The Knight
Once the gate in front of us completely materializes, the doors swing open and from it, before I can react, a tail comes forth as quick as an arrow and slaps me into the mountain wall.
“AAAAAGHHHH!”
“Rose!?”
Having hit my head on the wall, my vision gets a bit blurry as I process what just happened, it smells like I’m bleeding. A muscular man with a wide open white linen shirt and red pants appears, he has a well trimmed beard and short pink hair. He looks somewhat familiar.
Scarlet, in what sounds like Draconic, speaks to him, “Papa xxx the xxx are you xxx!?”
“Xxx aside!”
“Wait papa! Xxx an xxx to me!”
Wrapping his tail around her, the knight charges at me, hits me with the hilt of his rapier and pushes me face down into the dirt, “Are you the informant!?”
“What!?”
“Are you the informant from Tera Flora!?”
Scared, confused and in pain I don’t know what to say so I just start whimpering which seems to make him even more angry as he starts to rip the clothing off my body and yells at me, “Where is it!?”
“Papa xxx!!!”
“Where is my child!?” He yells at me and turns me around, picking me up by the neck and pushing me into the wall.
“Xxx!!! That is your xxx, papa!!!”
“Xxx are you xxx xxx, Scarlet?” He says turning towards Scarlet and putting his tail closer.
“Papa, the xxx in your xxx is xxx your xxx! You are xxx your daughter!!!”
“Xxx…?”
Turning around with a look of confusion on his face the knight stares in my eyes then quickly sniffs me. There is a look of surprise on his face as he lets go of my throat and I seize the opportunity to run away.
“Minor boost defense, moderate boost endurance, minor boost speed, moderate boost strength.”
Running as fast as I can into the woods, I use the training Uli gave me to nimbly traverse through it without being slowed down yet despite it, I can still hear footsteps behind me as the knight is swiftly gaining on me. Trying to run as fast as possible now I feel myself getting faster as a short burst of light emits from my body. The knight still seems to be gaining on me though cutting away trees in his path as he approaches, it looks like he’s about to catch me any second now, I need to-
“AAAAAAAAAAH”
I scream loudly as I fall off a cliff. Waiting for impact, I protect my face and close my eyes. But before I hit the ground I suddenly feel something grab me. I can only look downwards but I am able to see what looks like a giant pink claw around me and a huge shadow of a dragon beneath me. It seems to be carrying me back towards the camp where it carefully drops me on the ground in front of Scarlet who quickly picks me up, “I’m so sorry, Rose! It wasn’t supposed to be like this! You’re bleeding too…Tell me where does it hurt the most!? I’ll go get John right away!”
“I’m sorry…”
“Don’t apologize! Just tell me where it hurts.”
“I’m sorry. I won’t do it again. Please don’t hurt me.”
“I…I…I’m sorry, Rose. Let’s go get you to John.”
Running towards the camp with me Scarlet yells, “John! Help!”
“What is it this ti- Rose!? What the fuck happened, she looks bad!”
“I-I-There was a huge misunderstanding and she got roughed up.”
“That’s not just roughed up! There are multiple abrasions all over her body and there is a huge laceration on the back of her head!”
“What happened back there Scarlet!?” ane yells at her as she comes close.
“That’s not important right now!” a familiar voice of a man yells back at her, “Go ask if the Bloodhounds have any way to heal her!”
“On it!”
“Scarlet, give me your hand.”
“Y-yes!”
“Life a mysterious thing, transfer vitality from this person to another. Life Transfer,” the voice says, making me feel a little less hurt.
“Rose, can you hear me? How many fingers am I holding up?”
“I’m sorry, please don’t hurt me.”
“Fuck. Life a mysterious thing, transfer vitality from me to another. Life Transfer. How many fingers, Rose?”
“I’m sorry…”
“Life a mysterious thing, transfer vitality from me to another. Life Transfer. How many fingers am I holding up Rose?”
“Eh…John?”
“Yes, it’s me, how many fingers am I holding up?”
“I’m scared, John…”
“Life a mysterious thing, transfer vitality from me to another. Life Transfer. How many fingers am I holding up, Rose?”
“Fingers…Three?”
“Not quite but at least you understood the question.”
Martin then runs over to us and puts a bottle to my mouth, “Drink this.”
The liquid tastes herbal and a bit sweet and makes the pain go away as my body relaxes and I fall asleep.
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“What’s that potion?” John asks as the rest of the wounds slowly close.
“It’s a mid tier regeneration potion I made. It’s a bit more gentle on the body than normal healing potions. I expect a full recovery within two hours.”
“That’s great, thank you. So, Scarlet what happened?”
“I…We…We, summoned the knight and then my dad suddenly came out of the portal and started beating up Rose. He wouldn’t listen to me at all and kept hurting her, then when he finally listened he let her go, she ran into the woods and when dad brought her back, she was like this.”
“Your dad was the one that beat her up!?” Rayla yells.
“Yeah…But I’m sure he didn’t mean it!”
“That doesn’t fucking matter! Rose is traumatized enough! Now she’ll never want to live with your family!”
“I…I…sob I know…”
“Where is that bastard!?”
“I think he’s still back where they landed.”
“I’ll talk to him then.”
“Wait, Rayla, I should go with you!”
“No. You take care of Rose.”
Alone, Rayla goes to the place where the giant Dragon landed, finding the same person she saw only in paintings hunched over on a freshly cut down log with an angry and horrified expression on their face.
“You!”
Looking at her he gives her a glare and says, “Go away I’m not in the mood for conversation.”
Getting even closer Rayla yells, “How dare you hurt her! That’s going to fuck her up for the rest of her life you monster.”
Visibly enraged, the man stands up and walks toward her until he stands right in front of Rayla, “Don’t call me a monster you lowlife.”
“I think calling someone beating their own child a monster is more than accurate!”
“Who are you to judge me?”
“I’m her sister! I’ve been taking care of her longer than Scarlet even knows she exists.”
Letting out a sigh, he goes back to his stump, his facial expression changing from one of anger to one of sadness, “I can tell from your scent you're not lying about that. Speak your peace, I know that I made an irreparable mistake.”
Almost offended, Rayla yells at him, “What kind of weakling are you!? You sound like you have already given up on her!”
“I haven’t given up on anyone! I just need to think about how to handle this situation!”
“How about for starters you actually go check up on her you fucking asshole! Or do you not care? Is that it!?”
“Of course I care!”
“Then stop moping and go do something!”
“Do you think I’m sitting here because I want to!? I'm doing this to give her some time! If I show up there right now, she’ll have a heart attack!”
“She won’t.”
“How do you know that!?”
“Because she’s unconscious…”
“What?”
“She’s already been healed. She’ll be fine but you severely hurt her.”
“How? She looks like she’s almost an adult, that much force shouldn’t have hurt her much.”
“What? Did Scarlet not tell you?”
“Tell me what?”
“Rose is only half a year old, it’s her curse that makes her look like an adult.”
There is what can only be described as a look of absolute horror on his face as he utters “What…” before getting up the stump, running over to Rayla and yelling at her, “Tell me everything!”
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