I don’t want it to end
Going inside, we come upon a big area full of children and their parents. There seem to be multiple different structures for climbing, sliding, hiding and more. All in three different sizes, one large, one medium and one small so children of every race and age have a place they can use. Looking at us as we enter, the parents glare daggers at me with faces of disgust and fear.
“I don’t think this is a place where I fit in, let’s go somewhere else.”
Gently nudging me further in with her tail, Scarlet asks, “What are you talking about, Rose? This place is perfect for you to play a little. Holly said so too, remember?”
“Well…Yeah, but I don’t feel very welcome here. This place is for children, not for me.”
“Pfft, nonsense! You are a child, both legally, physically and as deemed by a God. Come on, let's go play! Maybe you’ll even make some friends your age.”
Pouting a little, I answer, “I don’t need to make any friends, I already have John and Sher Aka.”
“Sher Aka is an adult and John is a grumpy adolescent, you need some friends your age too!”
“I don’t even know what my age is…”
“Well, physically you’re about a month old as for mentally, we’ll just have to see what kind of friend you’ll find! Usually kids hang out with other children close to their age.”
“Am I even allowed to make friends with children? Aren’t people going to beat me up if I even get close to a child?”
“Of course not! And if they try, your big sis will protect you!”
“Hmm…What do you think about this ane?”
She reassuringly puts her hand on my shoulder, “I think you should try it out at least. It looks like everyone is having fun. Also that way I can tell that damn squirrel that we tried it out.”
“Squirrel? Do you mean Sue?”
“It doesn’t matter who I’m talking about, just try to enjoy yourself!”
“Uhm…Okay.”
Scarlet then drags me off towards the playground, “Let’s try the swings first! Alright, you sit down here, I’ll give you a little push and then you stretch your legs out when going forward and pull them back when going backwards.”
“Uhm…Okay.”
Scarlet gives me a light push and I do as she instructed, at first I’m just doing it a bit half heartedly but once I get how the swing works I’m actually enjoying it a lot.
“See, Rose? It's fun right!?”
“Yeah! It reminds me of flying!”
“Kikikiki, it’s certainly similar!”
As my gaze falls from the sky back to the ground though, I see a lot of disgruntled looking people staring at me disapprovingly.
“Hey Scarlet, how do I stop this swing?”
“By putting your feet on the ground. Do you want to try something else now?”
I stop the swing and answer, “No, I think I want to leave.”
“Why? I thought you were having fun!”
“I…I’m scared.”
Putting her tail around me, she asks, “Scared? Why are you scared?”
“The people over there are glaring at me, I feel like if I stay here they’ll beat me up. They have the same faces as last time…”
“Last time?”
“Yeah, back in Fring when the Woodelves beat me up they made the same faces as them and the people that gave me this scar also looked at me like that…”
Scarlet gives me a compassionate look and holds my hand as she says, “That’s not going to happen today. We’re all here with you and if anyone tries to do something bad to you I’ll punch em! You saw how strong your big sis is right?”
“Yeah…”
“Then let’s calm down a little and when you’re feeling better I’ll go talk to them to stop staring, okay?”
“Yeah…”
Determined Scarlet leads me next to the swing onto a nice patch of grass where she kneels down and puts my head on her lap, “Would you like to bite on my arm for a bit? It will help you relax!”
“I dunno…Will that really be okay to do in public? Won’t people think I’m doing something weird, that might make them even more angry.”
She grins, “Who cares? I’m going to explain it to them right after you relax a little.”
“Hmm, I guess that’s true…”
She then offers me her arm and I bite down on it. It feels very calming. I can feel my anxiety lessen with each passing moment but instantly shoot up again when I see a few angry looking people approach us.
Brushing through my hair, she gently tells me,“It’s okay, Rose. I’ll handle it.”
“A-are you sure? I can just leave.”
“I’m sure, just go back to biting my arm, it’ll be fine.”
“Okay…”
A blonde human woman with a bob cut, loudly clears her throat as she approaches us, “Uhum! Excuse me Sir but you can’t do this sort of stuff here.”
Scarlet answers, “I’m not sure who you’re referring to but you seem to have the wrong person.”
“I’m referring to him obviously. This place is for children so it’s weird enough to see you use the equipment like this but now you’re also sucking or licking or whatever you’re doing to this poor girl!”
