-Nelly’s & Pierre’s side-

Diligently and carefully guiding Nelly by the hand as they hiked up the huge stairway leading to the bridge, Pierre was to busy himself with the task of babysitting her until her parents completed the race track. He was a bit skeptical of her being so high up, which makes sense. Children around her age would probably collapse and whine about being so high up, but not Nelly.

“Whoa!” Her eyes gleamed as she peered through the windows, “You can see the sea fwom hewe!”

“Haha, that’s not the sea, silly!” Pierre petted her, “That’s Lake Karminrot. Still, I’m quite surprised, are you really not afraid of heights?”

“No, not weally. It’s fun to look at things fwom so high up.” She replied, “But it was weally hawd to climb up, though…”

Hearing this, Pierre felt a bit bad for not carrying her up himself, but justified his action (or lack thereof) as him just training her to do things herself. In his eyes, he can’t help but look at things from a Drill Sergeant’s perspective.

“Right, sorry about that.” He sat down, “Want a cup of tea while we wait for your parents? Think of it as a sign of apology.”

“Tea?”

“You’ve never drank tea before?”

“No, Gweat Gwampa Awthuw always made me hot milk.”

Thinking about how blasphemous it was for a child of her age to have not yet tasted the delicate yet sublime taste of green tea, he made it a point that he would be the one to enlighten her. Thus, he brewed her a nice warm cup, properly making sure to regulate the temperature at all times so that she doesn’t accidentally burn her tongue. It took him no longer than a few minutes to whip it all up, both surprising and impressing Nelly.

“You weally like tea, huh?”

“But of course!” He shot back immediately, “Tea is one of the blessings of the world! It’s also the reason me and my brother got along so well back when we were kids. Please do give it a try and tell me what you think of it.”

Almost immediately, she grabbed the entire cup with both hands, completely ignoring the handle, and began chugging. Pierre stood paralyzed at the sight of the young lady drinking the holy beverage with such a slovenly attitude. He knew he had to correct her.

“Okay, here’s what’s gonna happen.” He took the cup from her hands, “I’m gonna brew you another cup, since you obviously liked that one so much.”

“Thank you!” She smiled.

“You didn’t let me finish.” He went to brew another one, “I’m gonna brew you another cup, but you’re only allowed to drink it the proper way.”

“The pwopew way?” She parroted.

“Yes, that includes holding the cup by the handle, as is intended. I figured this was common knowledge, but I’ll let it slide this time because you’re so young.”

Is this guy sewious?, Nelly thought, He doesn’t sewiously expect me to dwink his leaf juice a specific kind of way, does he?

“After that, I want you to only hold it using your dominant hand.”

“Which hand is that?”

“The one you write better with.”

“I can wwite with both hands.”

“…” Pierre groaned, “Alright, then just pick whichever one you want, just don’t use both.”

“Why not?”

“Because it’s a sin, pumpkin. It’s not the proper way to drink tea.”

“But what if I wanna dwink it like that?”

“Then you’re not drinking it correctly, because you’re not following the norm.”

Nelly figured this guy was seriously starting to get annoying with his preaching, so after quickly figuring out that holding a debate against him and his whacky traditions was a fruitless endeavor, she recalled her mother’s advice and promptly agreed to it, whilst still making a note to ignore him regardless.

“Alright, after that is the last step!” Pierre pointed a finger at her, “No chugging! Tea is meant to be sipped, it’s not juice!”

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“But I just saw you put leaves in watew. That’s juice if evew I’ve seen it.” She refuted with an honest expression.

“Do you want me to brew you your tea or not, young lady?”

“Y-Yes please! Sowwy, I’ll shut up now!”

Thus, her discipline was once again put to the test, along with the serving of tea and some cookies. She glanced back at him for a split second as if to reaffirm if her actions are just, before slowly taking hold of the cup with her left hand (by the handle this time) and sipping it. It looked elegant, youthful and adorable. All the epithets befitting a young lady such as herself. Now all she needed to do was to learn not to wipe her mouth with her sleeve…

“You’ve still got some crumbs on your lap, but besides that I think I can give you a passing grade.”

“Thank you fow the tea and cookies, Sewge!” Nelly got up as she spotted her parents from below her, “I’m off!”

“Off? Off to wher-?” Pierre turned around for a second, only to see her getting on the windowsill, “O-Oi! What are you doing?!”

“Weeee!”

And so we return to our favorite dysfunctional couple, scrambling to run as fast as their legs can take them to avoid seeing their daughter dearest splat on the gravel road in front of them.

***

-Cecily’s & Lune’s side-

“Nelly!” I shouted with my might.

“Nel!” Cecily followed suit.

Crap! We’re not gonna make it in time! There’s just no way we can catch her! Dammit Nelly, why did you jump off?! Don’t you see how tall this damned bridge is?!

“Lune!” Cecily shouted from behind me, “Get ready, I’m gonna give you a boost!”

