Run.

Run and don't stop.

Run or you will be caught.

Those thoughts had been his constant companion for days now. Running, getting as far away from his former home as he could, was all he had.

It was his only chance, even if it meant going into the unknown depths of the forest.

ALL things considered he had done surprisingly well so far. Stopping only long enough to eat and sleep, he had managed to escape oppressors and avoid the many monsters that inhabited the vast woods he had entered.

But it could not last. He was out of food, starving and utterly exhausted. He only just managed to stumble to the edge of a river, collapsing there. Throwing his face in the water he refreshed himself with what little energy he had left, then rolled over and Lay upon the shore. His empty stomach cried out for sustenance he had no strength to provide.

A tree full of fruit on the other side of the river seemed to mock him, but he would never be able to swim there in his current state, even after resting. All he could do was close his eyes, reflect on the events that led to this and, hope for a miracle.

He sighed to himself.

“You should have expected this Carter..."

Carter. No Last name. He'd never been given one, and the name he had was simply a mock title for his job, carting goods, illegal and otherwise, from one place to another.

That life of servitude was all he'd ever known. He'd been born into it, his mother (he'd never even been told her name) a prostitute working in a brothel run by the city's organized crime boss, an imposing and charismatic man named Jiro Alva. Or at least that was what he had been told, he truly didn't remember his mother. Addicted to drugs Jiro provided her, she spent all her time working in the brothel to pay him back. Carter had barely been weaned when she died of an overdose, having never even bothered to name him. According to Jiro he was only even kept alive to pay for his mother's debt, a debt that seemed to never go down.

In a situation Like this most children would have grown up with stunted personalities, ignorant of how their lives were supposed to be. Yet

Jiro had made a critical error in Carter, as he did not keep him ignorant. In order for him to tell packages apart and deliver them to the right places he had been taught to read, and this had opened up the world to Carter.

For Jiro could not keep him under his eye at all times, nor did he try to. Carter was utterly dependant on him after all for food and shelter.

Thus in his time off Carter was able to exercise his childhood curiosity by spending time in the city's library. Very quiet by nature, the brown haired, brown-eyed child was rarely noticed, and the library, despite being in a city run by a crime lord, was in fact one of the best around thanks to wealthy donors in its earlier history.

In this way Carter learned about the world, and the injustices of his own situation. It was not an easy or quick thing, indeed a whole book could be written about the trials he had growing up without proper guidance, love or role models. Well not completely without, some of the people in Jiro's employ were decent enough and victims of circumstance like him, but they could only contribute so much to raising him.

Regardless, somehow Carter reached his teens wise for his age and not utterly mentally damaged. He'd even avoided getting hooked on Jiro's drugs. Carter figured it was the one way his life had not been completely unlucky.

By his late teens Carter had realized his mother's debt was nothing but an excuse to keep him under Jiro's thumb, and that he would be the crime boss's errand boy for life if he didn't do something. Yet going to the authorities was not an option, he didn't know which ones were on

Jiro's payroll or simply too afraid to stand up to him.