Light and Darkness: Nytri's Odyssey

Memories of the Past – Orphanage, Adoption

400 and something years ago in a kingdom called Mirthendom in the capital city. On the southern side in the slums a church is sited there, the road leading to the church has cobblestone roads. The church has priests and ladies of the cloth present. They sang hymns and take care of the orphans as their own kids. After the hymn has ended, a nun walks out of the church and sees a little girl seated on the stairs looking into the sky. She is covered in dirt and tattered clothes and she just sat there.

This girl so thin has brown skin and black hair, her eyes are black and she is about 4years old. The little girl looks at the sky, at the flying clouds, the birds flying and smiles, she is happy just watching them. The nun walks up to her,

The Nun speaks softly with traces of warmth in her voice, "Nytri, what are you doing here?" Yes, this little girl is Nytri, Nytri Elnora Alcore, Nightmare Overlord.

Nytri turns to see the nun, "The birds are beautiful, and the clouds make funny shapes. They are nice, see." She points to a cloud, "That cloud looks like a fish." Points to another, "And that one is a bird."

Nun chuckles at the sights, "Are you having fun watching the clouds?"

"Yes!" she says with her eyes beaming.

"I'll join you then." She sits besides Nytri and notices the dirt on her face, she starts to clean her up, she notices bruises on her. Nytri often tries to cover her bruises up and as a child, she uses dirt.

The nun worries after noticing the bruises, "How did you get so dirty and with bruises?" she is rubbing the dirt of her hair and face.

Nytri stares at the floor, "I went to the market to see if I can get food but. " Her voices gets lower, "I didn't get any so I took one."

"Oh, stealing is bad, Nytri."

Nytri speaks in a low voice, "I know, but Fa was crying that she was hungry, I just wanted to help her." She speaks up, "But I got food for her, it was bread I got after they chased me, Fa ate it and she was happy."

"Oh, you sweet child." She hugs Nytri, "But you shouldn't steal from others, we'll take care of you and everyone, okay?"

Nytri speaks lower, "But last night I heard the grownups talk about how we have no money, I just wanted to help."

Nun is taken aback by what she heard. She hugs Nytri and says to her, "Don't worry. Everything will be alright, leave those things to the grownups to worry about, okay?"

Nytri speaks lowly, "Okay." They continue to watch the cloud as they drift across the sky, soon night fall and they go inside to have dinner. It's called dinner but it's actually just soup and bread, but they still ate happily.

The next day. the kids have gathered in a circle, the kids are going to play. They are going to play a game they call the good knight. The kids take on roles of knights and some demons and hostages or princesses. One walks up to Nytri as she is standing there watching them with anticipation. This kid is Merx,

Merx a boy with pale white skin, "I'll be the demon, and Nytri will be the princess." He holds her hand. One kid protest, "Hey! I'm playing the demon."

Another orphan with dark skin, "But she can't play princess, she always wants to fight like the knight."

Nytri protests, "I CAN TO!" she sticks out her tongue,

Another orphan a girl with white skin, "Oh oh oh, then let's make it 2 princesses. That way I can show her how to be a princess."

Orphan1, "That's good, this way she won't hit me with a stick again." Nytri sticks out her tongue again and pulls her lower eyelid down. Orphan2 laughs and she hugs Nytri's arm.

Orphan4 with black skin, "Then I'll be the holy knight." He raises a stick, "BEWARE THE POWER OF THE HOLY KNIGHT, YAAAGGHHH!"

Orphan7 girl with white skin, "Hush, we haven't even started playing." Orphan4 is embarrassed. The rest took their roles as some are soldiers who help the knight and some helps the demons.

It starts out with the princesses walking. The 'demon' and his 'soldier' jump in front of them and declare that they will take them, and they do. Merx is blushing for some reason as he takes Nytri's hand and runs with her. He actually forgot about the other princess so his 'soldier' brings her along. They ran about 15 metres then the holy knight arrives. One kid plays as a bystander and tells him what happened. He goes to gather soldiers and they charge at the demons, they fight for a bit as the game has 2 endings, good and bad. They played both endings and Nytri messed up from time to time as she tries to take a stick to play with the boys. But Orphan 2 would hold her down or she would throw dirt at the 'demons' feet. They learned the hard way what sand does to the eyes.

