It’s been a week since I last saw Cerila after she passed out from our match. Dad and Grandpa took her back to her home and said she just needed some rest. Grandpa refused to tell me anything, stating it was none of my business and that it was an issue for Cerila and her family.

She hasn’t been to school or training since then. I was sitting outside in the backyard deep in thought when my mom came outside and sat down in the grass next to me,

“You worried about Cerila, sweety?” she asked me calmly.

I swear my mother can read my mind. Does she possess some kind of emotional radar that always knows what I'm thinking? Now that's a scary thought.

“Yes… I am,” I said honestly. My mother gave me a warm smile and scooted closer to me.

I wasn't used to worrying about things, let alone people. It's a weird feeling. Although logic dictates she will be just fine, my stomach still churns, and my head races at a million miles an hour.

“You really do care about her, huh?” my mother said with a smile.

“Well, of course. She’s my friend.”

Mom giggled and gave me a coy smile. “Is that all she is to you?”

I just glared at her in response.

“You don’t have to be like that, Kal. I’m only teasing you. But don’t stress about it too much, okay? I’m sure Cerila misses you just as much as you miss her. And when she feels comfortable, she will tell you everything,” my mother said confidently.

“Can you at least tell me what it’s about? I don’t understand why she wouldn’t tell me if she was sick or something…” I couldn’t hide the concern from my voice. Then again, it seemed I couldn’t hide anything from my mom.

My mom sighed, “I don’t know everything. So I can't tell you what I don’t know, Kal. But you do know Cerila’s parents passed away, right?”

“Yeah, Grandpa mentioned it to me. Cerila doesn’t talk about her family much,” I said.

“Right now, it's just Cerila and her brother being raised by their older sister. And things can get hard for a family in that situation…” she trailed off.

I didn’t understand what that meant, but I didn’t like it. The way her brother treated her did not bode well. I can only subscribe so much of his behavior to him being a child. I thought maybe she was in an orphanage or some other type of housing. But learning that she was being taken care of by an older sibling, my mind could only turn to negative thoughts. Surely they weren't mistreating her?

“I see…” That was all I could say.

“Don’t worry. Soon enough, everything will be back to normal,” my mother reassured me.

I sure hope so, Mom.

—

I was hoping Cerila would be waiting for me at school today, but much to my disappointment, she wasn’t here again today.

“Ayo, morning Kal,” Padraic greeted me cheerfully. I must have given him a weird look as I rolled my head towards him. “Dang… sorry, I’m not Cerila man! You don’t have to glare at me like that,” Padraic blurted out in the courtyard… in front of everyone.

This guy always makes things awkward. Of course, he was nothing but smiles, but this is just how Padraic always was…

“Morning,” I mumbled out.

“Guess no news from Cerila?” Padraic asked me.

“No, nothing.”

“Have you thought that maybe you should go see her?” Padraic suggested.

Everyone has been telling me that I should just wait for her. But why wait when I can just go see her myself?

“You are smarter than you look, Padraic, you know that? Will you come with me after school?”

“Was that supposed to be funny? You should stick to the whole doom and gloom thing, my friend. Being funny doesn’t suit you… and yes, I’ll go with you,” Padraic complained.

Ouch, doom and gloom? Am I really like that? I was just trying to be funny.

But there was a problem. I didn’t know where Cerila lived. I know her house is in the residential area, but there were tons of homes. It’s not like I could go door to door and ask for her.

“I don’t know where she lives actually,” I admitted.

“Huh? For real?! Nobody can separate you two but you don’t even know where she lives!?” Padraic blurted out while laughing and holding his sides. “Well, you can always ask her brother. I’m sure he will tell you.”

That is the last thing I want to do.

Every conversation I’ve had with this delinquent ends in a scoff or a tongue click as he insults his own family member or me. I doubt this punk would even give me the time of day, let alone tell me where he lives. But I guess I have no other choice.

