"How overprotective"

Muttered YuJu with a not so frozen body looking at what he assumed to be the mother laying over the remaining eggs, her body covering them so that he couldn't even take them even if he sneaked under her

"The other fellow should be preoccupied with chasing the little squirrels, should be at it for a while too with how slippery that species is"

Walking circles around the nest he tried to look for ways to acquire one more egg, the blue one in his hands would do but he needed as many as he could get his hands on to fully support his future operations

After taking a good look and thinking it through he found no safe way to achieve this, so he could only resort to a more risky course of action

"Thankfully I came prepared"

Taking out a small white eggshell once belonging to the one the squirrel broke he drop it to the ground, evacuating the place as he did

"Rawr?"

The mother turned her head sensing her child, but the cold energy brimmed not with life, it was still and dead

This made her suspicious, unwilling to leave the other eggs for one she knew not the fate of

Seeing as it wasn't enough to lure her he grunted and dropped the rest of the remains he kept all at one go, along with a little bit of the yolk he managed to grab, this time garnering the mother's immediate action she flew toward the remains without a second thought

It was his chance! Hurriedly running toward the extremely chilly nest he grabbed a chunk of the ice once more and an egg before running as fast as his legs could carry him

The mother had just nudged the eggshells and their yolk, feeling the sticky remains of her unborn young one before sensing yet another one disappearing

"Rawr! Rawr Rawr!"

Leaving behind the dead remains she hurried back to her few eggs and dove to cover, roaring at the surroundings in agitation and anger., who was this thief that was stealing her beloved and why was he playing her so? It was unacceptable!

Whoooo

With a deep breath she immediately covered her surroundings with frost, daring whatever it was that stole to come near, she would freeze that thing as soon as she whiffed out their presence

YuJu managed to escape the immediate area but was affected by the breath, which went to show how powerful the beast was even though it was attacking randomly

"Th-thankfully it's blind and deaf, e-else this fellow would be a major headache to deals with"

He chattered, still running to get out of its energy sensory rate, if he did not then nevermind the beast, just the egg's energy seeping into his body would kill him slowly over time

"Huu, huu haa"

With somewhat ragged breathing he finally made it far enough to guarantee his safety

"Sniff, wuu sniff"

Just as he was about to undo his stealth faint crying was heard in the surroundings, putting him on edge, he was in no shape to be battling right now

The crying was soft and quiet, like the person was muffling it to not be exposed, this didn't make him lower his guard however as it was a common tactic used by intellectual creatures to lure others into a trap

Still, he trusted his stealth and walked toward the sound, slowly inching forward while checking for anything out of the ordinary

"Sniff sniff"

There was nothing however, nothing but this little girl huddled up in a corner, drawing on the ground with black chalk while she cried with dry tears

This appearance fooled him not, the sympathy of humans was constantly used as bait in the wars they fought, before and after the apocalypse, thus his eyes shined, trying to perceive the energy within the girl's body to identify who this creature really was

"....?"

That didn't make sense, there was nothing

He tried again but could see no energy inside the girl, no energy inside a living human after merging into the Infidome?

Feeling a chill out of nowhere the girl held her clothes tight and got up, perhaps to move to a different location that wasn't as cold, two steps later she suddenly stopped while looking forward

"Hello?"

His breath stopped at that moment, did she see him? But when he thought about it he realized it made sense

'Right without energy in her body she wouldn't be capable of perceiving the one outside, meaning she can't see my camouflage…'

"Are you okay uncle?"

The girls asked after getting a better look at his figure

To this YuJu merely blinked a couple of times, not knowing how to deal with the situation at hand

"M-monster?"

The girl took a step back after looking him up and down closely, frightened like a rabbit causing him to take a look at himself

Purple cracked skin caused by freezing over, skeletal finger for his left hand and a mouth housing two fangs, what else could one think of other than a monster?

Looking back into her frightened shifty eyes he gave a sigh, breaking his silence

"Not at all, mere injuries from a fight with the beasts, I am human like yourself"

He would have liked to cover his body with the smoke aura and avoid this but he couldn't use it during stealth and she already saw his real figure

"Beasts? Did you fight the beasts mommy and daddy were chasing away?"

"Which ones?"

"The scary flying ones!"

She flapped her arms to add to the description

"Well there are plenty flying beasts, you'll have to be more specific"

"Umm, well, I think it had a weird mouth on its chest?"

That was more than enough for him to know which beast she was talking about as well as her parent's fate, if he was in this state after sneaking around them then surely others would find it impossible to escape at this stage in humanities development

"Well yes, that seems to be the same beast"

"Did you win?"

"Hmm, no, but I did steal their eggs?"

He presented the blue and white eggs sticking to his hands

"...Uncle is bad, stealing is bad, especially babies of others"

"..."

"Even babies of beasts"

He seemed to flinch as she guessed his counterargument before he said it, what a perceptive kid

"Hmm, my matters aside, what are you doing here all alone, did your parents not leave you with anyone?"

"They did but the others left, saying mommy and daddy weren't coming back"

"Yet you didn't go with them?"

The little girl shook her head, showing her firm belief in her parents' return

"Well"

He didn't see a reason for him to stay or convince her to come with him so he decided to leave, a passing memory however came at this moment, insisting that he affirmed its truth

"Little girl might I ask-" "Imy" "?" "My name is Imy and I'm not a little girl, I'm already eight years old"

"Oh, I see…"

"So what did you want to ask uncle?"

"Nothing, forget about it"

'I already have my answer'

Who would have guessed that the famous Imy Cristal, the Pure Heart, started off all alone in such a place, losing her parents and left without care or even energy to defend herself

"Sad backstories make true heroes, was it?"

"What uncle?"

"Hmm, nothing kid-I mean Imy"

He leaned down and looked at her with a small smile

"How about you come with me to the settlement I live in, it's much safer there"

Imy shook her tiny head in rejection

"Mommy and daddy said to wait here so I will wait here"

"But they also wanted you to stay here alive no? They might take longer than you think and I bet you're already starving not to mention the dangers of staying alone in such a dangerous place"

Growl~

Her stomach was quick to agree before her objection came, forcing her to look down with puffed cheeks, not willing but incapable of denying the truth

The stubborn yet innocent antics put a smile on his face, making him think of some way to convince her to come without feeling too bad about reneging her promise to her parents

"How about this, I'll get one of my friends to come here and keep watch in case your parents come back, that way you wouldn't miss them"

"Really?"

"Yes, I'll even get them to come here now"

"Thank you so much uncle!"

She hugged his leg only to shiver and step back once the cold infiltrated her tiny body

"Don't get too close now, here, have something to eat while they come"

He threw some food to her from his storage as his hands were still stuck to the egg's by ice, then sent a blood message informing Mia to send Ika over while he thawed this ridiculously sticky ice on his hands