Leo followed the harpy sisters toward the platform like they did every morning. Vasil was still distraught about the writing session yesterday. Guess she had a hard time not being the best at something. She always had her speed to fall back on but when it came to more fine motor tasks, she could not compete with her sisters.
Natassa was indifferent like always, preferring to let her sisters do the talking and listen rather than starting conversation on her own. She walked alongside Vasil and let her rant about why writing was so hard, and that she would not ever use it.
Then there was Irini, always the bundle of joy, especially so after the session. Not only had she performed well but she was clearly confident in her abilities to write, even if she could not write more than a few letters at a time. Having something over Vasil must have been what she was looking for, a little sibling rivalry never hurt anyone.
Eventually, the four of them arrived at the platform. There were a few more people than usual, but it was still a similar ratio of people running around to others simply watching from a distance. Leo had come to find out that most of the harpies that watched were older siblings taking care of their younger ones.
It reminded him of Maya, while they were the same age he felt like the older sibling. Discounting the fact that he technically was the older sibling, mentally wise, Maya still had the tendency to act like he did when he was still a kid.
Leo felt something on his chest and when he looked down he saw Irini pressing her wing against him.
"You're it!" She said with a massive grin on her face before sprinting away laughing.
He chased after Irini while Vasil and Natassa were stalking and circling him from a distance, making sure that they were out of the way so it would be more awkward for him to run after them. While at the same time, they made sure not to go too far, almost like they were trying to tempt him to go after them.
Leo kept following Irini in a circle before he was about to pass Natassa. When he came in line with Natassa he quickly pivoted and make a dash toward her.
She made a surprised gasp before breaking into a sprint herself.
Natassa was not nearly as fast on her legs compared to her sisters, so Leo saw the chance and took it. While she was still not as quick as her sisters, that did not mean she was not fast. Leo was fairly sure any of the harpies could outrun any of the human kids on land and certainly when they were in the air.
Vasil was not happy when she saw Natassa running directly at her. At first, Vasil started to slowly back up but eventually turned into a sprint to make some more distance between herself and Leo.
But she did not start running soon enough, once Natassa caught up to Vasil she placed her wings on her shoulders to slow her down almost like she was trying to drag her onto the ground. The whole scene stopped them for a few seconds, but those few seconds were all Leo needed.
He doubled down and reached out, Leo felt his fingers brush over Vasil as he managed to clip her on the shoulder before running past and slowing down.
Leo turned around panting, his arms resting on his knees to prop him up while he got his breath back. He still felt out of shape. Granted they did not do much cardio work on the farm, it was mostly physical lifting if that. But sprinting always tired him out way more than he remembered. Leo could run just fine but when it came to sprints they were not his forte.
Almost instantly after Leo had tagged Vasil she started chasing her sisters. Both Natassa and Irini ran in the same direction away from Vasil. Each time one of them tried to change direction the other had the exact same idea. First Natassa took a sharp left, only for Irini to do the exact same moments later. Then Irini turned around only for Natassa to do the same thing.
Leo chuckled to himself. They certainly were entertaining to watch. One moment they all had the same thought and the next they were polar opposites.
Over to Leo's right, he heard someone cough, it was probably just someone failing to catch their breath. It happened to him from time to time, if he put a bit too much effort in for too long and he would start to cough while regaining his breath.
When Leo looked over he saw a human kid resting his hands on his knees just like he was. The kid appeared to be around Leo's age, but he looked like a skinny and frail kid that would topple over at the slightest breeze.
Leo straightened up and shook his legs a little before walking over to the kid.
"You okay?" Leo asked.
The boy lifted his head up and held up one index finger as if to say 'give me a second'. The coughing continued for around a minute before the boy slowly went down to his knees.
Leo's expression turned from one of minor concern to one of panic. He rushed up and put his hand behind the kid's back in an effort to comfort him and hold him up if needed.
The coughing continued for a little while longer but became more spread apart and weaker. Leo could see the kid's face becoming paler and him swaying from side to side, so held him tighter to keep him upright.
"I feel… So… Tired…" The boy whispered out.
"Just breathe, just breathe and you'll be fine." Leo soothed as best he could.
Irini eventually spotted Leo and the kid and walked over, moving away from Vasil and Natassa. Leo could see she was lightly panting as well but it was nothing too serious and nothing compared to what Leo was like after sprinting around.
