It reeked of shit.

“HE’Z AWAKE!” a deranged voice yelled. Its loud stomps shook the dirt ceiling, causing some of it to fall on Yushia’s face.

The floor squeaked; a chair was to Yushia’s side. A small hand smacked the seat before lifting its enormous body up. A short, red and bipedal being with a huge, chiseled torso and scrawny legs stood on the chair, observing Yushia with a sly smile. A long, girthy nose passed its lips and hung like a sack of meat. Black pimples and bumps were sprinkled all over its body. Had it not been for the brown piece of cloth covering its groin, Yushia would’ve seen a sight worthy of ripping his eyes out.

I’m dreaming, Yushia thought. This was a nightmarish creature. He tried lifting his arms but found his entire body strapped down to a block of limestone.

“Step away, Pipi!” A womanly voice shouted. “The boy is not yours to play with.”

Yushia’s eyes opened in shock once he heard the voice. It sounded so familiar, a voice he didn’t know he wanted to hear.

The deranged creature wiped under its enormous nose. “If he dies, then I get to play, right?”

“If,” the woman said with emphasis. She made her way over to Yushia. Her hair was straight and reached down to her shoulders, resting on her black top. She was an older woman with wrinkles on her forehead, but still, she retained some of her youth through her beautifully sky-blue eyes, yellow irises, and clear skin. She gave Yushia a warm smile. “I’ve missed you, my dear son.”

Tears swelled in the young Cerulean’s eyes as he moaned. His shaking lips could barely move, but he breathed out: “Maaa... Maaa...” He began fighting against the restraints holding him back. “Mama!”

“Shhh,” the woman whispered as she stood beside her son. She bent and wiped his sorrowful tears. “You were gone for so long... We all thought the Igneelians had killed you. Shiashia has been so, so, sad without you.”

“Shiaaa... Shiaaa...!” Yushia moaned again, snot leaving his nose.

“But you can’t see any of them yet,” the woman continued, “Your body is sick, so we have to cure you before you see them again.”

Looking back, Yushia remembered being sick on the day everything went wrong. It wasn’t unreasonable that he’d still need to be cured.

The woman glared at Pipi. “Prepare the drink!”

“Yez, master!” Pipi shrieked as he jumped off his chair. His little feet waddled over to a small table surrounded by tall shelves storing herbs, jars of preserved roots, teeth, and small animals. There, he grabbed a clay bowl that contained a putrid yellow concoction. Only a few more ingredients needed to be added to it. He climbed up a stepping stool and took out warty mushrooms from a jar on the shelf and mashed them in his hands before throwing them down into the yellow drink.

“Pipi, is it time?” The woman kissed her son on the forehead and walked toward him to check on the drink.

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“Yez master, please add the final ingredient!” Pipi said, handing his master the concoction.

The woman smiled. She lifted her black top, a shadow appearing on her stomach as she drove her arm inside her abdomen. She rummaged and gagged at the sensation before pulling out a glittering vial of dark-red liquid. “This is the last of the child’s ether we’ve extracted. We'll have to go back and get more if we want to keep the boy under control.” Opening the vial, the dark-red liquid poured into the bowl, turning it green.

The woman carried the bowl carefully back to her son. She lifted his chin and parted his lips to offer the concoction. “Good boy. Drink it all up.”

Yushia’s yellow pupils contracted as the liquid touched his lips, his body jerking violently, spasming. His mouth frothed and his eyes rolled to the back of his head. His body fought against the restraints holding him as he drank more and more of the liquid. His wails and grunts were loud enough to shake the room, but they eventually stopped once he’d felt his mother’s skinny fingers coursing through his long, bushy hair.

“You did so good, Yushia,” the woman said endearingly.

“Ma... Maaaaaa...” Yushia moaned again. “Body hurt... Hurting... So much...”

“I know it hurts,” she replied. “But you have to endure through it all. For mama.” The woman handed Pipi the empty bowl and faced away from her son, rummaging through the shadow on her stomach again. She took out a key and turned back to her son, releasing him from his confines. “Please, will you sit—”

“Mama!” He quickly sat up and embraced his mother. His sobs were muffled into her chest as he held her tightly. “Where... Where did you go...? I-I missed you... Bad! They treat me so bad! Stomach so hungry everyday... I wanted to die!”

“It’s okay now, honey.” She stroked and patted his back. “Can mama ask you for a favor?”

“F-Favor?” Yushia mumbled.

“Yes, my dear. I need you to help me find something very important.”

Pipi’s eyes widened—it was his time! He ran to his master’s wooden desk and took the journal and pen sitting atop it. He quickly waddled back and handed it to her.

The woman lifted her son’s face off her chest and showed him the journal. “You see this?” She tapped the pen on the paper. “Yushia, you have very special powers and I think you should protect Shiashia and everyone else back in the village. But I don’t think you can handle using them yet.”

Yushia’s lips quivered. “P-Powers...? I don’t have any powers though, mama...”

The woman chuckled. “We are Cerulean. We all have powers that were sealed away 200 years ago.” She assisted him off the block of limestone.

Yushia’s legs wobbled as he found difficulty standing upright. When he looked down, scabs riddled his legs. His mother picked his chin up to avert his sight from the scars and guided him through a tight, dirt hall. They arrived in a room with strange tools, a large chest, a table covered by a white tarp, knocked-over buckets that stained the ground red, and a metal chair with more straps than the one on the block of limestone he awoke on.

Yushia gulped. “Mama, what is this p-place?”

“It’s where we will learn more about your powers,” the woman said as she rubbed her son’s shoulders. “Don’t worry about today. Your work will be light.” Walking over to the chest, the woman opened it and gazed down at the neatly folded dresses made for human girls. She licked her lips and took out a frilly pink dress to show her son. “Will you wear this?”

“I don’t want to, mama,” Yushia said softly. He was a boy, after all.

The woman’s face suddenly scrunched as spit flew from her mouth. “ARE YOU DISOBEYING ME?” Seeing her son's frightened face, she recomposed herself and cleared her throat. “I’m sorry dear, but you have no choice.”

Without his permission, the woman slid Yushia’s pants off and forced him to wear the frilly pink skirt first. The top was a bit small for his size, making it difficult to fit, but it eventually managed. The woman took several paces back to gawk at her son. Her eyes gleamed with perversion.

“Beautiful,” she uttered, her lips creeping into a smile. “Every bit of you is so beautiful...”