(first released on scribblehub by author Nanayamichan.

23rd July 2021, 00:34 cet)

Chapter 34 - helping hands (past)

Yuna's childhood part 2/2.

---Yuna's perspective, in the past--- 

"Yuna, do you want me to do something?" he looked and sounded quite serious. Herod...

Just that small act of kindness, showing care. Asking. Dream. I shook my head. 

I really did want his help, but I'm not sure how. How would I even start to try and form that sentence? It's way too much. 

He grabbed my hand gently and tried looking me in my eyes. But I just watched the rooftops right now, avoiding his gaze. But that didn't last long 

"but, we can't just.. I can't not report this Yuna.." 

I looked at him as, the words came out of his mouth. 

"but what would help if you do report it?" I asked. I met his eyes with mine and we stared at each other for a moment. 

He looked disgruntled. It looked like he got way more pissed off for each second. 

"I'll take care of it. Wait here" he said as he quickly shackled my wrist to the wall on the walkway I sat on with some sort of magic cuffs, one cuff around my wrist and one cuff he just smashed into the stone and it just stuck to it. 

"wha.. What! Let me go!" he just shook his head as he walked off.

"Sorry, not sorry. You'll understand when you're older. Promise." he smiled wide at me as he said that word, promise. Gah, sometimes I want to hit him. 

"no, don't worry about it, you can't fix it, it won't make anything better" I spat out what excuses and things I could come up with as he walked off holding his fingers in his ears for a bit while doing a "lalala" sound as if to tell me to just give it a rest. 

I sighed and sat down. Taking the hint and stopped trying to throw excuses after him. 

I started humming on a melody for myself instead. 

He gestured at someone below once he was at the stairs leading to the ground level. Then he pointed at me. I kept watching him of course. 

It was a guard he had waved at, who came up next to him. It looked as if they exchanged a sentence or so, maybe more, hard to tell from this distance. Then he turned at me, smiled and waved before disappearing down. The other guard looked quite pissed off after what he'd been told so I guess he either teased him or told him about the situation… not 100% with this guy. He might've told an even more horrible story than the real thing. Who knows. 

He then seemed to calm down as he walked towards me. Or, more like he tried to and you could really see he tried his best to just push down anger. 

It sort of looked like he mumbled something as he approached.

The mumbles faded and were replaced by nervously scratching the back of his head as he got real close. 

I looked up at him. Maybe 2 meter tall, big... No... Huge, human. Or... I can't tell cause of his helmet and his, looking away awkward stance. 

It might be a vampire or some other human looking race. A wolf has a different stance, tortoise has a big giveaway, dragonoid different stance and height but who am I kidding, they're probably extinct. 

He was dressed in armor top to toe, plate, so you can probably understand why I'm having a hard time telling what race. Not that it matters. 

Full white plate with a grey shield on the front and a symbol in blue was printed over it, "W.G.". 

I could probably only see his eyes from the right angle through the helmet. 

And if he lift up the visir I guess I'd see his face. 

He's standing angled looking in over the city while awkwardly giving me a glance every now and then, as if he was about to start saying something but got to embarrassed to even start saying the first word on his mind so instead he clenched his spear harder and looked away. 

Sigh, I guess I'll start. This is boring. And I'm curious. I stopped my humming and did a "pst" sound, followed by, 

"hey, you.." 

He turned his head in surprise as I had spoken, looking back and forth a bit. Is there anyone else nearby to speak to besides you, you dumbass… 

"Yeees geeez, yooou." I pointed at him to make it super fucking obvious for the poor embarrassed guard as I dragged out the word in a teasing tone. 

He chuckled a bit. He took it well at least! 

He kneeled down next to me and lifted his visir. Oh, this is one of the Swira. They're a water race, looking like humans in structure but having a resilient crablike shell covering their bodies all over! And those shells can regenerate if they're detached. Its supposed to be hard as steel and just as hard to break. His face looked red, but that was probably his shell color. It sort of looked like he had another helmet underneath that was real tight. But its the shell, its like lots of smaller plates in their face. 

