[BONUS] With a Half-Beast, I’ll Carry Apples and Scissors!

Hey there, Author here! You've reached the end of Love Sorceress. Thank you so much for reading!

This chapter is a Mia backstory section that was edited out of the main plot due to pacing reasons. I've altered the writing to be a stand-alone chapter as bonus content! It's not as refined or complete as my usual chapters, but I still wanted to share it with you!

I hope you enjoyed Love Sorceress, and thank you again so much for going on this journey with me!

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“A bushel of apples, please!” A young girl called.

In the rush of the busy morning marketplace, her words went unnoticed. The girl huffed, and stared down the fruit cart owner with all the frustration her youthful face could muster.

“A bushel of apples!” She shouted again, waving her hastily-written grocery list in the air.

Her yellow hair bow bobbled as she leapt up and down. The young little Mia may have been short, but her hair bows more than made up for her height. The yellow bow finally caught the cart owner’s attention.

“A bushel, you said?” The man turned to her. “You sure you can carry that? Where’s your parents, missy? You’re too young to be out here alone.”

Mia pouted. “Papa’s at work, and I’m eight years old already. I can do chores like this myself.” She put a copper on the cart and asked again, “A bushel, please.”

The cart owner, hesitantly, took the coin and handed over a sack full of apples. The moment the bag was passed to her, Mia tumbled under its weight. But she steadied herself and hefted the bag over her shoulder. Then, with a nod, she continued on her way.

Tottering down the road, Mia peered over the rest of her shopping list.

“Papa won’t be home till after the sun sets,” Mia mumbled to herself. She glanced around the marketplace, spotting a sign with a spool of thread painted upon its sign. “Maybe I’ll stop by the tailor. We need fabric to mend the moth holes in the sheets.”

Mia paused for a moment, scrounging for the coin purse in her overall pockets. She opened the pouch and let out a sigh, realizing she only had one copper left.

“I wonder if they’ll give me fabric scraps for free?” Mia sighed again. “Papa’s job won’t pay him for awhile either…”

She shook her head, determined not to be disheartened. She was a Faralind, after all! Her grandparents owned so much farmland, and her uncle was about to be granted the title of Earl. Mia couldn’t let them down. She and her father would stand proud, even if they didn’t have much.

Hurrying towards the tailor’s shop, Mia entered through the jingling doorway and stashed her sack of apples under a coat rack.

“Excuse me!” Mia shouted over the counter. “Do you have any fabric scraps for sale?”

A woman emerged from a back room, clapping her hands free of fabric starch. She let out an exclamation of surprise when she saw Mia’s young age.

“Oh my!” The woman smiled. “On errands for your mother? How cute.”

Mia pouted once again, but decided not to say anything. It had been like this in every village. Mia quickly learned not to say anything about her late mother. All the adults would fret and cry over Mia’s pitiable situation.

And Mia disliked their pitying gazes most of all.

Mia pointed towards a pile of mismatched fabric she spied behind the counter. “Fabric scraps?”

“Ah, yes, of course!” The woman scooped up a pile of scraps and brought it closer for Mia to inspect. “Take as much as you’d like. Is this enough? Is there a certain color you need?” The lady then grabbed a pin cushion and a pair of scissors from below the counter. “Is this your first time sewing, miss?” She smiled and leaned closer, putting on a cutesy voice. “If you need supplies, we have some old sewing kits that you could have for free—”

“No thanks,” Mia held up a hand in refusal. “These scraps are fine. I don’t need any more handouts.”

The lady blinked, surprised. “Handouts?” She repeated the word, surprised to hear it come from someone so young.

Mia took the scraps and hurried back towards the door, shoving the pieces of fabric into her already-very-full apple bag. Then, with a grunt of effort, Mia pulled the full sack over her shoulder and stumbled into the alley outside.

The lady behind the counter raised a hand to her cheek in concern. “Should I have offered to help?” she wondered aloud.

Outside, Mia kept her head high. She looked towards her handwritten list with a critical eye.

“I still have more things to get,” Mia grumbled, “but I can’t carry that much. I was hoping to finish this all in one trip…”

“What’s wrong with you?!” An angry boy’s voice broke through her mumbling.

Mia stopped in her steps, heart beating frantically. She hurriedly glanced around and wondered if she’d done something wrong.

Then, Mia realized that the shout wasn’t directed towards her. Instead, down the alley, there was a gathering of boys. The boys were around Mia’s age, perhaps slightly older, and they were circled around someone. Mia counted four of them, and in her mind she quickly nicknamed them: Tall Boy, Scruffy Hair, Big Boots, and Ugly Hat. But the boys’ backsides were blocking Mia’s view of the person in the center.

Though Mia knew it was best to leave the situation alone, she lingered a few moments longer.

“Yeah!” Tall Boy jeered. “What’s wrong with your ears? Why’re they on top of your head? Are they even real?”

Mia leaned a little closer and caught a glimpse of what was happening. The person in the center of all this was younger than the other boys, and he had cat ears.

“A half-beast!” Mia exclaimed in a hushed whisper. She had never seen one before.

Tall Boy reached out towards the half-beast, and grabbed the cat ears roughly, pulling the half-beast upwards by the weight of his ears.

The young half-beast let out a scream of pain.

Tall Boy grinned towards his friends. “The ears are real! He can feel pain!”

Then, Scruffy Hair walked up and kicked the half-beast in the knees, causing the young boy to fall over into the dirt.

“He even has a tail!” Scruffy Hair exclaimed.

Big Boots chuckled and pointed. “Look! His pants don’t fit over his stupid tail. His trousers are practically falling off.”

