“Hold fast to dreams

For if dreams die

Life is a broken-winged bird

That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams

For when dreams go

Life is a barren field

Frozen with snow.”

Dreams by Langston Hughes

Greyson wrapped his arms around the sobbing child, letting her cry for as long as she wanted to. In the before time, as he preferred to think of it, a few of his friends had kids. While he wasn’t always around, he was constantly known as Uncle Greyson despite any actual blood relations. This bawling child reminded him of those faux nieces and nephews that he had run around chasing and playing all sorts of ridiculous games and he held onto her tightly. For the briefest of moments, that while it wouldn’t have been denied would have been dismissed, his eyes glistened with unshed tears of his own for what he had lost.

After clamping down on his own emotions, Greyson raised his head to scan his surroundings as he let the girl get her self under control as well. More heads than he would have liked were staring over at him. Many seemed to be relieved that someone was helping the child, but more than a few were looking at him as if he was some sort of pedophile. A brief flare of anger coursed through him at this.

Ding!

Congratulations!

Your skill, Killing Intent has evolved!

Killing Intent has evolved into Directed Killing Intent

With this, a slight smile crept up Greyson face as he mentally dismissed the message. To those that were looking at him as if he were scum, he direct as much killing intent as he could manage towards them. Abruptly, just over a dozen of the beings gazing upon him let out a quick “Urk” and promptly passed out from the force of the pressure that he exerted. A smile tugged further at his mouth as he surveyed his handiwork.

Useful skill it seems.

A quick and subtle shake of the head and he looked down to the child that was currently in the process of soaking through his only shirt.

“There, there. I know this has probably been a lot for you but do you think you can talk to me now?” Greyson asked in a quiet murmur to the top for the girl’s head. She took in an extra loud sniff, trying to get herself under control and was able to stop crying the span of a few breadths. Once under some semblance of control, she pulled herself back to look at him.

It was the first real view of the girl that Greyson had as well. What he noticed first were the mismatched eyes staring back at him. One an almost luminescent silver and the other a rich copper. While slightly red and puffy from crying, even now he could sense an underlying foundation of steel behind her gaze. Truthfully, if he had been any normal sort of person, the frank determination and resolve he saw there may have left him a bit disturbed, thankfully normalcy had departed from him sometime around when he stopped counting how long he had been in the tutorial world. What he truly did not like though, was the tinge of vulnerability he could feel, just as over hardened steel becomes brittle to shocks and strikes, so to did he feel that this child could shatter into a million pieces.

Greyson continued his evaluation of the girl. On the shorter side, coming up to only just past his waist, the chocolate brown hair fell in a mess of tangled curls midway down her back. Her hair provided a frame to her almost delicate heart-shaped face. He also noticed a very slight split at the top of her ears, which he hoped was natural and not something inflicted on her. She wore a somewhat loose charcoal blue peasant’s dress falling just past the bottom of her knees. Curiously, the hem of the dress seemed to be partially damp.

As he looked her over, so to was he assessed. She stood while he kneeled an arm’s length apart for minutes without speaking.

Well, it seems she isn’t the talkative sort.

“All right there little one, do you think you could tell me your name?” Greyson asked in as gentle a voice as he could manage. While he didn’t think he could scare her away at this point, he also didn’t see much of a reason to try.

“Eloise” The quiet and shy voice spoke. Her voice in spite of its low volume came across clear as a crystal bell and nearly as lovely.

“Well it is a pleasure to meet you Miss Eloise. My name is Greyson Einar, but you can call me Grey if you like.” A slight nod of the head of acknowledgement was all that he got back with her multicolored eyes never leaving his.

“So, should I guess that you got taken away from your parents?” Another slight nod.

“Did they get summoned to another world already?” A shake of the head in the negative.

“They still back where you came from then?” A nod at this.

“Have you talked to the person at the front desk about being sent back home?” Shrug.

“Would you like me to talk to them about sending you home?” Pause and after a few seconds where he could see the gears turning in her head finally a shrug.

“How come? Don’t you want to see your parents?” She scrunched up her brows and nose in thought for a moment before realizing that she wasn’t going to be able to get away with a nonverbal answer to this.

“No parents.” She finally said, her melodious voice carrying a bit farther this time as she didn’t try nearly as hard to keep to a whisper. While everyone had moved a few more seats away from the crying child and intimidating man, many of them had started inching their way back as the two started their conversation. While in the back of his head, Grey kept tabs on all of these individuals, he also summarily dismissed all of them as potential threats. Still, at her words, a few of the individuals seemed to relax a bit into their seats and stop their advance, an almost drunken smile playing at the edges of their lips.

Greyson knew it is was important and made sure to not react to her words and schooled his features into the same face he had been showing her this entire time. He could see the wheels turning in her head and almost thought he saw another small nod to herself at his lack of reaction to this news.

“Well, I tell you what. Why don’t we go up to the desk and see if they can help you at all, and if they can’t you can stick with me.”

This garnered the first full reaction besides the slight movements that he had been getting from her before. Her eyes widened, and she began nodding her head up and down emphatically.

“With you!” She almost shouted.

“That does it then. Why don’t we talk to the desk to make sure that you can come with me wherever they end up sending me then. You do realize that it is most likely going to be dangerous, though, right?” While he didn’t mind her tagging along, actually kind of enjoying the idea, he wanted to make sure that she realized that he was going to most likely end up someplace dangerous. Eloise just kept nodding her head up and down for another few seconds before jumping up to cling on to him in as big of a hug as her little body could manage.

Standing up, he let her keep holding onto him and started to make his way out of the row of seats he was in. He passed a few people in the beginning that he thought looked like were high on some kind of drug or another, but then again, they were assholes that had left Eloise alone to cry so they could all just go and fuck themselves.

