Fantasy Fantasy Encounter

[Spoiled Bread]

"Don't mind if I do!" Kanon immediately chugged down the potion, she felt her hand become better. Not completely healed, but the pain become so much more bearable. She kept the splint for now though, breaking her hand was not an uncommon occurence for her so she knew a regular healing potion wouldn't instantly fix it up.

The man took out a needle and after disinfecting it, was trying hard to insert the string into the needle. His hand was trembling and he took a few minutes before finally able to do it.

"If only we have a healer here... Say, are you not a healer? Um, mister....?" Crap, it looks like they forget to introduce themself.

"Name's Tenma, and no, I'm no healer sadly. Any Ishtarian priest capable of performing healing magic usually would be assigned at important places, like our capital Dominicia and port city like Al-Amir. Petra is just a small town."

"Ah, I see. I never really know about that. Ehehe. A-anyway, my name is Kanon and this is Lira. Pleasure to be your acquaintance."

The man just nodded in acknowledgement but say nothing. He seemed to be focused on reading labels on several flasks. He put those flask back into the medicine box.

"I'm sorry but we don't have anymore anesthetic." The man raised the needles. "Please bear it."

"Uh, oh. You can endure it, Lira!" A stitch without anasthethic done by a shaky hand would not be a pleasant experience.

 

[do-or-die]

Lira could feel herself ready to puke watching the elder try to needle the thread. No amount of soup could make her do this. “No I’m really alright, Mr. Tenma.”, she insisted as her stomach squeezed itself. “Beside I know a healer and I’ll go straight to him when we’re done here.”

She wasn’t having any of this today. Reaching into her bag she pulled out some adhesive made from a tree slug. “In the meantime I’ll just close my cut with this.”

“Are you sure?”, Tenma asked finally able to get the needle in. “Well if you insist. You two look like you can handle yourselves.”

Lira gave a sigh of relief before coating her hand with the glue.

“Well it’s late and I’m sure you two need your just.”, said the Priest. “I’ll lead you too your room. I can only spare one but don’t worry it the master bedroom so you two will have plenty of space.”

“The master bed? But where do you sleep?”, Lira asked.

“With the recent attacks I sleep on the floor in the children’s room. Just to keep their minds at ease.”, he said.

This man really was a saint. Lira bit her bottom lip to keep from tearing up. “Have the night off we’ll take care of them.” Lira wrapped an arm around Kanon shoulders and gave a thumbs up. She also just realized gang she volunteered her without her consent but she was just going to let the old guy sow her up like some kind of Frankenstein.

 

[Spoiled Bread]

"It's okay, you can rest. I'm an experienced caretaker." Kanon confidently reassured the priest. She got that Lira might just want to at least repay the priest for sheltering them. Fair point actually.

"Well, if you two insist. I can take the time to finish my monthly reports now. Thank you." The man nodded weakly, he walked toward one of the room. "Oh, if you two need help you can ask me or my partner Zidan. He's mute and a bit shy but don't hesitate to ask help from him, he should be tending to one of the kid in the infirmary right now. Good night."

"Good night."

Now that Tenma already retreated into his room, Kanon finally could comment about their condition. She raised her broken finger and used it point at Lira's glued gaping wound.

"We're screwed tomorrow." Kanon couldn't help but laugh. "Do this kind of unexpected situation happen a lot in your job?"

 

[do-or-die]

“Don’t worry we’ll have everything under control.”, Lira reassured the man as he walked away. Afterwards she gave a sigh. She had never looked after children before, well, human children.

“What? This?”, Lira asked raising her hands laughing. “It’s pretty common. I have the battle scars to prove that. You get use to it through. It’s builds character.”

Lira opened the door to two lines of eight small beds. Each bed had two children except the one near the window where there was one little girl. The moment the door opened Lira could tell that the children were pretending to sleep. Mostly due to their abnormal position.

“We can talk more tomorrow.”, she whispered to Kanon.

“Oh wow I’m so sleepy.” Lira gave a fake yawned and walked in. “I guess I’ll just sleep here then.” She let her fall straight to the floor and on her face. Her actions caused giggling to emerge.

“Alright but seriously y’all need to go to sleep.”, she said sitting up.

“But the monster...”, whimpered the girl near the window. Lira looked over and over the bed was a nameplate that said Sarah.

“That’s why we’re here, Sarah.”, she said valiantly jumping to her feet. “As long as we’re here nothing can harm you. Now go to sleep everyone so we can have a fun day tomorrow!”

The children rolled over with big smiles. They couldn’t wait to play with the two nice ladies. Some gave shy smiles and waves at Kanon before closing their eyes.

Lira laid back down with a real yawn this time. “I don’t know about you but I’m pooped. Goodnight.”

 

[Spoiled Bread]

"Good night." Kanon waved back at everyone, signaling them to go back to their sleep then laid back on the floor next to Lira.

