"Reina, sweetie, would you mind putting these on the shelf over there? It'd be a great help," her father asked her quickly, quite roughly pushing a wooden box filled with baby dolls with red, button covered dresses and velvet bows on their yarn covered heads. He turned back his head to look at the long line of customers waiting to buy toys, bread, and books; one man even carried a brand new pair of boots. Papa always made sure to sell a variety of things so you always knew the place to go for what you needed, "Ava's General Store", for that used to be her mother's name.
"You mean the one by the hairbrushes?" she naturally questioned back, taking the heavy box into her hands.
"Yes, yes. Thank you, sweetheart," he replied, kissing her head and giving her a smile, and then rushed back behind a counter to let the people make their purchases.
Reina shifted the box slightly into a more comfortable position and shuffled across the room. Standing next to the chestnut colored shelf, she placed the box on the floor with a thump and began to carefully arrange the new dolls in neat rows next to the other toys, such as wooden play swords and elaborate puzzles, making sure every doll's bow was straight.
This is what she did most days. Her father didn't have many employees, he claimed he didn't need them, so Reina was the one to help him keep things in check, and she enjoyed it.
Her father built the store years ago, when she was just a little girl. He named it "Ava's", in honor of his late wife, who died while Reina was born.
Reina would sometimes wonder what it would be like to have a mother. She had her aunt to braid her hair and to tell her about all that girl stuff, but somehow, she knew, having her mother for that would be so much different. Ever so often she'd see girls come into the store with their mothers. They'd giggle at the dresses they saw and they'd fiddle with the lip paint, trying to figure out which color would look best on each other. Peeking out from behind a rack of clothes would be Reina, her cheeks pink with jealousy, wondering what they were thinking.
She actually had no idea what her mother looked like. Her father had no pictographs of her and he seemed so sad when he talked about it. Reina didn't want to hurt him, so it could only be left to her imagination, so she thought of a beautiful woman. A lady whose hair flowed down in waves around her shoulders, the same chestnut brown with light, golden streaks as Reina herself. Her eyes must be blue, Reina would always think. Her eyes were not brown like her father's. And her face must be smooth and flawless, she decided for sure. She didn't favor the many freckles that dotted her nose and cheeks.
Reina finished placing the rest of the toys on the shelf, and picked up the box off the floor to bring back to her father. Just as she took her first step, the door to the shop burst open and slammed into the wall loudly, making everyone jump in surprise and turn to the commotion. Three strange and definitely not human creatures spilled into the room only a moment later, snarling and glaring at the terrified people. Before her eyes, just about every person in the room began scattering around the room at once, making a break to the door. A few even fled to the windows and flung themselves outside into the sea water.
The creatures snorted like pigs, they even looked like them with their snouts and curly tails. Their dark skin was tattooed with light swirls. They each swung a fire lit lantern in their left paw, although they really didn't need it and a sharp spear with blood red cloth tied behind the sharp metal in their right. They wore blue pants and bracelets and helmets of gold and different shades of green. One of the most noticeable features would be the large skull necklace each wore. Reina recognized them to be moblins.
Reina ducked behind one of the racks. How did they get here? They couldn't of possibly walked here from the docks, could they? The store was in the middle of town, unless... unless they didn't get here by boat.
One of the moblins pressed his nose to the ground on the other side of the rack she was using to hide, and she heard him sniffing the ground like a dog. She felt sweat appear on her brow and she held her breath, trying not to alert the monster, but feared that her heartbeat was so loud he could hear it.
Okay, if I'm fast enough, maybe I can make it to the door...no! It's right behind me, I'll never make it! Maybe...
Her heart pattered as a moblin head peeked around the corner. Her muscles turned to ice, and when its eyes suddenly lite up with something she couldn't comprehend, she swore her heart stopped beating completely.
It snorted some kind of message to the other monsters, which resulted in the other two huffing back, and it attempted to pick Reina up with its dirty paws. Reina scooted back against the rack, hitting her head slightly as it leaned forward, but then she watched with surprise as its nasty yellow eyes suddenly crossed and it rolled onto its side, revealing her father holding a long, wooden weapon she guessed to be some sort of club.
"Papa!" she cried, and threw herself forward into his arms.
"Reina," he told her, pulling her farther back into the corner of the room, "Stay here, no matter what happens. Understand? I don't want you getting hurt."
She nodded her head in obedience and watched him lift his weapon to the nearest moblin, its weapon also ready.
Lurching forward, her father beat the weapon against the beast's thick skin, but barely injured, it pushed him away with amusement towards the other moblin, who hit him forcefully into the other direction with the dull end of its spear.
The moblin was ready to push him again, set on continuing their little game, but as it went to stab him, her father parried its attack with a quick leap to the left and beat the stick into the side of the monster's head, making it stumble around before collapsing onto the wooden floor.
Turning to the other moblin, they exchanged blows until her father hit the ugly pig hard in the snout and it bent over in pain.
Unnoticed by her father, the third moblin, the one that tried to grab her at first, had awakened back to consciousness. He readied his weapon and prepared to strike the back of her father's head.
"Papa!" she cried out, trying to warn him, but a moment too late. As soon as he turned to see what was the matter, the moblin spear slashed him across the chest, sending her father flying across the room and into a wall of books, that all toppled over him and everywhere else in the area.
"Papa!" she cried out again, seeing his eyes closed. No...
The monsters ambled over to her, snorting happily that they could now kidnap her without anybody in the way, but failed to notice the several men making their way through the door.
To the moblins' surprise, two men tackled the first monster to the ground. It seemed to explode into a cloud of purple mist, and the other two backed away from the men, seeing clearly they were outnumbered. The group efficiently beat the moblins to the ground, and met the same fate.
Now that the moblins were out of the way, Reina dashed past the rescuers and to the other side of the store. She flung the books off her father's body. He still laid there with his eyes closed.
"Papa?" she tried, "Papa!"
She shook him a little and he opened his eyes slowly.
"Papa," she sighed with relief
"Reina," he coughed, pulling her closer to his face, "Follow your heart, Reina. You're a special girl,"
With this he took her hand in his and placed a silver necklace into her palm. On the chain was an odd blue crystal with a silver fish in the middle. Like a fish swimming in the sea.
"Papa, why?" she questioned as he closed her fingers around the necklace.
"You're a special girl," he repeated, leaning back against the books.
"Papa!" she shook him again, only he didn't stir.
"Papa, stop! This isn't funny! Papa!" she yelled, wet tears rolling down her cheeks and onto his blood soaked tunic.
A man came up from behind her and knelt down after seeing the unconscious man. He frowned and pressed his tan fingers to a spot on the side of her father's neck.
After a moment, a look of sadness crossed his face. He stood up and looked into Reina's eyes. Her heart began to beat rapidly as she realized.
"I- I'm sorry." he whispered quietly, standing up to leave her alone to mourn her father.
She pressed her face into the crook of her father's neck for what seemed like ages. When she finally lifted her head, she noticed she was alone in the dark store. The floor was cluttered with fallen shelves and debris. The books underneath her had left pink marks on her legs.
"Please come back papa! I love you!" she cried, her pleas echoing off the walls, "Din, help me! Farore, Nayru!"
She laid her head back down "I love helping you take care of the shop, Papa! You mean everything to me. I don't know what to do without you."
She ran her hand across his forehead, over his closed eyes, and rested her hand on his cheek.
"But papa...please... if you have to go... please... tell mama that I love her," she whispered into his neck, and with wet eyes, drifted off into a deep sleep.
Review please? :)