I think it’s been 3 days since I left home, I didn’t sleep and almost didn’t eat. If this forest didn’t have any fruit trees I would probably be dead. I am awake mostly on will power and fear. On more than one occasion I saw shadows on the horizon and if even one of those shadow was from a ferocious animal or a monster I will die, I can hold the sword but I don’t have the strength to actually do damage with it, it’s only been useful to pick fruit so far and get myself out of the clothes I was using, they were more of a hindrance than useful, it is really hot in this forest, a fluffy dress was making me sweat like a pig so I cut it open with the sword and now i am pretty much in under garments, which in my case is just a more basic dress basically.
“Ahhh….” I try to scream as the fatigue and hunger begins to set.
“I guess a child’s body can’t survive a half a week without any food, even less on the move non-stop without sleep.”
Then when everything is almost going black I hear a voice and smell something, our instinct kicks in and we get some adrenaline to run along the river a little more. There we see 4 men on a makeshift table talking and eating. Before I can do anything Lucia takes back control and runs at full speed to the table.
The men see us but they are stunned. A little girl, pretty much naked just appeared from the forest with a sword bigger than her in hand and is now eating their food in front of them without having said a single word. Her desire to eat is so strong that I can't even make out the details of the men, just that they are wearing something purple.
“Hey little girl if you are so hungry you could just have asked, we aren’t monsters that we wouldn’t share with you” says one of the men while still letting her eat their food and drink their water. They had the consideration of removing what I can only think is beer from Lucia’s reach so she won’t be able to drink it by accident.
She went to town on their food, I think she ate what was on two peoples plates, and now that she is more calm I can see that those plates were big. These guys are stronger and bigger than dad. I make the suggestion that she should thank the men for letting her eat.
“Thanks for the food, there isn’t any tasty food in the forest” Says Lucia in a more calm and normal voice.
“Do you mind if we ask why you are here? This is not a place for little girls like you.” Says the fatter of the men in the group.
Lucia begins to show signs of crying remembering what happened a few days ago so I take control back and strangely she let’s me.
“Mom and dad said I am not their daughter so I should leave, so I walked, walked and walked and I am here.” Saying those words make me both angry and sad at the same type but now is not the time for emotions, they seen like good people but I don’t know them and I will probably collapse the second this rush of adrenaline stop so I must make sure that in the worst case I can run somewhere away from this guys.
“...”
Silence, that is the answer I get from these guys, right now I can’t even see the details of their face, it would take too much energy.
“STOP THAT MAN” I heard a shout in the distance and before I knew it a bloody man with a knife appeared behind me leaping from my shadow.
“I suggest you let me go or this little girl won’t have a head for too long” says the bloody man with a sinister voice.
At this moment I freeze. All the energy I have is being used solely for the purpose of not getting kidnapped or killed by this man.
“Hurt that kid and death will be the least of your problems” says a man that appeared not long after this man got me, he is also using purple clothing and armor.
“Good to know, guess I have nothing to lose” says the man while he puts me on the ground.
I can see his hand going up a little and preparing to go down and stab me. Time freezes I can't dodge this, no one can stop this in time, I accept my destiny, life is a bitch but if I am going to die I going to go down fighting, the man didn’t disarm me, I still have my sword, I am going to at least hit this man. I put all my force behind this strange swing where I pretty much spin on my own axis where when he hits me, if my body doesn’t stop he will get hit by it before I fall.
Time begins again. I prepare the swing with all my power but something happens, somehow I put so much force that I did a 180. I am face to face with this man, I can feel the sudden weight change on the sword for some reason, she is heavier and faster, I can see in his face that it will hit him before his blade hit me and he is right, the blade hit him and go throughout his belly slicing him in half.
“AHHHHHHHHH!” I began to scream, it was not a scream of fear, of regret, or disgust, even seeing this man's body cut in half with him still alive, seeing his insides does not bother me one bit, I am alive and he will not be for much longer, I scream a scream of victory.
But that is all I can do, after that all my energy is used, I can’t stay awake, I drop to the ground hitting my face on the grass and dirt.
