[15 years ago]
It was winter and it was raining, in front of a small house was a little girl playing in the rain. She was collecting a handful of mud and running back inside. There she was shaping the mud into different objects, Swords, daggers, persons, animals and many more. Everytime she ran out of mud, she went and collected more.
Inside the house a young woman was looking at the little girl playing. She had a smile on her face as she saw the girl having fun.
'This is for the best, she has done nothing wrong.' The woman thought to herself. Which she would do everytime she sees the girl's smile. The womans named Rena Axas and the girl outside is her daughter Lucy Axas.
She looked content just looking Lucy playing when she suddenly saw two shadows walking towards them.
"Lucy, come inside." she took Lucy inside and stood outside looking at newcomers. It was a man and a woman who seemed fairly young, but looks can be deceiving when it comes to mages. She was extremely cautious as she stood in front of the door.
"Sorry for bothering you misses, we are new in the city and would like to ask if any homes here are for sale that you are aware of." The man asked as he looked a few small houses in the surrounding.
"The one to your left is for sale, but it is fairly expensive, you can talk to the city lord about it." Rena answered as she looked was ready to act if they tried anything. Seeing her reaction the woman spoke up. "No need to be so tense, but thank you for help. We've got to take our leave now." the she started leaving, the man followed her.
Seeing them leave Rena sighed in relieve.
The next day Rena saw the 2 move in to the house 'Seem to be rich people' she thought to herself. Told Lucy to stay inside and wait for her as she took off with 2 daggers hanging from her waist.
Lucy, felt very lonely being left behind, for as long as she remembered this kept happening and she did not know why her mother would leave. She felt like her mother did not care for her and would leave her to go rest. She being a kid naturally did not understand the costs for food and the taxes that come with living, she did not know that her mother was out there risking her life to secure a living for them. But one can't blame her for having these thoughts and feelings, after all, she is only a child.
One day as Rena was about to head out Lucy hugged her leg.
"Can I come too mommy?" She said as she looked her mother with tears in her eyes. Rena seeing this shook her head as she put a hand on her cheek.
"Lucy, when you grow older I will take you with me, for now, just wait for me to come back. I'll be early today and I'll make you some sweets. Alright?" Lucy reluctantly went back inside, seeing her like this Rena could do nothing but look sad. As she was about to head out, the woman who had moved in, which she learned was called Lune came towards her.
"Going hunting again? mind if I join?" She said, she was wearing dark green clothes with bow in her hand and a quiver full of arrows behind her back.
"Ah, sure, i could use some company." Rena answered, they both then went hunting.
A year passed in this manner, Rena and Lune became very close friends as they kept going hunting together. She also came to know her husband Aaron. Lucy seemed to also like her mother's new friends a lot. Whenever Lune and Rena were out hunting, Aaron would play with her. She began to feel like she had a father in her life and these feelings kept increasing. In her own mind she considered Lune and Aaron as mother and father figures, just like her real mother. She was very attached to them. Rena who could see her daughter be geniunly happy could not help but be happy herself. That year was the best moment of Rena's life as she truly felt like she did something for her daughter.
It was morning and Rena was about to head out hunting, Lune and Aaron were out of town for a week now, Lucy had just turned five too. After saying goodbye to Lucy, Rena took of hunting. Lucy however did not go inside, she waited a bit and followed her mother from behind.
It didn't take long for Rena to reach the forest, Lucy was walking behind her the whole time. She saw as Rena would kill beast after beast, she had never her mother like that and had sparkles in her eyes, she kept following behind her for 2 hours. As Rena kept killing magic beasts, Lucy held her as omnipotent and walked closer to her.
While were in the forest, Aaron and Lune were back at the city. When they reached their house and could not find Rena, they figured she was hunting, Lune went to their home to bring Lucy over. When she got there she could not her anywhere, after she went inside and did not see Lucy she felt a crisis and instantly Ran towards to forest, Aaron who saw her reaction picked up his sword and ran behind her.
Back in the forest Rena was fighting a humanoid monster, it looked like a mix of man and wolf. It was called Werewolf. They were dangerous creatures, but the one Rena was fighting was wounded already and looked very tired. Rena believed herself to be capable of killing a wounded werewolf and she was right as well, as the beast was slowly dying. in a few more minutes the wolf will be dealt with.
'Just a bit more and I won't have to hunt for a month.' Rena thought, she always felt guilty for leaving Lucy alone but she had no choice and this beast would give her a month worth of funds that she can use to pay for the costs and spend the time with Lucy.
Rena was wielding her daggers as if she was dancing, she would block the claws of the beasts and stab at its join in a fluent motion that gave the beast no chance to land a hit on her. Her daggers were cloaked in sharp wind magic which allowed for her to barely damage the beast, but that was not enough. She used the wind surrounding her daggers to use a technique which released a small cyclone towards the werewolf, lifting it up high before crashing it down on the ground.