"Are you okay Leo?" Irini asked while tilting her head slightly to see the boy Leo was holding.
"I'm fine," Leo responded, "But he just started coughing and fell down."
"Get… Mia…" The boy whispered to Leo, still looking at the ground.
Quickly Leo turned toward Irini and gave her a serious look, "Find a 'Mia', she's probably one of his friends. She'll know more about him and can take care of him."
Irini nodded her head before turning around and flying toward the crowd. He could hear her calling out 'Mia' in the distance. It was not going to be easy considering how loud the platform was when it got crowded. But she would find Mia, when in doubt someone Mia knows would be able to find her so long as Irini got the word out.
Leo looked back toward the kid, he could see him getting paler by the second and the minor swaying continued.
"Just sit and breathe. Do you feel like you're going to throw up?" Leo asked
The kid nodded his head up and down slowly, and his mouth started to hang open when he took breaths.
Leo shifted more to the kid's side, "If you need to just let it out, you'll feel better."
The kid nodded once again.
He could see sweat forming on the kid's forehead and the swaying was not stopping. Even while Leo held the kid. His body was just trying to send him to the ground and Leo would not let that happen. He wanted the kid conscious so Mia could take care of him and hopefully fly him home.
It was slightly hot outside but it was not anything that would scream he needs to get out of the sun. Leo was not the most well-versed in medicine or health care but he's been in a situation where he felt exactly like this kid before. After running around the kid got lightheaded and everything started spinning. It made sense and it was likely just exhaustion. He was just hoping that there was not anything underlying.
Leo had his incidents when he was in high school on the track team, but he had nothing like this when he was a little kid. Regardless of how much he overexerted himself. Maybe the kid was just as frail as he looked.
He heard more rapid footsteps and turned his head to see Irini and another harpy with brown feathers and a slim figure running toward them.
The other harpy, who Leo guessed was Mia, quickly rushed up to the kid's side and hugged him. Leo let go of the boy while the harpy pulled him closer to her in a hug. He could hear whispers but could not make out what Mia was actually saying. He could only assume it was comforting words.
Mia looked up at Leo and Irini, "Thank you two so much. I've never seen him like this before, I just hope he isn't getting sick."
Leo gave a reassuring smile, "I'm sure he'll be fine with some rest."
Mia stood up and started walking with the kid, she had her wing on his back to help hold him up. The kid looked like he was about to fall over at any second and that part concerned Leo. The last thing he wanted was for him to just collapse.
While Leo was watching the two of them walk away something on the kid's neck caught his eye. There were faint red outlines all around his neck, almost like a rash was starting to form.
Leo tensed up and his thoughts ran wild. It's essentially the medieval era when it came to medicine and technology, so vaccines are not present at all in any meaningful way. Rash, what diseases gave rashes?
The first thing that came to mind was smallpox, but he felt that he would be able to notice small red dots on his skin before he even approached the kid. Leo had never seen it in person but surely even he would have been able to recognize that.
It could also be simple eczema, maybe the kid just had really dry skin and it was starting to form a rash around his body. A couple of Leo's friends on earth had something like that, so it was entirely possible.
He honestly could not think of anything else that would cause a rash like that, and that was a problem. If Leo knew what it was then maybe, just maybe, he would be able to think of what people did to cure it at the time. But then again, he had no idea of where to even start with that.
Leo looked down at his hands and he could see them trembling. He had touched that kid, he had wrapped his arms around him in an attempt to hold him up. Leo was exposed to whatever that kid had.
Almost instantly Leo pivoted on his feet and sprinted toward Sophia's house. He needed water, and he needed enough to wash down his arms, legs, and neck. Getting the disease off of his body was his number one priority.
"Leo! Where are you going!" Irini called out concern clear in her voice.
He could hear her footsteps following him but he paid them no mind. Leo knew what he needed to do and he needed to do it fast. One turn after another he eventually made it to Sophia's house.
Leo fumbled with the door before reaching down to the handle at the bottom of the door and pulling it open. The door flew open and Leo saw Sophia's head suddenly turn to him, confusion on her face.
"Leo, what's going on?" Sophia asked before walking up to him.
Irini pulled the door open more and walked up behind Leo and held him with her wings. "Leo?"
His eyes widened when he felt Irini touch him, he could not risk any spread. Anything that had a rash was always bad news and he was not about to be the cause of death for someone.
