"Haaah!..."

I flop down in the ground, exhausted from exertion. Not caring at all about dirtying my clothes, the desire to just lay down and take a long nap is too big for me to resist.

Across the field, multiple strangely shaped boulders littered the ground. They were all stark white and sunk into the ground, their polished and sturdy appearance gave off a strange sense of peace as they formed an orderly pattern around me.

"I'm just going to… *yawn* rest my eyes a little…"

——— –– –– -- - -

POV: Grandmother "Granny" Piyo

"Zzz…"

The girl had fallen asleep almost immediately. Her soft breathing a total juxtaposition to the scenery around them.

"I swear, this girl…" Said Granny, marveling at the area with apprehension.

Earth shaping magic is one of the most arduous and strenuous types of magic that Granny thought of teaching Syuu, so they could test her limits.

For a whole day, she made Syuu build large stone boulders from scratch, and it seemed like she could go indefinitely… Then she put an order to shape and carve complex shapes on top of it, making the whole process more mana intensive while also lengthening the time needed to create a boulder. And then after that, creating multiple at the same time, further increasing the strain.

It was incredibly slow, a one-meter-tall stone taking about 2 hours to create using magic power.

But even then, after an entire day doing this Syuufarin had gotten tired, but not to the point of running out of mana.

Granny had a hunch about what was happening after closely observing everything.

Syuufarin had very large reserves, yes, but not to the point of absurdity, she isn't a dragon after all.

Instead, Granny theorized that Syuufarin recovered or generated mana at a rate that made it seem like she had a lot of mana. The rate that she recovers mana isn't equal to the rate she uses on spells, but it is enough to drastically increase her total uptime.

If this is true, it would mean that if a spell did not use much mana to cast, she could theoretically maintain its effects indefinitely as long as she did not get incapacitated or fall asleep…

"Truly impressive… but also frightening." Granny shivered.

——— –– –– -- - -

'Warm… Comfy… Wet…'

A deep sensation of peace surrounded me, all worries and responsibilities gone. Nothing to stress about, only encompassing warmth and comfortable softness…

'Wait– wet?'

"PFFT!!!" I jolt awake, abruptly aware of something drenching my face in cold water.

"Ah, good, I was getting worried for a moment." I hear Granny's voice as I rub the water out of my eyes and shake my head sideways to get rid of the water.

I squeeze the water out of my eyes and wring my hair, then glare wordlessly at the elderly person..

"You weren't waking up, I tried shaking you but to no avail." She shakes her head exasperatedly, holding a floral watering can. "I tried splashing some water to wake you up but even that took a while…" Granny trailed off, staring above my head. "...and something strange appeared too."

I rapidly place my hands on top of my head, feeling the familiar but still weird feeling of a stem happily flourishing on top of my head.

"A-ah… erm… sorry, this happens sometimes, I don't know why." I flush. Forgetting that I was drenched in water.

Though it had become somewhat of a rumor over the time I spent in the village, it is the first time Granny saw this.

'After it blooms it doesn't go away, so I usually take it out…' The bright yellow flower makes me stand out even more, so I don't like it.

Plucking it out of my scalp with some discomfort, I offer the mysterious flower to Granny. "...Do you want it?" Over time, I had begun to get a little used to this strange quirk. And ripping it off my head doesn't hurt as much as it used to.

…

Granny looked bewildered. She opened and closed her mouth a few times before accepting it.

In truth she didn't actually want it, but the predicament was so unexpected that she couldn't think what to make of it.

For a minute granny just silently stared at the large flower in her hands.

"Well, okay. I've seen stranger things in my time." Granny shrugged. Syuufarin was an endearing bundle of mystery that grew every time she saw her, but despite her growing concern of her nothing could be done about it right now. Not even Syuu herself knew the answers, and trying to explain it would be a fruitless endeavor that only led to unnecessary headaches.

So Granny just accepted the, arguably pretty, flower and moved on.

…

"*cough* …Thank you?" Granny confusedly replies. "Anyways," She casts a magic that makes a strong gust of wind at me, my hair flops around erratically and becomes a mess but in the end I become dry. "Now that you're awake, can you tell me more how you felt?"

I take a minute, making a show of swaying side to side to show that I am thinking.

"I feel sore…" I massage my arms. "Everything feels sore, it feels like it is bone-deep but further than that. But my um…" I think of a substitute word. "...My tummy feels the worst, like it is empty and hollow too, but not because I'm hungry? It's weird."

