”Aaand there you go, all done, here take a look.” the young beautiful mother exclaims playfully as she hands a fancy handheld mirror to her daughter who just had her hair braided for the first time.

”Whaaaah I lovv it mom” the daughter giddily exclaims back as she admires her hair through the mirror.

”hahaha, alright now let’s do mine too,” The mother says as she turns around and gathers all her long glistening golden hair over her shoulders and onto her back, revealing her long elf ears in the process.

”But I don’t know how.” the daughter responds with an embarrassed and slightly sad tone.

”Theenn, you just have to learn, here I’ll teach you how,” the mother says holding out a hairbrush to the daughter. The daughter crawls closer on the massive soft bed and grabs the brush once she’s satisfied with the distance. The daughter then drops the mirror to the side and starts to play with her mother’s beautiful hair and as she plays around trying her best to listen to the instructions she is receiving, she starts humming something she faintly remembers hearing from somewhere.

”…Hey mom, do you know the words of this song?” she hums some of the song from the beginning in the hopes her mother knows it while slowing her brushing and braiding.

With a slight hint of sadness in her voice and eyes but an unwavering warm smile on her face, The mother responds with her most motherly tone. ”I don’t, though your father used to love humming it I never heard him sing it… You should ask aunty Ava, maybe she knows”

”oh, ok… um… hey mom?”

”yes, honey?”

”…Where is dad?”

”…He is, Somewhere up there, in the sky… keeping us all safe I’m sure.” the mother looks and points up with a soft smile on her lips, and then, after a few seconds of reminiscing, she turns around facing her daughter to continue her little speech. ”He’s also here…” she lifts her hand and points a finger at her heart and then does the same for her daughter. ”and here, ready to listen to anything, anytime, anywhere, be it your troubles or triumphs he will listen.”

This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

”Is that why there is a barrier aroumd us, to keep us safe?” the daughter asks lifting her little hands to hold the precious spot her mother pointed at.

”Yes, he made it so that mean baddies can’t find us” The mother scruffles the daughter’s hair, effectively lightening the mood.

”Ahhehe, Oh mom, what was dad like?”

”Hmm, well he was incredibly strong and sturdy, one time he even withstood the enraged charge of an adult stone drake.”

”Wooahh, really?”

”Yeah, and that´s not all. He was also unimaginably gifted in all kinds of magic, a true genius who could instantly learn new spells after seeing them just once… actually I think he once learned an ancient lost magic in a day which alone is baffling and basically impossible but he figured out the entire 5th tier spell through a single mention of its name alone.” The mother again turns around and continues babbling about the heroic tales and amazing deeds of her lover as well as all about how the two had met, all of course slightly exaggerated and the daughter in turn eats it all up in astonishment and wonder.

…

Bididingg, the small bell next to the upper corner of the room windows rings, interrupting the mother and her stories.

”oh, looks like it’s time for dinner already. come, let’s go look for your brother, any ideas as to where he might be this time?”

”Yeah, he’s there, been for quite a whilew now” the daughter points out the window to a small figure sitting on a dried fallen log at the base of some trees and bushes on the border of a small forest pretty far away, based on the angle you could tell that the room the two were in was at least three stories high. Above the treeline a thin white see-through veil can be seen shimmering around, connecting with the ground a hundred meters into the forest and if one were to go out and look around they would see the veil forming a globe that envelops about five square kilometers of land reaching about two hundred meters high at its peak.

”Let’s go get him then”

The two make their way outside and over to where the little brother is sitting with his back facing the two, the mother being led the whole way by the daughter.

Once they get closer, however, they hear the small boy talking to someone opposite him in the woods, the deep voice occasionally answering the boy’s much higher voice.

The mother, now a bit worried, tells the daughter to stay behind as she herself goes to investigate who her son is talking to.

As the mother gets close enough she calls the son ”Dear?”

The boy turns his head toward the mother giddily answering her call ”Oh, hi mom!”

”Who might you be talking to?” The mother asks, hoping it’s not what she thinks.

”The nice mister from outside!” That’s it, one of the worst things the boy could have said.

The mother now ridden with worry, her heart racing, hurries up to see the stranger and now that she does, her skin begins turning pale as panic fills her eyes.