Chapter 1 : Meet your sister.

157 680 000 seconds old Griselda was a very intelligent child for her age, even if she couldn't really understand much. So when her mother, who was getting fatter and fatter recently, peed herself during dinner, she understood that wasn't normal. Her father started panicking and her older twin brother started to cry. She just looked up curiously at the only other calm person, her mother, from her velvety dinner chair.

"Mama, do you need remedial potty training?" She asked seriously.

She didn't understand why her father choked on air and the maids helping Mama looked so affronted. She was asking a legitimate question, after all, Nanny Clara said you couldn't grow up and be an adult if you weren't correctly potty trained. Considering only adults could be married, Mama would have to go, and she didn't want her daddy to have to replace Mama again.

Not getting an answer, not that she expected any, she came back to chewing the cabbage, not breathing by her nose to avoid the vegetable's horrible scent. Eating yucky veggies was an important part of growing up after all, she nodded to herself, blonde bangs falling over her gray eyes.

After ushering the lady away, the maids looked uneasily at the girl who was calmly eating things that would make other children kick up a fuss, without even complaining once. She was an odd little girl.

*-*-*

Griselda was sitting in one of the many corridors of their house, one of the servants having been kind enough to provide her a chair to sit on. She was trying to read her image book, but her golden haired father was pacing in front of a white door while her older brother was off somewhere. Noisily. The screams on the other side of the door were worrying, they sounded like Mama Eliza's just before she went on a vacation without even saying goodbye. Now that she thought about it, Mama Eliza also got very big.

"Papa, is Mama Helena going to end up like Mama Eliza?" Away and never going back was left unsaid.

The man jumped and whirled towards her, his face going pink and a disagreeable expression on his face. Oh, she surprised him, papa never liked surprises.

"What did you say?" She thought the correct word for this was growling, like that big dog Nanny Clara played with sometimes.

"Mama Eliza also got very big before she went away and you had to replace her. Does that mean you're replacing Mama Helena too ? Please don't, I like her, she's pretty." Mama Eliza had black hair and brown eyes, while Mama Helena had platinum blonde hair and soft grey eyes. They were both pretty, but Mama Eliza was very mean, and her departure meant somebody else took her place. If she could help it, Griselda would much prefer that Mama Helena stayed with them, because she really didn't want another Mama Eliza. Besides, it always made Papa and big brother so upset when they went away.

Papa deflated like a balloon, shaking his head, before crouching in front of her, putting himself at her eye level and looking at her.

"Sometimes, people just have to go." He said sadly, wincing and looking away from her. "I don't want her to, of course, but sometimes will isn't enough."

"Are you saying you're not strong enough? But papa, everyone says you're the strongest." That frankly went against every of her beliefs to see her normally cold and unshakeable father that.. Haggard? His hair had come undone and fell over his face, his eyes were red and his hands trembled. He was probably scared, but he was an adult, and adults don't need comforting, because they are adults. She looked at him, thinking intensely. It seemed Mama Eliza was ill. People get ill when they're cold, and it's autumn season, so it's getting colder. If it's cold, then maybe they just had to heat Mama Helena up? A proud feeling spread through her. That was it! "Light up a fire next to her, it should be enough to chase away the cold."

A brittle smile appeared on the adult's face. "One can never have enough light in their life huh? My, if my little princess says so, then she must be right. I'll give Helena a candle then."

Her papa clearly wasn't taking her seriously. Adults. She pouted and shook her head. " It won't be enough." He stared at her with an expression vaguely similar to those of the servants'.

*-*-*

The screaming continued a long time and she was eventually sent to bed to sleep. Then, in the middle of the night, she was torn out of her dreams by loud noises, shouting, and she was yanked out of her comfortable bed to be held in the air. She opened her eyes to see a monster. What else could it be? It had beady black eyes with yellow irises, its form was covered in deep red fur with brown stick drawings, had two, very sharp sabers instead of teeth, long sinewy limbs and claws. And it was holding her, sharp looking claws poised over her. So she did the natural thing and started crying in terror. More noise and jostling led her to paying attention to what was happening.

"...It."

"Let her go at once, I don't have what you want!" Was that her papa? It sure sounded like it, but he should be with Mama Helena.

"Of course you do Ruslan, the incentive simply isn't enough..." The monster started waving the arm holding her, making her whimper and look for ways to get away. "Nevertheless, after I devour her, there is still your son hm?" She was going to be eaten? She really didn't want to, it sounded painful. Her eyes fell on her night table, where her picture book was laid.

"You wouldn't dare to touch Blaine."

The creature laughed and it sounded discordant, as if multiple people and beasts were screaming with each exhalation.