--//--
I woke up. Lucia is back in control now that we both get the feeling that no one will try to kill us. I have no idea how much time we slept since for the first time I blacked out along with her. Probably because of mental fatigue.
Not even a minute later some people came to meet me. A guy who is definitively the leader here. He has an aura about him that even someone like me can feel. One of the men that I stole food from and a woman with big boobs and white hair dressed in a white dress that looked like a medic would use if she wanted to also look beautiful.
“Hello little girl, what is your name?” The leader ask.
“Lucia”
“Is it true what you said to this man and his group?” Ask the lady while pointing to the man of the group I ate food from.
“Yes”
Lucia begins to tear up and cry. At this point I shouldn’t stop her, she needs to put it all out or it will eat her up like it did to me. And she does, she cries, asks why dad and mom abandoned her, tried to kill her, asked what she has done wrong and why the man from the church decided that she can’t have a family anymore?
All those questions are questions without answers, I know this and so did the people there. The man left the group leaving the leader and the lady alone with Lucia where they consoled her till she cried herself to sleep.
This time I didn’t blackout but something happened, I can’t project myself out of the body.
It's probably been an hour since Lucia went to sleep, and since I can't project myself I am stuck only seeing a little in front of me. I guess I didn’t really sleep for that long, it was sunny when we found the men eating and still is just as sunny as before. Guess I will do something I should have done before but the fear of death put this to the side. Let’s see how this soul thing works between me and Lucia.
I know that if I leave just her soul on the body without any of mine she still can move but that's it. I also know that she can't communicate with me the same way I do with her and it's not because she is a child, my best guess is that the part of my soul she uses is the part that lets you be rational, and I guess communication is part of that.
I know that she has emotions and survival instincts and can act upon them even without the rational part of her mind telling her why. The fact she almost killed us once by jumping out of a window out of curiosity when I gave her the heins once and excused myself from the body for less than 10 seconds confirms this somewhat. I need to wait for her to wake up so I can test things more troughtly. Also, I need to find that sword, it is mine and I want it back.
--//--
It’s been at least 3 hours since Lucia fell asleep. I still don't know where we are but by the people talking outside this tent we are right now, it’s some kind of massive military camp. That would explain why almost everyone I saw was using armor and clothes with the same color, probably the uniform around here. I Heard something about contracts and combat between armies, but the people are mostly talking about the pleasures of life while passing around wherever I am and how they will indulge in them now that they are not at death’s door.
During this time the leader and the lady with white hair entered the tent, for some reason I still can’t see their faces, probably because of whatever is causing me to not be able to Astral Project myself and Lucia is sleeping so I am unable to use her eyes.
The leader is with a piece of paper and a scale not that much bigger than his head in his hands. He delicately put Lucia’s hand on the scale and put the paper on it after it stopped glowing. After that they both go out of the tent and start talking with each other. I do my best to hear them.
“Aria, this is worse than I thought. We can’t send her to the city, they will kill her, look at this.” The leader said with a weary voice.
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“Boss, do you really think this is ok? Out of everyone in the Family you should be the one that would send her out of her the fastest if she was older” Says Aria in an inquisitive voice.
“She isn’t like those guys, she is just a kid, she didn’t choose this. If I don’t do something and she dies I don’t think I will be able to look another child in the face again.”
“Well, you are the boss, if you want her to stay, who am I to say you shouldn’t.”
“C’mon Aria, ,you know I value the opinions of almost everyone here.”
“Haha, did Dexter try to sell you on another crusade?”
“Something like that.”
“Well Boss, this is serious anyway, I saw people with either demonic blood or demonic flesh, but this is the first time I saw someone with both that still is considered a human. As a doctor I am curious but taking into account what she cried to us about before sleeping again I don’t want to touch on this yet.”
“Yes, let's give her some space and in the future she will probably be able to tell us what happened in detail.”
After that they both went away and I was left alone again.
Demonic blood and demonic flesh? What in the nine hells did my mom and dad do before I was born?.
