Story of a past: Father's fight (First Part)

“Where is Sillath?” Seledia asked with concern and pain difficult to hide in her voice.

She was about to give birth. She was sure of it. However, she was sad that her son wasn’t by her side.

Millodas who was holding his wife’s hand anxiously shook his head.

“I don’t know either…”

They were currently in their bedroom. Seledia was on the bed with her husband by her side. Aten, the elf doctor of the town was also in the room. He had offered to help Seledia give birth.

In this world, humans who weren't strong water mages were only able to use Primordial magic to help cure minor wounds and diseases. The only race that could truly use healing magic to its full extent was the Elven race.

Giving birth without any medical attention wasn’t easy, but most importantly it wasn’t safe.

With the mayor absent, Aten was the only one able to help her.

Therefore, Aten’s assistance was extremely important to ensure a smooth delivery, for both Seledia and the baby’s sake.

Aten couldn’t leave Seledia alone. It was the same for Millodas who was important to support his wife during this ordeal. They had all hoped that Sillath would come in due time, but they couldn’t afford to look for him.

The childbirth finally started.

The painful screams of Seledia echoed within the house for several hours. It was quite long, because to everyone’s surprise, she had to give birth to two children.

Finally, her painful screams ended. The house was silent, except for the small cries of the two newborn babies in Seledia's arms.

As soon as the delivery was over, Aten sat on the ground exhausted. He quietly caught his breath while staring at the beaming smile of Seledia and the tears of joy in Millodas’ eyes. It was without a doubt, one of the happiest moments in their lives.

Seledia had given birth to two baby girls. It was difficult to tell whether they were identical twins or not, but on closer examination, they realized that their faces were very similar. The oldest one was moving fervently while the second one was about to fall asleep.

The room was filled with nothing but happiness.

However, they were just a little disappointed that Sillath missed this precious moment.

They began to discuss the names of their newborn children. They had both already decided what to call their new child if it was a boy or girl. However, they had not expected to have two baby girls.

After talking for a few minutes, they finally decided their second daughter's name.

“Our oldest daughter will be Sellysse, and this little one will be Llinadia.”

This decision left Seledia’s lips who couldn’t repress her smile.

As the two of them sat down, staring happily at their two innocent baby girls, Seledia finally opened her mouth.

“Can you go find Sillath, honey?”

Her voice was weak and delicate. In addition to that, she had problems catching her breath.

Millodas quietly nodded before kissing his wife and his two daughters on the forehead.

He left the house before heading toward Gaya’s house. He knew that the two of them were quite close and Sillath was also a shy child. As a result, in his mind, this was the only place where he could be.

He was wrong.

Sillath was nowhere to be found and Gaya hadn't seen him since the morning when they separated.

Millodas began to worry.

As a city guard, he knew that Sillath was never in danger as long as he stayed within the city, but it was different if he had entered the forest alone. After paying a visit to the barracks, he quickly organized a search party with his colleagues. Sillath had disappeared only several hours ago, so this reaction seemed a bit excessive. However, this wasn’t the case.

In the kingdom, cities were mainly isolated. It was rare for soldiers from the capital to come to another city, especially if it was a small one like ‘Tegralle’. It wasn't the role of the organization controlled by the magic council either. Their job was to prevent wars and to fight against criminal organizations. It wasn't their role to find lost children.

Millodas could only rely on himself and his comrades to find his son.

As time flew by and the sun about to set, his anxiety grew stronger. A fear like he had never felt before completely seized his heart. The last mission to kill a deviant was only around a week ago. It wouldn’t be surprising if another deviant was born, in the meantime. In front of a creature like that Sillath stood no chance of escaping alive.

This thought worried him even more.

Without luck to find Sillath within in the city, they began to set off for the forest, and just as they were about to enter it, a small child appeared in front of them. On the spur of the moment, Millodas was ready to embrace and secure him in his arms. He only felt joy and relief, but as he approached the small figure, he quickly realized it wasn't him.

The night sky and his strong desire to see his son played tricks on him.

It took him only a few seconds to overcome his disappointment and realize that the small child was none other than Gaya.

“Please… Let me help!”

“I can’t! The forest is too dangerous for a child. Go back home, we’re losing precious time here.”

Millodas yelled at her. He knew she only had good intentions, but he only saw her as someone who would slow down their search. There was simply nothing she could do.

“I can follow his scent.”

He stopped in his tracks as he heard her declaration. He suddenly remembered that she was a member of the beast tribe. She was certainly capable of helping in the search.

“Captain, we’re losing time.”

One of his men reminded him of the seriousness of the situation. He no longer had the time to hesitate.