"Get off me!" He yelled, anyone could tell that something was wrong simply by the tone of his voice, he was panicking.
Leo kept shaking his body in the hopes that Irini would let go, but she never did. Her grip was iron strong and she was not budging. That gave enough time for Sophia to stand directly in front of Leo.
"Leo." Sophia said more sternly, "What is going on?"
"Water!" Leo quickly blurted out, "I need water now!"
"Irini, let Leo go so he can get some water," Sophia said as she sighed.
Sophia tried to move out of the way before she was pushed aside by Leo who ran straight for the back corner where a small bucket of water laid.
Leo kneeled down right next to the bucket the second he had the chance and essentially threw water onto his arms, legs, and neck. He cupped the water in his hands then rubbed what was left all over his body making sure to scrub it like he had a washcloth.
Sophia walked over to Leo and took the water bucket from him. Gripping it from a handle with her talons before quickly moving it to the other side of the room. Before Leo even noticed the bucket was gone from in front of him.
"I need that!" Leo said,
"Not until you tell me what happened," Sophia said before placing her wings on his shoulders.
Irini spoke up, "Leo was helping this boy who fell down. I went to get Mia and then she left with the boy. After that Leo just ran away."
Sophia smiled toward Leo, "That's nothing to be afraid of, you helped someone who was hurt. Why we-."
"He has a rash!" Leo interrupted, "I can't get what he has…" Leo eventually trailed off before falling to the ground and holding his knees tightly.
"Not like this." He kept muttering to himself quietly.
Sophia walked back over to the bucket and brought it over to Leo. She dipped her wing in the water and started wiping down Leo's arms.
"You have nothing to worry about Leo. He doesn't have anything." Sophia said while wiping him down. "Does this make you feel better?"
Leo let his arm go limp so Sophia could continue wiping his arm. He knew she would not let him do it himself so he had to let her do it. At least that way it would get done and some of the germs would stay off of him.
"You didn't see what I saw." Leo said, "It was a red rash all around his neck."
"That could mean so many things Leo, it doesn't have to mean he was sick." Sophia countered.
Leo did not respond. There were too many possibilities. This was not earth and he did not have any of the vaccinations he had previously. Medical knowledge was most likely wrong here so he could not trust the harpies when it came to that. Not only was the overall medical knowledge likely wrong, but they had different bodies altogether. There was no telling what their bodies could endure that he could not, their understanding of medicine and care should not apply to him.
That's not even considering the fact that diseases here could have so many different forms that he would not be able to recognize. Thinking on it now, it could not be smallpox or some other disease that causes rashes. It could be a disease like the flu or common cold, or it could be a disease more lethal than the black death.
Leo could not figure it out, and he had no method of figuring it out until he contracted it. But he was not going to go out of his way to get sick just to figure out what the disease was. If Leo was going to die, it was going to be something of his own accord, not a virus or bacteria, he refused to go down like that.
Eventually, Sophia finished wiping Leo down and she shook her wings to dry them off.
"Do you feel better Leo?" Sophia asked.
Leo nodded his head and spoke quietly, "...Thank you, Sophia."
"You're welcome, Leo. I'm here to help you, I don't want to see you hurt or worried. You can always come to me."
Irini walked up to Leo and sat right next to him before hugging him. "You'll be okay Leo."
Leo just let it happen. He had a feeling Irini would be all over him, she typically was. Not only that but Sophia would be constantly looking over him and watching him for the next few days. A panic attack like that would never go unnoticed. Just one more thing that put Leo in Sophia's 'debt'.
Another thing that she could hold over his head.
Around a week had passed and Leo was finally starting to accept that he had not contracted anything from the kid. That was a relief and a half, the last thing Leo wanted was to die from a disease. He still had so much to do.
The writing lessons continued and Leo was starting to get a grasp on the basic alphabet, it was tricky, learning another language was interesting but it was hard. The letters did not feel natural, he knew it would come with time and practice but that reassurance did not make it any easier.
Irini, Natassa, and Vasil, all but dragged him out of the house the day after he had contact with the diseased kid. He was going on about exposing other people to the disease but they were not having it and got him out of Sophia's house.
Leo was more scared than anything, but now that around a week had passed he felt like he could actually do something and not worry about transmitting it to someone else.
When he walked outside with Irini, he was watching the other harpies and humans for signs of something. Any potential weakness, any coughing, any constant sniffling, anything. He knew he could never be too careful when it came to diseases, after all, they were the bain of many medieval villagers.
