The young master kept his arms wrapped around the small crying female while looking at his parents in shock. His parents stood there in silence with a few tears building up. There was nothing they could say to reassure the young girl completely. No one except Little Blue's parents had seen or heard her cry, not including the time she was born. It was unnatural for her to not cry at all, but after five years, it seemed it was more unnatural now for her to cry. The poor girl was sobbing inconsolably into her best friend's chest as he gently patted her head, not quite sure what to do for his usually cheerful friend.

"Little Blue?" he called gently after a few minutes as her sobs turned into hiccups before dying down. She made no indication that she had heard him. "Little Blue, why are you crying?"

Silence. He gently pushed her shoulders back to see that she had exhausted herself completely and had fallen asleep, tear tracks drying on her cheeks.

"Mother, father, what happened to make Little Blue cry?" The young master asked as he shifted to put the small five year old on his back, carrying her out of her parent's room towards his parents that had been silently standing at the doorway.

"The healers had to leave, but they couldn't bring Little Blue with them," the mother tried explaining gently as she lifted Little Blue off of her son and cradled the sleeping five year old in her arms. The lady of the village smiled sadly down at the child who was just a few months younger than her own. In the arms of the lady of the village, the small ogre's blue hair stood out against the pink hair of the lady of the village and the red hair of both the young master and his father. Her singular horn seemed out of place in the family that all had two.

"Where did they go? Why couldn't Little Blue go?" The young red-haired ogre asked curiously as he followed his mother towards Little Blue's room. His mother put the blue-haired ogre child into her bed, tucking her in as the Young Master sat at the foot of the bed.

"If they could take Little Blue, they wouldn't have left," his father answered him with a sad shake of his head. "They loved Little Blue so much that they had to leave."

"That doesn't make sense..." the young master whispered under his breath, trailing off as he stared at his best friend.

As the leading family sat in her room, the sound of the main door opening caught their attention. It didn't take long before another blue-haired child popped his head into the doorway. It was Little Blue's cousin. He seemed surprised to see everyone in her room, but was quick to read the mood and silently made his way in.

"Is Little Blue okay?" the six year old boy asked as he glanced at her sleeping figure. Clearly, even in her dreams, she was distraught as her eyebrows were creased as she lightly tossed and turned.

"Her parents had to leave her here," the young master said sadly as he reached for her hand and gently grasped it. He had to be careful not to accidentally absorb or send energy with his Little Blue in this state. Her cousin stared at the young master before turning to the lady and lord of the village.

"Where did they go? Why couldn't Little Blue go?" He asked the exact same questions that the young master had asked. The parents looked at each other before crouching down to be eye level with the two boys.

"If you two promise not to tell Little Blue, we'll tell you why they left." They each held out their right pinky to the two boys, who quickly hooked their own pinky with the adults'. The young master who let go of his Little Blue's hand to link pinkies glanced back at the small blue-haired girl before turning back to his parents.

"We promise," the two boys said, inching closer to the adults to hear.

~~~

Immediately after they heard the reason, the two of them regretted promising to not tell the small blue-haired girl sleeping beside the group.

"Why can't we tell her?" the blue-haired ogre asked stubbornly to the two adults. He had his arms crossed as he stared defiantly up at the adults. The normally obedient ogre child wouldn't have argued with adults, but this was concerning his cousin's happiness so he was willing to do whatever to get answers. It didn't make sense why they had to hide the truth from her. Wouldn't it make more sense to tell her that her parents left because of her dormant powers?

"Little Blue is young, but smart. If we tell her that her parents left because of her dormant powers, she will still blame herself. She will hate being the reason her parents left, and she could even hurt herself," the pink-haired adult explained gently to the children. Her own son had been silent since the explanation and instead had chosen to sit beside the sleeping girl and hold her hand.

"But..." the blue-haired ogre's complaint trailed off as the reasoning settled. It was true that his little cousin loved her parents so much that surely it would cross her mind to take herself out to allow her parents to stay in this village. Little Blue was almost selfless to a fault. As her cousin, he could see it clearly whenever she returned after taking care of the Young Master and her face was pale and she was less energetic. Yet, she never said a single word about it, so he didn't either. Even if anyone else noticed, no one would say anything because it was for the health of the young master. As long as Little Blue didn't complain, no one else would.

The blue-haired ogre child took a seat next to the young master and reached for his cousin's free hand. The two boys stared sadly at the younger girl that they had known since her birth. Whatever happened from now on, they were going to make sure she was happy.

