His Daughter

Chapter 3 - Teacher Kai - 1999

Day 13, Prison World - 1994
Real World - 1999
3rd POV

She followed him cautiously out to the kitchen while trying to stay a safe distance away from him in case she needs to run away quickly.

Kai looks at her and wrinkles his nose in disgust "You're going to have to take a bath or something kid, you stink."

Sally pouts and starts to shift on her feet uncomfortably "Am I allowed to?" She asks him in a little voice.

At those words he feels red hot rage, holding down his need to break and kill something he asks her as calmly as he can "Your grandpa didn't let you take a bath?"

She shifts uncomfortably again while looking at the floor and shakes her head "He said I was dirty girl and dirty girls don't get to stay very clean."

Kai clenches his fists in anger and then takes a deep breath, he wants to kill someone very badly right now. But if he did then he'd lose that little girls trust and he currently needs that. Especially if she is his daughter, he's so sure that she's his. She looks like her, the woman he loved and like the girl also looks like him.

"Do you know how to run the bathtub or the shower?" He asks her as neutrally as he can.

He's going to kill his father, first he'll take the damn title and then he is going to gut his father and feed him his intestines.

Sally nods carefully as she looks at him, she's ready to bolt. Is she safe here? What if she gets hurt? She's scared, how can she not be scared when he looks like grandpa?

"Why do you look like grandpa?" She asks him with a frown.

Kai hums in response as he thinks of an answer to give her, a believable one. "Because . . your Grandpa is my Father."

Her eyes go wide in terror and her mind begins trying find ways to escape when she feels his hand gently rub her back. His face is uncomfortable though as he makes shushing sounds. That's when she notices that tears were streaming down her face and that she was screaming.

She didn't notice that she screamed, not that she tried to run he noticed. He'll admit that he didn't expect this reaction, although she's only five right now, so perhaps he should've expected this from a young traumatized child.  He holds her gently while he awkwardly rubs her back until she stops.

Perhaps he's more surprised that he doesn't have the urge to kill her for her outburst, most others he would. But she's his daughter, the feeling and need to protect is there.

When she finally stops crying and freaking out she doesn't move away from him. Shakily she asks him with a murmur "Re ya gonna kill me?"

He almost snorts but instead he shakes his head and shifts her unto his lap gently, god he's being gentle. "Oh no little one. I'm going to teach you how to protect yourself and we're going to study magic. We'll get out of here someday."

With a frown Sally looks at him and narrows her eyes, in a small voice she asks "really?"

Malachi nods seriously while staring at her in his arms,"You don't want anyone to be able to hurt you again right Munchkin?"

Her eyes narrow too and in that moment he almost laughs, she looks exactly like her mother. Sally nods just as seriously as him even though she is admittedly suspicious since he's related to her grandpa. How will he tell her that he's her father? After he does a test for certainly perhaps?

"Come on little Munchkin" he says as he helps her stand up and he grabs her hand as they walk to the door. She follows him along, still cautious but with her little head high.

Day 23, Prison World -1994
Real World - 1999
3rd POV

Kai has been carefully teaching her how to fight and channel her magic. While he knows that she is a siphon he also know that she couldn't have gotten here without some of her own magic to begin with.

When he knocks her down again she pouts all cute like and lays down on the ground, he almost laughs. He wants to laugh, but right now this is important for her to learn. "Up Sally"

Grumbling Sally gets back onto her little feet and gets back into a fighting stance, no arguments. At least not yet, he has to admit for a little girl she's incredibly resilient.

Then they're back to practicing, again he knocks her down and perhaps if it was the first day of this she'd be pouting about being tired and wanting to whine. But they've been doing this for a week now, each day she's been able to practice a little bit longer.

By the time she tired out to much they'd been practicing for about three hours. "I'm tired" she says as she lays on the ground, her limbs spread out dramatically around her.

He snorts in response and then nods, a smile twitching on his lips. "I see that. You did alright today kid."

"Can we learn magic now?" She asks as she sits up energetically, practically bouncing as she tries to wobbly stand.

He doesn't help her to do so, he wants her to be independent and to be strong. If he coddles her then he fears she won't be able to handle things on her own if necessary. When she needs it he will offer comfort, she she's sad he will try to cheer her up. Malachi knows that she's still a kid, but she'll need to be tough. As a siphon of sorts the world is already against her.

"Yes, yes we can little one." He mumbles as he pats her on the head causing her to frown when she stands.

Sally follows him into another room where he has a few old but large looking books sat out, he lets her grab his hand as she looks at the books in wonder even though she only knows very simple words.

"Now, I'm going to teach you how to read, how to write and a few different languages. Okay Sally?"

"Okay," she shifts uncomfortably while looking at the floor, "will you hurt me if I do bad?"

Kai sighs softly and looks at her carefully as if assessing her, he is assessing her. "No, I may get very angry. But I won't hurt you or call you names."

Day 50, Prison World - 1994
Real World - 1999
3rd POV

She's a bit slower at picking up words then he'd like her to be. But he's been doing his best to be patient with her. While he understands that it has to do with her not being taught early on its hard for him to not express his anger or irritation.

During their physical training she does very well in the physical aspect of things. Finding a diet that is healthy for her was also a challenge since he wanted to let her have anything. Quickly he found that wasn't going to work when she got a very bad tummy ache.

Sally also has an aptitude for learning magic despite her being unable to read, he has also noticed that she is more then just a regular siphon. He wasn't positive about it at first but now he is. She seems to be a mixture of a siphon and one with natural magic.

His guess is that since her mother wasn't a siphon but he was, it may have given her different abilities. Often siphons are killed for being abominations so they've never heard of a mixed witch before.

Kai covers his small smile as she chases after butterflies through the town that they're currently in. There have not been anymore disturbances since she arrived. Her laugh makes him want to smile even if he tries to hide it.

How she can be so cheerful after suffering like she has he doesn't know, but he silently hopes that he can learn to be a bit more cheerful with her. Sally is growing on him, he finds her pleasant. But then, she is his daughter. He took some of her blood while she was sleeping to confirm it. She didn't even wake up.