"Funny how you say it, but you still didn't immediately deny me. Bring the girl, I have unfinished business with your little whore's child." He snorted. "Oh, please forgive my lack of manners," its voice became more high pitches, and it sounded mocking. "my condolences for your wife's death. If that helps any, it was only mildly painful." the semblance of cheer disappeared, leafing only an eerie feeling. "The girl. Now."

Danger was the only thing that filtered through her panicked thoughts. What was this monster ? Why was it here ? Why did it know Papa? Why wasn't Papa saving her?!

The monster and the man just spoke, guards falling to the ground as soon as they arrived, and an alien anger seized Griselda. She was aware she was never alone, that someone was with her, always. That someone had been very displeased recently, and it annoyed Griselda to no end.

Fine, if Papa wasn't saving her, she'd do it herself!

And her fingers, who were inching ever so closely towards her lamp on her night table, gripped the handle. And in one gracious arc, she broke it against the monster's head. The lamp was a pretty, brittle thing, full of a luminescent liquid, whose main property was that it caught on fire when in contact with air. Of course, Griselda didn't know that, believing it to be a sturdy lamp given to her by Mama Helena after she started getting fat.

The monster screamed in agony, dropping her, flames licking at its fur and jumped through the window. Swallowing back a sob, the little girl took a moment to try and gather herself according to her etiquette classes, failing miserably. She then decided to latch on a thought that would be less dangerous for her. She rubbed her eyes, before turning around, glaring at the adults. Then, one tiny fist on her hip and her finger pointed at them, lips quivering, and tears threatening to fall once again, she said the only other detail she noticed.

"You're putting dirt in my room!"

Dirt is fine, dirt is safe. Yes, Nanny Clara did say it was important to keep one's room clean to become an upstanding individual.

*-*-*

As the year passed, Griselda decided it was time for her to take on more responsibilities. But even then the monster, albeit mostly forgotten at this point, still subconsciously bothered her and left her with a hate of helplessness. She then decided to go ask Nanny Clara for guidance.

Nanny Clara was the woman charged of raising her when she was younger. As a retired member of the Northern Wolf guild, she was a battle hardened veteran, with the scars to match. All grey hair and shining brown eyes, the woman wasn't mother material, but still had some ideas of how to raise children. And if that wasn't enough, she'd ask Weif, her dear wearh for counsel. Wearhs were a breed of the more resistant giant wolves usually found up North, rather smart and strong enough to bite through iron plate. Weif was on the smaller side of the species, with a height of 1.53 m, but he made it much further on the road of life than his peers by virtue of his superior intelligence. Some jokingly said he was the brain of the duo, back in her time.

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"Please make me strong."

Piercing grey eyes looked up at the woman, a stubborn expression on the youthful face. Clara cackled.

"Why ? So you'll protect other people? To become a hero ?" She asked derisively. Children tales were the bane of her generation, all brainwashing, no details...

"To beat my enemies up with their own limbs and set their houses on fire! I want to be strong enough that nobody messes with me!"

... She'd have to curve down the pyromania instilled by the girl's father, and she was pretty sure property damage was frowned upon most of the kingdoms, but other than that, Clara Harfang was all for it. Delicate flower her ass, that girl would be a monster once she'd be finished with her. Imagining that stuck up's face when he learned of it made her cackle even more strongly.

*-*-*

"You don't look like a monster."

Were the first words spoken from Griselda Aevi to her younger sister, whom she named Nerys, because her skin was so white.

If 'leaving her alone' was everyone's manner of dealing with Griselda, then 'making her life hell' was her sister's fate. Apparently, whatever happened that night was caused by Nerys.

Having long decided adults were worthless idiots, the young girl ignored them. First, people tried to dissuade her, but her father put his foot down. Apparently, for whatever reason, she was allowed to do whatever she wished. He decreed so after his strange case of pyromania and sciurophobia.

In any case, the now seven years old girl stared at her half sibling, scribbling and sketching on a diary, ignoring the pink larva's moves. Today, helped by a 'how to' book, she was doing her yearly testing, this time evaluating its reflexes -the previous day she tested its grip- then realized the feeding hour had already passed. Frowning, she went out, leaving the larva to drool on a red wooden horse, to investigate on the matter. Apparently, everyone had forgotten about it, again, or there were accidents that kept people from doing it properly. That wouldn't do. After all, her book said young larv-children needed a carefully balanced diet! Therefore, she took it upon herself to create a meal following the advice of her book. Two meals, more accurately, considering she was still a growing girl herself and currently felt peckish.

After putting everything in a basket, she walked through the wide stone corridor, doors upon doors succeeding each other.

As she arrived, she saw Blaine, her older brother, staring at the larva with mild disgust.

