The little girl grunts beside me, drawing letters and writing words in the dirt, while the three of us sit peacefully in the woods.

Sister Stein and Agatha called Peter and Jean for extra lessons since they both skipped the last class together along with Dominique. Poe is to my left, and I and Dominique are sitting under a large oak tree in the shade practicing our writing and spelling.

She is tracing over the lettering that I had just written inside the dirt in front of her. She’s grunting out noises in response to each letter she traces. Managing to spell it out in the dirt herself she smiles, looking up at me, and when I give a small nod she beams, her hands falling back and her legs kicking.

You can see them when she’s excited. Her wings flap about in the clothing she wears. Her expression matches her wing flaps. Up and down means happy and joyous, deflated or limp, means defeated or lonely. I’ve had lots of moments to see and study her myself, especially when she is by Peter's side and when he leaves her side.

For now, she’s excited to be learning once again, even if it isn’t peter who is personally teaching her. I rub her head, and like a dog, she wags and shakes her body excitedly.

In the weeks she’s been here her long untamed hair has become longer but tamed. She’s become so scruffy, but more adjusted to civilization.

I don’t know her background or where she’s come from, but I do know how harshly she’s been treated.

I am in charge of bathing her, so, I’ve seen the scars that litter her body, and her damaged jet-black wings fully splayed. They’re healthy and growing at an exponentially great rate now, yet her body stays so small. Soon she’ll be wearing Poe-size shirts. Although I don’t think she’ll ever grow out of that shirt Peter made just for her, she cares for that more than her own self.

Once Jean tried to dispose of it and she wailed after him, sobbing into Peter's arms as Jean gave in and returned the shirt.

I traced over a wound on her arm in my head, wondering why they didn’t bother her.

Although her body is littered with these wounds, they do not seem to bother her, from what we know. Peter told of us her healing ability, and that her scars might possibly be from her own infliction or somebody using her blood for their own self-greed. When we heard that, we all decided to protect her at all costs, putting her health and education in our own hands. The church or any organization could not be trusted with her, who knew what experiments they would run or what they would do to her?

None of us know what they would do to get their hands on a fallen angel, and neither do we. We don’t know what to do as she continues to grow.

What we do know is that she needs protecting so we’ve vowed to do so. We swore on the names given to us by peter.

Dominique was now up and running off toward Poe, who was quietly snacking on some crackers from breakfast. I got up and ran over to them, and Dominique looked back at me, holding out her hand.

I took it and ran off with her, me, and Poe in tow.

“Dominique, slow down, where are we going?”

I said, catching my breath, and running along with these two.

We arrived at a spot with four log stumps, planted into the grass, and a small chalk blackboard hung from a large tree.

Dominique ran up and caressed the blackboard.

Poe took a seat on the far left and Dominique planted herself at the front, grunting and pointing towards the blackboard.

I think she wanted me to teach today's class with just the three of us. I looked over to Poe for some assistance and he gave a big rosy smile, saying clearly with reverence.

“A story from you would be perfect on a day like today.”

I rolled my eyes, although Poe didn’t talk much around the boys, he was always praising us girls with such respect.

He spoiled Dominique with his own snack collection, which he never shared with anybody besides Jean on special occasions.

A story I thought, Dominique’s ears perked up firm behind her scruffy hair.

“Sto…ri?” she said.

I sighed. How could I turn that down? It was one of the words she knew, although her favorite word was still stuck in her throat, so the words she did know she uttered often. Like food, story, deer, hot, cold, sleep, and wake.

It was still amazing to see how far she progressed in the last 6 weeks here.

“Fine, fine, I’ll tell you two a story never told before.” I walked up to the front of the makeshift classroom, taking a seat with my back to the tree. Poe and Dominique, intrigued, also sat near me just beyond my reach.

*

“Hey, back so early? Where’s aunty and uncle?” the little girl said, letting the boy in. This little boy was the girl’s childhood best friend, who lived with her and her aunt and uncle.

“We gotta go, now”

This wasn’t the first time the boy demanded they go right away, so the girl brushed it off. His breath was panicked but under control.

“Are we doing another camping exploration?” Said the girl, who noticed that the boy was scouring his dresser and room for anything he could put into a large backpack.

