Little Rue

Chapter I

I sat there with my arms crossed, very angry. Angry at my father that is.

Has he learned anything? From me? Or from Hazel? Or from literally any child he had?

The little girl sat on the ground, her brown hair shining in the led ceiling lights. The group of them were in some sort of a preschool thing, “to check her out” they said.

She seems cute and naive, much like I used to be before… things happened.

“Nico,” a voice from beside me spoke suddenly, making me jump.

“Huh?” I turn my head towards the voice, which is Hazel.

“Should we go, play with her?” Her face looks uneasy, much reflecting my own feelings.

I glance back over at the child, she seems so content… would she be afraid of us?

“We could try, but we should probably ask first.”

We both walk over to dad who was at the reception desk, trying to convince the receptionist that that girl is his daughter.

“Sir, we just need a little more verification. Now may I please see your ID?”

Dad sighs and starts regardfully taking his wallet out, then he notices us.
“You two okay?”
“Yeah, uhm we have a question.” I respond, looking over towards Hazel to ask.
“Can we go play with her?” Hazel smiles awkwardly, she never felt fully comfortable around our father, which is understandable.

“I think that would be okay, and this may take a while so… go ahead.” He turned slightly away before snapping back at us, his face deadly serious “And play nice.”

We both nod and walk over to the gate that held the actual preschool away from the outside world. Away from the horrors and intruders and pain of the world, shielding them with rainbows and happiness… and one flimsy gate.

Don't be edgy Nico, you're walking into a playpen of a preschool, control the dark thoughts please.

Hazel shuts the gate behind us as we enter, the kids don’t even acknowledge us.

The girl seems to be playing by herself, I partially hope it's by choice.

“Hey there,” Hazel says in a sweet voice, as we approach the child. Thank Hades she started the conversation.

The girl looked up immediately, and I almost fell back.

Her eyes, they’re stunning! One is a beautiful lapis blue color, the other is a gorgeous emerald green. And the bottoms of them are rimmed with a deep, deep brown.

Hazel had to resituate herself, before she continued.

“I-I'm Hazel, and this is my brother, Nico. Do you think we can play with you?”

The girl looked back and forth between us, her eyes drifted with an unblinking stare. Her  face expressionless.

“Sure!” her mouth curled up into a smile and her eyes lit up. Her brain probably had to process the request before responding.

Hazel and I sat down criss-cross style in front of her, so that there's space for playing.

“What are you playing right now?” Hazel asks her in that same sweet tone.

“This person is a knight,” she held up a type of barbie doll that had some armor on it that resembled scales. Its face was stern and its hair was cut short and jagged.

Huh, I didn’t know they made dolls realistic now.

“This person is their love and damsel in distress,” she holds up another barbie looking doll that is much more cutesy than the last one.

“And this one is the evil villian,” she holds up a doll that was very buff and has an evil sneer on its face.

We nod at the child, waiting for her to tell us more.

“Do you want to be the damsel?” She holds the doll up to Hazel, hesitates, and says, “No wait, do you want to be her?”

The girl presents the doll to me, her face holding a big smile.

“Uh s-sure!” I take the doll from her tiny hand, carefully of course.

“And do you want to be the villain?” she turns toward Hazel, holding the doll up towards her.

“Sure!” Hazel smiles, clearly more amused that I got the girly doll. Nah she’s just jealous.
“So what’s this story about, other than a knight and a villain.” I ask, curious.

“Well, the evil villain is going to hurt the damsel if the knight doesn’t do what she says.”

Hazel made her doll roar, and I made mine go “Oh help me dear knight!” in a high pitched voice. Making us all giggle like ratti felici.

“I am coming, my dear damsel!” the girl says in a deeper voice, putting a sword in between the doll's hand.

“Not on my watch, young knight.” Hazel grumbles, “you must fetch me some… pop tarts!”

The child gasps dramatically, “No! Not poptarts! Those are so hard to find!”

“I don’t care!” Hazel responds, “I want them anyways.”

“Oh please, my love, for me?” I squeak again in that awful voice.

“Fine, my dear, for you!” The girl makes the knight run off, grabs a food looking item, tells us to imagine it's a pop tart, and makes the knight run back towards us.

“I have brought you your pop tarts, you evil… evil…”

“Fiend.” I whisper to her.

“You evil fiend!” She placed the “pop tart” near Hazel’s doll.

“AH!” Hazel boomed, “These will do nicely! You can take your love back, but you have to duel me first!”

“Oh no, my love!” I gasp and shake the doll slightly.

“I will duel for you, my damsel! Only for you!” The girl takes the doll's arm and tries to hit Hazel’s doll. She makes a “HAYAH!” noise.

Hazel dodges the attack and hits the knight. The girl makes a huff noise and lets the doll fall to the ground.

“Please get up, my love! You can do it!” I squeak, making the doll shake.

“I cannot do it, but you can.” The girl throws the sword to my doll, and it lands at its feet.

“What? But I don’t know how to fight!”

“I believe in you!” She makes the doll grunt and fall limp.

I put the sword in the doll's hand and scream a war cry.

Hazel laughs and runs towards my doll, I slash at it and Hazel makes it fall over.

“Oh no, you’ve bested me!” Hazel screams and lets go of the doll, making a “blegh” noise.

“I did it! I saved you dear!” I took the damsel and rushed it over towards the knight.

“Good job my dear,” the girl spoke in a crunchy voice, “now we must get back to the village.”

“Okay-”  I start to say but get cut off by a deep voice behind me.

“I think we’re going to have to stop it here.” We all turn towards the source, which of course is dad.

“But the story was about to get good!” The girl complains loudly, “Can’t we stay for a couple more minutes?”

“No, hun. We’ve got to go.” The god scooped the girl up into his arms. “You can finish the story next time.”

“But they won’t be here next time!” She points towards us, leaning slightly away from dad.

“I know, but we have to go sweetheart. Come on you two.”

Hazel stands and helps me up. And we all exit the playpen, then the preschool with a “Have a good day you four!” from the receptionist.

Yeah… lets just hope it's a decent day.

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