All of You

Doli hurriedly scooped all the jewelry into a case and locked the lid, closing the jewelry stall to the flood of people crowding the streets. She gripped the case in one hand and pulled her mother to her feet with the other.

After the pair was steady on their feet, Doli turned to Misa and said, shortly, "Come with us."

Misa nodded and followed silently behind the pair. From her position, she saw how Doli struggled a little with the large case of jewelry, knowing that it must be heavy for her. Plus, given that she was balancing her mom's weight on her opposite side, the girl must have been quite a hard time.

However, Misa intuitively understood not to help her. This was Doli's job, not hers. Also, she didn't want to push her luck by asking to help even more while the question of whether they trusted her was still quite uncertain.

Turning the corner behind Doli, Misa took inventory of the streets. Here, the atmosphere was entirely different than it was on the main avenue near the village's pretty entrance. Up there, the village was alive with activity, bright with color, loud with song, and had an overall joyful feeling. Down here, between the tall, sunless buildings with little space to walk through, where the sidewalks were underdeveloped with cracks and gaps, and bulging bags of trash stained the stone beneath it, the feeling was broken. The spirit gone.

"It won't be much longer, now." Doli called behind her to Misa, as if she'd been laboring behind or had said something to catch Doli's attention.

Instead, Misa felt a little more concerned about Doli's mom. The woman's head was dipped and knocking back and forth like a pendulum swinging. It worried Misa, her mind automatically going back to the story Prince Ran told her last night. 

More than anything, she wanted to help save this woman. Not sure if believing in herself via the prophecy was a lofty goal, she wanted to save everyone.

Finally, Doli turned to a home tucked into a series of similar-looking structures, noticeably much smaller than those on the main road of the village. She unlocked and popped the door open and quickly shuffled in with her mother. On Misa's way in, Misa noticed Doli turn around and wait for her to cross the threshold of the front door to their house.

"Huh." Doli said and pointed Misa toward the family room at the immediate right of the door. "I didn't have to invite you in like the stories say. You really are human--although, I wonder about your super-bright eyes..."

Misa nodded, a slight, amused smile quirking her lips. "I haven't lied to you."

"Yet." Doli said pointedly and followed Misa into the other room where her mother had already taken a seat on a large and out-of-place armchair. The interior of the space was wildly colorful compared to what Misa had expected it to be judging by its modest outer appearance. Everything inside was almost laughably small, as if shrunken to fit the theme of tininess.

It made Misa think of a family of dwarves.

Doli tugged Misa by the sleeve of her long cardigan and dragged her over to the hardly existent kitchen area. Beside the counter was a fold-out cot on which a small figure lay. Doli pointed. "Him. Heal him first. Please."

It was a little boy, maybe nine, just as sickly as his mother. Wouldn't surprise me if he was worse off, Misa thought to herself, observing how his little body, red and glistening with seat, shook each time his chest rose and fell with labored breaths.

"You can, can't you?" Doli asked, deep emotion which the girl seemed to have been holding back now evident in her voice.

Misa didn't answer. Instead, she grabbed a potion from her pouch and unstoppered it. Within her, she said a little prayer, hoping the Fae potion would work its magic on this little boy. She lifted his chin and pulled down his bottom lip with her finger, allowing her enough space to drop a few drops inside. 

The potion didn't work instantly. In fact, the boy seemed to stop breathing as his chest stilled for more than five seconds. Surprisingly to Misa, neither mother nor daughter panicked; they waited with bated breaths and peeled eyes, until the boy's chest again rose and fell to a dramatic rhythm. 

"Oh!" Doli's mother exclaimed.

Oh damn, oh damn, oh damn, Misa chanted. She feared she might have doomed the child to a speedier death than he was prepared for. Seconds later, however, his rapid breathing slowed to an almost normal pace which sent his mother forward at once.

Urgently, she said, "Give him more. Give him the rest!" Misa happily obliged and watched along with his sister and mother the boy's complexion return to a healthy neutral tone.

With a sound of both relief and exhaustion, the children's mother collapsed backward onto the seat she had been resting in and let tears silently flow down her face. She stared lovingly at her son, and Misa drank the sight in, feeling her own chest swell with emotion. The boy was now sleeping soundly. 

Misa understood that it helped the woman recognize that she was effective, but most importantly, trustworthy.

"Miss..."

"Bola."

"Miss Bola," Misa said, turning to her with a second vial in her hand, "may I?"

Though hesitant, Bola accepted the potion from Misa and, with the most relaxed smile on her face, admitted to immediately feeling a lot better. "I just need some rest." She said.

"Okay," Doli whispered beside Misa and, when Misa turned to the girl, the tears pouring down the girl's face healed something inside of her.

She had felt that this mission was wrong from the start, too fake, too deceitful. But now, this response... It made Misa feel like she was meant to do this all along, that the vampire king was right to send her here, even if for the wrong reasons.

