Strays: A Romantic Fantasy Adventure

Ren hated having to go into the village on his own. Normally Raz would join the boy, but today his uncle had to go into the mountains to gather herbs for the witch, Magdalene. The boy had begged to go along but had been denied under the excuse that the area was too dangerous for a seven-year-old to venture into. Instead, he was given coins and sent to gather the things that his uncle had ordered from the supply shop.

It was a two mile walk from their cottage into Hollis, most of the trail winding through woodland of pines at the top and aspens towards the bottom with a wide creek that spilled from the mountains, rushed past their home, and through the trees a short distance from the path. Ren spent the entire walk cursing his luck and dreading the moment he broke free from the tree line.

It hadn’t always been this way. He used to beg Raz constantly to allow him to go play with the other children in the village. He had never been permitted to but was able to finally break his uncle down enough to allow it several months prior. The young angel had so enjoyed being able to run around with the other boys and girls, never having had the experience before. But it hadn’t lasted long before one of the other kids had accidentally pulled Ren’s bracelet from his wrist during a game of tag. His black wings had exploded from his back, terrifying his new friends into running back to their parents.

That day, the village learned that the man and boy who lived at the base of the mountain were angels; one exiled and the other a fallen, bastard child. Other than a handful of people, most chose to remove themselves from the pair, keeping their distance. Parents warned their children against playing with Ren. But children are children and children can be cruel. Instead of obeying their parents and ignoring the boy’s existence, some would yell and throw rocks at him, cursing him and telling him to leave if the boy happened to be alone. He would run home crying to his uncle who would be lost for words, unsure of how to comfort the distraught child and concerned that the boy’s hurt wouldn’t remain as just tears for long.

Ren stopped going to the village on his own, but today he had no choice. Raz needed both the stones that had just arrived at the shop and the herbs. He knew that Raz felt bad for sending him alone, but bad feelings didn’t stop the man from pushing the boy out the door as he warned him to stay away from the other children before heading up to the mountains alone.

He broke free from the trees and spotted the shop in the middle of the small village. Ren looked around, finding himself almost alone other than a couple of adults and a horse drawn wagon, and walked to the stone building. He opened the door, a bell ringing in his arrival, and stepped inside. A sigh of relief escaped his lungs as he found himself alone in the cluttered room. He walked past the hodgepodge of food and supplies and made his way to the tall counter.

“I’m coming, I’m coming!” a deep, gruff voice bellowed from the back. A giant, hulking man leaned under the archway that led into the back. The ogre easily stood three meters tall, his skin sage in color, and two small horns protruded from his forehead. He wiped his hands on his stained, white apron and looked down at the child. “Ren!” the ogre boomed, leaning over the counter. “How are ya, my boy? Okag! Ren’s here!”

“Hi Torg.” Ren greeted politely. The angel was fond of the burly ogre and his just as burly wife. They had always been kind to him and even made a bigger point of it after the incident. Torg had told him that ogres don’t fear angels and that the meaner the angel the tastier the snack while rubbing his round belly. The young angel was grateful to be in their favor.

“Ren!” a deep, but more feminine voice floated from the back. Okag strolled out, her horns just grazing the archway, and made her way to the boy. She leaned over, taking his face in her sandy toned hands, squishing it around. “Oh Ren!” she gushed. “It’s been so long since you’ve come to see me! Look how big you are! My goodness! So handsome! Oh wait, I have something for you!” The excited woman disappeared into the back again.

Ren stretched his jaw around and tried to regain feeling in his face. He pulled a slip of paper and handed it to Torg. “Raz sent me to get the stones he ordered.”

“Of course. How’s your uncle doing?” The man asked as he dug around on the overcrowded shelf behind him.

“He’s in the mountains getting herbs for Maggie.”

“Brave man.” He turned back around and placed a small, cloth bag on the counter. “That woman is something else. Takes a special someone to put up with her like he does. Three silver, six bronze.”

Ren dropped four silver coins in the ogre’s mammoth hand and looked around while he retrieved the change.

