Chapter 5 - “Adoption”(Past)

 

In the Past...

---Daeron’s perspective---

 

I was starving.. 

Felt weak.. 

I looked through the streets for something to eat.. 

My clothes were torn, I must look thin and sick by now too. 

I had been wandering around the streets of Reatown now for two weeks just trying to stay alive. 2 weeks... Since I saw my parents getting murdered before my eyes by two humans dressed in robes.

 

They ambushed us in an alley late at night in the central west part of block 3. We were just walking, looking happy and chatting as we were on our way home. Then they jumped my parents out of nowhere and gutted them for seemingly no reason.. They were just minding their own business.. 

Then the attackers yelled out loud about "how we were filth" while doing it. And when they weren't explaining that we were filth, they were laughing menacingly. 

 

I cried as I thought of it.

But, it was as if I had no energy to produce any more tears. I Clenched my fists.

"cmon Daeron, you gotta push on" I said to myself. 

"Cat-men never give up, as dad used to say." I told myself, and I told myself that a lot. 

 

I was to the south in block 4 right now. Going through the backstreets of the so-called restaurant street that was below the marketplace (or market-square, as it’s a square area) and the family park or playground, I've heard people call it both. (The park was right next to the marketplace, east side. and was about the same in size as the marketplace)

Some other homeless person I met had given me a tip to go search for food in the trash on this street.. He had said they often threw out perfectly good food and that the shopkeepers often didn't mind you taking it if you weren't making a mess. They’d even give the trash bag to you if you were waiting out back. 

And Sure enough, behind a bakery I opened a trash-can and found a ton of baguettes thrown away in a big bag, I saw them sticking out the opening of the bag. 

I reached down and took out the bag and sat down by the wall adjacent to the restaurant's backside. 

 

There were a couple apartments on the streets, but it seemed like it was all restaurants in a row here going from the canal to the west to the east end of block 4 by the seawall. 

"Finally, food." I said and attacked the baguettes. 

As I ate I noticed two shapes closing in in the distance down the street. 

I kept shoving food in me. 

As they got closer my heart started to beat rapidly. 

"fuck" I got up and ran north, I thought towards a public place was my best bet to survive. 

It was those robed lunatics again, if they catch me.. 

"Hey, wait you filth! Come back here!" one yelled. 

"We're just gonna make it more painful if you run you damn filthy halfling!" the other yelled.

I just kept running, towards my best bet. 

"Damn scared cat, you really are filth." one yelled as they caught up with me. 

One of them grabbed me and threw me so I flew a few meters and I fell on my back. 

"ouch, stop it" I yelled..

"why are you after me, I didn't stea-" he interrupted me.

“Quiet scum! People like you should just be exterminated anyway, poor no good filth!” he said as he raised his sword. 

I closed my eyes. I guess this is it. 

…

Nothing happened. 

I opened them and a tiny girl was standing in their way blocking them. And they staggered back. 

 

---earlier the same day, Nana’s perspective---

 

I was at the playground, or park as some refer to it, next to the market square in block 4, just east of it. They were built side-by-side. 

My parents were shopping and probably taking a drink with some friends of theirs, I'm not sure. They left me here with Kiwi to play, I guess they weren’t all that afraid someone would steal me since I outleveled a vast majority of people in magical power even at the age of 5, my mom trained me daily in magical skills too.

So I guess I knew a thing or two. 

I also had Kiwi who went into protective mode if I got scared. 

 

You could see a row of stands from where we were playing to the west of us. 

There was a big sandbox on the “playground”, a row of about 10 swings and that was it. 

 

Then there was a line of benches and tables to the south of the playground for parents to sit, watch their kids and maybe eat since there were stone barbecue grills set up along the benches, and a lot of fancy looking trees planted with bushes and flowers. It did look like a pleasant place to sit and eat.

 

There was also a quite nice romantic walk you could take to the east of where I was, leading through and around the park. 

They had planted trees, bushes and flowers, which made up the park. 

And they had made a nice walkway with benches to pause on for couples. 

It was quite a big park to be fair, at least the size of the marketplace. 

So I guess it was more of a location for people to meet, grill, eat, drink outside and maybe take a romantic walk in the park while having a sandbox to put their kids in.

