Sachen examined Neha’s foot. Her skin reddening and blistering as if it was about to explode, Neha squealed.

“This looks awful!” Sachen said.

Her friend whimpered and held back her tears. “I think I might have sprained my ankle. I can’t stand up.” Out of the blue did Sachen rub the affected area with her hands, and Neha yelped. “D-don’t do that!”

“My bad...”

Sachen sighed. She glanced at the trees, trying to find anything that she could use for treatment; from leaves, to barks, to even a pluck of feather, she hoped to utilize them. As little as she knew how to even make something from these resources, she needed to help her friend as much as possible before it could get worse. She suggested to herself to go to the doctor, but it was a stretch in consideration of time, and she would have to steal a wagon or a cart in order to get there fast. In addition, waiting for somebody to come here was out of the question. Whether a soldier, a foreigner, or even a person from their community coming to their aid, it could guarantee them trouble, for sure the girls didn’t want to go through the hassles of others. As the afternoon was closing, it was necessary to leave the area as early as ever.

Neha’s foot started to contract, and she let out a bellow. She squeezed her eyes as to alleviate the pain, but the sensation of the wound irritated her nerves, it gave her no room to relax.

Sachen seethed since she found nothing upon the trees. As a result, she stroked her friend’s head, though it made Sachen herself feel worse that she couldn’t do anything much.

“It’s going to be all right. But we shouldn’t stay here for long.”

“I know. I-I’m sorry, that I tripped. I’m rather clumsy am I? I can’t run through these trees without anticipating the chance to fall down or to get hurt so often, that I feel like I need to be in a bubble… but how can-”

Sachen covered Neha’s ears with her hands. “Ah, you’re talking too much! Don’t worry about it!” Sachen looked at her wound again, this time with squinting eyes. “This looks like a minor injury, and it might not be a concern in a long run. Come on, let us go.”

“B-but I can’t stand up or even walk… it hurts.”

“That’s why I am here! If you can’t, then I’ll just have to help you!”

“It still hurts though. I don’t think I can make it far by walking.”

Sachen smirked. “What are you saying? Walking? Why in the world should you walk now?”

“Huh? You’re confusing me there…”

Sachen turned around. Her hands hovering near her hips, she wagged them. “Hop on my back, I’ll carry you!”

Neha squirmed. “C-carry me? You possibly can’t. I am too heavy for you.”

“Hahaha! You are not certainly heavy! Well, don’t keep me waiting here, and hop behind me, so that I can get you out of here!” Sachen crowned the wreath on Neha’s head, and it made the latter blush. It was as though she had become a queen, with Sachen being the throne.

Neha stammered her words and convulsed all over the place, not a clue of what to say back, and it didn’t cross her mind to say thank you as of yet. Then with a nod, Neha approached Sachen’s back. She wrapped her arms above her friend’s shoulders. At once, Neha hopped. She almost twisted her foot again, and the pain itched her skin, but in time did Neha land on her back. Sachen’s face bloated, she turned blue.

“My goodness… you’re not heavy at all! This is fine, this is totally fine! Well then Neha, let’s get going!”

“Okay!”

With Neha clinging on like a baby, Sachen was ready to take off. She assumed that even with Neha on her, she could get to the gates in time before the guards would wake up. Thus she took her first step forward. A few seconds in, and she teetered with one foot. The weight of Neha gravitated Sachen to the pile of leaves behind her, about to fall into a mess. Though her knees began to be in a strain, she maintained her composure. Going from one point to another in lightning speed was better said than done, but the girls had to get out of here. They might end up like the logs on the river otherwise, and such a thought left them in quivers.

Sachen took her first step again, and the next one, and the next one, so forth. She did this at a snail’s pace. Though she had to juggle between watching her feet and paying attention to Neha, they were too important to ignore all together. Just one mistake or neglect of her attention could cost not just her legs, but also Neha’s well-being, so she must move forward in the midst of the discomfort.

She made her way out of the dense part of the forest, and already, her calves burned up and sweat blanketed her face. She wanted to take a break and beat her chest. But with Neha starting to whimper, Sachen resumed her efforts. Not more than a few moments in, she felt a punch on her stomach. The gears in her head clicked and motored, she could feel the sparks zapping her brain. A grin she displayed with her lips stretching out, Sachen bolted fast as a squirrel. She dashed and dodged the trees in her way, and blew away the dragonflies with a puff. Neha tightened her grip on Sachen’s neck, she tried not to fall off.

