Chapter 18: Leona (2)
[Leona]
She was born 18 years ago in a little town named Belcliff.
She was born in a single parent family without her father around. When she was growing up, she sometimes asked who her father was, but was always reprimanded from taking of him by her mother. From the way her mother was unwilling to talk of him, she guessed that he must have been bad man who left her all alone.
Because of this, she did not like him. And this dislike turned to hate when she saw how her mother suffered to support her. She changed from man to man, trying as hard as she can to let her live a good life. These set of actions ended up causing gossips to go around. People started calling her "the one who can't keep her legs closed."
It was fine when people said it behind her back, but they soon did not care whether she heard or not. Some men even came directly to their home wishing for sexual services. When her mother tried to explain how she was not a prostitute, they would say things like, "You don't even know the father of your own daughter!"
Life was hard, in this type of world, women could not easily live on their own. You either have strength or a men to support you.
Although she was young at that time, she grew smarter than those of her age due to the hardships she had gone through. Instead of pitying herself and crying about how her life was unfair, she went out to try and help her mother.
She cut her hair and dirtied her face. Although it was not a perfect disguise, she still managed to fool others that she was a boy. With her disguise, she was able to enter one of the few gangs of kids in her town. Although she was very young at that time, she was able to enter due to her speed. When she was young, she found out that she was a lot faster than those of the same age. Not only that, she was even stronger.
So at the age of only five years old, she joined one of the biggest pick pocket gang in the whole town.
From stealing to threatening others, she did everything to acquire any amount of money she can. All so that she could help her mother.
But it did not take long for her mother to fall pregnant again. But luckily this time, the father did not run away. The man was quite an honest person, he took her and her mother in and lived with them.
A while later, her little sister was born.
Although life at home started to become stable, she did not let her life as a pickpocket go. It was not that she did not want to stop, but it turned out that the gang leaders were way older than them. They set few rules in the gang, but one of them was to never leave the gang.
So although it was easy to go In, it was harder to get out. But this was not a problem to her. She was not adamant on leaving anyway. The thrilling life was no longer just to get money for her anymore, she started to enjoy it as well.
Before she knew, with the ups and downs in her life, five more years passed. She turned ten and her little sister was five. Different from her, her little sister was a lot more energetic and hyperactive than her. She was eager to learn more about her and the world around her. The only problem Leona found with her was that she kept saying weird things all the time
Like that one time she said, "why is there no status panel?"
Other than that, she was good girl. She was very intelligent and high spirited. So much so that her mother and father scrounged up a few silver coins and got her to go to school. But alas, the kid seemed to have awakened her rebellious phase a little bit too early. She kept skipping school and running around the neighbourhood whenever she has the chance. Even so, her grades in school were still top of the class.
Leona was perplexed but still happy for her, but she really did hope her sister can do better than her. She hoped that's he wouldn't have to pretend to be a man just to live.
All was well and so was life. But just like even the most delicious fruit, all things soon rot.
Five years later, on a certain day, Leona returned home. That day she had took a big haul off 'work', so she was quite happy. She was ready to take her sister to that nice shop down the streets that sells delicious buns. Her family was not wealthy, so they only had enough to survive, plus with her mother being pregnant again, there was no space for luxury.
But that day, her sister did not return. Within the night, the family went out to look for their youngest daughter. But alas, even till the sun rose, they did not find her.
Leona could not take seeing her mother in tears, so she finally went to her last channel of hope. The dark side of the town. This was where she mingled her entire life. Growing from a mere pickpocket to joining one of the most terrifying men in the whole town. She was not a nobody in that place.
Using all her networks, she finally found her. It turned out that she was kidnapped by a foreign gang. She pleaded her leaders to help her acquire her sister, but afyer the enemy gang found out that Leona's sister was of another gang, they were more adamant to keep her.
Seeing this, the leaders in a Leona's gang were not willing to risk their life to save her. In her anger, she stroked off to help her sister. Although she was alone, she was not willing to back down. For her sister, she was willing to go to and from hell if necessary.
Tha night, blood spilled and howls screams were abundant in the night.
No one could tell how many times the leaders of the enemy gang had yelled, "find her!"
She managed to find her sister, but the enemy had found her too. Surrounded and wounded, she had nowhere else to go. All her weapons had broken and she had only herself.
Was this how she would die?
She did not even ask herself that, she had only one thing she thought of, "I will save her."
Failure was never in her mind. She strode first with her sister in her hand.
Like a cornered beast, something awakened in her. Her nails became her sword, her teeth became her daggers. All parts of her body became weapons.
"Monster," she heard a yell.
It was not the enemy who spoke, not her sister who she carried. It was instead a young boy in the bustling streets of the morning.
