the hidden quirkless Village

a week later

It has been a week, and as the days go by, I am more thankful for the jackets that we have made.

The days seemed shorter, and the cold was more noticeable now. Papa has been teaching us at the camp as fruits and veggies don't grow for now. We will have to wait. Mimi has started to teach us how to fight, even helping us learn to spar. The hunters took a small group of us little ones to teach us to track.

That's where I am now. We were tracking a deer. They told us tricks on how to identify tracks of animals to help us. They explained the patterns of animals and how they travel. It was fun. We saw a lot of animals as we tracked the deer.

After a few hours, we were walking home, as it was lunch and we needed to eat. We were thankful that we kept a lot of meat to the side so we could eat. It also helped that the other hunters, the ones who weren't teaching us today, caught some more meat for us.

Another thing I noticed as we sat by the fire to keep warm and to keep an eye on our food was that we all started to have really tan skin from being outside all day for the past few months, our hair is also getting longer. My hair is now to my shoulders.

Our food was soon ready, we were by a river that was clean so we had something to drink as we ate. We found 4 more quirkless, 2 boys and 2 girls. The oldest was Kye, then Kiva, then lastly, the twins Oli and Ally. So in total now, we have 31 people in our valley. I am glad that we are helping more and more people.

I see Papa talking to them, I could hear him explaining things they were still confused about. The forts now look like small homes, comfortable, but not big enough to be noticed or easily spotted. They were nice, though, and kept us dry and warm.

I finish my food and my water. I like the rhythm here, but I do miss Kacchan. I didn't get to tell him bye, I hope he becomes a hero like he wanted. He had a great quirk. I wish I could figure it out more, but for now, I need to focus on learning about the valley and how to survive as we quirkless grow.

I breathed in a bit, I was still getting used to the air without the smell of smoke or gas. I like the air in the valley, it's clean. I heard Mimi call for our attention. She was with Papa. Papa started talking, "we are happy about your determination to learn, my little ones, because of your willingness and determination to learn, we know we will be more safe as the days pass. I can't wait for you all to grow into amazing adults and teach others little ones how to live here. " The other little kids and I smiled, happy that Papa was happy with us.

Mimi took over. "You all are learning really fast and show a talent for at least one of what you are taught. Which is very good. It means we can have mentors as the days pass. We know we will be safe when you join us, whether you gather and study plants with the gatherers. hunting and tracking with the hunters. Or patrolling and protecting with the lookouts. Maybe even in two of them at the same time, " she looked at Papa." We know you will keep us safe when you are old enough, too, so we thank you, " Mimi and Papa said together. Us little kids smiled more, happy they believed in us and are proud of us.

After Papa, Mimi, and some of the hunters spoke, saying how proud they were, we were all very happy. We were all basically done eating at this point. Mimi and some of the patrolers want to go look out for danger and those who need help, like they always did. The rest of us helped put things away and sat as Papa wanted to tell us a story. The story was of an adventure that never really stayed in one place but knew what was happening and helped others with that knowledge.

We played for an hour or two before it was sparing lessons, and since Mimi was on patrol, we had another one teach us. They told us about why it's important to be able to change your style of fighting mid-fight. They helped us practice some moves, giving pointers on how to get better on one's we had trouble with. This went on until dinner, and us little kids being us, we kept practicing until we were called to get our food.

We put the fresh catch with the rest and get some that we already had in there to cook. We ate and asked the new ones to join random questions. It was really fun. We got to learn a bit about all four of them. Kye liked animals and could tell if they were dangerous or not. Kiva loved the rain, and she found it calming. Oli liked the day while Ally liked the night, and neither liked to be separated.

We all soon got done eating and helped clean what was able to be cleaned. A hunter took the bones that needed to be disposed of so no dangerous animals came here at night. We got that done, and it was time to go to sleep. I got ready and laid on my bed, or nest as I started to call it, and waited to hear Papa sing the lullaby as he walked past our little shelters.

"Sleep, my little ones, the day has passed, you have made us proud. Each day you learn something new… sleep, my little ones, as time passes, you save more and more… Sleep now, my little ones, may you rest until the light of a new day." Those were the last things, mixed with nature, that I heard as I fell asleep, ready for tomorrow.