I whistled as I made way towards the village center, skipping along the way as I carried a basket of food that I had made with Mama. The ingredients were a little costly, but I felt it would all be worth it.

I had prepared my little sister's lunch: lightly charred bread stuffed with chicken and vegetables. This was a real treat for her, and I know that she would enjoy a lot. After all, I was fed this on my first-day meeting with the other kids, so I just knew she would love it as well.

Ah, I couldn't help but keep the grin on my face as I headed over to the place. I could imagine it already: Feliza would be around a bunch of kids, laughing and playing around with them, maybe even getting her long brown hair braided by some other girls, or even blushing when being complimented about her unique black eyes.

... I wish that was the case. When I arrived, I didn't see any kind of happiness or joy in Feliza's stance. Instead, what I witnessed was a black, cold wind of despair.

My great little sister was laying on the ground by herself, just looking up at the sky, while everyone else played around her. My heart froze and sunk into the deep, horrible waters as I watched this horrible tragedy.

"Feliza!" I shouted as I headed on over. "What are you doing? Why aren't you hanging out with your friends?"

"Ah, Alise." She replied without moving. "I didn't make friends, and I wasn't allowed to go to the forest, so I'm just looking at the sky. Why?"

"What, why didn't you make any friends?" I asked. This was serious. How could my sweet sister not make any friends at all? She couldn't be unpopular, rather, she should be the most beloved here!

"Those guys were trying to bully me." She said as she pointed towards the two guards. I looked at her and realized who they were immediately.

William and Johansen, two of the few guards that were around in the village of Preckle Village. I understood Johansen, he was the kind of person to break a poor girl's heart ten times over, but William?

He was a sweetheart, the kind of guy that'd willingly help an old lady with her work every day. Then again, perhaps the evil monster Johansen had managed to make him evil. I gasped and realized that I had to be the one to save both him and Feliza. If Johansen was the one bullying and William was helping, preventing my dear sister from being able to even make a single friend...

Right, I knew exactly what to do. No mercy! I would have to make sure they realized the errors of their ways!

"Stay right here, Feliza. Your big older sister will take care of everything!" She just nodded, the poor child, and just went back to looking up at the sky. Kyah, she was so cute.

But, I couldn't get distracted. I began to stomp towards the two guards, angry and heartbroken at their attitude. What kind of monsters could they be to do so such a horrible act to a child not even close to three years? I had to lecture them and teach them a lesson.

"William! Johansen! What did you do to my darling Feliza!" I shouted as I stood in front of them, my hands at my hips, with a stern look on my face as I looked down on the sitting duo.

The both of the squatting jerks sat up immediately, looking shocked and at attention, before relaxing. "Oh, it's just you Alise. What do you want?" Johansen, the big bully, stated, as he went to sit back down.

Absolutely not. I grabbed his shoulders with all my strength and power, and shockingly enough, he didn't move. Guess he understood what I meant.

"I heard from my little baby sister that you two have been bullying her! How could you two do such a terrible thing?" The two of them looked like they had been stabbed deeply in the heart before I had a hand be placed on my shoulder. I quickly turned around, and I saw William with a horrible, sad look on his face, almost as if he was a puppy that had just gotten their food stolen.

"Alise, we did not bully your sister, I swear on my honor as a guard." I blinked, and most of my fighting spirit was taken away. I let go of Johansen and just looked at them.

"Then why is my sister acting that way? Rather, why is she being so isolated? She doesn't act like the kind of person that would be alone for no reason." The two of them looked at each other sheepishly, with Johansen taking off his helmet, revealing the curly black hair that laid underneath before William spoke.

"Johansen said some pretty mean words to her. I went after her and tried to make things right, but she didn't want to listen. Then, I got Johansen to apologize somewhat, but that's where things got a bit weird..." I cocked my head a little as I stared at him.

"What do you mean things got weird?" I asked. "What did she do exactly? She doesn't seem to be the type that would seem evil or anything."

Johansen looked at me as if I had something so utterly crazy, that I felt worried. Did she do something wrong after all?

"When we tried to apologize, she ignored us and was completely convinced we were the bad guys. Then, she wanted to go to the forest for some reason." I had to stop for a second. What? Feliza wanted to go to the forest? But why?