So far, he could not see anything that caught his eye, aside from the low number of humans. It was getting to the point where Leo was not surprised by it anymore. Harpies were abundant, and it felt like there were more of them each and every day. While the number of humans remained the same or even decreased.
Harpies could not bear human children, he had learned that much from Sophia. So humans were, technically speaking, a 'precious resource' to the harpies. They could not let them go easily which Leo had understood after his first attempt at escape. Yet at the same time, it felt like he was on a much looser leash than the rest of the humans. Surely there were more right? The humans he saw could not be all of them in the village.
It was something else to think about, something else to look for. Leo wanted to pay attention more to the faces of humans, see who he recognized, see who he could not. He knew that he would not know most of the people from Happiness Village, but if he started to figure out the number of people at Harpy Village then he might be able to get an estimate of how many humans were here.
Leo knew Queen Sybil probably had the exact number, but he was not about to ask her and give her another reason to keep him around. No child would be asking that sort of question, and if he did it would put an even tighter watch on him.
Leo felt a wing rapidly poking his shoulder, he looked up and saw a concerned look on Irini's face.
"Is he okay?" She pointed toward a boy who was kneeling on the ground.
Leo could hear the coughing. It was thick and full of mucous. Not only that but he could hear the kid struggling to breathe, wheezing after every few coughs, It was not a pretty sign.
"...No," Leo said to himself, he could not be around more disease. Leo refused to take that risk, he had no idea how strong or fragile his body was when it came to diseases. One moment he could be perfectly fine and the next he could be on his death bed, there was only one way to find out and he did not want to test it.
Irini's head sagged and she started to jog toward the boy, she turned her head to look at Leo and all he saw was a worried expression before she turned her head back and continued on toward the boy.
Leo refused to move, not only did it feel like his legs were locked in place. He did not want to get closer to the boy. He was different than the one from before and that worried him, the cough sounded worse than the one from before, and he could not risk catching whatever he had. This was no simple exhaustion cough, this boy was sick.
Irini turned her head to look at Leo again, "Come on Leo! We have to help him."
Leo quickly shook his head, "He's sick Irini. We should stay away from him."
"That didn't stop you from helping the other boy!" She called back.
"I didn't know that he was sick Irini, this is different!"
"Sick or not we have to help him."
Irini was crazy, Leo was sure of it. She knew he was sick and she was actively running toward the kid. She had a death wish and Leo was not about to follow her to the grave.
"Stay away from him Irini, you'll get sick too!" Leo quickly said, he was on the verge of stuttering and anyone could hear the fear in his voice.
If she got sick then he would be in even closer contact with the disease than he was in the past few days. That thought scared him, while he was still concerned for Irini, self-preservation took precedence at the moment. It just so happened that both ideas needed the same thing, for her to get away from the boy.
"We'll be fine Leo, but he needs our help now." She almost pleaded to Leo.
Leo took a step back, almost like he was going to run away. At this point he was tempted to, it would clear him from the diseased kid, but it would also leave Irini alone with him. He needed to know for sure if she was going to get in contact with the boy. If she did, then he would have to avoid her for the time being.
There were so many things he did not know about this disease and that scared him. If he knew anything he could mark how much time had passed since he'd been exposed and then go back to normal. But he did not have that luxury, he had only hope, and that's what scared Leo.
"Fine!" Irini said before turning around and running to the boy at full speed, "I'll help him."
She almost looked disappointed in him, like she expected him to come and put himself at risk for the boy. He thought he had made his concerns clear, it was dangerous to be around the boy.
Irini had her own reasons that Leo could not piece together. She was actively putting herself at risk and he could not understand why, the reasoning just went directly over his head.
He watched Irini grab hold of the coughing boy and slowly stroke his back with her wing. The boy's coughing and wheezing did not let up but there was something about his expression that was different. Before it was just panic and pain, now… It was almost like the panic was gone.
Leo still saw him wincing every now and then but the look in the boy's eyes had changed. He almost appeared calm, like Irini's simple presence calmed him down entirely.
Irini continued until the boy's coughing fit eventually ended. She tried to help him stand but Leo watched as the boy's legs gave out from underneath him and he fell to the ground. Irini looked back at Leo almost asking for help that she knew would not come before she tried again.