~~~

A couple hours later, the blue-haired girl woke up, albeit very slowly and still extremely exhausted. She stared up at the ceiling, her sunset left eye gleaming even though she clearly was in denial and her eyes seemed more dull. As she made to sit up, a movement to both her sides drew her attention to the two boys who had fallen asleep on either side of her, both of them still clasped onto one of her hands. She stared at them in silence before gently prying her small hand from their grasp.

As she shifted off the bed, the two boys noticed the lack of her presence on the bed and quickly woke up shortly after she had slid off. The bolted up into a sitting position, their eyes immediately landing on the small five year old ogre who jumped slightly at their sudden movement. Her heterochromia eyes flicked between the two of them, noticing the sadness that was very apparent in both of their expressions. No matter how they tried to hide it, she could see loud and clear their pity for her and she hated that they were sad because she was in such a situation.

So she smiled at them.

It was a strained smile, and anyone could see the pain behind it, but she smiled nonetheless and tried to ignore the stinging pain in her small chest from being left behind without even knowing what happened. If her parents truly loved her, why did they leave her alone?

"Good morning," she greeted quietly with her forced smile. The two boys muttered their replies, though they hadn't moved off the bed. Their expressions didn't change as they continued to examine the younger girl.

"Are you okay?" the red-haired boy asked after a few more seconds of silence. She hesitated since they all knew that she wasn't okay. However, even at five, she knew that even if she said she wasn't okay, her parents weren't going to come back. They had told her last night to not look for them, so clearly they didn't want to come back, whatever the reason was.

