A Serpent's Tale
Chapter 236: The Orphan

Chapter 236: The Orphan

When I got back to the reception, there was a small wait as there was someone else at the front desk and a different couple, two females, one Lamia and one Naga, likely to adopt given how lovey-dovey they seem together.

I sat on the chaise next to the couple to wait my turn. They turned to look at me before returning to their conversation about adopting someone. Which makes sense, considering they can’t conceive a child on their own.

Anyways, the person at the front desk, a somewhat short female Lamia, finished talking and came back with some paperwork that I was familiar with.

Adoption forms.

Seems that she’s in a similar position to me from what I can tell. Maybe not the exact same circumstances, but she’s looking to become part of the orphanage like I am.

I then proceeded to ignore her since I had no reason to talk to her and just went back to waiting for my turn to go up to the receptionist and inquire about the status of my admission.

But then I felt the girl looking at me with a pleading gaze. I turned to look at her and saw that she was tightly gripping the form that she had to fill out whilst looking up at me with her imploring gaze.

"C-Can you help? Please... I don’t know what to do here..." She pleaded once more.

And as she spoke, I noticed something, this wasn’t a Lamia at all, this was a Naga who had her fang snapped off. I could tell from the fact that there were small imprints of them on her lower lip, That and the fact that I could clearly see scars from what remained.

Someone clearly did the cruellest thing with them by shattering them off and leaving her to deal with the sharp and jagged stumps left behind.

Now that I think about it, her speech was also rather slow and calculated if a bit strange, and that must be her trying not to cut herself with what’s left of her fangs.

And out of sympathy, I decided to help her out.

"Sure, what do you need help with?"

"I... I- I..." She stuttered repeatedly, struggling to ask me whatever it was that she wanted to ask of me.

"I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what it is you want help with." I said with a stern yet gentle tone. Hopefully using just enough of both to make her understand that I’m trying to help and to actually make her tell me what she wants help with.

It might not be the best method, but I don’t really know how to socialise all that well, given how much of my life has been spent alone.

Either way, my method seemed to work this time as despite the fact that my harsh tone caused her to slink back slightly, and hide her face behind the form papers as she turned her gaze to the side.

"I... Can’t write..."

"..."

"Or read..."

"..."

There was a slight awkward silence before I reached out and grabbed the papers in the little girl’s hands.

"Alright, I’ll help you out with the forms, but why didn’t you ask the receptionist for help?"

"I... Didn’t want to keep those two waiting... I’d already been up there for a long time... a couple hours maybe..." She Explained meekly.

"I see... Well, lets ignore that and get on with filling your form out, okay?" I said with a somewhat cheery attitude, trying to bring the atmosphere between us up.

"Okay..." she responded with a hint of gloominess.

"First of all, what is your name?" I asked, trying to get away from this negative atmosphere as it was starting to make me uncomfortable.

"I wasn’t given a name, but I remember my father calling me a wretched spawn a lot." She answered with zero expression, as if she didn’t see what was wrong with that.

Then again, from what I can gather, she wasn’t ever taught anything and had to learn herself, so she probably never learned that that was bad. She’s aware of physical abuse because she can correlate that with pain, but not mental assaults.

"Okay... I’ll just leave that blank for now. What about your age and date of birth? Please don’t tell me you don’t know them either"

"I know! Some of it..." She rebuked with a put before answering, "I know that I’m about forty-seven and was born during the month of Faedrion... I think..."

I just stared at the little girl for a few seconds before shaking my head and putting down her information. At least she knew some of it.

I then asked her about some of the other things until we came to a question that would probably be unsettling for her.

"What was the reason you came here?" I asked that question slowly as the pitch of my voice dipped as I spoke it, knowing that this was likely to be a sore spot for the poor girl.

And I was indeed right when she lowered her face. Her lips started to tremble as her eyes began to water also.

She started to cry a little and I just patiently waited for her to let her emotions out.

When she stopped crying, she remained silent and I had to nudge her to remind her that I’m here.

"Do you want to tell me or not? I can leave it blank if you want, though, that may cause some issues in the future for you." I gave her a way out but she shook her head and told me what her reason was.

"Dad threw me out and said to never return..." There was a despondent look on her face as she said that.

I silently wrote that down and decided to move onto the next question.

"So, when did you arrive here in Krara city?" I read the name out since she might not know what the city’s name was given how young she was, and only came here because it had a sanctuary for orphans.

"I was born here." She stated, still with a little melancholy from the previous question, but this one didn’t seem to bring her much pain.

Still, that was heart wrenching to hear. She was born in this city, had her fangs broken in a way that hurts her whenever she speaks, was never taught and was thrown out? How sad can one person’s story be?

Regardless I wrote that down and moved onto the next question. "I’m going to assume you don’t have anywhere that you’re living right now then."

"I do!" She chirped up with some excitement, hoisting her little frame up on the armrest of the chaise she was on. "There was this an old man who said I could stay with him until I came here!"

"Oh, that’s unexpected, but good. Do you know where he lives? I need to write it down else complications in the future again."

"Umm..." She lowered her head to think as she went back to sitting properly. "North west area."

"Is... That all?"

She nodded her head with some sadness, most likely disappointed in herself.

"I think, as long as you can take the caretakers to him when asked, you’ll be fine."

"Really?" She chirped up once more. "Then-"

"No." I stopped her before she could run off. She turned and looked at me, confused as to why I was stopping her. "You can do that later when they ask you to, until then, stay put and help me finish out these forms for your admission into the orphanage, okay?"

"Okay..." Her enthusiasm seemed to have dropped but that was fine, this would hopefully teach her that she needs to know restraint, or something.

Anyways, we finished the form and I let her go up to the receptionist first so that she could work out the kinks and holes within the form with some guidance.

I then had to wait for the two of them to be finished before I could go up and inquire about my living accommodations here.

The little serpentine girl soon left with a gleeful smile on her face, likely off to tell the old man she talked about what happened today.

I went up to the front desk and inquired about my earlier inquiry.

"Ah, yes, almost everything is done, just a few minor things here and there, but if you want to you can move in now. Just go through that door over there then take a right and go down until you find one with a plaque that says ’Alya’ and she’ll take you to your room as well as give you a tour of the rest of the accommodations provided here at the Krara Orphanage."

I thanked her and then followed her directions until I found the door to the person I was looking for.

Taking a deep breathe, I knocked on the door, which would entail the next part of my life.

The next Volume.