Beastly Beauty

Gaining Strength

Nightmare pouted a little as he woke up to his castle cleaned. He didn't realize that he had passed out in his Nanny's room. He was embarrassed about that but seeing the proud smiles of the children he couldn't stop himself from smiling back at him.

"I'm sorry that I hadn't helped..."

Rosy happily skipped up to the Nobleman, hugging his hips. She looked up at the monster that she and the other children saw as a mother.

"You were tired!" She chirped, pulling away to jump up and down.

"Why don't you stay with the little ones? Me and the older children will be working on the outside." Cross smiled, cupping his love's face.

The gooey monster closed his eye and leaned into the hold. He didn't say anything about how odd that was, but he knew trying to argue about it with Cross wouldn't go his way. Besides, the older children looked very happy and almost excited.

"Just be safe." He murmured.

"We will."

With that said, the blacksmith and his group of children went outside. They were curious on what they were going to be doing. They needed to be trained to protect their Mama. They had to protect him!

Cross then pointed to the fallen and rotting trees along with the still broken remains of the building house. These items were scattered about and were mostly heavy.

"Put it all in a pile." He ordered. "And don't strain yourself."

The children nodded, determined looks on their faces. They then hurried off to carry the rubble and trees to a pile. It took them time to do that, their bodies quickly becoming sore and tired from it. However, they felt accomplished. This was the first step to their training, to getting stronger.

Cross gave the children a smile, softly rubbing their heads in a form of praise. He then finished cleaning everything else. The children could only watch in awe as he moved everything with ease. They wanted to be like him. To be so strong that they could move boulders without a thought. Seeing his strength only encouraged them to do more.

With the new motivation, they did their best to grow stronger after that day. They made sure to not overwork themselves as their famous blacksmith had said. The children had to be careful, though. They didn't want the people to know what they were doing. They didn't want the adults to move their plan up before they were ready.

When their bodies were able to handle more, Cross began to train them properly. He trained them carefully, making sure they weren't injured or scarred the way he was. He knew that Nightmare wouldn't like that. They also knew that, even though they were a little annoyed about it.

They worked hard to be up to Cross's standards. They trained the way he showed and taught, becoming faster and stronger. If they weren't training, they were either keeping an ear out on the adults or trying their best to keep Nightmare happy and away from them.

After many months, nearly a full year, had passed, the knowledgeable skeleton taught the children how to handle simple knives. He taught all the children so Momma would never be left unprotected. They agreed that knowing simple blade work was good. When they had mastered that, much faster than the pale skeleton had originally thought, he taught them how to tell when someone was thinking bad thoughts. This did lead to some crushes being outed, but it worked well in the end for those children.

To say the corrupted monster was pleased with the children was an understatement. He was gleeful and joyous that they wanted to become something similar to him just to protect one person! Then again, Nightmare was a wonderful person, a person deserving of his nobility.

The pale skeleton could only grin as he moved his own timetable and preparations up in time with their progress. He made sure to tell them to take it easy, to still be loving children if only for Nightmare. They may have agreed, but they still kept training to keep up with Cross's own ability. They knew they wouldn't be able to for many years, but that didn't matter. They would still do their best to keep Nightmare happy and safe.

Nightmare had noticed that the children were stronger than before, handling themselves better too... It worried him honestly, but their sweet innocent smiles and calming words along with Cross's reassurance, kept him happy. He really thought they were just being children learning the practices of their parents and their profession. He should've known better.