Rothenburg town centre

" Hmm, I could be mistaken but can you not feel anything? The feeling of being watched? It is constant!" Arthur shook his head. " Maybe I am just being paranoid?"

Arthur then decided to change the subject, still unable to get rid that feeling. "I do not have many friends like that", a small smile came to his face "Maybe none at all. So i hope we can, as you say, be great 'buddies'". Well that sounded strange

Alfred instantly scanned the room thoroughly. He wasn't very talented in magical matters, in fact he had none. So, maybe it had something to do with magic? But then again...he was also beginning to sense someone's eyes on them.

"You might be right," he gulped. "But no worries, I'm going to protect you, after all I'm the hero."

Then he beamed. "Hah, I'm your first then! Heh, sounds wrong."
He guffawed, genuinely amused.

Arthur stared wide-eyed then laughed!

"Indeed you are, I guess! Hopefully it will stay that way!" He then looked around again, someone catching his eye. " I am definately right! But I'm sure we will be fine, Hero!"

A small laugh followed, "Do you wish for anything to eat?"

"Of course we'll be okay!" A badass wink for good measure.

Alfred ordered himself a big portion of hamburger, with extra bacon. He had eaten already, or rather he had already stolen from Matthew's plate, but he felt like eating again. Heroes needed energy, right? And he wasn't gaining weight, right?
He poked his belly. boing

"I hope so! I can not help but wonder if your brother and his companions know more then we do though!"

Arthur grinned at the wink, feeling generally amused! Hearing the others order, he couldn't help but think it sounded good, it was different to what he was used to and probably never in a million years touch it back home. So he made the same order, only a not so big portion, no way could he handle those things. Watching the waiter leave, Arthur also sensed the one watching them leave, he turned towards the door with narrowed eyes.

"Perhaps, when we are done eating, we can go on another little adventure!"

Alfred grinned at the king's ordered food. And even though Arthur's portion was so much smaller, they finished up at the same time. In the end all was left was Alfred's happy face.

After a comfortable or maybe better called awkward time of merely staring at each other while waiting for the food to digest, they decided to set out. The bright sun hit their faces, Alfred covered his eyes.

"Of course they know more...they didn't tell me everything, I'm sure of that. And it's a completely right decision, right? They shouldn't trust anybody," he said while they were walking down the market place again.

Basically they were heading into an unknown direction, so not long after they found themselves walking in another lonely alley. Maybe it was the back of several crowded taverns and whore houses - if he recognised the noises correctly. The voices were muffled behind the thick walls and they seemed far away.

" I guess I see you point. Nobody can be trusted at the moment, It is still rather irritating that they may know something and here we are none the wiser.... It can't be helped though I guess. They have do what they think is right!"

Feeling slightly more happier after the meal, which admittedly was not that bad, Arthur walked with Alfred around the rest of the town centre. Another entertainer catching his attention that he stopped whilst Alfred carried on down another alley. 'How amusing!' He thought to himself, he threw a coin then quickly walked down the small alley to catch up with his new companion. Walking past the same noisy taverns and whore houses, a mild look of disgust crossing his face.

" Just out of curiosity, what what do you--" Arthur stopped mid sentence. Up ahead was the same presence he had felt when they were being watched. He caught sight of the end of a cloak disappearing around the corner of another building. "The one that was following us...."

With that, Arthur took off after the stranger to question them.

((Holy woah o_O. this is what happens when you say 'let it flow' XDD ))

Alfred froze, narrowed his gaze and was alert to any other noises. His breath became soft, inaudible, as if he had stopped his heart from beating on purpose in order to become completely silent. As he had brought himself into complete silence, the silent alley lost its silence; he was now able to hear every air draught from every hole, all singing noises and fights from the taverns, every whore moaning in the houses of pleasure - and he could hear the other unknown person.

"It's the same guy, huh?" He rolled up his sleeves and clicked his tounge. He was confident he could take up with that person.

As soon as he straightened himself into a fighting position, the stranger jumped out of the darkness, fast as lightning. He intended to step in front of his king to protect, but it wasn't necessary - the attacker surprisingly chose him as the target. Alfred blocked the dangerous fist with his inhuman physical powers, dodged every kick effortlessly. It became more problematic when the attacker pulled out a very much magical looking object.
His only option was to become the offensive part rather than being defensive, so he spun around, caught the man's wrist and rammed his fist against the other's chest.

