"Sometimes, the hardest thing is letting go. Forgetting. But that shouldn't make you any less hopeful about what the future brings."

-- Blanche

___

Adrian opened his bright blue eyes. The sun was already up. It looked about noon. He wiped is watery eyes and turned sideways down to the earth. He spotted a fat slug squirming its way across a leaf. 

Hmm. It's not much, he thought, but this should suffice me for lunch until I can find something else to eat.

He sighed as he picked up the slug. It started wiggling, trying helplessly to get out of his grasp. He sighed.

"Gods above," he muttered. "Sorry little guy," he said as the slug stared at him with tiny round eyes. "You were probably going to die anyway if I didn't end you first." He opened his mouth and closed his eyes, lowering the slug to its impending doom. 

At the last minute, though, he opened his eyes to have a tiny peek at the cute face of the slug one last time, and he dropped it. He couldn't help it! It was definitely making a sad face at him. 

"I'm sorry, tiny slug!" he apologized. "You're just so cute, and I almost ate you, and I - I'M SO SORRY!"

If the slug wanted to say something, it didn't make a big deal out of it. Probably because it was a slug, but Adrian chose to believe that the crawling away meant that he had been forgiven. He collapsed against a nearby tree and blew a breath out. He rubbed his face. 

A slow clap from above him made him jump.

"OH MY GODS - oh, hey, Adela!"

Up above him on a low tree branch, his best friend in the entire kingdom (which was very large by the way, although he hadn't seen much of it), Adela, was sitting, legs crossed, with a serious expression on her face, clapping. 

"Well done, young Adrian. You single-handedly saved that poor slug from being eaten. I mean, anyone could do that, but you saved that particular slug. Little do we know, right now he's going back to the secret slug kingdom and is asking their ruler to set up a trade route with us because he's a noble and he thinks that a trade route would stop them from getting eaten by birds."

"Pfft, no way," Adrian said, brushing his thick red hair out of his face. "He's the slug prince. I think I'll call him Gregory. "

"Who said that the slug was a boy?" Adela asked, flipping over the branch and holding on by her feet. "Maybe it's a girl," she hummed, looking at him upside down.

Adrian shrugged. "Okay then. She's the slug princess. How about . . . Gregoria?"

Adela smiled. "Ouch." She dropped out of the tree branch. "That hurts. So, when'd you get up? I arrived when you were about to eat the slug."

"A few minutes ago," Adrian answered. "Like, maybe ten."

Adela shook her head. "Adrian, you really need to stop taking animals' lives so seriously. I mean, I eat chicken a lot. There's plenty of them, trust me. Their lives aren't like a hierarchy or anything. They're just normal chickens. In the grand scheme of things, their lives don't matter. Neither did that slug's."

"It wasn't just a slug!" Adrian protested. "It was Gregoria! Our slug! Or maybe it's Gregory, I don't know. I didn't ask."

Adela sighed. "Sword training?" she asked, pulling out a sharp silver sword. 

"Yeah! Let me just-" Adrian half-finished as he reached in a large hole that the tree had to retrieve his sword. Adela sighed and smiled.

___

Isalsa yawned, low and loud. She shifted in her very comfortable bed and glanced at her nails. She tapped one. Strong and sharp. Just how she liked it. She yawned again and turned over onto her stomach and buried her hand in the fabric.

"Erm - Miss - Miss Isalsa?" a voice from in front of her whimpered. Isalsa snapped her head up.

"Yes? What do you want?"

"A letter. For you." The servant handed her a letter. Islalsa read and crumpled it up with an angry grunt. 

"I'm leaving. Don't follow me. We don't want an accident, now do we?"

___

A bit of a short chapter, but I like it. I think it's a good way to introduce characters. See you all soon!