His family had recently bought a whole slew of new of items to sell, but there was one small problem. The items were being stored at the harbor city, a good little trip out of the way. Ashton had been 'volunteered' to retrieve to merchandise. Normally, he wouldn't have even considered doing something like that and chose to work on his skills as a swordsman instead, but they appealed to his sense of curiosity by saying there was a surprise waiting for him when he arrived. The catch was that he had to be present to receive it. So Ashton had grudgingly accepted and now he sorely wished he hadn't. He sighed once more and watched the trees roll on, observing the passing scenery with more of an interest in the landscape than what lay ahead.

"Keep your hands off me!" Claude shouted as he was hauled for the umpteenth time to a little room in the back. The two men holding onto his arms ignored him and focused on keeping their gripes. 19-year old, Claude Kenni was smaller and almost half the size of his captures, but he wasn't weaker than them. Years of difficult training since his childhood had made him quick and strong. So his owner was forced to send two guards instead of one to retrieve him. One to make sure no one tried anything and the other to keep the young man subdued.

Claude had short, blonde hair the color of ripe corn and wide, sapphire blue eyes. He wore whatever his owner let him, so they weren't intended to suite Claude's taste.

"Shut up! If you weren't so valuable, I'd get rid of you, you worthless piece of crap," Claude's owner retorted. Crossing his arms and muttering under his breath, "Never knew there was such a market for blondes. Especially male ones."

Shaking his head, his owner watched Claude with a wary eye. Claude had nearly gotten away AGAIN! Normally, if another of his 'workers' had done half the things, no, a quarter of the things Claude had done, he wouldn't have a second thought about doing away with them. But Claude's looks had attracted so many customers that he couldn't afford to kill him.

"Take him back into his room and get the stuff ready," his owner instructed. "There's a customer waiting and I don't need him to make more trouble for me. The customer paid well to be 'entertained' and I intend to make sure the moneybags comes back. Now, get the lead out!" "When I get free, you're the first person I'm killing Shin!" Claude threatened as he was shoved into the room. The door was closed with a slam, sealing Claude away. Shin still couldn't help feeling like someone had just walked on his grave. He knew that what Claude had said would come true, but that was only in the unlikely event that he got free. Shin, however, decided to play it safe and did everything in his power to make sure that didn't happen. He happened to like life after all.