The butcher's would be an interesting experience, he thought. He had hunted boars with peers. His swordsmanship was practiced and perfected. He had never cut them apart though. That was servant's work. How hard could it be to carve swine though?

"I'll accept work at the butcher's," Aidan responded, feeling confident that he was capable.

At the bar, he observed the woman after making the same request as Theodore.

It was about ten minutes and the woman brought them both their breakfasts. On toasted bread was an egg with fried boar on top and other toasted bread on top. Theo thanked the woman with a bright smile, sifting through his pocket as she stated what they owed and waited for their payment--he had planned on paying for them both. "Well then, after we eat we can go talk to the butcher and get you a job."

Aidan produced the coins requested, laying them on the woman's hand. "Thank you," he said before beginning to eat.

"Will you be coming to get me after work?" he asked with a smile. "I might get lost," he added with a wink.

Theo squeaked when Aidan beat him to paying, letting his coins go in his pocket once more and he moved to eat. "Mnph?" He swallowed, blinking a few times at the man. "Well... If it's not dark out." He replied with a chuckle, taking another bite. "Or we'll both be lost!"

Finishing a bite, he smiled. "That's true." Curiosity kept him from keeping his questions silent.

"Have you always...had a limiting sense of sight?"

"Ah... yes. My mother and I have a condition called albinism." Which explained their pale hair and skin and slightly purple eyes. He was lucky he could go in the sun--his mother couldn't. "It won't be too long before I lose my sight." He sighed out, taking another bite of his breakfast before a drink of milk.

Aidan stared at him in disbelief. Besides the blind seer at Caer Elise, he hadn't met anyone else who lacked sight before meeting this family. "There...there is no cure?"

At least the seer could "see" in a sense, he thought.

Carefully, he reached over and brushed off a crumb from Theodore's cheek. "I'm so...sorry to hear that."

"No... No cure." He murmured, licking his lips of some of the egg yoke. "I've come to terms with it... Mother lost her sight when she was 16, my brother Sloane is the only one of us she's ever seen. I'm.. only a few months from being 16 now, so I know it's coming soon." He replied, gasping a little in surprise at the gentle touch.

"Please.. don't feel sorry for me. I'm still alive and that's what matters." He said with that sweet smile, hardly phased by the conversation now.

Aidan pushed the emptied plate aside. He nodded slowly. Surely there must be something to be done?

He leaned on his folded arms. "Just a few months? Then I bet you'll want to use the time you have left wisely, hm?" Drinking the milk, he considered the possibility of how much could be accomplished in a few months.

"What do you wish to see to be content that you've seen everything there is to see?"

"Anything.. everything. There's so much beyond these city walls... too much for just a few months." He replied, finishing his breakfast with a gentle sigh. "A place like Caer Elise."

Aidan propped his head up and stared at Theodore's eyes. Just a few months...

As much as he wanted to close off his mind and heart to Caer Elise, he could understand anyone's fascination if they had not been born and bred within its confines.

"I could take you there," he offered in all seriousness.

Those murky eyes were wide a moment and he looked at Aidan with utter surprise. "Would you really?" He could feel the tears welling at the corners of his eyes and he quickly looked away as they fell. No one had ever offered to take him somewhere before--Aidan was so kind to him, like his brothers were sometimes. He didn't understand it since the man had only met him the day before.

Aidan chuckled softly. "Don't cry..." His hand brushed away the tears he noticed sliding down his soft cheeks.

"It's a little spontaneous. I don't know if your parents will agree. But...I think you should live your life so you don't have any regrets." He looked at the table, arms folded again. "That's what I'm trying to do now."

"I.... I'll.. we'll have to wait until my brothers come back.. I can't leave my mother alone.. Father doesn't have time to get food and help with dinner." He could ask someone to stay behind from the fields before he left--he knew one brother who would for sure.

Aidan rose from his seat, satisfied from the meal.

"Of course." He adjusted his sleeves. "To the butcher's?" He waited for him to lead the way.

"Ah, yes.." Theo rubbed the rest of his tears away, getting up and waving a fond goodbye to the keep before heading out across to the butcher's shop with Aidan.

"Alex!" He called, waiting out front just inside the building--he couldn't stand the sight of blood much so he didn't dare go back. "I have a man who wants to work for you!"

A man who looked much like his father came from the back, raising his brow at them. "...Yes, yes. I suppose he'll do. Come back son and get an apron. I'm going to assume you've never done this before, so I better show you what to do." He said, waving for him to come back.

"Aidan.. I'll come back later to walk back with you." Theo said, smiling up at him. "I'm going to go back and see if mother needs anything today."

Aidan sent a wave and thanks Theodore. Grabbing an apron, he paused, trying to figure out how to don it before heading to the back.

Not even five steps into the room he splashed into a puddle. His eyes were sent down and over the blood that splattered onto his pant leg. The gaping head of a hog smiled back at him.

"Careful," Alex said with a chuckle.

Theo left to head back home, quite happy to have gotten Aidan a job so quickly and eager for the trip ahead of him. He hoped his parents would let him leave--he was an adult after all--more or less.

