Chapter 14: Training With Dred
Isadora was playing just outside their makeshift cottage, her small feet stirring up dust as she twirled with a handmade doll, giggling softly to herself.
"Umm... Big brother?"
But the moment she caught sight of Igaris approaching from the distance, her face lit up with joy.
"Mommy! Mommy! Big brother is back!" she shouted with pure excitement, her voice ringing clear as a bell as she dashed toward him with open arms.
Igaris's lips curled into a faint smile, his arms moving instinctively to lift her up in a warm embrace. It wasn't a conscious decision. His body simply responded, like muscle memory buried deep within the soul of the body he now occupied.
But inside, he didn't like it. Not even a bit.
The warmth, the comfort, it all felt like a cruel illusion.
His miserable past had crushed whatever belief he had in love or family. To him, love was nothing more than a decorated lie, and he had long buried the desire for it.
Yet here, in his arms, Isadora beamed with delight, nuzzling against his chest. She didn't know. She couldn't know that her big brother had changed. To her, he was still the same kind big brother she adored.
"Eh? Big brother, you smell weird..." she muttered, wrinkling her nose with innocent disgust as she caught the faint iron tang of dried blood clinging to his clothes.
She couldn't identify it, of course. But the scent unsettled her.