Deep in the Coastal Forest of Ellemencia, nestled in between the vast expanse of pines and sea, rested the enchanting village of Vel Boru. The townsfolk were a people of tradition, and their grandest and oldest ritual was that of Cabbage Lagoon; a festival celebrating the transition from adolescence into adulthood. When the Vel Boruin Elders decided enough of the village’s young were prepared for this change, they would begin planning the grandiose festivities.

No elders or families of the adolescents would be in attendance, as this ritual was both trial and celebration for the Youth who are starting to change. Tonight, on Solstice Eve, the Cabbage Lagoon is set to take place. A masked figure stood on the edge of the immaculately decorated blue lagoon, looking on as the young folk of the town began arriving, cabbages affixed with candles and lanterns bobbing up and down hypnotically in the water. The mysterious silhouette faded into the treeline.

...

“Aww, but Pa, you said you’d let me go!” moaned Elsie, her face drenched in dramatic indignation.

She knew giving her Pa this kind of reaction would not yield her great results, yet she continued, “I must insist, I will be going to the Cabbage Lagoon. You already agreed, and I won’t take slimy backtracking on such an important night. This means everything to me! The Elders all agreed, I am ready!” She really let her voice crack on that last yell. Elsie’s fists were clenched and her head facing downward while barely peeking into her Pa’s eyes with a deathly stare.

Pa stood near the dimly lit hearth, barely moving as he stared directly at her. The bottoms of his eyelids raised along with his eyebrows, and she saw the debate raging in his mind about how he would react to her rebuttal. Cold sweats came over her as she realized the potential rage she may have unlocked, the likely explosion that he was about to hurl at her. Yet she had no need to fear, as he closed his eyes, stood tall, and clasped his hands behind his back.

“Elsie, you will be staying in your room for the remainder of the evening. There will be no discussion, persuasion, or negative attitude about my decision, which has been and will remain final. You neither deserve nor should expect any reasoning for my change of heart, however you may thank your lucky stars as you are about to get an explanation.” Pa turned towards the crackling hearth, and a ghastly look came over his gaunt and daunting face.

Elsie waited, terrified of what wicked fabrication Pa was about to divulge. Pa said nothing, and continued staring into the glowing embers, orange light shimmering over him. After waiting for a while, Elsie drew some water into the larder’s stone basin and scooped up two ceramic mugs worth of the pristine liquid. She brought one to Pa, and he motioned for her to set in beside him. She herself drank quickly and deeply, half in growing anticipation and half in icy fear.

“P-Pa… please, I know, I’m sorry, but tonight is-”

“Elsie, you will not be going to the Cabbage Lagoon because there will be no Cabbage Lagoon. In fact, the deed is likely occurring as we speak. These imbecile children are not worthy of my daughter. A foolish celebration where we let children amuse the idea that they become adults. I’ve been wondering how I could profit off of this pathetic village since we moved here, and I finally figured it out! Sell the most valuable working stock available to the slave traders, young and healthy adolescents on the verge of adulthood! I made enough coin to put us into a palace in the King’s Own City, just you wait my sweet Elsie.”

Elsie’s world was forever changed. The hard natured but loving Pa had just revealed himself to be a truly evil and black hearted villain. Her lips were quivering, her blank face too appalled to cry, air gasping quickly through her nostrils. She was tired and hot. She was losing it, and rightfully so. As anyone with a scrap of heart can tell you, slave traders and slave buyers are the lowest, dirtiest form of unempathetic shit-scum rats known to mankind.

She didn’t remember going to her room, but there she was, upstairs and sitting on the bed in agony of what just occurred. Her gorgeous red dress was tear stained, and dampening more the longer she dwelled on the extent of Pa’s dark heart. Elsie was so astoundingly upset that she missed the small pebble that tapped the window. She sat straight, hackles raised when she heard the second and third pebbles chipping the foggy glass. Elsie grabbed the antler bone knife from under her pillow, and quietly made her way to the window.

When she investigated the noise, she was very surprised to see a masked face looking at her through the window. It looked like a prawn in a hat with black spectacles shielding its identity. Elsie was mystified, standing still as the prawn slowly floated towards the second story bedroom, phasing through the glass as if nothing was there. Elsie fell back onto the bed, but was not frightened.

“Hello there, many thanks for letting me in. Very nice knife, although you won’t need it, I am here to rescue you. My name is Prellis, and please don’t mind the mask and glasses, but I must keep my identity secret. I’m sure you can tell, but I’m a prawn, or perhaps your folk would call me a shrimp? Either way, there is not much time, and by the look of your tears, you already know your father’s intentions. Do you consent to a free teleportation to the outside? I’d prefer if you didn’t have to climb down,” said Prellis, gently and full of comfort.

After everything that had happened with Pa, Elsie felt more comfortable with trusting the floating shrimp than staying here for another minute, so she consented and was instantly in the treeline looking towards her home. “Hello, right behind you, don’t want to startle you,” said another masked figure, this one being human rather than prawn.

