Lulu IV : Domestic Affairs ; Fire and brimstone

With the door suddenly unlocking Latia practically froze, and began trembling while tightening her hold of Lulu's hand.

Feeling the squeeze on her hand along with her mother's trembling, worry took hold of Lulu she also became scared while watching the door slowly open, and appearing in their view was a man she hadn't seen since she was a few months old.

A tall man fitted in a strange suit with short gray hair and long pointy ears. His dark piercing eyes gave off the feeling he was looking down on everyone, and with it came an unsettling feeling, this man was...

Her father. Seeing him had caused a newfound emotion to take hold of her heart, clutching at her shirt Lulu felt as if she was suffocating when his gaze was on her it wasn't as if he was looking at a beloved daughter but a freak of nature.

While he was looking at her his gaze was resting solely on her hair, like it was the only thing that he could see about her.

- "F-f-father..." Unable to calm herself down Lulu began trembling as well and her knees fell weak, she was about ready to fall to the ground.

- Looking toward Latia he signaled towards Lulu, not changing his expression one bit, "This, what is this?"

Her previously worried expression instead of becoming more so she started trembling due to a new emotion, she was being overwhelmed by anger.

- "This? This? THIS!? Is that how you refer to our daughter, my daughter! You don't come for who knows how long and the first thing you do is to shame our daughter, my daughter!? Call her a thing!?"

Shouting with all her breath she glared at the man, who was unbothered by her woeful shouting, he sighed with great disinterest.

"Yo-you, I shouldn't have thought so highly about you. I should've known I'd be disappointed, but yet I..."

- "Are you done yet? Get out, I don't want to see you or this "thing" within my sight ever again. Be happy I'm not killing the both of you right this instant, Delvine knows I have all the right."

Not even bothering to respond to her he dismissed them, not like she expected an actual response in the first place. Grabbing their things and rushing Latia left without another word.

When they got in the car Latia sucked in a ton of air as she tried to calm herself down, turning to the back seat she attempted to try and calm the trembling and quiet Lulu.

She was scared and frustrated. Her father's glare alone scared her into silence she couldn't get off a single word against him and it reminded her once again that she was a disappointment and worthless.

Worthless that she couldn't even support her mother, what was the point in reincarnation if she was just going to live her life the same.

...

After the conflict with my father, mom and I went straight to my grandparents' home, upon getting there they all tried to calm me and mom down as we both brought about a waterfall of tears.

Days passed and my father immediately severed ties with my mother and her family, not before he revealed the secret pertaining to my hair.

The only thing I could do towards this new development was to lock myself within my room to not reveal myself.

It was the only thing I could do after witnessing, no, experiencing the incident from a few days ago.

Two days ago...

Due to the house and large field of land being private property Lulu was allowed to roam free outside as long as she didn't go too close to the gates.

She wanted to get a good look at the world since her outside experience was very limited. There were no cars or vehicles moving in the airspace above, thankfully.

Upon looking at the sky she was stuck there mesmerized and fascinated by the beautiful colors that it was made of.

The sky was a beautiful pink with strange purple clouds, there were three visible moons of different sizes hanging in the sky as catlike creatures with wings flew through, playing in the sky. These all came together to form a picturesque feel.

Raising her hand to the sky as if she was trying to grab it, hopelessly the only thing she wished for was to be unfettered to fly free in the sky like those cats.

Unbeknownst to her, an unknown man was approaching, when she lifted her gaze from the sky she was surprised to see a strange man approaching her.

Due to her having never seen this man before Lulu began to back up, about to rush into a sprint her instincts halted her movements as an overwhelming heat came from behind her.

On her way back to the house was a large pillar of fire that radiated intense heat.

She was frightened. Where did this fire suddenly come from? Looking at the man as if inquiring for an answer, she got one. The fire was blowing out of his nose, ears, and eyes.

Unlike her family, this man was covered and some sort of casing instead of skin, he continuously blew fire out of his mouth while he approached Lulu.

