The child woke up to a forest of flowers and weeds that had seemingly sprouted overnight. The leaves almost seemed to have been supporting her as she slept. She popped up understanding that she would be in for a scolding for staying out all night.

  What she found was the village in disarray. Everyone was in a somber mood and just by listening to two people talk she understood why.

  "Extra, extra! Eight year old darling of the kingdom has fallen sick! Read all about it!"

  "Oof, that poor girl." One said.

  "We don't have time to talk about that! How are we going to tell the kids?" The other responded.

  "I don't know Garry.." He replied.

  She recognized these people. Garry and Jack. Garry was the guy who delivered food to the orphanage, apparently he lived there for a while. The other guy, Jack, was Ms. Delia's son. He visited a lot and participated in trying to find her when she escaped.

  "What do you mean? She was your mother!" Garry said loudly.

  "We need to focus on posting a job listing as fast as possible. The longer those kids are without a caretaker the worse it will be for all of us." Jack responded.

  "... are you okay?" asked Garry softly.

  "Yeah, why wouldn't I be." He bluntly answered

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  "She was your and an angel, I haven't seen you shed a single tear." Garry complained.

  "People can grieve differently, Garry." He replied with a sigh.

  "I know... I guess I'm just trying to focus on something else, she was like a mom to me, made me lasagna. I'm never going to have her lasagna again..." Garry responded quietly.

  "Let's get back to the situation at han... oh." Jack said.

  "What?"

  "Look."

  Garry turned to find the child that his friend's mother always cared for was staring at them, she had clearly heard everything they were saying because tears welled up in her silver eyes, streaking down her face, silently.

  "Hey kid. Are you alright?" Garry asked, already knowing the answer.

  She shook her head.

  "Yeah, do you want to go see her before she's gone?"

  She nodded wiping her tears from her face.

  He glanced at his friend making sure it was alright.

  "Alright, let's go.." Garry took the child's hand and led her away from his friend. As he walked, he noticed his friend's expression was grim and somber. Garry wished he could do more for him.

  Garry and the girl arrived at the orphanage and headed to the attached house for the orphanage head. She timidly opened the door and saw Delia's body on the floor with blood pooling around her neck. Her face was stuck in a surprised expression and as the child looked into her lifeless eyes, tears welled up once again. It was much more real than just hearing about it. Her wrinkled skin was flat against the wooden floorboards, her mouth was agape as if trying to get some noise out of her cut vocal chords. A knife in her hands.

  The child walked up to the corpse, reached out her small trembling hands and closed Delia's eyes as if putting her caretaker to sleep.

  "Kid, let's go."

  She nods, shaken.

  As they leave as they see the knights finally come to the scene. They won't do much. They are the epitome of incompetence.

  Garry leads the kid to her bed in the orphanage.

  He stays a while, keeping an eye on all the kids. He gave them their lunches and their dinners, he read them stories and watched them fall asleep, but the kid didn't move from her bed all day. When she finally fell asleep she did so with tears trickling down her face.