Ul’dah was in full swing as noon neared. The usual streets an stalls busy and bustling. Keaira was navigating the busy streets even at the age of nine.

Not that she was supposed to be doing this errand. However her mother was not feeling very well and father was at work. That left her older sister to deal with all of their mother’s usual work with weaving. That left them without someone to run and fetch or deliver things. Thus Keaira had begged and pleaded to get her big sister to let her do this to help. The youngest was still far too young to do much besides play.

Keaira paused with a dress bundled in her arms. Looking down the side street at the voices she heard. A boy that looked her age was crying and covering his head as two slightly older boys clearly harassed and bullied him. One was even smacking the poor boy with a stick.

“Hey! Stop that!” Of course Keaira couldn’t let it continue. Frowning as she stomped towards the boys. Two on one wasn’t fair. It was cowardly. Especially when the boy clearly couldn’t defend himself from them. There was no way she was going to walk on. Or simply try to find an adult to break this up. She’d deal with this herself. Even if it meant she’d get in trouble later for fighting again. “Leave him alone, you bullies!”

“Ha! What are you going to do about it, little girl?” Sneered the oldest of the two as he put his hands on his hips and taunted as he looked down on Keaira. She was well under both of their heights.

At this point the dress in her arms was quickly forgotten as she dropped it to lash out with a fist towards the oldest bully. The boy was caught off guard, not expecting to have a small fist flying towards his face. He fell backwards and landed hard on his butt as he stared wide-eyed for a moment. His buddy had quit hitting the little boy with the stick when his friend fell.

Keaira bit her lower lip as she tried not to look as nervous as she felt. Getting into a fight with two older boys and she hadn’t even been allowed to do more then play fight with her father a few times and chase off a few mean boys but never two at one time. At most her father had wanted to teach her how to defend herself since she was often out running the streets much to her mother’s dismay.

“You hit me!” The older boy’s expression changed from surprise to anger as he climbed to his feet. He took a swing at Keaira when he lunged her way. The fist grazed her cheek as she attempted to dodge. Only to get a knee to the gut. The boy clearly knew more then she did but she wasn’t about to let that stop her as she fought to catch the air that had been knocked out of her. The other boy was still clearly staying back. However that had given the little boy a chance to flee while they were ignoring him.

A few more blows were exchanged between them before his partner cried out in alarm. “Adults!” The younger one took off fleeing. The older one cussed softly before giving Keaira a venomous look.

“This ain’t over, short stuff.” He too then fled after his buddy.

“Cowards!” Keaira shouted at their retreating forms.

Keaira wiped at her cheek with her hand before looking at the discarded dress and grimacing. Yelping in surprise when she looked towards the two adults approaching. One just happening to be her own father, still all dressed in his sultansworn’s attire. Running was pointless now as her father had already seen her. So she stood there, trying to not look guilty and slightly scuffed up.

No words were said to her though. The other adult with him went off to see if he could find the bullies. Her father simply picked up the discarded dress with a frown before finally looking towards her again. A raised brow at her disheveled state before putting a hand on her shoulder. Keaira tried not to flinch as she was worried he was about to scold her.

“Keaira… My feisty little girl. While I admire what you tried to do, your mother is going to be disappointed if she finds you got the dress all dirty to get into a fight. Come, let’s go get you cleaned up an see what we can do for this dress before heading home. Let’s not tell your mother about this if we can.” Crouching down in front of Keaira and lightly touching her unharmed cheek. “Then we’ll see about getting you some proper fighting lessons if you’re going to keep sticking up for the underdog against bullies.”

Keaira blinked in surprise. Finally throwing her arms around her father in a hug. Expecting a scolding for another fight with bullies and instead getting the promise of fighting lessons. Weaving wasn’t in her blood. No. She always had wanted to be just like her dad. Protecting people. Now he was willing to give her the chance she longed for. Plus a promise not to tell her mother about today. Everything had worked out for the best other then some minor injuries that could easily be tended.