Uncle Aleks and the Little Girl

Cealith noticed me moving away and called out loudly, "Aleks, where are you going?"

"Hey, come here, quick," I shouted.

I didn't wait for him to answer and just started running. I pushed into the trees, branches scratching my arms, and for a second I thought I'd lost direction. Everything looked the same—tall, thin trees in every direction I turned. Then I heard it from the left, a sharp snap of twigs, like someone tearing branches in a hurry. I cut that way and ran harder. Leaves slapped my face. Suddenly I found the girl from before. She glanced back, panicked, and tried to sprint, but her foot caught on a root and she went down on her knees. She rolled to the side and stayed there, breathing fast.

I slowed before I reached her. My hands stayed open where she could see them. Her shoulders shook. Tears ran down her cheeks and dropped to the dirt.

"Please," she whispered, voice broken. "Please don't hurt me."

"Hey. Breathe. I'm not gonna hur—"

I couldn't finish the sentence. Someone struck me from behind.

"Ow."

I turned around. Amina stood there with her hand still half-raised, the others right behind her. Daisuke hovered wide-eyed. Nikita looked annoyed more than anything. Carmen's eyes were on the girl. Cealith kept a careful distance, lips pressed together.

"What did you do?" Amina said, already moving past me. "Why is she crying?"

"I didn't do anything," I said, rubbing the spot she'd hit. "She was already—"

"Hey. It's okay," Amina said, dropping to a knee. She kept her voice soft as she approached the girl inch by inch. "You're safe now. No one here will hurt you."

The girl tried to scoot away, but Amina didn't push. She waited, then opened her arms. After a long second the girl leaned forward. Amina wrapped her up and pulled her close, one hand stroking the back of her head in slow lines. The crying turned from sharp gasps to smaller sounds that came out between breaths.

"Psst. You're okay," Amina murmured.

She stood with the girl and turned toward the stream. When she faced me, her eyes cut sharp, like if I was the reason any of this had happened. I looked away.

Back at the water, Amina crouched and tilted the girl toward the bank.

"Drink a little," she said. "Slowly."

The girl hesitated, then leaned down and sipped. After a few mouthfuls she sat back against Amina's shoulder. Her breathing had evened out. She still clung to Amina's sleeve.

Amina crossed her arms and stared at me. "Who is she?"

"I have no idea."

"Then why was she crying when we got there?"

I shrugged. "I found her hiding in a bush while we were drinking from the stream. She noticed me looking at her and started running, so I chased after her. That's it."

She shook her head. "Jesus, you really don't know how to deal with kids."

She turned back to the girl. "Let's start simple," Amina said. "What's your name?"

The girl watched her and said nothing.

"Do you know where your parents are?" Amina asked.

Nothing.

"Where did you sleep last night?"

A small shake of the head.

Carmen knelt on the other side and kept her hands in her lap.

"It's okay if you don't want to talk," Carmen said. "You can show us later, if you want."

I shoved my hand into my pocket and felt something soft and fuzzy. It was the teddy bear from before—I'd completely forgotten I stuffed it in there. I took it out and held it toward her.

"This yours?"

Her eyes widened like I'd just handed her the moon. She reached out with both hands and hugged it to her chest. The seams were torn and one ear was missing, but the way she held it made it look brand new again.

"Mr. Teddy," she whispered, smiling for real this time.

That one smile felt like someone had opened a window.

"Do you know where your camp is?" I asked, softer. "Where your mom and dad were yesterday?"

She gave a small nod. Then she lifted one arm and pointed deeper into the trees—not the direction we'd come from, but angling along the stream.

"Can you show us?" Carmen asked.

Another quiet nod.

"Good," Nikita said. "Let's go."

Amina lifted the girl onto her shoulders, hands steady on her legs. The girl settled there like she'd sat that way a hundred times. Amina looked pleased without making a big thing out of it.

"You're not as bad with kids as I thought," she said, glancing at me while she adjusted her grip.

"Thanks?" I said. "I just gave her back her teddy bear."

"And that was the right move," she said. "Just don't make me regret the compliment."

We set off along the stream. The water's sound filled the quiet between us and made the steps feel easier. The girl watched the trees go by over Amina's head. Every so often she pointed and Amina followed the direction. We crossed a patch of rocks where the water ran low and picked up the path again on the other side.

Carmen drifted in on Amina's other side.

"She's so cute," Carmen said to Amina as she looked at the little girl. "Can I hold her for a bit?"

Amina tipped her head. "Sure."

They made the swap carefully. The girl studied Carmen's face up close, then smiled again and patted Carmen's cheek like she approved. Carmen smiled back and bumped her forehead gently against the girl's. The girl giggled and tried to copy it.

"Bro, I wish I was that little girl right now, getting touched like that by Carmen," Daisuke muttered beside me.

"What?" I said, shaking my head and hoping I'd forget that line as fast as possible.

The little girl looked down at me from Carmen's shoulders.

"Uncle Aleks," she said.

Why is she calling me uncle?

Amina shot me a look like she was proud of me for the first time in her life.

After a while we reached the end of the forest. Sunlight spilled through the trees at the far edge of the path. We stepped through and saw, out on the open field, thousands of people gathered together. From a distance you could already make out wooden structures they had built.