"Why would she want to go to the forest? There's nothing there for her to even have fun with. I could get it if she said she would head home... but the forest? There are dangerous animals and monsters, why would she want to go back there? She even got hurt there!" This seemed to be too bizarre. This didn't make any sense at all. Why would she want to go back to a place where she had the outer layer of her hands get completely ripped off?

Johansen coughed into a closed fist, and we both looked at him. He scratched the back of his head a bit sheepishly, before looking at the two of us. His face had morphed from the arrogant, grinning smirk to more of a concerned mother that was genuinely terrified of the future. "Look, don't get mad, but..."

"But what? Spit it out, Johansen. We don't have all day." William said as he crossed his arms, looking right at his friend. To give credit to Johan, he didn't seem to be hit hard at all, rather, he just sighed and looked away.

"She's a scary kid." That was stupid. She couldn't be that scary.

"Come on, knock it off Johansen. What the hell do you mean?" The guy being questioned finally turned and looked at both of us in the eyes, genuinely showing just how worried he was. He looked like he had aged a bit at that moment, and was possibly facing some kind of danger in his face.

"When I went to go to talk to her, she wanted me to leave. Of course, I didn't want to, but one look from her, and I did. Those eyes of hers? They were completely devoid of all life, and all I could see was darkness for a brief moment. I felt chills down my back when she glared right at me. It was like her gaze was piercing through my body and looking directly at my soul. I'm telling you, that child is not normal." I felt angry as I stood there, clenching my right hand into a fist of righteousness. How dare he talk about Feliza like that!

She was weird in some circumstances, like her lack of being able to even feel pain half of the time, or how she's always tired, but how dare this bastard just straight up insult her! I cocked my arm back, ready to launch my fist of justice when an intervention came.

William whacked his idiot, rude friend in the back of his head with a slap. Said jerk went down almost immediately, being pushed forward by the strength of the momentum and yelping in pain.

"Are you serious? I know that you have a tendency to be an asshole, but this is going too far!" William, the dear and righteous knight proclaimed, letting the heavens themselves know how horrible Johansen's statements were. "She's just a kid! Cut her some slack, you probably hurt her feelings a lot! Just apologize sincerely to her!"

"I just told you what happened when I tried to!" The evil, horrible villain counterattacked, bringing up his part of the argument. "She can't be normal! Her entire demeanor is unnatural!"

"You just don't get kids! You're such a crabby person all the time, I don't know whether or not you're trying to be nice or just condescending!" The valiant hero fought back, striking with a critical hit to the monster's weak point. "Learn how to talk to people nicely first, then you can talk about sincerity!"

As fun and joyful this was to see, I had to butt in. I stood in between the quarreling sides and put my hand on their chests, noting their built bodies.

"Enough, this isn't helping my Feliza! Just help her make friends!" I shouted at the top of my lungs, before turning towards each of them, satisfied that they did look embarrassed at the very least. "I get the fact that your jobs had to do with protecting and ensuring the peace, but you both ruined my sister's big day, so you got to make it up to her!"

"But... how? Your sister hates us. Like, a serious deep grudge." Johansen replied, only to get a big bad leer from me. I hope that he was shaking with fear instead of trying to resist laughing. "And besides, William tried, but she didn't want to interact with anyone at all."

"Why do you think she wouldn't? You guys scared her to little tiny bits! You jerks! If you don't help her out, then I'll never forgive you! I'll get Nellie or Marcus to come next time to teach you guys a lesson!" The both of them paled, and I felt triumphant. My two reliable older siblings were stronger than these two meanies, they'll be able to completely overpower them and show them the errors of their ways!

"Wait, wait, wait! You don't need to bring those two here!" William said frantically. "Look, just give us a week, and we'll make sure she's got a friend, okay? We'll do our best, and we swear on our jobs that it will be done!"

"Five friends!" What kind of person could live with a single friend? Granted, I could understand if that was a... a fated relationship that would lead to some great horizons, but this was not that situation! "A single friend with a week's notice? That's ridiculous! You should try your utter best to get more than one, you know. You ruined her big day, take responsibility!"