--//--
It’s already night and Lucia finally wakes up and we can do something. I walked outside and asked the first guy I saw if he could take me to the toilet. My bladder is going to explode, how I didn’t feel this while Lucia was sleeping? He guided me to the female side of the camp, there is no way this wasn’t the female side, it was way too decorated compared to the other group of tents I saw to not be. There one of the women pointed me to the toilet and I rushed there. Strangely they still had the same things I had in my house, some type of magic toilet/bidet, I guess this thing can be moved around without breaking.
After washing my hands and leaving, Aria is waiting for me outside.
“Hello Lucia, my name is Aria, I am the medic and healer of this place” while extending a hand.
I let Lucia do what she wants for now. It's better that things go the natural way. I can’t pretend to be a kid for more than a few seconds, much less hold a conversation as one.
“Hello Aria, thank you for letting me sleep here.” She says with a shy voice.
“What an educated little lady” Says Aria while smiling. “I know it’s probably a little hard for you to remember, but do you know how much time you spent in the forest?”
I give some help here and give the information to Lucia via memories.
“3 days.”
Aria stops for a second in shock. Before anything can be done she grabs Lucia and is running full speed towards somewhere. I can’t really see her face but the panic of the guys that dodged her were left in can give me an idea.
Around a minute later she just dropped Lucia in a tub inside a tent, not so far from where we were sleeping, without even stripping her. She puts some water and some stones that make the water hot really fast. She then starts stripping Lucia and she burns our clothes right there using another stone. This one vanishes along with the clothes, the ones in the tub are still there.
“Sweet, stay there a little, I need to get something, it's going to take a minute or two, don’t leave the water.”While leaving the tent.
For a second I think about what is going on but I don’t think I will find this answer alone.
“I am back” As she enters the tent again with something I can identify as a Medic Kid of some kind.
“Alright Lucia, I need you to stand up, I need to check your body for bad things”.
Lucia stands up and Aria begins to use some kind of magic on her eyes and applying a cream on some parts of the body. But then she asked the question I was hoping she wouldn’t.
“Lucia, are you a boy?” While clearly looking at my dick that shouldn’t be there.
“No” A simple and dry answer from Lucia.
“Ok....” Aria just continued what she was doing till she examined the entire body and applied cream where it was needed.
“Alright sweet, here are some clothes, let me help you dress up” While helping Lucia put on a black cotton and leather dress for kids and some shoes.
While this is happening I take my time to finally look at her face. She is quite beautiful, she is probably in her early twenties, her skin looks and feels like silk. Mom Was beautiful but this woman would probably be able to cause wars in my old world. If she was my doctor in my past life I feel that I would be sick a lot.
After dressing Lucia up we walked to the place where the food was served. Normally I think there would be some chairs and tables there but there are none. Looks like you only pick your food here and you eat anywhere you can. Aria asked for some things I can’t hear and the guy in charge of the kitchen gave her a leather bag. Then she walked us to her personal Tent. It was a mess. She had more books stacked beside her bed than the amount I cared to read the first page in my past life. At least the front part of the tent was quite clean and she seated Lucia on a small table where some fruits and juice were given to her.
“Lucia, you will need to eat a lot of fruit and drink lots of juice and water for the next few days”
Lucia, who is stuffing herself, just shakes her head in agreement.
“Don’t ever go back to that forest alone, bad things will drain you energy, it is a miracle that you are alive”
Lucia is just stuffing herself with fruits I have no knowledge of, they are quite easy to eat but they don’t fill you that much, they taste like a combo of orange and pineapple but you eat it like an apple, it’s just a little softer.
Coming back to what Aria said, I was shocked, so the fatigue I was feeling was not just because of my body? How much stamina does Lucia have? Does the Demonic blood and Demonic Flesh, I have for some reason, have anything to do with it? So many questions I can’t get answers for right now.
“Lucia, I know you are just a kid and bad things happened to you, but I need to ask you, what do you want?”
“Can’t I stay here?” ask Lucia with a sad voice.
“The Boss said you could, but do you want to?”
“There is tasty food and a bed, I know you need that if you want to be happy.”
Aria pauses for a second.
