Chapter 3

I handed the note to the woman behind the front desk at the school.

"Ah finally someone's come to pick her up." She said to herself. "Millie sweetie, your ride is here." She called over her shoulder.

"Daddy!" Millie said happily as she ran out of one of the offices, but she stopped in her tracks when she saw me. "You're not my Daddy." She said, an upset look on her face.

"I know I'm not, but I'm a friend of your dad, and he asked me if I could pick up his little princess for him." I said, moving so that I was at her level.

She had cute little cubby cheeks that were all rosy, and her long black hair was pulled into two cute little pigtails. Her eyes were a shiny blue as she stared at me skeptically. She looked like a tiny female version of her father.

"Who are you? And why didn't my Daddy come to pick me up?"

"Well your dad and I work together, and something came up at work, so as much as he wanted to he wasn't able to pick you up himself."

"You're a part of the milietary like my daddy?" She said, her eyes lighting up.

"The milietary, that's adorable." I thought to myself. I was mentally screaming with delight at her cuteness.

"See you later Mrs. Miranda." She said, waving goodbye to the woman behind the front desk. Then she grabbed my hand and started pulling me towards the door. "Come on, let's go."

It seemed she had approved of me. She dragged me through the door and out onto the sidewalk.

"Do you even know where we're going?" I said, smiling at her cuteness.

"Nope." She said happily. "Where are we going?"

"We're going to my house."

"And which way is that?" She said, looking to the left and then the right.

"That way." I said, pointing to the left.

"Alrighty, lets go." She said, raising her small hand in the air, and happily started walking in that direction.

We walked for a while, and she got excited at every new thing she saw. But eventually it seemed like she was starting to get tired from all the walking.

I stopped walking. "Do you want to ride on my shoulders?"

"Can I?" She said, her eyes sparkling as she got all excited.

"Sure, I don't mind." I said, kneeling down so that she could climb onto my shoulders.

"This isn't as high as Daddy's shoulders." She said when I stood back up. "You're short."

"I'm not short, your dad is just tall, I'm 5' 5"."

"Hey what is that my foot is touching?"

"That's my boob." I said, smiling through my teeth, she was cute but she was starting to get on my nerves a little with those comments.

"Not the squishy thing, the hard thing. Also, what's a boob?"

"Something you'll get when you're older. The hard thing is my gun."

"It's a gun, cool! Is it one of those big ones that Daddy showed me when he took me with him to work once."

"No, it's a handgun. Those big ones are called machine guns, and they aren't very portable."

"How did you know that I was talking about a mashine gun and not one of the other big ones?"

"Well, your dad said he's a lieutenant, so I assumed that those are mainly the ones he works with. Machine guns take a lot of mana to be able to produce an endless stream of bullets, so only high-ranking officers can use them."

"You seem to know a lot about mana."

"That's because I'm a mage."

"Really? That's so cool! Does that mean you can do magic?!" She said, getting excited.

"Do you have a pencil that I could use?"

"Sure." She said, handing me one. "But why do you need it?"

"You'll see." I said.

I held the pencil out so we could both see it, I stared at it, concentrating on the pencil. The pencil started to glow and slowly it began to turn into a rose.

"That's so cool!" She said, happily taking it when I handed it to her.

We talked the whole way back to my house, and when we got to the front door, I kneeled back down to let her climb off.

As soon as I opened the door she ran inside, happily shouting "Daddy!", but then she stopped short.

I walked in and saw Tom sitting on the couch, hands raised in the air, with Derick standing in front of the fireplace, gun pointed at him.

"Lily I'm glad that you're finally home. I found this intruder in your house." Derick said, waving his gun towards Tom.

I ran over and stepped between the two of them. "He's not an intruder, he's a guest."

"Then why can't he produce any form of I.D.?"

"Because he was attacked by the Mafia and barely survived. He's my guest because I saved his life and he need a place to stay, he also needs more healing once my mana fully returns."

"Oh, my bad, I apologize soldier." He said, putting his gun away. "What's your name?"

"Lieutenant Thomas Brown sir, but you can call me Tom."

"I'm General Derick Smith, it's nice to meet you Lieutenant. Again, I apologize for jumping to conclusions."

"That's alright sir, I can understand the confusion of finding a stranger in apartment while the resident isn't around."

"You don't have to call me sir, just call me Derick."

"I'm gonna upstairs and take a nap, you two can stay down here and talk. Try not to destroy my house okay. Millie, would you like to come take a nap with me?"

"Sure!" She said happily, bouncing over and grabbing onto my hand.

"Is that your daughter?" Derick asked Tom.

"Yeah, isn't she a cute one, she's just like her mom."

"I actually think she looks like you Tom, but I haven't seen your wife yet either." I said.

"Will your wife be joining us?" Derick said.

"Uh, no… she passed away when Millie was younger."

"Oh, I'm sorry for bringing it up."

"That's alright, you didn't know."

They kept talking as I took Millie up to my room. She excitedly jumped onto my bed, curling up in the pile of stuffed animals. I laid down next to her, and she curled into my arms, and we cuddled until we both fell asleep.