She didn’t like to hear her mother cry. It made a black pit form in the center of her stomach, made her afraid because her mother was the rock of her life. She hated to think of that rock crumbling. So, with this pit forming in her stomach, Elan rushed out and yelled at the unfamiliar figure.
“Get away from Momma!”
The man started, actually jumping slightly as the twelve-year-old child yelled and glared up at him from less than half his height. He looked down at her quizzically. “Ela?”
Elan ran between the stranger and her mother, standing protectively in front of the coarse skirt her mother was wearing and glaring up at him. “You made Momma cry! Get away!”
The man started to laugh, tears actually running down his cheeks as his body shook with the deep rumblings. For the first time, Elan got a good look at the man.
He was tall. Really tall, as far as Elan could tell. Taller than her mother, who was the tallest person in the world. His face was dirty, which caused his tears to leave long tracks of bare skin against the soot and black dirt that was caked over him. Elan couldn’t really tell what color his hair was, only that it was really, really long and dirtier than her mother ever let her get her own hair.
“Oh, Ela...” The man grinned, reaching down and picking her up against her protests. He held her out at arm’s length as the little girl beat her fists down on his arms. “I see that you’ve been protecting your momma... I’m proud of you, Ela.”
She kept hitting his arms until she felt her mother’s hand on her shoulder. “Ela...child...this is your father. I wasn’t crying because I was sad, dear... I was crying because I was so happy to see him ali...again.”
Elan stopped hitting the man’s arms long enough to peer at him quizzically. “Pappa?”
The man grinned at her, his teeth glaring white against the dirt on his face. “Yes, Ela...I’m your pappa.”
She reached out, tentatively toward his face, but couldn’t reach far enough to touch him. So he drew her closer and she pushed some of that long, dirty hair out of her way and looked at him. His eyes were blue, she realized, and he had a long scar along the left side of his cheek. But what her eyes were really drawn to was a blue color that peered out from under the dirt on the right side of his face.
She hesitantly brushed some of the dried dirt away, revealing a blue picture on his face. “What’s that?”
Damasc smiled at the innocent question and for a moment just let it echo through his mind. He remembered when she used to ask questions about everything. Why is the sky blue, Pappa? What makes things grow, Momma? What makes the monsters act so mean?
He lost his smile, and a sadness came over him. But then looked at her closely and smiled again. “That’s a mark of a warrior, Ela.”
“What’s a warrior?”
“Someone who fights the demons, Ela,” he replied, again sadly but very patiently as he set her gently down.
Elan scrunched up her face. “But...what’s a demon?”
“That’s what we call the monsters, Ela.”
“Oh,” she said, her face becoming bright. Her mind quickly added up the information and came to a conclusion. “You fight the monsters!”
He nodded, and Elan beamed up at him, mind still working behind her crystal blue eyes.
“You keep them away from my sleeping... You keep them away from Momma.”
Her mother hugged her from behind. “That’s right, Ela... He does.”
Elan digested this for a moment.
Monsters existed. She knew that, but she never knew that anyone fought monsters. She looked up at the man, her pappa, and frowned hard. Her features crinkled up as she thought, and there was a long silence as the two adults watched and waited for her to speak again.
Suddenly her face cleared up and she beamed up at the two grownups. “I wanna be a warrior too!”
Her parents smiled, a little reluctantly, their faces troubled. Her father pulled her in tight, hugging her close as her mother turned away.
“Maybe when you grow up, Ela...” she heard her father say. “Maybe when you grow up.”
The little girl gripped her father tightly around his wide neck, holding him much as she held her mother, and scrunched up her eyes as she repeated a promise over and over to herself.
I will be a warrior... I will be a warrior... I will be a warrior...
****
The next morning, Elan got up slowly. She was tired from the night before. She’d been awake well past her sleep time, and the light from the rising sun hurt her eyes. Still, she stumbled up and out, moving slowly out of her small room as she rubbed her eyes.
She stopped for a moment at the curtain that hid her mother’s room from the rest of their home and peeked around the flimsy fabric for a long moment.
Inside she saw her pappa holding her momma as they both slept, and she slowly tilted her head as she took in the scene. Pappa. She rolled the word around in her mind and slowly tasted it as she silently wrapped her tongue around the concept.
She had a pappa.
Her momma talked about how a little girl was supposed to grow up with a momma and a pappa, but Elan had never thought about it much before. She had a momma and that was enough, so she had always thought. But now she had a pappa too.
While she was thinking, she saw the man, her pappa, turn his head and smile as he opened his eyes and looked right at her. She jumped back instantly, letting the curtain fall back as she stared in surprise and shock at being found out.
She reddened as his deep chuckling laughter came drifting out from the curtains, and quickly scampered back to her own bed.
*****
The next months were the brightest that Elan could remember.
Her pappa helped her momma work the fields, bringing in the food and water. In the twilight hours he would go down to the river, sometimes pulling Elan along with him, and fish.
She treasured those times, alone with her new pappa. Her old pappa.
“Come, Ela...” he would say to her as he gathered up his fishing gear. “Let’s go to the river and get some breakfast.”
So she went with him, helping him land the fish and grinning as they would both tried to catch the flopping, slippery fish. His laugh was booming to her ears, but it sounded nice too. When they had gathered the fish, he would sit down and just grin at her for a long time without speaking.
One time she asked him what he was smiling at.
“You,” was all he said.
She scowled at him, pouting slightly. “Why?”
“Because I’m so very happy to be home with you and your momma, Ela,” he said.
“Where were you, Pappa?”
When she asked that question, he would always grow silent. It was a long time before she could get him to talk, and when she did, she never felt that he told her the real story.
“I’ve been away, Ela,” he tried the first time.
“I know that,” she said matter-of-factly, putting her hands on her hips.
He laughed softly. “I’ve been someplace very special, Ela... I was part of something that meant something very important.”
“Fighting the monsters?” she asked.
He smiled and nodded. “Yes, Ela...fighting the monsters.”
“Is that what that was for?” she asked, pointing to a long piece of metal that was at his side. He never went anywhere without it; she knew that he even slept with it nearby.
He touched his sword lightly, nodding. “Yes, Ela...this was for fighting monsters.”
“And this place you went...they showed you how to fight monsters?”
He grew saddened, but nodded. “Yes, Ela.”
Elan nodded, grinning. “Then I’m going there too.”
“You can’t, Ela,” he said solemnly.
“Why not?”
“Because...” Damasc sighed heavily as he pulled his daughter close. “They don’t exist anymore.”
“Why?”
Elan pulled back as her pappa loosened his grip on her and saw the tracks of tears running down his cheeks. “Pappa?”