Asta of the six leaf clover (written by: Marvelmyst and Soumy42)

Chapter 13

Narrator P.O.V

While the four children were playing to their heart’s content, far away in the distance, was Mikaela riding on her deer friend for the rest of the journey. As they came closer and closer to a gate, the guards of that gate recognized her immediately. They bowed down and opened the gate welcoming their queen, she immediately told them not to bow as they all protect the land as equals. This gave the guards pride swelling in their hearts as they had the most wonderful rulers in the land.

Kayla P.O.V

How did I get here? Oh yeah now I remember I was targeted by a crazy woman who nearly killed me, then healed and gave me human speech and now I'm helping her find her lost son. Oh mother, father, is this the right thing to do? I know I haven't seen you in twelve years, but could you guide me through this problem? I still remember what you told me all those years ago. And what about you granny, old man? You two were very wise.

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~ 13 years ago ~

Kayla P.O.V

A four-year-old me was laying down on the grass as my parents stood in front of me. We were in the countryside where the grass was as green as you can expect, the clouds just pass by and the sun shone down illuminating the entire grasslands. We sat in the shade of some trees to avoid the treacherous heat, the wind bustling through the trees and our fur. My father was the strongest buck in our herd, and mother was the smartest doe; she always knew which berries to pick without getting poisoned. The others expect a lot from me as I am their fawn, but mom and dad don't push me, they just tell me to be myself.

It was time for my bedtime story, and I was excited; they normally tell me about the human world and how cool and nice they are, but I should watch out because some can be dangerous.

Mother started with the story.

"Kayla, do you remember the tales of the humans? They have something called 'birthdays'. It's a day in the year where they celebrate the birth of someone. Your father and I thought about celebrating yours; we know we already have something like a birthday, but the human way seems more joyous. Would you like to celebrate your fifth birthday with the human’s style or our traditional way?

I thought about it for a while before jumping up. I decided to go with the human way since it seems interesting and I want to experience new things. Father jumped a bit by my action while mother laughed at his reaction. The rest of the night was wonderful, they told me about how humans give these things called 'gifts'. That's when one human gives another human something as a sign of appreciation. I can't wait for my birthday.

~ A few months later ~

Kayla P.O.V.

I woke up excited since today is my birthday; mother and father already told the herd and since they told me that story, we've been celebrating birthdays the human style. No more boring talks about our new tasks, as if that is a fun way to celebrate the day someone was born. We still do that, but we'll have a fun party afterwards. I went to the elder under the willow tree and bowed down. She then told me to rise and started telling me how I needed to study berries and nuts now, so that I could help gather food. The lecture was shorter than the other years, probably because I had already studied with mother. I went back outside and saw everyone cheering me to have a happy birthday. Now I get why humans do it, this is a wonderful feeling. I went to mother and father and saw that they held something for me. Mother gave me something called a ‘necklace’; she told me she saw a human drop it and thought that it would look good on me. She put it on my head like a crown, with its jewels glistening in the light, the cold metal making me shiver a little before settling down. I turned to father, he gave me something called a ‘shoe’. He told me a human got scared seeing him and dropped it while he was running away. He washed it and suggested to put berries and nuts in it so that I could carry them back easily as it was easier than carrying it in my mouth in several trips. I picked up the shoe and ran into my bedroom, which was situated in a massive tree hollow, with piles of leaves acting as a bed. I placed it and the necklace on my bed and ran back. As I was on my way back, the screams of my herd reached my ears. I didn't know if this was a part of a birthday party, but I ran faster. And that's when I saw humans, they were using floating thingies to attack my people and cut down our trees. I saw father and the other bucks trying to fend them off, but they were too strong. Mother and the others tried running away, but they were too slow for the humans and they were getting captured one by one. Mother turned to me with fear in her eyes as she yelled at me to run, but I couldn't move. The shock of our herd getting killed was too much that I couldn’t move an inch. Mother struggled out of the grip of the human holding her, but a sickening crack could be heard from one of her legs. She slowly limped towards me, shielding me from different attacks coming from every direction, and when she finally reached me, she fell to the ground, blood seeping from all over her body with no intention of stopping. With her remaining strength, she used her head to nudge my leg a bit.

"Go, don't look back, it's all just a bad dream. Go!"

That was all she said. I don't know what happened after because my instincts kicked in and I started running for my life. My eyes were blurry with tears streaming down, I couldn't look back since mother asked me not to. I heard the clamber of feet and the shouts of humans as they were gaining onto me. I knew I couldn’t outrun them, so I had no choice but to jump into the river.

~ The day after ~

I woke up to face wall of wood, my head throbbed in pain when I looked around and I saw that there were two humans in the room. I remembered what happened, how humans massacred my family and my friends with no mercy. I cannot forgive them, ever. Though these humans were different; they look like weak old prunes with white hair. I tried standing up, but my head hurt too much. The woman noticed I had woken up and slowly shuffled towards me. I don’t know why but I started to tremble as she got closer. The woman noticed and stopped, looking at me with sad eyes before turning to the man and they nodded at each other.

"Don't worry dear, we won't hurt you. We found you floating in the river unconscious yesterday. So, we brought you back here and that’s when we saw the blood on you. My husband here was a vet, so he knew that wasn't human blood. Our deepest apologies about what happened to you, but please let us take care of you. You can leave afterwards.”

I stopped trembling at the sound of her voice. It was so soothing and reassuring. So kind. I nodded at her and she was surprised that I could understand her but chuckled after.

These people helped me heal, so I decided to pay them back by staying and helping them. But I didn't expect in the first year that old man would leave our world. He helped me a lot by healing me and I haven't even payed back half of what he did for me. Granny became very sad, but she would never show it in front of me. But I knew deep down that granny couldn't always stay. And I was right. In the following year, granny passed away. During her final moments, she asked me to never forget them and to remember that not all humans are alike. I nodded with tears in my eyes and she laughed again for the final time just like the first. I bowed my head in reverence before leaving the cottage to go back into the forest, never letting anyone get close to me because they'll eventually be taken away. That pain is unbearable for me, and I isolated myself from others ever since.
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~ Back to the present ~

I guess that didn't work out now that I have this crazy woman with me. Yeesh, this was not the life I envisioned for myself

Narrator P.O.V

Mikaela stepped off Kayla as they walked towards the castle. On the way, they were approached by civilians who welcomed her back and children who gave her drawings of herself. She gratefully accepted the gifts and while that was happening, Kayla was being adored by the children as they pet her fur and marvelling her. Normally she'd scoff and walk away, but she didn't want to hurt the feelings of the children. They kept walking until they reached the palace doors and now Mikaela couldn't take another step forward.

Mikaela P.O.V

I was nervous, what would Orion think? He was always the more emotional one from the two of us. As I am contemplating about how to break the news to Orion, I felt something familiar from above. I side-stepped out of the way and someone crashed into the ground of where I was standing a few seconds ago. And guess who?

Orion. Why does he always need to greet me like this, can't he open the door instead or at least NOT CRUSH ME TO DEATH BY FALLING OUT OF THE SKY! How did I fall in love with such a big doof? I suddenly felt strong arms hug me from behind and Orion’s voice welcoming me home while asking why I stepped away. Okay now I remember why, because he's my big doof.

Kayla P.O.V

Did that human just fall out of the sky, hit the ground with incredible force that made a small crater and still stand up unscathed to hug Mikaela? Wait, wouldn’t he have crushed her if he fell onto Mikaela? Humans are weird when it comes to greetings. Let’s see what happens next.