He said nothing and just continued packing.

Noticing his ever-growing panic and fear, she asked.

“what’s going on? Where are aunty and uncle?”

The little boy slammed his dresser shut and stood completely still, turning his head, his face completely streaked in tears.

“Listen…” he said pointing towards the roof or more or the entire area just beyond them.

She listened, and for the first time, noticed that the quiet was no longer everywhere, and there were panicked screams and loud booming banging shots.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

She startled back, falling onto the ground and the boy’s face softened, rushing towards her to help her to her feet.

As he reached his hand out to the girl, she asked.

“Aunty and Uncle?”

This made his hand pause, but then he reached out and grabbed ahold of her hand, shaking his head.

She began crying into the boy’s hand, stumbling to her feet.

“We have to go now.” He demanded once again. “we can’t stay here.”

The girl with tears flowing from her eyes trusted the boy more than anything, so she would listen to him wholeheartedly.

She began packing her things, clothing, snacks, and belongings she would need for the road.

After they were all packed, a loud banging noise came from the house next door, which startled both the boy and girl.

Without looking back, they escaped out the back window in the girl’s room.

Running for their lives the little girl stopped and seemed to ponder something seriously.

“what is it?” said the boy with a manic breath pattern.

“Mr. P,” she said.

The boy’s eyebrow furrowed, thinking of what to do. Then a small flicker of light flashed through his gaze and onto her.

“listen, get to the edge of the back of town and go over to the old camping sight, and wait for me.”

“you can’t go alone?” she protested.

“go” shouted the boy.

So, she began running, the thought of slowing the boy down weighed heavily on her mind, so she listened and headed for their spot.

She made it to the camping grounds before the sunset in the sky, she didn’t know how long she had been running, but she trusted that she was out of reach of the town, which was most likely overrun and torn down by scoundrels.

The girl was now sitting perched inside the makeshift tree house watching time dwindle down. She was starting to worry for the boy’s safety, after such a selfish thing to want to go back for. She was no child anymore. She was now 12 years old, and she had to act like it, but just as quick as the act came, it went, and she began crying into her knees. She wished the boy would come fast.

Smoke filled the tree house walls, waking the girl in a panic. She rushed to her feet, looking around. Through the cracks in the wood, she could see moonlight pouring in.

She panicked, thinking of the boy and if he made it back safely, but then wondered why he hadn’t come to wake her up. Smelling the smoke once again, her gaze went back to it filling the small wooden clubhouse up. She rushed to get out, maybe the place was on fire, she thought. She didn’t want to be burned alive after surviving the city ruining, and what if the boy came back? She did not want to be a corpse for him to have to bury, leaving him all alone again.

She rushed out to the old rickety ladder nailed to the tree. This caused her to lose her footing, tripping and falling to the ground.

The drop felt like slow motion, so she clenched her eyes shut, accepting the consequences. She didn’t hit the ground though.

No, she was caught by a man, from what her half-closed eyes could see. She was grateful, but then horror-struck, wasn’t she running from men and women from the town? What if they caught up and smoked her out?

She struggled in the person's arms.

“Hey, I got you. Don’t worry I got you” a voice that sounded so familiar, said. She then fully opened her eyes in surprise. This was no man; it was a boy. A boy her age; A boy who she had been waiting for.

Next to them, she noticed that there was a small fire flickering in the wind, with two pieces of meat and vegetable on skewers placed inside.

The boy let her down gently, caressing her head as he let her know, that she was safe. They were safe.

The skewers smelled wonderful, thought the girl who was now warming up near the fire as the boy tended to it with a striped piece of wood.

She hadn’t realized in her pursuit to get away that she only brought snacks and no real food. Her stomach was empty and she was starving, she could hear the fair rumblings coming on.

She then heard another faint rumbling coming from in front of her. It was the boy, whose appearance, she noticed, was a lot more ragged than before. Blood dripped from his hair and was stained on his clothes, besides small scrapes and cuts, he seemed to be in good shape.

Noticing the girl's gaze, or maybe to put her at ease, he said calmly.

