The adventures of the Scarlet lights. Part two, Hero.

Chapter 1, The boy with red hair

Once upon a time, lost behind trees, not far from a village in a world populated by humans, there was an orphanage. This orphanage wasn't the best place to live in, with kids being rough and caretakers being almost always silent and cold. There already had been a few missing children reports from this orphanage, but it wasn't a surprise, the orphans had access to a river right next to the orphanage to learn how to swim. Most of the kids who didn't know how to swim would either get bullied or get taken by the river never to be seen again. Most times, the kids being sent to this orphanage were young children who were abandoned by their parents, so it was to the surprise of everyone when a child was found in a basket in front of the door of the orphanage. It was found a morning in December, after a stormy night, alone. From its pale skin, it looked like the baby was dead after staying in the storm, but the baby kept on breathing and even cried a little when the basket was picked up by one of the caretakers, Elizabeth, a cold and almost emotionless person. Looking at the baby she only saw a bastard who even after the whole universe told him to die, decided to survive.
A pest, or even an insect. Looking at him she was sure that this boy would get up no matter what the situation, even if his mind did not want to, his body didn't allow him to stay down. And in that moment, Elizabeth felt something she had never felt watching a child, respect. And so, as if instinctively, while looking at this little baby, she spoke softly.

"Hero..."

The baby looked at her as she spoke, the baby had pale yellow eyes, reminding her of the color of the sun during a gentle sunset. He seemed to understand that this word was meant to be used to call him. Elizabeth couldn't help but feel a mix of disgust and respect, to see a baby respond to the simple word Hero as if this little bastard knew it was his name. She brought the baby inside the orphanage and showed him to the other caretakers. While the others had a reaction of disgust just like her, they did not show any respect for the baby who had survived the storm. The caretakers decided to search the basket for a name, an address, or anything, but they found nothing.
Elizabeth spoke up calmly.

"I want him to take the name of Hero."

The other caretakers couldn't care less about the name of the child, so they accepted Elizabeth's decisions. For a few years, Hero would be taken care of like any child, growing up and learning, though he showed great cowardice and absolutely no will to fight against anyone. Whenever he could, the child would stay in his room and play with plush toys. As he grew up, he grew long red hair, but not ginger hair like a regular child, no, truly red hair. Eventually, came the day of his swimming lessons. He did not swim well at all of course. However, the kids did not bully him after that, as he was seen as nothing more than a coward who couldn't stand up for himself. But the night after the swimming lessons, he heard the noises of a woman whimpering in pain outside. He went outside to see what was happening, only to see every caretaker of the orphanage beating up Elizabeth, screaming at her, telling her that saving Hero was the worst mistake of her life, that he was dumb and weak, a simple coward who could do nothing but eat, cry, shit and sleep. And as he saw that, something inside Hero made it impossible for him to run away back to his room. As much as he tried his feet wouldn't move, his whole body just wouldn't move. He started to speak And for the first time in his life, not in a monotone and disinterested kind of way, but in a trembling and loud tone.

"Hey! Let her go!"

The caretakers looked at him and sighed, knowing that they could get in trouble if a kid would tell what they did. They stopped attacking Elizabeth and began to walk back to the orphanage silently.
Elizabeth got up, but instead of showing respect toward Hero, she walked up to him and punched him. And then, she spoke with disgust.

"You are worthless. Just die already, you are the cause of my pain."

Elizabeth, in a way, wasn't wrong, it's because she believed in Hero that she lived a worse life.
Hero was left shocked, not only because he was unable to run away, but because he was punched for the first time in his life. That day, instead of going to sleep, he spent all night training to swim.
The day, kids would watch him as he studied and tried his best for once, and seeing that the coward was trying, they decided to bully him. At first, it was simple bullying. Stealing books, rocks under the pillows, stuff like that. But when they realized it did not stop Hero from trying to improve, they decided to go harder on him. Throwing pebbles, sticks, or even mud at him, and at night he would get beaten up by the kids who had learned about his secret swimming training during the night.
But every time he would fall, Hero would get back up, like an insect getting back up even after being stomped, but he would never fight back, he would always refuse to fight. For him, it was by fear, for others it was because he was a coward. Kids started to be taken by parents, but Hero stayed.
Until the day of his fourteen years, on this exact day, something would happen. One kid ended up being fed up with all of this, fed up with Hero. So one day, he met him outside and pointed at him with a sharpened stick.

