Dawning Skye

Skye blinked several times at the man, temporarily at a loss for words. After pulling her hood back, she spoke again with hard eyes; “I am the daughter of Lucas Moonstone, and daughter-in-law to King Magnus. As well as the former pupil of Jin Laos..”

Taking a step towards him, Skye added; “So if I wind up impaling you with a spike, all I will get is a stern talking to. You, on the other hand, will be dead if you don’t explain why you were hurting that child.”

The man glared at Skye as he let a flustered stream of curses flow. Seeing Skye tense up like she was getting ready to hit him, Mei stepped between them, and bowed lightly before attempting to defuse the situation..

“Pardon my friend, elder. She is not used to our customs. My name is Mei Lei, the daughter of Senator Bai Lei. My deepest apologies, but I must inform you that she truly is the Guardian. Her authority is recognized and sanctioned by the Senate as a diplomat from Alcon. And I believe you know how our people feel about her..”

Gesturing with her head, Mei drew the old man’s attention to the gathering crowds. The moment that Skye had revealed her hair color, people walking along on the street had noticed, and recognized her. As the number of witnesses grew, the old man’s temper fluctuated..

Skye wanted to laugh in the old man’s face, but Mei had done better than that. Since she’d remained calm and collected, any aggressive behavior on the old man’s part would be perceived as instigation by the gathering spectators.. ‘She’s definitely her father’s daughter.. Bai Lei’s gonna be so proud when I tell him about this..’

As the thought passed, Skye watched with curiosity as Mei took over the situation; “Could you please tell us why you were chasing this child to begin with? Has he done something wrong?”

The old man procrastinated by clearing his throat, so as to word himself properly; “I own the shop over there, and this little monster knocked over a display of jarred honey! Do you know how expensive honey is?! How is this Child going to repay me?! I was going to let the authorities handle it after he cleaned up the mess-”

.....

The child frantically cut in, lifting his hands up so everyone could see; “It was an accident, and you didn’t say that! All you said was that I had to pick up the glass with my hands! I got cut! See! But you didn’t care! You said you would smash my hands in the glass if I didn’t finish-”

“You little shit! I said no such thing! Children shouldn’t lie!” the old man screamed, cutting in on the child’s explanation.

“I’m not lying!” the child choked out, tears starting to stream down his cheeks.

Mei bent down and wiped the child’s eyes with her sleeve as she asked; “What’s your name?”

“Ping,” he replied between sniffles.

Mei smiled gently at him; “Hello, Ping. My name is Mei. Can you please tell me what happened? I promise nothing bad is going to happen to you. Just tell the truth.”

Ping nodded; “I swear I’m not lying.. I told him I knocked them over when he tried to blame my friends. My Momma can pay for the honey, but the mean old man wouldn’t let me leave to get her!”

“Did your friends knock them over?” Skye asked without any tact.

Mei glared at her, but the child was unfazed as he answered; “No, it was me. I get headaches, and sometimes I get dizzy.. I didn’t mean to..”

The child was now balling like the seven or eight year old that he was. Mei hugged Ping as she glanced at Skye, who knew exactly what to do..

Crouching down like Mei, Skye waited for the boy to lean back before asking; “Have you always had headaches?”

Ping nodded; “As long as I can remember. Grandpa’s friend makes me tea that stops it, but he hasn’t brought any over yet. It’s really tasty! Especially with honey-”

The boy clammed up as he covered his mouth, and looked over at the store owner. The old man’s face was starting to turn red again, which was Mei’s sign to mediate again. Standing up and brushing herself off, Mei smiled sweetly at the shop owner before speaking to him loud enough for people close by to hear..

“The child is clearly apologetic about the situation, and has admitted his fault in the accident. But it was Still an accident..”

Mei straightened her back, and continued speaking with a kind of determination in her voice; “The child wanted to make amends by having his parent compensate you. Why did you force him to pick up the glass by hand?”

The old man clicked his tongue before he spoke; “Because He made the mess! It’s his duty to at Least clean it up! The little bastard just wanted a chance to run off!”

“Hey: watch your tone. He is a child, and he didn’t do anything with ill-intent, unlike you...Tell me: how many adults do you know clean up a mess like that just with pants?” Skye inquired with a threatening look in her eyes.

