Bordering On Brokering

[The Crooked Knight]

Sketch was walking down the back streets of Radasanth, trying to walk off a large meal. The dark haired man was used to feeling overly full for an hour or so after sating his hunger, and then suddenly, feeling famished again regardless of how much he'd eaten before. It was strange, he usually ate three or four full servings of food and yet he was massively under weight, as if the food just went into a void in his stomach.

As the feeling of being over full left him, he straightened up his suit jacket, and tightened his tie. He'd originally came to Radasanth to search for a weapons instructor with a friend of his named Nevin, and had run into him several days earlier.

As he walked down a back alley, he caught a flash of red hair out of the corner of his eye. He ran, trying to catch up to Nevin, as he saw that the alchemist followed a blonde child himself. Nevin's eyes didn't look happy while he followed the boy, and Sketch wondered what had taken place with the two of them. Normally Sketch would have rushed to a child's aide, but he trusted Nevin as a judge of character, so Sketch just followed from a distance.

The boy walked in to the shop, and Nevin followed in after him. Sketch didn't like the look of the shop, it seemed dirty and seedy, unsafe. What could possess a child to go to this part of the town where they could be hurt? He hoped that Nevin was here to help the small child, and if that was the case, then Sketch would back him up. He grinned at the thought of taking on a group of thugs with his friend near by backing him up.

He walked in behind the alchemist, hearing him say that something the boy was trying to sell was actually made by Nevin as a digestive. Stealing- the small boy was a thief. Sketch's heart broke at the thought of a child resorting to such lengths to survive. He stepped into the shop's lobby, right next to Nevin. "Young man, I know your life's been hard, but you can't resort to stealing. What if the potion that you took was meant for someone specific? What if they're lives depended on the very drink you stole? You don't seem like a bad child, and I think you just made a bad choice, I'm sure that if you apologized to Mr.Nevin, he'd be more than happy to buy you a nice warm dinner. Right Nevin?"

Sketch was sure that his appearance would startle the both of them, but he wasn't going to let a child stray down a dark path if he could avoid it. Nevin was a good man, and he knew that he wouldn't hurt a child, but maybe if the two men had the chance, they could talk some sense into the boy to change his life for the better. After all, what was the point of stories if they didn't help people learn right from wrong?