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“Do you have everything?” asked Tia’s mother.
Tia stood in the hallway jumping up and down in excitement.
“Yeah, you asked me that the third time already.”
“Alright, alright. Then let's go to the car.”
Tia and her mother enter the kindergarten building. There were already a few parents with their children.
“Look, Tia, so many children to play with. Isn’t that nice?” Mother directed her eyes to a group of children running around.
“Yeah, can I go to play?”, asked Tia with glee in her eyes.
“Not yet. We have to say hello to the caretaker first. Ah, there she is.” Holding the hand of Tia, she pulled her along where a group of parents surrounded a young woman.
They approached the group and mother called out to the caretaker smiling. “Hello. I’m Cirit and that's my daughter Tiacia.”
Tia noticed a boy crying in the arms of his father. His very long pointed ears on his head were pressed shut against his brown hair. His long thin tail was wrapped around the man who was holding him. She picked a few words up between his sobs. “P, p, plis du, dun’t lif m, m, me.” Tia felt appalled by his behavior.
“Ah hello. Yeah we talked beforehand a bit, right? As we talked beforehand, today is to get the children used to us and the new environment.”, the caretaker said to mother. She turned downward to Tia.
“You don’t have to worry, your mother will stay here today.” Tia made a grimace and stared at her mother. She had thought that she could play without having her to linger around her. She threw a short glance to the sobbing boy.
“Is that really necessary?”, asked Tia the caretaker who chuckled a bit. “You seem to be quite independent. But this is just as helpful for the parents as for the children.” She faced mother again. “As I was saying to the other parents right now, the next two weeks is the getting used phase. For the rest of this week, so the next three days, you are allowed to stay as long as you want. The hours will be reduced in that time to two to three hours from the normal time. Starting next week…”
While the adults were talking Tia glanced around the big room. There were different groups of children littered everywhere. She searched for a group that wasn’t that big but seemed to be capable. Not like that mess in his father's arms. She spotted a group who stare at the sobbing kid. Someone of them said something and they start to laugh. But one of the boy's face became angry and it seemed like he lectured them. He turned around and approached where Tia and the adults were. Small steps brought him before the crying kid.
“Hey, do you want to play?”, he asked, smiling broadly. The father who held him smiled and put him down while crouching, revealing his tear-filled green face.
“Birim, look there is a nice boy who wants to play with you.”, said the father with a soothing voice. The boy shook his head vehemently. “It’s alright Mommy and I are right here. We will go nowhere.”
The boy who had asked to play put his black fur-covered fist on his chest and stretches out his other hand. A self-righteous smile appeared on his brown face which was the only place she could see that wasn’t covered in fur. “I promise that I will help you and keep you safe. So can we play?” Birim finally nodded and took the boys hand.
“Otey.”
This vexed Tia. This vexed Tia tremendous. That was the pose and speech the Power troopers always spouted around. She decided that this kid would be her enemy. She imagined that he would become an obstacle who would try to stop her from what she needed to do. An enemy who needed to be kicked into the dust before he could spout his self-centered ideas about justice. A plan formed in her mind of how to deal with him.
“Why don’t you go and play with them too, Tia? He seems like a nice boy.” Tia's head spun around starring in disbelief at her mother. How could she sell her out like that to the enemy?
“Yeah, would you? The more the merrier right. Ah, sorry I forgot to inrolu, intolu, intopuce myself. My name is Herold.”, said the boy beaming at Tia.
“My what a well mannered little man you are. Go and have some fun, Tia.” Tia imagined seeing the boy’s, Herold's, chest swell in pride and his wolflike tail swung around wildly. He was one who played the well-behaved kid in front of the adults and leached on their praise. Tia was sure about that. But there was no way of acting against her mother. She knew if she acted out of place, her mother would not be pleased. There was no way around it to play with those two now. At least as long as her mother was looking over her.
But even though that, a hard fight broke out inside her.