With the exertion of all her strength, Sachen headed to the place back where they originally came from. The eastern gate in their sights, the two girls groaned and sighed. Sachen zoomed to the doors, and saw the guards dozing off with no awareness of their surroundings. From the flush of their faces, they seemed to be drunk; the tavern was a few blocks away from here, so they might have been drinking for a while. The girls then slipped through the gate, and Sachen slowed down her pace. Neha wiggled her lips, her face tensed a little.

“We’re finally here! See Neha, I told you we can make it!”

“I-I had doubts… never mind.”

Neha knocked her face against Sachen’s shoulders and buried herself with a flush. The girls went to the western district, a place where most of the villagers resided in a single neighborhood. The lumber-made houses, all of them had flower pots upon their windows and had a carving of the dove on their door frames, were at equal length and size; it was for the sake of efficiency and uniformity so that people could not get envious of one another. As cramped as it was with the houses huddling up to four or five inches between them, the people nonetheless lived with little troubles. As they felt no concern or incentive to modify their abodes, simply because there was limited space, it didn’t bother them much.

A couple of blocks in, and they arrived at their houses. Petals of flowers and groups of chipmunks annexed their doorsteps, and they went off as soon as they saw the girls. Their dwellings being next to each other, they lived their whole lives as neighbors. Every morning and evening, they’d look at each other through the windows and make funny faces, it didn’t tire them in the slightest. Their friendship couldn’t get anymore closer. It was like fate and destiny decided to match them up, a good match in the end perhaps.

Upon Neha’s house, the door opened. A woman emerged and walked down the doorsteps, her eyes looked at every gaps and corners of the houses. The girls hid in the bushes besides them. Bearing a pale complexion, the sunlight scathed her skin, easy for her to get itches. Her cheeks sunk in her face, her hair was falling out, and a lack of wrinkles made it seem like she was a ghost.

"Hey, it’s your mom," Sachen said.

"Y-yeah. I wonder why she’s out right now-"

Sachen zipped her friend’s lips. In front of Neha’s mother, a person in armor greeted her and bowed down. He was carrying a sack, something inside was clacking.

His hair sparkled and his eyes looked like comets. On the person’s right arm, it held a silver chevron, which signified his status as a junior officer in the Holy Army, a rank that was below a senior officer. Neha wiggled upon the sight of the personnel. Steam blew from the top of her head, she closed her eyes shut. She knew him to be her mother’s acquaintance, more so her ‘intermittent piggy bank’ in the wake of hard times that her family was facing albeit the economy being in prosperity.

“It’s that guy, the one that your mom always see now and then,” Sachen said. “You know, you have quite a fancy for him every time he shows up.”

“No I don’t!” A crimson blush marinated Neha’s face. “It’s just that I get nervous around him, you know? He’s so handsome, I can say.”

“Handsome? He looks like every other person, to be honest.”

At the man’s right hip was a dangling gold chain, and attached to the chain was a bulge in his pocket. No sooner did Neha tempt herself to open her hands and want to grab it, but her arms fell into numbness. She had no idea what it was, maybe it could be a family heirloom of some sort or a good luck charm.

The girls sewed their mouths, and through the bushes their eyes poked out. They held their breaths, waiting for the adult’s conversation to finish.

The man gave the mother the sack, and the latter untied it. “Tulisen, thank you for the allowance. I wouldn’t know what to do if you have not come this week. I really need the money.”

“No problem, my fair lady,” Tulisen said. “After all, you need to get that medication again, the price for it is so high and limited in quantity.”

“I know, the extractors from the north are breaking their bones, from picking the right plants to confirming its composition.” Neha’s mother squinted, her lips puckered. “By the way, where are you going off today? Surely it must not be another meeting from the High Order right?”

“As much as I don’t want to go, Aijin, I have to. It’s my job as a junior officer to go to meetings for the regulation of logistics and manpower. I hear that the troops are getting weary from the western campaign.”

Aijin wrapped her stomach. Haze infested her eyes.

“The west… that’s where he still is right?”

“‘He?’ You mean him? Yes.”

“Oh, I am so worried about him, that I can’t go to sleep at night without having demons prancing and pounding on my chest! I miss him so, I wish he can come back!”