This can't be happening? Why was this happening to her? What's going to happen? These questions continuously spun within her head.

Not wanting to just stand there Lulu ran to her left in an attempt to get away, seeing how there was no fire in her way this time happiness came to her before she was interrupted by the sound of fire from behind.

As her instincts kicked in she fell down to the ground, dodging a fireball by the skin of her teeth. Looking back for just a second could risk her life as she heard more and more fireballs being hurled at her. the only thing she could try was to dodge them, yet she had several burns on her skin.

To her luck a forest of grey trees came within sight, ducking within the foliage she ran deeper into the forest, hearing the sound of popping whenever she stepped on leaves. Choosing a random tree Lulu struggled to climb it as her hands were still soft and underdeveloped.

Having climbed the tree she sat and looked at her hands, they were bruised, cut, and scratched all over.

- "Why... mom said these twees are strong, it should be twime."

She shook as she thought to herself, help should come soon, the fire should have been visible. I-I-I'll buy me some time, yeah, buy some time.

The smell of burning trees permeated her nose causing her to begin looking around, she saw a large yellow stone sticking out of the ground.

Carefully climbing down she landed on her rear as she dashed to the stone and examined it, touching it causing it to crumble quite this.

Is this? This is brimstone! It should buy enough time.[1]

To be careful she picked up a rock and crushed it into a fine powder, speeding up at the sound of encroaching fire.

Hesitantly grabbed a handful of the powdered brimstone, wincing in pain she held back her tears and waited behind the biggest tree for her assailant.

He was quiet for a few moments, Lulu was silently shaking suppressing her cries of pain, and didn't make a sound.

Suddenly two trees burst into flames. The man silently walked through the fire and surveyed the area. He didn't speak, he didn't say anything to try and find her he just moved about, silently.

Hearing the strange pop of leaves Lulu could hear him enclosing in on her.

With the man in front of the biggest tree he stopped. Then quickly popped his head to the other side...

The area was empty? He paused for a moment before turning around, when he was caught by surprise, not having enough time, the small Lulu threw the handful of powdered brimstone at his face, it got in his nose, mouth, and eyes while covering his face.

- "Argh! Ugh! Cough! Cough!"

The man began grunting and coughing in pain from his body reacting to the brimstone. He felt a burning sensation in his throat, mouth, nose, and eyes.

Desperately trying to get the substance out of him, he coughed with a passion, barely able to open his eyes from the stinging he glared at the child that was getting further away from him.

-"VolLelCra! VolLelCra!"

The man shouted the same thing twice, two fireballs twice the size of the previous ones, and came from his body as they shot towards Lulu much faster than before.

Seeing them she ran even faster, as fast as she could as fear began to take hold.

The previous fires began to take hold and devour the forest, one of the fireballs made an impact with a surviving tree and completely evaporated it to ash.

Now there was only one fireball, yet there was no longer any cover. The fireball had a clear path to her, it was left unhindered and was quickly approaching her practically on her heel.

Dolphin diving into the open Lulu landed on her stomach and winced in pain once again as the fireball passed above her, burning her back as it went.

She struggled to stand when the sound of many footsteps came from in front of her, while a single set of footsteps came from behind.

With her head facing the ground a set of boots came into view, looking up she saw the angry and infuriated face of her grandmother, she was wearing what looked to be military apparel and was accompanied by many two squads of soldiers.

- "Grandma?..." Lulu struggled to let out those words as she passed out and fell forward, all the energy was zapped out of her.

- "Shhhh, it's okay now. You're safe now." Catching Lulu, her grandmother looked at her wounds solemnly whispering to her while stroking her head.

Looking up at the man coming from the forest, her face nearly contorted in anger, cradling Lulu in her arms she gave an order.

"Subdue it and throw it in the Kalloon." With her walking away from the area the soldiers immediately moved in raising their weapons toward the man.