Disclaimer: Namco owns ToS and its contents. I own nothing.
AN: Okay, age 5 is here. Yeah, I've done short chapters so far, but please deal with me as I am really busy with my social life... I'll probably make the future chapters longer since Lloyd is growing up and I'll be able to portray him better. So now you can expect a bit long chapters around age 13 or so... until then, they'll be quite brief, sadly.
"Breakfast, Lloyd!" Dirk called, hoping that the child would get up without the dwarf having to march up the stairs to unceremoniously drag Lloyd down and wake him up.
Sadly, such wish was a mere dream to Dirk--Lloyd never woke up around early morning unless someone grabbed him off the bed. It was like tradition and a daily routine for the 5 year-old child had found it hard to sleep at night since he was often distraught by the stars up in the dark night... they were appealing to the boy. He would often ramble on about them and the dwarf always listened intently, noticing some things he never had such as when Lloyd had explained that there was a particularly bright and large star in the middle of all the others. Odd, Dirk had never realized a star of such description; all the ones he had seen were small and almost dull in some angles. Ever since he was told this Dirk had gone outside to search for such star and did not see one like it. He was beginning to worry Lloyd was seeing things.
"Agh, that lad...," Shaking his head, Dirk went up the stairs to approach Lloyd, who was still sound asleep in his room.
The dwarf went up to Lloyd's bed and placed a rough hand on the child's shoulders in attempt to shake him awake. Strangely, although this tactic usually worked it didn't this time. Scowling, Dirk turned Lloyd flat on his bed who had been sleeping on his side up until that moment. Kneeling down onto the floor slightly, the dwarf adjusted the height level to whisper into the child's ears.
"Breakfast, Lloyd," He repeated from earlier, also mentioning what they were having, "because it's pretty late already, brunch is dried meat." Lloyd's eyes immediately flew open.
"Meat?!" He exclaimed, shooting up from his bed as he quickly began to dress after Dirk had turned away. As much as the boy liked to eat, he loved meat just as much.
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After Lloyd had finished adorning himself with clothes in record speed, the two were seated across each other on a wooden table, The child's miniature one had been scrapped after Lloyd had long outgrown it during the past year. Thanks to eating healthy food and going to bed early constantly, Lloyd was a very tall child for his age for he would easily be able to look straight across in the eyes with a 7 year-old. However, unlike most overly tall children, Lloyd didn't look too scrawny as if he had been stretched into his current height. At seeing Lloyd growing bigger and bigger everyday, Dirk had secretly wished that dwarves could've grown taller than they usually were; vertically challenged.
"Tish ishm guuewd." Lloyd spoke with a stuffed mouth, causing Dirk to almost turn away to not see the devoured food in it.
"Lloyd," he started, "speak after you swallow." This was also a constant reminder...
However, the child, being not as bright as he was most of the time, merely nodded, "Moookay." Dirk held back a sigh.
As this had gone on constantly, Dirk had pressed himself about the matter of sending Lloyd to school. However, taking into account that Lloyd's mind was rather blank unlike most kids his age, he had decided to hold on that decision. Only a few weeks ago did Dirk decide to send Lloyd out to school in Iselia once he turned six years-old and was more mature than he was now. Dirk, however, did not feel a bit comfortable on sending the child to school for Lloyd had never been to Iselia or even leave the forest, for that matter. Dirk would be too busy to keep escorting Lloyd back and forth once that time came, so he truly did have reason to fret... after all, a chlid of six would be walking around a dangerous forest by himself, especially with the Iselia Ranch nearby and all. Not only that, Dirk had not consulted Lloyd of education yet...
"Lloyd," Dirk started, catching the boy's attention quickly, "how do you feel about being educated?"
Said child cocked his head to the side, "Edd... yu... ka... shion?"
The dwarf let out a chuckle, "No, no," he repeated it slowly, "education."
"Edu... cation..." Lloyd tipped his head again, "What's that?"
"Well... I'm planning you sending you to a place where you can be educated. You'll get smart that way, Lloyd."
"So... I'm going to education?" The boy's big eyes were looking into Dirk's, unsure of exactly what his father was talking about.
Dirk nearly fell out of his chair from, well... such stupidity as one would put it although it was reasonable considering Lloyd was still only a young child who had merely been living with someone isolated. And besides, that someone happened to be not too well-educated. Dirk was reasonably knowledgeable, but not too intelligent like the teacher at Iselia's school.
The dwarf had met the teacher once, and noticed that Dirk had found the professor's presence rather uncomfortable. He was always giving off a rude glare at everyone including the children and seemed to demand respect from everyone. It didn't help the fact that he was one of the only ones capable of teaching properly, so the others were stuck with him as the teacher... This was one reason Dirk had decided to hold Lloyd back until the latest he was able; he had hoped that during those years, another professor--a much more decent and dignified one--would take over and do a certainly better job. The current one would simply make Lloyd irritated to the point he'd most likely not want to go back to school after the first day.
"No, Lloyd," Dirk held back a sigh, "School. That's where you learn education. Education is...," he paused to think for a moment, "how smart you can get depending on how much of it you get."
Lloyd brushed the conversation away, "Oh, okay." He didn't really seem to get it... at least it wasn't time for him yet, in a way.
Before anything else was able to be said, Dirk had noticed that Lloyd's plate had been all cleaned out. He was still awed at how the child was able to shove everything into his mouth without choking, especially if they were big chunks of meat. He was just... "unique", it seemed. And although he ate even more than Noishe, an animal, his metabolism always worked extremely well, something dwarves weren't exactly blessed with.