A boost?, I thought as I was dropkicked from behind. We were going so fast, I couldn’t even run anymore, even if I tried. My only option now was to either faceplant on the ground and lose it all, or jump off in the last second to preserve my speed and catch Nelly! This is it, I only have this one chance!

Slowly, carefully… Not yet…!

“Now!” I used Materialize to summon a trampoline underneath my feet, effectively bouncing me far enough to grab Nelly right as she was about to touch the ground.

Of course, going at this speed would make it impossible for me to land safely, so holding onto Nelly as tight as possible, I made sure to do my best armadillo impression and clumped up, shielding her from the ground. Finally coming to a stop tens of meters later, I quickly made sure to check Nelly’s condition.

“Uuuh…” Nelly began to tear up, “Uwaaah! I didn’t think it was gonna be that scawy! Waaah!”

Soon later, I had found the image of the crying Nelly to begin getting blurred. Ah, I see now. It’s not that my vision was getting blurry, it’s that I was shedding tears myself as well. Hugging her close to my chest, I wept and wept until I had gotten it all out of my system. She’s alive, thank every God out there…!

“Nel!” Cecily ran up to us, “Lune, is she alright?!”

“Mommy!” Nelly cried out, “Heights awe scawy!”

In that moment, the mother’s legs gave out, probably due to all the released tension. As her adrenaline left her body, she barely managed to crawl her way to us and joined in on the familial group hug. It was…

“Stupid!” I shouted at Nelly, “Why the hell did you jump off of that bridge?! Didn’t we tell you not to do so if it’s taller than us?!”

“Sniffle, s-sowwy, dad…” She muttered, “I thought it wasn’t that tall at fiwst. I only noticed when I fell.”

I was scared shitless. I don’t think I could handle losing Nelly, much less in such a gruesome, albeit stupid way. Even still, I quickly recalled what Cecily had told me and began showering Nelly with praises. My daughter ain’t dying until she calls me her favorite, dammit!

“…You should’ve waited for us to approach a bit more, but I can’t really expect that much from you, given your age and all.” I bashfully admitted, “This plan of yours was a bit crazy, but… Good job, sweetie. Gold star.”

“Huh?” She looked up at me, befuddled, “Dad, I messed up the plan, didn’t I?”

“Well, we caught you in time, didn’t we?” I smiled, “I call that a success in my book! That being said, sorry for saying all those things back in the cafeteria. You’re the Grimhearts’ Little Genius, and I want you to always remember that.”

Giggling to herself, I could immediately tell that praising her was a win-win for everyone. Yeah, this is how parenting should be done. No more playing the tsundere dad role. I’m a changed man, I now only believe in honest emotions and not beating around the bush.

“Sowwy fow cussing you out too, dad.” She apologized earnestly, “Y’know, calling you a… a-a meanie and all that…”

Aww, so was that her most brutal curse word that she knew? That’s adorable! And surprising, given that she was raised by Cecily of all people. Honestly, given Cecily’s vocabulary and background, I’m surprised Nelly’s first words weren’t “Fuck” of all things.

“Why the hell are you staring at me, jackbutt?” Cecily gave me a nasty glare.

“Jackbutt?” I chuckled.

Cecily moved closer to whisper something in my ear. “Well I can’t call you a jackass in front of Nel, jackass! I’m trying my best to shelter her from any and all swear words for as long as possible.”

“Ah, so I take it you learned that from Jorgen, Max and Aaron then?” I surmised, “I doubt you’d come up with that idea all on your own.”

“How rude!” She backed up, “Well, you’re kind of right, and kind of not as well. It was Anna’s grandfather that taught me not to swear in front of her.”

“Arthur!?” I raised both eyebrows, “You’ve met Anna and Arthur?”

“Yeah,” She revealed nonchalantly, “While you were off in fairy-tale land, I was living with Ed and them back in Stringwood.”

“And you never thought to tell me this?”

“You never thought to ask.”

“…”

Well, I don’t particularly mind that, though. I imagine growing up in such a warm home was probably of huge benefit for Nelly. It also probably helped Cecily take care of everything in a lot more orderly fashion. Ah, that kind of reminds me of that dream I had…

“Wait, aren’t we forgetting something important?”

“Deserteure!” An Aurolian officer could be heard yelling.

“Oh right, that.” Cecily finally realized, “Guess they’re already looking for us after all the commotion we caused. Let’s make like an egg and scramble!”

“Aw, just when I finally thought to rest a bit.” I got up from the gravel road and brushed myself off, “Let’s go then! Nelly, I’ll carry you, the swamps up ahead aren’t really child friendly.”

Nelly grumbled a bit before finally giving in, “Hmm, okay…”

And with that, I am officially a double-deserter! First running from the ITA, and now the Lis army! I really am a rascal, huh? Actually wait, if we were running towards Lake Karminrot to the east, and our destination is the dock in Meior to the far west then… Argh, walking the entire continent length-wise is gonna be such a pain...!