That where the two types of people she wanted to avoid at any cost. A goody-two-shoes and a crybaby.
“Sure, let's play.”, pressed Tia through her teeth with a stiff smile. There was no way she could go against her mother no matter how much she despised the idea to play with them.
Herold raised an eyebrow but changed immediately back to his smile.
“They have great toys over there.” He reached out and grabbed Tia's hand. She noticed that the inside of his hand had no fur, completely different than her brothers. He dragged her and Birim into a corner of the room, leaving the smiling parents behind.
It was packed full of Toys and games in an array of shelves. The floor was littered with toys and other children playing with them.
Birim let out a sigh in admiration and even Tia was impressed. She had never seen so many Toys before and quite a lot of them were unknown to her.
“I like these.”, said Herold and reached into a shelf with action figures. The one he grabbed was one of the Power troopers.
“Oh, I rely like tose too.”, exclaimed Birim with a flushed face.
Tia’s hand trembled. There was a figure of the dark knight. With quick hands, she reached to it and clammed it in her hands. She stroke it in admiration and smiled.
A snicker reached her ears from behind her.
“Hey crybaby, wheres your mommy? Did she finally got tired of you”
Tia turned around to see the group of kids that had argued with Herold before.
All of them were grinning and laughing. One of them stepped in front of Birim, who was holding a power trooper figure.
The boy's blue hand flung forward and stole it from him. Birim flinched, lost his balance and fell on his but. Tears welled up on the corners of his eyes and small whimpers escaped his mouth. The other boys were cheering the kid on. “This is no toy for someone stupid.”
Herold shot forward, protecting Birim. “Don’t talk like this. Those toys are for everyone. And he had them first, so give it back!”
“And here is the wannabe power trooper. Or rather you are the stupid Dark Knight.” Jeered the boy and flicked his long silver hair behind his lung dropping ear.
Tia's ears jerked.
“We are the true power troopers and will now defeat the evil Dark Knight!”, shouted another boy of the group and stepped towards Herold. The other kids laughed and followed him. Birim started to sob and crawled a bit away.
“If there is someone who gets defeated, it is you guys!”, claimed Herold stoic and raised his fists.
“Ha, what a joke. Only justice wins at the end of the day and we are the protector of it. Power hit”, yelled the kid right in front of Herold and pushed him. He stumbled backward over some toys and fell just like Birim before him.
Tia’s ears jerked again and her tail swang hectically from on side to the next.
Her eyes darkened and a wave of unknown anger rushed to her head. Not only did they insult the magnificent dark knight, but they were also completely like the real power troopers.
Obnoxious, self-righteous and no care for the harm they do. In the corner of her eye, she saw Birim running away but she couldn’t care less. She stepped forward between the kids and Herold who was still sitting on his but.
Seeing this, the kids once again broke into laughter.
“Hey, look at this. You are such a loser that you need to hide behind girls. You are the very image of that dark knight loser”
“How dare you!” A low growl escaped Tia and her whole body trembled. “How dare you to insult, to demeanor the person who is one of the greatest in existence.”
Snickering the boys raised their eyebrows. “Oh look, it's his girlfriend. Ewww.”
“You very beings are a crime against this world, against me! And there is only one way to atone for you!” Her bloodshot eyes fixated the nearest boy. She raised her hand in a dramatic gesture, just like the dark knight which gave her even more jeers. “Burn to death and agonize in the deepest parts of the afterlife. INCINERATE!”
A small flame, smaller than from a lighter adjusted to the smallest possible flame, appeared in front of her outstretched hand.
The boys paled in the blink of an eye. Their eyes opened wide and they stumbled several steps away.
“She can do magic?”, whispered one of them pale-faced. “Aaah, Aaaah, moooooommyy!” The kids ran as fast as they could away, screaming in terror.
“Ah, wait!”, yelled Tia. She had just managed to make the flame appear. She still needed to actually throw it at them. She had never imagined that they would run away.
