Doubts and thanks

Night fell on the castle and I decided to find a place to think for a couple of hours. The little girl with her brother were around me. She cried for a while after our encounter, and then we went to find her brother. Neither of them wanted to get out of my side. I understood them. The brother kept making every effort to keep his sister laughing, and she made her best effort to stay in a positive spirit. They were adorable, to say the least.

We were on a balcony on the second floor that I found with a couple of chairs. I had a view of a large lake that was after a precipice. The castle was on an elevated position and there was quite a fall towards the water.

"Mister!" Said the boy whose name was Reynard, came to me. I was sitting on one of the chairs "They say you are from another world, is it true?"

So that information started to spread fast "I am"

"Were you chosen by one of the gods? Then why are you helping us?" Asked the girl, Maple.

"I was not summoned by them. Well, I was, but the one that did grabbed me by mistake. He chose someone else and I happened to be there when it happened." I did not want to answer the question about helping them. "The gods are not in favor of Kali?" I asked, although hearing her being called the Demon Queen might be giving it out.

"No. It is said they were the ones that sent the factions to kill-"

"I don't remember giving you the right to call me by my name, human" I heard Kali's voice behind me. I turned around and there she was, with Dara and Nayleth, who seemed still injured as he was holding himself on a cane "Don't make me search for you once again"

Both children smiled when they saw her. I was amazed they could still smile after what they saw.

"What do you want?" I asked, returning my sight to the view of the lake. I stood up and walked towards the border and leaned over the railing to hold myself.

"H-how rude!" Kali said, huffing.

Her attitude was starting to piss me off.

I heard the sound of something hitting the floor approaching. He was making a clear effort to approach me. I looked back and Nayleth was walking towards me. He stopped a few steps from me and then raised his free hand.

Words appeared in front of him.

"Thank you," said the words.

"W-what are you thanking me about?"

"That was Nayleth's village" Dara answered.

"But didn't we lose it?"

"My family is safe" New words appeared in front of him.

So that's why he looked so scared when we heard about the attack on the village and then ran in like a madman. His family was there.

"Okay, you gave your thanks," said Kali, who was approaching us now "Go get some rest. Your stamina is low, you need to recover"

Nayleth nodded and started to walk towards Dara. She took him and guided him out.

"Don't say something you will regret later, Kali" Said Dara.

"Why is everyone calling me by my name?" She asked, her tone of voice exasperated and defeated.

Both kids got closer to her. Kali noticed them and crouched to be closer to their size, smiling.

"Hey, little ones," she said, brushing their hair "What are you two doing here?" Then she looked at me "Why are you here alone with them?"

I looked at her mad for what she was implying "They followed me... and I could not leave them alone after today" I answered.

"Ah, so they are the ones you rescued" She looked back at them "I am Queen Kali. What are your names?"

"Maple!" Said the girl.

"Reynard," said the boy.

"Cute names. You two can stay here for as long as you need" She stands up "I need to talk about something with Marcel, here. Why don't you two catch Dara and ask her to show you where you can stay? You can continue playing with him tomorrow"

They both nodded and went looking for Dara, who would not be too far away. I highly doubt that is one of the jobs she does.

"You are wondering why I took you to the village with me, don't you?" She asked once the children were out of view.

I turned to look at her without answering.

"Hmph," She said while hitting the ground with a foot when she noticed I was not answering "Look, I did it because with Dara we came to the conclusion that since you got a body from one of the gods you probably received some form of boon or something"

"Well, I didn't, and you put me in a situation I did not want to take part of"

"And do you think any of us wants to be in this situation, human?" she asked.

"I doubt it" I answered. Something about her attitude changed. Her tone of voice and some words still had that rich spoiled girl she had the whole day, and still insisted on calling me human instead of my name when she addressed me directly.

"Look, I am not good at this" I could tell "But you did us a favor today and you saved a lot of people's lives with that. You can stay here as long as you want. I won't stop you from leaving. But I already ordered a room to be arranged for you to stay. You are a guest now and not a prisoner, so you can take it if you want. You can join us for dinner if you want, too"

And with that, she turned around and walked towards the exit. At least I had a place to stay. But I still was thinking that tomorrow I was going to leave the castle and figure out what else to do.