It was enough, the assaulter was brought down and he curled himself up in pain. There was no time for a satisfied smirk as he was suddenly blown away by an invisible force, and it was the enemy's turn to smirk.

Alfred cried out in pain as he hit a hard wall. His glasses slipped. It all happened so fast.

To say that Arthur was shocked at these turn of events was an understatement. He watched as the last blast completely knocked Alfred out and their unknown attacker make a move towards him, it was strange that he had no interest what so ever that he was there.. certainly something to think about later. Putting that thought to the back of his mind for now, Arthur quickly moved in front of Alfred to protect him, he saw the smug smirk of the other drop and a pair of mismatched coloured eyes widen in realization of who he was (his own cloak hood having fallen off). The smug smirk quickly returned and Arthurs own eyes widened. A quick hand movement and a new blast of magic was hitting a newly placed protective shield, followed by a frown on both sides.

" Who are you? Why are you following us? Why are after you Alfred?" Question after question, but his eyes were mostly on the object in his hand because he had never seen anything like it before. A growing laugh bought his attention back to the mans face completely, the laugh more and more irritating to listen to, Arthur glared.

"I'm sorry, are you completely stupid, or can you not answer simple questions when asked!". The fact he was still laughing while he spoke was causing Arthur to lose his patience, that while the man was still in his hysterics he sent him own attack of magic causing him to fly into the wall behind and knocking him unconscious. The king caught sight of the mysterious object on the floor, he walked over with caution and picked it up.

He then walked back over to his companion, picking up his glasses.

"Alfred? Are you alright?"

He shifted with a groan, his body was limp from the forceful attack. His lids fluttered and he slowly opened his eyes, and those were almost glowing. The blue colour of his eyes had become even more intensive and deep. And Alfred saw hell.

Before his eyes, war was the name of time. The scent of blood, burnt flesh and disastrous violence invaded his nose, he gagged. The sky, as he looked up with watery eyes (that were now glowing red), was tainted with the colour of hellish fire. The sight of corpses was spread all over the horizon and there were piles of lifeless children, all had empty eye sockets.

Alfred screamed, yet no sound escaped.

He looked down with his overflowing teary eyes and saw his hand smeared with blood of others; in his right hand he was holding a scythe.

And Alfred screamed, this time for real and loud.

He needed his glasses, he didn't want too see the pure terror anymore. He flailed wildly and searched for his glasses, blind in the world of reality. In his inner eyes he was still witnessing death, in his inner eyes he was a remorseless bringer of death, who swung the scythe as if dancing. In his inner eyes he was smiling - it was wicked and twisted.

He finally found his glasses in someone else's hand; he grabbed it feverishly and put it back on. Hell disappeared. Behind the glasses his eyes were back to normal again. Only a small, dirty alleyway was left and he stared at a king in front of him. His king.

Arthur watched with a curious interest at what was happening, watching with slightly narrowed eyes as blue glowed and turned red and then the panic kicking in. It was certainly unexpected, why was this happening?

"Alfred? Alfred, what is wrong?" No answer came from the other of course, the man only continued flailing in panic, at what he was unsure. It was like he was seeing something that only he, and nobody else, could see. Or just maybe the force of the blast messed with his head too much... but Arthur knew better. Deciding to think properly on it later he grabbed the other by his arms in an attempt to still and calm him, but his strength was simply too much.

Then came a painful scream, one that shocked Arthur to let go and move back, concern was clearly showing for the other. Even as Alfred seemed to be calming down and grabbed the glasses out of his hand, Arthur could only watch on with evident worry.

He then gave a quick glance back to where their unknown attacker landed unconscious to find he had already disappeared, leaving without the object. Why did he not try to get it back? Was it not that important to him? It was all very suspicious. Arthur wanted to know what this thing was.

His attention then back on his companion, he decided that this was not the place to be discussing what had just happened.

"Alfred, are you alright? Are you well enough to move? We need to get out of here as soon as we can!"

