It had become a tradition - Othiel bringing you presents from time to time; hunted game, baskets of fruit or other goods, such as warm blankets, clothes, very useful candles, and even valuables, which, admittedly, could not be of much use, but were very beautiful and enjoyed eye.

You especially liked the vintage ring with blue stone, you found among the treasure pile. Your aunt quickly pressed it onto your finger.

'It's a real sapphire! If it wasn't for you, we would never have gotten all this, you deserve it. Besides, this creature seems to be giving us gifts because of you, so when you meet again, it'd be better if he sees that you're using them.'

Days passed and you all didn't need to come out of hiding at all, which made some happy, and others (mostly you) a little down. There was plenty of food, the waterworks were still running, so you had plenty of water, and the hideout was safe, thanks to Othiel, who protected you from aggressors.

There were still people, such as your uncle and his henchmen in form of a group of youngsters, led by Vincent, who thought that Roughskin was trying to trick you and in the end he would kill you anyway. However, they were too few to be listened to by the community, satisfied with the improvement of your situation.

Othiel visited you secretly from time to time. He was so good at sneaking into your hideout that you figured he had to do it before. You guessed who he was learning the language from.

You showed him a place in the gallery where there was little chance of anyone seeing him, and he could quickly escape from there through a hole in the roof. From time to time, you had met there, having quiet conversations. 

You explained to him many things about your civilization, and he told you a bit about his own. For example, you had learned that his planet is illuminated by a star that is not as bright as Sun, so he wears goggles to protect his eyes. He also told you that the scars on his arms are traces of plucked feathers. He had similar ones on his legs, though you didn't notice until he showed them to you. Their species, due to the fact that the feathers on the limbs interfered during fights, had removed them in childhood, and the places where they grew were scorched so that new ones would not appear.

'That must have hurt a lot,' you winced as you watched the effects of the procedure. You brushed your finger over the calloused scar above his ankle... 'Still hurts?'

'No, surely not now.' He looked at you, literally melting you with his gaze. Intimidating and embarrassing but happened quite often recently and you get used to it.  'Besides, Roughskins were born to experience pain. Pain shapes us.'

'Aren't we here to experience a little bit of everything?' You asked, still running your finger over his scars.

Othiel grabbed your hand and clawed the ring on your finger, the same one you took from his loot.

'Do you like it?'

'Yes, it's beautiful. Thank you, but where do you get all these things?' You weren't sure if you wanted to know who he was stealing from to please you.

'From a lot of places,' he replied evasively. 'I can get more if you want...'

'No need, really.' You assured him 'That's very kind, but I feel stupid with you helping us so much.'

'Stupid?" he frowned.

'Well... I feel awkward...' You tried to explain. 'You do so much for us, and we don't even have a way to repay you...'

'Your company is my greatest repayment,' he bowed to you slightly. You decided it was time to change the subject.

'Will you tell me about your planet?' you asked. 'What do you call it?'

'Okan'tyt.  In your language, it means hard and with lots of rocks....'

'Rocky... Mmm, I think I can picture what it might look like...'

He nodded. 'Not as full of life as Earth. It's a raw place. Little water, no vegetation... I grew up there, but if I could choose, I'd rather live here.'

'You're probably not the only one... Is that why you attacked us? Do you want to take over the Earth?'

His silence answered you.

'You don't know it?' you inquired.

'I know.'

'So?'

'Yes... Okan'tyt is slowly dying,... we need a new place to live.'

You sighed. 'So what... There's no hope for us?'

'Trust me there is hope.' His voice sounded very firm. 

You raised your eyebrows. 'Where do you get that confidence?'

'I'll explain it to you... soon.'

He often gave you such answers, and so far you understood enough that there is no point in digging into the topic because he didn't want to reveal anything more anyway.

Soon you had to return to your duties, so you bid Othiel a polite goodbye and left the gallery, going downstairs. As soon as your feet touched the floor on the ground floor, Vincent emerged from behind one of the rusty machines. Your heart froze. Did he hear you talking to Othiel?

'What were you doing there, (y/n)?'  he asked, drawing out vowels in his usual way, trying to sound contemptuous. 

