Sword and Snow

I froze at first, as she responded to the touch by retreating from it. More or less expected, I supposed, after what she had gone through. As her eyes slowly began to open, she seemed to suddenly come to all at once and scrambled up to her knees, scuttling slightly away from me.

The sudden burst of movement also startled Avuri out of her meditation. We both were afraid to make any sudden movements and scare the girl further.

After the burst of excitement, the girl seemed to lose her energy and settle into an emptiness that shook me to my core. Her eyes were devoid of any light as she stared forward seeing nothing. I desperately fought the urge to gather her up and tell her it would be alright, knowing that sort of action would just scare her.

Avuri spoke first. “Hello,” she tried, as warmly as she could. Just at the sound of her voice, the girl half flinched.

“Hey. It’s okay.” I tried to say, quietly and without any sort of sharp tone of voice. I leaned down to the side from my seated position, making sure I wasn’t leaning toward her, to try to enter her line of vision.

She flinched again, but there was still no life in her eyes.

“Those guys are gone. You’re safe with us.” I tried again, knowing that such words were virtually useless. She was entirely shut down.

I went quiet for a while, as Avuri tried to talk her around. I had to hand it to the girl, she gave off an impressive motherly aura. Such a thing was…certainly beyond me.

I wanted something that could get the girl to come around, or at least pull her out of the deadened state she was in.

While I was lost in thought, Avuri produced a plate, which she placed on the table. Following that was several skewers of meat, and a few other smaller plates of snacks that she must have found around the compound.

“You must be hungry,” she said to the girl, “please help me eat these.” With a smile, Avuri picked up a skewer and began to nibble at it. She glanced meaningfully at me, and I followed suit, picking up a skewer to nibble at.

The girl continued to stare blankly ahead, the food appearing to have no effect.

I took a deep breath. “Do you have a family? Or know where your mother or father might be?”

There was a small spark, as the girl’s eyes widened just a little, then got misty. She shook her head, shutting her eyes closed tightly.

I felt terrible after asking, knowing that this sort of reaction was all that would await me, but any reaction was better than none at this point. She needed to let some emotion through to even begin to process anything; entirely shutting down would only make it worse.

I shifted a plate on the table closer to the girl, as she shifted to pull her legs up to her chest and hugged her knees. She took a moment to stare absently at the plate before, finally, tears began to well up in earnest, and she put her head down on her knees to cry.

Avuri and I exchanged a look for a moment before continuing to slowly munch away at the food.

The girl cried for a few minutes, without ever getting too loud. Eventually, it seemed like her hunger won out, and scooted to the table and began eating through the tears.

I tentatively slid closer to her. She didn’t react negatively as before, so I pulled out a small clean cloth from my new pack, and reached forward to try to clean off some of her face. She let me do so without protest.

“Here, I’m sure that food would taste better without the tears.” I said, trying to wipe up some of the tears and snot running down her face. She pulled the skewer in her hand away so I could clean her up a bit as she sniffled loudly. The instant I pulled away, she resumed eating.

I gave her a warm smile. “Do you have a name?”

She continued eating for a moment, before shaking her head wordlessly.

Something in her eyes told me she was lying. It was possible she had been captured by the sect years ago and didn’t know her own name or parents, but it was exceedingly unlikely that a child in that position would have lived so long.

It was more likely she had either decided to not use her name anymore after something she had seen or been through, or, perhaps even more likely, been mentally broken by the demonic sect. Either way, it left a bad taste in my mouth.

“We should give you one, then.” I said, trying to sound at least a little up-beat. “We can’t keep referring to you as ‘the girl’ all the time. Is that okay?”

She looked at me, her mouth still full, and gave the smallest of nods. The corner of her eyes were still gathering tears.

Now that she was at least nominally responsive, I looked her over more carefully. She was absolutely encrusted with dirt, grime, and blood. I could barely see any skin on her beyond her face that wasn’t dirty. Her hair was cut short and so full of dirt that I couldn’t even tell what color it actually was.