"I'm okay," she lied. The two boys could only nod at her blatant lie. A few more seconds of silence passed before she plastered a wider, even faker smile and gestured towards the sunlight coming from the window above her bed. "Let's go outside. The sun's already out."

~~~

Three years passed quickly and the young heterochromia girl was now eight. Staying the obedient child she was raised to be, the blue-haired girl didn't go searching for her parents no matter how desperately she wanted to. Instead, she forced herself to find things to occupy her time so that when she went to bed at night, she was too exhausted to even cry about missing her parents. Indeed she missed them dearly and had cried every night for the first half year that her parents had disappeared. After that, she agreed to learn swordsmanship with the former master of the village.

The former master was a white-haired, two-horned ogre and was the father of the current master. At least, the master and he claimed that was their relationship. However, their true relationship was unknown. The white-haired ogre seemed to share stories of over 200 years ago and implied that he was nearing almost 300 years of age. Ogres generally didn't live that long, so it didn't make sense, nor did his implied age make it normal for him to only be a grandfather. Nonetheless, he was a skilled swordsman and had taken it upon himself to train the young ogres of the village who were willing and showed commitment to learning how to wield a sword. Among the group were the young master, her blue-haired cousin, Little Blue, and an older, purple-haired ogre.

Their instructor was skilled with a long, thin sword, but was clearly knowledgeable about a variety of different blades. He taught the young master how to wield what he called a katana. The purple-haired, black-horned female ogre that was being taught alongside the trio was learning to wield a heavy broadsword. Little Blue's cousin was learning how to wield two short swords. Lastly, Little Blue herself had picked up learning how to wield a claymore. The sword she inherited from her parents was a thin claymore that almost double her current height, making it a little less than 200 cm in total length. However, since she was still young, the white-haired instructor had instead handed her a thin blade not unlike his own, which acted as her claymore for the time being.

As she grew through the three years, the adorable little girl's beauty developed until she was arguably one of the most beautiful ogres in the village, alongside the pink-haired princess and lady of the village. Her skin was pale and tinged light blue, almost making her skin appear almost blindingly white when placed next to her cousin who had a dark blue, almost grey hue to his skin. She was not only beautiful, but also gentle and kind, so her cousin and the young master had a hard time deterring the males they deemed 'unworthy' to get close to her. In the end, no one met their standards enough and instead they stuck themselves close to the growing beauty, not that she minded in the least.

However, despite their overprotectiveness of the blue-haired, heterochromia ogre child, the other ogre children still found time to mess with her. As children who weren't especially close, many of the kids' understanding of her situation was basically zero. Many didn't have the memory of the loving healer family and their daughter, nor did they bother understanding that there must've been something deeper than what was on the surface for the healer couple to abandon their beloved child and disappear. All they knew is that ogres were normally loyal to their village and would only leave during war times. Little Blue's parents abandoned the village during peace, so the kids all jumped to the conclusion of the idea that they betrayed the village or that there was something about Little Blue that caused her parents to leave. The kids of the village split into two categories after these assumptions, those who blamed the parents and wanted to befriend Little Blue and those who blamed the girl and bullied her.

"How are you feeling, Young Master?" Little Blue asked as she held onto the red-haired ogre's hand. He was now ten, and his strong powers were continually giving him trouble. Little Blue had been by his side and had been the only reason that he could pass his days with ease. He said nothing in reply as he winced, sweat rolling down the side of his face. The blue-haired ogre took it as he was still in pain, so she absorbed more of the heat while sending her own colder energy. As she did so, she felt the pain of the heat throughout her whole body, as she had been feeling for the past year. the young master's powers simply were too strong. Their powers opposed each other, so as his energy overpowered hers, it got harder for her to safely absorb it.

She winced slightly as a wave of heat coursed through her body, but quickly hid it. Thankfully, the young master had his eyes closed and was trying to recover from the fit. His temperature was dropping, thanks to her cold energy, and so she absorbed the last bit as best she could before releasing his hand. His eyes snapped opened and met her heterochromia orbs. She smiled, using the sleeve of her kimono dress to wipe a bit of his sweat away from the side of his head. Even as a mere eight year old, she was incredibly responsible. The young master felt himself blush as he stared at his blue-haired friend smile at him, thankful that his skin was tinged red already.

"You should be fine now, Young Master," the eight year old said gently as she retracted her hand. "Sleep off the rest of the energy and let yourself cool down. I'll come back tomorrow to check up on you."

"Thank you, Little Blue," he said as he felt exhaustion roll over him. Before she could leave, he blurted the sentence on his mind.

"You know, you're like a fish."

She blinked in confusion. A fish?

"A fish," he repeated as she continued to stare at him in confusion.

"Why am I a fish?" she asked.

Because you're like an innocent, delicate yet beautiful creature, the red-haired ogre child thought to himself. You had to learn how to get by by yourself without your parents, yet you're doing swimmingly. Watching you is calming and having you near me is relaxing.

"Because you can control water," he said instead with a cheeky smile. She stared at him before giggling slightly. At her smile, the young master felt himself relax some. She had seemed so tense just a couple seconds ago.

"If I'm a fish, then you're a bird," she replied as her giggles died down. A phoenix is a bird, so you're a bird. Every time that your powers rage, with or without my help, you eventually recover and continue to grow stronger. One day, will you even need me anymore?

"A bird?" he echoed with a small laugh. She nodded, but didn't explain anymore.

"You need to rest," she insisted. He nodded, not wanting to disobey his little fish.

"Thank you, Miss Fish," he said with a laugh followed by a yawn.

"You're welcome, Mr. Bird," she replied cheekily. She made sure he was resting for a couple seconds before exiting his room. The master and lady quickly rushed over, checking over her worriedly before telling her to hurry home as it was starting to get late. She nodded, thanking them for their concern while still hiding the fact that her body was still trying to absorb the young master's energy.

As Little Blue headed back, she carefully allowed herself to react physically to the pain of the heat coursing through her body. Water could only take in so much heat before it started to boil and evaporate. Similar to her powers, they could only absorb so much before they became unstable and released the heat it absorbed again. Stumbling around, she forced herself onto the path to her house, the same house she had been in since her birth.

"Hey, it's Blue," a voice called out. She winced, dreading the approaching ogre children. This was the group of children who blamed her for her parents' disappearance.

"Where did your mommy and daddy go?" one of them taunted while mocking a childish, whining voice and shoving her shoulder lightly as the rest of them surrounded her in a circle. She said nothing, instead focusing on the feeling of the heat inside of her. She never paid them any mind nor did she ever react to their words, but they never gave up. It was always taunts and shoves with the occasional hard hit to her back when it came to physical bullying, but what hurt her the most were the words. The young girl who had no idea what the exact reason for her parents' disappearance was was extremely susceptible to the verbal attacks of the others. How was she to know that they didn't leave because of her? Even if they said they loved her, how was she supposed to tell herself that they spoke the truth when they left her behind?

"Oh, that's right. You must've done something to cause them to leave the village. Now we don't even have healers because of you." The ogres at the front were mostly older, anywhere from eight to twelve years old. Behind them were the younger ogres who were told left and right by their elder peers that the young heterochromia girl was at fault.

"What did you do, huh?" another ogre said, pushing both her shoulders. She stumbled back slightly, keeping her head down as they enclosed her in a circle. She remained silent, half because she had nothing to retort and half because it was taking all the focus she had to fight the heat after coming back from healing the young master. Normally, she would just try to keep walking and eventually they get bored, but she couldn't this time, not with the heat going through her body.

"H-Hey," one of the younger ogres called out, "she seems sort of hurt or something. Maybe we should leave so that we aren't blamed for her injuries." At this, the rest of the group looked at her, noticing that her head was bowed more than usual and she was grimacing in pain.

"Good idea," some of the older children agreed. As they left they each gave her a shove, the last one sending her to the ground before they disappeared down the street back to their houses. The blue-haired girl said nothing as she picked herself off the floor and began her way back to her house again.

"I'm home," she said, greeting the empty house. As usual, there was no response, even if she wished there was. The words of the group that bullied her came back and she felt tears well up. For three years already, she's had no idea why her parents left her here. Was it something she did? Did they even truly love her?

She forced herself to suppress the tears, making her way into the same room she had been in when her parents were still here. The house was silent except for her footsteps, further emphasizing her loneliness. As she laid down on her bed, she focused on the feeling of the heat that had slowly started to subside as timed passed. Instead of the fierce heat, it was now a controllable flicker of flame that she easily snuffed out right before she allowed herself to fall asleep from physical and emotional exhaustion.

