Two hundred and six children. Did they even know how much that would cost me? They would eat the hairs of my head if I didn´t watch out for it. At least we could take over the abduction business now, with a few more rules of course. If a noble wanted to torture a citizen to death, sure he could do that, but no more children!
“Slowly … you have to eat slowly, and then you can have more, okay?” I asked one of the saved children who was eating a bun. Naturally, I couldn’t check on him as I still had to go to a lot of other children while mages ran around, healing the wounded children one by one.
I already heard one of the children puking behind me and he didn´t stop convulsing until I was beside him and patted his back gently.
“Hey, hey, take it slowly.” I said to him in a gentle tone but was soon interrupted by a crying child right next to me. This was seriously too much work for the people here. We didn´t even come close to fifty people while we had to check two hundred little humans in desperate need of help and attention.
I already had Laura who was following me behind, pulling on my dress whenever I was too fast for her. She was kind of cute though, so that was alright. She and the other werewolf kids were the ones we had to worry about the least, even though they were all quite shocked that they were captured inside their own home. The few babies the werewolves had though … well that was another story altogether as very few knew how to take care of them until a few housemothers from the orphanage arrived. At least we managed to hospitalize those in a very critical situation, naturally by paying upfront.
A few hours later, we could send a few healthier kids to the orphanage where they would stay until we found their family, or if that wasn’t possible, forever. Well, I naturally didn´t wish that for them, but I knew the chances of finding their parents were slim. Most were probably abducted from the slums after all.
“Hey … I want to see my mum.” Laura asked after I helped to lift up another kid on a cart.
“Laura … I´m sure we will find her.” I said, looking gently into her eyes.
“But she is nearby!” Laura claimed, looking a bit angry at me.
“Nearby?” I asked, seemingly confused.
“In the house …” She said and pointed towards the entrance of her old home which was guarded by two men.
“… you lived here?” I asked swiftly afterwards.
“… yes? Is that bad?” She said, tripling from one foot onto the other.
“No, no, not at all. Could you … could you gather all the others who lived there?” I asked, tilting my head slightly. She nodded and then rushed off to gather her fellow ex-puppies.
Meanwhile, I walked away from the masses, waiting for a group of thirteen children to arrive in front of me, including Jacob who looked at me with an uneasy expression.
“Jacob, can I have a word with you?” I asked sternly and distanced myself from the group while he followed me. “You were part of the Wolf Street Gang?”
“… yes.” I exhaled loudly and scratched my cheek.
“This is … your group was dragged into a gang war. I fear nobody survived except you.” I said and looked down on the ground.
“I accept any punishment.” Oh, right. He was seen as an adult in front of the law and being a member of a criminal group is a capital offence… if they can prove you belong to one that is.
“I see … make sure they don’t tell anyone. And tell them … tell them their parents are gone.” I said, put my hand on his shoulder out of pity and strode past him. I left him alone with all his emotions but realistically, there wasn’t anything I could do in the first place.
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An hour later or so, Laura was back at my dress, this time with teary eyes. At least someone familiar could tell her what happened and not a complete stranger like me. As the work lessened considerably during the time and the victims were transported away, I had a bit of resting time. Pulling the only slightly shorter Laura into my lap, I leaned against a nearby wall and sat down. It didn´t take long for her to start crying onto my shoulder while I patted her back slowly.
This was also what I had done. I could have saved every werewolf, but I wasn’t even sure if I would have done that if I knew about the Dschinn. They killed kids after all. I saved a lot of children, but I also hurt a few others and I was sure I could never rectify that. But I would try nonetheless … and I wouldn’t buckle to Aska´s demands a second time.
“It´s going to be alright … it´s going to be alright…” I repeated time and time again while I looked at the last children being transported away to the orphanage. Somewhere along the line, Mary came to me and sat beside me, her mouth curved downwards, her eyelids reddened by tears.
“We need to get going as well.” She said after several minutes and took Laura by the hand. I stood up as well as the child refused to let me go outright. Smiling wryly, I took Laura´s other hand and together, we walked towards our carriage.
“Where are Hannah and Tom?” I asked, looking around but not finding them anywhere.
“Hannah is directing the servants of the mansion to pay anyone who has experience in giving psychological support. And Tom … I think he is buying medicine. At least I hope that.” Oh, I knew what kind of medicine he would buy. Something for them to sleep, because that’s what they needed the most.
“Aand … hop!” I said and helped Laura jump into the carriage. Afterwards, I helped Mary inside as well, and then jumped into it, nearly tripping over in the process. After an awkward second, I sat down right next to Laura, placing her in between me and Mary. My hand touched hers as the carriage tucked along the street, leaving her old home behind. After a short while, she leaned over to me and rested her head against my shoulder. I followed suit, placing my cheek on her hair and closed my eyes.
“How do you do that?” Mary asked, twenty minutes or so later. Laura breathed slowly and showed no reaction at all. She was asleep.
“What do you mean?” I asked, while slowly opening my eyes.
“Being so cheerful around her after you …” She said, but trailed off into the distance.
“After I murdered her parents? It is simple. It is either me or the streets. There are no other options for children in this city.” I stated without a hint of doubt. In the rural areas, children can live with their extended family, but in this city, it was mostly each on their own.
“And you? Don’t you have any problems?” Did she mean that I destroyed Laura´s family?
“I have no remorse. I did what I had to do.” I claimed and looked out of the window, waking up Laura in the process.
“We have arrived!” I exclaimed and waited for Laura to stand up. I followed suit as Laura jumped out of the carriage while Mary waved her goodbye. I closed the door behind me afterwards, waiting for the carriage to leave while I was immediately swarmed by twenty or so children who all ran up to me.
“Lucy, Lucy! Where have you been?” Asked a little boy.
“I missed you!” Said Leonie, eyeing Laura with hidden displeasure.
“You promised you would come by every day!” Rupert exclaimed, not caring about Laura at all.
“I´m so sorry … but I had something really important to do. But I want to make up for it … so I am staying for the night?” I laughed happily as most of the kids immediately began to cheer up. “This is Laura. She´ll be in our care from now on, so please treat her well.” I said and looked into each and everyone´s eye. I would need a bit more time to convince them, but I was willing to invest as much as I needed.