Eldritch Guidance

Chapter 32 - Bad Start

Eleven years ago, Alan as a child was being picked on by a group of boys on the playground of a school. The boys were physically pushing him around laughing at him.

Alan: "S-stop it!"

Bully: "What's a little baby from Gix gonna do about it?" the child said, before pushing him down onto the ground.

Alan fell and was now laying on the ground and eyes closed and his arm protecting his head. He was expecting to be kicked by one of the other boys.

Alan hated this. It only been a week since he and his parents were forced to move to Graheel, due to the civil war in Gix, and he was already being picked on. When Alan first started attending school, he did his best to fit in and not stand out to avoid bullying. Unfortunately, he had an accent from living in the Gix empire, and this small thing about Alan was enough for him to be singled out and picked on by the other boys at school.

One of the boys was about to kick Alan while he was on the ground, until a ball came flying at his head, hard. The young boy was knocked all balanced and nearly fell. He was holding his head in pain from where the ball had impacted, looking around to see where that ball came from.

Bully: "Who did that!" he yelled out, turning around to see who it was. His angry expression turned to fear as he saw the person who threw the ball at him. "Oh, no! It's Sere! Everybody run!"

Coming out of nowhere, little Sere came running at the group of boys with her small hands swinging and her long silver hair flowing behind her. The other kids were scared of Sere. She was a Lockheart and that family had a certain reputation amongst the community, which trickled down to the local kids and was distorted. Lockheart's had a reputation of working either for law enforcement or the military. This for some reason translated to the kids at school thinking that the Lockheart's were all monsters.

The boys surrounding Alan scattered like bugs as Sere approached. Once she saw that the other kids who were beating up on Alan were gone, she slowed down to a walk while continuing towards Alan.

Sere: "Hey are you OK?" she said, as she stopped in front of Alan and reached her hand out to help him up.

Alan, who was still curled up into the fetal position, looked up to see Sere reaching her hand out to help him up. He hesitated for a second, but reached out his hand to her and pulled himself up.

Alan: "T-thank you. I-i'm fine," he said while standing up.

Alan was also a little afraid of Sere. He had heard the same rumors that the other kids said, that she was a monster. But looking at her, he wasn't so sure what the other kids meant by that. She just looked like a normal silver-haired girl to him.

Sere: "That's good. So, um. I noticed that you're new here and probably don't know anyone. So, you wanna be friends?"

Alan: "Y-you wanna be my friend?" he said, surprised by what she was asking him.

Sere: "Yeah." she responded with a smile.

Alan: "Oh, um. Ok—" before he could say anything else, Sere grabbed his hand.

Sere: "That's great! Let me introduce you to my other friend, Jafar." she said, while pulling Alan along.

Alan: "Wha?" was all he could mumble as he was dragged along by Sere.

This was the day Alan first met Sere and Jafar. Ever since then, they had become his best friends in Graheel.

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