Arcanum

"Those are animal people." Daisy whispered.

"Animal people?..." I looked at her in shock.

"Yah... they show characteristics of animals.... the most common types are cats, dogs and foxes." Daisy answered genuine smile watching both of them play innocently together in the camp.

"Guys we"re going to head this way." Daisy notified the rest.

"Sure don"t stray too far." Jay said walking towards another tent by himself.

Two men exited the large tent the two small fox girls were playing near with a small bag in their hands. With a sinister grin the larger one surprise kicked one of the little girls to the floor.

"HEYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!" I yelled to him running to the two girls, the other girl quickly running to the other aiding her up off the floor and began kneeling their head buried to the floor of the two men as if begging for forgiveness.

"What the f.u.c.k do you think you"re doing?" Daisy yelled forcing one to turn around to face us.

"Who the h.e.l.l?!" The larger one turned around to look at us, their postures instantly changed as if scared of us.... their bodies straightened as if talking to someone of authority.

"We asked what the h.e.l.l you was doing!!!" Daisy yelled as furious as I was and pointed at the girls.

"No.....nothing...." The smaller one tried to conceal the bag behind his back.

"What"s that?" Daisy said forcing the guys arm from his back and taking the bag form him. "What"s in it?...." She said pa.s.sing it to me without, her eyes not leaving the man she has a hand on.

"Oi that"s not yours." The larger one reached out for the bag instinctively.

"We"ll be the judge of that." Daisy ordered him grasping him at the wrist with her other hand.

Quickly looking into the bag it looked like few pieces of gold jewellery and dried pieces of food and a flask, quickly relaying the contents back to Daisy.

"So..... I a.s.sume the tents you just left aren"t yours and since you left with the bag in your hands, I"m forced to a.s.sume you took them from this family." Daisy asked them in a forceful tone.

"No it"s ours!!!" The large one said tried to reach out with his other hand.

"It is NOT!" Daisy replied in anger giving the man a big boot sending him to the floor. "Now I"ll let you both off this time, get out my sight." She said pushing the other one to his friend. Quickly helping his friend up they both quickly scurried away.

"Are you two okay?.." I asked the two fox girls who were still bowing their head stoically without a word or sound.

"It"s okay you can get up now." Daisy said walking to one and rea.s.suring her it"s okay to stand up giving me a nod it"s okay to do the same.

"Yes the bad men have gone now." I rea.s.sured them placing my hand on the other fox girls shoulder helping her up.

"Are your parents inside that tent?.." Daisy asked softly kneeling down to face her but she remained staring at the ground.

"Are you hurt?..." I asked noticing the boot print on the girl"s rags, but she refused to answer or even look at me similar to the other girl staring silently towards the ground.

Concerned at their lack of response and silence to us, I shot a "what do I do?..." look towards Daisy. "Ummm..... Here take this." Daisy said taking a piece of candy from her pocket and placing one in each of their palms. "We"ll go see your parents okay?.." She said standing up and giving me a nod to follow her.

"If anything happens come in straight away... okay?" I told the two girly softly before following Daisy.

"Ummm Excuse me Miss.... are you in need of a.s.sistance?... We are students of Atlantis... we"ve come to help..... We"ll be coming in." Daisy spoke loudly and clearly to anyone inside the tent and lifting the flap to walk in.

"h.e.l.lo?..." We both called out walking in.

"We have nothing left..." An adult female figure with similar fox ear and tail but coloured white in similar rags tidying up the tent that has seemed to have been ransacked.

"Ummmm miss... we came to return this..." Daisy said causing me to lift up the bag to show her.

"Ohhhh thank the G.o.ds..." she fell to her knees holding out her hands, "May I have it back please...." She begged.

"No no no no.... you don"t have to beg." I said helping her up and returning the bag to her.

"h.e.l.lo miss! We are students of Atlantis we are here today to help the refugees with food and drink and anything else you might need." Daisy smiled.

