Adopting an Orphan

[Fenrir13]

It was a hot summer day near the city of Khum at the southern coast of the great continent. Young Phillipa was climbing a mountain in the wilderness sourrounding the city. The thirteen year old was determined to get to the top since she had heard rumors that phoenix nests could be found there. As an orphan she was Always Looking for ways to earn Money and the eggs of a phoenix could be sold t for a high Price at the market.
Of Course stealing from a phoenix was quite dangerous but Phillipa was sure it would be worth it. She didn´t like pickpocketing in the city anymore since last time she had been caught and beaten by the City guard.

With great effort she managed to get over a steep cliff and finally reached the top. Panting she looked around and was happy to find a large nest near her with eggs inside. Those had to be one of the pheonix Nests, she thought and smiled to herself. The mother bird seemed nowhere in sight luckily. She put the eggs inside her bag and then prepared her self for the climb back to the Bottom. Just then an Angry screeching could be heard. The pheonix had returned! Cursing Phillipa tried to flee downwards. but it was a Long way down, giving the bird lots of time to attack. Finally Phillipa lost her Footing and fell, luckily only About three metres.´before she hit the ground which knocked her unconscious.

[PirateLife]

Adrianos carefully approached the peak of the mountain. He knew from many years of diligent study that a phoenix could be a valuable ally and a terrible foe, especially when you were on their terrain. They rarely bothered humans that were not near their nest, and so most human deaths to phoenixes were a result of extreme lack of care or lack of respect shown to the phoenix.

Adrianos life had honestly become a bit empty in recent years, his sons were in the military often fighting in far away lands, and his wife had died a few years ago. The only thing that he really still had was his work, studying and teaching others about mythical creatures. He carried a simple bag with a few stimuli to observe how the phoenix might react to it, but suddenly he saw something more important than further research about phoenixes, he saw a girl fall down the mountain!

She couldn't be any older than 13 or 14 years old, and by the looks of her she had not grown up with many advantages. Her clothing was tattered and she was very scrawny. Adrianos quickly approached the girl and pulled out a small whistle which he blew that had a calming effect on certain creatures, including phoenixes. It looked like the phoenix was getting ready to make a finishing blow on the girl, although she appeared unconscious, but it slowed down as it heard the whistle.

Adrianos slowly approached the girl, and found the eggs in the bag next to her, and he thanked the gods that the eggs had not broken. He very slowly and carefully lifted the bag, and slowly emptied it a few meters away. The phoenix watched with a furious look, and he knew that he was putting his own life in danger by helping this girl, but he felt that he had little other choice. When he made sure that the eggs had been returned, he picked up the girl who had fallen, and slowly began to back up. The phoenix continued to glare, but did not pursue. Instead, once Adrianos and the girl he had saved were far enough away, she began to collect up the eggs and return it to her nest.

Adrianos held the girl in his arms... She would have a nasty bump on her head, but he did not believe her life to be in immediate danger. She was a foolish girl, but he did not believe that she was worthy of death. He began to carry her down the mountain to his house on the edge of town. It was a nice house, not the style of houses that a governor or senator had, but it was not a bad house for an academic such as himself.

[Fenrir13]

Phillipa remained unconscious for a while after her nasty fall. Finally she stirred in Adrianos arms, waking up. "Owww...my head.", she moaned and touched the spot where a large bump was developing. The girl slowly opened her eyes and noticed that someone was carrying her. "Huh? Who are you?", she asked, a bit confused. It felt weird to be carried by someone, but in a good way. When did someone ever care so much about her? Luckily she was rather light so Adrianos could carry her to his home easily. Phillipa was scrawny indeed, her skin was tanned from the many Hours she spent outside. She wore a simple White tunic that was rather short and sandals. Her black hair was tied into a small ponytail and she had rather beautiful amber eyes. The girl finally struggled a Little to get out of the scholars grasp. "Where is the pheonix? And the eggs?", Phillipa asked when she was back on her feet, still a little confused.

[PirateLife]

While Adrianos had been walking, he wondered what he should do with the girl. He surmised by her appearance that she was probably homeless, a girl mostly unvalued by society... but for the first time in years, he felt that he was doing something that really fulfilling by rescuing her.

He was glad to see that the girl was finally waking up. He frowned though as she mentioned the eggs. He replied to her, "That phoenix could have killed you, and very likely would have if I had not shown up when I did. I never recommend taking eggs from a phoenix, but those who do it always do it in teams. Even then sometimes some of them will die for their efforts. There was no way you'd ever make it all the way down that mountain without the phoenix finding you!"

Adrianos suddenly realized he'd been carrying this girl for quite a while, they were already down off the mountain and before long would be approaching his home, but he didn't even know her name. "Child, what is your name?"

[Fenrir13]

Phillipa listened to Adrianos lecturing her and lowered her head, feeling slightly ashamed by her own recklessnes. "I knew that it was dangerous but I had to try. If I had been able to sell one of These eggs on the market I would have had enough to eat for quite a while.", she explained and looked up again into the eyes of the man who rescued her. She really felt contrite for what she had done now. The girl should have at least brought some Kind of weapon to defend herself, maybe a sling, but even those cost Money. Mones she didn´t have.