'Avoiding work, as always...' You shrugged, pretending you had nothing to hide.

'Oh, really?' he asked incredulously. 'And I thought you were secretly having a tryst.'

'Clearly thinking is not your greatest advantage.'

He faked a laugh and slowly approached you like a predator approaching his prey. 'Come on, every man needs relief... I know you disappear there often. Who is it this time? General? Or maybe Mark got bored of his wife? Should I go and see for myself?'

Apparently, he thought you provided sexual services... You were relieved after all. You preferred not to think how your uncle would react if Vincent told him that you were meeting with Roughskin in your hideout.

'Go ahead,'  you replied, intending to walk past him. 

Vincent, however, didn't finish yet. He blocked your way and continued with a mischievous grin. 'Well, don't be like that. I'd like to, you know, join the club... You're the only free woman here who hasn't expired yet, and I have my needs.'

'You have two hands... handle yourself,' you snorted, quite annoyed. What was that guy thinking talking to you like that?

'You don't answer that way to others, do you? Certainly not to General...' 

'You'd better finish it before you get yourself into trouble with your talk. I will not tolerate it anymore,' you warned him. 

'You think you're so important now because reptile is so into you, don't you? But what do you think he's planning, you idiot?! Thinking about a happy ending with him? Let me enlighten you: she'll fuck you so you won't even remember what is your ...'

'What is going on here?!' you heard uncle Julius growl. He appeared out of nowhere. Vincent fell silent, clearly flustered. 'Go to the kitchen, (y/n) and help your aunt with dinner,' uncle asked, or rather commanded, then roared at Vincent, who was obviously about to run away unnoticed. 'NO! You stay here, boy.'

It seemed that the uncle heard something from your conversation and was going to talk to him. Well... Maybe that's a good thing. You didn't like it when someone else took care of such matters for you, but there was clearly no other way for Vincent, especially since it wasn't the first time he bothered you, but this time he overdid. Anyone else but your uncle, whom the boy idolized, could have handled the matter better.

***

Othiel did not like the behavior of some males in the (y/n)'s group from the beginning. He watched them carefully, forming opinions about the one that could possibly be dangerous, and also looked for potential rivals.

What annoyed him the most was the behavior of an older male related to (y/n) who was as unpleasant to her as possible. The young male who had accosted (y/n) that day was also very irritating. He had seen him upsetting (y/n) once already, with a group of other young males. Hearing his voice, he felt his feathers involuntarily rise. He stepped back inside the building and secretly watched what was going on. 

If it wasn't for the fact that he could cause (y/n) trouble, he would kill the male after hearing what he said... Well... He planned to kill him anyway, only another time, under circumstances that would not burden his chosen one. For now, to help somehow, he decided only to lure someone else to this place.

He slid across the ceiling and happened to come across an old male, (y/n) relative in the next room. He softly rustled his tail feathers as he ducked behind a pile of crates. When the intrigued male came to check what the sound was, Othiel repeated the action, this time around the corner, retreating back to the great hall. When the male followed him there, he was already within range of the voices of (y/n) and her opponent, and just as Othiel suspected, he rushed to interject, forgetting about the sounds that had drawn him there. 

Roughskin watched for a while, and seeing the older male angrily threaten the younger one, contentedly, he retreated to his hiding place.

***

Since that memorable evening, Vincent and his entire gang, who sometimes also bothered you, left you alone. You could even say that they stopped noticing you at all and didn't say a word to you. It was pathetic indeed, but you were happy with that change.

Eliza, helping you with the dishes one time, picked up on the subject one day, apparently noticing the boys' strange behavior.

'They treat you like air... What happened, (y/n)?'

'I had a small clash with Vinnie ...' you shrugged, looking at your companion's exposed forearm. Just one. The other sleeve was down, though both hands were deep in the water and it was already wet up to the elbow. There could only be one reason...

'What was it all about?' she asked, but you didn't answer.

'Eliza, show me the other forearm, please' you asked. 

'What for?'

'Why are you covering it? He hurt you again, didn't he?'

'Oh stop it!'

