Chapter 5
Two years had passed since Leo had made his measuring stick. Two years of trying to find ways to earn money because he was too scared to ask for help. Too scared to reveal what he knew to the world. Not that the villagers were helping to combat this fear of his.
There was constant backlash at anything mother did, and it was always aggressive. One mishap, one late payment, and essentially the whole village was at their door demanding one thing or another.
When their dresses were made everything was fine, they went to the store, picked up the dresses, and went back home. However, when the other villagers saw them walking around in new dresses they complained that 'they were rich' and 'they were showing off'.
When the winter was coming around they typically complained about the amount of food we were able to sell. Saying that 'with more land, we should be able to produce more'. It was constant, they were relentless, and frankly, it was starting to stress Leo out.
At first, he thought they were complaining about everything with everyone and that nobody was really happy or content in the village. The only people who were well off were Marie and Simon so it would have made sense to Leo. That was until he started to eavesdrop on conversations when they went into the center of the village.
Everyone in the village was extremely accommodating and even offered food and tools to their neighbors or people who they thought just needed the extra help. They were friendly with each other. Then his family came around and everyone excluded them, spiked their prices, bought our crops at lower prices, and were overall hostile.
He only figured this out when mother went to sell a harvest with Maya and himself. People refused to buy their crops until there was nobody else to buy from. Even when people decided to buy their crops out of necessity they refused to pay the same rate. Stating that they would never be able to afford her price or some other ridiculous notion.
They constantly made us look like we were in the wrong despite the fact that we were just doing what we had to. Considering that it was not just one person, but the whole village, Maya was getting concerned that we were actually the bad guys. It broke Leo's heart when she asked him about it.
He did his best to comfort her but she was struggling to understand what was going on. Every year she got older, and every year she understood more of what was going on. Not that it was much considering that the two of them were six years old, but it was something.
It hurt Leo when he figured out that the dresses did in fact essentially bankrupt them. He knew that they were peasants and that they were poor. But he did not expect buying the new clothes to be all the money they earned from the harvest in the past year. In one day, their annual income was spent.
They were at least able to grow and store enough food for themselves to last over the winter and until the first harvest of the year. So it was not the worst situation in the world, but if they had one bad harvest they would likely not survive the winter. It scared Leo, he had a suspicion that the villagers were waiting for that day.
A new day came around and the twins went to the forest to find Foxy as they had every morning. If nobody in the village, minus Lydia, would speak with them then they would have fun where nobody could find them.
"Maya over here, I found her!" Leo called out while Foxy put her paws on his legs and stretched.
"Leoooo," Maya said as she rushed over, forcing herself through branches before falling to the ground.
When she hit the ground Foxy got off of Leo and went over to Maya, she laid down in front of her wagging her tail. When Maya picked herself up she was face to face with Foxy.
"Foxy!" Maya yelled and jumped forwards to try and catch the fox.
Only for Foxy to jump away and start making a noise that resembled laughing.
Maya pouted before picking herself up again, "I'll catch you one day Foxy. I'll get faster just for you."
"Good luck with that Maya," Leo said, "I don't think either of us are catching her if she doesn't want to be caught."
Almost immediately after saying that Leo lunged toward Foxy and she jumped away making a sprint in the direction of the farm. The twins chased after her, they pushed each other while trying to catch the fox.
Meanwhile, Foxy just stood there near the edge of the forest, panting slightly. But her tail had stopped wagging and her ears started moving in all directions.
Leo thought that she was just hearing the villagers that were up and moving, she did have better hearing than him after all. So he paid it no mind, she probably just heard some more wildlife or kids in the village. It could have even been a branch that Leo or Maya had stepped on and it caught Foxy off guard.
Maya was the first to reach Foxy and made another attempt at catching her, "I got you!"
Only for Foxy to jump backward allowing Maya to land on her stomach. It was hilarious to Leo, Foxy constantly teasing Maya, she gave her a little bit of hope only to take it away instantly. He knew that Foxy would eventually let Maya catch her but for now, it was a distant dream.
Leo decided to make an attempt and came at Foxy from another direction, "Now I've got you!" He called out making a dash for the fox.
"No, I've got you~,"
Leo's eyes widened, before complete panic set in.
He felt a pair of sharp hands grab onto his arms almost digging into his skin. When Leo looked up he saw nothing but blue feathers.
"Leo!" Maya screamed at the top of her lungs, "Get off of him!"
His sister jumped up to grab the harpy. She managed to place her hands around one of the talons.
