Risper's Story

Risper(1): Youth

"Dad? Will you really hurt people?", six-year-old Risper asked when she read that in Isaac's old diary (or "logbook" as he called it). They were sitting on a sofa in the living room.

"Only if they hurt you, pup", he answered, petting her head. She let out a satisfied sort of purr and she nuzzled his hand.

"What is the meaning of this?", his strict wife sternly asked. "It is 11 o'clock! It is way past bedtime for Risper!"

"Ah, yeah... About that... I'll bake you cookies. I was showing her that report I made on the day she was born. Remember that?" He desperately tried calming her down.

"Oh, that.... But anyway, Risper needs sleep. She's six years old!" He failed.

"Yeah, but... A girl's gotta know her history, right?", he tried justifying it, though that was all wasted effort when the girl yawned, stretched, and nestled herself on his lap.

"A girl needs her sleep." And with that, Mystica carried Risper to her room.

I sighed and gently slapped both my cheeks to get rid of those fuzzy memories. God, that was long ago. Five years or so.

I got up from my seat, walked to the teacher, and handed my work in. She nodded at me and I could go.

It's not like I really needed school. Both because I was a hunter, and because I was far, far ahead of the rest of the class (which consisted of a wide variety of ages - because the village was so small, the school only had room for one classroom and two teachers), but I liked going to school anyway. Who knows when I might need this knowledge?

As per usual, Trillium followed her. They both walked in silence through the village. It had a wooden wall to keep the Grimm out. Not like it was really needed, since the village was basically surrounded by allied villages. Occasionally, we would have to assist some of them or send them supplies, but we could basically live a carefree life.

"Where are we going? Are we going to do something?", Trill asked eventually. I shrugged and thought for a while.

"Apple tree", I decided. He nodded and followed me as the two of us left the village. According to granny, they used to make a big deal of leaving the village, even if you were a hunter. I didn't understand why they would. Surely hunters were allowed to go out? Then again, they didn't have Dust back then...

"Ultra...", I started as I got ready to give Trill a boost.

"...Punch!", he finished, launching himself on my hands while clenching his hands to fists. His fists hit the tree with so much force that- nothing happened at all, except him falling to the ground, after which he came to me, wailing about his hands. His knuckles were bleeding, so I guess it must've hurt.

"Sorry", I said, blowing at his knuckles. He just whined in response. Poor guy... I didn't hold back and just hugged him, rubbing my cheek against his. The whining stopped.

"It's okay," he whispered in my ear. "I'll do anything for you."

Aw... I licked his nose and petted his head.

"Good boy, good boy", I said. "I'll get you an apple." I let go of him and climbed the tree. I picked a few apples, jumped down, and gave him the best one I had.

"Thank you, Risper", he said before taking a bite. "I'll be able to punch them out someday, I promise."

"I'm counting on you", I told him as I put my thumbs up.

When we finished our apples, we walked home.

"Where is Asa?", I asked.

"With friends again", the grown-up fox-lady answered. "He's popular."

"Yeah, I guess. He asked me to help him with his homework, so... Guess I'll do that when he's back", I explained. She continued reading the newspaper.

"What are you learning at school?"

"We just went over physics, about how everything has gravity and how every object, no matter how heavy, would fall at the same speed, if there was no air", I said.

"It is good to remember such things. You are going to need it later", mum told me, though obviously I already knew that.

"Okay, thanks", I said anyway as I made my way to my room. It was a boring room, really. There was a bed, a desk and a chair, a closet, a window with a view of the street, and a chest with my secrets in it. Apart from the chest, there wasn't anything interesting.

I knelt down in front of the chest and got my diary out of it. After sitting down at the chair, I started writing in it. I didn't do that enough, so I had promised myself to write something in my diary whenever I could, even if it was as much as today was fun.

When he finally returned home (the sun was already setting), he wasn't alone. He had taken one of his friends with him. Apparently he expected me to teach the two of them. Okay, fine.They needed help with chemistry. They sucked at writing down and solving chemical reactions. I taught them how to use common sense, and Asarum gave me a cookie. I understood how he got popular. He seemed to instinctively know people's likes and dislikes, or he just knew my eternal craving for cookies, which was more likely. There were only few people who knew my name and didn't know my cookie-love. Not just cookies, they had to be chocolate cookies, preferably made by my mother, as she was the best at making them.

Teaching Asarum was already rarely fun, but when he was with his friends... Boy did they get annoying. They laughed at every mistake they made, or I made. They never took me seriously. It was very frustrating, but I did keep my cool, somehow. If I looked on the bright side of it, I learned some new slang words. You don't want to know what 'viper' means around here...

"Thank you very much for your time, Risper Gaither", Asarum said with his plastic smile, dipping his head.

"Any time, I guess", I responded. His friend didn't thank me. Instead, he just up and left together with Asa. Rude...