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The night that the river delivered Adevzi’s first friend was moonless. An unilluminated darkness covered the boat carrying the infant drow like a blanket. With no funding for an orphanage in Farreach, the child was taken where all the city’s forsaken went; The church of Tyr had little more to offer than shelter and occasional food. It was enough at first, and he learned to walk and speak alongside the tiefling orphan that had been separated from his parents only a short while after his own arrival. It wasn’t long before the pair of misfits bonded, circumstance giving way to a rowdy friendship the church struggled to control.
Their delinquency began small. Fueled by necessity, pilfering food where they could find it where the church failed to provide for the growing boys. It quickly grew into a sense of rebellion and adventure, and by the time the pair were seven and eight they had been returned to the church by escort of the city guard more than once. Scoldings and asks of what would Tyr think of this miscreant behavior escalated into warnings that if the two continued, they’d be taken in and made to work for their juvenile crimes. One could only throw rotten waste at a noble from the church roof so many times it seemed.
Yet with no money of their own and the church unable to fund two undeserving orphans, the thievery continued. Both stuck out terribly in a crowd, suspicious eyes always following the tiefling child with horns nearly larger than his own head and the shadowy drow with hair like moonlight. River picked the target, often feigning injury or distress whilst the more dexterous Adevzi cut away purses and pockets alike. The two sat side by side now, hunkered down in a back alley and counting their stolen loot like a more privileged child might organize their marbles for a game.
“Aw, gross,” complained River as he held out a card in disgust for a nearby brothel complete with a large red lipstick mark kissed across the back. He wrinkled his freckled nose like a cat having sniffed something rancid. The boy beside him giggled and made kissy noises as he flung the paper away from him to flutter beneath a pile of refuse. “Adults are weird.”
“Adults are stupid,” agreed his companion as Adevzi sifted through another coin pouch. The few silvers within were pocketed before he tossed the worn leather away to join the rest of the trash that filled this gap between buildings. “When we grow up, we’re gonna be way smarter. And cooler,” he declared as he opened another coin purse to peer inside it.
“Yeah,” agreed River. “I’m gonna be cooler than you though.”
“Will not,” argued his friend. “I’ve got horns so that makes me cooler.”
“You’ve also got a tail, which makes you a weirdo.”
“At least I don’t braid my hair like a church girl,” he taunted back and reached to tug at the thick rope of hair and the two fell into a pile of laughter, taunts, and juvenile wrestling upon the dirt. It was a day like any other, and when they returned to find the head priest Rolan waiting beside two extravagantly dressed elves they had no knowledge of how their world was about to change. They merely assumed they’d once again been caught and were to be scolded, but as Adevzi opened his mouth to make excuses Rolan lifted a hand to silence him.
“Hello boys. I’d like to introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Indulreed,” he said with a gesture to the elegant pair beside him that stood eyeing the children like livestock at an auction. He paused long enough for the children to bow in greeting. Neither boy moved, and he continued regardless. “They have made an incredibly generous donation to our church, as well as offered to elevate one of you beyond your humble beginnings. This is an opportunity gifted to you from the grace of Tyr, and I trust you will follow his guidance to perform honorably in their care.”
It was too shocking to process at first. The prospect of being adopted out of this church was not one they had ever considered, always under the assumption that one day they would simply age out of their care or exhaust the patience of Rolan and the other followers. And by nobles at that! Yet the words that halted their young hearts rang ominously above them now: one of you. Never in all their years had they been apart. They had slept together, ate together, played together since before they could walk. Two outsiders bonded beyond friendship or brotherhood into a pact that transcended species and now they stood in the face of separation.
The wealthy man moved first, reaching to take hold of the chin of River and tilt him as though examining an animal. “Striking eyes,” he praised the jewel-like blue staring back around slitted pupils. The child made an attempt to pull his head away, reaching to push the intrusive hand away, but he was no match for the adult that simply caught his small wrist and held it back. Adevzi growled, leaping to the defense of his companion and was caught squirming in the arms of the priest that scolded him quietly, ushering him to behave and casting an apologetic look to the pair that raised a judgmental brow at the devilish child.
“My apologies— they’re quite, ah…impulsive. Are you certain you wish to…” he was cut off by the woman who stepped forward as well, placing a hand atop the moonlight haired boy. “We shall take this one. I have utmost faith in our ability to train manners into even the most disorderly of a child.” Adevzi stilled for only a moment before he began to fight much harder, the clergyman struggling to keep his thrashing limbs somewhat contained.
