The Dragon Master

Picnic

Dad had brought up the next day that we should go and have a picnic not far from Hargeon as a family. Nefta, Bubble, and Bill came along as well(much to Leema's disappointment), which made me pretty happy, even though both Nefta and Leema made sure that they were at least ten feet away from Bill and each other at all times. Kami didn't seem to mind Bill, though, and he talked to Bill about practically everything.

The picnic was pretty ordinary, and we all just had some basic small talk for the most part. When we were packing up to go, however, Bill came up to me to ask me a question. "You and Nefta are close, right?" He asked me.

"Uh, I think so?" I asked more than answered.

He looked down. "I know that I'm a pretty crappy Dad. I mean, I've done some things that I'm not all that proud off..." He trailed off.

"Is that why she hates you?" I asked.

He shrugged. "I'm sure that just me being her Dad has something to do with it. It's my fault she was born and had to go through all of that torture."

I looked left and right to make sure that no one was listening in. "What happened?"

He sighed and looked up to the sky. "I fell in love with her mother, Lavina, and we ended up getting...involved."

"Oh." I nodded, then my eyes widened. "Oh."

"Yeah, 'oh.' On the night that she was conceived, I had to retreat back and away from Heaven, back to Hell. I honestly didn't really know all about Nefta until I met her by chance. I wasn't exactly 'Dad of the year.'"

"Well, she can't just hate you for leaving her and her mom. I mean, you didn't know about her." I said, shrugging.

"Heh, if only that was it." He shook his head and looked back down. "It gets worse."

"Worse?"

"Yep. I'm a daemon, so it doesn't help when she get's hurt or tortured and I happen to notice. Of course, she's my daughter, but...I can't help but just sit back, relax, and watch. I can't bring myself to help protect her or anything. I also, may have sorta kinda tried to kill her little fairy friend at one point."

I felt my eye twitch. "Okay, why?"

"I was feeling extra daemon-y that day! You can't blame me!"

I rolled my eyes. "Okay, so you're really not 'Dad of the year.' But maybe you could do something to, I don't know, fix it?"

"What do you think that I've been trying to do?" He asked.

I sighed. "Well, why don't you just talk to her and ask her to give you a chance?"

"I've tried that. It was, like, three hundred years ago, and I blew it." He looked down. "I... I'm a terrible father."

He looked so down when he said that, I couldn't help but give him a small smile and place my hand on his shoulder. "Hey, how about I talk to her and ask her if she can give you another chance?"

"R-really?" He smiled and brightened up. "Thanks!"

"No problem," I placed my hands on my hips. "Family is one of the most important things. I'll take care of it."

~*~

I asked Nefta that night if we could hang out a bit in her room that she was staying in. She was warming up to me, and I think that we were past the acquaintance thing and got to be friends. We stayed up pretty late talking about everything and nothing, just laughing and having some fun. Eventually, I popped the question.