"You shouldn't lose your time with her, you know?" Her brother spared her a side glance, his face stuck in a frown.

"Why-ever not? She's only a larva right now, regardless of our opinion, we must raise her until she reaches adulthood or independence, that's how nature goes." And that's what her book said too.

"Da !Da !" Cheerfully chirped the larva, having smelled the food from her place on the ground and walking towards her sister, platinum curls bouncing with her steps. Griselda slowly lowered her basket, getting the food and cutlery on the small table next to her.

"You could have gotten a servant to do it."Blaine remarked, eyeing the basket.

"I stopped trying after hearing the excuse of the cook setting a cat on fire." The meal was simple, looked quite shabby, and suspicion rose in his mind.

"What's that supposed to be?" He asked, waving at the food items with disdain.

The girl huffed, visibly offended and started pointing. First was the slightly charred fish over a green, disgusting looking sludge with dark brown points. "That's roasted salmon over a broccoli and spinach puree with some lentils, " Second was the pile of orange... fingers? Were those bones he was seeing poking out? " Those are chicken drumsticks with carrots." Then there were innocent looking hazelnuts, right next to a white, bubbling and frothing white / transparent-ish liquid. "And those are honeyed hot milk and hazelnuts. Nerys has a delicate constitution so I'm making her eat healthy food!" She finished, looking quite proud of herself.

The boy looked at the 'healthy food', his imagination supplying him with a dark blue aura around that. No, he might dislike the 'larva' but not enough to let it die in front of him. He walked around his younger sister, grabbed the plate holding the fish and promptly threw in into the bin, turning around only to see  the horrified girl, and then overhearing her dark mumbling.

"That was the fish I sweated and bled to catch and cook for Nerys...ha ha ha.... I even fought off the dogs in the court for it..." Her face was down, her fists white, her fringe obscured her face, and she started laughing hollowly.

His body sized up and he started sweating. He looked around, suddenly noticing the surprisingly high amount of sharp, pointy things present in his littlest sister's room and started backing away nervously. The only thing he could say to his defense was :

"I-It looked poisonous, so..."

His sharp eyed sister ignored him, whispering more and unintelligibly, before he accidentally tripped over his youngest sister and fell on his backside. One look at said sister's ecstatic munching and crunching of one of the orange fingers got him running away. That sounded like the time Cousin Gavin broke a bone, and he did not want to try and discover if the larva was truly a monster or not.

Now distraction free, Nerys finished her carrots but still felt hungry and so tugged on her older sister's dress until she snapped out of her depression and fed her more. Said sister was actually in quite the conundrum.

"I don't think I can catch another, and it's unhealthy to eat things off the bin." She took the bin and put it out of the toddler's reach.

"Da?" Asked said toddler eyeing the basket.

"Drink your milk, it's a good thing I made a blueberry muffin." She got out a brown, unshaped thing with shriveled blue-black dots on it.

"Fin! Fin fin fin!" Obviously, her younger sister had more taste in food than her older brother.

As she sat, eating her spare portion, savoring the crispy, sweet and fruity pastry, she rubbed the larva's head with her free hand, eyes straying towards the dark blue diamond mark in the middle of her forehead. Nerys leaned in to get more contact, pinkish eyes blinked, before the larva smiled cutely back.

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Griselda's Little sister's observation diary.

Birthdate : October 3 985 ( Shared birthday, extreme caution advised.)

Eyes : Pink ( Eye illness maybe? Both parents grey)

Hair : Platinum blonde ( where do those curls come from?)

Complexion: Porcelain.

Subject named Nerys, since the writer does not know subject's true name.

Year One:

Subject is noisy and very energetic. Clingy and has a strong grip. Her motor skills are developing fast, but her speech and manners need a lot of work.

Possible cause: lack of human interaction.

Measures taken : three hours to be deducted of my free time to teach the larva the subject how to act like a human being.

Observations: For some reason, people have a great dislike of her. Linked to the day of her birth. Monster related. Must investigate more.

Subject recognizes me, started following me around.

Subject walked today. Now it's going to be harder to child proof her room. Where did that battleaxe come from?

Year two:

Read several books, subject underfed and prone to illness. Must take measures.

Diet established. Had to keep subject from eating candles today. Worrying about intelligence levels.

Investigations reached a dead end.

Subject called me 'dad' today. Must take action immediately.

Subject has shown disturbing tendencies. Need to read more books.

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Sooooo, yeah. First chapter and already a lifelong trauma. On the upside, I think my writing's getting better?

To those who know me, I'm back ! To those who don't, welcome! To both, don't worry, I'm trying to start somewhat lightly-ish?

Don't expect daily updates though, I'm busyyyy

Pana out!