Watching the big Lira just plopped on the floor like that made Kanon smile. It looks very out of place. There's not much chance to see human childrens and an orc in the same room since most parents wouldn't even allow that. Well, it seems Tenma and this Zidan teached these kids really well.

Kanon stayed awake for the next hour. Watching the kids sleep brought back her memories of the past. Micky used to knock on her door at night because he's too scared to go to the toilet alone. Nao was a sweet girl who loves sharing cookies with everyone, it just her cookies were made of dirt. Kain was the oldest and the boldest, he's rebellious but never really wants to hurt anyone.

Looking back, why was the archbishop even assigned her to handle an orphanage again?? She's far from the ideal caretaker and they obviously know she used to extort 'protection money' from market stall to make a living.

Kanon sighed as she knew that she would never be able to answer these questions in her head by herself. Maybe once this quest over she would head to Dominicia and ask the archbishop about this. Now, time to sleep.

..........

Kanon woke up sooner than she expected. The sky was still dark but ones could saw the first shimmer of sunlight on the horizon. She was surprised to find a blanket drapped over her and Lira. The orphanage was silent, but a weak sounds of clattering cooking utensils could be heard in the distance.

Of course, the first daily task was cooking for breakfast. Each orphanage has different system depending on their budget and personnel, she used to assign some of the oldest kids to help her cooking the breakfast. The taste would be quite wacky since literally nobody in her orphanage could cook well.

Kanon quitetly walked out of the room. Didn't want to wake Lira or any of the kids. When Kanon reached for the doorknob though, the door opened by itself and revealed a little girl with a triangle instrument and a metallic spoon on her other hand. She looks very happy when she repeatedly hit the triangle with the spoon, filling the room and maybe the entire building with this loud annoying ringing noise.

"Wake up! Wake up!"

 

[do-or-die]

The next morning Lira was awaken by a loud ringing. With panic she grabbed the hilt of her broken axe and jumped to her feet. The blanket covered her head making her hands navel to see anything. “Come at me!”, she yelled.

Giggling surrounded her. She had forgotten she was at an orphanage. Pulling the cover from her head Lira couldn’t help but feel embarrassed. “Haha right... Well hey let’s get ready for breakfast! Last one there is a rotten egg!”

The children screamed and laughed as they hurried out of bed. The last one left was Sarah. “You don’t want to be a rotten egg for you?”, Lira teased.

Sarah just looked down shyly shaking her head. “Well let’s get out of bed!” Lira torn the blanket off to reveal thy Sarah was missing a leg.

Lira’s face went blank with shock. She just told this kid without a leg to hurry downstairs. Shaking the thought off Lira bent down and offered a back ride. “Well then come on.”

Sarah was hesitate but got on. “Hey Kanon, wanna race or do you need a back ride too. Don’t worry I can fit two.”

 

[Spoiled Bread]

"Well..." Kanon just smiled at Lira's offer, might as well play a bit so she just jogged slowly to the big room, not intending to win the 'race' in the first place. Along the way she could saw the kids rushing to start their activity.

"Anyone see my pencil?"

"Whoever inside the toilet, hurry up!"

"Gather everyone, the meal is ready."

"The next time I have waking up duty I will blow a whistle next to your ear!"

There's no table for eating, everyone sat in the floor at the living room while some of the kids handed out the meal. It was mashed potato with green powder sprinkled on it. A boy was just finished reading out loud the mealtime prayer out of his tattered book while the other kids answered by yelling 'Meth'sa!' together.

Kanon's hand already felt much better so she tried removing the splint and voila, she could use her right hand to eat. Although it still felt a bit mushy so she should avoid doing heavy work with that finger.

"How is your sleep?" Tenma sat down next to Kanon and Lira.

"As good as at home." Kanon answered casually while trying to blow the heat out of her meal. "Your orphanage is very organized and the kids are so well behaved. You are doing a really good job."

"That's.... thank you for your kind words." Tenma humbly accepted Kanon's praise. "I actually meant to ask you two whether you need help for anything regarding the monster. Anything except fighting it of course, I've never been much of a fighter."

"H-huhh, I don't really know. Do we need to prepare something, Lira?"

"A blazing holy sword!" One of the boy seemed to overhear the conversation and now circling the room as if he was swinging a sword around. The other boys joined in and turned it into some sort of invisible mock sword dueling.

 

[do-or-die]

Lira took off but her sprint was stopped by the fear of crushing the other children. By the time they made it down it looked like they were the last ones. “I’m sorry Sarah I failed you.”, she said with a pout.

“It’s okay I had fun!”, the little girl said with a smile.

It was one of the purest moment Lira had ever seen. After putting Sarah down to join the others for breakfast.

Lira couldn’t help but laugh as the two boys fought. “I don’t think we’ll find a holy sword around here, but if we do I promise you can keep it.” The boys eyes sparkled with excitement.