And then there were the rags she was wearing. I had ignored it until now, but she was quite literally wearing rags that were poorly stitched together into what was basically nothing more than a tabard and cinched with a rope at the waist. It was practically useless as clothing.

I stopped eating and rummaged through the backpack for a large shirt I had found. It should function like a dress for her.

“Miss Axies, you know ice and water techniques, yes? Could you help me clean her up?” I asked, producing a bar of soap and a second clean cloth.

Avuri turned to me, startled, with a mouthful of meat. She nodded as she hurried to swallow. “I can do that, sure.” She grabbed up the soap and cloth, pulling some Qi forth to wet them.

With most of the food gone, and the girl fully fed, we decided to take her into one of the buildings to wash up. It took some coaxing as the girl didn’t seem interested in moving much, but we successfully got her into the building that had been used as living quarters, given the beds and storage trunks around the biggest room.

We were particularly lucky to find a simple but large wooden basin in a back room that was clearly used to bathe. Avuri took some time to fill it up as I pulled the dirty, bloody rags off the girl’s body. Many of them were stuck to her with dried blood and dirt.

I had Avuri wet the washcloth and added some soap for a sort of preliminary wash down, aiming to scrub as much of the dried blood and dirt of the girl as I could. Even before she got into the bath to be truly scrubbed down, I had to swap out the washcloth more than once due to it just getting so covered in gunk that it wasn’t really cleaning her any more.

After several passes, I finally had her clean enough that I was confident she could get into the tub without immediately making the water gross and dirty. She did as instructed when we told her to step into the basin, and she sat quietly, uncomfortably still, as we scrubbed her down once more to get her fully clean.

Every time we touched her, I was careful not to use too much pressure or otherwise scare her. She was constantly flinching and locking up as it was already. I didn’t want to cause further harm. Even if she somehow believed that we wouldn’t hurt her, there was no way her body could trust that.

Once Avuri and I were pleased enough with her cleanliness we had her step out so we could dry her off and drape the new over-large shirt over her. I also cut a pair of pants into strips to fashion a belt to cinch it around her waist. I tried to keep it loose to avoid scaring her.

As I wrapped the final bit of cloth around her midsection, I gave her a once over to be sure she was clean. The scent of snow and mountains clung to her hair after the wash. “How about ‘Cierra’?” I asked, tying off the makeshift belt. I moved back to appreciate my handiwork.

The simple shirt was definitely too big, and was folded in upon itself to compensate somewhat. The overall effect was pretty cute, though. It looked like a child wearing their parent’s clothes.

“Cierra?” Avuri asked, looking at the girl, considering.

“Yes. Now that she’s clean, she smells like a fresh, snowy mountain. No good?” I said, with a smile down at the child. Avuri nodded, seeming satisfied.

The girl in question stared at me, with just a slight look of life returning to her eyes, as she looked down to watch as I wrote her potential new name in the dirt. “Spelled just like this,” I said.

She looked at it for a moment, as if committing it to memory. Then she nodded, and bent down to write it herself, once, then once again.

I bent down in front of her and looked over her clean - though still limp - onyx hair. One of her blue eyes peeked up at me while the other remained closed. I met her stare, and she almost immediately turned away to avoid eye contact. My heart broke a little more as I flinched and said, “You’ll be okay. I promise,” knowing full well it would do nothing for her.

“So what exactly are you planning to do with her now, Miss Vale?” Avuri asked, also crouching down to be roughly eye level with us, though Cierra continued to avoid looking at us.

“I’ll adopt her.” I said, the words leaving my mouth before I had time to even think. I blinked in momentary shock, realizing that I wasn’t kidding. The girl - Cierra - continued to copy her new name in the dirt. Each attempt devolved further and further into nonsense.

“Are…are you serious?” Avuri asked. She sounded less shocked than her choice of words implied. “That’s a lot of work.” The two of us stared at Cierra. I had a small smile slowly making its way onto my face.

