Chapter Thirty-Eight

Ravens P.O.V.

I stared at Rose who sat next to Lance in shock. We had asked him to figure out why she always seemed to be trying to grow up and get stronger, but we hadn't expected this. Me and Sparrow had assumed she had simply wanted praise from her mother and the people around her, we never considered that she had more depth in feeling. Me, Sparrow, The King, The Queen and her mother all thought it was her wanting praise. We had even decided a plan to curb her back on the childish road. Never once had we considered this. I turned to Sparrow and he looked back at me, dumbfounded.

"But you'll lose your chance to play and be a kid though." Lance speaks finally and she finally turns to meet his gaze. Her tossled long black curly hair draped around her tiny form and her elven like appearance was so visible. She was a halfling, not that she knew. Her mother is actually an elf, but she uses special earrings to hide that fact. Elves were rare and highly sought after, and halflings were even rarer. Halflings were so rare because they usually didn't survive birth, and we're stillborne. She was worth triple no quadruple what her mother was on the black market, as twisted as it was. Her sweet innocent green eyes were filled with sadness and a hidden grief as she looked at him, and it aged the small child past her years.

"I would rather lose my childhood then be helpless to what happens to me in the future. I never, ever want to be helpless. Never." She looked so serious that I could only stare. Then she sighed and got up, and she smiled cheerfully, looking like a normal child, untroubled.

"That stays between you and me, 'Kay?" She smiled as she twirled to face him, every bit happy and easy going as she offered a hand for him to get up with. I didn't know how much pain she hid. A child forced to grow up, I had no doubt she knew exactly how bad our world was. She wasn't nearly as blind as a child should be to the world, and so thus she had made herself grow up. I wonder, how much she cried alone? I turned to Sparrow and we nodded at one another, we would never tell a soul what she had said, and would make sure Lance wouldn't as well.