Alfred didn't answer. He couldn't. He tried his best to breathe some much needed air and gasped like a dying fish. He was soaked in his own sweat, his fringe was sticking against his damp forehead. As if he had been running miles for his life. And he felt like it, only even more tired and with self disgust left on his tounge. He wanted to be sure that his vision was not reality, and that he was merely becoming a slight bit insane. But who was he trying to fool? He had the same vision and even worse ones since he was a kid. Still, it always calmed him to see that his hands were not bloody.

He was still breathing hard. But he didn't want to worry Arthur, so he smiled, even though crooked.

"We want him," said a voice behind Arthur, and Alfred wanted to punch the bastard's face real fine, if only he wasn't feeling like fainting any time. "We've been watching you, king Arthur. We wanted you as our medium to accelerate the war...but then...you've brought us something else, something that we lost a long time ago."

The attacker was pretty much beaten by Arthur's last blow, yet he still managed a wicked smile.

"What do you mean?" Alfred asked, confused. But as much he wanted to know the answer, he really wanted to escape more than everything else right now. It wasn't very heroic, but he felt like shit.

The man approached Arthur, gripped his chin and whispered with his nasty voice: "Thank you for bringing us our angel of war, and be prepared to also become useful for our grand plan." He then glanced to Alfred's direction, turned back to Arthur. "Why are you even hanging out with the incarnation of evil?"

Evil? He, the hero wasn't evil! And that ugly monkey should better stop laying his filthy fingers on his awesome king.

Outwardly Arthur laughed.

“Incarnation of evil? Are you completely insane - no wait do not answer that, I already know - he is.. He is no such thing and neither of us, Alfred nor I, will be assisting you in anyway and I will fight to make sure of it!”

But inwardly, he couldn‘t help the concern that continued to grow. Why was he saying this? Alfred… the incarnation of evil? He knew he has only spent a short time with the him, and there was that evening so long ago when they were children when he gave a rose, even then to now, he felt nothing but pure kindness and good from him. It was total nonsense! Right?

He pushed the man away with a glare, feeling more repulsed with the smirk on his face.

“ I do not know who you are, nor do I care, your plans however.. … what did you mean? Calling Alfred that?!” Their unknown attacker started to laugh.

“Oh your majesty, the fun would stop being fun if I told you that!”

It all seemed like a big game to this psychopath, one that Arthur was starting to lose patience with. He needed to get him and Alfred out of here as soon as possible, he was still in a terrible state and if another fight started, he really didn‘t wish for Alfred to get hurt anymore. He slid the object into a pocket under his cloak, hoping the guy wouldn’t notice. He was truly intrigued with it. Something felt.... odd with it!

He smiled at Arthur's words, and it was painful to smile. In fact he felt his consciousness fading. It was strange and very unlike him to lose strength that rapidly. Everything became blurry before his eyes, his vision grew more and more unsteady. He was afraid to close his eyes, didn't want to see the visions at any cost. For even when the glasses are oppressing them, nightmares were unstoppable.

He tried to rise, yet his legs were unmoving. Right. What should he do now?

The sharp blade of his dagger was cold against his chest under the waistcoat as he got the idea. He pulled it out discreetly, let it slide through his fingers to get a good grip. It slid with percision that cut his palm. He glanced at the dagger; with a swift swing it was thrown against the enemy and dig itself in his throat. It was a fountain of blood that dissolved into rose petals in midair.

Alfred prayed for the man's soul - if he had any.

The man fell on his knees, screamed silently and later remained motionless on the the dirty ground.

After all he could still be the hero, who saved the day. Right? Alfred tumbled.

"Shut up already," he said to the dead body.

" Well, I will not lie, we could have benefitted more if he was still alive. But what is done is done!"

Arthur sighed and knelt down to check Alfred was okay. His companion still looked haunted by what had happened earlier, and he himself wanted to know what had caused this usually happy and talkative man to become so quiet like this all of a sudden.

"Are you alright? What happened just now?". Checking the other over, he noticed the blood on this palm. "Idiot, now you seem to have hurt yourself!" Though it was said with humour in his voice and a smile on his face. Taking a hold of the bleeding hand palm side up, he could see the blood slowly pouring out .... probably from the dagger just now.. Holding his own hand slightly over, he muttered a chant under his breath and felt the familiar warmth he was accustomed to with it. After a minute he went silent and wiped the blood away with the end of his cloak.