“We could be heroes!”, one yelled.

“Alright y’all enjoy your breakfast while we talk. Well be right back.”

Lira lead the other to the hallway where they could talk. What she was about to say could be a sensitive subject for the children. “Do you know anything about a mother who died recently?”, she asked in a low tone.

Tenma lowered his head and gave a nod. “Sarah is the newest one here and her mother died in an accident. A year ago Sarah was attacked by a beast in the woods and a few month later her mother came to be saying she was being haunted by something. She never told me what it was but that it was coming for Sarah.”

Lira bit her tongue. “Sarah’s mom might be the monster we’re hunting.”

 

[Spoiled Bread]

Kanon really hoped what she heard was wrong. Her stomach felt terrible. A human that turned into monster was horrible enough, but now it wants to harm someone that it once wants to protect? It like some some sick twist of fate. It was a good thing Lira tell this away from the kid's ears. Now she thought about jt, maybe Sarah's legs were gone because of this beast too...

"I wonder. Do you think it's better if we track that monster now in daylight? Hearing this... I just want to kill the monster away from Sarah. Can we even track it?" Kanon offered a suggestion. If this possible than they would gain some advantages because nocturnal monster usually got weakened at daytime.

 

[do-or-die]

Lira nodded her head in agreement. “It would be best that way.”, she sad just as her stomach growled. “But can we stay for breakfast first?”

Tenma laugh. “Of course you can.”

With a grin Lora rushes off to eat with the rest of the kids. The whole time she was talking to the children and made them laugh. When they were done Lira stood up and dismissed herself. “Don’t worry we’ll be back.”, she told them.

On the way out Lira made sure to get a good sniff of Sarah. Orc had a strong some sense of smell that might held them. “Kanon are you ready? This is probably the worst part about fighting monsters. Hunting them down is kinda boring.”

 

[Spoiled Bread]

The breakfast wasn't much, but the warm cheerful atmosphere inside the orphanage was more than enough to make it up. Tenma also gave the pair a lunchbox. "In case the hunt going for too long." He said.

"Come on, Lira. Boring or not, I'm ready!" Kanon picked up her briefcase and walked confidently. The kids circled the two while cheering at them. Kanon felt like she was a hero! The other caretaker, Zidan, lifted Sarah on his shoulder so she could see the two monster hunters off too.

"It's the monster hunter lady! All units, salute!" In front of the orphanage, the guards had formed two lines facing each other, creating a path for Kanon to pass. Kanon's jaw dropped as she realized that they still thought she was a legit monster hunter.

"Wait, what is this??"

"We are very sorry that we are helpless against the monster!" One of them that had more badges than the other guard spoke up, seems like he's the leader of the guards.

"I-it's okay. We can handle this."

"Your wise words last night had awaken our spirit!"

Wise words whaaaat?! Kanon screamed inside her own mind.

"Even though we can't help in the fight. We will support lady monster hunter with anyway we can!" A small group of guards dropped a wooden chest that seems to be very heavy. The chest was then opened and reveals various weapons and armors. Swords, axes, spears, chainmails and many more.

"These are the best weapons and armors we can find here. It might not be as good as the weapons that come from the capital, but we will be honored if the monster that has terrorizing our town get killed by our weapon! Please feel free to take anything of use." The guard captain looked at Kanon directly, she could feel the captain's emotion in his eyes. Anger, pride, guilt. He thrown all that aside so he could make up for his powerlessness. Kanon took the captain's hands into her own.

"I feel your willpower, captain! We will not let you down." She smiled at the captain then turned to Lira, her hand extended toward her mixed orc companion as she offered one of the axe. "Need something to swing?"

 

[do-or-die]

(Hey, sorry I haven’t responded in a while. I went in a surprise camping trip and didn’t have signal.)

Lira felt herself jump as they opened the door. The last time she seen this many soldiers she was being hunted down for a missunderstanding. It was nice to see that today was the exact opposite. They were willing to help and Lira couldn’t help but think that it was cute.

Lira grabbed the axe and gave it a few swirls. “It’s a little lighter than I’m use to but it will work. Thanks Cap!” She have a two finger salute. “Actually we might need your help, but it’s going to be pretty dangerous. We’ll need your strongest warrior for the job.”

Murmurs were heard from the man before. The Captain seemed annoyed and when he spoke explained why. “Actually there is a man stronger than my men but he refuses to join us or help the hunt. I have never seen a man so strong in al my years.He lives just out of town by himself and doesn’t take to kindly to strangers. His name is Eli.”

“Just leave it to us!” Lira looked at Kanon and smiled. “We’re going to need another set of hands. Honestly we’re both badly injured and I don’t want to take these guys with us.”, Lira spoke in a whisper so no one else could hear but all the soilder looked either to young to die or to old to fight. It was a small village after all.