I wake up the same way I fell asleep, squished. There is a child on either side of me, both snoring loudly.

"Mama! Mama, help!"

On the other side of the campfire, which has long since gone out, Mama is sitting cross-legged, meditating. After hearing my plea, she cracks one eyelid open, smiles, and then closes it again.

It takes about another hour before they finally wake up.

"Good morning Sarah, Neil."

They both yawn, and Sarah says good morning back.

"Are you two hungry?"

"Not really, I just wanna go home." replies Neil drowsily, and Sarah nods her head in agreement.

"Do you know where your home is?"

Sarah nods her head, "I think so."

Mama smiles, "Shall we head there then?"

After hearing that, they both perk up immediately.

"Let's go, I'll lead the way!" shouts Neil.

Mama nods her head, and we start walking, when suddenly I find myself leaving the ground again. I'm about to tell Mama that I can walk by myself, when I notice that she's walking a few feet away from me. Swiveling my head around, I see Sarah grinning happily while toting me along with her. I'm about to ask Mama for help, but the teasing smile on her face tells me she won't do anything even if I do.

'At this rate, I won't get to walk anymore.'

I decide to make myself as comfortable as possible in Sarah's arms as we head towards our destination.

We run into quite a few creatures along the way, several of which try to attack us. But any of them that act hostile receive a single swipe from Mama's halberd and fall immediately. Neil and Sarah seem amazed every time it happens. I'm not sure why though; none of the creatures even have black eyes.

We've been traveling for nearly three days now, and we are finally starting to see signs of civilization. The moment we come across a farm, Sarah and Neil start getting excited, exclaiming that they recognize it. The children change direction slightly and start running, and soon after, we come across a dirt road.

"This is the trade route, we just need to head that way and we'll get home!" says Sarah, nearly tearing up.

"That is good, but it is getting late. We will continue our journey tomorrow."

Almost as soon as Mama finishes talking, I start hearing noises a distance down the dirt road. As the noises get louder, a group of wagons and carriages come into view. The creatures pulling them seem similar to steeg, except they don't have black eyes. It seems to be some sort of caravan.

Mama stands in front of us and stairs at them vigilantly as they near us. As they pass in front of us, the caravan starts slowing down, eventually coming to a complete stop. The door of the carriage second to the front opens as an elderly woman exits and walks toward us, followed by a heavily armored, straight-faced man.

"What're ya doin' out here?" asks the kind looking old woman with a smile.

"We are going to the town." says Mama Bloodcat.

"Which town are ya goin' to?"

Mama looks at Sarah and Neil.

Neil speaks up, "We're going to Orion City, that way." he points in the direction the caravan was headed.

The elderly woman smiles, "We're headed there too. Why don't you guys hitch a ride with us?"

Mama looks at the quickly darkening sky, and nods her head, "We would appreciate that, thank you."

The woman, still smiling, bends down in front of Sarah, Neil and I, "What're your names?"

Sarah and Neil reply with their names, and I instinctively reply with mine as well.

"Sarah and Neil huh, those're nice names."

Mama quickly adds in, "And she is Lyna." she says as she points at me.

"She's yer pet, huh?"

Sarah shakes her head and holds me up, "No, she is her daughter."

The woman follows Sarah's finger over to Mama, and then looks at her oddly for a second.

She then shrugs, "Welp, it's none of my business. Come on in, it's startin' ta get dark." she gestures to the carriage that she came out of.

The carriage is large enough for all four of us to fit on one seat side by side, but I instead find myself on Sarah's lap. The elderly woman sits across from us, as does the armored man.

"So what's yer name? Mine's Miina."

"My name is Mama."

I tap Mama Bloodcat, "Mama, you should call yourself Bloodcat instead, it sounds cooler!"

Mama lets out an 'ah' and nods her head, "I am called Bloodcat." she amends.

Miina looks like she suddenly understands something, "You must be a cultivator! They all seem ta have weird names, like Quick Fang or Sturdy Mantle."

Mama nods her head, "Yes, I am a cultivator."

'You do realize that she basically called your name weird, right?'

I decide not to voice my thoughts though.

"You've heard of Quick Fang?!" the two children voice out almost simultaneously.

"I've only heard of him, never seen him before. D'you know him?"

"Yeah, he's our dad! He's super strong!" Neil practically shouts, and Sarah nods while smiling brightly.

"Wow, you guys have such strong parents!" marvels Miina as she glances at Mama Bloodcat.

Mama shakes her head, "I am not their parent. I simply found them lost in the forest and am escorting them back to their home."

"S'that so. It's a good thing you found 'em first, there's lots of creeps out there that would gladly kidnap the poor things."

Mama tilts her head sideways, "Is it not natural to help children? Why would someone not?"

Miina sighs and shakes her head, "Slave trading mostly, someone could make a mint selling a couple kids like these. Slave trading is officially banned, but underground slave trading is at an all time high right now."

"What is a 'slave'?"

"If you're a slave, it means somebody owns you like an object, and can do whatever they want to you." I reply, happy to finally be relevant to the conversation.

