Once we got back home, Emma was preparing to leave home again. As she adjusted the rapier she always carried on her hip, she turned to us.

“Well... I guess I'll be off, I'm really sorry for everything... I'll do my best so you can get an education anyways, I swear.”

“It's fine. It wasn't about the education in the first place, and the test questions were irrelevant to anything I cared about.”

“Really? Then what was it about?”

“Emma, didn't you say that you were in a hurry?”

“Oh shoot... I'll see both of you later! I will actually be here for the night!”

After Emma hugged us and ran out the door, both Wing and I were just sitting there, he returned back to reading silently like earlier in the morning.

I can't stand this!

In order to bring him back to normal I thought of an idea. I know he's always interested in new books; the picture book I read must be something worth looking at. I began to bother Wing until he responded with a sharp annoyance. I ran around him, making buzzing noises.

“Gaah... Eclaire what is it?”

“Book! Look! It must be good.”

After skimming through some pages, he looked surprised! This must be some hidden gem even he couldn't find!

“Eclaire!”

“Yes?!”

This is it; I found something worthy of his approval. No longer would he need to feel sad for the things I like! His sharp amber eyes looked me straight in the eyes and then he spoke.

“This fairy tale sucks.”

“WHAT?!”

“Why'd you choose this...?”

“I... Thought that the prettiest drawings meant it was really good.”

“This is pretty?!”

“No! They sucked! But, I thought the opposite would be truer!”

“I mean it could be, but this person just sucks.”

“Huh?!”

That's so unfair! If the good art sucks… and the bad art sucks... then… where are the good books?! If it's not a good book, he won't cheer up! While looking at what possible things I could do to make him happy... Only books do. I think.

Listening to my unbelievable wisdom, both of us started to walk around the woods. Wing had gotten a book about plants and rocks or something and willingly agreed to this little adventure. He warned me that we couldn't go outside the marked area, as that's the limit placed by Emma.

That still left plenty to walk around in though! While Wing was looking at the dirt, I was trying to find some cool looking branches to bring home. There has to be something that I'd be able to swing around! The last one I got made Emma worried since it snapped in half and almost hit Wing. He was occupied reading so he didn't even notice it get stuck in the wall next to him.

So far, all I found were twigs. I look over to Wing and see him touching the leaves of a nearby plant. My curiosity led me to watch him for a few minutes.

“Why are you looking at plants?”

“Not just plants. Herbs, something exotic, really anything.”

“But, why?”

“Ah, make sure you don't touch that one.”

“Huh?”

I was about to touch a prickly, bright-pink flower, but Wing stopped me before I grabbed it. I guess I just started digging through the dirt with him after that without paying attention. He made sure I was away from the area then continued speaking.

“It's to help mother...”

“What?”

“If I can find stuff worth taking, I could earn money.”

That was different. I don't remember Wing ever calling Emma, “mother”. Ever since I started living here, he always called her that.

“Wing, why do you call her that? She's Emma, isn't she?”

“At this point, I can say the same to you can't I?”

I kind of understood what he was meaning. Thinking back to a boring book Wing was trying to teach me, it had boring old people with funny titles, like “king”. Something about a bloodline, and those who were taken in by royalty and why old people are always arguing. Wing said it was similar to living with the both of them.

“But I'm... I…”

“She wouldn't want us to call her that anyways.”

I don't understand! Did I need to learn more from books?! Do I not know enough words?! Curse this incomprehensible world! Was there something I'm missing?! Nothing changes how much I love being here, but if Wing leaves...

I don't know...

Wing looked at my face and continued speaking.

“I don't want to go to Velbus.”

“Why'd you try though?”

“After a year... They would let my family live with me in the capital. After my first year there, I would have been able to live with both of you again, but now...”

“Now”? What did he mean by now?

I walked up to him as he was explaining things. He was turned away so I couldn't see his face, but even though Wing always uses Emma's name, and was always reading books, he is always thinking about us. I'm not sure what made me confident about that, but he's always nice to me even though I bug him a lot. He always listens to Emma whenever she tells him to do stuff.

As I was thinking about that, he grabbed my arm and pulled me close to him. Surprised, I made a squeaky noise as I was at knee level. He then hugged me.

“ I… wanted to take care of both of you... I didn't want to leave, but for Emma's sake and yours... I would be willing to be away.”

I was frozen in place and stiff. There are times when Wing causes my face to get hot, but this time I can't even muster up the strength to do anything about it. I think at best I am making weird noises that I don't understand.

Why is he being so serious?!

Is there something wrong? What's going on?

This has never happened in the past two years!

When he started to go through plants again, I decided to just lie on the grass. After a few minutes, I ripped out some grass and started playing with it. I don't know what to think.

“What are you doing?”

“Nothing. Why aren't you doing anything with those plants?”

“If I take them for no reason, they'll die. I need to figure out what can be done with them first.”

While on the grass, I hear a faint ruffling in the bushes. I get up from the floor and try to find where the sound is coming from.

Suddenly, a bunny pops out of the foliage out in front of me. Its long ears are furled downward and from looking at me, it backed away slowly and slumped its body. Noticing my distraction, Wing walks up to me and I tell him about this discovery.

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“Look! A Bunny! I never saw one so close before!”

“Right...”

I crawled near to the bunny as Wing followed me slowly. I noticed it was walking strangely and looked scared.

“I wonder what's wrong with it.”

When I looked back at Wing and then back at it, but it just kept twitching its head. I started to check on it.

“If it's this slow, maybe we can just catch it and eat it.”

“Eclaire... That's a bit...”

