The Dragon General's Vengeful Return

2

Back in the city, a little girl is sweeping the floor of the doghouse of a massive mansion.

It's enraging to see a little girl working so hard to clean up the place, but what's more enraging is seeing her crippled mother washing piles of clothes only a few feet away.

Athena Croft is just seven years old, but she has been forced to grow up to help her weak mother.

She was brought into this world some seven years ago, when her mother was forced to give birth in this very doghouse by her wicked family.

Why is Stephanie Croft so hated by her own family?

That's because she fell in love with a young soldier seven years ago and got married to him, even though she knew that her parents wouldn't approve of such a poor soldier as an inlaw.

He was deployed to the army the very next day, and she was left to announce to her parents that she was married and pregnant, but her useless husband was nowhere to be found.

Her father and mother beat her up so badly that she fell from the stairs of the house and immediately hurt her spine and lost the use of her legs.

They spat on her and showed her no remorse, instead they banished her to the doghouse for the shame she brought to her family.

She wasn't taken to the hospital and her injured spine affected her legs, and she became a crippled.

Fortunately, her baby wasn't affected, and she put to bed the most beautiful daughter in the world, Athena Croft.

The maltreatment from her parents only grew more and more, but she did her best for her little girl.

By the time Athena was five, she could read, write, and sing with an angelic voice.

One would think that this would be able to make her grandparents like her, but they treated her just as bad as her mother.

Her father is an unknown soldier than ran away from them, after all…

Athena is humming in her beautiful voice as she sweeps the ground gently.

“Athena, you have to be a little faster. If someone comes here and see that you are not ready yet, we will get into trouble!” Stephanie warns her daughter in a whisper.

Athena looks up. “Don't worry, mum, I will soon be ready.”

She has hardly finished speaking when the head servant of the house, Mister Hanks, comes through the corner.

His eyebrows folds when he sees that Athena is still sweeping, and Stephanie is still washing the clothes.

“You two lazy pigs!” He barks. “Didn't the Madame tell you that you must be done in an hour?!”

Both ladies turns pale as soon as they seen the unfriendly man.

“Sorry, Mister Hanks, it's not Athena's fault at all. I was the one who asked her to help me dry some of the clothes before she started to sweep–”

Before she could blink, Mister Hanks has given her a blinding slap that sends her flying out of her stool.

Athena screams as she rushes to her mother's side. She uses the broom to hit Mister Hanks across his back, trying to get him to stop hurting her mother.

“Leave my mother alone, stop hurting us! My father is a big scary soldier, and he will beat you up for this!”

Mister Hanks stops to laugh at Athena in a taunting manner.

“Your father? You still think that non-existent man is going to come to save you?”

Before Athena could react any further, Mister Hanks grabs her by her ear and pulls her all the way to the gate while she screams and tries to wriggle free.

“Come on, be on your way to your Auntie’s house. Don't keep Miss Pumpkin waiting so long.” He mutters.

Athena is trying her hardest to fight back, but she is just a little and weak girl.

Through the tail of her eyes, she can still see that her mother is still fallen on the ground, and this makes her eyes sting with tears.

She wishes that Mister Hanks would allow her to help her mother up, before she is whisked away.

“Please, sir, let me help my mother to get up. If not, she is going to be in that position for hours!” Little Athena cries.

“You should have thought about that before hitting me with the broom and trying to be a brat!” He hiss. “Get going before I beat you up even more and tell your grandmother that you have been misbehaving just right now!”

With that, he push her out of the giant gates and glares at her as he nods in the direction she is supposed to go.

This is not Athena's first time of being sent to her Auntie's house, but she has never gotten used to it.

It's a thirty minutes walk from Beerson family mansion to her Auntie's place, but they never give her a few pennies to get into a cab.

She is also so young to go on her own, but none of them care about her. They would even time her and warn her to run all the way, or she is going to be punished.

Athena bursts into tears as soon as the hot sun slaps her in the face. She is supposed to trek for thirty minutes under this harsh weather?

“Please, sir, can you ask one of the drivers to drop me?” She sobs. “The sun is so hot, and I might faint on the way.”

“Oh, don't you even dare faint on the way!” He wags his finger in her face. “I will come over with a stick and beat you until you regain consciousness!”

He bangs the door shut in her face, and she has no option than to start walking.

Her shoulders are slouched and the look of gloom takes over her entire face.

Who is this Auntie of hers, and who is this Pumpkin that Athena is going to meet?

******

Athena raises her hands and knock on the door of the bedroom that she is standing in front of.

The door opens to a slightly taller girl, who has braces in her teeth. She grins widely when she sees Athena.

She has a huge wand in her hand, which she uses to whacks Athena in the head with it.

“Ouch, Pumpkin! What was that for?!”

“You're late, that's why.”

“I'm sorry, it's because I had to walk all the way yet again.”

“Then you should have tried running!” Pumpkin taunts. “Come in, my room is not going to clean itself!”

Yes, Pumpkin is Athena's cousin. She is the only child of Athena's Aunt, Finna Kent.

The Beerson parents love their younger daughter, Finna, because unlike her elder sister, she married a rich millionaire businessman a year before Stephanie got married.

She gave birth to Pumpkin nine months later, and Pumpkin is a year older than Athena.

She hates her cousin more than anything in the world, and has somehow convinced her mother to make her cousin to walk all the way here to clean up her room and wash her clothes everyday.

As if that's not enough, pumpkin forces Athena to do her assignments too. Athena is very brilliant, but Pumpkin is a dullard. Instead of asking Athena to tutor her, she prefers to just bully her into doing her assignments.

Athena is determined to be done quickly, so that she can go back home and help her mother back into the doghouse.

It might rain, she knows that no one else will help her mother.

Pumpkin dances around the room, being a nuisance as Athena picks up clothes, books, and puts them away.

“Do you know what my mummy said?” Pumpkin asks her cousin. “I told her how you stole my fancy pink paper to write to your daddy yesterday, and how I made one of the servants to send the letter to your runaway Dad, but my mother said that you are wasting your time. Your mother is a prostitute, and your father is never going to come back!”

Athena squeeze the teddy bear in her hands as tears drips from her eyes.

“That's not true, my father will come back! He will finish his mission soon and come back to my mother and I!”