Steel and I both stand by the exit of the building that Vic lives in, but I'm the only one not doing anything as Steel is talking to Vic about what he has to do for me.
"So I just have to bring him here every week or so?"
Vic nods.
I turn up, shading my eye, with a hand, the sun is up and is rising slowly, the day is beginning. I turn my head back down to look at our surroundings.
People, two kids were running around beyond the gate, their mother standing, most likely beside their fathers, again most likely, as they watch their kids playing.
The man is taller than the mother by way more than a few inches. He has the same hair color as the kids and he has a smile on his face. His eyes a light blue hue.
The mother the same as well, she shorter, way shorter, than the man. She has long hair, down to her knees, her eyes different from the man that has his arm over her shoulders, it's a light red color, not a color that's really normal from where I'm from.
'Guess, I really am in a different world?'
A girl with long blonde hair runs around with another boy, he's blonde headed as well, along with the fact they are both white and blue eyed.
'Wow, Germans, in another world.'
The girl is wearing jeans and plain white shirt, she runs around with the boy, wearing exactly the same thing, she laughs and smiles as they both run around together, the boy a bit smaller than the girl taps her back as she was running from him and begins to run in the opposite direction of her.
'They're playing tag.'
My mind was to engaged in the sight of them that I didn't notice Steel staring down at me.
He laughed.
"Wanna play with them?"
I look up at Steel, his muscled figure looking down on me.
I shake my head.
I've never played with anyone besides Marcilene, and for some reason I feel embarrassed to even go over there.
I see them and for a second they pause and look over to me.
I looked away for a second and now I have eyes on me great.
They waved at me, both of them, but not at the same time. First it was the girl then the boy.
I gave a small wave back.
Steel walked out in front of me, I followed closely behind him.
The mother and father that watched the two waved. The father departed the mother, with a kiss and walked out past the gate as well, one similar to ours, he began to walk toward us.
As they both me and Steel crossed the gate of Vic's place, Steel and the father met in the middle, Steel and the other held out one arm each and they both clamped it together with a crisp clap.
"Hello Steel, I found some Kobolts near the forest, along with a Soul Pig."
I pause at those words, trying to make sense of them.
'Kobolts and a Soul Pig?'
Before I could tap Steel to ask what that meant the other two kids walked up to me, they were roughly the same height as me and were looking at me like a trophy.
I wave at them, I felt embarrassed for some reason, I didn't know why.
"H… Hi."
The word got stuck in my throat for a second and then, came out with a squeak.
"Hey."
The boy said to me.
"Hello."
The girl said.
I looked over at them, then looked down to my feet, then back up to them.
They were staring at me, but after a moment, I could tell that they were most likely interested to know what happened with my eye.
"So what's wrong with your eye?"
The girl asks without a moment's thought.
'Well, she's blunt.'
The boy nods his head up and down enthusiastically, as if trying to pry my mouth open with his yes's.
"Is it broken? Is that why you came out of healer Vic's house?"
"Healer Vic…?"
"Yeah, Healer Vic, he's the best and oldest doctor around, he gives people the best way to get rid of an illness, if not he takes it away from them, that's how it is when I get sick."
The girl says about him in such a high regard.
"Oh."
I was confused by what they meant, but it was slowly becoming clear in my head, that Vic is a doctor, in a sense.
"Yeah, he also helped me and your dad get better many times."
The boy says.
"What does your dad… I meant our dad's do?"
The girl and the boy both tilt their heads.
"You don't know?"
Both of them say in unison.
I feel my body shrink back when they ask that, embarrassed of the fact I didn't know what he did.
"There was a time when he came home covered in blood, I think…"
"Really, dad never comes home with blood on him… mostly cause mom would get mad at him."
The boy says with awe.
"Yeah, duh, he would never have entered the house with blood on him, that's disgusting."
The girl comes the her, absent mother's defense.
She turns and points, I follow what she does and look out toward the edge of the village, taking it all in back looking back and forth, because only being able to utilize one eye, is harder than using two.
It's a forest, a giant seemingly endless forest that, looks like it could take up my vision, but they are hidden slightly behind the houses that cover them, that slowly have some people coming at, kids now coming out to play as well.
"They are given the job to patrol the Warren Forest, they protect us during the day time, from elves."
She said that as if to scare me, but the only one she did scare was her brother, that shriveled slightly from her saying that.
I turn my head to her, with a tilt.
"Elves..?"
The girl squinted her eyes at me.
"Were you born yesterday?"
'Okay, no need to diss me.'
The thought was exploding in my head.
"They were the ones that we fought against during the Centennial War, we killed them because they suck the blood of both people and beast men, it was a bloody war, but now peace was been trumping us for a while."
The boy shrugs his shoulder after explaining it like he fought in the war.
"I plan to become a knight so I'm pretty confident with my history."
"Do knights still wet the bed at four years old Wes?"
Wes frowns at his sister.
"Mom told you to stop teasing me about that, Elsa."
Elsa had a smile on her face, like this was her greatest achievement.
"Do they ever find Elves in Warren Forest?"
I ask them as one is embarrassed and another slightly laughing.
"Not really, well since the first ones to enter the forest, the elves have been using its maze like structure to confuse and kill anyone that does know it as well as them."
Wes says to start.
"They just walk around the edge of the Forest or a few feet in and come back out, plus, many times there is a dangerous monster inside that they have to take care of themselves so that it doesn't break down anything near the village."
Elsa finishes it.
'They really are twins.'
"So, you going to tell us about your eye."
My hand crawls up to my eye and taps the soft tissue like thing covering it.
"My eye was bleeding and I couldn't see out of it."
My tone slowly changed as I talked to both of them, or well as they talked to me, I slowly began to get more comfortable with them, but not to much.
"Really?! Wow!"
Wes sounded like I just told him about a real life Excalibur.
"I hope your okay."
Else with a different approach, asks me kindly.
I nod, both of them take a breath.
Then for a few second the conversation dies down, no longer having anything to talk about.
Steel finishes his and begins to walk around me after another crisp clap of their hands as they collide together.
Looking up at the two fathers and the. Toward the other two kids in front of me I close my hands into tight fists and speak:
"My name is Lazuli…"
'I did it, I introduced myself.'
Elsa smiles at me, she seemed to see the in unease in my face, I think.
Then Wes looked at me confused.
"Hi, Lazuli."
Elsa waved at me.
"Yeah, hey Lazuli."
Wes waved after.
Steel saw this and smiled, before he slowly guided me away from the two other kids.
I wave as I walk away from them, my one eye looking at both of them at two separate times.
They both wave back.
Steel waves as well, and so does their other, before:
"Okay kids, it's time to come and eat."
The mother of them calls for them, and they rush over toward the gate, Wes being tripped on the way by Elsa and making her enter it first, while the father has to help pick up Wes and pat him down.
Steel ruffles my hair and smiles at me.
"If you ever want to play with them, just ask me, okay?"
He told me his eye shined with a reflection of the light coming off of it.
I smiled back.
"Okay."