“I’m really glad I went back”

The girl looked on with curiosity, wondering why he would say such a thing after becoming so ragged. He looked worse off than he had left her. He must have had to fight for survival along with the rest. It was all her selfish fault. She thought. Then with a sudden pang of guilt, it hit her, the reason he even went back, and why she hesitated in the first place. He risked his life for her, Mr. P, to be exact. He didn’t seem to have him, so he put his own life in danger for nothing. Suddenly she wasn’t so famished, and her hunger sufficed. She felt sick to her stomach.

“I am sor…” she was about to say, before the boy said interrupted her, continuing.

“yeah, if I didn’t go back, I would have forgotten something very important too.”

He held up a knife that was long and black with a red engraving on its handle.

She recognized the knife with its unique handle, it was the boy’s older brother's keepsake that he had given to him before vanishing.

The boy smiled turning the knife around in his hands.

“oh yeah, if I hadn’t gone back, I wouldn’t have gotten us such a feast for tonight.”

His smile was so radiant, that she felt a rush of relief hit her, but the guilt behind it all was too strong. She put his life in danger for a toy… Although she couldn’t shake that he was here and with her.

He was the only one she had left, her Mother, Father first, then her Sister, now along with her Aunt and Uncle. She wanted to break down but seeing this boy’s smile made her think things were going to be alright with him here. She could manage as long as he was alright, she could take on the world tonight, he was here. She already put so much faith into this boy. So, she would continue doing so.

The boy got up, taking the skewers out and placing them on a cloth laid out on the ground. He began blowing to cool them down as they sizzled on the stick. His whimsical attitude made her feel better, she couldn’t help but chuckle at his antics. He made a comedy show out of almost ordinary things. The guilt she was feeling was slowly winding away, she also knew the boy wouldn’t do anything he didn’t wanna do. He was just that kind of boy, so she had to be the kind of girl who wouldn’t hold a boy like that down.

She clenched her knees and held them tight as the smell of meat and vegetables wafted through the air. He rose to his feet and slowly walked over to her. Her head turned towards the skewers laid out on the cloth and noticed they both were still there. Then she noticed the boy’s hands behind his back and a warm smile looking her way.

“Also, I’m really glad I got to go back to get this”

He handed her a stuffed rabbit that had some dirt on its belly and face.

She looked at him then at the rabbit in his hand. Now that she got a closer look, his hands were cut up as if scraped against the ground many times, but they were holding something very important to her. Her heart couldn’t help but ring out and take the boy's gesture of kindness and hold it close to her heart. She wouldn’t feel sorry for herself, she would go on and thank the boy for his sacrifice.

“tha..nk y…ou” she said with tears flooding her eyes and her throat caught. She clutched the rabbit and brought it to her chest and held on so tightly.

“couldn’t leave such an important item behind. We both were in a hurry, so it was an honest mistake.” His gaze fell to my rabbit and than to his knife stuck into the ground near us.

The girl nodded still clutching the rabbit that once belonged to her sister, who was still missing. So yes, these items were very important. It signified their familial ties to ones they would never forget.

The girl looked over to the boy who was now sitting back on his stool, and he smiled warmly, showing all his teeth while rubbing the back of his head.

“she’s asleep,” Poe said as I concluded the story.

Dominique was curled into a ball, faintly snoring away. Poe was lounging back on his hands, beside the girl.

Thirty more minutes passed after the story concluded. Poe was now asleep, and Dominique was still fairly asleep.

I sat there against the tree with the two retirees, when two shouts called out.

“I thought you all would be here”

“Hello.”

Jean walked out first, followed by peter.

I looked to the sleeping girl and then to the raucous boys coming from the wooded area.

I shushed them, pointing to the little girl snoring and grunting in her sleep.

Peter covered his mouth respectively and Jean froze in place, trying to not make a sound.

They both stood still now smiling at the scene before them.

Jean walked over kneeling behind Poe, who was also passed out, watching the adorable scene in front of his eyes.

As if to not make any sound, peter walked slowly through each plate of grass and leaf. He inched his way over admiring the scene below.

The little girl Dominique was asleep on my lap snoring and grunting while drooling over my leg.

He knelt down beside me and smiled warmly, showing all his teeth, with his hand brushing the back of his head. He then mouthed to me with the faintest of whispers escaping his lips.

“Thank you Vascha.”

I smiled back and nodded to the boy.