"Oi Herta!" I came running to a certain lady who was hanging the clothes in mid-air on a rope to let them dry off.

"How many times have I told you to not call me by my name?" she turned behind hanging the last cloth on the rope.

"Yeah yeah, sorry" I half-heartedly apologized. I love her name, so I call her by it, and calling her mother would be embarrassing. In the end, not to embarrass myself, I just called her Herta.

"So what did you do now?" she sighed seeing my clothes, all covered in dirt.

"Nothing…" I averted my eyes.

"You sure?" she stared at me, trying to make me tell her the truth.

Three kids came from behind and stood at a distance behind me. One of them was double my height while the rest were average. The left one was smaller than me and the right one was the same as me. The tall one was holding onto a beaten-up toy that was broken into two pieces.

Just like the toy, those kids were beaten up too. Their faces were swollen and bandages were wrapped around their arms and legs.

"Aunt Herta! He is the one who did it!" the shortest one shouted.

"Will! You did it again?" Herta got angry. She stared at me like she would eat me alive.

"They were once who started it first!" I said

"No, Aunt Herta we didn't. We just wanted to play with him." those three said in sync.

I turned around and glared at them.

"Eek!" the three of them took a step and fell on their butts.

"Will…" She did a facepalm and then hit my head lightly with a fist. "Apologize to them, now"

"But why? They were the ones who started it! They wanted my toy again and said that I was a devil and I have no right to live here!'' I looked back and shouted at Herta. "Then they forcefully took my toy and that made me angry so I tried to take it back." Why was she making me apologize again? Even though I did nothing wrong. "You gifted me that toy on my birthday, how can I just give it to them??"

"Will…but beating them this badly…just apologize to them, I will buy you a new toy," she said.

"But-"

"Apologize…remember Will, always be good to others and apologize if it's your mistake even if you don't like the other person." Herta got on her knees and kept her hands on my shoulders.

I stared at the ground below me wondering if I was really in the wrong here.

"Ok…" I said. I turned around again and saw those disgusting faces they had.

"I am sorry to have single-handedly beaten you up even though it was three against one." I apologized

The three of them smiled like they won against me but whatever, I just don't want to do anything with them.

After apologizing, I ran towards the main gate of the orphanage.

"Will!" She called for me but I ignored her calls and ran straight out. I ran to the forest near the orphanage. It was the place I loved the most. It helps me relax whenever I feel sad or angry. I just head to my favorite spot and my emotions come back to normal.

…

I was in the forest sitting under my favorite tree. This season it was full of Gerid flowers. They smell so sweet and refreshing that sometimes because of it I just sleep here without even noticing and then Herta has to come and pick me up.

My mind felt so relaxed and calm. Then those thoughts started coming to my mind. Man, why do I have to apologize for what I have not done? If just Herta didn't have said anything, I would have beaten the shit out of them again.

"Sigh," I sighed…oh what is that? I saw a black figure moving in the bushes. It was running around in the bushes. It was circling me. I got up to check whatever it was. Slowly went to the bush that was shaking a bit too much.

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I looked into the bushes and found nothing. Not a single thing was behind the bush. Then suddenly something jumped at my head and started biting and scratching it.

"Ow! Ouch! That hurts!" Pulling that thing off my hair was as hard as telling Herta to teach me magic. She always says that I am too young for it. But in the end, she taught me the basics and is now teaching me advanced levels of it.

Grahhh!!

I finally separated it from my hair and threw it away. What I saw was a baby of a majestic beast infamous for its pride and ferociousness. Though they do not attack humans, I don't know why this cub was attacking me. In front of me was a baby griffin. No no…it was a Ligerion, a mythical beast said to be rarely spotted in 1000 years.

Wait…it can't be, This means that I am this lucky to meet great beasts like Ligerions?

I was not able to control my contentment.

"Are you one of the Ligerions?" I asked.

Its body was fully dipped in a bright red color that shone like the sun itself. Its mane was on fire, more like his neck was covered in flames itself. Those blue-colored sharp and beautiful jewel-like eyes and its three tails. In its leg, just above its paws were cloud-like rings portraying that it could control the wind element too along with the fire element. Finally, the horn on his head acts as a conductor for the lightning itself. The great mythical beast is said to control three elements.