"There we go! So, What did -- " Again he started to repeat his question, but it seemed that their little fight had caught the attention of others as he heard voices growing louder as people from the town approached, curious from the noise.

"Maybe this is not the best time to talk. We really should leave now, we could do without the attention!"

A new business day had dawned on Rothenburg.

Like Alfred, Arthur was watching the busy happenings of the street. Watching as the merchants tried to sell their stock, watching as the people of the town carried on with their normal lives and not worrying ( Or maybe they were unaware?) of the possible war building at the moment. Arthur was finding the stalls more and more interesting, wondering what new possible treasures he could find. He wondered if his excitement to get out amongst it all was down to Alfred and his happy and hyper energy.

"Ar....tie??" He actually burst out laughing from that. Never in his life had he been referred to in such a way! It was... different. " I have no doubt we will have a good day, we should keep in mind there is also work to do though. We can always separate for a while though if you wish!"

To be honest though, for just a few hours he wanted... to have fun. For just a little while, so he wrapeed his cloak around himself again and placed their unknown item in the pocket. Using no words to convey what he wanted, Arthur grabbed Alfred's hand ( Something he had now done twice, a distant thought reminded him) and pulled him into the crowd of people and towards the stalls.

Please, let it be peaceful today

The most beautiful. That was Arthur's laugh to him; it was also the funniest, made you want to join the laughter. So contagious. And he liked the sensation, what an extreme yet true word, of Arthur's hand on his own, for it was warm like a glove around his hand. It was as if Alfred's hand was the other puzzle piece to Arthur's, even though the other's was more delicate, fragile looking, yet it had a strong grip. He wriggled his hand out of Arthur's grasp and this time he was the one holding, he then intertwined their fingers. Alfred was blushing.

He tried to ignore the king's suggestion to seperate. He wanted to stay together for as long as possible that day. He squeezed his hand tighter just to make sure.

Alfred found a new joy in teasing Arthur, he got the funniest and most adorable reactions from him. He was surprisingly sensitive towards jokes like that and could get a bit violent. But it was too cute. They became louder and people were giggling at the sight of this odd couple.

"I bet your cooking isn't any better," he responded when Arthur was in the middle of mercilessly criticizing the sweets they bought. He then stole one from Arthur.

The cookie hadn't yet reached his mouth as he dropped it, his face turned into a painful grimace. The pain didn't last very long.

Arthur was in the middle of a stuttered reply about his cooking, when he noticed the pained expression cross Alfred's face. It was happening again? It was rather concerning! Did Alfred have to deal with this all the time? He didn't remember seeing it in the tavern when he first arrived, it only seemed to be happening more and more since the two of them separated from the rest of the group. He remembered him saying about the dreams he had, but not these sudden attacks. Arthur decided he would ask him later about it.

" Maybe we should sit down for a while! And consider getting a drink as well, I don't know about you but that god awful stuff has made me thirsty!"

Despite Alfred's protest that there was nothing wrong, Arthur took hold of his hand again, making sure to grip tightly so a certain someone couldn't wriggle his hand out again, he then led them down the street to a seating area. They still seemed to be bringing attention to themselves as they walked past

The banter continued while they were sat down, mostly on Arthur's part because of how much Alfred seemed to fidgeting to get moving again. He wondered if Alfred just ever took five minutes to relax and calm down, that would be slightly strange though, he mentioned this to Alfred, grinning as he did. It was then he realised, with wide eyes and blushing cheeks, that their hands were still connected. His eyes narrowed at how indifferent the other was, so either; Alfred knew and didn't care or he simply hadn't realised either.

" By the way..!" He moved his own hand away and glanced in the opposite direction, missing the warm feeling already. As he looked away an old looking bookstore caught his attention. They would come back to that later! "How could you possibly know what my cooking tastes like?"

Bringing up that arguement again. Cooking was a touchy subject for him it seemed!

How could Arthur want to sit down and be still when there were countless things to see and explore in front of his eyes. Foreign costumes, exotic fruits, mysterious men and women who seem to seduce one into buying their outlandish oddities. To his left fragrance that caress his nose sensually and to his right colourful magical instruments, and was that a flying bunny? He so wanted to get going again and attempted to pull Arthur along, but he realised that their hands were not holding each other anymore and he couldn't help but feel disappointed at the loss. His palm and fingers mourned, heh funny imagery. Alfred snickered. Though he was tempted to take a bold action and hold onto Arthur's hand again, but was too embarrassed to do so.