Actually… I could just ask Grandpa or Dad. They took her home, so surely they knew where she lived. But that means I’d have to wait till after school, and Dad isn’t home for another few days. How annoying.

“Fine. What is his name again? Celedon, right?” If I was going to ask I should probably use the kid's name, I had heard it plenty of times over the last year or so but I didn’t even bother committing it to memory.

“Yeah, Celedon and Cerila. Pretty sure at least,” Padraic said with a shrug.

Man, this is going to be a pain.

—

I didn’t think cornering him and asking Celedon in the middle of class was the wisest choice, so I decided to wait till our recess time. After being dismissed, everyone dispersed into the courtyard and into their respective friend groups and did whatever they did during the break. Celedon, the three idiots, and the Half-Elf girl Sarah were, as usual, kicking the leather ball at each other.

I walked over to them with Padraic in tow. “Excuse me, Celedon. Can I talk to you for a second, please?” I said as politely as possible.

The young Beastmen huffed and glared right at me. “What do you want?” he spat out.

“I want to see your sister. Can you tell me where I can find her, please?” I once again tried to keep my tone as cordial as possible with this punk.

But he was already getting on my nerves, and I’d barely spoken a sentence to him.

“Didn’t I tell you not to associate me with that mistake? Are you stupid?” he asked me, the anger evident in his voice.

Relax—deep breaths. Anything I say or do will reflect poorly not only on myself but on Cerila and my family. I am the best son and friend in the world.

I could hear Padraic shift uncomfortably behind me, but I continued with my best fake smile. “That’s fine. Then can you tell me where Cerila is, and I’ll be on my way?”

Celedon responded with another angry scoff as he narrowed his eyes at me, “What is your problem? Do you feel better about yourself for trying to be friends with that failure? I don’t get it. She can’t even hear you speak and is a stain to our entire race. Why are you trying so hard pretending to be her friend? Did she put you up to this somehow? What are you after?”

“I chose to be Cerila’s friend. It’s as simple as that. Now, are you going to tell me where she is or what?”

I couldn’t hide my anger anymore towards this pathetic excuse for a brother. The words coming out of his mouth were disgusting and bothered me beyond what I thought was possible.

This guy was supposed to be her family, her own brother, yet he is saying these things to my face. I can only imagine what he says to her when no one else is around. My anger was beginning to boil over. I even drew blood from my palm as I dug my nails into them.

Celedon began laughing at my words as if they were some kind of joke.

“You chose to be her friend? Hahaha, what kind of idiot would be friends with that weak little failure? You really are stupid, aren’t you?” he scoffed.

—

Padraic Whitehelm’s POV

Kaladin is a weird kid.

He’s awkward and walks around like he is always mad about something. He even speaks kind of funny. Kaladin often uses big words that just shouldn’t come out of his tiny mouth. And talks like he is far older than he really is. Kal’s face just looks like he is always bored out of his mind.

But then I learned just how different he was. He reads and writes all the time. Heck, he even made up a new language and is teaching it to people? I knew he was a genius, but this is insane at only six years old. He trains with his Dad every single day, waking up before the sun does.

Who in their right mind does those types of things?

Not only that, he rarely smiles or even laughs. And he is always serious about everything he does. It wasn’t until I saw him around his family that I thought he might actually be just misunderstood.

Kal smiles around them and acts surprisingly normal. It took him a few weeks for him to treat me like that as well, not that I minded. It seemed Cerila had a far easier time being his friend than I did.

Psh… just because I’m not a girl, pretty messed up if you ask me.

Despite all these things, I decided I wanted to be friends with him. He was the only person besides my family that treated me like a normal kid. When your dad is the only person who can fix something made of metal for miles, people tend to treat you differently.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

At first, I didn’t mind the kindness people showed me, but it got old quickly. Especially when I can tell they don’t mean it. But Kaladin never pretended to like me. So Cerila and Kal were the first kids I naturally became friends with.