Lucy seeing this ran forward "Mommy is so cool!" when Rena heard that, she felt her heart stop, she looked behind to see Lucy running towards her. The werewolf used that moment to cut at her with its claws. Rena tried to block the claws with her daggers but it was too late, all she did was deflect the claws from cutting her in half.
[Slash!] She was launched into a tree with a dagger flying from her hand.
[BOOM!] Rena crashed into the tree, spitting out blood from her mouth. She had deep clawmarks across her chest and her right hand broken with the bone sticking out.
"huff.... Lucy! RUN!" Rena however had no time to even feel her injuries, the moment her feets touched the ground she ran towards the werewolf again, it was however hopeless. She could not dodge its attacks anymore and the wounds slowly started to pile up on each other, the best she could do is not to take any fatal wounds.
Lucy stood there frozen like a statue, she did not understand what was happening, one moment the monster was dead and the next her mother was wounded with the monster alive again. Seeing her standing there Rena could not help but feel a crisis, if Lucy ran away she would be able to run from the werewolf and take her out of the forest with her. "LUCY RUN!! I'M RIGHT BEHIND YOU! GO!"
Lucy started to tremble in fear, fear of death, fear of not seeing her mother again. Many emotions started build up inside her as she started crying.
"Mommy I'm scared." she said in an almost incoherent voice. Seeing her not run still Rena's eyes flashed with determination. She once more used a cyclone to hurl the beast in the air and started running towards Lucy. The tornado however was weaker than when it was used with both daggers, resulting in the werewolf breaking out of it as it started to run behind Rena.
Rena not being aware of it reached her hands to pick Lucy up
[Pssshht!]
[Blurgh!]
It happened in a instant, Lucy saw a sight that would haunt her for the rest of her life. A claw dripping with blood was in her face just slightly away from her face. She looked up to see Rena smiling at her with blood flowing out her mouth. "Go Lucy, don't look back, I'm right behind you." Rena said as she used every ounce of her remaining mana to cast a skill, her dagger shone with a green color as wind started to swirl around it. The skill Is called Moon Pierce, it is the skill she created herself. Her technique she was always using where all from this skill, unlike the technique which are only small pieces of the skill, the skill itself is an all out attack that is much more powerful. She lifted her dagger and stabbed it into the arm sticking out her stomach in an attempt to trap it for a bit so that Lucy could get away.
Lucy did just as her mother told her, she ran away and did not look back. Tears were flowing like a river as she heard her mothers screams and the sound of flesh ripping. As she was getting farther away a shadow ran past her and before long a person called out to her.
"Lucy! Where Rena!?" it was Aaron who asked it but his question got answered as a whimper of a beast was heard which followed with silence. He picked Lucy up and ran towards the sound, just to be frozen by the sight. He instinctively hugged her and locked her head in his chest. He saw Lune holding Rena's upper body in her arms as she was crying silent tears. Her lower body cut in many pieces with the werewolf laying on the ground.
Lune put her body in her mana ring, took Lucy and went back towards the city. Aaron who was left behind looked up to the sky conjured a flame to burn the beast to ashes before leaving for the city as well.
Back in the city Lune held a funeral for Rena, Lucy's eyes were red as she kept crying with no tears left to shed. "Your mother gave her life for you Lucy, remember that." Lune said as she crouched in front of her and patted her head. "So you have to live for both yourself and her, make sure you do your best to have fun for the both of you... [sniff] oke?" She could not help but cry as well. Her friends death was painful enough, but seeing her daughter like this broke her hearth.
"Come, let's go home." Aaron said as he picked Lucy up. Lucy started lived with Aaron and Lune together. both them considered her as their own child even before the Rena's death so they had no qualms about adopting her. Aaron would always practice with Lucy but never thought her swordsmanship, he'd show her a bit but he would never teach her.
....
.....
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In that fashion 5 years passed, Lucy was standing before her mothers grave.
"Mommy, my mana ring formed, I can take care of myself now mommy so don't worry about me ok [sniff] Mr. River is so nice to me, he and Ms. Soel took care of me for such a long time. I heard that magic can do anything, there must be someone that can bring you back. I miss you so much [sniff], I will become strong enough to bring you back. Just rest a bit longer mommy." Lune who was watching her shook her head, she knew that Lucy was blaming herself. She would often wake up screaming during the night or would silently cry in bed for her mother. Lune was always there to her help sleep, but even though she treated her like her own child. She was not a replacement for her mother and she knew that, so she just did whatever she could do for her.
"Lucy, let's go. our mana cart is here, if we don't go now we might wait for 6 months more." Aaron put a hand on her head as they left.