Glocara-9

Glocara placed the red triangular hat of Winter Veil on her head, facing the mirror. She attempted to adjust the hat slightly for the best angle, but soon realized it looked the same from every side — no matter how she turned it, the white pompom on the hat's tip always leaned to the right — so she gave up trying. Glancing at the courtyard outside, she saw many children wearing similar hats popping in and out of sight. The triangular hat fit perfectly on their heads, unlike Glocara, who had to be cautious about it slipping off because hers was adult-sized, unlike those meant for children aged eight and below, stocked in the box behind her. Glocara believed she wasn't the only one in Stormwind suffering from ill-fitting triangular hats. People willingly adorned themselves with Winter Veil symbols, not just as headgear but as a slogan, signifying their readiness to participate and enjoy the holiday's offerings, communicating their joy to strangers without words — or at least, not resisting being part of the festive atmosphere. All holidays operated similarly, conveying uniform emotions through uniform actions. Glocara had known of Winter Veil's existence, but this was her first time wearing such a hat. In Stromgarde, almost all holidays were reduced to speeches rallying for war by Galin. The lower levels of Booty Bay never had much of a concept of holidays — a relatively stable community was necessary to celebrate them, but people there came and went too frequently, and died too quickly. Perhaps for similar reasons, she had never had any committed relationships with men in Booty Bay, but now she was here because of a man's commitment. A child approached the window, breathing on the glass and drawing a pentagon with their finger, smiling at Glocara through it before running off. Glocara didn't quite understand the gesture, but assumed the child saw her as a companion in holiday festivities — after all, she was wearing the red hat.

Glocara looked at herself in the mirror again. She was smiling. The hat still didn't fit quite right. She remembered a garbage trader in Booty Bay who had a hat like this. No matter how dirty or torn it was, red turned brown and white turned purple, he always wore it. He wasn't very bright, often getting swindled in transactions, and people joked that the hat made him dumb. Now Glocara felt stupid too, realizing how little she knew about the world. She would never have imagined herself wearing a holiday hat to prepare to meet orphaned children eagerly awaiting gifts, just as most Stormwind residents couldn't imagine the life of Lady Death. She walked out and encountered Katarina, one of the teachers from the orphanage. Elaine and Glocara were here to distribute gifts to the three dormitories managed by her.

"Are you ready?" Katarina asked.

"There's not much to prepare."

"Indeed, but if you're to perform acts of kindness, you must do so with a positive and inclusive attitude. I see you're smiling, that's good. A smile can convey kindness and warmth to children."

"Mainly Elaine will be distributing the gifts, right? She's the real Winter Veil ambassador."

"True, Miss Glocara. But I hope you can maintain your smile; after all, you're here too."

Katarina scrutinized Glocara cautiously, making it difficult for Glocara to keep smiling.

"Miss Glocara, this may be somewhat intrusive, but I'd like to ask you something."

"Go ahead. I'll decide whether to answer."

"Since you're not Elaine's mother, what's your relationship with her? Or to put it differently, what's your relationship with her father? He must have asked you to accompany Elaine, right?"

"We're friends. Her father is busy, so he asked me to come."

"Winter Veil is a day meant to be spent with family. Won't your family be concerned about you spending the day with other people's children?"

"Are you not in the same situation?"

"I am indeed. I don't mean to pry into your personal life, but... I've seen many talented children like Elaine who, at their age, particularly need adult role models to set healthy examples for their lives. I believe your friendship with her father is a wonderful thing, and I hope it truly contributes to Elaine's growth."

"Uh... thank you."

"I'll go get the children ready."

Katarina left. Glocara didn't want to argue with the orphanage teacher, but she also didn't want to hear any more insinuations from Katarina. Perhaps it would be best to avoid her in the future.

Glocara entered the hall, where Elaine was sitting in the middle of a pile of gift boxes. She crossed over and sat beside the girl.

"Your hat might fall off," Glocara adjusted Elaine's hat. Because of her long hair, the hat didn't fit the girl's head properly.

After Glocara's hand moved away, Elaine shook her head, a slow, reluctant refusal.

"Miss Katarina will be bringing the children soon."

"Mm."

"She said they can't wait to see you."

"Mm."

"Maybe you can teach some of the kids here to draw. You could be their teacher."

She nodded.

Glocara leaned back, looking at Elaine's profile. This was how the child usually was in front of Elaine. If Elaine couldn't achieve it, Glocara didn't know why she thought she could. She decided to think about topics that Elaine truly cared about.

"I heard from your dad that the prize for the drawing contest is you get to choose your own gift for the school. So what did you ask for?"

"New paints. Mine are almost gone, and Dad won't take me to buy more."

A whole sentence, a decent improvement. "Did the school agree?"

"Don't know. They said it can't be too expensive. A box of that brand of paint costs three gold coins." Elaine picked up a pale purple gift box beside her, shook it, then held it to her ear. "It's this box. This one's mine. But I can't tell what they put inside."

"Don't shake it, you might break something," Glocara said. She thought she should find out what kind of paint Elaine wanted and tell Elaine. Three gold coins wouldn't be much for him. Elaine had initially been worried that Elaine would feel bad about being in the orphanage, but Glocara was very happy to see that she seemed to care about nothing except her own gifts.

