185 Frozen hear (2/2)

She gazed around and spotted a group of imprisoned monsters who appeared to have been tortured for days without rest, but tried to avert her eyes in order to focus on her mission.

”Who I am doesn't matter...” she replied, ”as for what I want, your little book-club has taken my staff by accident, and I'm here to get it back...”

The man just smiled at her, ”Hehe, piss off lady... Before you get into trouble...”

”... You know...” Natasha answered back, ”on second thought, maybe who I am does matter a little bit after all...”

She noticed that the rest of the members of the gang were now standing up and approaching her. Many of them were gazing at the woman with lustful eyes while observing her long blond hair, pale skin, blue eyes, white shirt, black pants, and black boots. There were no women in the warehouse, and these people all were acting like they hadn't seen one in a long time.

”Let me introduce myself... I'm a mage who holds very dearly her magical items, and among these items, there is my staff that was passed down by my beloved mother... Which was, mistakenly, sold to your people, again, by accident, by my incredibly stupid EX-boyfriend... So... If you would be so kind as to return it to me-”

”You heard that, boys?” the man interrupted Natasha. She assumed he was talking about how much her staff meant to her and started to get relieved that this would be resolved so simply, ”blondie over here just told us that she's single!!”

The entire place started to shout in excitement like a pack of wolves after hearing that comment and started to approach the lady with even more hunger in their eyes.

Natasha just tried to keep a calm smile, ”you... really don't wanna do this!”

The man grabbed her hair and took a deep sniff out of it while smiling back at her, ”pretty sure I do, sweetheart! You just made yourself our plaything for the rest of the night!”

Another one of the gang members came closer and placed his arm around her shoulder, ”what are you going to do?? Fight all of us without your weapon?”

Natasha just kept smiling and finally gave her final answer, ”did I mention that I'm also a master-class mage?”

The group of men just started trading glances at each other a little confused.

”The hell does that even mean?” one of them asked.

”It means...” she explained while lightly touching the arm of the one who was grabbing her and completely freezing him in mere instants, ”that I don't need a weapon... I AM the weapon!”

The gang members started to lose color and began to shout ”Kill her!!” while readying their weapons, but not even a second later the entire place had been completely overrun by ice everywhere as the woman released an explosion of freezing magic.

The entire building had been caught by her spell. Some of the man got terrified of her power and just run away terrified, others were stuck on ice and could barely flinch. The monster cages also got hit by the attack, allowing the monsters to break free and escape as well.

Natasha began to stroll around the building like a little girl while lazily observing if any of them had her beloved staff anywhere and just watching all the members cursing her in silence while being unable to move a finger, ”What would you know... You guys are a lot less annoying when you can't speak or move...”

She finally saw what she was looking for. Her mother's magic staff was resting on top of a table right next to another one of the members who also had been caught by her ice move.

”Ugh... I'm going to need to wash this later...” she mumbled. As she kept trying to spot any kind of problem with her item, she realized another one of the monster cages hidden behind a curtain, and a pair of eyes were looking right at her.

She let curiosity take the best of her and moved the curtain to see what was behind it, and when she did, she saw a small kid entrapped inside the cage. He was wearing nothing but rags and his body was full of scars, but unlike the bandits who appeared to have battle scars, these looked more like torture scars.

He was thin as if he hadn't eaten in weeks, his hair was so dirty that she could barely recognize the color, and his eyes were holding a huge expression of defeat, as if the child had lost the will to live.

”Hey, buddy... are you ok?” she asked while opening his cage and letting him free. The boy started to crawl out of its prison while shaking a little and looking at Natasha.

The boy didn't say anything and just kept looking at the woman. Natasha then bent her knees to apply some healing magic on the kid.

”Don't worry... Nobody is going to hurt you anymore...”

Natasha felt disgusted that she ever held feeling for a man that could make deals with people that would lock a small kid in a cage. If she ever met Robert again, she would lock him in a block of ice then times stronger.

”What's your name, young man?”

”...”

”Do you know where your parents live?”

”...”

”... Can you... Talk...? At all...?”

”...”

”Oh, joy...”

Natasha considered her options. On one hand, she already had a mouth to feed, that was one of the reasons she was even trying to find a man to bring home after all. On the other, she couldn't just abandon a kid like that right after she found him.

”Would you like to stay with me for a while? Just until I find where your parents are?”

The boy finally showed a reaction and released a wide smile while shaking his head up and down.

”Great... I hope Marcy doesn't mind if I bring her a new friend...”