And speaking of Noishe... the dog had recovered from the injury it had sustained in the past. Of course, Dirk wasn't sure whether Noishe was a dog or not, but that was the closest he was able to predict him to be. Noishe, unlike Lloyd, had taken much longer to warm up to the dwarf no matter what he had done. Not only that, he seemed even to be terrified of any kind of monsters and such; a rabbit monster had even scared him, for Goddess's sake! As such, Noishe was always confined voluntarily to the stables where he was fed and slept with comfort. The dog rarely came out of his den, even if it was a good weather and nice.
Dirk was snapped back into reality as Lloyd began to nag about something the dwarf somewhat disapproved, "Can I ride Noishe today?"
His answer was simple, "No."
"Why not?" Lloyd had furrowed his brows slightly, trying to make out an infuriated expression.
"It's still too dangerous for you to be riding Noishe all by yourself out in the wilderness," Sadly, Dirk knew that safety was something Lloyd didn't ponder too much on about.
"I won't fall off of him!" Lloyd exclaimed, hoping that those mere words would convince his father that he was already a man and capable of doing things that normal children his age wouldn't be able to. Dirk knew better than that, however.
"No. Until you start learning how to defend yourself from the monsters in the forest, I won't allow it."
The boy began to shift uncomfortably in his chair and then finally decided to jump off and go up the stairs, "Fine, fine. Okay, I'll stay and watch the stars..." Dirk had felt rather down after hearing such a depressing tone from the child, but it had been necessary. Lloyd needed to learn to value his life furthermore, he had noted.
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Dirk had simply been sitting beside Noishe in the stable, unsure of how to approach Lloyd. The child had locked the door to his room to start throwing a fit by himself. It seemed that no matter what the circumstances, Lloyd had always made sure to keep his pride intact. Noishe also seemed to be completely ignoring Dirk as the dog paced back and forth in the stable, almost as if he was impatiently waiting for the dwarf to leave.
It was not a good day for Dirk. It was already night, and he couldn't even apologize to his own son whose naivete seemed to surpass any other children of his age. Sighing, Dirk lightly dug a foot into the ground to free some stress, only to frighten Noishe away deeper in the corner of his stable. Shaking his head, the dwarf got up from the spot he had been sitting in the stable and left to finally consult Lloyd first handedly.
... I'll be needing to teach Lloyd self-defense sooner than I thought.
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When the dwarf had knocked on the boy's door lightly, no reply came. He knocked louder this time, and still nothing came to greet him. Silently sighing, Dirk attempted to turn the knob to discover that Lloyd had unlocked it some time ago. Dirk slowly opened the door just in case Lloyd had fallen asleep (he had made the boy unlock his door whenever he was about to sleep so that Dirk could wake him up in the next morning and such), only to peek out and see that the boy's bed had still been untouched. In alarm and panick, the dwarf almost threw down the door as he stepped towards the middle of the room to see that Lloyd had not been kidnapped or anything of the sort; the boy was staring out into the night where the stars were shining brightly.
"Lloyd," Dirk called out, earning the boy's attention.
"Oh, Dad! Come check this out!" He began to point wildly at the sky, unable to control his excitement over something Dirk had no idea of. And apparently, he had forgotten all about the issues of not being able to ride Noishe... it was like him, considering he was still a forgetful child and all.
Nonetheless, the dwarf obliged and stepped into the balcony where Lloyd had been leaning onto the railing. When Dirk stopped at Lloyd's left side and looked at him waiting for furthermore instructions, the boy began to point to a spot in the darkness again.
"There." He said proudly, a huge grin plastered on his face.
Dirk looked at the spot Lloyd had pointed at. After blinking several times, the dwarf realized that there was nothing in the dark sky where the boy had pointed at. Maybe Lloyd truly was hallucinating... Dirk began to grow concerned again.
However, when the elder of the two males turned to look down at the lad, Lloyd simply shook his head and continued to point on, "Keep looking. It'll appear around... now!"
Just as the boy said this, the spot Lloyd had pointed at began to glow and a huge star became visible. Well, at least, it was bigger than all the other stars in the sky that Dirk recognized. Although, the dwarf was unfamiliar with this particular one Lloyd had pointed out. He had never seen it... Perhaps this was the star Lloyd had kept on mentioning as the days had passed...
Lloyd spoke almost as if he had read Dirk's mind which scared the wits out of the dwarf, "That's the star I was telling you about! Doesn't it look great?"
Dirk only nodded, astonished. The star glowed with a ray that showered Lloyd and his cheeks, giving them a source of light. It was appealing, and calmed the dwarf, helping him relax. Odd, he had never felt such a thing coming from a mere star that just happened to be bigger than the rest... But then again, this star had never appeared until Lloyd had mentioned it three years ago-...
Oh. Three years ago... When Anna had died...
Dirk quickly turned to Lloyd and motioned to the bed, "Time to sleep, Lloyd. It's late."
Lloyd groaned, not wanting to sleep just yet, but soon did as he was told. Snuggled up in the warm sheets, the child fell asleep quickly. As that was occuring, Dirk was about to leave the room when he looked back up at the star that had recently appeared three years ago after Anna's death.
"Watch over Lloyd tonight for me, Anna." He whispered, gently closing the door as Lloyd slept on, unaware of the words the dwarf had spoken...
AN: Oh my goodness, this was a corny ending for age 5. Aw well, I ran out of ids considering really young characters around this age are sort of hard to make stories out of. I actually updated this chapter a day earlier than it was normally supposed to be published but judging from what I'll be doing tomorrow and such, I think I won't be able to. But chapter 3 will still be up in two weeks as if it had been updated tomorrow--Wednesday. You can check my profile to see the time the next chapter is due. Other than that, review if you have any comments (this doesn't include flames!) and adios!