“Lucia, do you know what a mercenary is?”
“They fight other people for money, right?”
“That is the basics. Right now you are in the base of a big mercenary group, almost everyone here fights for money, but we fight to the death. Do you want to live here, to live and fight for money and food?”
“I killed someone, so will I get money?”
Lucia is probably tapping in my knowledge a little. But her soul still is that of a kid, she doesn’t know the weight of her words. I can’t help but laugh a little in my mind.
Aria on the other hand is pale.
“Alright Lucia, you win, I will tell the boss you will stay” says Aria while standing up.
“Ok, can I really eat everything?”
“Not only you can, you should. I will be back in a few”.
A few minutes later Aria comes back with the boss. He is a big man, muscular, probably in his forties, but he is in really good shape. He has some superficial scars on his arm and face, but nothing that makes him ugly, quite the contrary, it makes him really handsome for some reason.
“Hey kid, Aria told me you want to join us, is that true?” Asks the boss while entering the tent.
“Yes, I will get money, food and a bed if I hit people really hard, won’t I?”
“Hahahaha! In a few years probably, but for now if you want to stay here, you need to help the camp.”
“Like what?”
“Cleaning, cooking, helping others do shores.”
“I don’t know how to do that.” Says Lucia with a sad look.
“And what do you know that doesn't involve hitting others, little girl?”
“I can read, write and do math.”
Both Aria and the Boss are shocked. Nobody would expect a five year old girl to know how to read, write and do math at this age. I think I pumped too much of my intelligence on the part of my soul that she uses, she is probably what people would call a genius. Unluckily, unless I am 100% on the command she can only use part of what I know.
“Ok, we will test it later, for now there is something you need to do first.”
“What?”
“Take your sword, it’s stuck on the ground and no one can take it, how do you do it?”
“I put it in my hand” answered Lucia with the most dry and confused answer she could muster.
They just stood by in silence and grabbed Lucia by the hand guiding her to the place where we sliced the strange guy in half.
There were around 5 guys around the sword. The body was taken care of but some blood was still visible because of the torches and moon light.
As we approached we started to rear screams.
“Ahhhhhh! Someone take it, it hurts, it hurts!” This guy is in a lot of pain.
“For god's sake, do those idiots never learn, I swear that if this one loses his hand he will stay like that for a week just to be an example.” Says Aria with an annoyed voice and face.
When we finally reached the group, there was a man with my sword in hand but they were both on the ground.
“Boss, ahhhhh, take this sword, it’s too heavy” says the guy stuck on the ground.
“You know, it’s your fault, and you know damn well even I can’t lift this. Now little girl, try to save this idiot please” Say the boss while pointing at the sword.
All the guys there start to laugh at the thought of Lucia picking the sword but they soon stopped when she picked it and lifted it above her head.
“See, you just pick it with your hand.” Says she with a smile
“Well, you did it, I guess you are now part of the family”. Says the boss with a smile.
Everyone that is not Aria and Boss there looks in shock and one of the guys speaks.
“Well, since she got the sword out of the ground, then we probably can use it now, right?”
The boss and Aria looked like they would speak for a second but stopped. Against my better judgment I did nothing and let things play out.
“Ok, here, it’s not like I will use it now” Says Lucia while putting the sword in the hands of the guy that asked her.
The second she let go of the sword the man was dropped to the ground face first because of the weight of the sword.
“Too Heavy, Help!”
Lucia looks confused at the boss.
“Take it, they are idiots but they are family”
Lucia takes the sword back.
“Listen up, share this with everyone, any idiot that is injured trying to pick this sword will receive a pay cut of 25% if Aria has to fix you.” Says the boss in a commanding voice.
“Ok boss!” All the men there confirm.
“Alright kid, we need to get you a Tent, starting tomorrow you are going to train to be here. By the way, we are the Purple Dragons, the greatest Mercenary Group in the kingdom” Says the boss while walking Lucia back to the camp.
I guess that this will be my life for now. Let’s rest for today and starting tomorrow I will try my best to be useful and get food. This place doesn’t look so bad for a bunch of mercenaries.