Everyone at school treated Cerila and Kaladin poorly. I know Kaladin hears all the names they call him, but he never once complained about it. It didn’t seem like he was cowering away from them. It was more like he couldn’t be bothered by their insults. Even the few times Celedon or Sarah openly insulted Kaladin to his face, he just shrugged off their insults as he murmured under his breath. It wasn’t until people started poking fun at Cerila could they goad a reaction out of him. Kaladin is pretty bad at hiding his emotions, after all. He always clenches his fists tightly when he is upset. And right now, I can tell things aren’t going to go well.

“You chose to be her friend? Hahaha, what kind of idiot would be friends with that weak little failure? You really are stupid, aren’t you?” Celedon said to Kaladin.

It was only for a brief moment, but I felt something. Something I’d never felt before in my life. I became terrified. It only lasted half a second, maybe even less, but in that brief moment, it felt like my heart had stopped, and I was going to die.

“Weak? Failure?”

Even I recoiled a bit from Kaladin after he spoke. Kaladin’s words were like sharp daggers that threatened to stab anyone who heard him. His entire tone and voice had changed. The atmosphere became so tense and quiet that you could probably hear the leaves hit the ground. How could someone so small and young suddenly seem so dangerous?

Even though Celedon, much like everyone else, had become uncomfortable in the presence of Kaladin, he decided to double down,

“Don’t act surprised. You know she is. That leech is better off dead.” Celedon was in Kaladin’s face as he spoke.

Kaladin just stood there and held Celedon’s stare. Then he moved.

I knew Kaladin trained every day with his Dad, who used to be an amazing fighter. But I didn’t know this little kid could move so fast. He must be using every ounce of his mana right now. If I blinked, I probably would have missed everything.

He grabbed Celedon’s wrist with enough force that I heard an audible snap. Kaladin then threw his hips and back straight into Celedon’s body and tossed him over his shoulder like a rag doll.

Celedon didn’t even hit the ground before Kaladin was already on top of him. I caught a glimpse of Kaladin’s multicolored gem-like eyes, and they seemed empty. He didn’t even look mad, which made it all the scarier.

Kaladin punched towards Celedon’s head with what seemed to be enough force to crack rock. But the punch connected with the ground next to his head instead. Then, with Kaladin mounted on top of Celedon, he spoke, his voice devoid of all emotion. It just had a frigid coldness to it.

“Where. Is. Cerila,” Kaladin demanded.

Celedon couldn’t even form words as he yelped in pain, the last few seconds of events finally catching up to him. Before, he seemed uncomfortable, but now he was sweating and panting like a dog in fear as a six-year-old just tossed him around.

He was visually shaking as his eyes darted around, looking for someone to help him. But even his own friends had taken multiple steps away from the fight.

Kaladin increased his grip around the boy’s collar without breaking eye contact. Celedon began to stammer out a response, “Eas-sss-tern ssside of the homes. A red rose bush out front, can’t miss it!”

Kaladin pushed up and off the fearful Celedon without a word as he turned to me. “Let’s move.”

I wanted to say something, but I couldn’t bring myself to speak to him. His command was absolute.

—

We walked straight out of the Garden, only stopping to grab my things on the way out. Ms. Sandra didn’t even ask us what we were doing as she just sat at her desk, stuffing her face.

Kaladin was striding straight towards the housing district without showing a sign of slowing down. Then he abruptly stopped on an empty street. Everyone in the village was either working or inside at this time of day.

“I’m sorry…” Kaladin said quietly. He was still facing away from me, clenching his hands tightly. I could see the blood dripping from his hands. He continued, “I’m sorry, Padraic. You don’t have to come with me if you don’t want to.”

I didn’t know how to respond to him. I’ve just been silently walking behind him since the fight, my mind numb. Actually, I couldn’t bring myself to say anything to him.

