Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Kyana ran. Her legs ache painfully, but she has to keep moving. The prior yells at her, too far away to see or hear Kyana, but still searching. Kyana knows that whatever the prior is saying, she'll just get punished. Maybe if she ran far enough, the prior would consider this punishment enough? Kyana didn't know, she kept running.

Kyana was only 7, no 7 year old should ever fear a punishment so much.

Kyana keeps moving, tears streaming down her face and making her vision blur.

Kyana trips over a root, she pulls herself back up and keeps running. Her knee is bleeding, she can feel it. She can't stop yet, the prior is still yelling, although distantly.

The prior had gone silent, no longer offering sweet promises or making dark threats. That was even more scary.

Kyana keeps running, not letting herself slow down. Adrenaline keeps her moving, afraid of what will happen when she stops. She felt a branch nick her cheek, felt her cheek start to bleed.

She knew she'd stop eventually, and the prior would punish her. That kept her moving, even if she knew she'd be forced to a stop.

Kyana couldn't cry anymore, she felt like should've still been crying, but her eyes couldn't even water. Her mouth felt dry. She thought she might collapse.

Kyana could barely see in front of her when she finally collapsed, vision blurred from exhaustion instead of tears. The cut on her knee burned when she hit the dirt.

She pulled herself forward, making it into a clearing. She rolled herself over.

Kyana saw a colorful night sky, with more colors than she'd usually see when she looked out the windows of the monastery. Maybe this is just what the sky looked like far away from home?

Even if Kyana still got in trouble, seeing a night sky like this made running away more than worth it. Distantly, she wished it could be the last thing she saw, that she never had to return to the monastery.

She didn't know what that meant, she'd have to return.

Kyana wanted to keep looking at the sky, to count the stars, to name the colors, but on their own, her eyes closed, forcing her to sleep in the clearing.

Chapter Text

Kyana felt arms around her, but she couldn't open her eyes.

Kyana felt somebody lift her off the ground, but she couldn't force her eyes open.

Kyana heard a man cooing at her, and rocking her, like the adults would the babies. Kyana decided she didn't need to pry her eyes open, she'd rather pretend whichever prior carrying her was nice, and treasure this brief comfort.

"You're alright, sweetheart, stay asleep. It'll be alright. Let's get you to someplace safe and get your wounds cleaned up. Just keep sleeping." The man told her quietly, still rocking her, and Kyana let herself listen. Kyana let herself drift back to sleep in the warmth of the person that was carrying her.

Kyana didn't know how long she had slept, but she woke up to still being carried as the sun warmed her face. Kyana managed to open her eyes and barely hide a yawn. She looked up the prior carrying her, only to see he wasn't a prior or a human at all. Kyana immediately felt scared, tears welling up in her eyes as the man looked down at her, noticing she had woken up.

"Ooh.. oh no, don't cry, you're okay." The man said, rocking Kyana more like she was a baby. "My name is Gerrit. I'm the hunter of the village named Hunkiln. What's your name, little one?" The man tried, keeping his voice soft in an attempt to comfort Kyana, but this only made her start actually crying.

"Oh, it's alright, you'll be okay. I'll get you home, don't worry, kiddo. I just need to get home so my village can help you." The man moved Kyana gently so she was sitting up in his arms and he gently patted her on the back. "You must have been out for a long time, kiddo, you're skinny. We'll feed you too. What's your favorite food?"

Now, this confused Kyana, she managed to stop crying as she thought through the words. Was she not supposed to be this skinny? What did he mean by favorite food? She had only been out one night, and everybody back home is skinny like her, at least the kids are!

"I've only been out one night!" Kyana declared to the man, trying to rub at her eyes. "I'm supposed to be this skinny!"

"Oh?" Gerrit tilted his head, a bit confused. "Is that so? If you've only been out one night, it'll hopefully be easier to find your home then! Would you mind telling me your name?"

"I'm Kyana!" She immediately replied, staring up at Gerrit's blue face. She wondered why he was blue for a moment. "I'm from the.. uh.. Te-ne-bree-is See-nob-ium.." Kyana slowly sounded out the words and Gerrit nodded in response.

"Good job, that must've been hard to say! Is there a village around there or anything?" He asked, starting to walk again.