The boy had his arm wrapped around Irini's neck and her wing was on his lower back trying to hold him up as best she could. That assistance was all the boy needed before they slowly started to walk toward what Leo assumed to be his home.
He trailed behind the two, keeping his distance from the boy but making sure they were both in his sights. By the time they reached the boy's house a harpy came out of the door and hugged the two of them before taking the boy with her inside.
Irini waved toward the two of them with a bright smile on her face before she turned around and walked toward Leo. Her smile never faltered even after she stood directly in front of Leo, it was almost scary in a way.
"He's all better now, he just needed some help." She said cheerfully.
"Please be careful Irini, we don't know how he got sick," Leo said slowly. He was going to make Irini understand the risks one way or another.
"We won't get sick Leo, you don't have to keep worrying about it," Irini said before moving to hug him.
Leo moved to the side to get away from Irini, he was not about to let her touch him after she just touched the sick kid. No risks, that's what he was telling himself, he could not afford to take risks with this.
Irini pouted and slumped her shoulders, she did not try again but Leo could tell him moving away killed her mood.
He felt bad about it, but he could only repeat the same thing so many times.
A few more days passed after Leo and Irini encountered the second boy. Thankfully he did not recall seeing any rashes on the boy like the first one had, so that was a plus. Leo felt the boy had something akin to the flu or a more mild version of the rash disease, without the rash.
The new problem, however, was much worse than one or two people getting sick and feeling ill.
The first kid had died in his sleep.
From what Leo overheard from Sophia and Queen Sybil, the boy's condition rapidly got worse and worse. His fever never died down and his coughing only intensified as the days went on. Bed rest did nothing to help the poor kid and eventually, he succumbed to the disease coughing and choking on his own mucus the whole time.
The whole village arranged a burial for the kid and he watched several harpies attempt to comfort Mia while it was going on. It was a sad sight, and it brought most of the villagers to tears. Some of the males were holding it in while others wept as most of the harpies had. Leo had been to funerals before and he felt he could never get used to them. Even when he hardly knew the kid, it still hurt.
When his grandparents passed away he and his brother were torn to pieces. Alex tried his hardest to stay strong for both of them. While Leo crashed and burned. He was shown the true meaning of mortality that day and that when someone dies, there really is no coming back. They do not get a do-over as he had.
This disease was going to teach the young harpies that they are in fact mortal, and not everything is going to go their way. That they can die if they push too far, not far enough, or take a wrong step. Leo felt that they will learn to be careful from this, but at the same time having children mature so fast worried him. It did not feel right to have a kid dealing with major hardships like worrying about their own safety or if they would even wake up the next morning. That was not what being a kid was about.
Leo knew Queen Sybil would have a way to go about dealing with the disease, she was not dumb by any means, it was just a question of what. Just a question of if it'll be effective enough.
Meanwhile, the funeral was not what he expected, there was no speech, not from Mia, not from Queen Sybil, not from anyone. There was no glorification of his life, there was only quiet remembrance. It was nothing like what his grandparents had, the way everyone spoke of them helped to ease the pain. But here it was just disheartening.
Leo felt wings wrap around his back and when he looked down he saw blue feathers holding his stomach.
"Don't get sick, please don't get sick," Irini begged him before pressing the side of her head into his neck.
Leo placed a hand on her wing to comfort her before speaking softly, "You don't have to worry about me, I've been careful."
He looked over to Sophia and saw Vasil and Natassa holding onto her, tears running down their eyes. He could hear Sophia whispering to them but could not make out what they were saying. Leo knew it was comforting words but it still was not something he wanted to watch. Seeing other people cry always hurt him on the inside, and this time he knew there was nothing he could do to help them.
Not long after people started to disperse Queen Sybil walked up to Sophia. Leo walked closer so that he could hear what she had to say, with Irini following directly behind. Even if he did not trust her, she was still an authority figure and well-informed.
Sophia looked down at Vasil and Natassa, "Why don't you two sit with Irini and Leo, I need to talk with Queen Sybil."
Vasil wiped her eyes and walked over to Leo and Irini, only to be followed shortly by Natassa.
Queen Sybil started talking the moment Vasil and Natassa were with the two of them. Leo knew she wanted this conversation to be private but he knew for a fact that this was information that likely would not go elsewhere. So he had to focus and listen as best he could.
