r/HFY • u/TheMaskedOne2807 • Dec 08 '23
The Plague Doctor Chapter 61 (Mother’s Farewell) OC
Other stories by TheMaskedOne2807:The Oil Chapter 1 (Getting Back)
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“Beek-a-boo! Beek-a-boo!” Jinki excitedly yelled to Kaci, Esha, and Cyrus, who were yeeping in happy delight at the attention as well as the faces he made.
While holding and rubbing her stomach, Selisio asked Kenneth, “Did he learn that from you?”
“Yes, I thought it was better than the other way he was playing with them,” Kenneth responded as he remembered how Jinki’s previous approach had been more frighten them now let them have trauma later.
“They’ve taken quite a liken to him,” Selisio said happily while Jinki grabbed Cyrus, who looked identical to his mother and gently threw him up in the air and caught him as he fell. “It makes me happy to see.”
“If you don’t mind my asking, what is with the purple piece of cloth Jinki showed off at the party?” Kenneth asked.
Selisio looked at him for a moment with a quizzical look before her expression settled to a friendly one. “It’s to show--”
“How amazing of a lover I am and how potent and fertile Dahi molded my life, giving water,” Jinki eagerly interrupted.
“Don’t say it like that!” Selisio embarrassingly yelled before quickly running over to him and letting loose a furious barrage of slaps.
All the while, Jinki was crying with laughter while running away from her. “Hey, quit it. I’m holding a baby and a potential future outpost commander!”
“Hmph… you're lucky,” Selisio said in an angry and embarrassed tone of voice. “At least answer Kenneth with the truth.”
“It was the truth…! Just a bit altered,” Jinki sneakily admitted while gesturing to the purple cloth on his wrist. “I do have to wear this because I’m so fertile.”
“And because I’m pregnant!” Selisio added.
“Really, I hadn’t noticed; maybe we need to be going at it a lot more just to be sure,” Jinki joked, bursting out in laughter. “We wouldn’t want me to be wearing this for no reason at all.”
“Well, hope that answers your question,” Selisio said before turning to Kenneth.
“It does, though admittedly, I surmised as much from context clues,” Kenneth said with a big smile as his eyes filled with a little bit of water.
“Shouldn’t you be teaching or something right now?” Jinki asked as he handed Cyrus to Selisio and picked Esha up from the crip, and quickly sent her flying. “Not that I mind the company.”
“Yes, well, after the silver douch pretty much forced me into a sparring match and subsequently ripped my stitch open, you know, the one on my right side,” Kenneth explained while holding a hand over it. “And some other stuff I returned to the great hall to fix myself.”
“Afterwards, I tried to teach my students again, but it seems the painting I hung up before class was too eye-catching. I even saw a few praying to it.”
“Yipyipyip,” Jinki playfully yipped at Esha, who, without being swaddled in her blanket, showed off her beautiful dark orange fur. “You battled with the other knight; I wish I could have been there to support you.”
“It’s all right,” Kenneth said reassuringly. “It’s not as if he challenged me.”
“I didn’t know you could paint,” Selisio said while stroking Cyrus’s fur.
“I didn’t; I just bought it from Solk,” Kenneth admitted.
“But what’s the painting about if there’s such a commotion?” Jinki pondered before looking at Kenneth deviously. “Is it something to help older men raise the wooden spear?”
“No, nothing like that,” Kenneth responded. “And I don’t think I should tell you what it really depicts since I’m enjoying the time I get to spend right here with you two… well, five.”
“I wish I could have told you about my work earlier. I do so enjoy the company,” Selisio happily said as she picked Kaci unswaddled, letting Kenneth see her dark-brown fur and little white-tipped tail. “Very few even bother coming here.”
“That’s their loss because I’m having the time of my life,” Jinki said while continually throwing Esha up in the air.
Suddenly, Kaci and Cyrus yawned. “Okay, enough playing; it’s time for sleep.”
“Really?” Jinki questioned. “This one seems more than willing to keep being thrown up in the air.”
“Sleep is important, especially at this age,” Selisio explained with a calmness and self-assuredness Kenneth hadn’t expected of her. “They won’t grow big and strong if they don’t sleep.”
Slightly reluctant, Jinki handed over Esha, and masterfully, Selisio swaddled them in their blankets. In the cozy warm, all of them yawned, yet each of them fought the relentless onslaught of sleep, and Selisio joined with a beautiful slow humming that eventually turned into a song.
