By this point in her eleven-year-old life, Mora had received enough kicks and punches from the kids around Windust that she should’ve learned to accept it with ease.

  Yet, as Kay closed in, a strange surge of resistance made her whole body throb. Not again!

  “I’m going to get you, you little red shit!” he snarled with a predatory grin. “We’re going to beat the red off of you, hornhead!”

  Then she saw it.

  A rock, probably about the size of her fist and flat like a sauce lay by the riverside.

  Just as Kay pushed his hand out and clenched her arm, Mora dove and grabbed the rock.

  “Can’t run!” Kay yelled with satisfaction. “I got her!”

  She whirled in place as he held her, slamming the flat stone surface against the side of his head.

  Kay stared at her in shock for a moment.

  Then he let go.

  He took a step back, fingers reaching up to feel the side of his head.

  He stumbled back suddenly, as if whatever force held him upright went away, tottering back into the river.

  He must’ve snagged a rock or some branch under the water, because he fell toppled and crashed into the water, the slow drift of the river carrying him the way they’d come.

  When Dewey and Daven caught up and saw him they cried out in shock. “She killed him! She killed him!”

  Dead? No, he can’t be dead… thought Mora, a chill shiver wracking through her small red body.

  The two younger boys went in to fish him out and pulled him onto the shore.

  In that moment, the only thing Mora could think of was to flee and never look back. Killing a human? There was no way back from that. They wouldn’t just hurt her back or execute her, they would make an example out of her.

  By now, she’d seen Nik make enough examples of people to know that wasn’t a fate she could accept.

  As her foot took the first step back, Kay suddenly rolled to his side and coughed up water. “Kay!” cried Dewey, shaking him. “Kay, are you alright?”

  Daven stood straight and pointed at Mora. “Are you crazy?! You could’ve killed him!”

  Mora gulped, relieved that he was alive, but aware that she was by no means out of the fire. “I’m s-sorry…” she stammered, but too quietly for her words to make it that far.

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  A massive figure loomed in the distance: his mother.

  Kay’s mother waddled over to where her son curled up on the ground and seethed with ourage. “What happened? Kay!” She turned his head and gasped when she saw the blood pouring from his ear. “Kay!”

  Before her son could answer, she rose up to her feet, eyes locked on Mora. “You filthy little hornhead!”

  “I didn’t mean to—”

  This time, as the immense woman hurled herself towards her, Mora’s body wouldn’t move at all.

  One moment, she was staring at the mountain of fat coming toward her.

  In the next, she was on her back, pinned down on the ground, two fat hands choking the life out of her. “You hurt my sons!” the fat woman croaked in rage, eyes bulging, her face red almost as red as an oni’s. Though she was the one hurting Mora, tears brimmed in her eyes. “A filthy hornhead hurt my sons!”

  Mora writhed helplessly and kicked at her, but this was a force beyond which she could reckon with. The woman must’ve weighed at least five times what she did, and the protective shell of fat around her made it impossible to hit any weak spot.

  Even her eyes were out of reach because Mora’s arms were just too short to reach her face.

  “My sons… How dare you… How dare you touch my sons!…”

  As the air ran out, Mora’s lungs began to burn, and her eyes rolled back in her sockets. Please, she thought. Stop it. You’re killing me. Stop it!

  The fat woman looked so maddened that Mora wasn’t even sure she understood what she was doing.

  “Take your hands off of the child,” said a voice. A familiar voice.

  Again? thought Mora, her heart beating wildly.

  The moment the fat blonde gazed up, a fist hit her right in the face and flattened her against the ground.

  Mora gasped for air and quickly crawled away from her, thrilled and terrified by how close she’d come to dying.

  She glanced up and she could Vares Reed standing there calmly, now wearing a clean white shirt, a pair of trousers, and boots. No monkey. “You all right?”

  Mora climbed up to her feet and noticed the woman was bleeding profusely from her now, still baffled by what had happened.

  “Y-You!…” cried the blonde fatso, eyes wide as she craned her neck to glare at Vares. “You hit me! You hit a woman.”

  Vares grinned and cracked his fingers. “I’ve done much worse to women than that.”

  The boys, including Kay, who now appeared to be okay again, caught up and helped her stand up. “A man doesn’t hit a woman!” she went on saying, completely thrown off by what he’d done. “You’re not a man! You can’t call yourself a man when you do that.”

  “Call me whatever you like,” he said carelessly. “But the little one here is mine. Touch her, and I’ll make your sons watch as I cut your heart out.”

  “He’s the one!” Daven blurted out, pointing in spite of his fear. “The one who set the monkey on Lunis!”

  “Who are you?” the fat woman demanded with a snarl. “What’s your name?”

  “Captain Vares Reed.”

  Mora could see Dewey grabbing Daven by the arm and whispering, “Look at his eyes! They’re glowing.”

  And they were. Mora just noticed herself. His eyes had been red from when they met the day before, but the way they shone now was unsettling. They were almost as bright as the sun, yet Mora was certain that if he were in the dark, they wouldn’t cast any light at all.

  “Mom…” Kay said, pointing to the same thing. “Look at him…”

  The fat woman gulped. “You better make right what you did. Hitting me. Hurting my son. Your slave there hit my boy!” she yelled, turning Kay’s head to show him the blood that trickled from his ear.

  Vares narrowed his eyes and smiled. “Have you considered the possibility that you deserved all of it?”

  Mora could sense that fat woman, though intimidated, could barely hold from lashing out.

  Just go, she thought. Just go!

  But then the woman took a step forward and opened her mouth.