man, "you chased a child for a bread roll?" the man stuttered, "he stole it" he eventually plucked up the courage to blurt out, "it was on the floor" the boy shouted back, "on the floor or not it is still mine and you stole it."
    Luken sighed, "stand up" he ordered the man, who obliged though kept his head dipped slightly, "You are a baker I take it, and think yourself a reputable man?" he asked. Nodding "yes your highness, I only sell the finest quality products" the man replied, "so" Luken added turning to face those gathering, "you would have picked up this roll off the dirty floor and sold it to one of your customers?" A few laughs came from the surrounding crowd, "ah no your highness I would not," now Luken finished up, "so why do you chase a poor innocent child half way around the city, and frighten the life out of him for a bread roll you would only have thrown in the waste? Now I suggest you leave this poor boy and go about your business, and if I ever, ever" he emphasised the word once more," see you manhandling a child again, I will personally see you suffer the most severe of my father's punishments. Understand?" The man nodded, and without any further hesitation he quickly darted through the crowd and off up the street, to the sound of more jeers.
    The captain started dispersing the people, "come on, nothing to see now, go about your business" he shouted. Luken knelt back to the young bo y who still held the bread roll. Looking more closely he could see the boy wore no shoes, and looked very emaciated, "so my friend what is your name?" "Taylor," was the boy's reply, "well Taylor where do you live? Are your mother and father around here?" The small boy, who he guessed by the size of him could be little more than six maybe seven years old, shook his head, "I don’t have a mother, and my father left me outside a shop a long time ago and never came back for me. I guess he did not want me anymore." The dirty and tear stained face, of a pitiful, poor existence stood before him, and he felt the need to do something about