~~~

The next day, the blue-haired girl was out and about, her contagious smile spreading through the village. She had pushed the events of the day previous past her and promised to herself to make today a better day. Of course, it would already be better since she would be training her swordsmanship with her cousin and the young master today.

"Princess!" she called, meeting the pink-haired princess at the forest line. The two of them were of close age, with the princess being a few short months older. The princess was dressed is a simple kimono, similar to the blue-haired girl's.

"Blue," the princess greeted back with a bright smile. The princess had two pure white horns growing from her forehead, much like the rest of her family. In contrast, the two blue-haired cousins that could be found around the young master and princess had just a singular white horn.

"How are you today?" The princess asked as the two of them made their way to the clearing where the blue-haired ogre would be learning swordsmanship. The princess wouldn't need to learn much more than self-defense and so she didn't opt for swordsmanship. Instead, she had powers over the fire, as her brother did, except that they were weaker and definitely more controllable.

"I'm doing well. I'm going to try to keep myself busy today," the heterochromia ogre replied lightly. The princess smiled sadly, knowing that it mean the last night for the other girl was spent missing her parents. The pink-haired ogre was never informed of what happened exactly the night of the blue-haired girl's parents disappearance nor was she told the reason, but she was told enough to know that the young blue-haired ogre was loved greatly and her parents had essentially no other option when they chose to leave.

"Fish!" a voice called as the two girls made their way into the clearing, chatting lightly. The young master's bright red hair was like a flag in the sun. He was waving his sword in the air to catch their attention. "Hurry up! I didn't know there were fish that swam this slow."

"I didn't know there were such big birds that couldn't fly," the blue-haired child retorted with a glare at the young master. Her cousin who stood by the young master with a stoic expression looked at the two, though he was clearly confused by the new nicknames. The darker haired cousin of hers was never that expressive to begin with, though he showed his concern for her through his overprotective-ness.

"What are you implying?" The red haired ogre stopped waving his sword in the air, glaring at her as if daring her to tell him. She smiled at him, picking up her own claymore from the side where it was resting against a rock.

"I didn't imply anything," she said innocently. "I was just wondering maybe you grew too big to fly." She smirked at the young master as her cousin sighed and turned away to leave them be in favor of practicing his own swordsmanship before their teacher came. The pink-haired princess simply laughed as this was a common scene when they would purposely rile each other up and then do a small mock battle with their respective swords. She wisely chose to back up to the shade of one of the trees and away from the swords.

"You must've drank too much water, fish," the young master said with a playful glare as he readied his katana.

"Fish breathe water, birdbrain. I don't think they can ever have too much water," she retorted before lunging forward with her claymore. The two blades clashed as the children fought, though clearly the young master was holding back more than the blue-haired girl was. After all, he had been training longer and this was just a small extension of training so it didn't make sense to have her get hurt.