Phillipa heard the man ask for her Name when she was back on her feet. "Phillipa. What´s yours?", she replied. "And don´t call me "child", she added with a bit of sass, since she didn´t like being called that, thinking that she was already very mature for her tender age. "Where are you bringing me?", the Young girl asked, still following the man that had rescued her for some reason she didn´t quite understand. Maybe it was gratefullness, Maybe it was a Feeling that she could trust him. And with a bit of luck she would even get a warm meal or something out of it. Not many People had been that generous to her, she thought. But perhaps this was her lucky day.

[PirateLife]

Adrianos cracked a small smile at this girl insisting she wasn't a child, but to him she was still small enough to be a child. He responded with a bit more levity than he had at first, "My name is Adrianos, and I am bringing you to my house, we'll be there soon. I should keep an eye on you for a few hours at least. You must have hit your head pretty hard back there. Do you have any family I ought to send for?"

He almost felt bad for hoping it, but he was feeling quite lonely and almost hoped that there would be no one nearby that she would have to leave with too quickly. Usually he wouldn't tolerate much disrespect from his charges, but for now he found something about the girl oddly charming. He would tolerate it... for a short time at least.

As he finished speaking they walked through a clearing of some trees and a house became visible. It was not the largest house around Khum, but it was certainly respectable. Five servants were scurrying about attending to a garden and assuring that the house was clean enough. The servants looked curiously at the girl their master was holding, but didn't immediately react other than to greet Adrianos.

[Fenrir13]

"Do I look like I have any family?", Phillipa said with a bitter smile as Adrianos asked if there was any family he could send for. "And yes, I hit my head pretty hard…", she added, stroking the back of her head where there was a bump now. The Young girl wasn´t sure how she felt about going to the mans house, a part of her was telling her that this was dangerous but she mostly just wanted a place to rest after her misadventure with the pheonix. If this turned out to be a bad idea she could always run, she was pretty good at that… most of the time at least.

When the house came in sight Phillipa was quite impressed. She hadn´t seen many large countryside houses since she was a city girl and this almost looked like a Palace to her. She was espacially impressed by the garden, something which she hadn´t seen in the crowded city of Khum. She whistled slightly and then looked at Adrianos. "This is your house?", she asked and then stuck out her tongue at one of the servants who had looked a Little too Long at her, then grinned at his surprised Expression.

[PirateLife]

Adrianos was pleased that Phillipa seemed pleased with his house. Of course, a girl like this probably could have been pleased with even less, but it was always good to help out the less fortunate. However, Adrianos was feeling a bit dismayed at the girl's attitude. He had risked his own life to save hers and she hadn't even said thank-you, and in fact had become rather rude. Of course he didn't expect that she'd be a refined lady ready to present to high society, but even the lower classes ought to have some manners.

When Phillipa stuck out her tongue at one of his servants, Adrianos couldn't let that slide. He was the master and his servants were servants, but he still personally knew all of his servants by and was never intentionally disrespectful of them, and if any of his sons behaved overtly disrespectfully toward a servant when they were younger, they'd be sitting on a sore bottom. He grabbed the backs of her knees while pulling her upper body against his and gave her clothed bottom a quick swat with his hand. It wasn't a hard spank, but it was enough for her to feel a little sting, and then he set her on her feet on the ground.

He said, "Phillipa, I don't want you to be disrespectful of me or my servants or worse than that could happen." He looked toward his servants and said, "This is Phillipa, I found her injured in the mountains, and she will be my guest. Chloe, please get Phillipa freshened up and get her a change of clothes. We will have dinner within the hour."

A woman in her 30s stepped forward and gestured toward the house as she looked at Phillipa.

[Fenrir13]

(Could you please describe how Adrianos looks in your next post?)

Phillipa was quite surprised when she suddenly got a swat on her clothed Bottom. Her eyes widened and she was speechless for a Moment. No one had ever tried to disciplin her in that manner. She had been beaten a couple of times, yes… but never spanked by someone who really cared about her. "H-hey!", she cried,"Don´t you touch me there!" The young girl covered her Bottom with both Hands and looked at Adrianos angrily. She then heard that "worse than this could happen" and wasn´t sure how to react. Her instincts were telling her to run, but her head told her that it would be much better to be a guest in this house so she didn´t move.

The girl calmed down a little when Adrianos said that he would indeed have her as a guest in his house. Suddenly she felt rather guilty about her initial mistrust and looked to the ground until Chloe approached her. She went with the Woman without protest Feeling safe for the first time.

[PirateLife]

(Right, sorry, thought I already had!)

Adrianos didn't usually apply punishments very often without at least a fair warning first, but he decided that his quick pop to Phillipa's bottom was fair because she seemed like the kind of girl who didn't correlate her own bad behavior to consequences very often, and it wasn't really a hard punishment yet.

Adrianos sighed as he went to his own room and splashed some clean water on his face. His hair wasn't terribly long, but it was a little bit curly, and his beard had gotten a bit of dirt and dust in it from the climb up and down the mountain, but he quickly washed up. His hair was a mixture of dark brown with some gray mixing in.

He wore an older bluish tunic to climb up the mountains, but he changed into a cleaner white tunic with a dark blue sash across it to eat dinner. Soon he was mostly washed up and ready to eat dinner, and his servants informed him that dinner would be served momentarily. He began to make his way to the dining room, hoping that Phillipa wasn't causing too many problems for Chloe. Chloe had her own children to take care of without having to worry about some adolescent causing problems!