Zacharie was about nine. He was a sweet, like his, passed away, mother. He was timid, but very intelligent when it came to math, but he was kept quiet about this fact by his father, the Toad King. He hated his father, as he was a cruel and awful parent and ruler. Long story short, Zacharie was abused by him. He didn’t see the boy as a fitting heir, with him being so kind and gentle. Zacharie didn’t understand for a long time, of course, as he had been abused since he was only six years old. But eventually, he decided he had enough of it. He took up his belongings in a small backpack, and disappeared into the night.
He didn’t really know where he was going to go, so he just walked until he found a soon-to-be-opened amusement park. “… I’m sure they wouldn’t mind.” He thought, slipping through the gate. He found a small, unlocked room, it appeared to be an unused office. He then took a few items out of his back, and with them he made a bed for himself. He didn’t realize how tired he was until he laid down, as he almost immediately fell asleep. In the morning, he heard the sound of footsteps outside. He panicked, he gathered his things as quietly as he could and tried to slip out of the room without being noticed, but that plan was immediately ruined by the Zone’s guardian, Japhet, seeing him. “What are you doing here, child?” The bird asked him, Zacharie stared up at him with frightened violet eyes. “I-I... Uhm... I…” He stammered, backed against a wall in fear, only resulting in him panicking more. “Now, now. Calm down. I won’t hurt you. Did you get separated from your parents? Why are you alone?” Not wanting to admit to running away, he tried to think of something that would warrant him of being alone with no mention of a cruel parent. “I’m a-an.. an orphan…” He stuttered, hiding his bluff behind a sorrowful expression. He put his head down, letting his thick, black hair fall onto his face. “Hm... well… If you’re not much trouble, and you have nowhere to go, I suppose you could stay here for a while...” He looked up at the bird, his eyes gleaming “You would do that? Really? I-I promise I won’t be troublesome, I can help in the park if you want, I-“ “Your offers are kind,” Japhet interrupted, “but you don’t have to work to earn my favor. I can tell you just need a home to stay in for the time being.” Japhet offered, Zacharie nodded vigorously. He gave a small smile, “I promise I won’t be any trouble, sir. I’ll stay out of the way of your work.” “You can stay in that room over there, though you seemed to be a step ahead of me.” He opened his wing to gesture to the room the child had come from. “Yes sir, I’ll- I’ll go stay in there.” He nodded, wandering back into the room.
About a year later, he had proved to make himself useful to the park. He managed to make small trinkets to sell at a small booth Japhet let him run to make some money. But since today wasn’t very busy, he decided to take a break and just walk around the park for a while. He was going to go to the docks, until he saw a young girl sitting at the end of a dock. A girl was a quite rare sight, and for her to just be sitting alone was an even rarer one. He started to approach her, being cautious as to not to scare her. But he ended up stopping a good distance away. He noticed her cute short-cut hair, and the way it covered her eyes. Her ghostly white skin matched her hair color, and she had the same small, black dots at the corners of her mouth. He didn’t understand why, but he felt a little bit nervous. He shook his head, forcing himself to move forward. He sat down next to the girl, giving her a kind smile, “Hey.” The girl looked at him, showing a huge, friendly smile “Hi! What’s your name?” She asked eagerly, pulling her feet up underneath her. “I’m Zacharie, what’s yours?” He mirrored her motion, starting to take a great interest in the female’s joyful personality. “I’m Sugar! Or Sucre, if you prefer. Nice to meet you, Zach~!” She giggled happily “What’re you doing her alone? Shouldn’t you be with someone?” he asked, a bit of concern leaking into his voice. “Oh, my papa let me go wherever I wanted today! I already went on the pedalo ride and did the balloon game thing. And I got to go the library, too!” she grinned, giggling once more. He couldn’t help but chuckle at Sugar’s excitement. “Sounds like you had fun, huh?” She nodded, “Mhm! But I’ve run out of things I can think of. To do, I mean. No one here is really all that fun, they’re all shy and don’t like doing a lot of stuff with me… Do you know any fun stuff to do?” She asked, looking up at him. “Well, I mean… I can take you to the back where they don’t usually let people. I mean, I do live here, after all.” She gasped, “You can just do that?! That’s so cool!” She jumped to her feet, bouncing excitedly. He stood up, opening his mouth to speak, but before he could even say anything, she grabbed his hand and drug him along. Wherever she wanted to go, she wanted to go now.
After a couple of hours of just exploring the hidden places of the park, they had finally come back to the dock, tired, but happy. “That was so much fun, Zacharie!” She beamed, laughing slightly. “No problem, Sucre. It was my pleasure.” He charmed, looking over the plastic, watching as the warm orange-pink light of the sun give the liquid a dazzling color. His small wings emerged from his back, resting them on his shoulders. “You have wings?” She questioned, touching the soft feathers. “My mother was supposedly an angel, at least that’s what I was told. But all I really know is that I have wings that can’t fly with just yet. But I read that when I’m older I’ll be able to.” He explained. There was silence for a moment, Sugar just stared at her feet, “Do you think… maybe when you can fly, we can go the top of the library? I’ve always wanted to go there, but no one ever lets me.” She asked shyly, looking up at the taller child. His expression was blank for a second, until he broke into a smile. “Of course, Sucre! That’s an easy favor for a friend.” When he had finished the sentence, he thought for a second. “I’ve never really had a friend.. This is nice… She’s nice. I’m lucky for meeting her.” He thought happily, “Oh- It’s getting really late! I need to go home!” Sugar stated urgently, Zacharie turned to her “You need me to help you? I know my way around Zone 2 really well, so-“ “I don’t live around here, I live in Zone 3. My papa works there, and he’s really the only one who can go in between the Zones so easy.” She interrupted, “But thanks for the offer, I had a wonderful time hanging out with you, though~!” She smiled warmly at him, wrapping her arms around him to give him a tight embrace for just a few seconds. She pulled back and started to run off, “I’ll try to come back as soon as I can! I loved meeting you, Zacharie~!” She called as she ran, waving vigorously. “Same for you, Sucre! See you later!” He called back, waving. When she was out of sight, he went off into his room, when he entered he fell onto his small bed, letting out a contented sigh. “… Wow.” It was really the only thing he could think to say, “This is turning out so, so much better than I first thought.” He mumbled to himself. “Just… Wow. And Sucre, of all people I’ve met.. she’s just so… I don’t know.” He mumbled, sighing once more.
“What a gal.”