Aldren was by no means a foolish man. In his thirty six years he had accomplished much, exceptional adventurer, guild leader, a man of means, opportunist, and in his eyes a philanthropist. As he heard Asher tell his story, he couldn’t resist anymore, he had to find some way to bring this boy under his wing. The pure, unadulterated talent just waiting to be sculpted was too much of an opportunity for him to pass up. What Asher represented was a change to this world, and Aldren was going to be there every step of the way to facilitate it.

Jandar along with four of the city guards made their way to the holding cells they had left the boy in. They stormed into the building and caught the guard who was on duty rubbing the sleep from his eyes, the door to the boy’s cell was open and the cell empty. Jandar’s face went pale and his normally formal demeanor dropped for a brief second.

“I am so fucked..”

“Woah, woah, woah slow down there pal,” confused by the sudden declaration that he now has a daddy “What’s going on with all this son business?”

“It’s very simple and I already explained it earlier,” the man calmly said with Wallace nodding in agreement “You’re technically a fugitive and you have no safety nets to fall back on, no external help, I’m offering that to you. With your attributes, once people find out, you’ll get swarmed by all types of people and governments...more than likely some of them will be shady”

“Who’s to say YOU aren’t shady?!” The child immediately rebutted, “Let’s say if I decide to go along with it, and that’s a BIG if, what benefit are you getting. I’m technically a criminal.”

Asher looked at the man’s face intensely while the man pondered and finally Aldren let out a sigh followed by a grin. “I get the benefit of helping you become someone whose existence won’t terrify me, please just give me the chance.” To Asher, the middle aged man looked genuine, but being genuine didn’t always mean being good.

“I’ll play along for now. I’ll be your son,” Asher said as he got out of his chair and held out a hand. Aldren extended his hand as well and the two of them shook on it. An agreement had been made. “Don’t make me regret trusting you Aldren..er dad.” The word was strange to say, technically speaking, Aldren was maybe only a few years his senior if Asher was counting the years of his past life...which he was definitely counting, despite the fact that his high pitched voice said otherwise.

Wallace, the old butler, was smiling from ear to ear and looked like he was holding back tears. “Today is a wonderful day!” the old man exclaimed. “I get to see the birth of another young master in the house, I’m sure Young Master Felix will also be delighted!”

With their meeting adjourned, the three began to leave the office.

“Wallace, could you please show Asher to his bedroom? I expect we’ll be having company soon,” Aldren began to walk off in a different direction before turning back. “Chapman, that’s my last name so that means it’s yours now too. We’ll hammer out the rest of the details later.”

Wallace politely put his hand on Asher’s shoulder and began to lead him, just like how he had done when he broke him out of his cell. With a big smile on his face he looked at the boy “Come Young Master, your room is just down the hall.” Asher walked into his room and was immediately awestruck. The mansion was nice, and the rooms definitely reflected the wealth it took to build the compound they were in. Asher had only ever seen rooms like this in movies, or on those TV shows where people basically flexed their money. The room alone was probably the same square footage as his old apartment. It was decorated with an ornate desk, a large dresser, wardrobe, and a chest that sat at the foot of his king sized bed...scratch that, California-King sized bed.

Asher jumped onto the bed, noticing that he had a decent amount of hangtime, how high did he just jump? The thing was on the same comfiness level as that deceptive chair in the office, was this magic or something, he’d never slept in a bed as good as this one, he even had one of those form fitting mattresses in his old world. He rolled off the bed and made his way towards the wardrobe. The only clothes he had were the ones he’d come into this world with and those were all torn up and dirty due to his fight with the dragon. He also had this pretty sweet cloak, but he didn’t imagine this cloak would be acceptable enough to let him walk around bare ass in the house or out in the city. He opened up the wardrobe and couldn’t help but let out a chuckle “That sneaky bastard..” he thought to himself. Inside the wardrobe were all types of different clothes, all seemingly his size.

Some time later after making himself at home he heard a knock on the door followed by a familiar voice, “Young Master, it’s time for dinner.”

“I’m coming!” the little boy said from inside his room. Asher figured since he was the son of some rich guy, he may as well dress the part. He had found a purple silk shirt and a nice pair of dress pants in the wardrobe. He had also found some dress shoes to go along with the outfit. As he walked out his room Wallace let out a whistle, “Good choice Young Master, Good Choice! Come, the others are waiting for us.”

