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In a tower hidden from the world a little boy with long red hair was sitting down as a woman with the same colored hair but harsh eyes was brushing his hair.
“Mother, why can’t I go outside?” the little boy asked, his question filled with so much innocent curiosity that could make one's heart hurt. Unfortunately his mother was not one of these people as she coldly told her son. “Because the world out there is just a distraction. You have no reason to go out there, this tower has all you could ever need”. The boy's eyes quickly looked down as he sadly responded “Yes mother”.
Some time later on that child's birthday he ran to his mothers room to wake her up to tell her some grand discovery he’s made. “Mother mother look there's floating lanterns outside, come look”. His mother just turned to the other side, not even bothering to look at him.
“Why are you not asleep, didn’t I say to keep the mind alert and awake you needed to make sure you got the recommended 8 hours of sleep, but it's way past your bedtime and you come in here talking about the stars”.
“No no, mother I was up later doing that study sheet you asked me to and then I saw them. There not stars there so much bigger and they glowed not like any other stars.” he talked as his eyes lit up and he continued to try to get his mother to come out and see them.
“They also came on my birthday so maybe they were there for me, there so pretty maybe someone out there wants us to see them.” That woke his mom up fast as she quickly got up and went to the one window in the tower seeing the in fact lanterns. Her eyes widened but then shrunk with annoyance as she quickly closed the shades and turned around to see her child look on in fear of her anger.
“Let me say this one time, and one time only Riddle, these are just stupid stars not important at all, and don’t you ever question me again”. She yelled as her child winced but then just lowered his head. She walked up to him as she placed her hand on his shoulder and lowered her voice to an almost loving way. “You know I only yell because this is the only way you’ll learn. Now go to bed, you've stayed up too late anyway.” She then walked away leaving her child still looking down at the floor.
“Yes mother” he said back but to no one but himself, as he turned around to begin walking to his room. However something stopped him, and against everything his mind told him he went back to the little window and opened the blinds.
What awaited him was the sight of the starry night with the lanterns floating high in the sky. He looked up and smiled before resting his head on his arms. He continued to stare up at the sky for minutes or even hours until every lantern had left his sight.
Outside a tower a cat with dark and light purple stripes set on the window swiping at a little flower pot.
“Chenya, where are you outside, and stop hitting that flower pot, it's going to fall, then we'll both be yelled at.” The cat looked at the newcomer and continued.
The newcomer, a small teenage boy with blue grayish eyes and red extremely long hair that just kept going sighed as he grabbed the cat. “Chenya come on, it's not that boring in the tower.” The cat just stared at the boy giving a seriously look. “Ok I know it's a little boring but we can do something can’t we, like you can help me with chores before mother comes home”. The cat just mowed as it was taken away from its favorite sitting area to help.
“Now I know that it's not too dirty but if mother sees one speck of dirt we'll be hearing it”. He said looking around the completely clean kitchen. The boy got a broom from the closet and started sweeping, as the purple striped cat just swished its tail in its poor attempt to sweep.
A few minutes later when not even Riddle could spot a grain of dirt, he put the broom back and sat down at a little desk near the window of the tower and began jotting notes. Chenya jumped on to the desk and started to take a little cat nap.
A while after Riddle began working a voice could be heard outside the tower calling for him. “Riddle let down your hair and let your mother in”. Riddle quickly got up from his sitting position and ran as fast as he could to the window, and let his hair fall outside the window all the way to the dirt below the tall tower. His mother grabbed it as she gave it a quick tug to let her child know to lift her up.
Riddle began pulling up his mother until she could finally enter through the window of the tower. “Dear why did it take you so long to let me in, what could you possibly be doing that would take that long”. She said annoyed that her son could even take a second more than what she expected him to.
“Oh just doing the work you asked me to do, it just took a little longer today to finish up”. He said as his mother just looked at him up and down unimpressed and just started to put her coat up. “Well I certainly hope that's true and you weren't playing with that flea infested cat that you decided to keep despite my warnings”. The woman looked over to the cat she hated who was currently standing on the desk baring its teeth and hissing at her.
“Chenya’s not flea infested, he’s really a good cat. He’s just a little annoyed his cat nap got interrupted”. Riddle said, trying to defuse the tension between his mother and the cat. The cat had already decided however that he would keep Riddle safe from this horrible women, so they had jumped down and were now staying close to Riddle’s legs.
The woman just turned around and began looking around the house for anything that might have been left out or was dirty. Riddle quickly tried to keep up with his mother as he began talking, “Mother you know tomorrow's my 18th birthday…”
“Yes Riddle I would hope I knew the day I gave birth to you, so just get out what you're going to say without any of the small talk”. His mother seemed very annoyed by even the talk of her son's own birthday.
“Yes yes I know mother but I was just wondering if maybe… I don’t know I can go outside the tower for a day or so?”. His mother had now fully stopped in her tracks and turned around slowly and deliberately to fully stare at her son with some mysterious emotion in her eyes.
The boy started stumbling over his words as he went on to explain himself “I know what you always say, but I thought now that I'm older it would be better. I also was hoping we could see the lanterns”. He began fiddling his thumbs as he looked up at his mother trying to get a slight clue on what she would say.
His mother finally spoke in a cold tone that crushed all the boy's dreams. “No you are not going to leave this tower now or ever”. She suddenly raised her voice to yell the last part “And what did I tell you those are not lanterns, those are stupid little stars they hold no importance and you shouldn’t even want to see them”. She finished and then went to find the nearest chair to sit down in.