“You see… I. No… I don’t know,” Kaladin stopped himself, and it didn’t seem like he knew what he wanted to say either.

Then he turned and faced me. He seemed conflicted. It was weird to see him like this. He didn’t even look me in the eyes, and he always looked me in the eyes when he spoke.

“I’m sorry I made you afraid. I… I’m not a very good person. You see, I promised myself—a promise to be better. But I couldn’t keep that promise today. I let my anger get the better of me, and I made a scene that made you afraid of me. I understand if you don’t want to be my friend anymore. Especially since I have a bad feeling about what’s about to happen, and I honestly doubt I’ll be able to reign myself in again. Today is probably going to get a lot worse before it gets better. So you should leave me while you have the chance. You aren’t involved right now, and nobody will hold it against you. But if you come with me, they will blame you as well. Besides, after this, I doubt I will ever go back to school there,” Kaladin was speaking in a low tone of regret as he stared straight at the ground, unable to meet my gaze. He also said something so quietly that I couldn't make out what he said.

I’ve never heard Kaladin speak so much before… but that’s right. Why did I become afraid of this little kid all of a sudden? He is my friend, one of my only friends in the world. Yet that display of anger scared me just a little. But… Kaladin was wrong.

“You aren’t a bad person, Kal. And I’m sorry too. I shouldn’t have been scared. After all, you got mad on behalf of someone you care about, right? Besides, that bastard deserved worse… saying his own sister deserved to die. Cerila is my friend too, but I didn’t even have the guts to do or say anything to him… you were the one who stood up for her. You always do. And if that makes you a bad person, then I want to be a bad person like you,” I told Kaladin exactly how I felt about it.

I’m not sure about this promise or anything, but honestly, it doesn’t matter. I watched as some of the light returned to his eyes. “Really?” he asked me softly.

“Really,” I reassured him. “Honestly, I’m kinda glad I don’t have to go to school anymore after this. I hated hearing Ms. Sandra’s ugly voice almost every day,” I said with a smile.

Kaladin just stared at me silently for a moment as he finally looked me in the eyes again. Then, his mouth cracked into a smile, and he began laughing. Kaladin laughed so hard he actually snorted.

All his previous stress and emotions were being swept away in a flurry of laughter. Now that I think about it, I’ve never seen Kaladin laugh so hard before.

“You didn’t like her voice either? I freaking hated her voice. It was like being stabbed in the ears every time she spoke. And she might be one of the worst teachers I’ve ever had,” Kaladin smiled and wiped the tears away from his eyes. “Thanks, Padraic. I needed this.”

Ah, much better.

This is my friend that I’ve missed. This is how he should be, not so damn gloomy and angry all the time. Sometimes I forget he is younger than me. I should be the one helping him more often. It’s kind of embarrassing that I rely on a little kid so much.

“Let’s get going. We’ve got a friend to see,” I said.

“Mhm. Let’s,” Kaladin chimed back.

—

Kaladin Shadowheart’s POV

I didn’t expect things to go this way. I let my anger get the better of me today and thought I had lost the trust Padraic had in me. I can’t believe I let myself get so worked up over insults that I would lose control like that.

Perhaps this young body of mine has greater control over my mental state than I previously thought. Or maybe I really am just that weak minded.

I even almost told Padraic about my previous life, but I thought better of it. Images of my final moments with Hades Squad replayed in my head. I didn't want to lose Padraic the same way I lost them. I didn't want him to be dragged down with me into the abyss.

That's how I lost Nyx.

But his determination was firm. Padraic even went as far as to comfort me and assure me that I wasn’t in the wrong. Of course, I wasn’t expecting that from him either, but it’s good to know he still sees me as a friend. And that he hated Ms. Sandra’s voice just as much as I did. But these are thoughts for another time.

Right now, we have arrived at our destination. All of these houses are pretty much uniform in design and aesthetic with only slight differences, a different tree here, other colored shingles there, or a slightly different garden. The houses are all the same circular build as well.

