The Reaper King

Chapter 3: The Orphanage pt. 3

Damien strolled peacefully towards the benches, his every thought arrested by the memory of him and Jessica holding hands. He continued undisturbed, through the now blanket of gentle snow covering the large courtyard. There were many massive buildings dotted around the 82 acres of the orphanage. Some were more modern looking like the shoddy greenhouse the Sisters maintained, while the vast majority were broken down gothic style buildings, giving a slight hint at the true age of the orphanage while making the scene more ephemeral and timeless in the gentle snowfall.

As Damien gently walked down one of the many cobble stoned paths lining the campus, through the snowfall he saw a few figures walking around in various states of awakeness. Some of whom were Sisters, conducting their evening nunley hymns, a few of them were the remaining kitchen aides and some of the Fathers. They were hauling massive troughs of groceries and very large bags of grain. Standing in lone pairs randomly dotted around the campus were the few Dragon Class Lancers from the UWM. They were incredibly powerful mages, world renowned heroes, soldiers of all genders and races that had gained godhood under the tutelage of the UWM's trainers, sharpening their magic against the horrors of creation. They were the pride of the UWM, and the first rank that displayed its true absolute power. The orphanage, despite being a hotbed of rampant teen angst filled with equally rampant magic, had never once been found nor attacked. The Dragon Class Lancers were a large part of why that was. Ma LaCroix, Former Lance Commander Lord Jurovi, and Father Clyde's pedigrees as incredibly powerful gods that, although neutral, were on friendly terms with the UWM, were the only reason the UWM spared as many as 12 of these divine Lancers to keep the orphanage safe.

Damien waved to the soldiers and members of the orphanage as he walked. Many smiled and waved back at the boy, as most had garnered a positive outlook of him despite the horrific stories and constant fires he seemed to start. Continuing his walk, he noticed another figure in the snowfall sitting on a lonely bench. This figure was much smaller than the adults before and had a mess of beautiful brown and red curls spilling from her hood. Damien lost the ability to breath. His seemingly unstoppable, joyful pace had ground to a halt. Despite the cold, sweat began to bead slightly on his brow. Even without reading her aura, Damien had a feeling he knew who was sitting there. The feeling was confirmed as he got closer and a familiar pair of golden-green, wolfish eyes stared intently at him.

'Jessica,' he thought, as his heart started to beat slightly faster.

The werewolf girl smiled silently to herself. Her enhanced hearing had heard his heartbeat increase as he approached her.

'Good,' she thought, 'that makes this a little easier.'

She shifted over as Damien reached the bench she was sitting on, and sat on a patch of soft, powdery snow covering the bench seat next to her.

"Hey Jess," Damien said sheepishly.

He didn't know what it was about her, but she took over his every thought whenever they were together, his powers couldn't terrorize him when he was with her. Though he knew in his heart he never wanted the girl to leave him, he knew he couldn't say anything. A relationship started in an orphanage, when one partner could one day be taken hundreds of miles away, wasn't a very good idea. Both would either have to constantly live in fear of one of them one day getting adopted and vanishing from the other's lives or stick together and eventually face graduation together.

"Hey D," she giggled, smiling into her hood slightly. "12pm huh?," Jessica said with a coy smile, "a new record."

Damien exaggeratedly rolled his eyes with a playful huff, looking away for a bit before asking tentatively with a smirk, "you wanna take dish duty wolfie, ya think you can waste time lookin' as good as me?"