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I burst out the front door, heading straight down the front steps and hiding behind the fabled car wreck from this morning.

Tears covered my face as I cried out loudly. Leaking coolant from the car engine gave a sweet scented backdrop for my weeping.

Sensing my sorrow, Samael coiled up on my palms, letting out a comforting hiss as he gazed up at me. My crying eased, as I focused more on him.

“Why is Indena being a jerk to someone she doesn’t even know?” I asked, but he was a snake, so he couldn’t give me an answer.

The front door swung open again, and all three of them ran out into the sunlight.

I crawled under the car to watch what they were doing, keeping myself quiet and hidden as best I could. I didn’t want to talk to anyone right now.

“Yalda!” Yamin shouted.

“Yalda!?” Marek shouted after her.

“Oi, Shrimp!” Indena shouted in a different direction. “Damn it. Where’d that pip squeak go?”

The three of them started wandering around the house, eventually congregating back at the front porch.

“You two can head down that path,” Indena said, pointing toward the cobblestone path we’d originally come in on. “I’ll head into the forest and see if she’s there.”

“R-right,” Yamin nodded. “Come on, Marek.”

Indena bolted off, not giving a second glance back. The other two were a little slower to get moving, but they eventually made it to the car wreck at the end of the yard.

“Oh no…” Marek grunted in distress. “My car…it’s ruined!”

I wouldn’t say it was ruined. The whole front end was dented and the coolant tank was ruptured. It wouldn’t be a hard fix if we had the right parts. Other than that, my diagnosis wasn’t finding any other issues.

“Forget the car. We have to find Yalda,” Yamin argued. “She could be in danger out there.”

“I know, I know…forgive me,” Marek said, getting back to the search. “I’ll deal with my father’s rage later…”

Yamin took a few glances around, then kneeled down to inspect the underside of the car, finding me immediately.

Dang it…

“Found her,” Yamin breathed out a sigh of relief. “Thank God.”

I know she was looking right at me, but I didn’t want to acknowledge it.

“No you didn’t,” I pouted.

Yamin chuckled, reaching a hand out and helping me out from under the car. “I figured you’d be nearby, and this wasn’t a bad place to sneak under.”

The two of them started calling back Indena, but it didn’t seem like she was able to hear them. She was probably too far away.

We all went back inside, thinking she’d be back soon enough. Yamin made sure to hold my hand until we all sat down in the seats around us.

“Please don’t fight anymore,” I said to Yamin. “I don’t understand why Indena is so mad at you, but she’s normally a nice person.”

“It’s alright,” Yamin shook her head. “Sometimes people don’t have good experiences in the church, so they get sour with it.”

Indena wasn’t totally upset with me, and I was pretty open with my faith. I wonder why?

Yamin’s facial expressions twisted weirdly the longer she looked at me. She kept scanning me up and down, not looking very happy about my clothing.

“My goodness…you look filthy!”

There was a lot of dried up mud and dust all over my legs and other parts of my body. I was using a temporary dress I’d found in one of the children's rooms, since mine was still pretty yucky with mud, but even this one was getting pretty soiled from crawling under the car.

Yamin forced me to go clean up, saying that I’d catch a cold if I didn’t.

No matter how much I argued with her, she refused to believe I wouldn’t get sick covered in dirt. I mean, I probably didn’t look or smell too good, so getting clean wasn’t a bad idea.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

There was a bathroom upstairs. I went inside and started the water up. Yamin followed me in with a scrub brush and soap she’d found in one of the closets.

She periodically checked the temperature of the water to make sure it was nice and warm, then turned off the faucet and pointed in.

“Alright, little missy. Time to get cleaned up.”

I was about to get in, but she stopped me.

“Wait, take off those pajamas first.” She gestured to my armour skin.

Huh? Her brain interpreted my skin as pajamas? That almost made me laugh with how silly it was.

“No, I can’t. This is my skin,” I said, pinching the rubber of my arm.

As a test, Yamin poked my belly.