Leo had to act, he could not risk becoming another lost boy. Another number in the history of the village. He twisted his arms up as far as they could. The friction of his skin rubbing against the talon burned but he managed to grab onto the same talon that Maya had grabbed.
"Maya! Mom! Help!" Leo screamed.
He had to try and get anybody around to notice. They were not that far from their house, Foxy had led them back close enough to home that maybe mother would hear their screams of terror.
Meanwhile, he kept pushing against the harpy trying get detach her talon from his shoulder. Only for her grip to tighten around him.
"I'm not letting you go, it's going to be okay." The harpy said calmly while she kept lifting herself upwards toward the canopy.
Two meters up. Leo was clearly off the ground at this point but Maya was still attached to the harpy along with him. It was starting to get to a dangerous height for kids their size.
"Little girl, let go, I don't want to hurt you." The harpy said.
"No!" Maya said with her grip tightening and tears forming in her eyes, "I won't let you take Leo away."
Three meters, Leo was petrified but that did not stop him from constantly trying to free himself. He started twisting and swinging his body violently, hoping that the harpy would lose grip. Leo could take a few broken bones here and there, but he could not take being trapped away from his family for the rest of his life.
"Let. Go. Of. Me!" Leo shouted with each swing.
He was starting to gather momentum and before long he was able to reach his legs out to one of the trees in front of him. Not wasting a second he wrapped his legs around it and their upward momentum stopped.
The harpy sighed before making a whistling noise. Almost instantly two more harpies with brown wings and feathers came down from the trees.
"Get the girl off and help me with the boy." The harpy said in an authoritative tone.
"Get away from my children!"
Leo looked down to see mother with her longbow below them.
"Mom!" the twins called out.
The second mother appeared one of the harpies dove down towards her with her talons pointed out.
Mother wasted no time and reached for an arrow in her quiver. However, she did not nock this arrow. Mother waited for the harpy to get closer and quickly shifted her body to the left.
The harpy noticing this shift tilted her wings and changed course to hit mother from the side.
Only for mother to move backward and stab the harpy with the arrow in her hand.
The screams of pain were short before the harpy slammed into the ground at full force, silencing her instantly. Blood poured from the wound where mother had stabbed the harpy.
While this was all occurring, Maya was forced off of the blue-winged harpy by another one and set down on the ground. This left enough time for the same harpy to eventually get Leo free from the tree.
"Mommy!" Maya called out while running to get behind her.
The brown harpy who had set the girl down glared at mother with fury in her eyes, "Of fucking course it's Anna." She looked back up to the blue-haired harpy, "Why did it have to be Anna's kid."
Mother started to nock another arrow but before she could do so the harpy charged at her.
The harpy was fast, much faster than mother, and considering that it was all close quarters Leo was extremely worried for her. He knew she knew how to fight, but that does not mean that close-range combat was her specialty.
Mother quickly removed the arrow from her bow before staring down the harpy. She stood in place and waited for the harpy to get closer.
Once she was close enough mother dodged again to the left, only for the harpy to anticipate her movements and clip mother with her talons.
Mother hissed from the pain but kept moving. She turned with the harpy and tried to use her momentum against her. The two of them spun around before mother finally was able to force the harpy to the ground, pinning her by the wings.
The harpy swiftly twisted and forced mother onto her back, completely overpowering her in the process. Her talons reached up and prepared to strike for a kill.
Leo was terrified, he could not lose more of his family. Everything mother had pushed through up until this point was on the line. Maya would be hopeless and lost without her and Leo needed someone to look out for him while he was still so young.
Only for Maya to start screaming, but not a scream of fear. A scream filled with rage.
Maya held an arrow in her hand and pierced it through the harpy's chest. Blood poured onto mother from the wound, only for the harpy to slowly move her wings toward the arrow piercing through her.
The harpy coughed blood directly onto mother, "We can't… have more… hell spawn… like you."
Then the harpy's lifeless body fell on top of his mother.
Leo watched in horror as Maya fell to her knees staring at her own hands, blood covering them. Tears streaming from her eyes like a waterfall.
"Maya!" Leo screamed.
Mother and Maya looked up to see that the blue-winged had taken Leo even higher than before. Almost reaching past the forest canopy.
"Leo!" his sister cried back, "Please don't leave us."
Mother stood up as fast as she could and reached for the bow that had been tossed aside in the melee. When she finally grabbed it the harpy was already on the other side of the canopy, with Leo being the only thing left.