“Don’t fret Aijin, one day he will. Besides, the campaign will be over soon.” Tulisen set his eyes on his watch. He jumped back from the doorsteps. “I have to go to the meeting madam. Have a nice day!”

Tulisen dashed off, and Aijin gave her thanks. She closed the door. Leaving the bushes, the pair walked to Neha’s house, and Sachen knocked a hundred times. The mother showed up again, and when she saw Neha, she pouted.

“Sweetie, where were you? It has been almost the whole day.”

“I have told you in the morning mother, did you forget?”

“Actually, I think I did,” her mother said, she scratched her neck.

Sachen stepped in. “We went to the forest and played by the river. When we were about to go back home, Neha tripped, and she got a bad wound on her foot.”

Aijin clicked her teeth. She looked at Neha’s wound. Although the redness was subsiding, the mother shook her head as though she’d blame her kid for her recklessness. She brought the girls inside the house, and Sachen placed Neha on the couch. The dust and cottons from the cushion tickled Neha’s nose, she sneezed as soon as she tilted her head back to the armrest. To the left of the couch was the kitchen area, where countless utensils and food crumbs littered the stove and tables. The oven in the right side of the area roared plumes of smoke, sending it to the ceiling. Barrels and crates of dishware laid on the upper-left corner, unopened; the mother had not touched them for a while.

Aijin grabbed something from the drawers and brought herself to her daughter. Two pieces of green-leaf herbs on her hands, she rubbed them on Neha’s wound. The sensation, being more unbearable than the heat, bit and burned Neha, and she groaned immensely.

“It’s not severe as I thought,” Aijin said. She then wrapped her daughter’s left foot with a gauze. “Well thanks anyway Sachen, for bringing her here. I appreciate it.”

“No problem. We were having fun the whole day, nothing serious at all. I have to go back to my house now, I don’t want to be late for supper.”

“Okay… bye Sachen. And thank you for carrying me all the way back.”

Sachen waved at Neha and departed. Neha turned to her mother. “Mother, how long is it going to heal?”

All the sudden, Aijin’s eyes twitched. She scratched her neck again, and a waterfall of sweat drowned her face. She uttered gibberish under her breath, looking more irritated about Neha’s question than confused. She then peeked at the kitchen.

“Oh I don’t know, maybe about two days, if you don’t walk around and stay on the couch.”

“Two days? That’s a relief. I thought it’s going to be forever.”

“Forever, forever you say. If you want it to be like that, then you can stay in the living room, and for that matter, you shouldn’t do strenuous exercise! You’re just nine years old, there is no need to push yourself that much. By the way, I am starting to remember what you said to me about your outing before you left this morning. Why did you bother to visit Usheniko? Do you know that she is a lunatic, along with her family, that she is only scamming people for money?”

“Why must you say that? Usheniko is a nice woman, she wouldn’t even scam people out of their pockets.”

“Nice? Is she nicer than me?”

“Well, I can’t compare.”

Aijin stuck out her lower lip. “I don’t believe a single bit of her fortunes anyway! There are rumors that Usheniko’s daughter is here from prison, with the intention to visit her mother, which I think they could make themselves a boisterous pair. She should stay behind bars, from that treasonous act two years back! Also, how did you exactly get to the forest of the east? Did you get permission from the guards?”

“We merely snuck past them. They were sleeping.”

“Hmph! Sleeping?! I’d have whooped their behinds if I were an officer! How dare they, not being aware that two little ones like you were scurrying through the gate! It doesn’t matter anyway, as you two were not caught by the authorities.”

A strong whiff of the smoke, Aijin stormed to the kitchen, disposed the burnt bread from the oven, and doused the flames inside with a bucket of water. With a pinch of her fingers, she extracted every crumb from the area and threw them to the trash. She then reached for the cupboard, her fingers slithered through the metal cans in search for blueberries. Her knuckles kept knocking the cans to the ground, and Aijin growled and bit her lips as she wanted to fix up some food quickly for her daughter. Neha watched her with rosy cheeks and sniffles; she considered to go help her parent, but her injury was weighing her down.