"Hmm…" Granny seems deep in thought. She pokes my abdomen with the end of her staff, making me do a "bleh" sound.

She pokes me again, but this time there's a gentle surge of mana that I feel her pour through me. It tickles a little with a strange filling and emptying sensation… and it kind of made me get an urge to go to the bathroom.

"You are a very strange child, has anyone ever told you that?"

I frown. 'Well– No, not like that, but I can't help that my body is like this.'

Granny, seeing my sour face, chuckled. "If you keep doing that your face will get stuck you know?" She smiles. "I have a theory, but nothing conclusive."

She explains her thoughts to me.

。。。

"That's good, right?" I say.

Granny makes an appalled face. "Good… she says." She shouts at the sky. "A good mage would only be capable of producing three of those boulders in a good day, then they most likely will have run out of mana. It would take at least 12 mages working together to create so many like you did."

She hit my shin with the bottom part of her staff, though she did lightly, so it hurt my feelings more than my leg. "Even a great mage such as I don't have that ability. Not only that, but the 12 mages would be completely exhausted of mana. And you here are fine and standing with mana to spare, and even more mana rapidly coming back to you."

Granny childishly sulks. "Honestly, I understand now why Clauren is envious of such a devious child."

I look down at my feet. Tail drooping behind me.

"It's not like I wanted to be like this." I pout. A decidedly childish act that overcomes me… but I feel at ease with her.

In another time and place, maybe I would be very thankful that I had gotten a healthy and powerful body… But the way it has been causing trouble for me and others has made my own opinion turn into something sour.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

'It's not like I'm not grateful for it… But there are already three people I… care about…' I flush at my own thoughts, and rub the self-induced embarrassment away. '...that are knocking their heads together because of all the peculiarities of my body. If this were any other village or town I worry about what could happen.' A blessing may as well turn into a curse if the wrong sort of dangerous people become curious.

"Ah, don't be like that, it is a good thing! " Granny says, throwing me out of my thoughts. "Don't worry about what comes out of my mouth too much, and don't even pay attention to what comes out of Clauren's mouth either. We are just really happy for you." She pats my head.

I only half-believe her words, knowing she simply wants to soothe me… But the gesture calms my dark thoughts down.

'And no it's not because of the head patting. I refuse to acknowledge that.' I tell myself… but no move to stop Granny from petting is made.

"Still," there's a melancholic cadence to my words. "I just woke up like this one day, sometimes I wonder if I deserve being special…"

A stretching silence passes.

"Hm? Granny?..." Only then the horror of what exactly I just said dawns on me, my expression widens in panic. "W-wait! Um, I meant—"

"There's nothing to deserve you uncharacteristically gloomy brat." She flicks my forehead.

"Gyah!"

"What? Do you believe to be guilty of sin, or that some ill fate will befall upon you?." She loudly scoffed at my feelings.

"You own every bit of yourself down to the last strands of hair, and that is all that should matter to you." Granny chastises me, "I would be worried if you fell ill, I would be happy when you achieve something, and I would be angry if you did a wrong thing. Just as would other people feel the same, Clauren and Samyra in particular. Hmph." She huffs in annoyance.

I stare at Granny with befuddled wonder.

"E-eh?... but what about?..."

"You already told Samyra no? Hmm, I assume that maybe Clauren knows too?" She says with confidence.

This surprises me. "How did you know!?"

Granny grins. "You would be panicking a lot more if you didn't. Feh." She pulls me in closer in a half-hug and gives me a noogie.

"Ahh!" I flail around as she painfully rubs her knuckles on top of my head. "Stop it!"

"I know you better than you think child, I'm old after all." She stops the rubbing, but doesn't let me go out of her clutch. "A gentle girl like you would be killing herself with guilt by now."

…

Granny, for all her easygoingness and laid-back attitude, is one of the most knowledgeable people in the village. In her hundreds years of life she has had the opportunity to meet and deal with countless types of people. Syuufarin is a unique case, but there are many correlations to be made with a girl whose first attitude towards their village was the desire to help.

Samyra and Clauren aren't too informed on the details of where Syuudarin originates from, thankfully they were understanding of Syuu's desires and privacy, but despite avoiding talking about the other world, they know a good gist of Syuufarin's circumstances.