 

I liked building sandcastles, the other people looked quite surprised as I made quite huge constructs appear from the ground. 

I got quite popular with the other kids that way. Well, I have no friends and got no friends this way.. They just wanted me to create things, which I sort of enjoyed so I didn’t mind, but they were too afraid to actually play with me.

They asked me to create structures for them as they saw me creating towers, houses, boats and all sorts of things from the ground in the playground. 

I stood in the sandbox, I had just created a normal looking house for 2 other kids who wanted to play “house” or whatever. They bowed deeply and thanked me in a serious manner, as if they’d apologised to an adult, before running off into the sand-house laughing.

I held my hand out and made a tub sort of, then hardened it. 

Sat down in it and I made it levitate. I just lifted it straight up with myself inside it.
“What do you think about this Kiwi?” She flew beside me wagging her tail, letting out a woof.
“Now I can fly with you!” I said happily, and we rose up to double the height of a normal house and looked down on the playground and market.

 

Kiwi sat on my shoulder. 

“Don’t fall now Nana,” she said to me. 

“Don’t worry Kiwi, I'm just holding it up, we’re not moving.” I said and giggled a bit. 

I looked at the people moving around. 

“Those people look like they’re in a hurry huh?” I said.
“Adults are often in a hurry in this realm, Nana.” Kiwi communicated to me. 

She looked at me. 

I probably had an expression on my face like I was deep in thought or troubled.

“Why is that Kiwi? Why can’t they just play.” I said and sighed. 

“That's just how it is Nana.” Kiwi said as she flew a few circles around me, she was about the size of a mouse right now. 

“Those people look like they’re fighting”.I said, pointing at them.

 

Kiwi stopped, looked over where I pointed at. 

 

“Yes, that catboy looks like he’s being assaulted, come, hop on me” Kiwi said and flew under me and grew so I ended up sitting perfectly on her back then we flew towards the fight.

My ‘tub’ I had made fell down, I aimed at it and turned it back to soft sand. “Ops” I mumbled.

-

“Ouch, stop it!” The catboy yelled as he was thrown to the ground by one of the men. 

Some people were staring, a lot of them just ignored it and moved on pretending they didn't see anything since he looked poor and had damaged clothes. 

They perhaps assumed he was a slave or just a thief. 

He held his arm up defending his face. 

“why are you after me, I didn't stea-” The catboy said as they interrupted him. 

 

“Quiet scum! People like you should just be exterminated anyway, poor no good filth!” one of the men yelled. 

 

It was two average height men, I'd say about 180-190 tall, heavily built, wearing robes with hoods. 

One of them was about to strike him with a sword he had drawn just as me and Kiwi dove in, 

 

I held out my hand aimed at the attacker, creating a barrier blocking the strike and he staggered back by the blow as the barrier just returned the force of the blow back into his hand and arm. He swore and held his wrist like he was in pain. 

“What’s this? What are you doing girl?” He yelled out in anger.
“Why are you bullying this boy?” I said, sounding sad as I pouted.

Kiwi was showing her teeth, growling, visible to all at the moment. 

Now up close I could see they were clearly humans and not any of the beast species.
“Oh, you’re a halfling." they both muttered together.

 

"We don’t need to explain ourselves to scum like you, you might as well die too then” He shouted at me. 

Then he chanted something, drawing his hand across his sword's edge, and as he did his sword’s blade was covered in fire.

 

I noticed he had the symbol for fire drawn on his palm. Then he struck again. 

I hadn't dropped the barrier and still held out my hand keeping it up. “Don’t you’ll ju-”

He staggered again by the blow and almost fell backwards. He looked like he was in pain. I did try to warn him, even though he’s a bully...

I felt it actually harming my barrier, not by any noticeable amount of course, it was very low level magic compared to mine.

But it must’ve been a barrier breaking fire he summoned around his blade with the chant.

A fire spell designed to be devastating towards magical barriers, but.. It won’t help much if it’s that weak.

“That’s not nice, so you’re just bullying him because he’s a cat-person?” I said with a sad tone. I started to tear up.
“You… thanks.. you don’t have to defend m-” the catboy said as he was interrupted by the human shouting
“Silence you filth, how can you still block my blade? It should’ve penetrated your puny barrier!” He yelled with a very upset and angry tone as he then grinded his teeth. His face had turned red in anger.