Katarina arrived with the children, none of them older than twelve. Glocara noticed Elaine seemed somewhat embarrassed, which became more pronounced as Katarina introduced her to the children. She hardly spoke her name or where she was from with enough volume. But when one of the children asked, "What did you draw in the prize-winning picture?" she truly began to speak.

"It was by the lake, and I saw a frog sitting on a stone. I wanted to draw it and everything behind it, including the distant city gate bridge. But then I only drew half, and it jumped into the water, but..."

"Alright, alright," Katarina interrupted her with a clap of her hands, "children, it's time for gift giving. Aren't you all excited?"

Elaine lowered her head, looking at the list in her hand. It had the names in order and corresponding gift box numbers. She glanced at Glocara, then quickly looked away. After a moment, she read out the first name.

The whole process was much more tedious than Glocara had imagined: Elaine said a name, the person called came to collect the gift, and then they opened the gift box in front of everyone else, with the rest of the children applauding under Katarina's guidance. Glocara thought it was supposed to be a charitable event about maintaining order, not a snowball fight. But whatever the case, she had hoped for a livelier, less restrained scene. After calling the eighth child, it seemed everyone was slightly tired of the process, with the most intense expression of this being the children who hadn't received their gifts yet. They didn't want to spend time applauding for the previous child and just stood directly in front of Elaine. And Katarina gradually lost interest in maintaining the order she had established. Every child who received a gift, she patted on the shoulder, reminding them to leave the hall, making the scene more akin to distributing relief meals to refugees. Glocara sat with her arms crossed, with no desire to speak.

Perhaps the most interesting part was observing the children's reactions. Their gifts were designated by the orphanage and were not always what they wanted, or they changed their minds suddenly before opening the gift box. Some were excited, some disappointed, and some just held the box, silently looking at it. Probably only half of the children showed off their gifts to their peers with great joy.

One boy received a troll mask. He seemed very satisfied, wearing it and darting around in the crowd, mimicking strange low growls, sounding like many creatures but not a troll. Glocara stared at him for a while.

An hour later, all the gift boxes were distributed, and there were only Glocara and Elaine left in the hall, along with the pale purple gift box in Elaine's arms.

"Are you going to open it now?" Glocara said.

Elaine didn't answer, touching the ribbon on the box.

"Or shall we take it back and open it later?"

"I want to know if it's the paint I asked for."

"Then shall we open it here?"

Elaine didn't move, but she didn't seem to have any intention of leaving either. She ran her fingertips back and forth on the surface of the box along the pattern. Glocara said nothing, just watched her. She was more than willing to spend time with Elaine like this.

Katarina pulled a boy's hand and came to the two of them.

"I've told you," she said to the boy beside her, "there are still gifts."

Glocara stood up. "Miss Katarina, is something wrong?"

"This child, he didn't get his own gift."

"No way. I remember he got a gift box. I remember he should have gotten a toy car."

"Yes, that's right... But just now, a child caused a commotion and smashed his gift. Look at him, his eyes are all teary. Miss Glocara, this child is an orphan, he can't be without a holiday gift..."

"You want to take away this last one?"

"This is for the children of the orphanage, isn't it?"

"No, this belongs to Elaine. Whoever broke the toy car should compensate. Aren't you a teacher? Then you should educate these children about making amends when they do wrong. As for Elaine's gift box, forget about it."

"Please lower your voice. You shouldn't behave so rudely in the orphanage. You are Winter Veil ambassadors, this is a very important responsibility, every child must receive a gift. I'm not forcing you, Miss Glocara, this is your own moral responsibility. You can't take on such a serious task and then ignore it."

"Cut it out. I don't know what you're up to, but there's no way you're taking Elaine's stuff."

"Your attitude is truly regrettable. It seems I'll have to report the actual situation of how you perform your duties to Elaine's school. The fact is that you haven't let all the children get the gifts they deserve."

"Kid," Glocara said to the boy next to Katarina, "are you really so heartless? Or did your teacher force you to come?"

"I once again request you to watch your words and deeds, especially in front of a child who has lost his parents..."

"Let's go, Elaine." Glocara grabbed Elaine's hand.

Elaine didn't move. Her other hand still rested on top of the pale purple gift box.

"Elaine, I know you're a good girl," Katarina squatted in front of the girl, "and I know this gift is very important to you, but there's a child here who needs it more than you do. Show some kindness, okay? The teachers at school will be very pleased if you make the right decision."

"Don't listen to her." Glocara finished, then turned to Katarina. "Could you please keep your distance from her?"

Elaine didn't say anything, looking at the boy, then at Glocara. There was no plea in her eyes, just confusion.

"Teacher, she doesn't want it," the boy said. Glocara had been watching Katarina and hadn't noticed the boy snatching the gift box away on his own. He ran back a few steps, standing in the center of the hall, and tore off the wrapping paper.

"Hey!" Glocara wanted to go forward, but Katarina stopped her. They watched as the boy opened the box, shaking out its contents. Tubes of paint scattered on the floor.

"What's this?" he said. "I don't like it."

Two seconds later, Glocara felt Elaine wrenching her hand away. She ran out the door.

"Elaine," Glocara was about to chase after her, but she felt there was still unfinished business in the room. She turned around and slapped Katarina on the cheek.

"Madam!" Katarina, who had retreated several steps, held her face with both hands. "You're attacking a charity worker at an orphanage!"

"I don't care. And you, kid. I want to hit you too, but I don't have time now. Next time I see you, we'll talk."

She dashed for the door. The red hat fell to the ground.