I guess the shell can't cover joints completely. 

I've read about them once when I was with a client, I had some time I was waiting and the client had tons of books. I actually stole that one book since I was so fascinated by the race. 

The crabshell swira is just one out of several variants of their race too. 

He leaned his spear against the wall. He had a sword sheeted too apparently. 

"What is it miss?" he looked a bit uncomfortable. Oh, I was probably silently staring out into the air as I got lost in thought there for a moment. Woops. 

"What's your name?" I asked. I guess I had an overall depressive aura going on. 

"You don't need to know that right now, just in case." he smiled a forced smile as he answered. 

"What is Herod doing?" I answered as I pouted, sort of. Tried to look pouty at least. 

"I'm not at liberty to say, sorry." he started to prepare to stand, so I intervened with another question quickly. "Is he going to kill my parents?" I looked at him dead serious. I had a gut feeling. 

"umh, I can't say miss." he seemed to clench his fists as he heard about my parents and he looked visually more irritated. Yeah, he's going to do something very illegal… 

"Oh okay. I understand." I looked down on the ground. "I hate them both. I wished they'd die." I paused and stood up in the walkway beside him, kicking the wall lightly. Well, if he does kill them, good riddance. 

"Am I bad for wishing that?" I asked and glanced at him. 

"Oh no no.. No, you're not bad for wishing that about those people, miss" he waved his hands and got a bit panicky, like he genuinely cared. "no, not about them. Don't worry" he smiled at me. Then I can assume that irritation wasn't just because he got annoyed I asked him things. He was just irritated about something else. 

"Your parents.." he clenched his fists again. 

"Well, with how you look, I can only assume they might deserve what you wish for them.", he muttered out. I smiled. There are good people out here. I looked out over the ocean. I guess its obvious now. He must've heard from Herod. He's angry seeing what people can do to innocent kids. 

"A child doesn't normally say things like that." He spoke normally, calm, now. 

"I've met many kids in my work, but I've only ever heard that being said once before coming from a child your age's mouth." he really looked irritated now. He was squeezing his swords hilt tight. 

"And I regret each day I didn't make that young boy's wish come true every day now.". He looked down. A tear fell. Oh, it's a soft spot for him. Aha… now I get the irritation. I didn't mean to make him cry.

"Aw, Mr, sorry.. I didn't wanna make you cry.. Or drag up a painful past.." I reached out to him and put my hand on his arm. 

"It's okay. How old are you anyhow?" he dried his eyes with a handkerchief he had stuffed down the armors left bracer. 

"I'm 6 Mr." I tried to smile at him. He looked shocked as he heard it as his eyebrows shot up and eyes widened. 

"So young. I'm sorry you've had it this rough mam." he reached out his arm and put his arm on my shoulder. "But it's gonna be fine, I promise." 

We hugged each other. 

Then we both heard something. 

I heard Herod yelling something. 

"Ah, that's our que!" the guard said and snapped the part of the cuff that were anchored into the wall and snapped it to his left wrist and lifted me to his left shoulder. 

"Hold on to me, sit here". He held me with his left arm though so I didn't feel like I needed to hold on. We jumped off the wall and he landed on his feet. The ground cracked a bit where he'd landed. This guy was a strong one. Damn. 

Herod was there meeting us. 

"Let's move to Liliths base quickly, the patrols can't catch me." he was dressed in black, like some sort of assassin… he was a tad out of breath. What, did he? He chanted something and all of this guys armor turned pitch-black as well and unreflective too. 

We ran off at an incredible speed. Towards… Liliths base? Who is that? 

"I've talked to the peacekeepers as well, or Lilith, she will guard her and make sure she goes to school. She's preparing a building for her." Herod explained the situation. His friend nodded. They climber up buildings and ran on the rooftops instead of the streets doing pretty amazing jumps. It was a beautiful view jumping on roofs during the night. 

"So, did you..?" Herod nodded. "It's done." he said dead serious and calm. 

