“I-is this really a good idea…?” Kala asked from behind Helena’s skirt.

She was half-hiding her face behind Helena’s leg, while firmly holding on to the fabric of the tunic. Next to her was Korr, holding just as tightly to Helena’s dress while keeping his head down, nearly buried between Helena’s legs. She was slowly walking down the town’s roads, with a few people giving her questioning glances, and others warmly smiling at the way the children were holding on to her.

“There’s nothing to worry about,” she answered, “The people of the town know that I teach children, so seeing you with me is more than normal.”

“A-are you sure…? The h-humans are looking at us…” Kala asked, her face hiding slightly more behind Helena. “M-maybe we should go back and wait at home.”

“It’s going to be just—”

“Hello, Miss Helena!” shouted the same burly man from the weapons store, waving his hand at her. “Did you catch a couple of rascals that were up to no good?” He then picked up a stick from between the weapons at his store. “Do you need me to teach them a lesson?”

“Eeeek!” shouted both children at the same time, hiding completely behind Helena.

“I-I-I-I-I was right! T-they’re going to kill us!” Korr whispered with a panicked, shrieking voice.

“Lets run away! We might be able to run faster than they can,” Kala followed, then giving Korr a determined look that threatened to break from the frightened way her arms shook. “I-I’ll distract them and—”

“Come on, there’s no need for that,” Helena replied to the man with a chuckle and a shake of her head, before slightly moving aside so the man could see them, which only caused them to look up at him with widened eyes. “Besides, you’re scaring them. Please put away the weapon.”

“Ah… Bwahahaha!” the man cackled, followed by a careless throw of the stick somewhere behind his back. “My bad, my bad. I was just joking—so hey, who are they? I don’t think I’ve seen them before.”

Helena walked closer to the weapons store, and both Korr and Kala hung closely to her, with Korr hiding himself as best as he could and Kala glancing from the side. Once they were right in front, Helena completely moved aside.

“These are Kala and Korr. They came from far away, but their family was attacked and they were the only survivors,” Helena explained, making a pitiful frown and shaking her head. “They were lucky to find my home last night. I’ve decided to take care of them for now.”

“Ah yes,” the burly man said with a nod, “I can see that they’ve been in trouble.”

The burly man then leaned forward and closer to them, narrowing his eyes as he did. Korr gripped on to Kala’s ragged clothes and tried to hide, while Kala took the front and looked back at the man. His eyes went from her fearful gaze down to their clothes and then back up.

“If you kids ever need anything, don’t hesitate to come to me! I’ll fix ya up right up! In fact, if there’s anyone ever giving you trouble, then…” he said as he gripped a large sword from the counter, “You tell me and I’ll—!”

“There’s no need for that,” Helena interrupted, “But I appreciate your concern.”

With another cackle, the man finally leaned back up, and let go of the sword. “Why is it that you never let me do my job?”

Helena chuckled and shook her head. “There’s no need for something like that in such a peaceful town.”

“Bah, you’re right,” the man said with a sigh. “Welp. What I said before was true. If you kids need anything, come find me!”

Kala and Korr remained quiet as they just looked up at the burly man. They were both shaking, but seeing the friendly smile on his face, they calmed down slightly. Helena watched them for a moment, before turning to the large man.

“There’s other things that I need to get for them, so we’ll be on our way,” she politely said with a slight bow of her head and a glance at the children. “Say goodbye to the nice man.”

“Um-um, g-goodbye,” Korr shyly said, before quickly moving to stand closer to Helena.

“G-goodbye. T-thank you for not—not killing us,” Kala followed up.

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The man’s eyes widened for a second, before loudly laughing as he held his belly, and slapped the counter, causing Kala to jump back and closer to Helena as well. “Oh man! Am I really that scary?!”

Helana simply chuckled, giving the man another small wave of her hand as she turned to leave. Korr and Kala carefully watched the man wave back, but they followed behind Helena as closely as they could.

As they continued walking and a few people greeted Helena, they quickly reached a small store with pieces of cloth hanging from the door. Korr and Kala looked at the inside with apprehension; not quite sure about the place, or why Helena stopped there, but she didn’t waste any time and walked right in. Knowing that they shouldn’t get away from her, both children rushed after her.

