Chapter 12
Opening the door, the room was dark and… lonely. He never thought that he saw such a lonely room in his home. He held his hand out, and an orb of light shone to light his way through the room. 'It's a little quiet.' He thought, feeling like the little girl would be trying to growl at him again. 'She perhaps trying to plot something?' He started thinking that she was going to take action against him. Yet, he knew the location where the little girl hid. Taking the chance and risk, he looked under the bed to see her heavily panting with a red face—not in any good condition. Feeling his heart panic, he took her out from under the bed and placed her on the bed with the warm blankets. He knew that it was too late to call anyone now, and if he did, Priti would wake up. Holding his hand out towards the little girl, he decided to see for himself if he could cool her down. He was no doctor or healer, but it was like the time when Reg had his first fever. He formed a water ball and poofed a small white towel for her. Laying it on her head, he would keep soaking the towel when it got dried up.
Seeing the little girl slowly look better, she had tears coming out. Her eyelids would slowly lift up, which allowed her to look at him but see him blurry. Meeting the eye to eye, she only looked at him and suddenly held onto his large fur-covered hand. Snuggling his hand to her cheek, she whimpered and shivered as he sighed. No matter how hard he tried to convince himself, he could not leave that night. 'What am I doing?' He thought. 'Did I just forget that she could
***
Seven felt like she was in a long dream, but she saw a little girl crying with an older-looking man and woman yelling at her from below. The girl was scared, and her emotions just twisted and turned all over.
"Why do we even raise you?!" The woman looked at the little girl who cried and kept her face looking down. "How long did we even have to keep you around?"
"You cannot even clean or cook, right?" the man said afterward. "You are just completely useless here!"
"Just sell her off! End of discussion! We do not need her!" The woman said with the little girl begging not to be sold, but it was futile. They didn't care about the little girl begging not to get sold off to some stranger. The woman only pushed the little girl away, not giving a care about where she went.
Seven watched as the little girl was sold from mansion to mansion, with barely anything to properly eat and hardly anything for her to wear other than rags that she gathered and sewn together from scratch.
The last person who picked her up was Laonn, who offered her food and shelter in return. The real girl of this body had died from all the torture and experiments done on her. Her soul was nowhere in trace, but her memories were still there. Feeling that both of them were fated to be alone for life, she sat down next to the ghostly figure of the girl who was the body's original owner.
'You lived a harsh life, too. How can everyone turn their back on you?'
Looking back, she could see another image that showed her the same fate as a victim tortured by the murder. There was no memory of what she used to be called in her last lifetime. There was just no recollection of the bad and sad memories other than the images before her death. Seeing her last figure being tortured and locked up in a cage, no one came to look for her, just like this girl. 'It seems as though we only have each other.' She thought, scooting closer to the little girl sitting beside her. She hugged the ghostly girl, not wanting to leave her alone anymore. 'I'll be here with you.'
Seven woke up to find that it was morning. The mage was sleeping on the edge of the bedside as she held onto his hand. Seven had been startled out of the blue, which made her fall back on the other side of the bed and hit the floor.
*Thud*
It had woken up Sachin, who saw a partial of the blankets off the bed. Seven peeked out to see him in the face, giving him that look that said, 'Don't try anything funny with me.'
'This little brat really does not know how to be grateful.' He sighed, getting up as Seven was about to go under the bed again. Before she could ever do so, his spell lifted her into the air. "I will not help you again if you sleep there and get sick. Be more thoughtful and grateful to me. The more you sleep under that bed, the more I will just have to put boxes or something under there to keep you from staying there." Eyeing the little girl who just attempted to run under the bed again. The lion did not know what went through the little girl's head when he was nearby.
Seven just looked at him while she floated in the air; she felt some caution, but it was no longer as strong in the air between them. "…" Leaving only silence between them, she looked away and then saw a shiny color on one of his wrists as if she had seen it before. 'Have I seen that before?'
Sachin had noticed her looking at it, and he had settled her down back on her feet. "Do you want to take a look?"
Seven did not hesitate to nod. Seeing his hand come forth, she grabbed it quickly with her two small hands. Sachin did not know why, but he felt his heart skip a beat to see that she had actually taken his hand and at a quick pace, too. 'Her hands are so small.' He thought, seeing how one of his entire hands could just hold them both. 'Does she even eat? She's lived here for two weeks but still looks small for her size.' It was like a fatherly concern for her.
He felt his soft paw hand, which was that of a lion. Seven looked to Sachin's wrist, seeing the same shiny symbol she wanted to know its meaning—recalling that Laonn had the same character drawn in one of his sketchbooks. Rubbing her hand over the emblem, it felt like it was just part of their skin and fur. 'Just what is this symbol?' She grew more and more curious about what it meant. Her eyes just never left that one spot for so long.
"This symbol belongs to my family. Only those in my family bear this symbol." Sachin said, looking down to see that the little girl must have been curious about what the symbol meant. Her eyes never left that spot anyway, so he figured. "My family is known as Maximus. This symbol only appears for my family through birth and a family ritual. Even my wife has had one since she married into my family. It tends to tell others to think twice before doing something." Sachin told Seven, who looked down and then back up to see his bright sapphire eyes with a gentle smile.
'It's the first time that I've seen such an honest smile. I didn't even think that this giant ball of fur could smile like this to me.' Seven said in her mind, letting his hand go. She was likely about to try to go under the bed when she floated once more in the air.
"You are not going anywhere. You are going to have breakfast with the family." Sachin said, looking at Seven, who was not pleased to hear that.
'I should have kept my guard up.' Feeling regretful, she was taken to the dining room, where all eyes stared right at her.
"Sachin! Put her down this instant!" Priti had rushed over to Sachin, who had Seven placed onto a chair in the dining room. Seven looked at the food in front of her, seeing how there was a fork and knife as she stared down.
Priti looked at her husband and then at the little girl, who did not try to run off. 'Did something happen between the two???' Priti was confused; she had no idea what had just happened right in front of her.