"I've received reports that this is not an isolated incident. Other villages have had humans dying, all with similar descriptions of the cause. Rashes, fevers, heavy coughing, the same that has been going around here," Queen Sybil spoke quietly.
Sophia sighed, "Why did this have to happen to us? The number of males was already going down. The next thing we know we'll be back to where we were after mother's reign!" she finished sharply.
"I know Sophia. The last thing I want to do is institute breeding regulations, I want the humans to at least feel welcome and not abused. We need to let them grow up and make their own decisions. But I won't have a choice if this is as bad as I think it is. From all the reports I've read, it's only the humans to get sick."
"Not even the elves? But they're so similar to humans."
Sybil shook her head, "Not even the elves. I'm sending out notices to keep the humans away from one another, I'm also limiting the trade into the village so we're going to have to increase the number of people foraging. I don't know how this is spreading but I'm hoping a quarantine will help us."
"Limiting trade! Are you insane!" Sophia yelled.
Her shout caused several harpies to turn their heads in the direction of Queen Sybil and Sophia. A few of them started chatting with each other while others left them to their own devices and continued with what they were doing.
"Quiet down!" Sybil whispered harshly, "It's not as bad as you think it is. You've seen the elves come with their husbands right?"
Sophia nodded her head in response.
"We simply won't trade with ones who have their husbands with them. If they come around, then we force them out to protect ourselves. Only humans can get sick, so if we limit human human exposure, the disease will eventually die off. We just have to be patient and diligent."
"It's not the worst idea but that still doesn't help the sick humans."
"That's because we don't have a way to treat sick humans. The most we can do is give them coriander to help with the fever, even then, that hasn't always worked."
"Have you sent a messenger to Enrika yet? They always seem to know more than everyone else."
"I sent one out this morning after learning about how widespread the disease is. Micaela should send us back with a message in two days' time. I just hope our relationship hasn't dwindled after so much time without contact."
"She's helped us along the way, I don't think she'd abandon us now of all times."
Queen Sybil sighed, "I wish I could share your confidence. I'm sending letters with guidelines out to the nearby elf villages under our protection, hopefully, they'll listen and help their husbands as best they can."
Sophia placed a wing on her sister's shoulder, "Have faith in them, they look up to you and they trust you. They'll at least take some measures but don't think for a second that they'll disregard it."
Leo had tuned out the three sisters talking next to him. Every now and then he would hear bits of them talking but it was never enough to draw away his focus. He knew they were trying to comfort each other and that's all he needed to know. However, Leo heard everything Sophia and Queen Sybil had to say and he was not liking it.
Breeding regulations!
He did not think he needed to say any more on that, it was just downright wrong! The humans may have been fooled by the harpies saying that they'll 'raise them right' and that they 'saved them from evil villagers.' But fucking breeding regulations would break every ounce of trust the humans had with the harpies.
The humans who had essentially grown up here already mated with the harpies and doubted that they would care. But with the new kids, who had only been here for a few years. They would lose it, they would effectively be raped by these harpies. Even if they did consent to it.
It was the definition of grooming. After his revelation that male harpies simply did not exist, he knew that these kids were being groomed, it only made sense. Once the breeding regulation announcement comes out after the disease passes, chaos will ensue and none of the innocent humans will be able to look the harpies in the eyes.
Everything that Queen Sybil had worked for, everything thing that Sophia tried to do would be in vain.
Everything that David died for, would be thrown away.
Leo hated the harpies. It was as simple as that.
They had ruined his childhood, taking him away from his mother and his sister. Even if he did not know many people in Happiness Village it was still home.
Leo knew how much parents meant to their children as they matured. Once the rebellious phase passes they come to love them more than anything in the world. Cherish the remaining moments with them, just like he had back on earth.
He had given Irini a goal, a quest, to set out and make her father's dream come true. To bring true happiness and cooperation between the two villages, the two species.
If this comes through then any hope for redemption with the humans will be lost, both in Harpy Village and out of it.
Leo may not like the harpies, but Irini was different. She had a quality that he felt the other harpies lacked.
True compassion and a drive to make things right.
She and her father's idea was something so impossible, that it might actually be possible in some twisted way. It was so ridiculous that he was certain nobody had truly thought of it before, no person aside from David. Yet the fact that it came up again, the fact this idea was not tarnished with David's death means it might actually be possible. Something keeps bringing the idea of true coexistence back.
Leo had to get out of the village and get home, but what's stopping him from helping someone along the way?