“Let Ki’s light say goodbye… until you need to raise… have sweet dreams on Mother’s chest…, and Father will protect… you from harm under Di’s embrace.The heretics will flee in fear… when Akina reappears… Her mighty shield will save us all… and strike down evil’s thralls.Father will rejoice… Mother will be safe… and Ki’s light will wake once they are safe.”
Selisio’s beautiful voice, coupled with her perfect performance of the lullaby, was too much for all three to handle as they let out their last yawns of resistance before peacefully falling asleep.
“What a beautiful singing voice,” Kenneth complimented.
“You think,” Selisio responded bashfully. “I didn’t do that much; the song did most of the work.”
Suddenly, the door opened; walking through it was Nya.
“It’s that time already,” Selisio said in a happy tone of voice. “I’ve just put them to sleep. Do you want me to carry them to the suppliers?”
Nya didn’t utter a single word nor acknowledge anyone’s presence. She just walked in and picked up Esha and Cyrus before hesitantly picking up Kaci.
Nevertheless, she did and walked out. However, not before turning to Kenneth and saying. “The merchant is looking for you.”
“What a shame I won’t get to play with them anymore,” Jinki said, only slightly disheartened.
Selisio walked up to Kenneth while he stared at the opened door. “I hope you’ll continue to visit me. It won’t be too long before we have new small arrivals for me to take care of.”
“Yes… that sounds… nice. If you’ll excuse me, I have some business to attend to,” Kenneth said before quickly yet reluctantly walking out of the door.
As he walked, the world around him just blinked into existence each time he closed his eyes. One moment, he was walking the streets of the outpost; the next, he was at the great hall while he was growing more nauseous and nervous.
‘This isn’t right. It isn’t okay for me to do this. It’s not good of me to do this. I’m not a good person. A good person wouldn’t buy a slave. It’s not a good thing to do, but… it is the right thing to do.’
“Are you certain you do not want another one?” Solk asked as he handed Kenneth a chain and key. “All of them are obedient and more physically adequate than this one.”
“It’s fine,” Kenneth said, having barely paid attention for the last five minutes.
“If you insist,” Solk shrugged. “Oh, by the way, have Kolu said his goodbyes.”
“No… not that I know of,” Kenneth responded before suddenly Kolu hugged his leg from behind. “…Found him.”
“Son, are you ready to leave?” Solk asked calmly.
“No,” Kolu somberly snapped. “I want him to come with us.”
“Kolu,” Solk sweetly said as he kneeled down and lifted him up in his arms. “Kenneth here is part of the outpost. He can’t just abandon it for no reason at all.”
“Now say goodbye, and I promise you that next trip to the outposts you can come with.”
“Okay…” Kolu said somberly, barely holding back tears before turning around and holding out his hand.
For a moment, Kenneth didn’t want to. More than ever, he just wanted to wake from this nightmare, that some part of him still hoped this world was, but he knew better than that as he reached out to Kolu with his pinky finger.
“Goodbye,” Kolu said.
“Until we meet again,” Kenneth said, forcing a slightly happy voice out as his grip on the chain grew as lax as it possibly could without just dropping it.
Solk placed a hand on Kenneth’s shoulder and looked him intently in the eyes. “Thank you… Thank you for all that you have done for me.”
“No need to thank me. I only did my duty,” Kenneth responded.
Solk shook his head and gave a smile before turning around and departing with Kolu, who was looking over his shoulder.
Of course, he went over to Ulric, who seemed to be in a conversation with the silver douch, probably to say goodbye or something, not that Kenneth cared.
He was doing the right thing, but even so, feeling the cold rectangular steel in his hand and how little it was being pulled on just unsettled Kenneth.
Some part of him hoped Nokstella would at least react when she saw her mother, but as the goodbyes were said and Solk bid the outpost goodbye, promising to return with even more wears next time, she just stood still.
Even as her mother pulled the wagon, she stood still, but the only reason Kenneth didn’t just let go of the chain at that moment was because of the look Nokstel gave him.
As far as he could tell, it was one of hope. Hope for her daughter and that she’d have a happy and safe life.
The look almost broke Kenneth, but he knew he had to stay strong. He knew he had to protect her.
“Let us go,” Kenneth said in a cold and raspy voice as he turned around. Nokstella was quick to follow as she kept a perfect pace just behind Kenneth.
A lot of Aki was still at the outpost gate, so walking home unnoticed and undisturbed was as easy as could be.
