And perhaps it was because he was watching Cythia so closely that Oren didn’t notice how some of the townsfolk were looking at her at first.
“Hey… Isn’t that Cythia…?”
“What? But that can’t be the case… Wasn’t there a rumor that she was dead?”
“Yes, she was supposed to be. It’s why we had to leave when we did, right?”
“Could it be her spirit coming back from the afterlife to save us?”
“Perhaps it's so… That definitely sounds like Cythia, after all. But why does she look like that?”
“Was what the elves whispered of true after all? But then would that thing even still be Cythia?”
“...It might be best if we keep our distance for now. Praise be to the Forest for protecting us, but even the elves were wary of such creatures…”
Oren repeatedly looked back and forth between Cythia and the gossiping group as he listened to their words. It was obvious to him that Cythia, being the monster that she was, should have also been able to hear them, and yet she didn’t say a single word back to their rude comments, even though she, their savior, had every right to. Still, even with her unmoving face, he could easily tell that she had a slightly sad aura surrounding her the more that she listened to them.
Puffing out his lips with indignance, Oren quickly rushed over and offered his hand to the monster-woman.
“Come with me, quickly!”
~~~
“You don’t have to listen to those ungrateful guys, Miss Cythia.”
<...What?>
Squatting in his grandfather’s fenced off garden, Oren grumpily drew patterns into the dirt. Almost everyone they’d passed by on the way there had muttered something or another in rejection of her, and each word he’d caught had only infuriated the boy even more. He could only imagine how hurt Cythia must have felt as well.
“Everyone said all those rotten things, even though you’re the one who saved everybody… They’re all stupid for acting like that towards you!”
Oren could practically feel the grimace in Cythia’s words, making his already narrowed eyebrows press together even more.
“You know… If they’re gonna be like that, then they don’t deserve to get rescued next time!”
Springing up with a surprising intensity, Oren grabbed onto one of Cythia’s tentacle-hands and led her over to the small enclosure that housed the very bleeding heart bush that had produced her.
“I’m grateful for it, really I am, but… If you want to, Miss Cythia, we can dig up this pnt and let it rot away so that you won’t have to save these ungrateful people ever again!”
“That’s fine! As the future chief of this vilge, I have to pay for my people’s mistakes!”
Staring at the righteous pose that the cute young boy struck, Cythia couldn’t help but let out a muffled chuckle behind her hand, even if it still sounded a bit sad.
<...You know, I’m pretty gd that she saved you, kid…>
Her voice was so quiet that Oren could barely make out what she was saying.
“Huh?”
Cythia’s arms came down and easily scooped up the confused looking boy, gently holding him as she made her way back into the house, leaving the garden behind.
Oren pouted, looking a bit displeased with her words.
“...Because the Spirit of the Forest told you to?”
Although he didn’t say anything back, it was still obvious from Oren’s face how peeved he was with all of it. Cythia couldn’t help but pat his cute little fuming head.
Oren’s gloomy face immediately brightened up.
“Yeah! I’ll tell them how awesome Miss Cythia is! And how nice you are!”
If Cythia could have, she would have smiled at the boy, gd to have someone who trusted in her so greatly again. And yet, at the same time, she was grateful that she couldn’t make expressions right now, unsure of how her face would have screwed up upon hearing from this boy, who was ignorant of all of her crimes, that she was ‘nice’.
She was vastly aware of how undeserving she was of such kind words.
<...Welp, I’ll leave you here, kid. I have to go back now.>
“What? You’re not… staying?”
Oren stood there for a moment, looking like he wanted to protest, but soon he bowed his head like a good boy and acquiesced, knowing there was nothing that could be done.
“Okay…”
Cythia chuckled, happy to see him so upset over her departure.
“Oh… That’s great!”
Once more Oren perked up, Cythia’s words having had the desired effect. Having achieved her goal, Cythia gave him one final pat before quietly making her way back to the garden.
~~~
[Are you happy with this arrangement, Cythia?]
She couldn’t be more thankful for being given a chance to atone for her actions in this way. She wasn’t sure that any other way of paying for what she’d done would have felt as worthwhile as protecting the people that she’d once failed and forsaken before.
[I’m gd that is the case. You, too, are a part of my beloved child, after all.]
<...Yeah, that’s true I guess.>
Perhaps the Spirit was telling the truth, but Cythia didn’t really put too much stock into it; She knew better than anyone how much her malicious actions had flown in the face of the deal she’d made with the Spirit to get a second chance. If her existence hadn’t been messing up its precious perfect creation’s ‘feelings’, then there was every chance that the Spirit would have been willing to leave her locked up while it looked the other way.
[...Well, it’s pointless to try to convince you otherwise. I’ll just content myself with the fact that this worked out so neatly.]
It was true. Cythia had to admit that, as far as final chances to make things right went, she couldn’t compin at all about this one. And she would do right by her people, no matter what it took. Perhaps she’d failed to do the right thing for everyone in the forest before, but at the very least she was sure she was strong enough now to protect her people.
That was enough for her.
<...Even I can’t mess up on my third try, right?>
[I believe you’ll do well, Cythia.]