Lily looked at him sideways once more before determining he was far enough away and making her way back to the side of her dad. Leaning against his side she glared at Ethan from behind Bimsley's thick arm, though when Bimsley looked down toward her she quickly got rid of the glare and instead offered a smile toward her dad. Upon seeing the smile Bimsley moved his arm with a smile of his own and offered her helmet covered head an easy pat which elicited a giggle. It was that exchange that suddenly reminded Ethan he had a question for the pair, and the gasp and "candle light" moment expression on his face told the two the same thing.

"Hmm?" Bimsley voiced while lowering his massive palm from the girl's helmet.

"Why is Lily wearing armor?"

He was truly just curious as he had never seen a kid wearing armor before, at least not real armor, and definitely not inside. Of course he and the other children would sometimes wear broken pots beyond repair and use sticks to play around but obviously this was different. Then again, Lily's father was a smith and would certainly have things better than battered pots and sticks to play around with. Unfortunately for the situation Ethan didn't make all these considerations before asking his random question.

"Oh! Of course! Never mind, I get it now."

"You do?" Lily and Bimsley asked at the same time with obvious confusion on their faces.

"Yea! Sorry I didn't think of it before."

Much to Bimsley's and Lily's exasperation Ethan didn't explain himself any further, acting like a typical kid in that once they realized something their minds moved on to something else. In fact that something else was an armored chest piece. There was something about it that seemed off from the angle he was looking at it, which was more from the back, over the shoulder, than anything else. He took one step in its direction before Lily finally couldn't take it any longer.

"Hey! Shorty! What do you get about me wearing armor?"

"Oh, yea, sorry."

Ethan turned back to Lily, not picking up on the air of sternness that was now hovering around Bimsley's big, but short, stature.

"You work in a forge, so obviously you would want to wear cool armor." He said with a big smile, thinking about how cool that would be for himself. After a second of fantasizing, which despite the short amount of time, covered a good bit of imagery, Ethan continued.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

"Just like we use to play with sticks, broken pots, and pieces of bark at the orphanage. Except your stuff is the real deal."

The sternness that had been emanating from Bimsley, and the uncertainty wrapped around Lily suddenly disappeared upon hearing his reason and thoughts behind it. They looked from Ethan and toward each other at the same before both let out a nervous chuckle and nodded.

"Yep, that's right!"

"Yea, you got it kid!"

Ethan was too proud of himself and their words of praise to notice the obvious relief they both carried on their faces. He looked back toward the piece of armor that had been bothering him and this time no one stopped him from looking into the matter further. Making his way over to where the chest piece hung he came to a stop in front of it, which immediately revealed the reason it looked off to him from where he stood earlier. There, in front of him, was a chest piece designed to be worn by a woman, and the specific area that had seemed off was the left bulge of a pair obviously meant to better accommodate a woman's chest, and now that he stood directly in front of the piece he could only assume it was meant for a rather large woman. Clearing his throat, and starting to turn red in the face, he simply turned away and made his way back to the pair. When he came to a stop and shook his head he caught an accusing glare from Lily and even though he didn't know why, he felt guilty. A single word was launched from her mouth, sending a viciously sharp arrow of accusation right at the boy's heart.

"Pervert."

"Lily! Where did you hear that word?!"

Upon hearing his sweet, innocent, and could never do anything wrong daughter use such a word Bimsley was shaken to his very core and he took Lily by the shoulders in order to turn her to face him.

"How do you know what that word means?!"

The look of amused disbelief on Lily's face would have made any knowing woman laugh in understanding. However, Bimsley was neither in the know, nor a woman, and he simply took the look as one of accusation, though he didn't know what she was accusing him of.

"It's what the women at the bars whisper to you after you stare at their..." She paused and began to turn red herself, realizing what she was saying. Finally she couldn't take it anymore and stuttered, "their, ch... chest pieces!"

Realizing what she actually managed to say out loud the girl kicked her father in the shin and ran away into the back room somewhere, though not before yelling at him.

"You idiot!"

Bimsley was trying to balance on one leg while holding the other and vigorously rubbing the area of impact. He looked at Ethan and was clearly confused at the sudden turn of events. Ethan, who had an inkling, though a very small inkling, simply shrugged with palm up hands at his sides.

"Women..." Was all he said, though he only said it because he had heard some of the older male orphans say that to each other when dealing with the older females. Thinking back on it the times they used the women "saying" was after similar outbursts occurred and females ran away all upset.

For some reason, though he was unsure of the exact feelings at the time, on that day, at that very moment, he felt a part of his innocence had just died. The tinge of sadness confused him but it was such a subtle emotion at the time he was able to quickly overcome.