'El... let me sort this out.' 

Everyone already knew that Anthon was aggressive toward her. Since they lost their child, he became even more cold and unapproachable, and even cruel towards his wife, but Elizabeth, whenever bruises appeared on her body, told everyone that she had fallen in the dark or down the stairs in the cellars, constantly protecting her captor. No one ever caught Anthon in the act, which was quite unusual for a situation where so many people lived together. So the culprit remained elusive unless counted the disrespectful and contemptuous way he began to address his wife after Cornelia's death.

'(Y/n), I'm asking you not to interfere in my private life.' It was Eliza's traditional response to your insistence on finally curbing her husband's aggression. 

You didn't understand her. You were surprised that she was trying so hard to whitewash Anthon, while he apparently blamed her for Cornelia's death. She kept saying that she could have taken more medicine with her when they were escaping to the hideout, after all, she worked in a pharmacy and no explanation that Kornelka would not be helped by medicine, even chemotherapy might not work, didn't help at all. 

However, the fact was that you lacked medication. In your group infections appeared often and were quite dangerous for kids without medication. Watching Elijah struggle for almost a week with the fever, you got scared. Everyone did. 

Bea tried to stay positive, not wanting to scare the baby, but you saw her crying in the corners when she thought no one was watching. 

One day you found her alone in the kitchen. She was grinding some weed, which you have had in abundance lately because aunt Samantha has ordered that from now on, since Othiel is taking care of you, women are allowed to go out to the green area surrounding the factory, in search of herbs and edible plants. Although it wasn't much, you all eagerly took advantage of this freedom, especially as it started to get warmer.

Bea had picked something, probably young nettles, this morning and was preparing it in hope of helping the little one. Tears ran down her cheeks as if she were chopping an onion. You didn't know what to say so you just walked over to her and hugged her.

'He has completely lost his appetite, I don't know what to do anymore,' she cried, furiously rubbing the leaves intensely with a rough stone.

'His body is dedicating all its strength to fighting the disease, it doesn't have time to digest right now,' you noted.

'If it goes on like this, he's going to weaken completely.'

'He'll be fine, he's strong.'

'Couldn't that... friend of yours give us medicine as a gift?' Bea looked at you hopefully.

'Probably he could, but I'm not sure he knows anything about human medicine at all . . .'

You thought about it and soon came up with the best solution. 

On the same day, you proposed to your uncle, in the presence of your parents and aunt, that you go to Othiel and ask for help as soon as possible. Everyone thought it was a good idea. Everyone except Julius.

For some reason, he didn't trust you at all. He decided that you are too gullible and irresponsible and you can't just go talk to him because you'll make him angry. Of course, he had no idea that since your first meeting, you've been seeing Othiel regularly and you know him well enough to know that you're really safe from him. 

Unfortunately, he didn't show up that evening, so you decided to act despite your uncle's objections.

In the early morning, you simply slipped out of your hiding place, revealing yourself only to the men guarding the door, General and Mark, who himself had a several-year-old daughter and was probably empathizing with your family's situation.

'Maybe I'll go with you?' suggested General. 'Like he'd lose his mind or something.' 

You barely restrained yourself from denying it too vehemently. You didn't want anyone to witness how tender your relationship had become.

'If he'd lose his mind, you won't be much help. Better stay here. I'll try to get back as soon as possible.'

General was not content but nodded. 

It was interesting how people gradually began to oppose your uncle's will. The guards knew he didn't agree to let you go, but they ignored it. They instinctively felt you were right and began to trust your judgment more than his. And, who wouldn't want a Roughskin as a protector?

Julius' rule was slowly collapsing, and you contributed greatly to it. Another reason for him to hate you.

Your uncle has always had mixed feelings for you, for as long as you can remember. He was cold, unpleasant and aloof. In fact, he was like that for most people. However, when you moved to the factory and you were stuck with each other day by day, he became more and more cynical, mean and unavailable, especially towards you. Even despite his help in Vincent's case, after more than half a year of living with him under the same roof, you knew that although he did not wish you bad, for some reason unknown to you, he particularly hated you.