Some of the stories Naia told was as I suspected. The nymphs are born with a sort of racial memory. They are born knowing a covenant was broken between our kinds. Born aware that humans are enemies to be killed and not trusted. Humans had defiled their homes but it was worse than I originally thought.

"And one of the older Nymph's named Natal told me that she was captured by humans a long time ago", Naia said as she continued her story.

"Is she really old now?"

"Natal is an elder and she has lived centuries."

"How was she captured?" I inquired.

"We had a trade agreement with humans at the time but they betrayed us by drugging the food we bartered for," Naia stated.

"What did she mention of this capture?"

"She said that she was caged and shackled by adult male humans. She said they have a lower finger they would put in her mouth against her will" Naia said clearly oblivious to what that actually meant.

My mother gasped as her face took on an enraged appearance. It looked like a tiger's face during a fierce battle. No one is this world before I ever advocated for the rights of what people would call a monster. Many would-be disgusted by people molesting humanoid monsters but no one had written any laws about it. Damn its the monkey and the frog problem! I had wondered before why they were called Nymphs and not fairies in this world. Could this be the reason why? In the end, the problem was with individuals who did not believe there would be or care for the consequences of their actions ruining things for everyone else. As the saying goes, "A few bad apples spoil the bunch". Yet history recorded it as a one-sided attack from the nymphs because it was written by the humans that committed the crime.

** Writers note, "Some monkeys had their way with some frogs at a zoo. Its a fact look it up." **

My mother's reaction momentarily startled Naia into stopping her story but I motioned for her to continue.

"They said there would be a treat at the end but Natal said it was sticky and bitter, not sweet at all!"

I cringed knowing what that meant," You said traded for food earlier but Nymphs don't need to eat do they?"

"We don't but we love those sweet brown things," Naia made a square shape with her fingers.

"You mean chocolates?"

"Yezzz," Naia said almost fanatically.

"It was one of those I was getting when I ended up here," Naia said pointing at the bear trap.

So they look like children and love sweets. So all it took was a man with a metaphorical van offering candy. I double facepalmed after hearing that Naia was foolish enough to go after a piece of candy in a bear trap. It felt though like I was forgetting something about what that meant though. Right then a trader walked around the corner holding a cage too small for anything other than a Nymph to fit in.

Scarlett for once was quicker than me to realize what was going on and what he was doing here. Her ax was even faster too. I could have stopped her but several parts of me were reluctant. He was a sick man probably working for even sicker people. So the Nymph slave trade is still happening in the shadows. Perhaps they don't all go extinct in the future but those that remain are enslaved. I doubt this slaver would give up information on who hired him and even if he did we couldn't just start killing traders and nobles left and right. I would have to cut the head off the snake later when I had the backing to do so. Scarlet buried a whole side of her ax into the man's chest with a war cry. He barely had time to realize what was happening before he died.

My mother's visage was of borderline madness. She was panting hard and shaking all over. She must have been questioning all the choices she'd made as a hero in the past. How many Nobles and traders that she helped deserved to die?

I grabbed her hand pulling her out of her head for a moment. She stopped her enraged self from almost turning on me.

"You are only human and as such, you cannot know everything that has and is happening," I told her.

"Even I was unaware of this mother and I can see the future. Somehow I overlooked this event in our lives," Theresa added.

"So don't beat yourself up over what others told you being a lie."

Scarlet's face relaxed and for a moment her eyes met mine and she earnestly asked," How did you know she wasn't just a monster?" Her head pointed towards Naia.

"I looked in her eyes and all I saw was innocence and fear. It was enough for me to doubt and re-examine the situation. Albeit, cautiously since I didn't know what the truth was for certain," I replied with a gentle tone. I wasn't trying to scold, condescend, or be judgemental. I could have been completely wrong myself and the shoe could have been on the other foot. My instincts and some related skill I didn't know I had made me believe otherwise. Somehow I was certain that this was a manmade problem and I could somehow fix it.

"Son... You are so much wiser than me. You must get it from your father," Scarlet said trying to hide her gloom with a bittersweet expression.

"No my love, he is wiser than me as well. I would have let this creature die without a second thought," Brom comforted.

"Hey!!! I'm right here!" Naia commented not happy everyone was saying her death was almost guaranteed had I not intervened.

"I'm sorry young one," Brom corrected and apologized no longer referring to her as a creature.

"Here Naia I have some chocolates you can have," Theresa said handing a half-eaten box of chocolate to the little fairy.

"Th-thank you!!!" The Nymph said as she greedily snatched the candy Theresa offered.

Still no sense of caution?

The Nymph scarfed down the chocolates so fast one might believe they were never there, to begin with.

"You Naia's bestest friend now!" The blue nymph stated giving Theresa a sudden hug.