After a few short minutes, their little swordfight was broken up by the older, white-haired ogre's arrival. As if the banter never happened, they laughed as the two of them stopped and quickly made their way next to the blue-haired boy and purple-haired girl to greet their teacher.

~~~

As the long day ended, the young master offered to walk the blue-haired girl back to her house. She had successfully kept herself busy even after the swordsmanship lesson and managed to get through the day with a bright smile. However, as she thought back to going back to the empty home, her smile became more forced and more fake. At the young masters offer, she smiled a bit more genuinely and agreed.

"You miss your family don't you?" the young master asked gently as the two of them walked hand in hand towards her house. There would be no one waiting for her anyways, so she took her time walking.

"Mhm," she hummed in agreement, a sad smile on her face.

"You know that you still have family here in this village, right?"

"Mhm," she hummed again in agreement, lightly swinging their intertwined hands.

"You have your cousin and his family." The young master paused as he blushed slightly. He was thankful that it was dark out and she wasn't looking at him. "I also want to be your family."

"You are my family," she replied easily with a cheerful giggle.

"Not like an older brother," he clarified. She glanced at him, a bit confused.

"Of course you're not my older brother. You're not blood-related so how could you be my older brother?"

"Then what do you mean by I'm your family?" The girl tilted her head at his question, pondering it slightly.

"You're my best friend, my young master and my Bird. Family can be friends too." He pondered over her answer before accepting it. Of course, he wasn't quite sure why he didn't want to be an older brother necessarily, but he was satisfied for the time being.

Their walk was fairly short, but by the time they reached her door it was dark with only the moon to lighten up the empty house. She stood in front of the door, hesitating to go in. After all, once she left the young master's side, she would be alone. There was no one waiting inside the house for her.

"Don't you ever want to go look for your parents?" the red-haired ogre asked, glancing down at the shorter female. If it were him, he would've wanted to go look for his parents.

"They told me not to," the girl explained. "On the night they left, I remember they told me to never go look for them."

The young master said nothing, not knowing how to console her without breaking his promise to his parents to not tell her the reason that her parents left. Surely, she was old enough to not do anything rash... right? His grip on her hand tightened, causing her to glance up at him.

"Fish, do you have no idea why they left?" he asked, not meeting her curious gaze. Her sunset eye gleamed as the sky darkened.

"No. I don't know why they left."

"I know why." The girl looked at the older boy, surprise clear in her expression as she stared at him. He lifted his head and met her eyes, his expression serious and determined.

"I can tell you if you promise to not do anything stupid," he offered. She nodded slowly, a bit unsure why he was telling her this.

"Pinky promise me." The young master let go of her hand, facing her with only the moon left to serve as their light as they stood at the door of her house. He held up his right pinky in front of her. "Pinky promise me before I tell you. Promise that you won't be stupid after I tell you."

"I promise," she said as she hooked her right pinky with his. He took a deep breath, and held both of her hands in his as his red eyes focused on her dual-colored orbs.

"Your parents left because you have a power that will kill them if you see them," the young master said bluntly. He felt the girl flinch slightly, though she didn't withdraw her hands from his. "Your sunset eye is proof that it exists. I heard the power, [Haemokinetics] usually develops within the first year, but yours didn't develop until you were five. If this power killed your parents, you would blame yourself so your parents fled to keep you from having to know that your power killed them."

"A-am I a danger to everyone?" she stuttered, tears welling up as her panic increased.

"No. Just your parents," he explained as he gripped her hands tighter. "That's why they told you to not look for them. They don't want you to feel like you killed them."

The blue-haired girl said nothing, instead staring at the red-haired boy. She wasn't quite sure what to make of this information.

"You should go rest," the young master said after a few more moments of silence. He opened her door and guided her to her room. "You promised not to do anything stupid. I'll be back tomorrow morning." The young master sat her on the bed and retreated to the door. Before he stepped out completely, he turned back to the girl.

"Don't do anything stupid," he reiterated, a bit scared that she would still blame herself and do something rash. Did he make the right choice in telling her? Should he have just stayed silent?

The young girl nodded to reassure the young master and soon the footsteps of the red-haired boy disappeared down the hallway. The sound of the main door shutting fully snapped the girl out of her daze as she finally processed the information.

Without getting under the covers, she flopped down on her bed, her legs still dangling partially off the side, as she stared up at the ceiling. Her parents left because she would've killed them. If she's selfish and finds her parents, that will be the last time she ever sees them alive. As long as she stays away from them, they will continue to live.

She closed her eyes, trying to suppress the tears building up in her eyes and force herself to sleep and escape her thoughts. If her parents had run away from this village because of her, perhaps it was better if she hadn't been born in the first place.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hey! I'm back and alive!

In case anyone missed the announcement, I wasn't able to update for about a week or week and half because of college finals. I still have summer courses so my schedule may be irregular during testing weeks, but I'll still continue trying to update during all the other weeks <3

I wanted to know if y'all like the longer chapters (average about 5000 words/chapter for all my books) of if y'all prefer shorter chapters. Just outta curiosity.

As always, let me know what you thought of this chapter. I had a bit of trouble with this one because goodness gracious, writing about small toddlers and wee itty bitty children is hard when it's been so long since I was that age. 

Stay safe and healthy!
ThePurpleDragon