After a moment the boy walked over to his mom and sat on his knees next to the chair. His mother just put her head in her hand as she began to speak, “You probably think I'm the worst mom in the world right now, but know that I am doing this to keep you safe. The world outside is dangerous and there is truly no need to leave the tower. Do you understand?” She looked at her son for the last part as he slowly responded “Yes Mother”.
The rest of the time she spent there was truly just another day. She criticized Riddle’s paper saying ‘this was clearly rushed you should have expanded on this’, she criticized how Riddle cleaned after she found a spot of dirt hidden behind a chair, and she criticized Chenya talking about how much hair they left on the ground.
When she finally decided to leave she kissed Riddle’s forehead as he then began to lower her to the ground. “Goodbye my dear I’ll see you soon” she said as she began to walk away without hearing Riddle’s quiet reply “I’ll be here, like always”.
“Ok here's the plan, me and Leona are going to stay up here while.. Floyd are you even listening”. A medium sized boy with blond hair and two animal ears on the top of his head yelled as he stared at a freakishly tall boy who was doing everything in his power to ignore him.
“Uhh what, sorry sharksucker I was trying to ignore you”, the tall man turned around to try to find anything else to do besides interact with these two.
“Uhhh will you both quite it down I’m trying to sleep”. Another tall man only this time with dark brown hair and lion ears on top of his head said as he tried to go back to sleep.
“LEONA WAKE UP, we need to steal this crown if I.. uh sorry we want to get any money” The blond boy not screamed but said in his most intimidating voice he could muster. “Uhh why do we need this money again, I could easily be just sleeping at home” The lion said yawning. “Because not all of us are a prince with a bunch of money at our disposal, and this is probably the easiest way we can get a lot of money fast”. The blond boy stated getting more and more annoyed.
“OK, ok but why is Floyd here isn’t he just going to make it harder to get the crown” This comment caused Floyd to turn around for a second while the blond just sighed and said, “Because Floyd was the only one to respond to that stupid ad we put up so we didn’t really have a lot of options”. This caused Floyd to put on an uncanny smile and snicker a little “I was bored, what else is there to do but sign up to steal some silly little crown with two strangers”.
“Yha yha, so here's the plan: me and Leona are going to stay up here and lower Floyd down to the crown level, Floyd’ll get it, we'll lift you up, and boom we run out with a bunch of free money at are finger tips”. The blond one quickly laid out the plan as the lion and eel just did a lazy nod and began the plan.
Everything went fine at first Ruggie and Leona lowered Floyd down, but right when the tall eel was about to pick up the crown a guard sneezed. “Eww gross you might want to get that checked out before you bite the dust” this caused the guard to turn around to see a teal haired boy with one strand of black hair on the right side of his face and a hella creepy smile. This caused the two at the top to panic and quickly bring the teal boy up.
Once he was back up they began running as fast as they could over rooftops and when they finally hit the ground a huge group of guards were now chasing them. “Ruggie was this in your plan at all” Leona said in a sort of nonchalant way while running. “WHAT OF COURSE NOT HOW COULD YOU THINK I PLANED ARE PARTNER BEGING A FUCKING DUMBASS” Ruggie yelled loudly and angerly at the lion next to him.
“Oh no this is bad bad”, this caused the two to quickly stop and turn around at the in fact dumb partner just to see him with a wanted poster in his hands with his face. “Look they messed up my hair, the black parts on the left side now I look like Jade uhhhh”. The two just rolled their eyes as Ruggie walked up and snatched the poster and stuffed it into the bag with the crown. “Are you serious right now we are running for our lives and your only concern is a fucking hair strand” Ruggie yelled as Leona just rolled his eyes and started dragging Ruggie away.
“Well duhh I mean do you want to be confused for your twin brother your whole life, let me tell you it's not fun” Floyd argued as they started to run again. “Seriously your twins this is probably a daily occurrence for you. Can you save the complaining for after were not RUNNING FOR ARE FUCKING LIVES” Ruggie screamed again only to be stoped my the lions arm as he looked and there was a huge lake blocking there path with guards not to far behind them.
“Floyd aren't you a merman cant you swim good” Leona said as he turned to Floyd while Ruggie just looked at the eel annoyed. “Yes I can take you both across if you hand me the bag with the crown”. He said extending his arm out to get the bag, Ruggie looked at it almost offended as he almost screamed “WHAT! In what world do you think we’ll give you the crown just for you to run away with it”.
Floyd sighed and said “You’re no fun, uhhhhhhh fine get in the water”. Leona just rolled his eyes as he dragged Ruggie into the water as instructed.
“Ok now what, are you just going to drag us through the water?” the lion said in a sort of monotone voice as Floyd just laughed and lifted his hand so that they both saw the bag now in his hand. “Sorry my hands are full” he said as he quickly swam away followed by Ruggie yelling out “MY MONEY!”.
After a while of swimming through the water Floyd finally arrived at the other side of the lake and got out of the water and began walking looking for anywhere to rest. After a while he found some vines blocking the entrance to a tunnel, he of course moved them away and walked through. After he exited the tunnel he was met with a large clearing with an incredibly tall tower in the middle.
“Well this looks like a good place to rest, plus it'll probably be fun to try and climb it” with that he began his descent up. It wasn’t too hard to climb, however the eel stumbled and almost fell a few times, however when he finally made it to the top he jumped in through the window and landed inside the tower.
“Wow that actually wasn’t too bad, wonder what's in here?” he thought out loud as he looked around only to see a lot of red hair on the ground leading right next to him. He was confused but he started to turn around before he felt a hard object hit him in the back of the head and before everything went back he heard a distinct yelp of a scared person.