 

The other human with him shouted

“Just die you filth!” and chanted something, aiming his hands towards me as he kept chanting and out came a beam of fire flowing out of his palms which kept on going as he kept on chanting.. A channeling spell, since he keeps on chanting..

I gathered up all the fire that he channeled out into a ball in my other palm that I didn't keep up the barrier with.
“Stop calling people filth you dummies” I yelled, almost crying as I did.

He stopped chanting the beam, jaw dropped, gazing at me.

"what. How. You're just filth" he said, sounding confused, angry and scared. 

I threw the fireball I'd gathered to my right side, creating a deep crater where it landed. I wasn’t thinking. 

I was just sad and angry now. 

These people, just calling him, me, us, halflings, filth. 

What gives them the right. 

Just because they're humans?.. 

My eyes started glowing. 

“What is this?” the one of them with the sword yelled. waving his hand angrily. 

The one who had chanted forth the beam of fire had fallen backwards in surprise. 

Just stuttering “wh..wh..wha. what” over and over.
My eyes started glowing even more. An aura pulsated out from me with magical power. 

"my wounds.. They're.. Healing.." the catboy mumbled confused as he watched his arms heal up before his eyes. 

I lifted the humans up into the air, squeezing them, breaking their bones in their limbs as I raised them higher. 

“You’re not nice..” I said, now with a dead angry look on my face. 

Kiwi was calm and had stopped growling, just observing the show. 

They were squirming up in the air. 

The boy behind me on the ground just stared, looked at what was happening in front of him with his jaw dropped.
“Mom says to always be nice to people, unless they are evil.” I said calmly. 

 

They were yelling out 

“Stop it you filth, how dare you” as good as they could while squirming in pain. You could hear out loud how their bones cracked, made noises. Blood splattered a little randomly from them as the skin broke in several spots on them too.
“Ma-maybe that’s enough, thanks for saving me” the catboy said quietly behind me, reaching out for me.
“Mom says to never hurt anyone, unless they try to hurt me, then I can…” I said and paused for a few seconds gazing at them.

Then I threw them away, they disappeared into the horizon. 

 

I suddenly got tired and laid down on Kiwi. 

The aura stopped and my eyes returned to normal. 

“Are you okay Nana?” Kiwi asked calmly. 

“Yes, I just had to throw away the bullies" I said and yawned. 

"They were mean.” I said with a tired voice. 

 

The boy had gotten up and walked up to me, put a hand on my shoulder. 

“Thanks for saving me. If you had not intervened and done something.. They would probably have killed me.” He said as he dried a tear off with his arm. 

“Are you okay? Did the bullies destroy your clothes too?” I asked, pouting.
he laughed. 

“No my clothes… I’m just poor.” He replied. 

I fixed his clothes. I pointed at them and applied some magical power to restore the structure, couldn't have taken a whole second. 

“There, want me and kiwi to give you a ride home?” I asked, smiling.

“What, how.. thanks.. You’re really amazing” he said, looking at his now new looking clothes on his body. I just smiled at him and gave a thumbs up.

He smiled back, then he looked sad as if he realised something. 

 

He looked down on the ground as he quietly said in a sad tone 

“Well, I don’t have anywhere to live”. 

I looked at him confused. 

“What do you mean?” I said and leaned my head to the left as I looked at him.
“I’m homeless,” he mumbled.

Turning around kicking a stone as he mumbled.. 

“But where are your parents?” I said in a confused tone, putting my finger on my lower lip as I said it, trying to think, clearly not understanding the situation. 

He was just quiet. 

“He doesn’t have any parents Nana, he’s an orphan living on the streets. That might be why those humans were trying to kill him.” Kiwi said to me. 

“Ooooh.” I said, dragging it out for a few seconds.

He looked at me. 

He couldn't hear Kiwi but I guess he thought I understood. 

“Well, come with me then, live with me!” I said in a happy tone, smiling at him, now sitting up again properly on kiwi.
“what?” he said, looking confused.
“Come live with me,” I said again, smiling.
“I can’t do that, what would your paren-” I interrupted him. 