After some minutes, Aijin retrieved a pouch that was full of blueberries. She ripped it open and poured the fruit into a pot. Along with water and a small dose of sugar, she stirred the ingredients with a wooden spoon. To make a simple task of cooking difficult, Aijin curved her body like she became a contortion in full, and she’d always do this every time she was up and ready at the stove. She jerked the spoon and clanged it to the rim of the pot over and over, splashing the mix onto her clothes. She shrugged with a grin.

Finishing it, Aijin streamed the blueberry soup on a porcelain bowl. She stuck a metal spoon in it and gave it to Neha. Her daughter gave her thanks, she chowed down right away. One portion entering her mouth, and the bittersweet taste strangled her cheeks and tongue. She sucked on the blueberry bits to get more of the flavor, and it then paralyzed her face for a second. In a couple of minutes did she eat all of it. She didn’t expect much to receive the same food again; it was one of the only cuisines that Aijin could produce for her own kid. Aijin could have done more like adding some variety to the blueberry soup, but it might have been more arduous and irritating.

As Neha slurped the last bits, her face reflected before the soup. She drew out her breath. Then much to her awe, she recalled something. Somebody’s face formed before her eyes, a handsome one that convinced Neha for a moment that he was actually there. He might not be next to her in truth, but the girl yearned to remember him for as long as she lived.

When a blueberry bit emerged on the surface of the soup, Neha snapped back to reality.

“What’s the matter my dear?” Her mother put her hands around the bowl. “The soup is not thick enough? Here, let me get it for you.”

“No, it’s not that… it’s just I miss my dad.”

“Your dad?” Aijin rolled her eyes and tapped her feet. She sighed. “Why do you miss him? He barely cares about this place! All for some campaign in the west, how foolish he must be!”

“He has been gone for a year. I really miss him, and on the night of yesterday, I had a dream in which he arrived. He took me to outer space in gazed at the galaxies and the stars, before he vanished into thin air.”

“Oh, your dreams must be nothing more than nightmares. Don’t worry about the guy by the way. For eleven years, I endured every one of his jokes and banters about me. It’s apparent that he doesn’t take things seriously at all. I used to feel that I’d collapse in my bedroom and die if he uttered one more joke. He is a neglectful one, he had abandoned us one year ago for the sake of getting more money by fighting barbarians. It shows how utterly vapid he is about us. Look at me Neha, look at me!” Aijin, retrieving the sack that Tulisen gave to her, chucked it to the floor. She grated her right foot on it, and gold coins spilled out. “I am relying on a man’s treasure chest, a saintly knight for a lack of better words! He keeps on giving ten percent of his income to you and me every week, as a way to keep us afloat. I can’t get a single job due to my ‘mental disease’, and day by day, I am feeding on the hopes that everything will be okay. But nothing will be certainly okay, so as long as I am alive! If I can’t get a job soon, then I might lose this house, and if I lose this house, and my husband will leave me, and if I lose him, then I will lose you too! I will die from some random seizures or heart attack, and you will cry all day and night. I am ashamed of myself. I am an utter disgrace to him and you.”

“Mom...”

Aijin plucked the gold coins from the floor, putting them in a sack. She tied it up and slammed it on the table, soon she walked back to the kitchen with the urge to dispose every last bit of the soup. Neha winced, and she couldn’t help but beg to the gods to cure her mother from her suffering, but it seemed that this could last forever. Neha missed her father, he had been gone for so long that she desired for him to come back. Sometimes she’d plant her face against the window and wait for his return, only to feel much exhaustion; maybe it was better to forget him. With her mother being here, Neha had no choice but to focus on her alone.

The last time that Neha saw him, he said his farewells to his family as if he was going to leave them for good. He gave his daughter hugs and kisses, and he did the same thing to his wife, though she grew hysterical about it. Neha pleaded for him not to go, and she uttered many persuasions, such as the house being full of monsters, or that Neha would die in an accident. It failed to convince him. He departed and left nothing for them, no letters, no mementos, no pictures.

Aijin tied her hair into a ponytail, and from the kitchen she looked back at her daughter. “Go eat your soup dear. And also, don’t forget that we have temple service on Sunday, so we shouldn’t miss it.”

“Temple service? Okay.”

“I heard that the High Order are going to hold an important meeting for the village. Something important.”

She mumbled to herself while she cleaned the pots and utensils at the sink. Neha set the bowl at the table. The succulent taste of the soup erased the pain of her injury for now. Thus with that, she took a nap on the couch.