Maybe chocolate also makes the little creatures kinda drunk too, I thought. It would make a kind of sense that it would do so. Chocolate has a lot of addictive qualities on humans and affects chemicals in the brain. It's not bad for us but who knows what it does to Nymphs. It's poisonous for dogs and cats. Then there's also sugar...

"Hey, I saved your life and I didn't even get thanked," I pointed out.

Naia didn't respond but just turned her head like a pouting child. She must not like becoming a familiar even with whatever benefits it brings.

The stench of the slaver nearby touched my nostrils causing me to turn my attention it's direction. My mother's steel ax was still embedded in the slaver's torso. As far as I knew killing someone wasn't that big a deal in this world. It is still a crime but without science or witnesses, there's no way to solve the crime. I doubt guards even try to find out who did it when they find a body. There is a prison but unless someone is a well-known criminal or commits a witnessed crime in a major city nothing happens. Also, I bet heroes get special treatment normally in general.

That said we don't want to draw attention to ourselves right now.

"Mom, Dad I need you two to help me remove this ax from the corpse," I said pointing at the dead slaver. Together we were able to force the weapon free. It is way harder to take out than it was to put in.

Luckily we had some Lye on hand for making soap and washing clothes. We also had a small cast iron pot for making soup we used at lunch. I remember reading about assassin techniques used historically after playing assassins creed. If lye is heated up to 300 degrees Fahrenheit it can dissolve a human body in three hours. So as dad and mom used their axes as a spade to dig a hole Theresa and I got cooking. After an hour we got the Lye boiling enough and The two-foot deep rectangular hole was dug. We put the body inside the hole and I poured the boiling lye over it.

The image was horrendous but I steeled my resolve to finish what I was doing. Using time control I can speed up time on an object that isn't living. So without having to keep boiling more lye to add into the hole, I was able to do a 3-hour cycle in three minutes. The slaver's corpse dissolved into what looked like crude oil and ancient bone fragments. It was good enough and then we covered the pit with soil. If someone found it they wouldn't know what to think but in about a week or so new grass would cover over the freshly dug soil and no one would ever find the corpse before it broke down into nothing.

"So now that we've resolved this issue what are we going to do about the other one," I asked.

My parents looked at me confused, "What?"

I pointed at Naia, "She's my familiar now. How are we bringing her home?"

Both my parents had worried expressions on their faces. They knew we had a familiar pact but hadn't contemplated what would happen if we tried to bring her into Oakvale. She a bright blue Nymph and one of the most feared creatures but also rather easy to kill with an arrow. It's one of the reasons our town has so many hunters/archers.

"I've got an idea but it's the hold my beer kinda stupid idea", I added since no one was able to come up with anything so far.

"Let's hear it", Scarlet said as Brom and Theresa nodded.

"Aside from her blue skin, wings, and naked form Naia looks like a human child," I pointed out.

A puzzled look covered everyone's faces, "So?"

"If we put a full set of clothes on her and a hat that covers her ears then most of her features won't be visible. For the rest, we can use clay-based makeup to give her a human skin tone. Then all we need to do is say we found an abandoned child living alone in the woods and were taking her in. Keep her at home most of the day and say she has a weak constitution or something. She's so small most people will think she's under 5 years old anyway," I explained my theory. I know she'll always be in full white face but I'll try not to be offended.

Despite the plan being, in my opinion, terrible we decided to go through with it. I guess it is not like villagers were too bright, to begin with. We gave Naia the full makeover. She looked surprisingly like a normal child. She had slightly too big gloves, long sleeve shirt, and pants on like me. Instead of sandals, she got cloth shoes. She liked the clothes more than I thought she would. She had a skull cap-like hat on too cover her ears and eyes. Even though her eyes looked a lot more human-like than in the game someone could still notice and blow her cover. So we decided that her being blind would be part of our excuse. Naia could still see a little with the cap on and would have Theresa leading her around in the town. It was as well thought out as we could manage.

With all preparations complete we headed home through the Cullis gate. The guard at the entrance did stop us to ask about Naia briefly more concerned about a lost child than anything. Once Scarlet told him the made-up story though the guard broke down into tears of the false tragic tale.

"Oh you poor thing", was his reaction. He waved us in thanking us for being the kind of people who would take in an orphan. We could trust the story we made up to get around as apparently, the town guard was also the town gossip.

Once in our house Naia lifting the front of her cap looked around, "Ooh ah this is nice!"

She must have liked the polished interior.

Taking a seat on my nearby bed she added, "Cozy".

Next thing I knew Theresa was teaching Naia to jump on the bed.

"Hey go jump on your bed and take her with you!"

"No," Theresa replied flatly clearly having too much fun.

"Mom! Theresa and Naia won't get off my bed!" I shouted while playing the part of a child/brother being picked on by his sisters.

Our parents just shook their heads and said, "Some things change and some things remain the same".