The inside was warmer than the cool breeze from outside, and it carried a scent of old wood and stuffy clothes. There were tables full of clothing, that ranged from finished dresses, pants, shirts and jackets, and all the way to just half-cut pieces or pieces that were nothing more than just cloth. So many of them were stacked on top of each other that the inside of the store had turned somewhat dim, with the light from the entrance, a couple of candles, and a white light coming from a nearly-closed door at the back being the only sources of light.

“Hello,” Helena loudly called out once she reached a counter full of clothing.

“Ah!” a woman’s voice exclaimed from the back door. “I’ll be right there!”

The sound of things being moved around, and a chair scraping the floor sounded, finally followed by the hasty steps of someone getting closer.

The door swung open and the light finally spilled in. A young woman with short brown hair that reached down to her neck appeared. Her skin was ghostly pale, her body thin, and her facial features small; save for one part, the pointy ears that popped out from between her straight hair.

She looked disoriented for a while as her dark brown eyes searched for whoever called her, taking a couple of seconds to get her bearings before finally noticing Helena standing by the counter with a soft smile.

“Ah! Miss Helena!” she joyfully greeted as she rushed to get to the counter. “What a surprise to see you here. It’s not usual for you to get any clothes—much less the fancy ones like the ones I make.”

“That’s true, but today they are not for me,” she replied and moved aside to show the couple of curious children that had their eyes set on the different clothes inside the store.

It didn’t take long for them to notice the woman looking back at them. However, in this case, they just looked back at her with a glint of curiosity in their eyes.

“Look at her ears…” Korr whispered to Kala. “They’re pointy…”

“An elf, right?” she said, “I don’t know what we should do… Grandpa said that they were dangerous, but that they sometimes ignored us…”

“We are dangerous alright!” the elf shouted, causing both children to jump as she lifted her index finger to point up. A wisp of white light appeared and started doing circles around it as she looked down at them. “More so when someone dressed like that walks into my store!”

“Ah! She’s going to kill us!” shouted Kala, gripping Korr from the arm, and turning to the entrance. “We’ve been betrayed! Run!”

The door of the store loudly snapped closed, and the children stopped before they could even take a step. They turned once more and looked fearfully up at the elf, who was pointing the finger with the wisp at them, and at the last moment, their eyes turned to Helena, who had a wry smile on her face.

“Tell me! Who did this to you?! I shall find whoever forced such horrid pieces of cloth on your bodies and make them pay for it!” the elf proclaimed, then glancing at Helena. “It couldn’t be you… No… Right?”

She shook her head. “No. But you’re right in that they need new clothes.”

“Damn right they do!” the elf shouted, before pointing her finger at the center of the ceiling and releasing the wisp. It quickly shot up, leaving a trail of dusty white light, before expanding and finally brightly illuminating the whole store. “I’ll make sure that they won’t ever need any other clothes!” Saying that, the elf leaped over the counter to stand right in front of them, then quickly reached for the side of her hips and pulled out a measuring tape. “Let's get to it!”

* * *

“U-um, is this—is this really okay?” Kala asked, grabbing the hem of the skirt she was now wearing.

“These feel nice… but is it really okay to be wearing them? It feels like the kind of things our grandpa showed us in drawings…” Korr followed, his hands on the edges of the jacket he was wearing.

“I must admit I also didn’t expect Lady Astor to do this either…” Helena said with a wry smile on her face. “But I couldn’t deny her after all the effort she went through.”

Kala was wearing a red dress that reached down to around her knees. It had a few six-petal flowers embroidered at the hem with yellow thread, and around the torso, there were simple petal leaves, drawn from the same yellow color. She was also wearing black leather shoes, and her hair had been styled with a red hairband to make a puffy ponytail to the right side.

Korr was wearing a matching red jacket with no embroidery besides the yellow threads used to stitch it together. Under it, he was wearing a simple button-up white shirt, and below, he had black short parts that matched the black leather shoes he was also given.

“Are you sure we can keep these?” Kala asked, glancing up at Helena. “Didn’t that woman use magic to make them?”

“Yes… it should be fine… I might have to do other things in town to pay for it, but it was good that she made them fit your body for at least another five years, which in your case, should be good in case the spell I cast on you wears off,” Helena said with the same wry smile. “I think it would be a good idea to go meet other children. It’ll also help me pay for these.”

“Other children?” Kala asked, “Are they… are they like us…?”

“Like you? No, they’re normal human children, but I think you’ll get along just fine,” Helena answered, and then picked up the pace. “Come. They must be waiting already.”