"I'm sorry," He cried, "I'm sorry Maya, Mom."
He closed his eyes and sobbed to himself as he heard both Maya and his mother screaming out for him, but at this point, he knew there was no turning back. Leo had to see what the harpies had in store for him, and he was not looking forward to it.
Nothing was said for the duration of the flight. It was not exceptionally long. After around twenty minutes of flying buildings came into his view.
From what he could tell, the houses were all elevated way above the ground. Their roofs were covered in straw while the walls were made of logs and planks similar to how the houses at Happiness village were made. There were several rope bridges surrounding and connecting the houses all leading toward a massive building in the center of the village.
Beyond that center, was another building that stood higher than the rest. It was around the same size as the other homes but its height allowed for the people inside to watch over the rest of the village. Maybe this was where the Harpy chief lived?
The closer they got to the village the more he could see the villagers. It was overflowing with harpies. There was so much movement between the houses and on the rope bridges. Even the open spaces were littered with harpies. He kept watching them and eventually he started to see humans walking around.
Humans, the males that had been kidnapped before. They just walked around the houses either in groups with other males or surrounded by harpies. All of them acted like nothing had happened as if everything was perfectly fine. Some of them acted like they actually liked it here.
Leo knew he had to run the second he landed, he had to take the chance. He refused to be Stockholm syndromed. He would never enjoy the company of harpies after everything they had taken from them. Without the harpies maybe the villagers would not have hated mother and made everything worse for him and Maya.
Eventually, they started to descend from the sky towards one of the houses near where the harpy chief was living.
"This is our home." The harpy holding him said with a much more soft-spoken and gentle voice than when they were kidnapping Leo, "I hope you come to enjoy it."
"Why would I enjoy it here?" Leo spat, anger clear in his voice, "You took me from my home and away from my family. Why would I enjoy anything here?"
The harpy sighed, "I guess that's fair, but we're looking out for you. We want to do what's best for you. So you can have a chance to live a peaceful life."
"Peaceful?!" Leo yelled drawing the attention of some of the nearby harpies, "If it weren't for the kidnappings we would have a peaceful life!"
The harpy kept lowering Leo, "You'll understand soon enough. You'll believe us when you get older. But I'm sorry for what it's worth, taking you away from your family was the only option. Just walk inside and we can talk more about it."
He wooden platform on his feet and the second the harpy let go of him be bolted to his left.
"Hey! Get back here!" The harpy called out, slightly agitated.
Leo did not respond, he just kept running as fast as his little legs could carry him. He forced himself past several harpies who were just standing and talking.
He took a turn onto a rope bridge and brushed past two human adults before they could see Leo pass them. He heard them chuckling to themselves when he ran past.
Leo looked behind him to see if the harpy was still following, only to find her flying directly at him. She was cutting him off, trying to meet his path.
So he stopped and pivoted his feet, immediately turning around, hoping to run in the other direction and maybe find a ladder that could lead him down. He narrowly missed the harpy and she hovered over the bridge where Leo just was.
The harpy groaned, "Alipheese please give me the strength to help this child."
Once Leo was off the bridge he found another route to take and sprinted down it. Leo started to get tired, his body was not built for this level of activity yet. Not that his old body was much better.
He dodged past another group of harpies who were visibly laughing, he was not sure if it was at him or at the harpy chasing him but he did not give it the thought. He had more pressing matters, like finding a way down from this maze of bridges and platforms.
Leo took another turn down a bridge only to find it blocked by a young boy with silver hair and a harpy.
He tried to pivot again but was snatched by the blue-winged harpy and brought off of his feet.
She looked down at him as best she could, "We're going to have a talk young man, you can't just run away like that. You could fall off."
Leo struggled in her grasp, trying to break free once again, "Let me go! I refuse to be your little project. I just want to go home."
"This is your home now Leo." A familiar voice called out, when Leo picked his head up he was eye to eye with the silver-haired boy. "It's not bad here, the harpies care for us a lot. More than our parents did back in the village."
Leo's eyes widened, "Markus… Is that really you?"
The boy laughed, "Yea it's me Leo. Just do me a favor and let Sophia take care of you, I can say for a fact she'll do a better job than Anna would."
Leo's vision went red at the mention of his mother name. He knew that Markus did not have any kind words to say about his mother. He struggled even more and kept trying to reach out towards Markus.
"Take that back!" Leo yelled, "Mom looked out for us as best she could. She killed to protect us… can your father say the same? He stopped trying and made everything worse for all of us!"