As he was walking down the road back towards home when he heard something ahead. His mother--she shrieked and he started running. At his home there were men--maybe a dozen and he could hear his mother's cries for help.

His heart raced as he ran into the building--not thinking anymore, just running. He had to save his mother, that was all he knew. Who were these people? How'd they get into the city? Theodore ran through the old house and tried to jump one man, tear at him, trying to get him away from his mother.

The fight persisted for another hour before Theo's weak body was too tired to fight with the men anymore, finding himself held back by a few of them and he could see them dragging his mother outside. "NOO!! Stop! You'll kill her, please don't!!" He screamed, recieving another blow to the face, a gush of blood falling from his pale face. He coughed, struggling until he was slammed down to the floor with a sickening thud--it hurt so bad, all of him did and now he was bleeding from the crown of his head.

He couldn't do anything though, stuck now under a man's body and all he could do was watch as they dragged her out into the sun, sobbing.

Theo tried to get up again, his head slammed down once more and he just laid there until the men retreated. The albino youth scrambled up to try and go after them, but as soon as he got outside he discovered they'd just... disappeared--like they'd never been there.

His next priority was his mother, and he ran to find her in the tall grass behind the house, nearly stumlbing onto her. She was gone, and his hands clutched at her dress before mustering the strength to carefully drag her back inside, having to leave her in the back corridor before stumbling away--he had to get someone--his father was too far away, but Aidan... he was feeling dizzy, faint, stumbling down the road in an unsteady run. He made it through the market before being noticed, collapsing about 100 feet from the shop and that's when the commotion started.

Alex stopped what he was doing with Aidan in training when he heard the commotion outside, putting his blade down and wiping his hands off as he started out quickly. "Come on, Aidan. Something's going on." Outside people had congregated around Theo, who'd collapsed in a bloody mess, panting and barely conscious.

"...A-Aidan.." He gasped out, swallowing a bit more blood in is mouth.

Rushing out, blood still smeared along his hands and arms, Aidan caught sight of red and a faint shade of blond in the cracks of the crowd. His stomach dropped, something it had failed to do in the hours previously. Shoving past the onlookers he managed to get into the center of their attention and dropped down quickly to his knees.

"Theo!" Aidan waved his arms to the congregation. "Give him room!" he shouted, hoping they'd stop leaning in and closing him in their curious ring.

Taking him into his arms carefully, Aidan stood. He'd need to dress those wounds immediately. Nothing he hasn't done before during his training.

"You'll be okay," he whispered, carrying him to an inn. "Just don't strain yourself."

He paid the fee for a room and set him down on the bed. Aidan requested fresh water, washed up, and began the process of tending to Theodore's wounds. Ripping off the rolled up sleeves to his shirt, he dressed them.

What had happened? he wondered. Concern clouded his mind.

Theodore gasped in pain as he was lifted up, opening his pale eyes to look at the man, tears falling down his face through the blood. "A-ai..dan.." He breathed, coughing.

He couldn't muster anything more as he was laid down on the bed, feeling his mind fade in and out, trying to keep conscious after those blows to the head. As he was being bandaged, his weak voice started again, eyes closed and he spoke. "M-mother.. oh god... mo..mother.."

Aidan paused when he heard Theodore murmur, "Mother." He rose to his feet. Something must have occurred back at the house...

"I'll be right back," he said softly.

Out the door he ran, going to Alex. He quickly requested that he watch over Theo for him before dashing through the crowded streets of the city to the house.

"Colleen!"

The disarray of the house frightened him. He shouted out for her again. Catching sight of her dress, he hurried, dropping down beside her. He checked her vital stats. Time was of the essence...

Colleen was barely holding on, now that she was out of the sun she'd started to regain her strength, but she was on the brink of death and there wasn't anything they could do but let her rest.

While the man was away, Theo struggled to get up, holding his head with a groan. It hurt so much, he was still bleeding. He tried to stand, gasping as his legs gave out and he tumbled to the floor with a heavy thud and into a coughing fit, spitting up more blood. "Nhg.."

Aidan grew worried about Theodore. He was uncertain how badly his wounds were. And the blood that kept spilling from his lips...Not a good sign.

He made sure Colleen was laying comfortably before he rose and hurried out to return to the inn. He hoped he was well enough to carry swiftly back to the house.

Climbing up, he reached the room. Aidan gasped at the sprawled figure on the ground. "Theodore!"

Theodore was barely awake, eyes fluttering open at hearing his name and he tried so hard to get up as he saw Aidan. "Ai.. Aidan... M-mother.. i-is shee...?" He started coughing once again, holding his chest a bit with one hand and his head with the other, his face and side swollen with bruises and cuts. "H-help her.." He choked out, collapsing to the floor as he passed out from blood loss and exhaustion.

Looking him over, he decided he wasn't fit enough for the rough journey back to the house. He picked him up and laid him down gently on the bed. Wiping away the blood, Aidan grew concerned.

Theodore will wake up again, right?

"You're in this condition...and you're still worried about another..." he whispered, touched by the love Theodore felt for his mother.

He sat by his bedside, watching him throughout the day and night.