A few feet away sat a tiny bushel of apples, their shiny skin red and yellow. Ren couldn’t remember the last time they had had apples in stock and his mouth watered at the memory of their tart sweetness. “How much are the apples?”

“Too much. A whole silver,” Torg rolled his eyes. “We’re fortunate that the drought hasn’t affected us too much due to the mountains but the southern areas haven’t been so lucky. Some places are really struggling and when they struggle, so do we,” the man turned and observed the awestruck boy. “How’s about this? I let you take one for your four bronze in change and you make sure to visit us again soon.”

He considered the deal but ultimately shook his head, “I can’t. Raz will scold me if I don’t bring back the change.” The boy took the coins and bag and stuffed them in his pocket. “But I will come visit again.”

“I’ll hold you to that,” Torg bellowed, clamping his hand atop Ren’s head and ruffled his hair, jerking the boys head around.

Okag reappeared into the room and went to Ren. “I found it! Stick out your hand.”

He complied and Okag dropped a round, bright blue wrapper into his palm.

“It’s chocolate,” she beamed. “A man from Golden City came through a fortnight ago and traded it for something or another, I don’t remember what. But I thought of you and wanted you to have it.”

Ren stared at the candy, his breath catching in his throat. He had only ever had chocolate once when he was little and although he didn’t remember the taste, he knew that it was delicious and a real treasure. The boy couldn’t believe his luck.

“Thank you,” he croaked, barely containing his excitement to get home and share it with Raz.

“You’re so very welcome, dear.” Okag wrapped her arms around the boy’s small body and despite squeezing him gently, he felt as if he would be crushed in her embrace. “Let us walk you out.”

The two ogres escorted the boy and opened the door for him.

“I want to see you again soon,” Okag said as Ren stepped outside.

Before he could respond they were distracted by crashing and yelling down the road. It came from an unfamiliar man who stood surrounded by crates in the back of a wagon.

“You nasty mongrel!” he screamed. “Get out of here! Get off my wagon!” He lunged at something towards the front but missed his target and landed hard against the base. A small body fell from the back and rolled in the dirt below before shooting up and darting like a red blur past the three stunned observers.

“Oh dear,” Okag gasped. “Was that a fox child?”

Torg craned his neck, watching the figure disappear into the trees. “It looked like it. It’s not common for foxes to leave their den but I’ve heard that the drought has been especially bad in their region. They also had a terrible strain of dream fever rip through their numbers not long ago. It’s possible that one was abandoned.”

“Oh no. Should we try to find them?”

“I doubt that one will come to us,” Torg shook his head. “I worry we’d just scare them further away.”

Ren stared at the place the demon had vanished. He dug the remaining coins from his pocket and offered them to Torg. “Can I have that apple?”

The man smiled softly and shook his head, “Keep your money.” He walked to the bushel and brought one back to the boy. “Better hurry. Foxes are quick and cunning.”

Ren held the apple tightly as he burst into the woods, frantically scanning the land around. “Hey!” he screamed. “Hey kid! Come back!” He slowed to a walk and carefully spun around, looking for any sign of the child. He made his way further into the trees, unsure of where they may be but feeling in his gut that they weren’t far. He realized that catching the fox was probably futile and he had a better chance if he set a trap.

The boy set the apple on the ground. “I’m gonna leave this here,” he yelled. “It’s an apple. You can have it. I have more food if you want but you have to ask for it, okay.” He made his way back home at a snail’s pace, listening carefully to the noises around him.

It hadn’t even been a minute before he felt the presence of something behind him and heard the crunching of teeth sinking into the apple. But the boy didn’t turn around, he continued on. The soft padding of footsteps followed him and he began to hum in the hopes of setting the fox at ease. They made their way halfway through the woods in this manner.

Suddenly, there was a tugging at the back of his shirt. He hadn’t realized the demon had gotten so close. He stopped and turned around, looking down on a mess of cherry red hair matted with dirt and filth and feet covered in blisters and fresh and old cuts. He knelt and looked up at the downcast face, shocked at the burst of emerald that peered back at him. The little girl’s sunken face was smeared with grime. Her dress sagged to her knees and was stained and torn beyond repair.