"Uh.. no! Just the monastery!" Kyana replied immediately. Why'd he praise her for saying it? Didn't she say it too slowly?

"Do you know what your surroundings look like? Like, was there grass? What color was grass?" He asked, and Kyana felt the question was a bit dumb.

"There was grass, and it was green!" Kyana responded and apparently her confusion was obvious, as Gerrit chuckled.

"Okay, that's good. What color does the sky look like during the day?" He asked her, patting Kyana on the back again.

"Pale blue!"

"And the night sky?" He asked.

"It's dark blue and sometimes black!" Kyana responded, still confused about the questions.

"Okay, good job, Kyana. This will help me find where you are from so you can get home safe and sound." Gerrit praised. "We're almost to Hunkiln. We'll get you fed and I'll talk to the other adults about how to get you home." He explained, and Kyana nodded to show she understood.

Kyana carefully turned in Gerrit's arms so she could see in front of them both, and Gerrit adjusted so she could. She saw a village, or at least, she thought it was a village. She had never seen one before! Kyana got a bit excited upon seeing more people who looked like Gerrit, now interested in the unfamiliarity since nothing had lashed out at her yet.

"Uncle Gerrit! Your back! Did you bring anything?" A little girl called, running to the outskirts of the village to greet him.

"As a matter of fact, I did! I found a girl lost in the forest. Can you go get the adults and tell them I brought a guest?" Gerrit instructed the girl and she immediately nodded, running back into the village. "This might be a bit overwhelming, kiddo, but it'll be alright. We'll get you fed and I'll talk to everybody about getting you home." Gerrit told Kyana, and she thought he was saying that way more than he needed to.

Gerrit walked into the village and Kyana was immediately overwhelmed by the noise and the giantkin surrounding them both. Kyana felt like she was gonna cry again, but she tried not to, not wanting to seem weak in front of so many adults. "Everyone! Quiet down! You're scaring the girl!" Gerrit shouted, which was what made the dam break and make Kyana cry again.

"Oh, no, no.. you aren't in trouble, it's okay.." Gerrit tried to comfort Kyana, subtly motioning for everybody to back up before patting Kyana on the back again. "I'm sorry, are you alright? Was that too loud?" Gerrit tried asking, but Kyana only cried harder, having trouble processing that somebody wasn't in trouble.

"Volker, help me.." Gerrit said, still patting Kyana on the back. A man approached them both, and he was holding a baby.

"Dear, let me try talking to the girl." The man said, most likely being Volker. "Maybe Andreana and I can calm down." Gerrit nodded in response, slightly bouncing Kyana as he turned her to face Volker and the baby.

Volker crouched slightly, putting himself at eye level with Kyana. "Hello, little miss. I'm Volker. I'm Gerrit's husband and this is our daughter, Andreana. What's your name?" He asked softly, slightly moving the sleepy baby's hand so she waved at Kyana.

Kyana looked down at Andreana, a bit confused, confused enough to briefly stop actively sobbing. Volker's face brightened when Kyana looked at him while sniffling, which caused her to go back to actively sobbing. One of the priors smiles like that when you're in trouble, was she in trouble?

"Volker, I think you freaked her out more.." Gerrit said. "Maybe I should just step aside with her and give her a moment to calm down?" He suggested while bouncing Kyana like she was a baby or toddler, clearly unused to children crying like this.

"That's never a good idea, I think I know why she's still so freaked out. That will make her feel worse." Volker said, tucking Andreana tighter into his arms, looking kind of.. sad? Why was he sad that Kyana was crying? "Give her time, but stay out with others. That'll help her feel safer."

Gerrit nodded, tucking Kyana tighter in his arms like Volker had Andreana, like it was an instinct. Kyana tried to calm herself down, nothing was wrong, nobody was getting punished yet, but her tears didn't stop. Her eyes stung from crying, but her tears only slowed. "That's it, you're okay. Good job." Gerrit praised and Kyana felt confused, she wasn't doing a good job, she was wasting their time by crying.

Eventually, Kyana stopped crying, she wasn't calm, but she wasn't crying anymore. Volker and Gerrit let out a sigh of relief when she did. "Volker, can you talk to the others about getting food for this little one while I patch up her cuts?" Gerrit asked, still slightly bouncing Kyana in his arms.

