Minstrel

Chapter #24 ~ Riptide

The picture was hideous, his whole face looked like it had been run over by a carriage. His black hair was draw too long, well past his shoulder when in reality it didn't go past his ears. But that wasn't all that wrong with it. His hair naturally spiked up making him always look like he had just woken up, but in the picture in fell flat and into his eyes. The only thing the bounty poster had right was the color of his eyes in the description that read:

Riptide Florence Dublin wanted for conspiring
against the kingdom.
5,000 Golden Crowns to be brought in alive.

Physical Description:
Dark Brown hair
(Rip rolled his eyes at this one. They had been so close)
Eyes of varying color
(At least they got that right)
Height of 5'4"
(Rip snorted. He was 5'8")
18 years of age
(Rip wasn't surprised that his foster father didn't know his age and had given him an extra two years)

Warning: Fugitive may be dangerous. Use
caution while hunting.

Riptide found himself smiling at the last part, which they had made another mistake on. Danger wasn't just a possibility while hunting him; it would be a guarantee. With a shake of his head, Rip torn the flyer off the storefront window and stuffed it in his pocket. It wasn't everyday he got to be a fugitive worth so much money. He found it oddly satisfying and wanted something to keep with him as a reminder. The king obviously cared about him in some way. Sure it was never in the protective fatherly way he had always craved for, but to Rip being hated was better than being ignored.

In a way the poster hadn't even gotten his name right. If anyone had ever cared about him they would know he didn't go by Riptide Florence Dublin. He was Riptide Allens. When his father had thrown him away and the king had kept him prisoner for six years Rip decided he wasn't a part of either of their families. The only person who had loved him, truly loved him, was his mother. She had died shortly after giving birth to him, but he knew she had to have loved him. Another way of thinking would have destroyed him long ago. So he took her maiden name, Allens.

Riptide Florence Dublin had died long ago, if he had even existed in the first place. 'No.' Rip thought about it. He had been that boy, that Riptide with both his "fathers's" names. He had been that boy for years when he had trained as a good little knight in the king's army.
Following orders without a second thought because that was what he had been taught his whole life. Riptide Allens had just been born. The second he became a fugitive and started to think for himself. This new Riptide could not be controlled. He was his own man now and no one could stop him, not even the king himself.

If King Florence had hoped the high bounty on his head would frighten Riptide, he would be sorely disappointed. Instead of fear, Rip felt a new strength fill him. Before he had been unsure of what he was doing, but the king had shown him what he needed to see. Rip was once a slave to the king's army. He used to believe in valor and dying for a good cause; fighting the fight against music, but that have never been something he had believed in. He had done it for his king, his father, in hope that he wouldn't be disowned again. But the cause hadn't been the right one. Music and it's vessels had never done anything to him, unlike the king he had fought.

Walking down the street and toward the city StoneCold, Riptide realized he had a new meaning in his life now. A meaning in the form of a short girl with a world of insanity in her eyes.

* * *

A desert, vast and dry, formed right before Rip's eyes. It was beautiful in a peaceful, clear sort of place.