“Papa…”

A plea to the only hero in her life. Lusaia stares at the dull edge of the stone axe. Its hefty weight shone by the bulging and spasming in the minotaur’s arms.

There is no one around her. Abandoned and alone. The possibility of survival is non-existent as the minotaur prepares to befall her judgement.

Rustle… rustle…

In the thin canopy above, the shadow of a silhouette appears. In its hands, light glints off the metallic blade as its arms point the sword towards the minotaur’s head.

It falls and its aim is true.

“MOOOOOO!!!”

The minotaur shrieks in pain. Blood oozing from its eye socket where the blade sinks deep. A man stands upon its shoulder as his eyes glow a crimson red.

Through the blinding light of the sun, Lusaia catches a glimpse of the man’s face in a very brief moment. A familiar face stern but always caring, it is…

“Papa…”

All the worry and anxiety from before leaves her heart as a big jovial smile returns to the place it once belonged. She couldn’t believe it, it is her father. Lusaia shakes in enthusiasm overjoyed to see her father still alive.

The minotaur drops its axe leaving a loud Thud! upon hitting the ground. It starts to spasm as the blade sliced through part of its frontal lobe.

The minotaur struggles to reach its hand up towards the man. Before it could, the man twists the handle. The minotaur’s body jerked violently.

The minotaur tries again. Once more, the man shoves the blade further inward. Its arms fall back down to its sides.

It is a brutal struggle as the minotaur’s life is being played for every wringing and turning of the blade. Each motion turns the minotaur’s brain to mush all the while it stands there feeling every bit of it.

Eventually, the minotaur ceases motion.

The body collapses backwards onto the man but he had already leapt off of the falling beast.

Then, he regains consciousness.

----

By the time I realise what was happening, I found myself without a sword and on the ground. I look behind to see the corpse of the minotaur and understood I had killed him.

What happened? Why did I move?

The last I could remember was passing out and… Ah right… You still exists, huh?

My nails dug into my palms as I clench them intensely. The frustration fills my heart as my teeth grind from the anger that overwhelms me.

Just as abruptly as I became furious, I let it go. What has been done is done and there’s no point dwelling on past mistakes.

Then, I remember about the girl. Is she alright?

I turn around and my heart stop for a moment.

“Hey! You can’t get up yet!”

Through the throbbing pain all over her body, the girl somehow got up and is limping towards me. Her leg is starting to swell as if it’s fractured.

I rush over to her just as she almost collapse to the dirt again.

“Are you alright?”

I ask her out of worry but what I receive next is something I did not expect.

“Papa!!!”

The girl lunged her body towards me as she wrap both arms around my neck. I was taken aback unable to respond but when I did, I snapped at her.

“Get off me! And don’t call me that!”

My breathing becomes sporadic. My limbs shiver as the nightmares of my failures come back to haunt me. I push the girl away and somehow manage to not let the girl fall.

“P-Papa…?”

Hearing her shaky voice, I look at the girl and her eyes are filled with confusion and anxiety.

Taking a deep breath, I get a grip of myself.

“Sorry… I didn’t mean to shout at you. Did I startle you?”

The girl nods but her face quickly brightens up with a smile.

“Hehe! Lusaia knew Papa will come back! Marianne told Lusaia that Papa is gone but Lusaia knows Papa will never leave Lusaia.”

Papa? Oh, right. She is that humanoid’s daughter.

I don’t know why she speaks in third person but at least I know her name.

It seems that she has mistaken me for that humanoid and I can understand why. For a child her age, she recognises people by their faces.

Though it pains me to do this, I have to clear this misunderstanding.

“I’m sorry Lusaia but I’m not your father.”

“Eh?”

Lusaia’s eyes widen in confusion.

“But… Papa is Papa!”

“I know, I know, but you can see that the two of us are different, right? You have a tail and I don’t. You have gills on your neck and I don’t. I just look the same as your father.”

“Noooo! Papa is lying! Papa is a big meanie!”

Lusaia begins getting teary eyed. Her denial rejects every word I say.

I don’t act up because I know it’ll only worsen the situation. I’ve been there before and the only way to move on is to make them accept the fact on their own.

I take out the locket in my pocket and place it in her hand. The locket that she clearly recognise as her whining stops completely.

“This is… Papa’s locket…”

I knew she would recognise it. It won’t serve a purpose in my claim that I’m not her father but at least it worked in anchoring her mental state back down to earth.

“Lusaia, I know it’s hard to believe it but seeing that minotaur… I think it’s safe to say that he’s not here anymore.”

Lusaia’s head hung low. Her eyes are mirky and her emotions are all over the place. I give her some space so that she can collect her thoughts.

While I do not know her circumstance and how these humanoids got here, I can relate to her to a certain extent.

What is the point of surviving another day when there’s no one to greet you back home?

When everything you cherish is stripped away from you, you slowly hear this question droned into your head over and over again…

“umm… mister…”

After some time, Lusaia spoke up.

“What is it?”

“Can… Can Lusaia still call mister as Papa?”

I pause to look at her before I give a deep sigh.

“Do whatever you want that makes you happy.”

“Ok, Papa! Ehe!”

She smiles once more though it is not entirely a happy one. A hint of sadness and loneliness as if some things can’t let go. This is something only she can correct herself which is why I do not pursue it any further.

Lusaia’s bubbly personality quickly hides away the sorrow from before as she talks about the events that have passed while “I” was gone. Seeing this girl like this, I begin to realise how much of a similarity Lusaia is to my own.

During moments like this, I ponder about choices I could have made to see my own daughter here before my eyes.

-bzzt-

Danger! Move!

My senses screamed.

A chill runs down my spine and through all of my body.

Time slows down to a fraction of a hundredth. The bioelectricity pulse through my nerves.

BOOOM!!!

An explosion erupts.

“Papa?!”

Lusaia looks up at me in a panic.

In 2 seconds, I leapt forth, grabbed Lusaia and rolled out of the way. The breeze of something large swoosh past my skin before it fell upon the place where we were.

As the dust settles down, a crater is revealed and a large stone axe is in its epicentre.

I snarled at the axe’s wielder as the creature comes out from beyond the wall of trees.

Pointed horns and brown musky fur bask in the sunlight. Steam puffing from its nose just like the one from before. It is another minotaur.

Its hooves step onto the dry dirt road giving us a smirk as if the minotaur had found its next prey. However, it looks to its right and spots the fallen body of its comrade.

In its beady eyes, they glow magma red. Puffs of steam exhaled rapidly before it bellows out in fury to the sky above.

“MOOOO!!!”

Its war cry echoes through the forest and it manages to attract the attention of another one.

Crack- Snap!­

From behind me, another minotaur steps onto the battlefield. They surround us front and back with the dense walls of trees to our side. They hold their axe up and begin to charge towards us.

“Papa, Lusaia is scared…”

Lusaia shivers in fear in my arms as she mutters her worries to me.

With no other means to escape, the only way to survive… is to fight!