Volker nodded. "Alright. I'll be back in a moment then." And with that, Volker left.

Gerrit carried Kyana to one of the huts, setting her down on a cushioned chair. Kyana was immediately amazed, looking around excitedly from where she sat. Everything looked so soft! "I didn't know sitting surfaces could be soft!" Kyana declared to Gerrit, making him chuckle despite his obvious confusion.

Gerrit dug through a drawer, pulling out a box with an odd symbol on it. "I'm going to clean up your cuts and bandage them. If you feel uncomfortable, let me know and I'll let you handle the cuts you can reach on your own. I do have to do the ones you can't reach though." Gerrit explained, pulling out a cloth and a small bottle. "Do you want me to do the cuts on your legs first? Or your arms?"

Kyana felt confused, why was he letting her choose? Why would he care about her comfort? "Uhm, my legs." Those hurt the most, so that means that's probably the worst of it.

Gerrit kneeled in front of Kyana. "This liquid will go on the cloth, then I wipe your wounds with them to get them clean. This will prevent infections, but since your wounds have already closed, I'll also have to give you medicine. I can only do that once I get the dirt off your legs though." Gerrit explained, pulling a water bucket over from a corner of the room.

Kyana was confused, but she let Gerrit wipe her legs off with the damp cloth. After that, Gerrit grabbed a second cloth, dripping some of the liquid onto it. He carefully wiped only her cuts and scrapes with it before setting aside both clothes. "It looks like I'll have to grab some more towels. Those two are already pretty dirty." Gerrit said, starting to bandage Kyana's wounds with careful hands.

"I'm sorry.." Kyana said quietly.

"Why are you sorry, kiddo? You didn't do anything wrong." Gerrit patted her on the head, already moving to grab two new towels.

"I'm sorry for wasting your stuff.." Kyana thought that this stuff must be very valuable if the monastery never used it.

"You aren't wasting it at all. This stuff is meant to be used, and it gets used a lot." Gerrit explained. "Are you ready for me to clean and bandage your arms?"

Kyana nodded, and Gerrit carefully cleaned and bandaged her arms in the same way. "There we go, all that's left is your face, kiddo. Do you want me to do it? Or do you want to?" Gerrit asked, and Kyana thought that maybe she could be useful by cleaning that last cut on her own!

"Can I try?" Kyana asked, and Gerrit nodded. He handed her a damp cloth.

"Use the towel to wipe your whole face, this way no dirt can get in when you use the other towel." Gerrit said, and Kyana nodded.

Kyana followed the instructions, cleaning her face with the towel before passing it back to Gerrit. "Good job! Now we go over only the cut with this one! Be very careful, it'll sting a lot if it gets in your eye." Gerrit explained, handing her a different towel.

Kyana carefully wiped her cut with it, passing it back to Gerrit. "Now, the bandage." Gerrit handed her a little bandage. "Put only the cloth part over the cut." Gerrit explained, letting Kyana take as long as she needed to carefully get the bandage on perfectly. "You did a good job, Kyana. Do you want to walk or do you want me to carry you again?" Gerrit asked her, offering his hand out to hold.

Kyana took Gerrit's hand and hopped out the chair. "I can walk!" Kyana declared, and Gerrit awkwardly leaned to the side so that Kyana actually could reach his hand as they walked.

Kyana noticed and decided to let go of his hand, not wanting to be an inconvenience. Gerrit let her, just motioning for her to move ahead of him. "We're just going to the center of the village, it's just a few feet away." He explained, lightly pointing Kyana in the right direction and following behind her.

For every 10 of Kyana's steps, he'd take only 2. "Kyana, what's your favorite food?" Gerrit asked.

Kyana didn't reply for a moment, confused. "There's more than one food..?" She questioned, and she heard Gerrit stop walking. Kyana froze in place, expecting to be told off, he must have stopped because he was angry.

"There is more than one food, kiddo. You'll let you try a whole bunch of food, okay?" Gerrit said, his voice was shaking, like he was sad.

"Why are you sad?" Kyana asked, still continuing to walk forward towards the village center.