We kept running. "Good." the guy I was riding on mumbled and looked really happy all of a sudden.

The opposite of his previous facial expression. 

They jumped down and ran over to a gate. We had arrived at a base, military base by the looks of it. They flashed a flashlight from a tower and the gate opened a moment after the light hit us, then the light went out. We walked inside and the gate closed behind us. 

He put me down inside. 

"Here you'll be safe kid." he smiled. They were both panting lightly. 

It looked like a shooting range to our left along the wall, and different one in the corner that I couldn't really make out. All pretty shoddy quality by the looks of it. Worn down. And some big military building to the right. And right ahead of us looked like an entrance to some other building. I couldn't make out the letters above it from here in the dark, it was all the way over at the other end of the yard, to the right side of the shoddy worn out dummy things in the left corner. 

It looked like more buildings behind there when I glanced down that path but they pointed to the first door to the right. 

We walked toward it, me and Herod, the other guy waved us off and seemed to exit again as we entered the room. I just stayed quiet. 

We got into what looked like a workshop. It had all kinds of interesting things I've always wanted to fiddle with. Oh god, it's not just things. They have the latest in enchanting equipment! Chisels, tables, gems, engravers and magic forges and more. 

"Woaw, your eyes lit up little one?" A female voice. A cat lady came walking. She really was small and slim, with black fur. 

Maybe 166cm tall. Brown glowing eyes. About 78,5cm measured around her chest, meaning boobs included. 

67cm measured around the torso below the boobs and a 60cm waist. 74cm ass. She was beautiful. She had a short haircut. Her hair reached her shoulders. She had sidecuts shaved by the temples. Sideway bangs, going from short at the left to long at the right side reaching her cheek. Seemed to be black. And she'd colored in a bright pink line that was going with the bangs, the right side from an onlookers point of view. 

She ruffled my hair and smiled. 

"Like enchanting huh?" I nodded. I'd only read some stolen books.. But it interested me something fierce. I had been salivating it seem since I got inside this room. 

"I'll get you a good teacher then! And you can fiddle with all this stuff tomorrow, but for now, let's get you food and sleep okay?" she smiled at me and held out a hand. I took her hand

She turned towards Herod. 

"And nice initiative Herod, I'll see you Monday, report in the main room." she saluted him and we turned around towards the main room ourselves. 

"I only did what was right, I can prove myself at the test mam." he bowed. 

"That's why you're in, don't argue. That's an order. Good night!" Lilith waved and we kept walking. Lilith laughed. She turned towards me. 

"We can eat here in the mission room, then I'll fix the building out back for you to sleep in. Sound good?" she smiled at me. I nodded. 

Herod stood frozen a moment. He had gotten accepted, by the commander herself. Bypassing all schools, tests, waiting periods...

He wasn't sure how to react. As he unfroze he was smiling wider than ever and yelled back, "Understood mam, goodnight!" Then he went home. 

We waved Herod off and got inside. 

Lilith and I ate. She didn't have to tell me twice. We sat down In what they called the mission room. It was a buffet for me, all kinds of good things lined up to pick from. 

We didn't talk much as we ate. I was to focused on stuffing my face as if it was my last meal. It wasn't, but. The way I've lived it becomes a habit. 

Lilith grabbed what she wanted fast, mostly meat, then ate slowly. 

"What do you want me to do with the dishes?" I asked. It's the least I can fix after giving me a meal this size for nothing. 

She laughed at me. 

"Let someone else take that in the morning. We got cleaners." she shook her head, got up and ruffled my hair. 

"You're so damn cute." she mumbled. 

I crossed my arms and blew up my cheeks, to bring out the pouty look and said "please don't ruffle my hair, mam" 

She just laughed a bit and waved, motioning me to follow. "You might be the only one who's talked back to me yet" she said, sort of giggling while she said it. I guess it was amusing to her. I don't get it, she seems super nice. 

We went out a door to the right of the one we came into this room from. 

First we had entered a research room of sorts, then gone right from that entrance which landed us in the mission room. 

