Marisa Kaven & Alice's Story

A young man ran out of the building — a school — passing by the vigilant Alice. He was hiding his face, but the well-dressed girl following him out and stopping outside her classroom's door was brushing bits of blood off of her hand. While she should probably have looked like an angry gorilla in a sundress, Marisa Kaven even had a touch of class when she was punching her classmates in the face.

"Dumb boys," she grumbled. Alice held back a chuckle, and simply suggested they go out for lunch.

Human society was, for better or worse, industrialized by comparison to the elves' and other races. It wasn't like they had much else going for them; they didn't have magic or nature on their side, nor the brute strength and near-remorseless insanity of a transformed werewolf. They did, however, breed like crazy, and have crafting skills and the skills needed to farm. They built their civilization around these things. Silver weapons helped to ward off the vampires and werewolves, but most especially the former. (Silver affecting werewolves like it did vampires was mostly a myth, but an arrow's an arrow all the same!) Crossbows developed as a very powerful advancement to elven weaponry, and had a longer range, though most elves seem to refuse to take them. Something about nature, or something. Chemicals weren't out of the question for humans either, used as medicine and weapon alike. The proper plants and herbs needed were sometimes difficult to come by for the humans, but it was common knowledge that elves had access to practically all of them. Trade and sly tongues became a strength, as merchants bartered and sold their wares (even to other races) to acquire more materials, which in turn became more clothing, weapons and medicines.

The cities weren't always all that big, but they were definitely respectable in size. Some regions operated mostly as trade centers rather than a fully-populated city, too. The Kavens reside near a well-traveled crossroad between some of these cities, and while they live a bit luxuriously in Raye Manor (the house had originally been built by Belle Kaven's grandfather and father, funded by the mass production of optimized weapon designs), they aren't exactly under the army's watch, and end up being prime targets for vampires and the like. Because of this, they had employed some felinus as guards and staff some time before Marisa's fifth birthday, providing them living arrangements in a nearby lodging facility, and even a payroll and medicinal benefits for their work in protecting the home. Some would relate it to slavery and try to slander the Kavens with such nonsense, but their staff work entirely by choice. Kevin and Belle just call it good business sense.

"Why do you keep listening to them? It all ends up more or less the same."

"They always have something different to say," her principal answered before she took a bite out of her sandwich. "Ewan was straight about what he wanted this time, but it was so gross. I keep feeling like I let him off too easy."

"Should I punish him for scarring you so?"

"I don't think he'll want to even look at me for the next week. By then his bloody mouth should be healed up, too."

"Can you say the same for his teeth?"

"Nope!" she laughed. Marisa finished another bite and gave Alice a big, goofy smile with tiny crumbs on the sides of her pink lips, which were swiftly taken care of. That childish grin always made Alice smile a little, whether she wanted to or not.

Afterwards, they returned to the school building for the second half of their day with gossip abound. (Oddly, it was mainly from a group of guys roughly Marisa's age in the hallway, though a few girls couldn't help but laugh in their wake.)

"Ohare got rejected again, did he?"

"That's the third time for him. Actually got hurt this time, too. Marisa must have been practicing, or holdin' back until now."

"What's the record?"

"Ewan's holding it now, and even he's not stupid enough to go for four."

About nineteen boys have tried to court poor Marisa in the past seven months (some twice or even more, as you can see), but it's been plaguing her for nearly two full years now. She never accepts, obviously, and whenever they tried to be persistent... well, let's just say Alice... deterred, them and many other students who'd dare to take the challenge. Just one of her duties as personal security. (Kevin Kaven would be a thousand nightmares come to life at once compared to the bodyguard, though.) It's become sort of a legend amongst the district's teenagers, and even those from other regions, really; any guy who could get the Kaven girl around his arm would reach unprecedented levels of fame, riches, or something along those lines. The predictions and interpretations of this little urban legend were so varied in the outcome or how to make it happen, but they all amounted to a similar greatness. Just... differently.

"Too bad he can't say he got in a fight with Micah. That guy wouldn't hesitate to punch a dead fish if he thought it looked at him the wrong way." The boys all proceeded to move the topic toward a fellow student. A troubled child, he was, but a child he looked not. Six feet high and hulking in his build, Micah was like a moving wall with spring-loaded bricks for arms. The young man recently stated that he hoped to use his aggression in "the most effective and kick-ass way possible": joining the army and using the virtue of brute physical strength to keep human cities safe. Maybe he'd become an escort for merchants after his service was completed.

All in all, another day came to an uneventful close, and it was time to return home.

"So, how was class today?" Marisa's mother asked her. They were having an early supper today, since Belle had to help take care of some evening work at a nearby orphanage, Matthews' Home for the Parentless — an endearing nickname, don't you think? They said Matthews was blessed by gods, since he managed to build it by himself in about three months. A lot of people (roughly 99.98%, give or take), though, believed "they" were crazy. Gods didn't really exist!

"I punched a guy."

"Sounds like a good day to me," Kevin chuckled. His enjoyment of his wife's casserole was interrupted by a knock at the manor door. He answered it, but the guest took a minute to catch her breath before she started talking.

"Is the missus here? It's just a mess with all the stuff on the floor and I couldn't get the kids to calm down and pick up their?" Belle did the interrupting this time, and she already had her coat on.

"Did you at least leave Rufus to keep guard?" Rufus was a dog taken care of at the orphanage; a watch dog with a silver-studded collar, but he'd probably lick someone to death before he bit them.

"Yes—"

"Let's go, then." With that, the ladies left to attend to their business, and Kevin changed the subject to keep things lively while the rest of the family went back to dinner.

"Harvest Day is coming up soon. Did you think of anyone in particular this time around?" Every year, the second of the humans' biannual crops is healthy and huge through most settlements, so pretty much everything is sold in bulk, and everyone has extra money burning a hole in their pockets. As an (extremely) old tradition of thanking those non-existent gods for more than enough food to last through the winter months, humanity used their excess profit in the form of giving gifts and wishing each other an even greater next year about two months after the actual day of harvesting.

"Nope."

"That's right; you never do."

"I do!"

"Name one," he cockily told her. After a short pause to think, Marisa eventually came up with one.

"Alice!"

"The bodyguard doesn't count, squirt; she's family. Good try, though."