One of the things Syuu vaguely told them that day was that after suffering a terrible fate, she ended up stranded in the middle of the forest, lost, and with "modifications" on her body. This explained the difficulties she often displayed with her tail and horns, as if she never had them before and was inexperienced. Which is true in a way, simply not exactly in the same way they interpreted. A white lie.

And because of "The Witch" the unprecedented situation was deemed tolerable to their scrutiny. Something that to this day Syuufarn doesn't understand very well. They spoke of it like a great disaster that happened not long before she appeared in the forest, even though everyone seemed unharmed and happy. When Syuu asked the adults about it they all avoided the topic.

…

"This child…" Granny sighed.

"…" I flush in a strange mix of embarrassment and pride.

My feelings on the matter aren't going to change so easily… but it's refreshing to have someone validate their emotions. If nothing happened, I would slowly grow more and more anxious, and begin to doubt my own place in this village.

People don't know what you are feeling unless you tell them.

Having Granny so boldly proclaim her own thoughts and feelings about me reassured me that everything was fine. And that gnawing sensation in my heart was nothing to worry about.

"Haah, All this training made me famished!" Granny suddenly exclaimed. "We spent all day here, come, dinner is tastier when with company after all."

——— –– –– -- - -

"Welcome, welcome!" Shouted Crocus, the cantine boss, as he skillfully sauteed four pots of food simultaneously.

Granny raised a hand in greeting.

Peering over the many incomplete plates, "Ho ho? Meat, that's unusual. Perhaps one of the ranger teams brought a good haul?" she said.

"How often do you guys get meat?" I knew that from time to time the rangers either hunted down prey as a mission or simply stumble upon an animal or two and bring what they can carry, but there's not really a big indication of people that request meat specifically.

With their rather advanced vegetable and plant recipes, they could very well sustain themselves with those alone if they wanted to. 'Never thought I'd turn vegetarian, but their food is so good…' was one of my first thoughts when tasting their cuisine.

"Full plates like this?" Granny said, gesturing to a platter full of an assortment of different cuts of meat. "Only when there's a great catch and there's too much to reliably put in storage, and it ends up here before it can spoil. Not very often."

Looking at the generous plates of food wafting a delicious aroma I can't help myself as my gaze lingers on them.

"Do you like meat, Syuufarin?" She asks.

I blink at the sudden question, then nod.

She then proceeds to dump a large sum of her plate's onto mine.

"W-wa—!" I exclaim. "You don't have to!"

"Nonsense!" Granny waves me off, "besides I can't eat all of this. You need to eat a lot to grow up tall and strong."

"Ah…" I shyly accept.

The tempting aroma and the succulent appearance of the platter before me has an aura of enticement that leads me to stare at it for some time. I begin eating when Granny raises an eyebrow at me.

It is delicious. It reminds me of–

of——

I shake my head, and go back to eating.

"What kind of food do you like the most?" Granny says.

I pause eating.

Her question made me think of many other tasty things I have eaten in the past. Despite the delicious food in front of me, my mouth waters even more.

'Sweets, desserts, barbecue, cakes, fish, pastries, drinks, fast-food, restaurants, home-cooking–' My breath hitches. Along with those fond memories of delicious things, something buried begins to be unearthed.

I take a deep, somber breath.

The sound of my clattering spoon is the only thing I hear as I blankly stare at the steaming food in front of me.

"Chicken hot-pot…" Unbidden, a soft, forlorn voice comes out of me.

'Why'd I have to recall this now, of all times?... I don't want to, I don't want to, I don't–'

An old recipe that mom used to make, we couldn't splurge too often, but when she found some ingredients for cheap we ate it when there was something to celebrate.

Honestly… it wasn't even that good in my opinion. Mom has always put too many vegetables in the pot… making way too much for us to eat at home. So we ended up giving the surplus to neighbors and family. I was a picky eater then.

Those happy moments, sour memories, tainted recollections, slide inside my thoughts without my consent.

Granny becomes quiet, her attempt at creating some conversation backfired unexpectedly.

'Ah… don't...' I squeeze my eyes with both hands and rub them before tears appear. I don't wish for her to see this side of me, rather, I wouldn't want anyone to ever see this side of me at all…

…It is too late, though.

My eyes feel heavy 'Why am I being so sentimental all of a sudden?' Perhaps… because I felt safe, or because Granny had an approachable presence, but the things I struggled so much to avoid thinking about suddenly broke out.