These people need me, Misa thought, giving her attention to Doli as the girl, wiping her tears, tugged again on the sleeve of her cardigan, and I will help them. 

"Could you... Would you mind going back with me? To the jewelry stand. Our family is deeply in debt, you see, for all the medicine we've borrowed. So, the shop mustn't be closed for too long and I... would appreciate the company." Doli finished shyly.

Without hesitation, Misa replied, "Yes, absolutely! I'll help you as best I can."

I'll help all of you.

Misa and Doli chatted jovially while walking back up the way they came. The streets were still desolate on this side of the village, but the noise from the main avenue filtered toward them as they drew nearer. In their five minutes together, Misa learned that Doli wanted to be a songstress, and that her dad had supported her dream fervently before he died of the same sickness that had almost claimed her brother and mom.

"But I'll get to live with them, all thanks to you." Doli said, bumping her shoulder against Misa's arm like a good friend. "They say vampires--or I guess strange people like you, I still have trouble believing that you are completely human--"

"Hey! Shhh." Misa hushed, her pointer finger to her lips and her eyes darting wildly around.

Doli giggled mischievously, "Sure, well, they say your kind is supposed to be scary, but I like you! You are nice and wealthy."

Playfully, Misa rolled her eyes.

"Oh! And pretty, too." Doli finished.

"Wow, thanks for the afterthought," she teased, and made a move to poke the young girl on the side of her head with her finger when--from this moment on--a series of surprise side quests sparked up at them from out of nowhere, and from every direction.

Getting back to the stall was suddenly the real afterthought.

First, they encountered an elderly man crossing the adjacent road right in front of them, stopping them in their tracks. If the way his knobby knees wiggled as he labored by, carrying a sack of potatoes on his back at least twice his size was anything to go by, it was safe to assume that he would be more than grateful for their help. 

"Oh, let us help you!" Misa and Doli cried almost simultaneously. They rushed to his aid, Misa taking the potatoes off his back with ease and Doli looping her arm under his, supporting his weight.

They helped the man to his destination while he commented about Misa, "Never seen you around here, sprout. It's nice to see kind new faces. Raised right, I can tell. Come around anytime!"

Feeling a surprising amount of certainty, Misa promised she would.

Next, they helped a mother juggling a baby and three bags of groceries the remainder of the way to her house. Ultimately, the helped her inside and earned a freshly baked cookie apiece, which they clinked together in cheers on their way out the door. It wasn't long after that in which they encountered a little boy about seven years old.

And oh boy, that little boy...

He asked the pair of them a bajillion questions as they hurried down the main avenue away from him, closer now to the jewelry stand. He asked Doli why her hair was so short--"Is that what makes your head so big?"--and jarringly, if she'd like to come play ball with her sometimes because she looked 'fun.' 

(Her answer was no.)

Mostly, he asked Misa her own set of five million questions, focusing on her startling appearance. He wondered why her clothes were so black and if she'd stolen them--"because there is no way poor people can buy cool things like that!"--and what made her eyes so creepy and yellow.

"Geez, kid, go home!" Doli said, exasperated. "Here." She dug a shiny red apple from the little pouch she pulled off her back and tossed it to the young boy. 

He whooped and took off down the long road, his teeth already dug into the apple's skin. 

"Good riddance." Doli huffed.

"Lord, have mercy." Misa muttered, and together they continued on their way. Just as they were about to reach the merchants' block, they were almost run over by a stray pig, of all things.

"Ah!" The pair screamed, then, "Wanna go after it?" Misa asked, grinning.

"Absolutely."

It was a wild battle but eventually, they managed with the help of a couple random villagers to wrangle to pig onto a looped rope which they used as a lead. Somehow, the task fell on Misa and Doli to return the pig to its owner on the outskirts of town, following the name and address on the pig's tagged ear.

By then, the sun was beginning to set, so Misa, a bit sad, turned to Doli a final time. "I guess it's about time I get going. Today turned out to be great fun, didn't it?"

"It did..." Doli agreed. She appeared a bit sad herself, but Misa had no time to comfort her. The familiar clop-clop and rattle of the horses and carriage hit Misa's ears.

"Thank you for accepting me." Misa said.

"Thank you for saving my family," was Doli's reply.

"Here, take these." Misa handed Doli a small pouch with about twenty vials of the potion. "Sell them, clear your debt. Or give back to those who helped you."

Tears sprang to Doli's eyes. She said nothing more than, "Thank you."

Smiling, Misa waved and walked toward the carriage. She almost screamed bloody murder when she saw, not Ida, but Prince Ran stepping out to greet her.

The one who really screamed was Doli. Her jaw had dropped. "Vampires are this handsome?!"

Misa laughed heartily but swatted Prince Ran who snarled at the girl, trying to scare her. "Stop being so mean."

"But who even is she? Ugh. Human."

Misa pushed him into the carriage.