Arthur then asked him about that food thing and his voice was icy as he uttered the words, it felt almost dangerous. Dude, chill! "Man, I think it's rather obvious. Just looking at you and I know you would make a fish explode just by looking at it! HAHAHAHAHA! And I heard rumours that you once defeated the enemy's army just by giving them your food, people think of it as your secret weapon of final judgement ™." He didn't know whether it was true or not, but hell it sounded badass. He also heard people saying that the king's scones were as effective as bombards, but he had the feeling that it was death zone to mention it.

He leant back and grazed Arthur's shoulder, at least some contact. He found himself soon quite in need of touching the other, odd, he had never been a touchy feely person before. His parents, brother and bunny would disagree. It was still strange, Arthur wasn't his close family.

Alfred realised that he was forced into thinking quite often these days and his brain wasn't taking it too well. And moreover, that flying bunny was freaking adorable. Alfred blushed at the sight of it floating around his head, that little beast was too cute.

Well.... Those were interesting rumours. No wonder people were quick enough to offer to cook for him, no matter if he was king or not, he still liked to cook! He sat up straighter and his expression now resembled that of a child, a pout on his lips and slightly flushed cheeks, he was about to protect his cooking skills but he felt the brush against his shoulder, his whole body froze, but he found he didn't wish to move away.

"W-well, I assure you that those rumours are...." Arthur started in as much a dignified manner as he could, but noticed than Alfred was no longer even paying attention anymore, he was completely distracted by the flying bunny. As much as the little thing was lovely, they also had them in the Woodland Realm, it was distracting attention. It bothered him more than he thought it would.

Arthur suddenly stood up with more energy and turned to face his companion.

"Right, we should carry on I think!" The flying bunny seemed to have taken a liking to Alfred as it kept flying around him, they probably wouldn't be getting rid of it for a while. Not that Arthur minded of course. "There are still plenty of stalls to look around I think and I wish to look in that bookstore over there, to see if we can find anything about those markings at all!"

As much as he simply wished to have an enjoyable day, there was still unfortunately work to do. Too many concerns to think about and if there were not any answers in this land, they would have to think about moving on.

His attention was only drawn away from the flying bunny the moment Arthur rose from his seat. That was when Alfred finally noticed Arthur's childish pout that made him look even younger than Alfred himself and very very cute. He jumped and stood right in front of the other, hindering him from walking away. Alfred narrowed his eyes and gave Arthur an intense stare. And Alfred cupped Arthur's face without further warning, grinned, and pinched the other's cheek.

"Hahahaha funny, look at you," another pinch, "that's a funny face!"
He finally let go after at least 3 more pinches. There was a happy grin that adorned his young features.

It wouldn't fit his logic, here he was with a reoccuring throbbing headache and a hazy eyesight, yet he felt like he couldn't care less. Though they were starting to become rather dominant, but the adventure loving boy didn't want to miss the fun. Moreover, the last thing he wanted was to make Arthur worry. He smiled softly as to assure Arthur and even more himself.

The bunny landed on his shoulder and nudged his cheek in a comforting way. Alfred smiled softly at it. He mouthed a small thank you to the lovely animal.

"So, to the bookstore then!"

Arthur barely registered the last sentence that Alfred said, all he heard was 'bookstore'. His head was still spinning a little from what happened a moment ago. The moment those warm hands were on his cheeks, his heart sped up a little. For a moment he thought Alfred was going to.... and then those pinches on his cheek. That... wasn't what he was expecting. He rubbed his cheek a little.

He had observed the different smiles that Alfred seemed to have. He seemed to have many of them. From the bright smile that was directed at himself, that was contagious enough all you could do was smile back and laugh with him and you would be considered crazy if you didn't, even if he had just pinched your cheeks ( but Arthur was very good at resisting such things). Then there was that soft smile that was directed at their new bunny friend, Arthur guessed that smile would make any girl fall in love with him in no time at all.

It was then he realized he had probably been staring for a while.