Sophia, the harpy holding Leo, flew upwards get away from Markus. While the harpy that was behind Markus quickly reached out to pull him away.
"That's enough Leo," Sophia said, her tone lacking the kindness from before, it sounded just like mother when she scolded him and Maya. "We're going home."
Leo's struggle stopped when he got higher into the air, he had to resist. Yet he knew that if he managed to break free from her grasp then he would fall and break something. That was the last thing he needed if there was any chance at escape.
Eventually, they made it back to Sophia's house and she pushed the door open with one of her talons. She dropped Leo on the inside and stood in the way of the door, offering no way out.
Leo looked around the room and took in the surroundings.
The home was extremely spacious but offered very little privacy. He could not find any other doors aside from the one that Sophia was blocking. There were a few candles attached to the walls that were unlit at the moment. While light from the sun was pouring into the room from the two massive windows on the same wall.
He saw one low-lying table next to a fireplace. The fireplace itself was encased in red brick which included a chimney that he could not see from above. The table was at leg height so it would have been difficult for him to put his legs under it, he guessed that sitting at the table was not really an option.
There were a few cooking appliances such as pots and pans hanging from the side of the chimney. A metal grill rack rested on the floor, leaning against the chimney. While there was a small cabinet full of what Leo could only believe to be herbs and spices lying low on the wall.
Leo took a turn and saw five different spots on the ground. Each had a blanket made of some brown fur or cloth while there were pillows at the tops of each spot. He could see some blue feathers sticking out of the pillows.
Sophia coughed into her wing to gain Leo's attention.
"So this is our home," She said with a smile, "I have three other daughters that you'll meet later. My sister is taking care of them now so I could get you introduced to what it's like here."
She pushed up a small wooden bar to lock the door in place before moving over toward the spots on the ground and pointing her wing at one of them, "This is your bed."
Leo walked over and reached for the blanket. He ran his hand against it and it felt amazingly soft. It was not as soft as Foxy's fur but it was still something that he had not expected.
Not wasting a chance he grabbed the pillow, pushed it down, and started inspecting it. The pillow was nothing like the ones on earth but it was certainly a step up from what he had back in happiness village. The quality of the material was significantly better and he could not understand why. Both had feathers inside.
Sophia chuckled, "Those pillows were made from our feathers, so they're a lot less rough than what you're used to."
Leo just stared at the pillow lost in thought. He really was trapped here. All the limited freedom that he had with mother and Maya was now gone. He was able to do so much and he genuinely felt happy there. Despite the constant struggle and stress caused by the villagers.
Here, Leo knew that the harpies would have a constant watch over him. The harpy following Markus was enough proof of that. Why else would she be following Markus around? While there were a few human adults around. They had likely lived most of their lives here with no intention of leaving.
He pictured mother and Maya struck with grief back home. Maya would almost certainly think he's dead, why would she have any reason to not think that? She watched him fly away in the talons of a harpy, something that they have been told to fear for their entire lives.
Now here Leo was, standing unbound in this home, alone with one of the harpies. None of this made sense to Leo. Yet, he knew that there was a motive somewhere and at this point he was too scared to find out. He knew if he did not start trying to find out why he was here, he had no chance of convincing one to let him leave.
He had tried on two occasions to get out of Sophia's grip and each time it failed miserably. They were, unsurprisingly, much stronger than him. They might even be stronger than most humans based on the fact that one of them threw mother to the ground. Mother would not give up easily if he or Maya were on the line.
Leo was thankful for that. He was thankful for all the times that mother helped him when he was feeling sad or confused. She tried to teach him and Maya something all the time so that they would be able to help on the farm as mother got older. He would never forget her and what she did for them.
Maya was always a ball of sunshine. Maybe it was childhood innocence but Leo thought it was more than that. She always looked for something fun for the two of them to do. It always distracted him from one of his projects, but it also distracted him from the threat that the villagers posed to the three of them.
He would get back to them, even if it was the last thing he did.
Leo looked up from the pillow, steeled his resolve, and stared harshly at Sophia, "Why?"
She was somewhat taken aback by his tone, but she responded softly, "Why What? I'm not going to hurt you if that's what you're asking about."
"Why do you do it?" Leo spoke, his anger rising, "Why do you harpies keep taking us."
She walked closer to Leo, "Everyone hates each other there, it's no place to raise a child." Sophia spread her wings out when she got within arms reach of Leo, "That's why we try to help."
