Chapter 4: Necessary Backstories
It's the crack of dawn and Yuri’s first lesson is about to begin.
Never leave your door unlocked lest Luna will come in and wake you up whenever she wants.
Luna clears her throat,
“RISE AND SHINE, LITTLE FLOWER, TIME TO GET YOUR BUTT OUTTA BED,”
She hits two pans together making as much noise as possible. Yuri awakens in fear and brings her hands to her ears, she speaks as loud as she could,
“WhAt Is ThIs, WhY aRe YoU cAuSiNg Me LaRgE aMoUnTs Of PaIn, CaN yOu StOp?”
Noticing that Yuri is kinda scared, Luna stops and realizes that this probably wasn’t the best method of waking up a being that was only newly human. She thought back to when she tried this with Vienna and… blood was spilled that day. Luna may have gotten a shuriken thrown at her and never went into Vienna’s room again, but back on topic.
“Well, it looks like your awake, um, well there are some more clothes in the closet that I showed you yesterday, so put that on and you can come on down for some brekky, then we'll start your first lessons,”
Yuri slowly nods and Luna leaves the room contemplating how she’ll awaken Vienna without being attacked. Luna skips over to Vienna’s room and as soon as she opens the door, one of Vie’s knives flies past Luna’s head and hits the wall. A small cut appears on Luna’s face and she immediately closes the door and backs away.
Note to self, just assume Vienna is awake, Luna thinks to herself. As she walks through the main hall to the kitchen she reminisces about when she first got here.
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About 75 years ago… Luna’s POV
Kick. Punch. Kick. Kick. Punch. Throws. THUD.
“GO AWAY YOU STUPID HALFLING”
“YOU DON'T BELONG HERE”
“DIRTY BLOOD”
Just kids being mean like normal. It was normal for me here, a halfbreed living off of trash on the streets. Trying to get through the cold winters and hot summers. Even when my parents were still alive, I was treated this way. Onisious(the elven island pronounced Oh-nis-ee-us), wasn’t necessarily discriminatory when it came to humans and human/elf relationship was practically taboo. Living was hard, keeping a job was hard for my parents, finding a home was even harder, but we got through it, we had each other. That was until my father was framed for multiple accounts of identity theft and fraud. It was hard for him to find a lawyer that would think in his best interest, we didn’t have the money to pay the fines, and we couldn’t get his sentence decreased. He ended up with life in prison. My mother struggled to help us survive and we knew he was a good man, my mother never moved on from him she was deeply in love. So one year later, things took an even worse turn. One day when we went on our weekly visit, we were informed that my dad had been killed in a prison brawl. This couldn’t have been true because my father couldn’t hurt anybody, he was a frail ex-scientist, he wouldn’t dare be in a fight. Someone had killed him. My mother knew all this but simply couldn’t bear it, she couldn’t stand the fact that her soulmate was killed inside of a prison. She slit her throat the next day. I found her body and I felt my soul die that day. I had lost both of my parents within two days, my mother left me alone to fend for myself. The little halfling that had nothing to her name and nowhere to go. It’s been 2 years since then, 12 years old and simply trying to survive. Scavenging through the rich people's trash cans, sleeping in back alleys, and taking the abuse that the other kids are putting me through. Never fighting back because It’ll only make it worse, calling for help is pointless when nobody really cares.
Punch. Kick. Spit. Kick. Kick. Punch.
The tears would stream from my eyes but no words would leave my mouth, no energy is unnecessarily used.
THUD. THUMP. CRASH.
Sounds of agony and sounds of fighting were heard but for once those sounds weren’t coming from me or towards me. I opened my eyes slightly but the blood and tears blurred my vision and all I could see was a dark shadow, a black abyss, I felt a large hand checking my wounds and lift me from the ground, but then like this stranger, everything went dark.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Two days later`--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“5 more minutes mom,” I say as I pull the covers closer to me…
“Huh” I jerk up from my slumber and wince when I feel a great pain around my stomach.
“Yeah, you’ve got multiple broken ribs there so you should probably take it easy,” says a unknown voice.
“AAAAAAAHHH WHO THE HELL ARE YOU,” she says turning to the strange man
“Oh, that's no way to speak to someone who saved you from certain death” the strange man smirked.
I looked down and I’ve been cleaned up and my wounds soundly wrapped. I pale and turn towards the stranger,
“I'm sorry, kind sir, please pardon my rudeness. My name is Luna and I owe you my life anything you want I will do my best to comply,”
He looks down at me with a small smile and replies,
“The names’ Jason, I am the Guardian of this Realm, placed here by the Ethereal Goddess herself, and I sense great potential from you. All that I ask is that you stand with me to keep this realm from falling into havoc.”
I look into the Guardian's eyes and see an honest and earnest soul, I’m sure he could see the darkness and brokenness in mine.
“I heed your words sir I shall do my best” I give a small smile…
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RETSKU'S POV
Present day
Luna wipes away the tear that manages to fall from her eye.
That's enough of that, no point in being melancholy right now.
She continues to set the table while the others make their way. Yuri arrives in the dining hall first and sits down excited for her second time eating human food. Vienna is next to arrive, she sat in her normal seat at the end of the table. It's only been 30 years since Vienna arrived and now we’ve got Yuri, I'm glad Jason’s opening up a bit more. They eat pancakes, bacon, and eggs, and forget all about their troubles.
To be continued in Chapter 4.5: Necessary Backstories Part 2