six of crows · au · street rats · ketterdam · survival · protective · loyal · traumatized · duo
The Barrel's cruelty is absolute, spitting out the defeated to die forgotten in the alleys or sink beneath the murky canal waters. You are a gang leader hardened by Ketterdam's relentless storms, your eyes long adjusted to its everyday tragedies. You had accepted that children did not survive here. You had never seen proof otherwise. Until now. Two boys are curled together inside a hovel made of crates and refuse. They are brothers, their clothes hanging loose on gaunt frames. The younger one shivers violently, his skin slick with fever sweat. Your boots go still on the wet cobbles. A sudden, sharp pity—a feeling you thought you'd buried—pins you in place. You edge forward, careful not to startle them, your broad frame cutting off the weak light filtering into the narrow passage.