Cat's Out The Bag

Damien froze hearing Tepmin. He turned his head slowly to the left where he heard the voice. There was nobody there. He must have imagined it. "Whew" he audibly sighed in relief.

"Doubly confirmed now, just had to make sure my ears weren't deceiving me." Tepmin's voice came from his right. The mischievous tone not lost on Damien.

He sucked in a breath of cold air, his heart racing as his adrenaline spiked. "Shit what do I do" he thought. "Is he going to kill me? Use me as an item of interest. A freak?! Is he gonna sell me to a circus?" The thoughts kept piling on each other one after another. Each sounding worse than the last, until the floodgates opened and he started crying.

Tepmin stood in shock for a moment then started laughing. His deep booming voice somehow calming Damien from his state of mild hysteria. "Alright little tike let's get you fed and changed then we can sit down and have a chat." The giant scooped Damien up and headed for a table that was in the far right corner of the room.

There he changed Damien while talking. "Listen here little tike since I know now that you can understand and comprehend what I'm saying. It is best that we get ahead while we can. So I will have you study the dynamics of combat, ethics, language, math, and the like starting tomorrow. This way you have all the boring stuff out of the way before you can walk. Also this way you'll have the concept down for combat before you lift a weapon. You're going to need to work very hard because there's a shit storm of trouble looking for you already. Let alone what will happen if the Zodiacs catch wind of you too early."

Finished changing Damien, Tepmin lifted him up again and started walking to the kitchen. "The goal here is to have you ready when trouble finally strikes. My hope is you'll be old enough to at the very least put up a fight when that time comes. Until then I'm going to do my level best to protect you" Damien looked up to see the giant with a big smile as if proud of his declaration."

"How are you gonna do that, aren't you just a foster parent." Damien retorted

Tepmin sported a look of hurt feelings as he glared back at Damien "I'm a lot more than that" he growled. "You'll see in time, if anyone fucks about they'll find out."

Damien giggled at the slight distress in Tepmin's voice causing it to go up an octave. "Uncle Tep I'm just making fun."

Tepmin raised in eyebrow "ah so the wee little shit has got jokes now does he. No matter " he set Damien in a cradle like object so he could make his bottle. "Your sister will be working beside both of us to help prepare you as best we can. I will get the gang to try and score information on the movements of The Grind. Nobody really pays attention to the comings and goings of my kids, they're too busy looking out for the turf wars of the other orphanages."

It was true, Tepmin was intelligent, he kept his kids under the radar. The ones old enough held real jobs while the rest kept their eyes and ears open learning street smarts. Always alert and never getting caught in anything underhanded. The one thing everyone did know about Tepmin's bunch however is that every last one of them knew how to throw down. Even some of the younger kids could fight full adults. They were little monsters.

"That being said we need to get on top of this, now that the cat's out of the bag it would be wise if we made sure you were as ready as possible for whatever series of unfortunate events may occur in the future." Tepmin sighed. "Now drink your formula little tike. You won't be resting after today."