“Are you still hungry?” Ren whispered, afraid of spooking her. She nodded slightly and he pulled the candy from his pocket. “This is a chocolate. It’s really good.” He unwrapped the treat and pushed it past her dry, parted lips. The girl chewed it slowly and her eyes brightened with the sweet taste as she gazed into his sapphire ones.

Ren turned around, “Get on, I’ll carry you. You look tired. You can rest at my house.”

The girl climbed onto the boy’s back and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. He stood and was surprised by the sheer absence of her weight. Her ribs and collar bones poked into his back.

He carried her the remainder of the way. He wasn’t sure how he was going to explain another mouth to feed to Raz but decided it best to just let the pieces fall where they may.

When the children arrived, the boy set the girl on the ground against the wall of the cottage. He proceeded to start a kettle on the fire inside the small home. He then lugged buckets of water from the creek into the small tub in the yard and mixed it with the boiling water. He helped the girl out of her dress and into the tub. Ren scrubbed the filth from her skin and hair as she sat there pliable as a rag doll. It took three changes of water before she was clean.

He led her inside and dressed her in one of Raz’s long sleeve shirts. It fell to the floor and Ren had to roll up the sleeves for her. He had considered putting her in his clothes but knew the pants would slip from her bony hips and his shirts weren’t long enough to cover her properly.

He sat her down on the floor and retrieved a comb. Slowly and carefully he pulled it through her hair, from scalp to floor, fighting it every step of the way in an attempt to tame the knots. His fingers were stiff and sore by the time he finished and although her mane was still wild and unruly it was smooth and free of tangles.

A basket of fresh eggs sat in the middle of the table. Ren claimed two of them and pulled a pan from the hook on the wall. He cracked the eggs in it and cooked them above the fire. The girl watched hungrily as the eggs were slid onto a plate and served to her. Greedily, she shoveled them into her mouth with her hands and swallowed. Her eyes looked at the boy expectantly, waiting for more food to appear before her.

“Sorry,” he took the plate and placed it in the sink. “We have to wait for my uncle to get back. He’ll make us something.” At least he hoped he would.

The girl nodded, disappointed. She yawned and rubbed at her eyes.

“You can sleep in my bed.” The boy wrapped his arms around her ribs and carried her to the other end of the house to a corner where a bed sat pushed against the outside wall. He set her tiny body down on it. “This is my bed. Raz sleeps in the room over there,” he pointed to a door that led into a small room. He pulled the blankets down and the girl crawled under. She grabbed onto his wrist and tugged, her eyes begging.

“Do you want me to sleep with you?” Ren asked and she nodded furiously. He slipped in next to her and pulled the blankets around them. She buried herself against his chest, snuggling into his warmth and was asleep in an instant.

The boy laid there staring at the faded white wall behind the girl. Reality was finally setting in and he knew he was going to be in a world of trouble once his uncle returned. They already didn’t have much and now they’d have much less with the girl around. He looked down at her serene in his arms. He knew he had to come up with a foolproof plan if he was going to be able to convince Raz into letting her stay. But try as he might, he couldn’t stop his eyelids from slipping closed and drifting off himself.

Ren could smell roasting vegetables and knew that his uncle had returned. His body stiffened and he kept his eyes tightly closed, trying to hold off the inevitable.

“Don’t fucking pretend, boy.” Raz saw right through him without even looking his way. “Get over here now,” his voice was steady and gruff.

He rolled out of bed and marched to where his uncle sat in front of the fire. He burned holes into the floor, too scared to look at the man addressing him.

“So I got home a couple of hours ago,” Raz stated, jabbing at the fire with a metal poker. “Imagine my surprise when I found Torg outside waiting for me. Started talking about some little fox, about how she was in a traveler’s wagon and the man had no idea how or when she got there. Said he hadn’t been anywhere near the den’s territory. Then Torg tells me that you chased after that little fox. You brought that stray home, didn’t you, boy?”

Ren nodded.