A wolf Beastwoman adds, “It’s indecent!”
“And most importantly it’s illegal, we are calling the police over as we speak.” A wolf Beastman adds.
Scarlet in a smug tone asks, “Care to explain what about this is illegal before you embarrass yourselves?”
The bobcut woman answers, “He’s a grown ass man slobbering all over a teenage girl, that has to be illegal!”
“Oh? Is that illegal too then?” Scarlet asks, pointing at a different Wolf-Beastman in the distance licking the face of his child.
“Of course not.”
“Ah, so you’re a hypocrite then? Bad combo being wrong and a hypocrite, I must say.”
A few policemen then show up with their hands on a small crossbow dangling from their hips. One of them is a male human, the other a female wolf Beastkin.
The human authoritatively asks, “Alright, what seems to be the issue here?”
And Scarlet answers, “These people are harassing my little sister and me. They’ve been glaring at her for a while now and made her get really scared and uncomfortable.”
“Well, we’re not here for your little sister, we're here for this guy being inappropriate with you.”
“Well…This ‘guy’ is my little sister. Rayla, the Fox-Beastfolk with the six tails over there has her ID. Rayla! Come over here for a sec!”
Rayla then jogs over to us and Scarlet tells her, “We need her ID.”
“Again? Didn’t we just go through this?”
Rayla crams through her bag for a bit and once she finds it, hands over the card. The guards then pull out a small book and look through it, doing a similar double take to the ones at the entrance.
The human guard asks his partner, “Does this smell right to you?”
Taking a sniff of Scarlet and me, her expression changes to surprise, “I’m no magician or priest so I have no idea about curses but they smell almost the same, so this seems very plausible to me.”
“Alright…Uhum, there seems to be a massive misunderstanding going on. This person is neither an adult nor a man. They’re actually a cursed little girl. I understand that’s hard to believe but the adventuring guild confirmed it. So, please stop antagonizing…Her? You’re scaring her.”
The group that called the guards looks at us wide eyed and the human woman with the bob cut snatches my ID from the guard’s hand, “Thoma Ahad, huh? I’m reporting this to the guild. This is obviously a fake!”
The female guard then snatches the card back, “Do something like that again and I’ll send you to jail.”
“If someone’s going to jail it should be that pervert forging guild cards!”
The female guard growls at her causing the male guard to whisper something to her.
She nods in agreement and looks at us, “I’m so sorry about that. My partner is going to take care of her and I’ll go around explaining the situation so this doesn’t happen again. Please try to enjoy your stay regardless of what just happened.”
After telling us that, she moves towards the parents of the area and goes to explain the situation while the woman with the bobcut is being forcefully escorted out the playground while yelling and making a scene.
“See Rose, your big sis handled it without you needing to do anything. Things might be harder but they’re not hopeless.”
“Yeah…Thank you sister.”
She smiles at me, “How about instead of sister or aneka, you call me manya? It means sister in our language.”
“Sure, thank you manya.”
“Kikikiki, you’re welcome, Rose!”
Scarlet and I then go play in the playground. Without the glares of others, it’s actually quite a lot of fun! We climbed on some structures together, used the slide a few times and my favorite was when she chased me through a maze of tunnels. After about an hour and a half of playing I get really sleepy.
“Do you want to take a nap Rose?”
“No…I want to play more.”
She brushes through my hair, sits me down next to her and hugs me with her tail, “Are you sure? You’re looking awfully tired.”
“Yeah…Let’s play some more…I never had so much fun before. I don’t want it to end.”
Giving me a gentle smile, she answers, “We can do this again, you know? Back home we have an even bigger place like this.”
“Really?”
“Really, really! So you can go to sleep now.”
“Okay…Good night, manya…”
“Good night Rose.”
—------------------------------------------------
Scarlet with her massive strength easily picks up Thoma Ahad and walks back to the rest of the party.
“She’s completely powered out.”
Rayla answers, “Yeah, I can see that. I…I’ve never seen him this excited and happy before. I wish I knew how to use a place like this, I would have loved to have as much fun with him as you did.”
“I can teach you, it’s not hard… Hey, wanna know what Rose said before she fell asleep?”
“Sure.”
“She said ‘I never had so much fun before. I don’t want it to end.’”
Hearing this causes Rayla to shed a tear and John says, “I guess he really is still a kid inside…”