"MAMA! MAMA!" the sapling cries as I try to calm him. But each time I tried to do so, he only violently fought back against me.
"Shh, it's alright, I'll keep you safe." I coo to him as I bring him back into the room we hid ourselves away in.
"NO! YOU HURT MAMA! YOU HURT HER!" he cried as he suddenly escaped my grip and fell on a pile of old cloth.
"No... She needed to make sure the place was safe..."
"Mama hurt because of you!" he sobs as he rubs his eyes. And only anger ever came from his gaze when he looked my way.
"Stupid brat..." I mutter under my breath as I lean by the entrance with a spell in hand. I could not expect the sapling to understand what had transpired. So I just kept my focus on the issues at hand. I just needed that woman to make it clear who it was that was attacking.
Yet, outside of the sound of crying, I could not hear anything outside. It was getting very quiet out there... The loud bangs I heard moments ago had stopped and I could sense no magic. However, I dared not leave the safety of this narrow, one-way path.
"It shouldn't be taking this long!" I then let out in frustration as I stormed out towards the end of the path. Sending out a preemptive blast of magic to clear the area around the entrance. Only to be met with nothing but blowback as the magic came back towards me.
No one had come up the stairs and nothing had changed since I sent her down there. So what was going on? Whatever it was, it motivated me to at least move further until I reached the window. And I had little reaction to the violence I could see.
"Wonderful." I sarcastically answer as I look at the burning bodies down below. Whoever just came through here had torched that small campsite as well. It was likely every one of those humans was dead too. But there was a body below that was just bloody...
So I quickly headed outside towards it and glanced down at it. Staring briefly at the firearm before I looked onwards at the growing cloud of smoke. This body was not uniformed in any way and it was just a vile, root-like thing anyway. So I went back into the keep with a disgusted expression.
Firing off one more spell at the corpse before I properly headed inside again. However it was, I could not care. I just had to care for the sapling for the moment. Make sure it understood as best as it could what was going to happen.
A shame it's mother was now gone, but I had no issue with it. I could now do my duty for this sapling without issues. I would deliver it to our Garden-Mount and nurture it there. Then, I would head back for my Love.
Maybe, finally understand how I could make him mine!
"MAMA!" the sapling squealed once again as I walked in. The utter horror that I saw on his face when I walked in made me uncomfortable. Why was he looking at me like that? I was here to help him...
"Shhh, shhh!" I coo to him once again as I tried to reach out for him. Only to be attacked by the younglings who then carried on crying. So I just watched him cry and scream until he just fell down in exhaustion. At which point, I picked him up.
I then moved him over to where I had made a bed for him and laid him down on it. Sitting beside him while keeping my eyes locked on the entrance to this room. If someone was still out there, I would stop them. And while one hand maintained a spell, the other stroked the little one's hair.
Yet, even asleep, he still recoiled at my touch. So, eventually, I stopped trying to soothe him and I just let him sleep. I don't understand why, though, but what he had said was lingering in my mind. I was having arguments with a sapling in my head and losing them...
"Certainly take from your father..." I joke in an effort to ease up on the stress this spell was causing. The moments I had been holding it in had turned into what must've been hours. But still, no one came, and I was forced to let it go. Blasting apart the entrance and collapsing what was beyond it.
It was, however, a mild complication I could sort out later. For now, however, I chose to go to sleep beside the sapling. With the entrance collapsed, I would not have to worry about anyone getting in. We were safe for the moment.