Leo jumped back, "Help?" he said as if it was a cruel joke, "You call taking kids from their families helping!?"
Sophia put her wings on her hips and chastised Leo, "Is that any way to speak to your caretaker?"
Leo laughed at the insanity Sophia was preaching, "So you're telling me. That you take kids away from their parents… Because the environment was bad for raising a kid. Not that the parents weren't doing their jobs. But because it's not ideal?"
Sophia refused to back down, "Yes. I don't need a reason to want kids to grow up to be strong and healthy… You all were starving over there, none of you kids would have lived to see the age of ten!"
Leo threw his hands in the air, "Why do you think we were starving! Because you harpies keep taking the next generation. We can't feed ourselves because you are taking our people!"
Sophia scoffed, "It doesn't work like that, your parents can't feed you because they can't work together. If you all worked together then you would never have problems with food."
"We can't work together because everyone is blaming us for the kidnappings.," Leo said, "The villagers hate each other because you keep causing us problems... If humans started taking away baby harpies how would you feel? Wouldn't everyone find someone to blame, your chief would be at the chopping block in a matter of minutes!"
"We would never let something like that happen." She said in shock to the question, "The Queen is responsible enough to protect us all."
"Then you harpies have much more faith in your leader than my people have had for mine… Do you know what it's like to be the scapegoat?" Leo asked, his anger dying down only to be replaced by a feeling of bitterness. "The villagers only hate us because my parents could not solve their problems for them."
"That's why I'm here Leo," Sophia said while trying to regain a positive tone, "You don't have to be the scapegoat anymore. You can be a kid again."
"Then what about my sister," Leo rebutted, "If you care so much about kids then why didn't you take my sister as well? Does she now have to go through all of that without her brother? What if something happens to mom and she's left all alone? Would you go for her then or just leave her to die!?"
"We can't take the girls to safety Leo," She said sadly, "You're too young to know why."
"Too young," Leo scoffed, "I'm too young to know why you're a hypocrite… but I'm old enough to be kidnapped? Me and my sister are old enough to go through trauma?"
"I want to save the girls!" Sophia yelled back for the first time, it shocked Leo but he stood his ground. "I want to help everyone. I want to save all the kids. But the girls can't give us children."
What?
Leo just stood there confused for a few moments. The girls could not give the harpies children. That made sense. But neither could the men, they were not the same species, and they could not breed together. He did not know much about biology but he knew that separate species could not make children together.
"... Then what's the point of the male harpies?" Leo asked slowly as if the answer was obvious.
"Leo…" Sophia sighed, "Male harpies don't exist, we're a strictly female species. All monsters are."
Leo's eyes widened as if everything made sense for once. 'Thou shall not have intercourse with monsters.' Illias' commandment. It was not just something random because the monsters looked female. It was a direct attack against the monsters, a direct attack against these harpies.
So apparently, human men could impregnate monsters, all monsters, not just harpies. That thought terrified him. If the harpies took the males to breed, and all their offspring were female. Then Happiness village would truly die off. Any human left would be the result of some level of inbreeding from the few human families that remind.
"Leo," Sophia asked, concern in her voice, "Are you okay?"
"Yea," He sat down on his bed mat and brought his hands to his head in frustration, "I'm just thinking."
Sophia sat down next to him, but made sure to keep some distance, "You'll understand soon Leo, both the Queen and I know you're a smart kid."
Leo froze. He forgot, he completely and utterly forgot.
He had to hide himself, he was so preoccupied with trying to find a way out and trying to figure out why he was kidnapped that he forgot to make himself seem like an actual kid.
Leo hoped Sophia saw nothing more than a traumatized child. It would give him more attention but they would also try to talk in-depth with him. Neither of which Leo really wanted, staying anonymous until he could find a way out was priority number one.
In the event that Sophia understood he was a lot smarter than the average child his age, he could be in for a lot of trouble. That would also bring more attention to him. Not to mention the other humans might start to resent him or even actively start to hunt him. He was Anna's child after all, and Leo could guarantee that the humans here would still harbor hatred for him if Markus told them.
The last thing he needed was full-on guards watching him and preventing him from leaving. But there was something that was bothering him. He understood that Sophia was caring about the kids and did not want to expose them to too much. But what about the other harpies?
Were the kids forced to have sex with younger harpies? The thought disgusted him, they were kids. Most of them had not even gone through puberty yet.
There was a knocking at the door which caused the two inside to turn their heads.
"Sophia?" The voice said, "I heard you got back a while ago so I brought the kids."
