Chapter 3

As the birds chirped the next morning, I decided to take a stroll around the small village. It was pretty warm looking. A few small homes here and there, a quaint little church, and some chickens roaming the village grounds. Even though it was clear that the people here didn’t seem to be very wealthy nor living in the best shape, nobody seemed to mind! It made me feel…safe.

Not long after I had left Asai’s small home, a small girl ran into me and fell flat on her bottom with a small squeak. As I glanced down at her and began to offer a hand to help her up, something seemingly shot out of nowhere and hit me square in the gut. I hissed as I accidentally bit my tongue. Wavering back and forth onto my feet, I tried to regather my composure and check for what it was that had just hit me, and was met with…another child? Although this time, this “child” was flying straight at me and landed a hard kick to my gut once again. I was sent hard onto my back without warning and found the same child to be standing over me fists clenched to his sides, a smirk on his face, like a man with his trophy hunt.

“Don’t touch Alyz!!” He shouted at me, his face hot red.

“And DON’T-” He froze as the sound of someone sniffling caught his attention.

A bit dazed and confused about what had just happened, I glanced over and saw that the girl, Alyz, was now crying hysterically.

The people around us began to stop what they were doing and stared at us, their faces worried and uncomfortable at the scene before them.

Desperate to make her stop and to ask them both who they were, the boy hopped off me and glared daggers back at me as he moved to the girl named Alyz.

I slowly sat back up and watched as the two children began to speak quietly to each other. That’s when the girl let out an ear-piercing shriek and backhanded the boy so hard that he spun on his heel and landed flat on his face.

I gasped and rushed over to cool down the situation.

“Whoa, what’s going on here, guys?” I asked as I lowered myself onto my knees so that I could reach them better.

“J-JIO! Y-y-YOU IDIOT!” She hollered.

“Err…should you be speaking like that? Aren’t you-?” I was interrupted as the boy cleared his throat as if he were wanting to make a proud speech of some sort.

“I’m 4 and Jio is 7. He’s my big brother. I-I just want…to go…home…” She sobbed.

The girl, though clearly strong despite her small stature and age, was clearly less so on the emotional side of things and I could’nt help but feel sorry for the poor child.

I looked back at Jio, who was still on the ground, but this time, he had moved to lie on his side, his body slowly quivering.

“Then, why don’t you go home?” I asked, not understanding her.

“BE-BE-BECAUSE…” She froze, her mouth dropped open as a shadow slowly approached us from the East, where the opening to the village was.

I glanced over at the boy, and he, too, had stopped shaking.

“I’m sorry, sir, are my children bothering you?” A dainty, soft voice asked me.

I got back onto my feet and glanced up, and felt my face heat up.

It was a short yet slim woman, maybe in her 30s? She had long black hair like the kids and glowing devil red eyes, and matching lips. Her skin was a caramel brown, and her fingers were painted white. Her outfit consisted of raggedy overalls with torn ankle cuffs and one strap was dangling down at her side.

She was rather beautiful. Almost unrealistically beautiful.

“Who? Alyz and Jio here?” I said, forcing myself to make eye contact despite how nervous I felt.

“Yes…those two. Well, they’re being naughty right now. Must be a phase for them, ya know, kids n all.” She winked.

“So sorry that they’ve been bothering you. Name’s Emerald. That’s all you need to know. Imma just…” She bit her bottom lip and shot a look at them both and sighed.

“Imma take ‘em back and teach them how to act their age. If you see us again, don’t mind us! Life’s hard without a man.” She chuckled.

I just smiled back, but as she picked the kids up, Alyz dangling at her side and Jio over her shoulder, my face dropped as Jio slowly brought his head up, and a shiver went down my spine. He looked scared, desperate, and…it was just awful.

With a whisper, he said as loudly as possible, “Please…take us home…”

I just watched as they all walked out of my sight, back deep into the small village, and I began to feel gross inside. Uneasy. At first, I wanted to approach them again, but I forced myself to calm down and not take it seriously. Maybe the bad feeling I was suddenly feeling inside was just going to end up on being nothing…? At least, I hoped so…