The Aftermath - Part 3

"…"

"…Ca-can you say that again?"

The little girl just blinked up at Octavia.

"You two will be my new parents." She responded with a beaming smile. Octavia almost had to shield her eyes with how bright it was.

A part of Octavia thought maybe the girl was talking about someone behind her. But a quick glance behind her told her otherwise. Also, with how the girl kept looking between herself and Sylvia, it was kind of a giveaway who she was talking about.

"Wh-wh…" Octavia really wasn't sure what to say next. Thankfully, Althea ended up helping her out.

"Why do you want Octavia and Sylvia to be your new parents?"

It was a prudent question to ask, but with all that had happened, she had a feeling she knew the answer.

"Because they are amazing. They took down the slavers. They saved me and everyone else. Then when the slavers tried to take me back. They saved me again. All my actual parents did was look at me funny and then sell me."

She had started enthusiastically, but as she spoke about her parents, her tone shifted, as you can imagine.

At that point, Althea just looked up from the girl to Octavia.

"Well…do you want to?"

Again, she was at a loss for words.

It's not like she was against the idea, not by any means. The girl, whom she realised they didn't actually know the name of yet, was a lovely girl. Looking like a princess, but without the haughty and privileged personality you assumed she had. 

She had a lovely and bright smile and looked at them two with almost reverence. It was lovely to see her with such as smile on her face, given what she had been through. It did however make it almost impossible to say no to as well.

"I wonder if she realises that." Octavia wondered.

Looking over at Sylvia, it wasn't hard to see that she was smitten with the girl, just like herself. So, she didn't even need to ask if she had any issues with taking care of her.

The only problem was that Octavia wasn't a stay-at-home mum. She still had her Lamia trials to get to, which could take her almost anywhere within the kingdoms. That wasn't really an environment in which you could look after a young child like her. Dangers were sure to be lurking about as they travelled. If anything, it wasn't even safe for Sylvia. She had some combat skills but it wasn't enough to class her as a warrior, not that Octavia could claim that herself, but she did have more combat experience than Sylvia did.

She had a feeling that bringing this up wouldn't do much to dissuade Sylvia from her continuing to journey with her. Not that Octavia fancied trying to dissuade her anyway, having grown to like her company.

Bringing a child into the mix would only increase the number of targets in their group, meaning more people that Octavia would have to protect.

Looking up over at Sylvia again, she found herself looking into her eyes this time, and they had a silent conversation. Sylvia could see the worry on Octavia's face, and so she said the only thing that might alleviate her worry.

"Don't worry, you can be the father in the family."

"That's not what I'm worried about!"

After Sylvia had her fun with the situation, Octavia explained what her fears were. After hearing it, this time, Sylvia knew what she had to do to help out.

"I just have to learn to fight then." She said as she turned to Althea. "Can I join when you train Octavia?"

"Of course. Lord Desmon was very worried about how you would fare travelling with Octavia, but I told him he had nothing to fear. But, it would probably be best that you do learn, especially if you find yourself in another situation like this. And with this little one going with you, even more so."

So that was that.

A simple solution to the problem. With both of them knowing how to properly fight, they should be much better equipped to deal with any dangers to come. It also occurred to Octavia that with the girl's ability to… shapeshift, or whatever it was, while she would be a non-combatant, she could easily hide herself, so that was a bonus.

"Right, it's settled then. There are a few forms you will have to sign to state that you will take legal guardianship of her." Althea then beckoned them to a nearby table. Sylvia quickly followed her to go ahead with signing them.

"I don't actually remember saying that I would take care of her." Octavia realised.

Looking down at the girl who still had a beaming smile on her face, Octavia then came to the conclusion that it didn't matter. They would look after this girl, and have her join their…pseudo family.

"Are you okay with that? We are going on a journey so we will be travelling to a lot of different places. Some of them may be dangerous." Octavia said to the girl.

"That's okay. I just have to hide like I did before. I'm great at hiding."

Given what she did before, Octavia didn't doubt that. She also realised she would have to explain to Sylvia about the abilities of…actually, she still didn't know her name yet.

"I don't think anyone said this but…what's your name."

"Imeril."

…

Papers were signed, hugs were given, and Imeril was now part of the family. Well, while Imeril had said she wanted Octavia and Sylvia to be her parents, they had only ended up being down as her guardians. Being down as her new parents just felt a little bit…much.

"Mum, where are we going now?"

Not that it stopped Imeril from still seeing them as her parents though.

"We are going to train. We need to get stronger before we head back on our journey."

"Ohhhh."

As they walked down the path in the village, Imeril was in the middle holding both of their hands. It was an adorable scene, with her almost skipping to keep up with them.

The whole being called mum thing did feel a little strange to Octavia, and she had tried to stop it when it started. But the tears that started to fall from her eyes when she was told to call her Octavia and not Mum…well, she very quickly retracted what she said.

Sylvia for some reason was absolutely fine with it, loving the feeling that came with being called mum.

"I always wondered what it would be like to have a child. I never thought it was going to happen, so it's lovely to know what it feels like and experience it."

"Never thought she would experience it. Why would she think that? She is a beautiful girl, who's part of the nobility. Surely she would have been surrounded by suiters." Octavia couldn't help but wonder.

"Are you going to be fighting? Like you did with the bad slavers."

"Yes, well training…so no one will get hurt. No one will get too hurt, let's say." Octavia brought up worried Imeril would be worried about that.

"Can I train too?"

Which it didn't seem she was.

"No, you are way too young to be handing a weapon." Sylvia reprimanded, shutting that down. But as she said it, Octavia wondered if maybe it wasn't such a bad idea.

"Maybe you could actually."

Not training with a weapon per se, but for the abilities she had.

"What…how can you say that, she is our dau- I mean, she is way too young for that."

Octavia may have missed that, but she had a feeling Sylvia was going to say something very different there.

"No, I don't mean with a weapon, I mean with…actually, it might be better if you see for yourself."

Not wanting to draw too much attention, Octavia guided them into a small path that wasn't frequented much in order to get some privacy.

"Okay, Imeril. Can you show me…your hiding skills."

"Of course mum."

Imeril looked around for a moment, to see what was around here. Sylvia and Octavia ended up following her gaze to see what she was looking for. When they turned back not having found anything, Imeril was gone.

In her place stood a barrel. Similar in size and shape to a nearby barrel down the path.

"Wha-where…where is she. Did she run off?!" Sylvia said, almost in a panic as she looked around the area.

"No, no. She's here." Octavia said pointing at the barrel.

"What?"

"You can show yourself again."

Then with a blink, Imeril was back, standing right where the barrel had been.

"See how good I am. Mum couldn't even find me."

Both of them agreed that her hiding skills were top-notch. Sylvia was just stumped over what she had witnessed. The first guess would be some form of magic, but with her small amount of knowledge on the subject, she couldn't be certain. She would have expected some form of gesture or incantation, or anything that showed it was magic, especially for someone as young as her. She really had no clue how she did it, and when asking the girl in question, the only reply they got was.

"I just do it."

Which didn't really help.

But, Sylvia agreed that it would be good to learn some more about what Imeril was doing, and if possible find some way to train her, giving both of them some peace of mind.

"Does she actually need training though, given how well she can already do it?"

That was the last thought Octavia had as they headed for the 'training ground' for their session with Althea.