One thing leads into another, fond memories of tasty foods, foods I was too picky to eat, special memories marked by feasts and small significant candies. All too soothing memories of faces I am afraid to forget, people that despite my desire to never, ever leave them, became objects of torture to my psyche.

I desperately kept dwelling in the past, afraid, hurt, broken. But a part of me began to gradually grow into wanting to gather the recollection of a lost world to lock it inside a box and bury it deep beneath inside me somewhere… remembering hurt, it hurt in all new ways every single time the feelings of loss dug in deeper and deeper. So, maybe it was better to not remember at all, to move on and not dwell in those sickly sweet memories.

In the past, I had resolved myself to become better. To try and stop the acute pain I had been inflicting on myself. To try and find solace in something, anything.

If only it could have been as easy as I made it out to be…

The feelings of longing turn into feelings of mourning.

A small sob. "...Mom…" The rest is left unsaid.

"..."

"..."

"You are a very brave girl, you know?" Granny interrupts.

I… look up at her. Slowly blinking with an unbidden exhaustion that had suddenly fallen on me.

——— –– –– -- - -

"Your parents… I think they would be very proud of you." Granny begins telling her.

"You did your best surviving in the forest, and now you do your best to live. It seems to me you are grossly underestimating the significance of those achievements." She points at Syuufarin in a playful manner, but her eyes are serious.

"Did you know? Not everyone is capable of enduring such things, even adults would break at some point… but here you are anyways, and you are amazing for doing what even some adults couldn't do at your age" She says, eerily sounding like it was from experience.

She knows she is not in the close circle of people Syuufarin knows yet, but in the few things she has observed, she knows that despite their close proximity, Samyra and Clauren aren't as close to Syuu as they might think they are.

Doubts began to grow after Granny saw the way Syuu secluded herself in her own little house separate from the couple's house.

Or rather, Syuufarin hasn't let them get too close to her.

"...It's… it's not like that," Syuufarin hiccuped "Nothing special… I only survived thanks to my weirdness…"

Granny has a keen eye for people.

Syuufarin has immense gratitude for them, perhaps even some love, but not enough for her to depend on them unequivocally.The girl has been working tirelessly to fit in their village, as soon as she learned the language she began running errands with Gaviel and then alone without prompting, ande when she began delving into magic tomes her thoughts were still on repaying the villagers' kindness.

Her actions brought warmth to the hearts of many, and earned some respect from the Elders who were skeptical of her. The little visitor began to turn into an honorable member of the village.

Despite her manners and shyness, everyone who has had the chance to meet her has the opinion that Syuu is a kind and hardworking girl, if a tad shy.

But in hindsight… Granny realized that perhaps she was a little too hardworking. A little too dedicated. Bordering to the point of obsession.

If Syuufarin wasn't helping out somewhere, she was either with her head buried in magic grimoires and tomes. She only saw the girl acting her age and playing around maybe only one or two times…

Granny flicks the girl's forehead.

"Kya!"

"You tell yourself it was thanks to this or that, but never yourself. Isn't your body part of you? Do you not stand up with your own two feet by your will? Do you breathe because someone else told you so? Do you run yourself ragged everyday for the sake of others because you want to or not? Decide for yourself." Granny clicks her tongue disapprovingly.

She pokes Syuufarin's chest, almost pushing the girl out of her chair. "Is it you that passed through hardship, or someone else? Huh?"

"There are many people who feel proud of you. Whether you like it or not, Clauren, Samyra, Gaviel, and even I. You are strong in the ways that matter."

"Maybe you could take a little pride for yourself, no?"

——— –– –– -- - -

"..." a minute passes as I silently let her words sink in.

Something shifts, something eases.

That pulsating tumor of shadowed resentment recedes. It is still there, aching, longing, mourning, berating, crying acrid tears that tear into my guts…

…But it doesn't hurt as much as it did before.

"S-sorry…" I didn't know what to say. Having someone comfort you, whatever words they use, has always been an awkward affair to me. Perhaps deep down I already knew, but the fact that Granny came up and reassured me…

She raises her hand, stopping me. "I know, trust me. I know." Granny emphasizes, smiling.

"..."

Granny went back to eating as if nothing happened. In a way, her silence spoke more words than not. As if she was telling me "I am here", without needing a word to convey it.

"Chickens…" She turned, changing the topic "Well, there is not anyone who has a chicken coop in the village, but someday you'll be able to eat that again, i'll make sure of it."

。。。

——— –– –– -- - -