Aetheria's Enigma: The Lost Traveler

Chapter IX

I wake up with Kaori lying on my chest. It's comforting, like Lily or Amelia is here with me. I used to wake up with Lily on me every morning. I almost want to stay like this, but we need to get going. I still need to grab some spare clothes before we go back for training. I guess I should wake her up.

I reach my hand over to wake her up. As soon as I touch her she jumps up and screams. "Daddy!" She starts crying.

What was that? "Kaori?"

"I'm fine."

I put my arm around her and pull her towards me. "Come here."

She puts her head on my shoulder and cries.

"You wanna talk about it?"

"Not yet. Can we just stay like this for a bit?"

"Yeah." I sit there holding her.

After a few minutes, she gets up. "Ok. I'm ready. Let's go."

"Alright." I get up and grab my gear. "We need to get some spare clothes. You know where we can go?"

She nods. "There's a shop not far from here. We can stop on the way to Cheryl's."

"Sounds good."

We head to the shop to grab spare clothes. I found a few white shirts. I can't find any jeans, thinking about it I haven't seen anyone wearing anything denim since I got here. I grab some black cloth pants. Kaori is just standing by the door waiting. I walk over to her. "You should grab some new clothes too."

"I'm fine. I don't need you wasting money on me."

"You earned it too."

"I got shot. That hardly counts as earning it."

"Quit being stubborn and just get some spare clothes."

"Fine." She walks around and stops in front of a navy blue dress. "This one."

"Grab it then."

The clothes cost us 1500 Aetheos. After that, we begin heading towards Cheryl's house.

"Will?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm ready to talk."

I light a smoke. "So am I. I think we both need to explain our pasts a bit."

"I agree." She takes a deep breath. "I already told you my parents died. The Agricultural District was trying to get more slaves. When we fought back, the guards that were sent to take us started to get aggressive. The first death sent everyone into a panic. Our guardian wasn't in the village at the time. My parents rushed us to our home. It all happened so fast. One minute I was hiding in the closet with my mom, the next my father was dead on the floor with my mom standing between me and the guard. After he killed my mother, he grabbed me. I was dragged out to the cart they brought to bring us back. All I remember after that is the blood. The guardian came back and killed all of them. He fought off a dozen guards at once to protect us. He was too late though. So many of us had already been killed, our homes burned to the ground. He hasn't left the village since that day. He never said it but we all knew he blamed himself."

I wouldn't have imagined things were that bad here. I've seen war, but what she just told me, it's not right. No one should be treated like that. "That's awful. At least he's there now. Seems like he won't let that kind of tragedy happen again."

"He's got the bounty to prove it. He's stopped a few more attacks since then. The nobles of the Agricultural and Mining districts both put a bounty on his head. 500,000 Aetheos each."