But as Celedon said, there was a single rose bush at the front of the home. The flower buds had yet to bloom. Cerila’s house seemed just like every other house in this neighborhood.

“Are you ready?” Padraic asked me. We had stopped just outside, and I made no attempts to continue. My heart was racing, and I felt sick to my stomach. But now wasn’t the time. I had to see this through.

“Yeah,” I responded.

Together, we walked up to the home's front door, and I gave a few hard knocks on the wooden door.

I waited for a response, but nothing came. I gave the door another round of knocks, this time more forceful. This time I heard movement in the house. I could hear a female voice muttering “What… what what what” over and over again as they approached the door. They fumbled with the lock on the door then slammed it open violently. The person at the door surprised me, to say the least.

The woman looked very much like an older Cerila. However, instead of Cerila’s snow-white hair, hers was a dark gray, almost black. The color of her swirling fox eyes wasn’t the same either.

They were a deep blue instead of Cerila's amber orange. But the most defining feature of the woman was the pungent smell of alcohol wafting off her. My experience with alcohol is limited, but how much do you have to consume to smell like this? As a Beastmen, shouldn’t her sense of smell be overpowering her? Not only that, it’s barely past noon.

“A Dwarf and a Dark Elf kid? Wat the fuck do you two kids want? Do you even know what time it is?” She barked at us. Judging by the lack of slurring, she doesn’t seem to be too intoxicated.

“It’s midday, ma’am. And my friend and I are here to see Cerila,” I said pointedly.

Her tone rubbed me the wrong way. I felt no need to be kind to this woman, even if she is Cerila's guardian.

“Psh, is it really? Guess it is,” she said while peeking out the door and looking up into the sky and wincing. “And why would you want to see her?” she asked, not bothering to hide the annoyance in her voice.

“Because we are her friends, and the two of us haven’t seen her in a few days. We just wanted to check on her, is all,” I said. Padriac grunted in agreement as well.

She held her sides and began laughing in our faces. “Bwahaha! Her friends? That’s a good one, you are a pretty funny kid, but I’m not in the fucking mood. So get lost and don’t come back,” she said mockingly

She went to slam the door on us, but Padriac lunged forward and forced his hand into the doorway, crushing his hand in the process. He winced in pain and bit his tongue. Without a doubt, that slam had enough force to break his hand.

With a bit of pain and anger in his voice, Padraic spoke. “Listen. I’m sure you know who I am or should I remind you? This is not only a request from my friend here but also a request from a member of the Whitehelm family. Surely you wouldn’t turn away the son of Yoman Whitehlem over such a simple request?”

Padraic… is your father really that important around here for you to say such things? But either way, thank you.

I watched as her face contorted into a scowl. “Little shit…” she huffed under her stinky breath. “Fine. You two want to see her so bad? Be my guest,” she left the door open and walked into the house. But without my heightened hearing, I would have missed the following snarky comment she made in a barely audible whisper.

“Shit, if I'm lucky, it will be one less mouth to feed.”

Padriac went to walk in, but I grabbed his arm, “Is your hand okay?” I asked.

“I’m fine. Nothing that can’t be healed. Besides, it’s about time I did something for my friends,” Padraic said proudly, attempting to hide the obvious pain he was in.

Thank you, Padriac. It looks like I owe you one.

Upon walking in, I was somewhat surprised to see just how normal and clean the home was. I had expected a filthy and almost rundown interior with how Cerila’s sister's current state was.

The only out-of-place thing in the home was that all the curtains were drawn, making the house dark for it being in the middle of the afternoon. Then again, I wonder if that even bothered her. I knew Dwarves could see better in the dark but could Beastmen?

“The door on the right,” Cerila’s sister said, her mouth drawing into a cocky smile, her fangs sticking out.

I had been trying to listen to any noises, but the home was completely silent. I steeled myself and opened the door.

I see. Everything makes sense now.