He gave me a weird looking smile; we heard some more rustling in the bushes. When we heard that I noticed Wing started to break into a sweat and had a scary face on. Without saying anything, he pulled me to the side.

“Huh? What-why?”

“Shh...!”

Immediately after Wing shushed me, something broke out of the foliage and pounced right onto the bunny.

“Eeek!”

The suddenness of what happened knocked me on my butt. I try to get up on my feet, but right now my legs feel weird. My body feels heavy and unwilling.

Wing tries to pull my arm to get up, but for some reason I still can't stand.

I can't look away.

In the closeness of our home, that bunny that stumbled its way here is kicking its legs and moving violently around. I can only see the sight of… a wolf's mouth getting more and more… red.

Struggling and struggling… It should give up.

As if it was making fun of the struggle of the living creature, the wolf rips off pieces and pieces while it frantically fights harder and harder.

“Dad...?”

I don't know what's going on. My eyes hurt. I can't see... Why do my cheeks feel wet? When I try wiping my face and rubbing my eyes. I feel the pain get worse.

Pictures keep appearing in my eyes.

I see pictures of people… mom…? Dad…?

I see pictures of… myself.

Red. So very red.

A deep red that, no matter how many times I scrub or wash away, it's still there.

I don't understand.

Ripping and tearing.

The wet sound of chewing.

The stringy skin being ripped out of something… alive.

I think… I remember getting told I was saved.

But...

But...

What I remember is anger.

I remember my mom's face looking like this bunny's body.

I remember the face my dad had.

His brown hair turned into what my hair looked like when I was playing in the mud...

I don't remember being told to run...

I don't remember sadness...

“I'm going to kill you.”

The wolves...?

“Eclaire... “

It was the same look...

The same faces the grown-ups gave to me when I was in that ugly place...

It had prettier flowers than the place here, but they made me feel like throwing up every day.

“Eclaire!”

Suddenly, all I could see was the edge of Emma's badly raised garden. I think Wing told me that she overwaters them every day. The plants in that garden are somehow still alive, despite how weird they look. There was something… pro..phetic? Pa…thetic? Po… Something… poetic about them.

I looked to my side and Wing was there groaning. He then struggled to push himself up and our eyes met.

“Wing...?”

“Oh... Good... You snapped… out of it. When… you suddenly froze up like that… I… had to… drag… you back… here.”

“I… don't remember what happened…”

“Let’s... just go back… inside.”

His breathing was… odd. He ruffled my hair with his arm, but I noticed that his other one looked... different.

It was red. It was like the red that filled the wolf’s mouth… but darker… and where his hands were, they were covered in what looked like bumps with some disgusting-looking water dripping out of them.

“That weird plant you found... it looks like it’s poisonous to Dire Wolves.”

“Huh?”

“C'mon, get up.”

Wing helped me stand, but the moment I was about to fall backwards again he kept me up. My legs were so hard to move... My chest hurts as I breathe... But… maybe everything is fine now...

Of course...

The moment I think that, something slams into the house. It was that same wolf.

This time it was making sickly growling noises and its mouth was foaming. With what I could tell, it was sneezing out the same disgusting water that was coming out of Wing's hand.

Using his other arm, Wing pulled me to his side and put his body over mine.

I don't know what's going on...

However, as soon as that thought crossed my mind, Wing started to shout into the air. “Someone! Help us!”

From what I could see, this sudden yell for help made the wolf confused for a moment. But, it was only for a little amount of time. It looked like it was prepared to jump. As the wolf jumped at us, Wing grips on my shoulders harder to protect me, but I don't know what happened after that. I just heard a loud crash. I didn't feel my body getting chewed up.

Wing moved his body off of me enough to see what was happening. Emma's beautiful gold hair was moving all over the place because of the heavy winds. If Wing wasn't protecting me, my hair probably would have been going into my eyes. The wolf that was attacking us slid off the wall. She then backed towards us.

The nice wind I felt when Emma first showed me was significantly different from now. Her eyes were scary, but seeing her make that face made my heart feel better. She became silent, pressing her sword against her forehead with both hands. I feel weird. My hair feels like there’s something I can’t see rise against it.

Suddenly, the wind stopped. I didn’t feel anything; there was nothing after the strong air that blasted past us earlier.

There was only calm, dead air.

After peeling itself off of the wall, this wolf started to sneeze out more of the icky looking snot. Once this wolf was ready, it lunged towards Emma.

It only happened in a brief second.

Emma said something to herself; words I couldn’t understand, phrases I couldn’t comprehend. However, in the end there was one thing I heard over the growls of the wolf.

[Tempest Pierce] Something I couldn’t see.

Something I could only feel.

The still air moved in not even a second. The violent wind passes through both of us and right into the violent creature.

A single stab.

It took a single stab with Emma’s sword to create a giant hole where the wolf was.

There wasn’t even a piece of it left, just a red mist that floated in the air from where it jumped.

Immediately following the wolf’s demise, Emma tossed her sword aside and ran to the both of us. She looked like she was about to cry. Looking at her is fun. She pats us down, but starts to scream when she sees Wing’s arm.

As soon as Wing explained what happened, she somehow had enough strength to carry Wing towards Fals. He could walk, but she was panicking so much that I was just following her while he struggled to get her to let him go.

Wing ended up being treated fast since, apparently, it’s common to get attacked by wolves near Fals. I think I was told this before, but it was boring so I didn’t try to remember it. The poisonous plant was easily dealt with since he read that book about what it was. In the end there was nothing to worry about. Emma regularly visits this doctor so we ended up with a huge discount! …Apparently.

Living here is nice.

Life here was peaceful. I was living in paradise.