Kai stared from a hilltop an hours walk from the family home and looked longingly back the way he had walked, seeing the familoar home in his mind instead of his eyes. The decision to leave had been a paniced decision born from desperation, loneliness, fear. Anger most of all. Doubt still clung to him like a bad smell as the choice, still so fresh, sat front and center in the young boys mind.

No money, no food, no clothing but what he wore with him on the way out. There had been no time to consider his options and Kai realized quickly how foolishly he had been to leave ubprepared for the outside.

"No!" Kai slapped his face woth both hands before shaking his head. "No. This is the only way. If I rely on hole to provide then I don't deserve to think it should be mine." 

Leorin had always preached that making a decision meant seeing it through to the end. A smart person could make the best out of any situation. Doubt would never leave his heart and mind but the only way forward was to the city proper. Once there he would get food, clothing, supplies. There were shops that recognized the boys family and had a tab. That wasn't relying on the house! It was relying on his name.
Let the idiots in charge worry about the bill. Those morons could barely count, nevermind keep track of their own spending.

Down the hillside went Kai, eyes focused and back straight. It was time to conquer! Not cower. 

[hr]

Commotion in the bustling marketplaces were common. Kai was well aware of human nature to bicker and argue over everything when it came to money and that showed no signs of being false as the boy walked the avenues looking for the shops he needed. One such store he had stumbled on quickly, recognizing the owners wife who often commented on his growth, much to the boys chagrin.
They mourned the boys father like he did and offered what little sentimental wishes they could before aiding the boy in his resolve to be the family head.

All they asked for was that Kai keeo his business with them as their father had.

With rope, clothing, and a proper backpack (a packed lunch thrown in) he marched off, waving back to the owners in the first genuinly cheerful smile Kai had felt in months. Freedom thus far was intoxicating.

The next few shops he visited had less luck. One by one he discovered the older brothers had purchased food and cloth in great stock and had yet to pay what was owed, shooing the boy away until the debts were paid in full. As expected of the brutes..

Further commotion caught his ear in time to see his heart sink into his chest as the scene unfolded. A man threw something high and over the abyss, a girl screamed, and a body went over the edge with the artifact all while the shopkeeper roared and shoved. 
Just like...

[b]"How COULD YOU!"[/b] 

Kai didn't remember putting on the father mask. Could not recall taking off in a run. Everything was a blur but the man who had thrown something. The distqnce shrank as he burst from the gathered crowd and all but threw himself forward in a rush of shouting as Kai tackled the older man.