"Do you really have to go, Dad?" A little girl with fire-colored hair clung to her father's arms, crying and smearing her tears and snot on his pants.
"I was called for an important job that'll really help us, sweety. I'll come back before you even notice." The man with equally colored hair and feathers crouched down and patted his daughter's head.
"Besides, you've got your older brothers here. They'll take care of you and Mom." The father looked at his two sons with a proud expression.
Then the man stood up and rested his hands on his two older sons' shoulders. "Take care of them for me."
"Uli," he whispered. "You're the oldest. You have to be the man of the house while I'm gone."
"Yes, Dad!" The oldest nodded with a determined expression on his face. Although he wanted to cry, he withheld those tears.
That was the last time the family would see this kind of happy scene between them—a scene that left their lives alongside the father who walked out of the house to fight a pointless war.
---
Six months after the father left the house, the family started to struggle. In truth, the one providing for them had been the now-gone paternal figure. The mother, who was previously only a housewife, had to take up two jobs by herself. The oldest, seeing his mother suffer so much in silence, decided to quit school and look for a job—a decision that was met with a conflicting argument on the mother's part.
"In other news, the tension between Gtomika and Pultreiva is still as heavy as it was a year ago. The most recent encounter between the two armies was in the city of Crosent at the border between the two kingdoms—an encounter that ended in the dea—"
The channel on the TV was changed by the middle brother, who simply sighed deeply as he looked toward his sister sitting at the table with him.
"W-was Dad in that battle?" The young girl asked in a terrified voice. The last time their father had sent any message to them was four months ago; no one knew if he was even alive.
"Don't think too much about it..." The boy, still in his school uniform, spoke up, not touching his plate of food. "That's what I try to do."
"B-but... do you not care abo—"
"Don't finish that sentence!!" he yelled while slamming his fist on the table, the plates and glasses jumping a bit. "I've got so much to worry about with school! Mom and Uli work so much for us... and I can barely get passing grades..." The boy clutched his hair in desperation.
"I-I'm sorry, Tri—" Little Titiana tried to apologize, but the crack in her voice and the forming tears made speaking difficult.
"Whatever..." He abruptly stood up and left his dishes by the dishwasher. "Clean them all when you finish. I've got a lot to do."
With that, Titiana was left alone at the table, feeling sad for making her older brother feel bad and for him yelling at her. She felt bad that her family now barely interacted with each other—her mother working two jobs, Uli spending all day out working or trying to find another job if he had been fired from the last one.
Not only that, she started seeing things she didn't know how to feel about. Her mother now brought home some guy she called her "friend from her old neighborhood." At first it was only once a day on weekends, but now he came every weekend. Her mother even left for the night knowing Uli would be home. Because her mother brought home what was basically a stranger, Uli and she had a big argument.
In that argument, even her mother shot back at Uli with her own issues with him, especially with the kind of people and "jobs" he had been involving himself with recently.
---
A couple of months after that one night.
Things actually got worse in the house. Recently, Uli and their mother got into a nasty argument because she was pregnant and only now showing the first signs of having a belly carrying a baby.
Tri's academics continued to decline, failing all his subjects no matter how much he sat down and read, and read, and read. His scores were not getting any better. Recently, he spent the last two weeks not going to school, putting up excuses and saying he'd catch up later.
"Let me tell you, Carol..." The news anchor spoke to his partner about the present fights the two kingdoms were dealing with. "Neither Gtomika nor Pultreiva has the resources or willingness to start a full-on war like the one between Lichtrey and Fordoria. That's why these recent skirmishes—these small-scale fights between the two kingdoms—exist. The two kingdoms alleviate the tension by creating these fake reasons to start a fight. Pultreiva wanted to take control of the city of Golor? Pultreiva defended their city from a Gtomikan raid that was sent there to spy on the country!? All lies! The two kings are just sacrificing armies—men—just to have an excuse to prevent the war. All the ones fighting right now aren't even—"
The TV was shut off by Titiana, who sat alone in her house. Completely alone. Her mother had just left to be with her friend, Uli was out working on his murky job that required him to hide things in their house, and Tri was out with his friends, who seemed to be a bad influence.
Thankfully, it wasn't nighttime, which calmed the little girl just a bit. But she was still on edge about being alone.
Alone...
Most days now she spent alone, with nothing to do since she was rather smart and disciplined.
Boredom is always the thing that drives people to change their routine, to search for new experiences and stimuli.
---
The little kid was born. Titiana's little brother was now a couple of months old. At first, she didn't know how to feel. Uli had explained to her that the kid was not her father's son, but only her mother's son. Not that Titiana could even interact with him in the first place, as her mother had been getting more distant and verbally abusive with the whole family.
The smallest chances she had of meeting her brother were quickly snatched away by her mother leaving with a disgusted face while looking at Titiana.
A whistle snapped the Vogel girl out of her thoughts. "What a slow day, isn't it, neighbour?" A Taurus man asked while resting comfortably on his chair.
"Don't talk to me. That's the only warning I'm giving you, old man!" Titiana furrowed her brow as she imitated the way her own mother looked at her.
"Geez, I'm sorry, girl. Just wanted to chat a bit."
"I won't ever want to interact with a creep like you!"
"Is this about safety, little girl? Because if you're being so defensive out of fear of someone doing something bad to you—rest assured, you're well protected."
"Saying that you want to help me, protect me—won't help you. It actually makes you look worse."
"I'm not the one that wants no one to touch even a single strand of your hair."
"Hm?"
The conversation died there. Titiana only came after school to the market street to sell stuff she collected, so she didn't know who she should trust.
But this old Taurus man quickly became one of her only friends—not only on the market street as a fellow merchant, but also outside of it. She wasn't someone who had many friends, but with the recent worsening of her family's financial situation, alongside a couple of other factors, the small group of friends she had managed to get in school also abandoned her.
---
Today was a fun day working together with Grey; it was quickly becoming something she looked forward to. Although, since she knew that the Reptilian was to leave this town in a week, she was mentally preparing herself to say goodbye—not only to the boy himself, but to the happiness he brought with him.
"Uli? You're here earlier tha—" Titiana stopped after she fully opened the door to the house.
Her older brother carelessly let their father fall onto the entrance of the house.
"W-what happened to Dad?" She raised her voice in a worried tone as she crouched down and saw her father was passed out and had two big bruises on his body.
"Make sure he gets some rest," the older Vogel coldly ordered her while turning around.
He walked toward the group of shady-looking men.
"U—!" Titiana wanted to yell at her brother for leaving her cold with uncertainty. But she knew that trying to interact with Uli was a lost cause.
She shut up and used all her strength to carry her father to his bed. She threw his arm over her shoulder and walked slowly to prevent any accidents that might hurt him more.
As she rested her father on the bed, she couldn't help but feel sad, disappointed. The father she once looked up to was nothing more than a shell of his former self. He never managed the cheating and the trauma caused by fighting in those battles. His mental state was destroyed, and the abuse of alcohol never helped him.
She felt horrible. She wanted so much to just escape this hellhole she called home, to leave the people that caused her so much pain. This is something no person should feel about their family. But Titiana couldn't help but despise the people she grew up with; she couldn't help that she hated herself so much, since she ended up walking the same bad path as her parents and brothers.
---
As I walked to the usual spot, I was taken aback by the absence of the fire-colored Vogel girl I'd been working with.
Upon arriving at the market street, I only found the old Taurus we had as our neighbor merchant.
Usually, Titiana already had everything set up before I even got here.
"You know what happened, old man?" I asked.
"No, Titiana is late. I haven't seen her."