William looked at me with his mouth open, while Johansen looked down at the ground, obviously in turmoil. I felt proud of myself a little: I was able to talk down these two guards without breaking out into a panic.

"Three friends," My pure and innocent ambitions were shaken to the core by a simple statement from Johansen, and both William and I looked at him in shock. What kind of heartless man was he, to negotiate on something like this?

No, I couldn't falter here! I could see the end goal in the light, and I knew I had to push forward, and make sure nothing got in my path!

"Five friends! I'm not moving from that!" I shouted, glaring at the offender with all my power. "There's no way that you can't help her get five friends!"

"True, normally. However, with a sour reaction, she might become just like me you know." I stared at him, horror running through my body. "Try to rush it, and it could get even worse. She might even just become a home-stay person with no desire for any human interaction."

No, I had to preserve! He wasn't going to get me down that easily! "No, you don't get it! You need to right your wrongs, you were the ones that caused this mess in the first place! So you should take the five friends amount and be fine with it!"

"But we are trying to fix our mistakes, aren't we?" He said with a smirk on his face. Curses! I let the flow of the conversation going towards his way, and now I was paying for that little mistake! "We're going to really try our best to make sure your sister makes friends that she can truly be together with, rather than simply just calling it a day and making some random people act like a friend. After all, you want her to get close and personal, instead of just saying that she made some random buddies, right?"

Ugh, he got me! He got me too good, I can't fight back. It was no good, I would have to give up for now. But, I will get my revenge, I swear!

"Urk... fine. Three friends within a week will be fine then." That jerk had the biggest smile on his face, almost as if he just had a delicious glass of sweet honey milk. I will get my revenge, I swear it!

"Alright, then it's settled. However, Alise, you may need to take your baby sister back to your home. She's not going to be able to make any friends at all recently. Sorry for making you do this." William said with an earnestly sad look on his face, and I felt my heart skip a beat.

No, I can't, my little sister needs help! Time to go and get her to feel better today, and possibly even guide her into making some friends that would last a lifetime. That would be great!

"Okay, I'll take her back. I'll try to talk to her as well and get her to open up a little bit more, so I expect you two to keep your end of the bargain!" The two of them nodded, before William bowed to me elegantly, almost as if he was a royal knight. Johansen merely smirked and saluted me, making me feel a bit insulted.

I'll get him for this next time. For now, just focus on Feliza and helping her out. She must be starving and feeling horrible, after being stopped from making any friends. My heart felt a prick of pain with every negative thought.

Enough of that now! What Feliza needed the most was her reliable, older sister to help! And help I shall!

"Hey, Feliza! Let's head home, I think today's not a good day for us to continue this." I watched as Feliza casually got back up, and looked right at me. In exchange for this, I took out a single roll of stuffed bread and handed it to her.

"You must be hungry. Here, have this, it'll fill you up and make you happy!" She took it gingerly with her - wait a minute, what was I doing? How could I have forgotten!

"I'm so sorry, wait!" I said as I took the bun away from her hands, and kneeled down. Her hands were injured, why was I making her use them? What a foolish moment I had! I had almost acted upon a cardinal sin!

"Here, say ah, and I shall feed you this delicious chicken stuffed bun!" Feliza's eyes widened in surprise, and I'm certain that I saw joy within those cute black eyes of hers. She opened her mouth obediently, and I fed her a slice of the bread.

Truly, her reaction was something that I would like to see constantly. Her eyes opened up hugely, and her whole body colored up in joy. She seemed to be trembling in happiness as she chewed and finished her small portion, before trying to reach out to the rest of the bun.

"I want some more!" She stated, and I smiled as I started to feed her right then and there, chuckling to myself. Ah, this felt so nice and peaceful. Nothing felt better than spoiling my little baby sister.

"Don't worry, there's more to be had at home! So come on, let's finish this one bun, and then head on back, shall we?" Her head bobbed up and down almost as if she was a bunny peeking up and down its hole, and started to eat the bun as though she was a chipmunk.

Ah, if only I could draw this moment down with a piece of parchment! Sadly, we couldn't afford parchment, and the price for writing utensils was definitely out of our range for the time being.

For now, I could only watch my dear little sister enjoy herself. There was no way that anything could ruin my day from here on out.