"I'm not sad, kiddo. Don't worry about me." Gerrit said, moving to walk alongside Kyana rather than behind her.

Kyana and Gerrit entered the town square where tables full of different food were all set up. "Kyana, do you see that shorter table over there?" Gerrit asked, and Kyana nodded. "The older kids will help you get set with a chair there. That's the kids table. You eat as much as you want, or just until your food, and then spend some time with the other kids. While you do, I'm going to talk to the other adults about how to get you home, okay?"

Kyana nodded again. "Okay, Mister Gerrit! Thank you!" Kyana said before bounding over to the kids table that was almost taller than her.

Kyana looks around, and eventually a kid almost double her height notices her. "You must be the guest who got lost in the woods! I was told to help you!" The boy said, offering his hand to her. "I was told to put you on a chair with a bunch of cushions so you can see above the table. And, to help you down when you want to get down. What's your name?" He explained, and Kyana took his hand.

"I'm Kyana! Nice to meet you!" Kyana let the boy guide her over to the chair, which indeed had an absurd amount of cushions.

"I'm Finbar! Nice to meet you too!" Finbar smiled at Kyana. "I'm gonna have to pick you up to get you up on the chair. Is that okay?" Finbar asked.

"Yeah, it's okay!" Kyana said, letting Finbar pick her up and put her on the chair. She was now uncomfortably high up. "Woah!" Kyana exclaimed, looking at all the food on the table.

Finbar sat down next to her. "I helped the adults make the food today! I did a lot of mixing!" Finbar declared to Kyana, passing her an empty plate. Kyana gave it a confused look. "Oh, do you not fill your own plate at home?" Finbar asked.

"No, we usually just get given a half full bowl full of food to eat." Kyana replied, watching as other kids reached to grab their own food.

"Of what? Was it good?" Finbar asked. "I'll help if you want."

"I'd like the help.." Kyana didn't want to accidentally break any rules by grabbing too much, so she handed Finbar her plate. "And is food supposed to be good? It just keeps you fed, right?"

At that, Finbar gave her a horrified look. "No? Food is supposed to make you both feel full and happy! Food is supposed to taste good!" Finbar said, starting to put food on her plate. "Here! I'll put a bit of everything on your plate. When you find something you like, I can put more on for you! You don't have to eat anything you don't like!"

Well, Finbar's older than her, so he must know the rules then? Those must just be the rules here! Food has to be good, you eat until you're full, you only eat what you like? She can work within those rules! That'll be easy. "Thank you, Finbar."

Finbar smiled at her and passed her back her plate, now full of random food, roughly only a biteful of each. It seemed like it couldn't get everything on the table onto the plate even doing that little. "It's not a problem. Let me know if you need any help, okay?" Finbar said, and Kyana nodded in response.

Kyana happily tried bites of various foods, noticing that Finbar was constantly looking at her. He was subtle about it, and seemed to just be checking on her? She couldn't really read him that well. The meal went on, Finbar helping her get a plate full of foods she liked.

Eventually the tables were cleared, but instead of everybody leaving to do other things, new foods were put on the table. Kyana was confused, she had already eaten until she was full, was she supposed to wait? Can she say no to the extra food?

Finbar could apparently tell she was confused. "What's wrong, Kyana?" He asked, looking concerned for Kyana despite barely knowing her.

"Uhm, why'd they put more plates on the table?" Kyana asked, looking over at Finbar.

"Oh! It's because it's dessert now! They are sweet foods eaten after lunch or dinner." Finbar explained, looking proud of himself for being helpful to Kyana. "If you're full, you don't have to eat anymore! I could go play with you, if you're done!" Finbar reached to quickly grab one of the desserts, to eat before Kyana asked to get down.

"I don't want anymore, you can finish eating though, Finbar!" Kyana replied, watching everybody else eat as Finbar ate the odd, brightly colored food.

Finbar finished quickly, hopping out of his chair. "Do you want to get down?" He asked Kyana.

Kyana nodded. "Thank you!" She said as Finbar picked her up and put her on the ground.

"What did you want to do, Kyana? We've got a bunch of toys you'd probably like, or we could play games in the orchard!" Finbar asked, holding onto Kyana's hand with a cheerful smile.

