Geno laughed as the kids joked with him, none of them seemed to want to go to bed.
It was fine by geno, he wasn't tired at all, considering that it was morning and he was used to sleeping at night.

Everyone burst out laughing when one kid ran through the small hallway of the room and tripped over a toy car.
Everyone hushed before anyone down stairs heard.
"Ppff, you're as clumsy as Leader." One child quietly laughed.
"Not even close!" One kid said, "I saw Leader trip over a rock at night!"

"Was it a big rock?" Geno asked slightly confused.

The kid shook their head and spoke with a disappointing tone, "it was as small as a pebble."

The kids giggled and geno looked down at mini, "is that what you ment by him setting this place on fire? I saw torches near the entrance of the tunnel."

Mini nodded and laughed, "he's really clumsy."

"Well," geno huffed in relief, "when you first said that I was worried he was willing to hurt you guys and the monster here just because you were late."

"What? No, no, no." One bear vampire said, "he's really nice! He visits us everyday!"

"Yeah," the other kids say, "since our parents haven't come back yet, he visits us!"

"Your parents?" Geno asked, "Why haven't they come back, how long have they been gone?"

All of the kids looked at each other sadly before looking back at geno, mini spoke, "I don't remember but on......may 3rd? Yeah! May 3rd, uh, something came up when we lived somewhere else and our parents left."

"May 3rd?" Geno said, his eye slightly widening.

"Uh huh!" Mini smiled, "mom said she and mama had to go somewhere to help, I think the thing they did was called.....S....I think it was called S.M! They've been gone for a really long time, some of the older kids said they wont come back, but Leader said we'll be able to see them again one day!"

Geno's silently gasped and whispered, "Suicide Mission,"

"Huh?" Mini said tilting her head and smiled, "do you know what it means? Oh! Do you know what my mom's are doing!?"

Some of the kids gasped and made their way closer to geno to hear what he had to say. Geno slightly backed up on the bed having a nervous laughter.
"What is it then?" The kids asked excitedly.

"Uhm," geno said clueless about what to say, he hated to lie but they were just kids. Geno hastily looked around the room before his eyes fell to a poster that said Safety first!
"It means......Safety mission," geno blurted the lie, "they're probably helping monsters!"

All the kids looked at each other in awe and smiled. Geno smiled back, only it felt like a guilty smile.
"So, does The Leader live in that castle?" Geno said nervously wanting to change the subject.

"Yes and no," one skeleton kid named fell said on the top bunk bed, "even if he visits us, he doesn't really speak much. Yesterday when you came I heard him say more words than he did in weeks. The castle there is mostly for the sick, weak, injured or old. I think he lives there but we go to bed before him so we never really see where he goes."

"Oh, are there a lot of sick here?" Geno asked.

Fell nodded, "we don't have much land so we can't really make much Medicine, and we can't leave....." Fell opened his eyes at the little kids and at geno, "......Because of things that will happen is we do."

Geno perfectly understood what he ment and nodded. "What about the land outside your home, in the woods?"

"I don't know," fell said, "I think one of the farmers here said the land there is dead."

"But there's trees," geno said suspiciously.

"That's what I said too," fell perked up and rolled over, "I tried to find books about dead lands or something but it's no use. Wouldn't be able to understand either way" he mumbled the last part.

"Hm," geno said, "do you have a library in here or something?"

A few kids raised their eyebrows in confusion and pointed to a small shelf at the end of the room filled with random books.
Geno took the candle from then nightstand and went to the book shelf.
"Let's see if we can find anything," geno said and skimmed through the books, they were all random so it was a bit problematic. He didn't seem to notice the kids watching him with eyes widened as he red through some titles of the books.
"Nothing here, geography, definitely don't need that. Oh! The fluffy bunny, I remember this one."
Geno, a bit too excitedly, pulled the small book from the shelf and made his way back to the bed.
He sat down and the kids began to crowd him even more. Some of them sat right next to him and others got as close as they could.
"Guys....?" Geno said nervously.

"What does that say!?" One kid said loudly causing geno to flinch, they pointed to the cover of the book.

"...The fluffy bunny?" Geno said raising his non existence eyebrow.

"YOU CAN READ!?" Fell yelled jumping off the top bunk and jumping into the, already crowded, bottom bunk.
His outburst caused geno to squeak and jump almost making all of the children fall off the bed.
"Y-yeah," geno said in alarm, trying to calm his fast beating soul.
Once he completely calmed down he looked around the room at the children crowding around him.
He felt uncomfortable and suggested, "How about we sit over there," he pointed to the floor covered in blankets and pillows.
The kids immediately rushed to the spot eagerly awaiting for geno.

Geno sat down in the middle and was immediately crowded. He sighed and opened the book, but before reading he asked a question.
"Do...you guys, not know how to read..?" He asked.
The kids shook their heads, geno looked at fell for an explanation since he seemed the oldest in the room.
"We don't have schools here," fell said, "since the thing happened, everybody was too busy and scared to send us to learn. We already had problems with learning due to disagreements with other monsters."

Geno felt enraged, "what!? What about the adults here? How come they haven't taught you guys how to at least read." Geno never felt this upset before, he remembered graduating really early from school and getting an education. But these kids didn't get a chance to at least read.

"Like I said, everyone is busy." Fell said eagerly, "and the monsters that take care of us here are old, they lose their memories and are slowly forgetting everything. Greson is the only one who isn't forgetting things, but he's losing his sight. So he can't teach us so can you read it to us or not?"

"Yes but I just want to know," geno said a bit more loudly then usual, "what about your leader? Does he at least know how to?"

"We don't know," the kids whined desperately.

Geno caught on and sighed, he began to read and the children listened to every word carefully. Once he finished he frowned sadly.

But then he felt determined, he got up quickly and looked at fell.
"Do you have any paper, maybe some white boards?" Geno asked.

"Yeah, it's all in that drawer."Fell said, "why? Do you need some."

"Yeah," geno grumbled as he moved the book shelf away from the wall, "I'm not going to stand for this."

He walked over to the drawer fell pointed to and took out a big piece of construction paper and tape. He then taped the paper to the wall where the bookshelf once was.
The kids watched him curiously as he started to give some white boards for the kids to pass around.
Luckily there was enough and geno turned to the kids with a big smile.
"You guys are not tired, right?"

The kids shook their heads no, but looked at him in confusion, "Why?" They asked.

Geno smiled and turned to the construction paper writing a few words on it.
"Good," he said, "Because I'm going to teach you how to read."

Chapter done yay!

Sorry about not updating for a few days this week is going to be nothing but testing for me, yay 😢😢.

Anywho, have a nice day.

Pepe! Out!