This went on for many days as one day when the kids were playing, a carriage pulls up. It is a luxurious one. The kids keep playing and the passengers see how Nytri and the other were playing as princesses. They compare the 2 for one who would fit their preference and choose Nytri. They go inside to discuss with the church as the kids sneak around trying to hear why such people were here.

Orphan 2 is surprised, "Waaoow, what good horses." Nytri squirms when the horses snort.

Merx pulls Nytri along, "Come on, let's find out why they are here."

Nytri is reluctant but is pulled towards the carriage, "Maybe they want to bring us food?"

Merx admires the carriage, "No, the food comes in a different carriage."

Orphan 2 looking at the back for luggage, "Maybe this is the new carriage for food."

Orphan 4 slips when he hears that, they all look back at orphan 2 and she's confused, "What?"

Orphan 1 points at the carriage, "This is a rich people carriage, I don't know why rich people are here but it might be for food." He says with uncertainty.

Nytri keeps her distance from the horses, "But if they are bringing food, where is it?" rather than going to eavesdrop, they go to the carriage hoping to find the 'food'. At the end they didn't find out why the noble came until they were done talking. They come out with the priest and nuns and see the kids. Nytri is behind the carriage looking at the design, and her thoughts are. "So cool, I want to make something cool like this when I grow up."

Nobleman looks at the children, "That one will do." He points at Nytri.

Nytri looks at them and utters, "Huh." The same nun walks up to her and hugs her,

Nun excitedly tells Nytri the news, "Nytri, you're about to get a family." She is expecting Nytri to be happy but instead, Nytri looks at the kids. She is about to say something when the noble cut in, "I don't have all day,"

Noble walks up to the carriage, "Take her into the carriage, we leave immediately." And with that, Nytri is taken without even being given the chance to say goodbye to her friends. She is moved a lot in the carriage as the noble stare at her the whole time and clicks his tongue with disgust. They take her to a shop and she is bathed and changed. When they are leaving then Nytri realizes it is a clothes shop since she was sent inside through a back door. Nytri has conflicted feelings whether she should be happy she is getting a family or sad about losing her friends. She also knows instinctively when she isn't wanted and this guy gave her that vibe, a lot. She learned that from the streets.

After what felt like forever to Nytri, they arrive at a mansion at night. Nytri gets down from the carriage and is dragged inside quickly into a room. Later that night a maid is introduced to her and she is to help her, this maid is called Sarah. She helped Nytri a lot and when Nytri tried to help her she would claim that Nytri is a noble so she didn't have to work. Surprisingly, she has no idea what a noble is or what it does. She is given a tutor and her background is framed as her being a shut-in who never, ever left the mansion.

Anyway, she takes this chance to learn to read, write, danc- ahem, fall and a lot others. She would sit under a tree and admire nature whenever she is left alone. That is when she discovered she likes to sing.

The nobles have a son called Claine. He would distance himself from Nytri and harass her from time to time. Though after a couple of years he forgot what he did to her conveniently. The noble who adopted her is Harrington and the lady of the house is Bethany. She didn't interact with Nytri because she still saw her as a commoner but she did watch her whenever she was learning, trying to be affectionate in her own way.

Life went on peacefully according to Nytri's memories for about …. Huh…. 4 months. The people around her started to treat her differently. They distanced themselves and her tutors became even stricter and punished her sometimes for no reason at all. Sarah knew what was going on so she started helping Nytri with anything and even comforting her. Nytri was moved towards the servant quarters but she still considered it classy and was even happier since it was small enough for her. Sarah always came to sleep with her every night wanting to soothe Nytri's pain of the harsh treatment thinking she was comforting Nytri. But in actual sense, Nytri didn't care or know about the treatment. She is getting food, didn't have to steal again, she is learning and she sees herself to be better than how she was.

It was still peaceful for a while. Then things took a turn for the worst, Sarah was forbidden from sleeping beside Nytri and a lot of things. But she always tried to help her whenever she could.