“I am. I have my reasons.” I said, putting as much earnestness into my words as I could. “I’ll figure something out. But I’m not leaving her to someone else to deal with. I’ll do it myself.” I nodded, as if convincing or reassuring myself.

Avuri studied my face for a long, drawn-out moment. “Well, alright then.” She finally declared, seeming somehow satisfied. “I suppose I may as well take my leave. Things here seem more or less wrapped up, and I have plenty more to do before I return to my sect.”

I side-eyed Avuri, giving her a once over. “Thank you. Truly. Your help is quite literally why this girl is alive right now.”

She let out a weak laugh. “Make sure she stays that way, yeah?” Looking toward the sky, she added, “You too.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Oh? Well, you as well then. No dying until we’ve properly paid you back.” I said with a small grin.

Her head snapped down to face me. “Planning on paying me back, hm?” There was a slightly greedy glint in her beautiful purple eyes. Their shine took me off guard. “You know where to find me - but where would I find you?”

I shrugged. “No idea. I’ve got no real home. Maybe that’s something I can work on now.” I said, pointedly facing toward Cierra. “Don’t think I’d want to force a…4? 5? Year-old to be always traveling.”

Avuri nodded. “Good idea. If you do find a place, send me a note. I’ll come visit.” Avuri turned toward me with a brilliant smile. It felt entirely out of place at the moment. “There’s something oddly intriguing about you, Miss Emery Vale. I’d like to find out what, exactly.”

I scoffed, waving off her comment. “Nothing to see here, honestly. Just your average Cultiva-”

“-that can slaughter a sizable group of bandits, several of whom were of roughly similar level, single-handedly, with barely a scratch. Yeah.” Avuri cut me off, with a bit of a grin. “You’re an interesting one, Miss Vale. And I’m looking forward to meeting you again.”

I sighed, looking at the sparkling light in her eyes. “Sure. I’ll send a note or something.”

“Good.” She said, inclining her head from her squatting position. “See you again, Miss Vale.”

I inclined my head from my own crouch, "And you, Miss Axies."

Following that, Avuri shifted toward where Cierra was writing in the dirt and stared at her for a moment, maybe hoping to get the girl’s attention. Cierra looked up at her, though still wouldn’t meet her eyes.

"Cierra. I'm glad I could help you." Avuri said, with a warm smile. "I hope I'll get to see you again, too."

Cierra stared up and passed Avuri for a moment, her eyes darting around, trying to take in everything at once. But still not quite full of life. She muttered a quiet thank you that was barely audible. Her voice was faded and hoarse. It looked like it took her some effort to get even the two small words out.

Avuri’s smile turned somehow warmer, and she moved to place her hand on Cierra’s hair, but the girl froze at the near contact. Avuri stopped before she touched Cierra, but otherwise didn't seem too upset.

Avuri gave Cierra one more smile, said "You're very welcome," then stood.

With the farewells said, after a more formal deep bow of farewell, Avuri's body flooded with Qi and she leapt up and over the nearest wall to the compound, leaving Cierra and myself alone.

We looked toward each other, still not quite meeting eyes, for a long moment. "So," I said, "are you…okay? Staying with me, I mean."

Cierra considered for a moment, then nodded.

"Are you sure? We can always find a nearby town or village to take you in."

The girl shook her head. "No…I’ll…stay.." Her voice still came out hoarse and scratchy, but clearer than before.

I sighed, a small smile on my face, as I walked up to Cierra. She flinched as I approached, so I only offered her my hand. "Well okay then. Let's go find ourselves a home."

Cierra eyed my hand cautiously for a moment, before she gingerly placed hers in mine. I stood there a moment before awkwardly asking, "Is it okay if I pick you up and carry you? I can travel much faster that way."

Cierra froze again, but after a moment, nodded silently. I slowly scooped her up, easily carrying her thin, nearly emaciated body with my Aurical strength. Her body was horrifically frail and light - so much so that I felt almost sick while holding her.

I cuddled the girl to my chest, my resolve firming once more, as I dumped some Qi into my body and leapt away.