Puzzled she starred at her hand where the flame already had vanished. Well, she was the demon lord, after all, she thought and a grin spread on her face. Yes, there was no way those false justice lovers could stand their ground by seeing absolute power. She was the demon lord after all.
“What's going on here?”, asked a stern voice.
Tia turned around to see a caretaker accompanied by Birim. She glanced around, saw the astonished Herold sitting on the ground and the girl grinning like a madman.
“Did you stole the toy he was playing with?” She squinted her eyes while fixating Tia and pointed at Birim. “Ah, no that where the boys who just ran away.”, shouted Herold and jumped up. Tia frowned. That crybaby really ran to get an adult. And that goody-two-shoes too wanted the help of her. Tia scoffed. She was once again remembered that those who called themselves Ally's of justice were just a bunch of self-righteous idiots who couldn’t even handle their own problems. Those kids were nothing great that allowed such an idiotic behaver.
“No, it was nothing really.”, explained Tia in a calm voice. However, her face was torn between disgust and anger. “We just played and cryba- Bilim overreacted.”
Herold turned to Tia with a complicated expression and the caretaker raised a brow.
“Well, that is quite contradicting. So what is true?” She now faced Herold.
“No, what she said. We just played a little ruff.” He smiled at Birim who looked shocked. “Nothing we can’t handle right?” Birim froze for a moment but then nodded.
“Well, if that really is true…”, said the caretaker staring with doubtfull eyes at the kids but decided to not go after it. Right then, another caretaker came running around the corner.
“Who of you used magic?”, she shouted.
“Magic?”, asked Herold puzzled. “Ah, we played power troopers. Dimensional tearing hit!” He punched the air. He didn’t saw from his position the flame that Tia had created so his expression was genuine. The doubt returned to the former caretaker and the second one starred at them intensely. After a short moment of silence, the second one sighted. “Well, there is no way children that young could actually use magic.” “But it doesn’t matter what you are playing, be nice to each other or you will not be allowed to play with the toys. Do you understand?”, pressed the first one.
So even those idiots turned to the adults. Tia was extremely disappointed with the children here. No one was even in the slightest worth anything. “We will, I promise.”, said Herold pitting his fist on his chest.
“I don’t want to hear any more complaints about you kids.”, said the first one and left, the second one following her. “Seems we got a bunch of trouble makers already”, she sighed to the first one.
As soon as the adults were out of sight, Herold jumped at Tia.
“That was awesome. You really came forward for me. And even proudly stating that we are friends. You are a true power trooper!” Tia's ears jerked again.
What was that? She a power trooper? Don’t make me laugh, thought Tia. And even mistaking her statement as her declaring friendship with someone like that. What an idiot is that guy?
She opened her mouth but before she could say anything Herold continued.
“But you shouldn’t say something that bad. We are the good guys after all. And Birim great thinking to get an adult. But just as Tia said if we want to be strong we have to be able to shoulder the burden ourselves. Next time we will face them and bring the hammer of justice down to them together.” Birim glanced at Herold and nodded timidly.
I never said that, thought Tia. How far did this kids delusions run?
“I just acted because they insulted me. It had nothing to do with you. And I despise people who can’t take care of themselves. I don’t need the help of adults to solve my problems. After all, I am the great demon lord!” She pressed her hand against her chest and glared at the two boys with a proud and confident smile.
Herolds eyes opened wide. “Woah! Awesome. You are just like trooper yellow. How she always acts for her friends but never admits it to herself or her friends. You are so cool!”, cheered Herold stepping uncomfortable close to her. Tia's expression grumbled.
What the heck? Did this kid always give everything a stupid positive spin? And why would he call her a trooper? She just told him that she was the demon lord.
“What is a diman lard?”, asked Birim, his head tilted. “Oh is that your character. It sounds cool!”, added Herold.
“Huh?” This time, it was Tias time to stare at them wide-eyed in disbelief.