“You can’t just take him!” He shouted at the pair that looked down at him with all the disdain one might afford vermin. They had already begun to drag the drow boy away who fought just as hard to be free of the bruising grip of the man. No screams of protests nor childish tears penetrated the sympathy of those present, and the two were torn apart for the first time in their short lives.
The Indulreed estate sat like a storm cloud just outside of the major sect of Farreach. It was excessive in size, guarded with large stone walls and a massive wrought iron gate. The gardens were decorated with pretentious statues and shaped hedges that flaunted the wealth of the affluent family. The only thing they had lacked was the ability to produce a child, but what did that matter when they could simply snatch up a poor orphan to save? They were praised by their confidants, celebrated for how patient and generous it was to take in such a feral child, and a drow no less! How kind, how benevolent they were.
River thought significantly less elatedly of the couple. Locked up in a room high in their east wing, spending his days studying one meaningless thing to the next. It hadn’t taken them long to prevent him from his continuous escape plans. They pretended not to notice that the tiefling they had passed up snuck in time to time through the window, far more often than they realized. So long as their charge studied appropriately they would simply wait for the other boy to fall to his death risking the visits. Adevzi made River’s trapped studying less tedious, though he longed to share a bed and an adventure with him again instead.
“This is so stupid,” he complained for what felt like the thousandth time. “They’ve got a million different forks! How am I supposed to remember which to use?!” River tugged off the gilded clamps holding his hair into smaller segments and irritably began undoing the work of the man of the house. Adevzi laid upon the floor beside him boredly flipping through a book he held above his face. “You go from outside to inside,” he reminded helpfully and River groaned, turning on his uncomfortably soft new bed to look at him. “See?! They should’ve picked you instead, I can’t remember any of this.”
“You look more like them,” reminded Adevzi. River frowned. Of course he knew that, and he knew his friend was right. It was no surprise they hadn’t wanted to take a child who looked half a devil. It wasn’t fair at all, and he continued to tug at his braids until one side was undone.
“That’s a stupid reason,” he grumbled. The other boy sighed and dropped the book to his chest. They’d only shared this earth less than a decade, and yet he had already been made painfully aware he wasn’t welcome upon it. He only shrugged and allowed his friend to continue his upset ranting.
“They can’t make me like them. I don’t ever want to be like them! They’re awful, and they only care that I look like a doll for them to show off. I hate it, and I hate their stupid rules, and- and-“ the boy hiccuped, his emotions catching up with him quickly. The other sat up to take his hand, squeezing it to try and reassure him. He felt helpless, both of them did, and for once it was Adevzi’s turn to come up with a stupid idea. He scooted closer to the bed, looking up at River from the floor. “Let’s run away then.”
River sniffed, his brows scrunching his face as he rubbed his free hand to clear his teary eyes. “Where would we go? Rolan would just send me back.”
“We won’t go back to the church then.”
“But- wouldn’t someone find us?”
“We’ll leave the whole city. All of it.”
There was a glimmer of determination, of hope in the mercury eyes of the tiefling. His energy was infectious and soon his partner in crime was smiling, excited by this hare-brained plan. “Together?”
“Together,” promised Adevzi. “We’ll go tomorrow! Grab everything you can, and we’ll go out the window at dusk.” River nodded his understanding, a renewed optimism in his chest as his friend climbed out the window, using that ridiculous tail of his to balance along the gutters that creaked dangerously under even the weight of an underfed child before he could shimmy down the branches of the tree that stood adjacent to the home. He waved cheerfully goodbye that night, and River went to sleep dreaming of a future filled with adventure alongside his friend.
When morning came he took every opportunity to sneak valuables into his pockets, preparing for Adevzi’s return. He was too unsteady to walk the gutters, but a rope tied across from the tree to his bedpost would be his ticket to freedom. He could hear the music of the visiting carnival from his open window. That sound drew Adevzi in like a siren song, intrigued by the sound of performance. Rides and games, what child wouldn’t want to see such a thing? It was the perfect place to celebrate their first night of freedom. All he needed to do was steal tickets.
The night the world took away River’s first friend, the moon was full and bright over the Witchlight Carnival. Twinkling music swirled overhead the big top and spread over the hills. River sat in front of the open window, clutching the stolen valuables he would face sore punishment for taking. He stared out into the night until the sun rose to dry the tears on his cheeks, alone and forgotten. Adevzi stared at the pair of tickets in his hand, and quizzically wondered why he had stolen two.