Some of the stories Naia told me were as I suspected. The nymphs are born with a sort of racial memory, aware that a covenant has been broken between our kinds. They are born knowing that humans are enemies to be killed and not trusted. However, it was worse than I originally thought.

  "And one of the older nymphs named Natal told me that she was captured by humans a long time ago," Naia continued her story.

  "Is she really old now?"

  "Natal is an elder; she has lived for centuries."

  "How was she captured?" I inquired.

  "We had a trade agreement with humans at the time, but they betrayed us by drugging the food we bartered for," Naia explained.

  "What did she say about her capture?"

  "She said that she was caged and shackled by adult male humans. They would put their fingers in her mouth against her will," Naia recounted, clearly oblivious to the implications of her words.

  My mother gasped, her face contorting with rage, looking like a tiger ready to pounce. No one in this world had ever advocated for the rights of what people would call monsters. Many would be disgusted by the idea of molesting humanoid creatures, but no laws existed to protect them. It was the monkey-and-frog problem! I had often wondered why they were called nymphs and not fairies in this world. Could this be the reason? Ultimately, the problem lay with individuals who didn’t believe there would be consequences for their actions, ruining things for everyone else. As the saying goes, "A few bad apples spoil the bunch." Yet history recorded it as a one-sided attack from the nymphs because it was written by the humans who committed the crime.

  My mother's reaction startled Naia into stopping her story, but I motioned for her to continue.

  I sighed, "You said you traded for food earlier, but nymphs don't need to eat, do they?"

  "We don't, but we love those sweet brown things," Naia said, making a square shape with her fingers.

  "You mean chocolates?"

  "Yezzz!" Naia replied almost fanatically. "It was one of those I was getting when I ended up here," she added, pointing at the bear trap.

  So they look like children and love sweets. It seemed that all it took was a man with a metaphorical van offering candy. I rubbed my temples after hearing that Naia was foolish enough to go after a piece of candy in a bear trap. It felt like I was forgetting something about what that implied. Just then, a trader walked around the corner, holding a cage too small for anything other than a nymph.

  Scarlet was quicker than me to realize what was happening and what he was doing here. Her axe was even faster. I could have stopped her, but several parts of me were reluctant. He was a sick man, probably working for even sicker people. So the nymph slave trade is still happening in the shadows. Perhaps they won't all go extinct in the future, but those that remain are enslaved. I doubted this slaver would give up information about who hired him, and even if he did, we couldn’t just start killing traders and nobles left and right. I'd have to cut the head off the snake later when I had the backing to do so.

  Scarlet buried a whole side of her axe into the man's chest with a war cry. He barely had time to comprehend what was happening before he died.

  My mother’s visage was one of borderline madness. She panted hard and shook all over. She must have been questioning all the choices she'd made as a hero in the past. How many nobles and traders that she helped deserved to die?

  I grabbed her hand, pulling her out of her head for a moment. She stopped, nearly turning her rage on me.

  "You are only human, and as such, you cannot know everything that has happened and is happening," I told her gently.

  "Even I was unaware of this, Mother, and I can see the future. Somehow, I overlooked this event in our lives," Theresa added.

  "So don’t beat yourself up over what others told you was a lie."

  Scarlet’s face relaxed, and for a moment, her eyes met mine. She earnestly asked, "How did you know she wasn't just a monster?" Her head pointed toward Naia.

  "I looked into her eyes and saw only innocence and fear. It was enough for me to doubt and re-examine the situation. Admittedly, I did so cautiously since I didn’t know the truth for certain," I replied, my tone gentle. I wasn’t trying to scold or be judgmental. I could have been completely wrong, and the shoe could have been on the other foot. My instincts, along with some skills I didn’t know I had, made me believe otherwise. Somehow, I was certain this was a manmade problem and that I could fix it. I didn't know who I was before, but I felt this was related.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  "Son... you are so much wiser than me. You must get it from your father," Scarlet said, trying to hide her gloom behind a bittersweet expression.

  "No, my love, he is wiser than me as well. I would have let this creature die without a second thought," Brom comforted.

  "Hey!!! I’m right here!" Naia chimed in, not pleased that everyone was discussing her potential death.

  "I’m sorry, young one," Brom corrected himself and apologized, no longer referring to her as a creature.

  "Here, Naia, I have some chocolates you can have," Theresa said, handing a half-eaten box of chocolate to the little fairy.

  "Th-thank you!!!" the nymph exclaimed as she greedily snatched the candy Theresa offered.

  Still no sense of caution?

  Naia scarfed down the chocolates so quickly that one might believe they had never been there to begin with.

  "You’re Naia's bestest friend now!" the blue nymph declared, giving Theresa a sudden hug.

  Maybe chocolate makes the little creatures a bit giddy too, I thought. That would make sense; chocolate has a lot of addictive qualities in humans and affects brain chemistry. It’s not bad for us, but who knows what it does to nymphs? It’s poisonous for dogs and cats. Then there’s also sugar...

  "Hey, I saved your life, and I didn’t even get thanked," I pointed out.

  Naia didn’t respond but merely turned her head like a pouting child. She must not like being a familiar, even with whatever benefits it brings.

  The stench of the slaver nearby wafted into my nostrils, causing me to turn my attention in that direction. My mother’s steel axe was still embedded in the slaver's torso. As far as I knew, killing someone wasn’t that big a deal in this world. It is still a crime, but without science or witnesses, there's no way to solve it. I doubted guards even tried to find out who committed the act when they discovered a body. There is a prison, but unless someone is a well-known criminal or commits a witnessed crime in a major city, nothing happens. Also, I bet heroes get special treatment in general.