“Tee hee!” That tickled!

“Are you a robot?” Yamin asked.

Oh, here we go! She just had to go there, didn’t she?

“No!” I shouted. “I’m a synthetic life form. An Exceed!”

Yamin’s finger tapped on my crystal heart next, then she shrugged.

“Well, whatever you are, let’s get you cleaned up,” she smiled.

-☆☆☆-

“Rubber ducky, you’re so fun! You make bath time so much…um…” wait, how did the song go again?

-☆☆☆-

Yamin made me all squeaky clean! While we were finishing up and drying me off, Marek took some time to clean up my actual dress.

“I thought this would stain…” Marek commented, holding my dress up to the light and noticing how bright it was now, “but it cleaned up very well.”

It’s a really special type of material. Durable, Soft and machine washable!

I slipped the dress back on, then allowed Yamin to tie the strings up in the back to hold it together.

“There.” Yamin clapped her hands, getting a good look at me. “Oooh! So cute!” she squealed, pinching my cheeks.

No no no! Cheek pinching hurts! I much prefer head pats.

Marek let out a snicker, but then his smile slowly fell.

“So, what were the two of you doing out here?” he asked, referencing Indena and me.

“We’re on a mission to find my daddy,” I said, doing a cute little spin. “I don’t know where he is, but Indena is supposed to take me back to him.”

Yamin spoke up next. “Who's your dad?”

“Ivan Asamo, the coolest scientist ever.”

“Huh?” Yamin looked surprised. “Did you say, Asamo? Like, Dr. Asamo?”

“No, he’s not a doctor, he’s a scientist.”

“Sweetie, he has a PhD. He can be called a doctor too.”

Oh wait, she’s absolutely right. Doctor is also used for people with doctorates. Dad was super smart, after all. I bet they just handed him the degree the moment he stepped into the school.

“Wait, you know my daddy?”

“He worked with my mom for a while as part of Research Group 9.”

Woah! I knew daddy was out here helping people! That might explain why Yamin had that Manona crest. I mean, it actually didn’t, because why would he trust her with one?

Before I could ask where she got it, or what Research Group 9 was, Marek spoke up next.

“I’ve met him before too when he visited the royal council.”

Double woah! Daddy must have really been special if he met royalty!

“Do you guy’s know where he is now?” I asked, hopeful that I'd see him soon.

But neither of them had any idea where he’d gone too. A coincidence was that the last time they’d seen or even heard of him was about 4 years ago.

That’s when he left me behind.

Thinking about it like that caused my legs to kick and my hands to fidget. I was getting really anxious again, thinking that I hadn’t seen daddy in 4 years. Why didn’t he ever come back to visit me?

“Sweetie…” Yamin gave me a sad look. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah. Hey, Indena isn’t back yet.” I changed the subject.

I was getting worried about her too. I wanted to go out and search, but the others said it would be best to just stay and wait for her to get back.

“If Marek’s car was working, we could just drive that around and find her,” Yamin said.

“By the way, while you were cleaning her up," Marek started, "I found another car in the garage. Since it’s here, I figure there has to be a main road nearby, no?”

He had a point. Nobody would drive a car all the way out here if there wasn’t a road of some kind.

“Are you saying we might be able to drive that other car out of this valley?” Yamin suggested.

But Marek shook his head. “That car needs new spark plugs.”

There was yet another car out there, but it was attacked by that moose. So I wondered if maybe we could snatch some parts out of there and use them to repair one of the cars.

Heck, we might even be able to fix both cars if we find the right parts.

“An abandon car, out in the middle of the forest?” Marek looked mortified. “That doesn’t make much sense.”

“I mean, our car ended up out here.” Yamin commented. “It’s not impossible to believe others met the same fate.”

I was starting to wonder if this was all just one big coincidence. This place was oddly out of the way of civilization and people kept getting teleported here. Not to mention the big bad Grim Reaper prowled around. Seems like something suspicious was going on...