134 Charity

" Yuki you are not going to like this" Sora said with a sad look on his face.

" It seems like your father was rescued by Ren four years ago. Since your father returned he found out that both you and your mother were missing. So both he and Ren abandoned their posts to look for you." Kibbles added.

" Now they are considered traitors," Sora said flatly.

" Ridiculous!" Nathan said angrily.

The sun was breaking the horizon and began to set. I took in a deep breath and focused on my wood magic calming the beat of my heart.

" Right… So they are both safe for now then.. Thank the heavens" I said after a moment.

Everyone looked at me and nodded except for Nathan who had been clenching his fist the entire time.

" I am sorry Yuki," Nathan said sheepishly.

" It's not your fault," I responded calmly.

" Just that stupid family of yours," Loki said shaking his head.

" Right did you find out what you could do to help these people?" Undine said before a fight broke out.

" Yeah the plan is to..." Heyu said as he began to recite what we came up with.

There was a series of nods and some input before we all came to an agreement. We would wait till dark and find a patch of soil in the poorest area to plant some crops.

Nathan and I would work together to not only grow some vegetables which we could leave on peoples doorsteps but plant some bushes in each corner of the town to deter spirit beasts from wandering around.

The plant we were going to use was discovered after Kibbles had almost vomited in Aurum. Humans couldn't smell it but according to Kibbles and Undine, it had a smell of rotten eggs that had been left in the sun for three days.

We had named it nicknamed it vomit brush and had playfully chased Kibbles around for the rest of the day with it.

Thinking back to that day I was glad I had collected some seeds.

It had finally come in handy.

We had all used some stealth techniques to make our way to the slums. It was best not to catch the guards attention. If they knew what we were doing it would raise more questions then we could be bothered answering.

Once we had made it there we saw a few people in an alley was crouched around a fire there stomaches rumbling.

" Spare any copper?" A homeless man said as he held out his hand.

" If you keep an eye out for guards we will give you several coppers," Sora said to the man.

"You're not dumping a body, are you? This is our home after all." The man said with an eyebrow raised.

" No body and nothing illegal," Heyu said frowning.

" If you say so, can you help the rest of them out too?" the homeless man said as he pointed to the rest of the homeless people.

There were only six of them so we nodded.

" We just need a place with a lot of soil and no guards," I said quietly.

" are you sure.." The homeless man said before he was cut off.

" We are just doing some gardening," Nathan said mildly irritated.

" Right Little Po will take you to a good spot." The homeless man said as he pointed to a young boy.

We went to follow the young boy before we were stopped by a pair of hands.

" It's not like I don't believe you but these are some troubled times," The homeless man said shaking his head.

I paid him three coppers and gave him enough to give everyone around three coppers. The man used his teeth to check if it was real before smiling.

" A pleasure doing business with you hooded folks." He said before the child known as little Po pointed his finger and marched a further into the alleyway. It wasn't long before we found the patch the man had spoken about.

Po stood there silently.

" Thanks, kid" Heyu said before he summoned some small golems.

" Woahh," the kid said shocked as the golems began to plough the earth.

Nathan not to be shown up summoned a small cloud that rained on the soil making it nice and soft.

I then pretended to reach into my pocket as I summoned some seeds and spread them in the soil.

" Growth," I said silently as I willed them to grow.

They started to crack through the ground before turning into saplings and after a cup of teas time, fresh vegetables had grown.

" You really were gardening…" Little Po said wide-eyed.

Loki walked over to the small field and picked up a spirit root which looked a lot like a potato but had a purple colour and handed it to the boy.

" We need to leave a few of these on each doorstep… Do you want to help?" Loki said as he patted the boy on the head.

The boy stared at the root and licked his lips daring not to touch it.

It had probably been several days since he had eaten.

" It's alright you can take your fill first," Sora said nodding.

Loki looked at the root then and Kibbles and threw it at him.

Kibbles caught it before his hands burned red the Spirit root cooking rather quickly. He then walked up to the boy and handed it over.

" Eat up," Kibbles said cheerily.

That was all the boy needed as the smell of cooked spirit root entered his nose. He took a small bite before biting again and again. He reminded me of a small hamster as he shoved the food in his cheeks.

" It's okay no one will steal it from you," Undine said flatly.

We all giggled before we started the process again.

We had grown many different vegetables. The wood magic had contained enough minerals to be able to plan again and again in the same spot.

Sweat dripped on my forehead as more and more magic was used.

It wasn't long until we had a pile.

" Little Po whats taking so.." said the voice of the old man from earlier.

The homeless man greedily eyed the pile of food before shaking his head. He put on a professional smile and walked up to the boy.

" I hope he hasn't caused any trouble," The man said as he wiped off a piece of cooked vegetable from Little Po's mouth.

" No he had been very helpful," Nathan said with a nod.

" They said.. They said they are giving this food to everyone" Little Po said beaming.

" Is that right?" The man said affectionately to the boy.

One after another more and more homeless people came in one by one. We handed them each some cooked vegetables. Some even had tears in their eyes as they ate.

" It's not much.. But it is all we can do" I said quietly.

" It's more than enough.. Thank you stranger!" a homeless woman said as she grabbed my hand. Her eyes were less dead than when I had first seen her.

" What do you plan to do with the rest?" Little Po said.

" Well, you can all take as much as you can carry. Then if you can leave the rest on everyone's doorsteps we can pay you extra" Nathan said quietly.

" We can't take your gold but we will hand it out," The homeless man said as he grabbed some vegetables using his clothing as a bag.

Each and everyone, in turn, did the same.

We all took turns leaving food on each doorstep and just before the sun had risen we had finished. When it was time to say goodbye we waved heartily at the ones who had helped us.

We snuck away using the rooftops before people had awoken. What we didn't know then was that the people who had risen to find food on their doorstep all thought a miracle had occurred. Every year on the same day since then they would leave vegetables for each other as well as the homeless populous.

But that is a story for another time.

We were exhausted. We split up and left the vomit brush in all four corners of the town before finally leaving. With map in hand, we had found the direction we needed to go in. We were about a month from the capital by foot.

We decided to find a place to rest our weary heads before heading towards the next town. We hoped they would be a little better off. If we could find a carriage a month would be cut down by half.

With a new plan, we headed in the direction of the rising sun feelings mixed but spirits high.

[ Father.. Ren... We are coming! ]