“Please, help me find my son.”

She only nodded her cute little head before closing her eyes. She seemed to be concentrating hard. It took the soldiers a long time to notice because of the darkness of the night. However, when a soldier held out a torch, a couple of men couldn’t help but gasp in surprise. Her pure white skin had turned completely dark, and soon after dark hair began to cover her entire body. Gaya’s form was changing right in front of their eyes. Even her clothes began to rip apart under her metamorphosis.

After a few seconds, Gaya was gone and a little black panther was standing in her stead. Only her two beautiful electric blue eyes remained from her humanoid form, other than that she had gone through a complete change.

“This way.” She said.

To everyone’s surprise, the panther talked before running at top speed further into the forest. Millodas and the others just followed. She stopped from time to time with her nose on the ground, just like a tracker dog. There was no doubt that she was following Sillath’s scent.

Unable to restrain himself longer, Millodas shouted as loud as he could.

“SILLATH!!!”

He screamed his name again and again. However, his screams were only met with silence. The guards around him were exchanging worried glances because they understood what the absence of an answer meant.

Gaya was now moving in circles. Millodas quickly reached her.

“Gaya, what is it? Where is Sillath?”

She answered with a teary voice.

“I-I don’t know, I lost his scent. He was here, I‘m sure of it but… I don’t know where he went from here onwards.”

Millodas felt his entire body freezing as if cold water had been poured on his head.

The nearby soldiers began to carefully inspect the trees. Millodas quickly noticed this.

“What are you doing? My son isn’t here. Let’s split up and look for him.”

His subordinates only nodded without arguing.

After Gaya’s words, they suddenly lost hope. They weren’t looking for Sillath anymore, at least alive. They were only looking for blood trails or body parts on the ground to find any traces that Sillath’s body was here. However, under the desperate screams of the man they respected so much, they never had the courage to tell him that his son was probably already dead.

They could only obey and began to split up.

They spent the rest of the night looking for Sillath but found nothing.

The forest was quite vast but not boundless. When the sun began to rise, they knew that Sillath was no longer in the forest. The good news was that they found nothing to conclude that he was dead. There was no body and no deviant.

Nothing.

A deviant rarely ever left its place of birth immediately. Therefore, the probability of Sillath being attacked by a deviant was quite low.

It was time to head back home. Millodas could only hope with all his heart that he panicked for no reason, that Sillath was quietly sleeping in his room.

He quickly came back to his house.

Some of his colleagues went home to get some sleep, while only a few others continued to look for any possible clues in the forest. Gaya continued to sniff the soil desperately.

Millodas finally reached his house. He searched every room, but could not find him. He suddenly thought that Sillath was probably sleeping with Seledia and his sisters because he had missed the childbirth.

This thought alone gave him hope once again.

He ran up the stairs, imagining his loving family together in one place. He reached the front door of his bedroom and forcefully opened the door.

*BANG*

The babies’ cries echoed inside the room as soon as the door hit the wall.

Seledia also woke up, startled, wondering what was going on. Until she realized, what just happened.

“What are you doing!? You woke up the girls!!!” She began angrily shouting toward her husband.

Usually, her angry voice was enough to cover his entire body in cold sweat, but not in this moment.

“Have you seen Sillath?”

In front of his serious gaze, Seledia immediately understood that something was wrong.

“I didn’t… What happened?”

His final ray of hope was extinguished with the denial of his wife. He didn’t want to worry her, especially since she just gave birth, but the situation was out of control now.

“Sillath has disappeared. Gaya hasn’t seen him since yesterday morning. I also spent the whole night in the forest with the guards, but we found no trace of him there either.”

Seledia’s face immediately lost the color she won back from her calm, dreamless sleep.

She suddenly tried to stand up. However, as soon as she was on her feet, she almost immediately fell down. Her delivery exhausted her physically more than she thought. Her entire body was shaking, but she gathered her remaining strength and walked resolutely toward the door.

“Seledia, you can’t!”

Millodas tried to stop her as she passed him. He grabbed her wrist, but she turned around angrily.

Her blue eyes were full of tears.

“Let me go! We must look for our son.”

The cries of their daughters made her turn her head.

“I know how you feel, but in this state, you won’t be able to help us. You must take care of our daughters for now. You’re the only one who can do that.”

She knew he was right, but she couldn’t say it. She clenched her fists in frustration before wrapping her arms around her husband.

“Find him, Millodas. Find him please.”

She walked back toward the bed and sat down, weakened.

Millodas could only nod, before quickly leaving the room without uttering another word.

Only the sound of their daughters crying in the background and Seledia trying to hide her tears could be heard.