#14

My name is Dori. I have been meaning to make this recording at some point in my life but got around to do it tonight. I have kept a diary throughout my life because otherwise, it's difficult to keep track of all that has been happening, but I always intended to burn it before I ever leave this world. I wanted to leave no trace of myself or my life, and my death behind if it came to it.

But lately, I have been feeling a bit differently. If I were to disappear leaving no trace behind, would it be like I've never existed? Once everyone that I have ever met, or the last person that has even the faintest memory of me dies, would that be it?

I didn't use to care, and it's not like I'm suddenly scared of dying and disappearing now after all these years, but if all were to end someday, I wanted to at least leave my voice behind, this voice that someone once told me was beautiful.

The story of my life is not worth listening to, but I think maybe when someone eventually ends up listening to this, it might teach a lesson in life, death, and everything in between, and perhaps that lesson can guide her much better than the path I have let myself trudge along with no clear purpose.

It's easy to be cynical when you have lived as long as I did. 622 years to be exact, although from which date I should count the start of my 'life' is a moot point.

I was a carefree young girl, 15 years old when it happened. I lived in a small town where most people farmed for a single landlord who seemed to have owned pretty much everything around the area. As my dad used to say, you could stand on a field and everything you could see with your eyes belonged to him.

He was not some evil or exploitative landlord as you hear in some of those folklores that survived to the modern-day though. I guess only the stories about bad men and hardships are passed down through the generations. It's like evil memories and grudges last forever while good memories die with the people who treasured them.

I was very frail back then, and dad used to comment I don't look suitable to be a farmer girl for all my life. My pale skin, slender figures, and doll-like face looked more fitting to be an educated girl in a noble family. It's embarrassing to say these words myself, but they come from my dad and I'm too old to care about these things now anyway.

So I wasn't much good or useful at farming. Instead of toiling the soil myself, I brought the farm products to the town market to sell. While we farmed for the landlord we were allowed to keep and use some for ourselves, and we also had our small garden farm and a chicken den at our house, so there were always some vegetables, fruits, and eggs to sell.

It was one sunny day in June that I first met him. June 22 to be exact. Well, the calendars changed over the centuries so it is probably a different date when calculated now, but for me, it was June 22 back then so I will always remember it like that. It was the end of strawberry season and I've brought a particularly nice basket of strawberries to the market on that day. They looked so red and yummy, and if you brought your face close to them you could smell how nicely fragrant they were. I was looking forward to selling these as I was sure they'd fetch some extra coins. In fact, I was hiding it under a cloth cover because I wanted to sell it to a maid from the landlord's household. She came to the market every morning to buy the fresh produce, and I thought if I showed her these strawberries she'd certainly buy them. They were good enough to be on the table of a noble family.

As I was humming to myself indulging in these thoughts, I heard there was some commotion in the other end of the market where I couldn't see.

"Master! Please stop!", I heard a woman's voice shouting, and then I saw this well-dressed boy running down the center passage between the market stalls with a mischievous grin on his face.

"You will have to catch me Ema!", this 'master' turned his head around to taunt the chasing woman - it was one of the maids from the landlord's household.

And then this shit happened. As he was running past my stall (it wasn't even a 'stall', it was just me with various things laid on the ground) he tripped and fell, and he literally faceplanted (we didn't have this expression back then but I like it now) into my basket of strawberry. I was like oh no! my strawberries… I didn't know what got into me but I was so furious I grabbed his hair from the back of his head to force lift his face,

"What have you done!"

The boy looked a bit phased out and his eyes looked around for a moment, and then he saw this cloth on the basket soaked in red. It was the cloth I had put on the strawberry basket to keep it clean.

"I am… bleeding?"

Gees how stupid could he be? Then 'Ema', the maid, caught up and said in a rush while trying to catch her breath.

"Master, are you okay?"

"I'm bleeding Ema", the boy said while feeling up his face with his hand.

"Oh no!"

"Calm down. You are not bleeding"

"But look at all this blood! and my face hurts like a hell"

"You ruined my strawberries"

The boy then took his hands off his face to look at his palms, then at the cloth soaked with broken strawberries underneath, and then at me.

"Oh."

"These were the best, and probably the very last, strawberries of the season… and you ruined them... I was going to sell them for good money and daddy would have been so happy.. you jerk."

The boy stared at me dazed, and Ema cut in

"Watch your tongue girl"

I just looked back at her gritting my teeth.

And then the boy said "Hey... I'm sorry"

What could I do? The strawberries were all ruined and I couldn't sell them anymore, but oh, they are rich right? They can surely pay for these as compensation

"You will need to pay for these strawberries"

"You are right... I should. Ema, please pay for this girl's strawberries, it was my fault"

Then Ema said "You are so kind Master" and took out a few coins from her pouch and handed them over to me

"Is this enough?"

Hell yeah, it was more than enough! Pity that no one could eat the nice strawberries but this was a big haul!

"Yes! Thank you!"

"Right. Master, please be careful next time. We should return to the mansion and have the house doctor check up on you"

"But I'm fine"

"There is something called 'concussion', where you bump your head and you look fine, but some damage has been done inside your head and can later come back to cause trouble, You could end up very sick if not checked and treated immediately"

"Huh? Is that true?". I asked as my curiosity kicked in.

"Yes. That's why I should take Master back home as soon as possible. I apologise on my Master's behalf on your strawberries, but I believe you have been compensated sufficiently"

"Erm yeah, thanks for that.. but I remember I fell from the stairs yesterday and banged my head on the ground too. It hurt a lot at the time but I thought it was okay, but now.. do you think I may have this 'concushion' thing?"

"It's 'concussion', not some kind of 'cushion' and I'm not a doctor"

Then the boy was like "Hey, you come to my house together. Let's have the doctor check on you too"

"Master, what are you suggesting?"

"It's okay Ema. If you are worried I have concushion from hitting my head, this girl might have been hurt as well"

"It's 'concussion' Master.."

"Ah whatever. Let's just bring her home"

"But I can't go now.. my daddy will be worried if I don't come home late"

"Where is he?"

"He's working at.. erm… 'your' potato field now"

"What's his name?"

"Yori"

The boy then chuckled and said "That's a weird name, is that his

surname?"

"Don't laugh at other people's names. Well we are Kazga, so he's Yori Kazga, but us 'commoners' just use the first name normally"

"Right, sorry about that! Ema, please have someone sent to the field to tell Mr. Kazga we will take his daughter for a check-up with our doctor and he shan't be worried"

"Yes Master"

"Right, Ms...Kazga, please come together with us"

That was that. Our first meeting. It started off as this mega annoying disaster, but it was start of something beautiful, but also, something really awful.