"Looks like everyone's here," Nikita said from behind. "And we were wondering where everybody had gone."

The little girl started smiling a bit, tapped Carmen's shoulder, then pointed at me. "Uncle Aleks, we're here."

Once we arrived, crowds of people surrounded us. I glanced to the right—some orcs, elves, and humans were building a structure out of logs. I didn't know what was more surprising: that they'd managed to put something like that together in such a short time, that they worked so efficiently, or how they even got their hands on those logs in the first place.

To the left, some dwarves stood around a campfire. In front of them, dozens of people were lined up like they were waiting for something. Cealith and I were curious what exactly they were in line for, so we moved closer to the dwarves.

We noticed the dwarves were handing something out to the people in line. So we went up to a woman standing there to ask what they were waiting for.

"Excuse me, we have a question for you," Cealith said, asking an older woman who was waiting in line.

"I'm not giving you any of my meat! I've been waiting here for what feels like forever," she snapped at us. "If you want some, then get in line like everyone else!"

"Sorry," Cealith blurted immediately. The poor guy looked terrified. His face went pale. I just stared at the woman. I got that she was hungry and had probably been waiting a long time, but still—no reason to yell like that. Now that I thought about it, though, I wouldn't mind having a piece of meat myself.

Wait—did she just say meat? I hurried over toward the campfire where the dwarves stood. My jaw dropped. They were actually grilling meat right there over the fire. How the hell had I not noticed earlier? In that moment, a thousand questions popped into my head—but the biggest one was: where did they even get that meat?

My stomach growled loud, and hunger hit me hard. I clutched my belly. Not surprising—it had been so long since I'd had a warm meal. Right then I knew exactly what I was going to do. I walked to the end of the line and stood there.

"What are you doing, Aleks?" Cealith asked me.

"I'm hungry," I said.

"We don't have time for this," he shot back. "We need to find this girl's parents."

"But—"

He didn't even give me time to finish. He grabbed me by the collar and dragged me back toward the others. You could see them from a distance—they were the only ones here standing around in the middle of the road looking completely lost. Just seeing them like that stirred some pity in me.

"Ah, there you are," Carmen said when she noticed us.

"We were just about to go look for Uncle Aleks and Grandpa," the girl on Carmen's shoulder said.

"Grandpa?" Daisuke asked, standing between Carmen and Nikita.

The girl pointed at Cealith. "He's a grandpa, right? He's got white hair, and grandpas have white hair."

"Pfff," Daisuke snorted, clapping a hand over his mouth, nearly losing it completely. His eyes flicked toward Cealith's, and that was it—he burst out laughing so hard he could barely stand.

Cealith froze, staring at him, clearly unsure how to react.

Then Amina joined in, laughing just as hard.

"You too?" Cealith said, sounding miserable.

"No—yes—but it's not because of you," she managed between gasps, still laughing, barely able to breathe. "It's just… the way this idiot laughs is too damn funny."

"Hey!" Daisuke barked.

A moment later Cealith cracked a smile and started laughing too. I followed, then Carmen, and finally even Nikita.

We all lost it, laughing like fools—until another laugh cut over ours. It was the girl on Carmen's shoulder. Seeing her laugh like that felt like a relief.

Then a voice rang out over the crowd from somewhere to our right. It was loud, sharp, and it made the girl stiffen in Carmen's arms.

"Mei!"

Her head snapped toward the sound. Her eyes filled with tears again.

"Mei!" a second voice called, closer now.

Two figures pushed through the line of people—a man and a woman. Both looked like they hadn't slept for ages. The woman's hair was pulled back in a messy tie, the man's hands were scraped and dirty. They saw the girl and the world narrowed to a single point.

They ran. When they reached us, both dropped to their knees in the dirt at the same time. Carmen crouched fast and the girl slid off her shoulders. She fell into them like a spring uncoiling.

"Where were you?" the woman said between sobs. "Where did you go? We thought— we thought—"

"We looked all night," the man said, voice cracking. "We were so scared something had happened to you."

The girl pressed her face into her mother's shoulder and lifted the bear with one hand.

"I got lost in the forest," she said.

They laughed through tears in that way people do when they don't know what to do with all the feelings at once. The man kissed the top of her head. The woman kissed her cheek again and again like she couldn't stop.

The girl pointed at us through the crush of arms.

"But Uncle Aleks and his friends brought me back here to you," she said.

Both parents looked up. Their eyes landed on me first because of the "uncle" thing, and I had no idea what face to make, so I settled for something neutral that probably looked stupid.

"Thank you," the man said. He stood and bowed his head. "We don't have anything to give you."

"You don't need to give us anything," I said. "It's fine."

"Make sure she keeps Mr. Teddy close," Amina said, softer than I'd ever heard her talk to anyone our age. "And make sure she stays close to you."

"We will," the woman said, holding the girl like she'd never let go again.

Carmen rested a hand on the girl's hair for one last second and then stepped back. Daisuke tried to look cool and failed. Cealith gave a single nod without speaking. Nikita stood in the back, staring at the sky like he couldn't care less.

The man squeezed my hand, quick and strong.

"Thank you," he said again.