"Uhm, uhm.." What would she have done after eating back home? Kyana wondered if she could do any of those here. "What kind of chores do you do?" She asked.

Finbar looked confused for a moment before answering. "The only thing I really do a lot that's a chore is weed. Everybody helps with that since plants grow real fast!" Finbar answered.

"..could I help weed then?" Kyana asked, looking up at Finbar. He looked even more confused.

"You wanna do chores? Not play?" Finbar asked, and Kyana nodded in response. "Okay, I'll show you how we do that then.." Finbar was very agreeable, guiding her to one of the areas of the village that needed weeding done.

"Have you ever weeded before?" Finbar asked and Kyana shook her head. "Okay, so, what you have to do is.."

-

An adult stopped next to Kyana and Finbar as they chatted to each other and weeded. "What are you two doing?" The adult asked, and Kyana panicked. Were they upset? Oh no, did she get Finbar in trouble?

Kyana quickly stood up and turned to face the adult, but she didn't look the adult in the eye. She kept her eyes and face towards the ground. Like the priors taught her was proper in this situation. "I'm sorry. I asked Finbar if I could help do chores, it's my fault."

The adult made a confused noise before kneeling down in front of Kyana. "Oh! You two aren't trouble. Thank you very much for being helpful, but you don't have to do that. You're our guest and a kid, we wouldn't expect you to help with anything at all." The adult explained. "Why did you want to help with chores?"

Kyana carefully looked up at the adult, apparently noticeably confused. "Uhm.. back home, we'd do chores to repay the adults for feeding us. I thought it was just proper.." Kyana explained, and the adult looked shocked.

"Oh, dear.. You don't have to repay us. You're a child, and we don't make anybody, especially children pay us back for meals. This is the Feywilds though, so some might expect that, but not anybody from our village!" The adult tried to explain, sighing when Kyana didn't seem to understand. "We feed people who stay in our village and their repayment is just their company, how about that? You can repay us for the meal by going and playing until you're tired."

Now Kyana understood! She didn't understand how there was repayment, but if the adults say it is, it is! "Okay!" Kyana agreed, smiling up at the adult who looked significantly more tired than before.

"You two go play then! I have to go back to the rest of the adults. I was just told to check on you two." The adult said before turning and leaving.

"Uhm, what should we play Finbar?" Kyana asked.

"I could grab some other kids and we could play hide and seek! You'd probably be really good at it!" Finbar said, dusting his hands off on his pants.

"What's hide and seek?" Kyana asked, looking up at Finbar with curious eyes.

"Uhm! It's a game where a bunch of people hide and one person looks for them. To win, the seekers have to find everybody, but if they give up, the hiders win. Then, everybody goes around calling out to the hiders to come up so we can end the game or play another round." Finbar explained, grabbing Kyana's hand as he walked to another part of the village.

"That sounds fun!" Kyana declared, happily letting Finbar take her along. "How many players do we need?"

"We can play just the two of us, but it's more fun with a group with a few people." Finbar explained, stopping next to a group of kids. "Hey, do y'all wanna come play hide and seek?" He called them, and most of the kids ran over to come play.

-

Kyana eventually got gathered up by the adults to talk about her going home. She was sleepy from playing, so Gerrit was carrying her again as the adults talked to each other and sometimes her.

"Little miss, do you want to go home, you can stay if you want?" Gerrit asked her, speaking softly to her.

"I wanna go home.." Kyana replied with a yawn, too tired to fully process the words.

"Alright, but that might take a long time. We have to find your home, figure out how to get you there safely, and so on. For now, you can choose to stay with me, my husband, and my daughter, or another family." Gerrit told her. "You can change your mind at any time."

"I want to stay with you, Mister Gerrit.. just until it's time to go home." Kyana replied, resting her cheek against his shoulder. She wanted to nap.

-

"Okay, I've put Kyana down to nap." Gerrit said, sitting with the others. "We aren't going to send her home, are we? Have you seen how she acts?"

"That's not enough evidence for abuse yet, Gerrit." An elder responded. "We'll genuinely search, but we'll stop the second we have enough evidence. We only need something small."

"Yes, of course.. I'll tell you if anything happens." Gerrit replied, already planning how he can make the space in his hut easier for his newest daughter.