With a sneer, Ugly Hat folded his arms. “That’s what happens when half-beasts try to be human. They wear our clothes, and pretend like that works!” He smirked. “We should take back these human clothes, right? And then leave him naked in the market for everyone to see.”

The young half-beast pushed himself up from the ground, coughing dirt from his mouth. The half-beast started to say something, but Ugly Hat stomped on his head and pushed him into the ground.

With that, Mia had seen enough.

Mia dropped her bag of apples and dashed back into the tailor’s shop, bursting through the door. The store lady glanced up and smiled.

“Back already, little miss?” The woman chuckled kindly. “Did you want some help after all?”

But Mia didn’t reply. She just ran behind the counter, and started rifling through the shelves.

“H-hey!” The lady murmured in surprise, shocked by Mia’s sudden change in attitude.

Mia found the scissors that the lady held up earlier. She presented these towards the woman.

“You said I could have these, right?” Mia asked curtly.

“S-sure, but—”

“Thanks!” Mia shouted.

Mia scurried back towards the alley, focused solely on one thing: and that was following the steps her father taught her to defend herself in a fight.

Step one: Make yourself look bigger than you are.

Mia took her apple bag and cut it open with the scissors, causing the apples to spill across the dirt path. Mia threw the torn linen sack over her head and shoulders like a menacing cape, and spread her arms wide.

Step two: Make frightening noises.

Mia began to growl and make clicking sounds with her mouth.

Step three: Use whatever you can as a weapon.

She held out the scissors like a knife, and then charged at the group of boys with a war cry.

“What the—?!” Scruffy Hair yelled in fright.

The bullies turned. A weird, screaming, hooded-person was charging at them, all while dangerously flailing a pair of scissors in the air.

The sight was so unsettling that the bullies didn’t take the time to question it.

“It’s probably another half-beast!” Scruffy Hair shouted. “Let’s go!”

Tall Boy hesitated. “C’mon, we can take another half-beast kid—”

Then, the people from the market began to gather around the alleyway, alerted by Mia’s screaming. Tall Boy clicked his tongue in frustration, realizing that if they stayed, they’d be caught by the adults. Without another word, the bullies ran off.

Mia kept growling and making barking-like sounds, brandishing her scissors with a menace, until she lifted her makeshift hood and realized the bullies were gone. Mia’s face lit up with a huge smile. She put her hands on her hips and let out a huff of pride, feeling victorious. Only slightly, in the back of Mia’s mind, did she remember that her father’s defense advice was for scaring off wildlife and not other people.

‘Oh well, it still worked!’ Mia thought to herself with a grin.

Once Mia stopped shouting and everything calmed down, the market people slowly drifted away from the alley. They shook their heads and deemed that it was just ‘kids being kids.’ The day continued as normal: the momentary disturbance already forgotten.

Yet, for the half-beast boy, he couldn’t forget. He was still shaking.

Mia offered a hand to the boy. He didn’t take it. She offered her hand again with a little extra wiggle. He flinched back, frightened.

“I’m Mia,” Mia introduced with a smile. “What’s your name?”

“T-Toren,” the boy stuttered in return. Hesitantly, he reached towards her.

Then, Mia pulled off her makeshift hood. Toren looked her over, and realized with growing horror that she didn’t have any beast-like features.

“Y-you’re a human?” Toren asked, jumping away.

“Yeah, but, I’m not like those jerks!” Mia pointed towards where the bullies ran off. “They’re just mean! So mean! I can’t believe they’d act like that towards you. It’s not your fault that you have ears and a tail. And besides, I think those half-beast features are cute! I’ve always wanted to meet a half-beast, you know?”

Despite Mia’s friendly demeanor, Toren kept his distance, ready to run at a moment’s notice.

Mia tilted her head, glancing towards Toren’s backside. “Your pants really don’t fit your tail, do they?” She thought for a moment. “I just got some fabric scraps. Come back to my house, we can fix that!”

Mia took Toren’s hand warmly, and pulled him along. Yet, her grasp wasn’t forceful. Toren found himself wanting to follow her, despite his better judgment.

Distracted, Mia almost skipped past her fallen apples and fabric scraps. But with a second glance, she saw them and stopped.

“Aww,” Mia crouched by the apples and sighed, “with the bag cut up, I don’t think I can carry this all in my arms. Guess I’ll take what I can.”

Nervously, Toren shuffled forward. He pointed towards himself.

“Do you want to help?” Mia guessed.

Toren nodded. He stuffed some of the fabric pieces into his belt, and then extended his claws so he could hold more of the apples. Between him and Mia, they managed to carry everything.

Curious now, however, Mia leaned over and gazed at Toren’s claws.

“If you have claws like these,” Mia murmured, “couldn’t you have fought against those guys?”

Toren held the apples tighter, glancing away. “The other half-beasts say if I do that, I’ll get blamed for hurting people. I might get arrested. They say it’s better not to fight back.”

Mia listened with an intrigued hum. “Rather than fighting, maybe you should become fast and sneaky!” Mia determined. She then nodded and continued walking.

“W-wait!” Toren hurried to match her pace. “You’re…okay with that? Okay with me? I-I mean, I mentioned other half-beasts! Usually humans get upset when I say that. And you’re letting me carry your stuff. I-I could steal this, you know!”

Mia glanced towards Toren with her blue eyes. “Well you have to have parents, right? So of course there’s other half-beasts,” she said plainly. “And I don’t think you’re a thief.”

Toren stood still, stunned. He was so used to being yelled at; so used to being called a thief just for walking in a marketplace. He thought all humans hated the idea of there being more half-beasts.

Tears rose to his eyes. He blinked them away and kept walking by Mia’s side.

Quietly, silently, he thought he wouldn't mind walking by her side for the rest of his life.