Chapter 2: Chapter 2: New Friends
Tom
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They had met up with Antok who had buckets of paint with him.
"Wait what are we doing with this?" Tom asked.
"This is for us to throw on a house. We are going to prank Axel by throwing paint on his house!" Billy said with an overdramatic evil laugh.
"Who is Axel? isn't it a bit mean-"
"He's a friend of ours. He takes himself too seriously hence why we like screwing with him" Antok said giving him a paint bucket.
He wasn't sure about this but he went along with the boys.
They went to a nice house. Not a mansion but it's not a poor house either. The boys began to throw paint at the house, giggling filling the air and Tom as he threw the paint as well found himself also laughigh.
This whole this is so absurd, he had never done something like this before.
Suddenly the door opened and a boy with a bennie came out of the house "What the f-"
It was too late Tom didn't mean to but as the boy had come out he had been throwing paint at the door and the yellow paint landed on who he guessed was Axel's face.
The other two boys dropped to the floor laughing.
Cleaning his eyes so that he could see, he looked at all of them.
"You are going to pay for this!" Axel yelled.
"RUN!" Antok said in between laughs.
The 3 boys split and Axel decided to go after Tom.
He was quickly surprised by how quick the boy was despite his height, he wasn't his height but wasn't as short as Billy wasn't as tall as Antok either.
He found himself tripping and Axel was on him.
"You little prick who are you? did the other two rope you into this?"
"Um- Hi, I'm Tom. New here-"
"Of course you are. I know everyone in this city and I haven't seen you before" Axel slapped his paint-covered hand on Tom's forehead.
"That's for painting my house!"
Billy suddenly appeared and with a cheeky smile, he called out "OUUU AXEEEL are you going to catch me or not? you too slow so you decided to go after the slowest one?"
"You" Axel hissed.
"Hey!" Tom said offended. Billy indirectly called him slow.
"HALT, My the order of guards you remain where you are" Guards, soldiers wearing silver armour pointed their weapons at them.
"Aw man," Billy said putting his hands up.
They apprehended both Billy and Tom. Antok was nowhere to be found and Axel followed them with a smug face.
They headed to the black castle.
They passed the throne room and they were rushed into a grand office.
A large leather seat was facing away from them and the man was looking out the window.
The 3 boys, Billy, Axel and Tom stood in silence in front of his desk. Billy looked a bit nervous.
"Son, why do you continue to bring me shame?" The chain turned towards them and Tom was met by a man who had red eyes, a goatee, black hair and large horns that curled behind his ears and extended outwards.
The man sure looked intimidating but his eyes were only fixated on Bily-
'Wait did he say son?' Tom thought in shock.
"I'm sorry I just wanted-"
"Zip it!" The man slapped his hand on the table making Tom and Billy flinch and Axel stood with his arms crossed the smug face hadn't left him.
"Sir they should really be punished there are yellow footprints all over the Cobbel roads!" Axel said.
"You will have to do double the training for this little stunt you made. Were you with that fox street rat when you did this?" The King asked.
"No," Billy said.
"Yes," Axel said.
Both Billy and Axel answered at the same time. Billy shot a glare at Axel.
"And now you are lying to me. I told you to no longer meet that low life of a fox. Every day it's a new disappointment! Billy, you are the one to inherit this city! What will the people think every time they see the heir running around like a lunatic?"
Billy pursed his lips and looked to the ground.
"And who is this? another street kid?"
"This is Tom, He's a traveller. He arrived just yesterday"
The man's attention was on him now and he felt the hairs on his back stand.
"Quite the blue eyes you have.....and blonde hair that can be strands of gold....Where are you from?"
"Um I never had a home, I'm an orphaned and have been travelling all my life"
"What brings you to this city?"
"I heard that there is a large human population here. I wanted to come here and be with people that look more like me"
"Well, you definitely chose the right place here even the hybrids look more human than whatever we are supposed to be. We come from a lineage of Goat Hybrids, the farther we go back in time the more you will find my ancestors being more anthropomorphic animals. Now all we have left are the horns."
He clears his throat.
"Well, where are you staying?" The king asked.
"With Billy"
"Oh right! Can you believe he had the keys to the Crow man's home?" Billy pipped up.
Tom felt his heart drop when the King narrowed his eyes at him.
"I met him in my travels, he gave me food, water and his key to his home" Tom answered before he could ask.
The king did not look like he bought that story at all.
"And the key?"
"It's under the welcome mat in front of the door"
"There hasn't been a sighting of him in 16 years. Where around did you meet him?" He pulls out a map and Tom quickly points a direction opposite from his home.
"We will send some troops to scout that area. Now as for you Billy Take him to his proper room and not whatever he calls home that's at the side of the castle"
Soldiers came and took a pouting Billy.
"Will you be causing me future troubles, Tom?"
Tom shook his head "I won't. I promise"
The King nodded "You will be required to join one expedition with my soldiers as punishment. If you survive it you are free to come back to the city. I will send Axel to pick you up tomorrow morning. You will be at Billy's....fishbowl of a house?"
Tom nodded "Yes"
"Good. Leave"
Tom left leaving Axel behind.
He was making his way back to Billy's house when he heard "Psss"
He looked at the bush and saw that Antok was hiding in it.
"You dumbass you were supposed to run, not get caught!" Antok whispered.
"You got me into this mess!"
"Well not really, it was Billy's idea. I just supplied him with the paint. Where is Billy?"
Tom looked at the black castle.
"Oooh so his dad was mad then. What about you? What's your punishment?"
"could we go to Billy's house? I don't want to stand here and talk to a bush" Tom said with a frown.
"Besides I have to get this yellow paint off" Tom added.
Antok jumped out of the Bush and he was still covered in yellow paint as well but he was wearing a cloak to cover himself.
"Great Idea, let's take a bath together"
They made their way to Billy's place and they quickly went into Billy's bathroom. His bathroom is large and rather than a tub he has a mini pool with seats to bathe in.
As both boys began to strip, Tom froze.
Antok's whole back was covered in black feathers.
"Uh...Antok...You are a fox Hybrid right?"
Antok nodded as he turned around to face Tom.
"Yeah, why?"
"You have feathers on your back?"
Antok rubbed the back of his neck "Yeaaah you see my mother was a prostitute and she slept with a lot of people. She isn't sure what type of hybrid she slept with for me to come out with black feathers..... sometimes they grow in my hair too but I pluck those so I don't look too weird"
Weird.....
Very weird...
Anyways, the two got into the pool.
"Also I guess I never asked, how old are you?" Antok asked.
That was a difficult question. When you live as long as his family does they stop counting but his dad still keeps counting the major days were they actually turn of age. Tom's family doesn't celebrate birthdays every year because it would get very tiring quickly celebrating every year your 5th birthday for more than 100 years etc.
"I'm 15" That's what his father had told him 30 years ago and they had a nice birthday celebration for it. How Phill knows when he actually turns of age is a mystery that only his dad knows.
"Cool, I'm 16," Antok said.
There was silence between them before Tom Spoke again.
"I really don't want to go to the expedition tomorrow. What if I get hurt or die?"
"You'll be fine, Usually nothing happens in those. Besides what is there to worry about? we all have 3 lives....Unless have you lost any of them?"
He shook his head "No but still, I don't want to lose any of my life"
"You'll be fine just relax," Antok said.
Tom did just that. He closed his eyes and let his back rest against the wall.
So far, Tom has done much more than he thought he ever does when coming here.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone