Venatian ball (taks 3)

Jane laughed happily. "Yes, that's right! You're good at guessing.", she smiled at Kida. "Now it's your turn. What can I not see?", Jane felt so lighthearted right now, the problems around her were forgotten for the moment. That girl was just too adorable. And it was a long time she hadn't had the right to feel like this. To be childish like a kid. "Tell me, I wanna know if I'm as good as you."

He listened to her story. He could almost imagine all of it. "The house was near a hill. Behind the hills was the river. And the door was red." He started listing details he remembered. He couldn't remember all, but those were the most vivid ones.
He now had some kind of idea why Tua had left. And it hurt him that she didn't trust him enough to tell him.
"I can't deny I wanted a son to carry on my work. Can you blame me? But I wouldn't have objected to daughters either. As long as they would behave like a girls should."

"...Yes that is my home... and yes I can blame you, 16 years I was everything to my mother. An unwed mother? they treated her like dirt! no one spared us any mercy and mother denied any chance of escaping such life to marry someone else. I pleaded with her to find someone else! I was afraid what would happen if I married leaving her alone. 16 years, the first 5 of which I was with her waiting for someone who would never come" she hissed at him before turning her face away to touch where her neck was bare. "I was... so... angry, she wanted me to stay in that stupid house even when she passed on. She gave me the necklace, telling me it was the only way you would know who I was. I-I took a job as a servant to raiders to spite her. It is my greatest regret that I left her after such a fight"

Turning her head back to glare at him "Better you were dead! but no- I find you alive and above all else now I know you are with another woman! glad to know she meant so little to you when you meant so much to her!"

He could blame himself all he wanted, but that would not change a thing. One thing he knew about life was to move on.
Killing people would get hard on you if you started to think about the pain you had dealt to others. He knew someday someone might come and take his life in retribution, and he accepted that as long as that someone would give him a fight.
This girl was stabbing his once closed wounds. He knew that after Tua his actions had become more cruel, taking his hurt out on others. It made him rather angry that she seemed to be the only one entiteled to hurt.
"She was at fault too. If she had told me where she had gone, or tell me why she had left things would be different now. I am sorry for what you and her had to go through, but I will not take the full blame for that."

Kida giggeled, starting to scan the room for something. "I see something you don't aaand iit's yellow." She said grinning behind her mask.

Jane looked around. As far as she could see, there were two persons with yellow masks in the room. Isabella was awake still sitting on the floor and Jim? He was sleeping somewhere. Seemed like he hadn't awaken from their task yet. 'Better for him.', Jane thought.

So she had a fifty-fifty chance to guess right. If Kida had met one of them before? Jane looked curiously at her. "Is it the mask Jim wears?", she asked softly and pointed at the sleeping boy.

She looked up. "Jim is here too? I only saw the girl with a yellow cloack." She hadn't really realised she had revealed her answer. Half expecting Jane to keep guessing.

Jane smiled. "Yes, I had a nice game to play with him. So you met Jim before?", she was curious now. "Where?"

She nodded. "Yes. He came by my cave. He was nice." She said smiling happily. Still finding it weird to have so many people be nice to her.

"He is quite a nice boy.", Jane nodded. "A bit quiet, but cute.", she smiled at Kida, then frowned slightly. "Your cave? You weren't alone there, do you?", Jane got slightly worried.

She tilted her head. "Yes I live there alone. Why?" She failed to understand what wrong was in that. "Is that wrong?"

Jane shook her head. "No it's not that wrong. Just... safer with someone around you. Especially on this island.", she looked around then back to Kida. "There was a time I wanted to be all alone on this island."

"And you don't anymore? Why?" She meant why did she want to be all alone in this island? Kida would have prefered to be with nice people around her.
Also she was curious as to why had Jane changed her mind then.

"I thought I was a burden for everyone. And I wasn't used to so many people around me.", Jane smiled. "Really, before I got here I avoided crowded places. But now...", Jane stroke a strain of her hair back. "I fell in love.", her view slightly scurried over Shan Yu. "And I found a lot of good friends here.", she touched Kida's hand. "I hope you'll be finding some yourself."

She tilted her head. "Love? What is that? Does it hurt alot?" She took a seat on the floor, listening to Jane.

Jane looked at Kida a bit speechless. It reminded her... of a talk she had with Shan Yu. "Yes and No.", she finally answered. She sat down next to Kida. "It's more the best feeling you can have and the worst.", Jane tried to explain the best she could. "Loving someone and gain the love back is the most powerful thing in the world." she sighed. "It just hurts, when someone doesn't love you back.", Jane touched the place where Kida's heart was. "Trust me, you'll be happy to get to know it. Didn't your parents show you what love is?"

Kida looked down to her chest where Jane had touched her. She placed her hand on her chest.
She remembered the hurt that she felt sometimes when people were mean to her.
"Didn't your parents show you what love is?" She shook her head. "No... I don't know if they know what love is either."

Jane's eyes grew big. Then she pulled Kida in a hug. "I'm sure they knew what love is. You wouldn't exist, if they didn't knew.", she petted Kida's head softly. A thought came up in her mind. The innocence of the girl in her arms made her wonder. And angry for some reason. Softly she pulled Kida out of the hug and wiped away a strain from her hair. "How old are you dear?", she asked softly. She didn't meant to be rude, but she wanted to know.

"I have seen two big moons. How old are you then?" She asked rocking her body back and forth.
Why were everyone asking her age? Did it matter somehow?

Jane frowned. Two moons? That girl could only be two months old then, but why was she looking like a grown up then. "I'm 22 years old.", Jane replied, answering Kida's question politely. Something had happen to that girl in front of her. Did Hades or Eris had something to do with it? Jane frowned again. "For your age, you should look like a little baby, dear.", she said softly, caressing Kida's cheek.

She looked at the woman confused. Letting out a laugh. "Uncle Hades made me this way. I was too small to go up here otherwise." She poked at her breasts. "Although I don't understand why he gave these to me." She giggeled.

"Hades?", Jane asked breathless and frowned. What the hell had this man to do which such an innocent girl? "Going up?", Jane tilted her head questioningly. When Kida pointed at her breasts, Jane blushed slightly. "Well, it's because you are a girl. Like me.", Jane smiled. "You can be a mother yourself if you like and find the right man.", Jane felt a deep urge to go to Hades and kill him. If he wasn't a god. She sighed.

If that girl was actually a baby. And Hades was the lord of the Underworld, then going up could just mean, she was dead and Hades sent her back in a grown up body. But what were his intentions? And why had the baby to die? "Who are your parents, Kida?", she tried to ask softly without making that girl angry.

She nodded. "Yeah, up here. I wanted to go up here to meet people. But they ran away, or were mean to me."
When Jane asked her what were her parents names, she opened her mouth, but closed it again. She didn't know their names. "Well I just call them mommy and daddy."

Jane shed a tear. Why would someone be mean to a cute girl like her? "Do you know how your parents look like?", she tried it the other way round. There must've been a good reason for her parents to let her die. If she would be Jane's daughter... she pressed her lips together. Jane would rather die then let her baby die. She pressed her hand on her stomach. "Never.", she whispered.

She pointed to the other person wearing a black cloack. "That is my daddy. But he wants to find mommy, and I don't want that."