This door apparently lead outside, to behind the big building you saw on your right from the yard's entrance. 

When we stood outside behind the building we'd just been in, I stopped. 

"what is it?" Lilith asked. "I can sleep with you if you don't wanna be alone." She said, smiled at me and hugged me. Aw. It's like she can read minds. Or well, at least she's good with faces and guessing. 

"Oh yes please... Its also.. You're so kind... And just handing me a whole building and all. Why?" I was tearing up, you could hear it in my voice. I dried my eyes off with my hand. I started crying uncontrollably. It just got real. That a this nice person, is helping me out of everyone. To the extent she approved the, umh, removal… of my parents and approved covering it up I suppose?...

"I got some new clothes in there as well for you… And because it's the right thing to do, and I could fix it." I stopped crying and dried my eyes. she let go and looked me in the eye. 

"You can't always fix everything, but when you can. Well, I always do the best I can for this ungrateful town." she smiled at me. I started sobbing again. She was so nice, and so cute. She really was beautiful. "Plus, I really really like you. But keep that a secret." she winked at me and giggled. I smiled really stupidly and wide. She just forced one of those pure happy smiles out of me. 

She walked up to the entrance of the building behind the mission plus research building. 

she opened the door, and... A whole room, with a really big bed. But Also filled with enchanting tools, a sewing machine, instruments for enchanting experiments and more magical things. Also some armor and weapons. A stack of clothes was placed on the bed. 

"Throw what you got on now and pick something to sleep in if you want, or look at it tomorrow." she smiled and walked over to the bed "no rush though!" and then she started to undress. 

"can… I use all this... Stuff as I want...?" I mean, it could just be stored here... Its just too good to be true otherwise. 

"Well, of course. Use it at your hearts content. If you need more of something just tell me." she chuckled. It's true. This is… Amazing. 

Lilith had removed all her clothes and was naked. She got in bed. It was a pretty big bed, maybe 200cm wide. Damn. This is the nicest person ever. Why am I this lucky. Do I even deserve this? 

"Now come to bed, I'm tired." she said and smiled at me and then let her head fall back on the pillow. She patted on the sheets next to her. 

She even slept here cause she'd assume I wouldn't wanna be alone. I want to work here when I grow up. I want to help her back. I nodded for myself. Yup, I need to become useful for her somehow. 

I then threw my clothes and crawled under the sheetes and up close to Lilith and laid my head on Liliths chest. Lilith opened her eyes surprised. "Umh.. Ah,'' I looked at her, she was blushing. "what?" I asked nervously. Lilith sighed. "nevermind. Sleep well." she giggled, clearly still blushing. She clapped her hands and the lights went out and the lock made a metallic sound. Then she put her arm around me, squeezing me tight. (Lilith had not put anything on after undressing by habit, and didn't realise.)

I fell asleep almost immediately as I thought, human warmth... This is lovely… and her boobs are nice too, pretty good pillows. 

That night I had a dream. A kinda weird one. 

A small wolf, a blue bird, a lizard, a cat and a foxdemon is dancing together around a green fire on top of a mountain. 

Then a rabbit lady who's a princess, a fox demon, and an elven angel gathered together in a dance and descended. They're ripping out the heart of the rabbit princess on a bed of red flowers. 

Then the demon whispered to the rabbit princess, your fox demon and elven angel will become black and white, emerge she will, as the sun is at its highest highest point in the sky. And your heart will be returned. All the while the demon gestured along with its whispers. Everyone smiled at me. Wait. I was the one they… whispered… 

Then in the background of it all, someone watching it all as we danced and sang. A beak, in black, with a cloud around it. Slowly lifting his index finger up in front of his face. And I heard a shushing. Then the dream faded out. 

I woke up, sweaty

I wasn't sure what it meant, and I was confused as I woke up in the middle of night just as the man in the beak mask shushed… Wait, was it a man? I just saw a mask. "Wait, Yuna, why do you care." I mumbled to myself, shaking my head. I shrugged and cuddled down again and soon fell asleep again