"No... That"s okay..." She replied placing the bag under a bed and began tidying up the tent.

"Please.... Let us help.... Miss....." Daisy said helping up with some of the tidying.

"Please.... you don"t need to concern yourself with trash like us." She replied and began to cry taking a seat on the bed.

"Are you hurt?....." Daisy reached out to her instinctively with her glowing hand.

"...No ... just.... just.... Kindess is so rare nowa days...." She sobbed.

"It"s okay..... We are all living beings." Daisy said sitting beside her.

"I"m sorry for all the hard ship you"ve gone through....." I replied pulling out my wand, "Phasm-Defero." I said making a small magical hand that began picking things up off the floor and began helping the clean up a little.

"So I"m Daisy and she"s Emilia." Daisy introduced ourselves to her.

"Momma?..." A young girls voice called from outside.

"Come in kids." She replied cleaning her face of her tears.

The two small fox girls came running in, running straight into her arms and hid themselves behind her legs. "It"s okay these two are from Atlantis..... They are here to help.... this is Daisy and Emilia." She smiled trying to get them to come out.

"Hi!" We both smiled hoping that they"d show themselves.

"Don"t be rude.... remember what momma taught you..." She smiled causing them both to pop their heads out, "This one is Natsuko." She said putting a hand on the one with bright orange hair and ears, "And this one is Keiko." Placing her other hand on the girl with black hair and black ears."

"h.e.l.lo....." They both shyly replied.

"And I"m Aimaki their mother." The mother smiled introducing herself.

"So did the two gentlemen take anything else?..." Daisy asked politely.

"No... You returned everything they took.... Thank you." She answered.

"So this is the first time they targeted you?...." I questioned.

"Well.... they have been taking some of our rations but today they found some of my jewellery that I try to keep hidden." She answered.

"Does the city supply rations?.." I wondered.

"Yeah..... But I guess the city is running out of supplies, since we seem to receiving less and less lately so they began visiting us weekly." She answered.

The two girls began coming out from behind their mum"s legs slowly as the conversation carried on, their noses twitching slightly as if trying to locate or smell something.

"Ohhh..... We"ve brought some supplies to help." I said opening my satchel supplied by the school.

The two girls slowly came closer as I knelled down peeping into the bag, their noses twitching clearly smelling something interesting. "Here..." I said pulling out the rations wrapped in white cloth. Their face lit up with pure excitement and joy quickly turning around to look at their mum.

"It"s okay..." She smiled causing them to take the rations from my hands and quickly ran back to their mum.

"They are very cute." I chuckled.

"Yeah..... Life"s been quite hard recerntly…. But we"ll endure..." She smiled and began to pull out a small table for them. They quickly keeled down at the table putting the parcel on the table waiting patiently.

"Here you go." She smiled opening the parcel and taking small piece of some dried meat and placing it in front of them and repackaging the rest, the two girls with giant smiles on their faces said something in unison and began eating the small bits of food they were given. The smiles and faces of pure happiness and joy was unforgettable.

"Ohhh.... you can have mine too." Daisy said opening hers and offering it to them.

"Ummm..... No thank you..... You should give it to some of the other refugee"s.... I"m sure they need it just as badly as we do." She smiled, her response brining me to the verge of tears...... her display of kindness and good will despite being treated badly was shocking touching the deepest parts of my heart.

"Ummm... well... please accept some stuff that I carry around for myself." I said opening my bag of holding.

"No no.... this is enough thank you so much...." She kindly rejected my offer.

"Well.... take some water at least...." I said pulling out three bottles of water from my bag.

"Thank you?..." She replied accepting the bottles but absolutely surprised staring at the bag.

"I"m not sure myself to be honest.... it"s a magical bag.... it somehow holds a lot of things." I answered.

"Ohhh okay...." She smiled opening the bottle and placing them for her kids to drink out of.

"So what happened.... that made you a refugee here? If you don"t mind me asking." Daisy asked.