“Don’t worry, they’re the nicest people ever. We explain what happened and they understand” I said, throwing him behind me on Kiwi with the help of some magical force. 

He yelled out in surprise. 

 

“Hold on to me” I said and smiled some more at him. 

“Whaat” he exclaimed as he grabbed my waist and hugged me hard around it. 

"okay.." he said, sounding scared.
“Let's go find my parents Kiwi!” We flew up into the air. 

Kiwi used location magic to find where they were and showed me telepathically, they were just at the south west corner of the market not far away and seemed to be moving towards us. 

“What, we’re flying?” he sort of yelled out. 

“Don’t yell in my ear, yes, we’re flying” I said annoyed.
“And wait. You you.. You just. used magic without chanting or anything?” he yelled out, he had probably just grasped what had happened, being a bit in shock earlier. 

Now shocked by realising what he'd witnessed. 

“Yes?” I said confused and a bit annoyed.
“Yes? what? That's not possible!” he yelled. 

“Stop yelling in my ear please” I said, a bit grumpy as I pouted.
“Oh, sorry. but.. what.” he said, now in a normal but confused tone. 

Hugging me hard as we flew across the market.
“I don’t know any other way, I just.. do it.” I said and shrugged as we closed in on my parents.

“There, my parents!” I waved at them. 

He was still hugging me looking a bit terrified behind me on Kiwi as we flew down towards the ground.
“Nana, has something happened? We were moving towards you, we heard a commotion over from the ea-” dad said, as mum interrupted him, smacking him lightly on his stomach.

“Who is this you got with you?” my mom asked in a friendly tone.
“You can let go now, we’re on the ground,” I said and patted his hands. 

He let go, I jumped off Kiwi. 

 

“This is a boy I saved from some mean bullies that I threw away.” I said and pointed at him.

The catboy waved at my mom and dad shyly.

My mom hugged me. 

“Oh, are you okay?” She asked. 

“Yes mom, don’t worry,” I said with a smile.
“Wait. you... threw away?” My dad said in a bit of a concerned tone, raising his right eyebrow.
“They tried to kill us, so I threw them away,” I said, a bit confused, holding my finger on my lip and leaning my head to the left. 

My dad looked at me, then just started laughing. 

“Who is this then? What’s your name, boy?” my dad said.
“Daeron sir, My name is Daeron. Your daughter saved me.” he said.
“I said he could live with us, he doesn’t have anywhere to go,” I said with a happy tone looking at my mom. 

 

My mom started laughing, dad as well.
“Well, if he doesn't have anywhere to go,” my mom said, giggling a bit.

“Haha, you’re welcome to stay lad. How old are you?” Dad asked as he chuckled. 

" I'm 15 sir.." Daeron said, sounding a bit afraid as he held his left elbow with his right arm looking down into the ground. 

"It's okay, you're safe with us. I'm an alchemist, so you can help me with my work and study my work and help me out" dad said and took a knee in front of Daeron.

 

He put an arm on Daerons shoulder. 

"That way you can see it as working for housing if that feels better for you?" he said and smiled. 

"oh. Yes, that sounds good sir, I love alchemy sir!" Daeron answered, sounding a bit excited. 

"Yay!" I yelled out and jumped on my dad and Daeron, pushing them together in an attempt to try to hug them both. I was wagging my tail quite rapidly.

 

My mom and dad laughed.

Daeron looked a bit uncomfortable, but I felt him feeling happy. 

Kiwi went over and sat next to mom as we hugged, wagging her tail watching us as mom petted her while laughing at us.

"Let's go home and get dinner started," mom said to us.
“I want meat!” I yelled out and ran over and hugged mom. 

“He's cute, mom!” I whispered in her ear and blushed as I hugged her. 

Kiwi shrank and flew up on my shoulder.

“what. Did the wolf just shrink?” Daeron said surprised and pointed.
“You can see her?” Mom and dad both said at the same time. 

Dad laughed. 

“I guess Nana likes you then” mom said and smiled.
“what?” Daeron said and blushed. 

Mom and dad laughed as we started walking home.
“Shut up” I whispered to mom as I blushed.

And that’s how I met Daeron and he became part of the family...