The pair had made their way down the stairs and into the dining room where Aldren and a couple other people were waiting. Wallace escorted him to the only empty seat at the table and saw his way out of the room to leave the rest to their privacy. Directly across from Asher was a boy in his mid teens with black hair, who seemed to be annoyed. At the head of the table was Aldren, and on the opposite end of the table was a beautiful woman with jet black hair and fair skin. Ignoring the elephant in the room, him, Asher’s eyes beamed as he looked at the table. The only times he saw spreads like these were during holidays, everything looked great, even the things which he assumed weren’t animals that ever existed on Earth. The centerpiece of this feast appeared to be, in Asher’s opinion, the complete mix between a chicken and turkey...and it looked delicious. He could feel himself starting to salivate, this would be his first real meal since coming to Solaris.

As Asher was slightly lost in thought and excitement over tasting new foods, he heard the patriarch of the family, Aldren, clear his throat.

“Honey, son, this is our special guest. His name is Asher.” The man said, why did he sound nervous?

“A pleasure to meet you darling,” the woman said with an absolutely charming smile “I’m Melanie Chapman, Aldren’s wife.” she nodded towards the young boy.

The angsty teen whom Asher had deduced was named Felix simply grunted a recognition of the boy’s presence. Aldren looked towards the teen as if he were about to scold him but seemed to stop just short before saying anything.

“I’d like for us all to recognize that today is a special day because I have a big announcement.”

This seemed to catch the other two by surprise and Asher simply paid attention to Aldren giving him the courtesy of respect, even though he really wanted to try that turchicken that was practically in front of him...waiting to be devoured.

“What’s the good news honey?” Melanie said as she began taking a sip from her wine glass.

“We have a new son!” Aldren said excitedly prompting Mrs.Chapman to nearly choke on her wine. Felix’s eyes narrowed at his father then looked towards Asher and back to his father.

“Holy shit, he never ran any of this by his family” Asher thought to himself practically face-palming internally...way to rip the band-aid off there Aldren.

“Honey, what is the meaning of this? What do you mean new son? Did you..” Melanie trailed off.

Aldren quickly picked up on what his wife was hinting at and immediately shut down the thought before it could take root. “No no no no, you misunderstand. I didn’t do anything like that dear, but I have made the decision to adopt littler Asher here. He will take on my last name and he’ll be a part of this family. That is why today is a celebration!” Aldren sounded excited, although it may have been a little forced. Perhaps he was hoping his enthusiasm would rub off onto the rest of his family. Asher found himself feeling a bit awkward, he could sense some tension in the air and he was the cause of it. He’d never had much experience in these types of situations, in his old life he was almost universally liked. Some of the people he’d met on his little vigilante ventures probably didn’t think too highly of him, but those people were few and far between. He also didn’t really care about the opinions of people he’d deemed pests to society, that guy he’d left slumped over in the alleyway could feel any way he wanted towards Asher. The wolf doesn’t really concern himself with the opinions of a sheep, or any other animal it’s hunting.

“I don’t want a little brother, especially not some urchin you pulled off the streets.” The teen said making eye contact with Asher. Asher stared back at him, until the teen eventually looked away with a *humph*.

“Well dear, if you feel so strongly about this boy..” Mrs.Chapman made a point to look at the boys then her husband “We do have the means. Does he have no family, or alternative options?”

“No he doesn’t,” Aldren said firmly. “We’ll speak about the details in private, but this was something that couldn’t really wait. He needs us.”

“Well then I guess that settles it, it’s a celebration!” Mrs. Chapman said with a big grin and another sip of wine, this time without choking. She looked at Asher with a friendly face and simply said “Welcome to the family Asher, we’re happy to have you here.”

“Speak for yourselves,” Felix grunted as he began putting food on his plate.

Asher ignored the boy’s remarks, kids will be kids, but Felix did do something that Asher approved of. He gave the greenlight to start digging in and Asher immediately went for the turchicken. He took a bite and the only word to describe the feeling was ecstasy. The dragon, powers, jail...none of it felt real. Once he took a bite out of that oversized bird’s leg it finally sunk into Asher that he was in a completely new world. New sights, new smells, people, food...the whole shabang. How exciting!

The rest of the evening continued on with an air of happiness and celebration, minus the few verbal pot shots that Felix took at Asher. Aldren got what he wanted, Melanie seemed to be okay with it, Felix being Felix, and the food was great. Asher couldn’t complain. After the festivities Wallace escorted Asher back to his room. The food baby was real.

“Hey Wallace, where’s the bathroom?”

“At the end of the hallway to the left, do you wish for me to escort you there Young Master?”

Asher laughed, “No thanks Wallace, I appreciate the gesture though. I think I can handle it.”

Asher made his way into the bathroom, dropped the browns off at the superbowl and returned to his room. He stripped down to his underwear and as he lay in his massive bed he couldn’t help but voice his thoughts.

“Maybe this won’t be so bad after all”