Just as Miina is about to answer Mama's question, Mama suddenly bursts out, "That sounds horrible!"

Miina flinches, "Uh, yeah, it's pretty terrible."

"Where are these underground slave traders? I will dig them up immediately!"

"Calm down, it's not as bad as you think. Say these kids wound up on the market, they'd probably get 'adopted'. They'd likely get bought by people with no kids of their own, who'd raise them as their successors. 'Sides, destroying the black market singlehandedly would be impossible, even for a Qi Manipulation cultivator. It's a huge interconnected network that's in almost every big city that I know of, and trust me, I've been around. But the worst part's their leader, it's rumored that he recently broke through to the late Qi Manipulation Stage."

After Miina finishes talking, the carriage goes silent. Neil and Sarah seem to have been scared by Miina's monologue. Neil keeps gripping the sword at his waist and then letting go, and Sarah is squeezing me rather tightly. Miina seems to have made herself upset, as she keeps shaking her head and sighing, seemingly lost in her thoughts. Mama has her pondering face on, and keeps furrowing her eyebrows. And Mister Straight-Face is still straight-faced.

Soon Neil and Sarah fall asleep, and the gentle rocking of the carriage puts me to sleep not long after.

I wake up to the sound of people talking. Outside the carriage, Miina is talking to a man in armor, probably some sort of guard. The caravan has stopped just in front of a huge wall, and in front of us is an almost equally tall gateway. On the other side of the gateway are fields upon fields of farmland, and farther in the distance is a large city.

Clank!

I hear the sound of the carriage door opening, as Miina walks in with a smile.

"Kay, we'll be in the city in no time!"

The sound seems to have woken up the kids, as they're now groggily, yet excitedly looking out of the windows and pointing at things as we move past them.

"Thank you Miina for your help, we appreciate it." Mama gives Miina a small bow, copying what Sarah and Neil did when we first met.

"No, no, like you said, isn't it natural to help children? Don't worry about it!"

We soon enter the outskirts of the city and decide to let ourselves out of the carriage, bearing Miina farewell.

"You said you can find your way home from here?" asks Mama.

"Yeah, it's this way!" says Sarah, as she and Neil skillfully weave through crowds of bustling people. Mama picks me up and starts following them.

"Mama, I can walk by myself, you know?"

"Yes, I know." she nods.

I sigh and look around us. We seem to be in some sort of market district, and a very lively one at that. I can hear the constant murmur of the crowd; bartering, haggling, some people are even shouting at each other. I've never been so happy to be in such an obnoxious crowd of people before. I'm so happy, I can't even stop smiling.

'Finally back to civilization!'

We soon exit the market district, and the crowds start thinning out, to the point where there's only a few people walking on the streets now. We seem to have entered a middle-class residential district, which is full of old European-style houses.

The kids keep running until we reach a high-class looking area, with mansions lying on large plots of land on either side of the street. They finally stop in front of a particularly large mansion, and head towards its gate.

Neil waves and shouts, "Marcus, we're home!"

There are two people guarding the gate, but after Neil's shout, one of the guards takes one look in our direction, speaks to the other guard for a second, and then sprints to the house.

The other guard opens the gate and runs over to Neil and Sarah, "Young masters, I am so glad you're both safe! Your parents have been worried sick, and have personally entered the forest in search of you. We will notify them of your return as soon as possible."

"Thanks Marcus." both children reply in unison.

The guard, Marcus, leads us down a long path to the mansion. As we near the mansion, the double doors open and over a dozen servants come running out, saying things like 'welcome home' and 'please don't scare us like that'. Some have even broken down in tears, thanking some deity for their safe return.

As we're about to enter the mansion, the gate guard, Marcus, seems to have finally noticed us as he suddenly asks, "Who's that?" and points at Mama.

Sarah retorts, "They saved our lives, let them in and serve them food and drink, we want to introduce them to Mom and Dad."

The servants hurriedly accommodate the children's wishes, and we soon find ourselves on a couch with a table in front of it, which is quickly covered with food and beverages.

"This is ebonberry juice, and that's ryuble jerky, and that's..." "Try some of this, it's called soulfruit tart cake, it's one of Alice's original recipes..."

Neil and Sarah start showing us their favorite foods, having us sample all of them. My personal favorites are the soulfruit tart cake and something called kubada bread. Mama, on the other hand, seems to like everything equally, as she just scarfs it all down indiscriminately.

After a plate or two of food and a couple drinks, I find myself feeling full, but Mama is amazing! She's already cleared half the food off of the table, and she's still eating!

Slam!

The front doors suddenly fly open, as a blond woman comes running into the living room.

"Sarah! Neil!" she cries as she rushes towards the children.

"Mom!" the two shout as they embrace their mother.

It's the perfect example of a happy reunion; they're all trying to talk to each other at the same time, the waterworks are turned up to a maximum, everybody's happy... until their Mom sees me. As soon as we make eye contact, she immediately puts on a serious face and gathers her children behind herself.

"Who are you?!" she demands, pointing at Mama and I.