"Just who do you think you are? You are pathetic, a waste of space. You are a bastard, we all know that your mother had you by accident and she brought you here because she didn't want you in her life. And we don't want you in our life either. You are a freak, Hero, a fucking freak. I don't know how you aren't dead already, but it doesn't matter, you are a coward and you'll always be a coward. And you want to know something, Hero? Elizabeth, the caretaker you like so much, she's a fucking whore.
She serves as a stress relief for the other caretakers. She's just a worthlessness h-"

The kid is suddenly interrupted by Hero throwing a punch at him, his nose begins to bleed and he stumbles backward a little. Hero never punched anyone, in fact, it wasn't really him who decided to throw that punch, his body had simply moved on its own after he heard about the insults toward Elizabeth as if his body couldn't allow someone he cared for to be insulted. Confused, and in pain, he hits Hero on his legs with his stick. Hero falls sideways inside the river and is taken by the strong current. The kid is scared of his actions, so he runs toward the orphanage, cowardly avoiding the consequences of his actions. Void, without color, light, or matter... This is what Hero sees as he feels his body slowly begin to shift into another world. Something is tapping on his head...

"Hello? Helloooo? Someone's in there, little guy?"

Hero woke up and tried with all his strength to get back up. But he eventually got up easily, as the thing tapping on his head pulled him up, making him land on his butt. His eyes took a few seconds to get used to the light, but when they did, he was finally able to see where he was. His body had crashed on the sand on the other side of the river, clearly far away from the orphanage, he saw beautiful trees and animals, but as he looked around to see his savior, he saw no one at all. Until a small fairy, glowing red appeared out of nowhere and began to speak to him while staying close to his face.

"Hi, little guy! What's your name? Why do you have red hair? Are you a human? You look tired."

Hero was directly scared of the creature, he wanted to run away but his body refused. He couldn't understand why since that night, his body just refused to listen to him, but he guessed he should just listen to it rather than try and forcefully run away. He places both his hands under the fairy for her to have a place to sit.

"My name is Hero, I don't know why I have red hair, I am a human and, yes I am tired."

The fairy smiled gently at Hero's actions and sat on his hands gently, from closer it was easier for him to see her features. Delicate brown hair, cute blue eyes, wearing an adorable red dress, which seemed to be the reason why she was glowing a gentle red color. The fairy placed her hands on her cheeks and started to smile with a blushful face.

"Oh please, boy. Don't look at me like that, you are looking at me as if you want to eat me!
You need to ask me out first before looking at me this way."

Hero blushed and nodded no quickly.

"Please don't say that! I'm just fourteen, I don't want to ask you out, I was just looking at you!
You are very small, it's hard to look at you."

The fairy chuckled for a bit, but then she sighed and relaxed on Hero's hands.

"Don't worry, Honey. I'm just sixteen, in like, four years, you'll be able to ask me out. By the way, my name is Eva, I'm an adventurer. So, why were you sleeping in the river, sugar?"

Hero wasn't really comfortable with Eva's way of speaking, but he didn't really have anything better to do.

"I got kicked by a guy and fell unconscious in the river."

Eva looked interested in this peculiar situation Hero had gotten himself into, she looked at him with a warmer gaze.

"Oh, Honey, so you really are lost. Do you have any parents we could call?" Eva didn't even have to get an answer, from the look on Hero's face, she knew what was happening, "I see, don't worry, you don't have to talk about it. How about you travel with me? I'm sure we can find you a place you can fit in."

Eva began to fly off of Hero's hands. Hero looks at Eva with shock and clear disapproval.

"N-no... I want to get back home."

Eva stopped and looked back at Hero. When she sees his scared and disapproving expression. She nodded yes.

"Fine, we'll search for someone who can help you to go back to the place you call home. Now get up, boy."

Hero got back up and began to walk next to Eva. The forest is dense and warm, and it's not really a reassuring place to be in.