About half way down the aisle towards the front desk and announcement came out over the loudspeakers.

“Eloise Rhine, please report to the summoning chambers. Eloise Rhine, please report to the summoning chambers.” The rocks in a blender voice chopped out over the static filled intercom system.

Greyson stopped where he was and looked down at Eloise, who was also now looking back up at him. Both of them with incredulous looks on their faces, what were the odds that just after meeting they she would be called to be summoned to her world? (Well, with a slightly twisted and drunk author, fairly high I’d say)

“Do you still want to stay with me?” Greyson asked. Her responding nodding of her head almost had her falling out of his hold if he was a weaker individual. As such, he just reaffirmed that he would watch over her until she was able to take care of herself. After all, what was another decade or two compared to the time that he’d already spent in that gods-forsaken place.

“Good. We’ll just head over there and let them know that wherever they are sending you, I’m going too.” A thousand watt smile blossomed on her face letting him know that he had indeed said the right thing. They started moving again with Greyson following the large signs scattered around the cavern that directed them to the summoning chamber.

The summoning chamber was a room that was situated behind a closed door flanked by a pair of guards. These guards could almost be identical twins, and for all he knew they were. Standing around 15cm taller than him at approximately two meters tall, with muscles that rippled as they moved, he idly wondered if they were even able to scratch their own asses with how bulky their they were an intimidating sight. Before he could make his way into the chambers the guard on the right, and closest to them from the hallway, held up a hand to halt his motion.

“Only the girl is allowed through, providing her identity can be verified as Eloise Rhine.” The gesture had force Greyson to stop. Upon hearing this a frown formed on his face, letting the guard know that he was displeased with this.

“How about grab someone from management and discuss this then. Eloise here has requested to stay with me, and I’m not about to send a little kid off on her own.” He was really trying to keep his temper down. These hulks certainly didn’t get these positions for using their brains all that much and were likely just following orders.

“Identity has been verified as Eloise Rhine. Eloise Rhine is to enter the summoning chamber immediately.” The other guard stated.

“Not until we talk to someone in management am I letting her go in there, and certainly not on her own.” Grey let some steel enter his voice. At the same time, sensing the rising tension between everyone, Eloise who had been content with being carried by Grey started to shake a bit at the thought of being separated. She buried her face into his shoulder and held on all the tighter.

“Confirmed. Subject is interfering with the summoning of Eloise Rhine. Removing subject from the vicinity. Refusal to move will be met by force” Both of the guards stated together. While the words were almost robotic in quality, there was a definite glint of menace in their eyes mixed with gleeful anticipation of being able to hurt someone.

Greyson paused for only a heartbeat or two, sighed and slumped his shoulders having come to a decision.

“Eloise, I want you to close your eyes and not open them until I tell you to. Can you do this for me?” He whispered quietly into her oddly shaped ear.

“Uh-huh” she whispered back into his chest saying without words that she could.

“So… I’m not going anywhere. Either grab a manager, or let us both through already.”

The closest to him, from the right side of the door shot his arm forward to grab Greyson’s arm. Most likely he had done this before and was expecting to grab and crush the bones in his arm into a few hundred tiny pieces. Instead he found his hand was swept up and spun around so that his palm was pointing directly at his face. He found Greyson holding onto him in a textbook wrist lock exerting enough pressure on the joint so that it was just shy of breaking.

“Just so we’re clear before anything else happens. This is my final warning. You can’t force me to do shit. Do you want to go grab your boss or not?” Greyson was done. His initial joy at seeing people again had been destroyed by that other asshole, and now he has to deal with pricks like this. He was going to keep his promise to Eloise and anyone who got in his way, well, that was just Darwinism at his finest in his opinion.

Not waiting any more, the other guard cocked back a fist and flew from the wall ready to pound him into submission. Greyson’s foot flew up from ground landing right in the side of the guard’s knee. The knee exploded and the bottom half of the leg flew off at almost supersonic speeds straight into lizardman that was part of the crowd that had gathered to watch the confrontation. The lizardman was blown back into two or three other beings, Greyson wasn’t really paying attention to the leg or its effects anymore, staying on ground either knocked out or dead.

Before the second guard could even finish falling to the floor, Greyson pushed into the wrist lock a bit more so he could hear the pop of the first guards wrist breaking. He let go as both of the guards howled in pain. The second guard was rolling around on the ground clutching his now stump of a leg, the first cradled his broken wrist to chest taking a step back.

“Right, so we’re off now.”

Greyson went to continue through the door, only to be interrupted after only taking a single step. The first guard, shouting at the top of his lungs launched himself at Greyson. Without breaking his stride, Greyson pivoted in place and lash out with a backhand at lightning speed. His fist connecting and then passing through the guard’s head without losing a bit of speed. A fine mist of blood, bone and brain matter showered the remaining crowd causing all of them to start shouting themselves and stampede away from the now headless guard as it toppled limply to the ground.

Continuing his spin he ended facing back to the door he had been heading to.

Oops. Didn’t think they’d be that weak. Oh well.

Greyson quickly check to make sure that Eloise still had her eyes closed and gave a slight sigh of relief that there were.

No need for her to see that if we can avoid it.

He wasn’t naïve enough to believe that she would never be exposed to anything like this, but for everything the proper time and place.

He opened up the door and strode into another massive cathedral of a room. Light emanated up from the center of the room, expanding out in an intricate and complex pattern of geometric and runes. Upon crossing the edge of the magic circle, a clear voice came from everywhere and nowhere in the room.

“Proceed to center of the circle and prepare for summoning.”

At this, Eloise looked up at Greyson.

“You ready for this?” He asked her. She nodded and they walked directly to the center of the circle.

“Keep your hands and arms inside of the circle at all times. Summoning in 3…2…1.”

A flash of light and the room was once again empty.