"One second!" Sophia responded before rushing towards the door and unhooking the latch she used to prevent Leo from running away.
When the door was opened three small harpies rushed forward and hugged Sophia.
"Mama's back!" They all called in sync.
The three kids had partially the same wing coloring as Sophia, a shade of blue. While the coloring was significantly brighter and more pronounced for one of the kids. The two others had a much darker shade of blue, almost looking brown like most of the other harpies. The same color was reflected in their feathers across their body.
The woman on the other side of the door, however, did not look like Sophia's sister.
Her wings and feathers were bright pink. Not to mention the clearly different hair color, while Sophia and her children had light brown tinted hair. This harpy had hair that was slightly lighter than Sophia's feathers.
"Welcome back!" Sophia cheered in an overly friendly voice, "Did the Queen treat you nicely?"
This woman was the Queen. Leo thought to himself. His 'caretaker' was related to the Queen of all the harpies. Any wrong move and he was done for, that's providing she does not somehow already know about him. He felt that Sophia knew more about him than she let on. Either that or he gave away more information than he realized.
The kids all nodded their heads before the blue-winged one spoke up, "She took us for a tour of the aviary!"
"Oh did she now?" Sophia said, "That's so nice of her to show you around there. Just wait until you have kids then you'll love the aviary."
The Queen spoke up in a friendly tone, "They were a pleasure to have around. It was the de-stress I didn't know I needed, thank you for that Sophia."
The bright blue harpy peaked around her mother and caught a glance at Leo.
"Human!" She cheered before running full speed at Leo.
Leo quickly backed away but the smaller harpy was persistent. She kept following him, every dash to the left the harpy followed. With every jump backward the harpy was not phased and kept chasing him.
The whole time the harpy was chasing him Sophia and the Queen laughed.
Before Leo knew it he was backed into a corner and the harpy pulled him into a hug. As much as Leo felt uncomfortable and scared he had to admit, the feathers being pressed against him felt incredibly relaxing.
Leo tried to speak, "G-g-ge-"
Only to be interrupted by the child. "I'm Irini! What's your name Mr. human."
Sophia stopped laughing and spoke up. "Irini leave Leo alone for now, he doesn't like it when you get so close to him."
"Aww," Irini whined, "But dad always loved it when I did that."
Irini slowly backed away while Sophia walked over and patted her on the head. "I know Irini."
The other harpies walked over to Sophia and stood behind her cautiously peaking their heads out from behind Sophia's wings that rested at her side.
kid on Sophia's left spoke first, "I'm Natassa."
She was followed shortly by the kid on the right, "I'm Vasil."
Leo stood in his corner refusing to move and refusing to speak. All five of the harpies stared at him, waiting for him to say something. He could feel the tension in the air. He had a feeling Natassa and Vasil were scared of him, while Irini was just watching him curiously.
Eventually, the Queen spoke up, "Are you going to introduce yourself? The kids introduced themselves, it's only fair you do the same."
Leo swallowed the lump in his throat and spoke up, not wanting to anger someone people called a Queen. "I-I'm L-Leo."
The Queen smiled, "Much better… Now I'll leave you all to get to know each other, I have a lot of work I need to do."
She whispered something to Sophia on her way out but Leo could not hear what it was. He knew it was about him, why would it not be?
Sophia nodded her head in agreement to whatever the Queen said.
Once the Queen left there was a silence for a few minutes before Sophia broke it.
"Okay! Leo are you hungry?" Sophia asked.
He did feel somewhat hungry and he knew that he would not be able to find his own food around here. As much as he hated to admit it he was reliant on Sophia for his daily needs. So he would have to comply with her to a degree. The last thing he wanted was to die in captivity.
Leo had a mission after all.
"I'm a little hungry," Leo said quietly.
"Perfect! I'll make us something to eat, why don't you four play around for a bit." Sophia said cheerfully as if they were not just standing in silence.
Irini, Natassa, and Vasil all made noises of realization and then quickly ran outside the house as if they knew exactly what to do.
Natassa and Vasil were long gone before Irini turned around at the door to face Leo. "Come on Leo!"
Sophia turned to look at Leo with a somber look on her face, "Go on, you know they won't hurt you."
Leo sighed and walked towards Irini and the door.
He wanted to cry, all the memories in this world were something that he was beginning to hold dear. They meant a lot to him. Mother and Maya were his lifelines, both physically and emotionally.
All Leo could hear when he walked out was Maya's voice, 'Come on Leo!'