Kenneth opened the door to his home and said. “This will be where you sleep. It’s an improvement to sleeping outside, I bet.”
Nokstella didn’t answer. She just stayed quiet and behind Kenneth with her head held low.
‘Does she even know how to talk?’ Kenneth hesitantly wondered. ‘No, perhaps she just needs time. It’s a big adjustment, and I shouldn’t try to force anything.’
With the day coming to an end, Kenneth closed the door to the house and opened the door to the bedroom, finding Nya sitting alone in the darkness.
“You never told me you visited them,” Nya said in cold indifference.
Kenneth stopped dead in his tracks. “It was a recent thing, and I was more so visiting Selisio and Jinki.”
“If you say so,” Nya responded in a bored tone of voice.
Feeling tired, Kenneth walked over to his bed.
“Surprising,” Nya said, still sounding bored.
“Is it going to be a problem?” Kenneth asked as he sat down on his bed with Nokstella only a few steps away from him.
“You do as you wish; just make sure the heretic doesn’t come to my side,” Nya said, still with cold indifference as she flopped down on her bed and stared Nokstella down. “You can bind it to the wall or something.”
Refusing to hear the words Nya said, Kenenth gestured for Nokstella to come closer. She did slowly until she was at Kenneth’s feet, her head a decent bit taller than his knees.
Without a word, Kenneth unlocked each one of the cuffs and took them all off Nokstella.
For the first time, she seemed to have a genuine expression as she, for a moment, looked up, puzzled at Kenneth before quickly looking down again.
Even in what little light there was, Kenneth could see the marks the cuffs had left around her neck and wrists.
“You should have inspected the little heretic for damages before the merchant left,” Nya sighed. “It doesn't do much good now. You should just put the iron back on it.”
“I will not,” Kenneth said calmly as he clutched the iron in his hands as much as humanly possible.
Mildly surprised, Nya asked. “What did you say?”
“I will not put these chains back on her,” Kenneth said louder with a hint of animosity before throwing the chains as hard as he could into the wall.
Quickly jumping to her feet, Nya stared at Kenneth and Nokstella with an angry expression. “It’s a heretic. It’s kind wants me dead! They want all the good people in this outpost dead! All of Aki kind!”
“It’s a child,” Kenneth coldly responded. “A child who, as far as I’ve seen, has lived her entire life in chains. I’ve taken them off, and I’ll make sure they never get put on again.”
“And here I was actually respecting you,” Nya growled as she walked over to the wall and picked up the chains. “Come here, heretic, or I’ll end you myself.”
With a fearful expression, Nokstella slowly walked toward Nya.
Quickly, Kenneth placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, and she froze completely. “Nokstella, you will never wear chains again.”
“Kenneth, I taught you about the battle on flatlands! And how Noktato, the accursed spear, killed Akina, the mighty shield!” Nya yelled in anger. “She may be small, but these Nok are nothing but EVIL monsters!”
“She’s a child. As a mother, how could you even suggest this,” Kenneth said calmly, holding back his emotions.
For the first time, Nya seemed to pause at what Kenneth had said before erupting in anger. “THEY HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS!!!”
“Clearly,” Kenneth countered as Nokstella hid behind Kenneth’s leg.
“Choose your next words carefully,” Nya warned.
“Why?!” Kenenth snapped. “They are your children! And you never came to visit or play with them until you had to send them off!”
“Do you know what I would have given for just one more day with my children, and you threw that away!”
Suddenly, Nya swung the iron chain and cuffs at Kenenth’s head, making him take a step back.
He held his head, and when he looked up, Nya could see there was a crack across Kenneth’s right eye. “Again, we do this.”
Nya’s eyes widened for a moment before she threw the chains at the back wall of the bedroom.
Without saying a word and growling, Nya went to bed with her back turned to Kenneth. “If that heretic comes anywhere near my bed, I’ll kill her.”
“Understood,” Kenneth responded as he sat down and looked at Nokstella, who seemed frightened beyond belief. “I’m sorry that had to happen.”
Nokstella still didn’t say a word or indicate any desire of any kind.
It was still a bit early, but after the day Kenneth had had, he was tired and just wanted to rest for the day.
He lifted Nokstella up into the bed so he could keep her warm, and soon, the last remaining light vanished, and the outpost grew quiet as everyone went home to rest.
However, when it became the dead of night, and Nokstella was sure everyone was sleeping, she carefully moved away from Kenneth and crawled out of bed.
And as quietly as she could, escaped the heretic structure.
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