“Get her.” He pointed to the bed, a bracelet similar to Ren’s shimmied on his wrist, the ivory stones clacking against each other.

The boy walked back to the bed and noticed the blankets completely covered the girl. He pulled them from her hands and off her body. She looked at him panic stricken.

“It’s okay,” he reassured her, taking her hand and leading her to the man that was a complete stranger to her.

Raz turned towards the children and the girl choked on a gasp as tears jumped to her eyes.

“Scary, aren’t I?” Raz said with a small half smile. “I used to be pretty, once upon a time.” He traced his fingers along the fat, ugly scar that ran down the left side of his face and neck before it disappeared under his shirt. Where the eye had been was sealed closed with a mass of painful looking red flesh. His remaining eye was blue like the ocean and he wore his golden hair in a braid halfway down his broad back.

Ren squeezed her hand and she returned the pressure tenfold. “It’s okay,” he repeated, trying to also convince himself.

“Let me look at you, little one,” Raz lifted the shirt up and shook his head at the emaciated sight, dropping the fabric. “Good lord. How are you not fucking dead? The dens a long way off from here. How long have you been wandering?”

The girl just stared at the floor.

“Answer me, girl. I know you’re no mute.”

“I don’t know,” her voice was small and tired.

“How old are you?”

“Five.”

“Your name?”

“Sakura.”

Raz nodded, “That suits you. Where are your parents?”

“Dead,” she whispered.

“What about your den?”

“They don’t want me.”

Raz sighed, observing the children; one a mess of cherry red tresses and the other deep blue eyes that were unusually clear and bright. He only considered his options for a moment before placing his hands on his knees and pushing himself to his feet, towering above the two children. “Of course they don’t. They can barely manage to put a bite of food into their own mouths. You two go sit. It’s time for supper.”

Ren pulled Sakura to the table and they sat across from each other in silence. The man set a plate down in front of the boy and slowly slid the other before the girl.

“Slowly,” he warned. “You’ll make yourself sick.” Raz monitored her as she ate, gently pushing her hand from her mouth when the pain of hunger became unbearable and she tried to binge it as quickly as possible.

When they finished, he instructed Ren to lay Sakura back down and read aloud to her. The boy obeyed, wrapping the fox in blankets while he sat next to her and read from one of the few books they owned. It didn’t take long for the girl to fall back asleep.

The boy crept from the bed, careful not to wake the tiny creature, and sat down at the table across from the angel who was scribbling notes in a blank paged book.

“Tomorrow we’ll go into the village and order some clothes for her,” the man informed his nephew. “Then we’ll have to go see Maggie about her making something to help restore the girl’s health. I’m surprised that child can move in the state she’s in. Shit, Maggie’s really gonna put me through the ringer for this one.” The angel rubbed his weathered hands against his face, already worn out by the thought.

“So, she’s staying with us?” Ren asked, hopeful.

“Not really any other options for her. The fox den has been slowly starving to death for years and they refuse outside help. I’m sure she ran off when she realized she was going to die there if she didn’t. And the fact that dream fever just swept through them means that it’ll be near impossible for us to find someone to take her in. Fox demons don’t have the best reputation, so unless I want her death on my hands when no one takes her, I’m going to have to be the one to do so.” He looked at the boy, “You certainly are your mother’s child. No qualms in putting someone else’s responsibility on my cross to bear.” Raz smiled sadly at his nephew, his accusation halfhearted. “But you’re still around so you need to help take care of your little stray. Off you go now. Go to sleep. I’ll have to make arrangements to get another bed as well.”

Ren stood, “Thank you, Raz.”

“Yeah, yeah. Go,” he waved him off and returned to jotting in his book.

The boy crawled into bed, taking great care not to wake the girl. Her little hands quickly latched onto his shirt, her fingers twisting the fabric, as she pulled herself against him. He wrapped his arms around her and rested his chin on her scalp.

“My parents are dead, too,” the boy quietly confessed. “I know how you feel. I’ll take care of you. I won’t let you be alone.”

“Promise?” Sakura whispered against his neck.

Ren held her closer, resolute in his intent, “Promise.”