It seemed that before she knew It, She had already ran away from the enemy gang's headquarters. She was looked at by many with fearful faves that surrounded her. Many ran and many watched her in fear, but all of them seemed to be saying the same word.
Monster!
He last line of thought was to go to safety, so she went to the one place she had always called safe.
Home.
She was woken up by a commotion. A plethora of noises assaulted her ears. And although tired, she could only get up.
She got up and saw her sister, mother and step-father worried. She was confused on whether where she was. When she asked them what was going on, she felt many emotions, anger, fear and guilt.
It turned out that the town's people had branded her as a monster and want to kill her. If that was only so, she would have been fine. But it turned out that not only did they wish to kill her, they also want to burn her whole family.
Her whole family was captured by the law enforcers and were to be hanged the next day.
Her step-father was distraught and her sister terrified. Her mother though seemed to have found determination.
"Leona, i know you can get out of here. Take your sister and father and go, leave me, i will only slow you down."
She was right, although it would be hard, Leona could be able to break out of the prison. But escaping with all of them will only slow her down. Due to her pregnancy, her mother had no way of being able to handle the running that will happen later.
Leona took her sister and escaped. As for her step-father, he used himself as distraction and ended up dying before the two could even leave.
The two survived and they managed to get out of the prison alive. Although they survived, Leona was still tired form yesterday's actions. At some point in their run, she passed out.
When she woke up, she found herself in one of her friend's house. Through her friend, she found out that her mother was executed just a few hours ago. Burned at the stake and branded a witch for giving birth to a monster.
In her life, Leona had never cried, she grit her teeth went through the hardships, but that day was different. Her tears flowed uncontrollably. She tried to hold it in for her sister's sake, but she had never hurt like that day.
The next day, in the middle if the night, she took her sister and left the town.
Since others called her a monster, she could only go to where no human dare go, the one place where monster go...
To the east!
The journey was hard and even harder with her sister. She roamed from town to town, using the skills from her past to live by. She met many people in and saw many things. Only after travelling the world did she notice how small the little town she lived in was.
She saw beasts of all sizes big and small. Magicians that could move mountain with just a single spell from theirs, many species other than humans, machines that allowed human to fly and monster with human shapes. And some like her...
Because of this, she knew that those of her kind were killed if not enslaved, Used if not exploited.
"What did we ever do?"
She asked herself, but no one answered.
On a certain rainy day, a year later, Leona was on a caravan to Jangate. The closest city to the the Orcana duchy. Once she passes the border, she could then head east to reach the land of monsters, where she could not need to live with fear.
Lately, she had been thinking a lot, wondering what she would do about her sister. After a long time of living with her, she found out that her sister was not like her. She was completely human. She was getting second thoughts about going to the east because she was not like her.
Her thoughts were disrupted by the sounds of battle outside. It turned out that bandits had attacked their caravans.
She did not hesitate and fought with her life. Blood spill and death filled the forest. The battle was just like that one. The one that changed her life forever.
And just like that day, she lost herself. And by the time she came to, there was no one around her other than her sleeping sister in her arms. In her head, the voice she often heard in her head sounded different that very day.
◇You have awakened Epic: Royal lioness◇
Once again, she passes out in the forest.
When she woke up, she was surrounded by a group of children. One of them was her own little sister.
She was in an orphanage. A place where children are taken in and cared for. A place where she finally saw her sister smile again.
'Perhaps I can leave her here,' She thought.
The orphanage was once run by a woman who was now in a coma. Apparently, she was in an accident. Now the orphanage was run by one of the orphenage's children. Her name was Ash. The girl was only one year older than her, but she had to take care of the whole place on her own. Ash had started working as an adventurer. Her smile was as radiant as the sun. And even monsters seem to like her too.
She reminded Leona of herself back when she was pickpocketing to get money. Since she intended to leave her sister at the orphanage, she wanted to help them out as much as she could. She started going back to her old job and did her best to help.
Time flew fast. Two years was short time when lived happiness. But she ultimately had to go, she did not want the same thing that happened to her family to happen to the orphanage, so on a full moon, she departed for the woods.
Though, who would have expected that as she was running through the forest, met a tall green skinned woman who beat her up. She used all manner to try and win against the hulking woman but her skin was so tough that her hand a hurt just from hitting her.
...
Leona woke from her dizziness and smelled food. Her memory was faint and had yet to be organised. All she knew was that she was tired and hungry.
She dragged her naked body at the the object in front of her. She did not know what it was, but it smelled good. She wolfed down and ate it.
Unbeknownst to her, someone was in front of her.
"Finally awake?" Alex said with a smile.
...