"Right then.... the bookstore next then!" He managed to keep to keep any stutter in check. They headed over to bookstore and Arthur opened the door, despite the protests, allowing Alfred to walk in first,. It was rather small inside (maybe there was a larger library elsewhere?) four or five aisles he would guess. All were completely filled with all kinds of different sized books. Arthur started to walk down the first aisle, when he turned around to Alfred, the bunny still refusing to leave his shoulder, the king felt like shaking his head a little. "We may be able to get this done quicker if we split up and look, the sooner this is done then the sooner we carry on looking around outside. I will look through this first aisle, and you can start on the next one? Is that alright?"

Walking off away from his companion, Arthur started looking at all the books, completely looking past ones that held no interest to what he was looking for. Picking up books that he thought may have held information, but a few looks through and nothing relating to the symbols on the object. Whilst looking through another book, a bell like sound caught his attention, a small fairy from the Woodland Realm now sat on his shoulder, a smile on her face.

"All is well at home then?" He smiled softly at the familiar creature. The fairy giggled and nodded. "Thank you again for coming here!" Truly playful things, fairies were.

Arthur turned around to see if Alfred had moved and started his own search.

Alfred smiled at Arthur questioningly as he was stared at, that smile faltered into an uncertain half-smile. Did he go too far? Great, awkardness.

It was a good idea to enter the bookstore, because it was a dim place that could easily cover his overall confused face aka confused mental state. But it was not a good idea to separate, he didn't want to be out of Arthur's range of warmth, or aura, or skin, or whatever Arthur related. But he was after all a good servant, therefore he had no choice but to walk away to another part of the shop. He did keep Arthur in his range of sight, though.

The first row was useless for his search, it was mainly stuffed with books about sexuality and sexual practice. Definitely not what he needed, he moved on with a slightly flushed face. Damn hormones, damn being young and male.
The next section appeared to be safer, that's where he continued his task. To be completely lost in concentration proved itself to be difficult, as he couldn't help glancing over to where Arthur was from time to time. The third time he stole a look, Arthur was talking to himself. Alfred's expression turned blank. He's an old man after all, he thought with pity. No matter how crazy he is, I still like him. Okay whoa I didn't think that.

He suddenly needed to be very far away from Arthur, he stomped over to the far end, blindly taking a book, opened it without even trying to read. The book didn't help him calm down at all. "Stupid book!" He cursed and earned an annoyed Shh from the shopkeeper.

Alfred sighed, this was going nowhere. He didn't even know where to begin, how could he look for a book that had information about an unknown language. Then it dawned on him. He was stupid, wasn't he?
The linguistic section!

Arthur heard the curse come from the next aisle, and the shush from the shopkeeper. An eyebrow raised as the thought Papercut? crossed his mind. He carried on looking, deciding there was nothing to be found in this aisle. Moving on, the little fairy fluttering next to him still, and not finding Alfred in the next row of books.

He finally found him in the fourth aisle, the sign 'Linguistics' above the shelves.

"Of course, that would make sense it being here" He sighed, and walked over to Alfred and picked up a heavy tome, flipping through the pages, glancing over he noticed the other was frowning. It didn't suit him at all.

"Hey, are you alright? Surely you are not frowning over a papercut or something like that. A frown does not suit you at all you know!" He didn't mean to sound like he mocking him, but that was just how it came out!

He looked up with an unhappy, despairing expression and shook his head slowly as he put another book back to its place. It was of course not a papercut. Unfortunately, there was no way to tell Arthur the reason. But why? Thinking about it made his head fume in confusion, and it was also on the verge of exploding because of his headache. And why did Arthur sound so mean all of a sudden, complaining about his looks, he thought.

"It's nothing, really," he tried to get rid of his frown, "I was mad at the book for not being the right one. Pretty dumb, huh?"

He randomly picked a leather-bound colossus of a book and stared at the familiar writing. It looked like an ancient chronicle of a city. The only recognisable things were the datings and early medieval illustrations of a city life. It didn't really have anything to do with linguistic, but Alfred assumed that they had decided to stuff it there just because it didn't belong to anywhere else.

The city was a masterpiece of humankind, if the illustrations were believable. Every single building was an architectural artwork, supported by ornate pillars. It looked like a fantasy kingdom to him, but the systematic datings were not very fantasylike. Alfred frowned. What was going on?
"This is sick," he said in a breathy voice. And he was also starting to feel sick.