The old man sputtered as he scrambled for an answer that didn’t seem as cruel as the reality of it. The man had been furious at the loss caused by the clumsy child, and wanted payback. It was a vindictive and cold-hearted thing to do, especially to a child.

The old man’s actions pissed off Skye, Mei, as well as Hana and Klaus. They kept looking at them, waiting for the signal to kill him, but Mei had a much better idea..

“Pardon me, sir, but why didn’t you just close your shop, and follow him home to talk with his mother? Or leave another employee in charge until you returned?”

The old man scoffed; “I work alone, and what can a woman do to make this right?! Where’s the bastard’s father? I’m probably hitting the nail on the head by calling him a bas-Ahh!”

Before the old man could even finish the word, a spike made of rock shot out of the ground, right in front of him. The man stumbled back, but he didn’t fall over. Considering how old he looked, Skye thought that was probably a good thing.

Flustered by his embarrassment and anger, the old man wanted to scream at them until his throat was raw. But the murmurs he was hearing made his hot blood run cold in his veins. The people gathering around were whispering about why he was being hostile towards the Guardian of the Last Dragon.

The old man had recognized Mei Lei, but he’d never thought that he would ever see, let alone encounter, the Guardian. The foreign woman was known for having a short temper when it came to unjust actions, and the boy was making his blatant. As Skye lowered the spike, a chill ran up his spine.

“That was a warning. The next one goes through your gut.”

“Now, now.. There’s no need for all of this. Skye? Will you please heal the child? His hands must hurt quite a lot,” Mei asked after finally seeing realization shining in the old man’s eyes.

Skye agreed, understanding that Mei was much calmer than she was, and scrunched down to the boy’s level again. Many people were eagerly watching, excited to catch a glimpse of the Guardian using her famous skill. As Ping glanced around nervously, Dkye smiled at him gently before speaking..

“Do not mind them. They just want to see me use my magic. I promise it won’t hurt, and that I’ll be super-quick with my magic.”

The boy’s eyes went wide with admiration; “You’re a mage?”

Skye’s smile stretched; “I am.. Will you help me, help you? I can’t do it without you.”

Ping took on an overly-contemplative expression, then returned the princess’ smile; “Okay, but do be careful please. My grandfather will be angry if I can’t write.”

“Is that what you were supposed to be doing instead of being inside the shop?”

Ping’s eyes widened as he exclaimed; “How’d you know?!”

Skye chuckled; “Well, your friends scattered, and you looked scared whenever you mentioned going home. How about you tell me why as I heal your hands, and we’ll see if we can make that better as well, hm?”

Ping looked concerned about the princess’ offer at first, but as soon as her magic began to give him relief; the boy became very cooperative. He explained that he was supposed to be studying, but his friends had came to his windows, and convinced him to join them.

“I didn’t want to stay because Uncle Xiao-Rong is my teacher today. He’s too mean! He should not be allowed! My Uncle Hsin is much nicer. He gives me sweets when I get all of my worksheets right!”

Skye listened to the child name off several of his favorite sweets as she healed his hands, then checked to see why he was having headaches. Some of the veins within his cranium we’re much smaller than they were supposed to be. Skye had ready about genetic disorders and illnesses that could’ve caused it, but she didn’t want to keep the child there on display.

While Skye was thoroughly healing him, Mei had calmed the old man down, and convinced him to visit her home with a note from her. Her family would compensate him for the cost of the honey, the cleanup, and an hour of his time. They haggled over the cost of his time, but Mei stayed firm on not letting the man extort her.

Once everything was written out properly, the grumpy old man set off to go collect his payment, and Skye, Mei and the others set off to meet Ping’s family. He talked about his mother, and how his father had passed when he was too little to remember. But his grandfather was just like a father to him.

He explained that it caused problems within his family sometimes, and that his cousins called him a suck up. But he didn’t care; “My grandpa is the best! He knows lots of important people, too! When he had a job, he made friends with a lot of people..”

As Ping raved and they walked down the streets, Mei’s face barely changed until they were a block away from their original destination. As they approached the Yagi residence, Mei turned to the boy with wide eyes; “Ping? Do you know your grandfather’s first name?”

Turning and smiling at the pretty and kind lady, Ping beamed as he replied; “Of course! It’s Toshinori!”