I kept him on the ground to try to talk to him but It attacked me again but this time I was ready so I dodged it and tried to counterattack by grabbing it but then suddenly some sort of wind blades attacked. My arms and legs were full of cuts now. I was bleeding all over, but not too much.

"Why are you attacking me?" I asked

Grrghh!

I was not able to understand what he just said though I was able to understand that he was in pain. I moved in a circle to check where he was hurt. I kept my distance to save myself from getting hurt and also to let him know that I was not attacking anymore.

"There it is!" He was hurt in the abdomen and was stabbed by someone. Probably some random beast in the forest.

"Slowly, slowly…calm down." As I moved towards him, it became more varied. Roaring at me, but just as I tried to move close, it fell to the ground. It fainted because of the injury he was suffering from.

I ran towards that beast and picked it up. I chanted my healing magic but I was only able to stop the blood. I was worried what would happen to this beast. That's when I decided to take him to the orphanage and let Herta tend to it.

After a few minutes of running and carrying him, I reached the orphanage.

"Herta! Herta! Where are you??" The other caretakers were looking at me with that disgusted look. They hated me because of this horn I had on my forehead and called me demon spawn and all that crap.

"Will, why are you shouting like that-" She noticed the beast in my hand "What happened to that beast?" She came out of the main building of the orphanage running and was shocked to see the bleeding beast in my hand.

"Take him to your room, I am coming there with the medicine box"

I nodded and took the little beast to my room, My room was detached from the main building and wasn't all that big, only had one restroom along with one kitchen, that's all. Anyways, Herta came running inside my room and saw me sitting with that beast in my arms.

"Explain to me what happened later, first let's save him," she said

She started tending to it and did some complicated things like using some sort of tool to first take out the nail that was stuck inside that cut. Looks like I shouldn't have tried to heal him, I closed the wound along with the nail inside. That must have hurt a lot.

But Herta didn't say anything to me about that. She was carefully doing every step like a professional. In the end, she healed him with magic.

Oh the goddess of this pure land, Bestow upon your kindness to this lowly servant of yours and let this servant help those in need. Healing!

She chanted these words and green light emerged out of her hands falling on the beast's injury and slowly and steadily healing his wound. After the healing, he just needs to rest. He was saved by her. Thank God he survived. Also, I found out that it was a male.

"So explain what is going on?" she looked straight at me in the eyes and asked.

"Well, the truth is…" I explained to her how I met this little beast and who it was and then how I ended up here in my room with this beast and Herta tending to her injury.

"So you're saying that this little beast here is a Ligerion? Are you out of your mind or something, Will?" She didn't believe me even after I explained to her how that little beast was similar to a Ligerion.

"Hey, that's rude and anyways, you don't believe me? Then check for yourself. He has a crest on his left paw. The Crest of the Ligerions.'' I said. Usually spotting a Ligerion is difficult and differentiating it from a higher griffin is more difficult. Griffins are a part of the Ligerion family but less rare. Finding a higher griffin is an achievement on its own. But to spot a Ligerion, it's more lucky than winning a lucky draw for a trip. To discern a Ligerion from a normal higher griffin is the crest a Ligerion has on its body. It's like the Ligerions are the royal family, meanwhile, higher griffins are nobles and the rest of the species similar to them are its subjects or commoners.

She checked for the crest and she found it. For the first few minutes, she couldn't believe that she met an actual Ligerion, well I also didn't until I saw the crest while I was carrying it to the orphanage.

"Aren't you a lucky one, Will?" she said "You literally saved a mythical beast when it was about to die."

"Yeah, but I am wondering if a baby is here then that means there should be its parent too," I said

"Yeah, that's obvious," she replied

"But where are they? I didn't see any Ligerion except this little dude here."

"Hmm…" she started wondering and thinking what could have happened.

"Probably, he got separated from his parents and then got lost?" she said.

I nodded in agreement. It could be but, I was getting a feeling that there was more to it.