  That said, we didn't want to draw attention to ourselves right now.

  "Mom, Dad, I need you two to help me remove this axe from the corpse," I said, pointing at the dead slaver. Together, we managed to force the weapon free. It was much harder to remove than it had been to embed it.

  Fortunately, we had some lye on hand for making soap and washing clothes. We also had a small cast iron pot for making soup during lunch. I remembered reading about assassination techniques used historically after playing Assassin's Creed. If lye is heated to 300 degrees Fahrenheit, it can dissolve a human body in three hours. So, as Dad and Mom used their axes as shovels to dig a hole, Theresa and I got to cooking. After an hour, we had the lye boiling enough, and the two-foot-deep rectangular hole was dug. We placed the body inside the pit and poured the boiling lye over it.

  In the game, you could murder any NPC without consequence or charge, but I doubted real life was the same. This was a real person, with people who’d come looking for him. If not loved ones seeking vengeance, then his unsavory business associates.

  The image was horrendous, but I steeled my resolve to finish what I was doing. Using time control, I accelerated time on the non-living object. Without having to boil more lye to add into the hole, I was able to perform a three-hour cycle in just three minutes. The slaver's corpse dissolved into what looked like crude oil and ancient bone fragments. It was good enough, and we covered the pit with soil. If someone found it, they wouldn't know what to think. In about a week, new grass would cover the freshly dug earth, and no one would ever find the corpse before it broke down into nothing.

  "So, now that we've resolved this issue, what are we going to do about the other one?" I asked.

  My parents looked at me, confused. "What?"

  I pointed at Naia. "She's my familiar now. How are we bringing her home?"

  Both my parents had worried expressions on their faces. They knew we had a familiar pact but hadn’t contemplated what would happen if we tried to bring her into Oakvale. She is a bright blue nymph, one of the most feared creatures, but also rather easy to kill with an arrow. It's one of the reasons our town has so many hunters and archers.

  "I’ve got an idea, but it’s a hold-my-beer kind of stupid," I added since no one seemed able to come up with anything.

  "Let’s hear it," Scarlet said as Brom and Theresa nodded.

  "Aside from her blue skin, wings, and naked form, Naia looks like a human child," I pointed out.

  A puzzled look crossed everyone’s faces. "So?"

  "If we put a full set of clothes on her and a hat that covers her ears, most of her features won’t be visible. For the rest, we can use clay-based makeup to give her a human skin tone. Then all we need to do is say we found an abandoned child living alone in the woods and were taking her in. We can keep her at home most of the day and say she has a weak constitution or something. She’s so small that most people will think she’s under five years old anyway," I explained my theory.

  Despite the plan being terrible, we decided to go through with it. It’s not like villagers were particularly bright to begin with. We gave Naia the full makeover. She looked surprisingly like a normal child. She wore slightly oversized gloves, a long-sleeved shirt, and pants like mine. Instead of sandals, she had cloth shoes. She seemed to enjoy the clothes more than I thought she would. A skullcap-like hat covered her ears and eyes. Even though her eyes were much more human-like than in the game, someone could still notice and blow her cover. So we decided that her being blind would be part of our excuse. Naia could still see a little with the cap on, and Theresa would lead her around town. It was the best plan we could manage.

  With all preparations complete, we headed home through the Cullis gate. The guard at the entrance stopped us briefly to ask about Naia, more concerned about a lost child than anything else. Once Scarlet told him our made-up story, the guard broke down into tears over the tragic tale we spun.

  "Oh, you poor thing!" was his reaction. He waved us in, thanking us for being the kind of people who would take in an orphan. We could trust our story to circulate, as apparently, the town guard was also the town gossip.

  Once in our house, Naia lifted the front of her cap and looked around. "Ooh ah, this is nice!"

  She seemed to appreciate the polished interior.

  Taking a seat on my nearby bed, she added, "Cozy."

  Next thing I knew, Theresa was teaching Naia to jump on the bed.

  "Hey, go jump on your bed and take her with you!"

  "No," Theresa replied flatly, clearly enjoying herself too much.

  "Mom! Theresa and Naia won’t get off my bed!" I shouted, playing the part of a child being picked on by his sisters.

  Our parents shook their heads and said, "Some things change, and some things remain the same."

  Damn its the monkey and the frog problem! I had wondered before why they were called Nymphs and not fairies in this world. Could this be the reason why? In the end, the problem was with individuals who did not believe there would be or care for the consequences of their actions ruining things for everyone else. As the saying goes, "A few bad apples spoil the bunch". Yet history recorded it as a one-sided attack from the nymphs because it was written by the humans that committed the crime.

  ** Writers note, "Some monkeys had their way with some frogs at a zoo. Its a fact look it up." **

  So the Nymph slave trade is still happening in the shadows. Perhaps they don't all go extinct in the future but those that remain are enslaved. I doubt this slaver would give up information on who hired him and even if he did we couldn't just start killing traders and nobles left and right. I would have to cut the head off the snake later when I had the backing to do so. Scarlet buried a whole side of her ax into the man's chest with a war cry. He barely had time to realize what was happening before he died.

  Still no sense of caution?

  Maybe chocolate also makes the little creatures kinda drunk too, I thought. It would make a kind of sense that it would do so. Chocolate has a lot of addictive qualities on humans and affects chemicals in the brain. It's not bad for us but who knows what it does to Nymphs. It's poisonous for dogs and cats. Then there's also sugar...

  I know she'll always be in full white face but I'll try not to be offended.