Elsie turned to see a man in a green coat, wearing a similar hat, mask, and shady spectacles to the ones Prellis was wearing. “The name is Jervin, and I see you’ve already met Prellis. We are both members of the Daxon Woodsmen, and regrettably, we are here because of your father’s deeds,” Jervin said solemnly.

“How, did you, do you know what he is planning, we may already-” Elsie was cut off mid sentence.

“Your friends and fellow villagers have been saved. My fellow Woodsmen sentinels surrounded the lagoon, and the slave traders were handily dealt with. The festivities will commence safely with none the wiser. You, however, will need to come with us. We are going to dispatch your father, and you will need to work off the debt of his sins. Think of it as your own ‘coming of age’ story, without the lagoon,” said Jervin, in a voice not intimidating but clearly serious.

Elsie was numb, but not dumb. She knew who the Daxon Woodsmen were, a noble and ragtag group of rogues, ex-soldiers, and good hearted fellows who roamed the land protecting the innocent and stopping injustices. This wouldn’t be too bad, and she was actually feeling excited about joining the gang and stopping evil men like her Pa. She turned to the floating prawn. “Prellis, I thank you for taking me from that horrible home, and I will be happy to serve the Woodsmen by any means necessary. But first, let's talk about your magical powers, and if we can use them against the man I used to call Pa…”

...

Pa was pacing inside the living room, sword on his belt, frothing at the mouth at the thought of the payment the slave traders would soon be bringing him. He didn’t care much for Elsie, and decided to keep her only for the value she may bring in the King’s Own City, if he could marry her off and join houses with a landholding lord. His eyes bulged with delight at the thought of having a Ladylord as a daughter, and the benefits it could bring him.

Pa walked to the front window and looked out, surprised that an alarm hadn’t been raised yet. He squinted his eyes and tried to see any signs of destruction, but his vision had been giving him trouble lately. Suddenly, he felt an intense knot in his belly, unlike anything he’d ever felt before. He tried to dash to the chamber pot, but it was too late. Pa filled his pants with a scalding wheat colored oatmeal, falling to the floor as unimagined amounts of the thick sauce poured out of his clothing. Pa was not one to be shamed, and quickly began cleaning himself in case Elsie came downstairs for any reason.

And then she appeared right before his eyes, flanked by a floating prawn and masked man. He reached for a blanket and covered his messy shame, but the shrimp’s spectacles glimmered and the blanket disappeared. The spectacles glimmered again and a yellow river flowed from Pa’s trousers. His face was red with deep shame, and his teeth were clenched with anger. Pa struggled to pull his sword from its hilt, and swang it wildly from his pile on the floor, but Prellis easily turned it into a damp washcloth. “Clean yourself with that,” Prellis said through giddy laughter.

The three Daxon Woodsmen; Elsie, Jervin, and Prellis, stood above him, both physically and honorably. They laughed at the disgusting sight, Elsie laughing the hardest. “I should have known you’d try to profit on another person’s life, you miserable man. I’ve despised living with you all of these years, and if I didn’t have the guilt of mom’s love for you hanging over my head, I would have run away long ago. Now that you’ve shown your true colors, I have no guilt in the slightest in laughing at your miserable existence, and mother is laughing with me. You’re done, Pa, and I will continue my life stopping people like you with these noble Daxons, the same men and women that you’ve rambled obscenities about all of my life. So goodbye, Pa, I’m sorry you won’t get to visit the King’s Own City as you’ve always dreamed.” Elsie spoke, her mouth filled with bile.

The three Daxons turned away, and more oatmeal spilled from Pa as he yelled wildly. “NOOOO! GET BACK HERE YOU HEATHEN WITCH! YOU MIS-”

And that was that, the three were teleported outside, and Jervin snapped his fingers twice. Prellis angled into a triangle shape and wrapped around Jervin’s wrist, and a white beam blasted from his hand into Pa’s home, immediately demolishing the building in an explosion of bright light. It was over, and Pa could no longer emotionally abuse the world and the people in it. Elsie wrapped her arms in a hug around Prellis, and Jervin patted her back in solidarity. “You’re one of us now,” Jervin said jovially.

When Elsie arrived at the Daxon Woodsmen’s forest hideout, she was introduced to the other freedom fighters one by one, and she had never felt more accepted and loved, a new family to replace the old. She was given a mask, black spectacles, and her own big hat, the de facto uniform of the Woodsmen. “Jervin, Prellis, I can’t thank you enough. I am ready to take down anyone who oppresses the innocent, please, what is my first mission!?”

Prellis and Jervin looked at each other, then looked back at Elsie. “Well Elsie, as excited as we are to have you on the team, we mentioned that you’d need to pay off your father’s debt to society. You won’t be going on any missions, at least for the first few years. Your job will be to clean up after the horses.” Jervin said, in a cold tone.