Chapter 8 - Papa

~ Eight cycles of the seasons - 15 Years earlier ~

“Did he leave his family?” she heard the whisper in her ear, “Or did his family leave him?”

Lia turned in the darkness, releasing her legs and settling into a cross-legged position, “Are you back again? It matters not, Doubt. He became mine.”

“How could you call him family, when your parents died the way they did?”

“Family is not just blood, Doubt.” Lia said quietly, looking at the younger version of herself.

“But he still hasn’t told you who they were, who the daughter is, who you reminded him of. What of the mother of his daughter? Did he just walk away too? You call him a father when he abandoned his own flesh and blood?” the girl snickered at her.

Lia sighed softly, “I now know what he was saying in that moment. Our kind and destiny.” she looked at the girl, the image of her younger self, “You are the doubt that plagued me then, not now.”

Lia smiled at her, her eyes narrowing, “Have you not grown, or is it because I overcame you years ago and learned to silence you?”

Doubt clicked her tongue in frustration, “Suspicion replaced me, didn’t she?”

Lia ran a finger down from the corner of her eye to her jaw, a sharp smile forming, “No, I just didn’t need you any more.”

Lia watched Doubt squirm, “He did not leave them. Destiny took them from him.”

The girl squinted in disbelief, “Destiny?”

Lia slowly unbuttoned her blouse, pulling back the folds and exposed the glowing sigil over her heart, “Destiny.” she said, looking down and touching the mark within her skin.

“She found hers and had no say on the matter, Harks’s only choice was to accept it.”

Doubt stared at her, reaching out and touching the faintly glowing flesh.

She looked into Lia’s eyes, “Does it not seem familiar?”

Lia frowned, slowly buttoning the blouse back up, “Familiarity can be found in everything in this world.”

Doubt nodded, her eyes troubled, “Do you not fear that you are caught here?”

Lia shook her head slowly, “I will wake when I mean to, not a moment later, and not a moment before.”

She looked about the darkness, unperturbed, “I am not trapped here, young one. It is just not time for me to wake yet.”

Doubt looked at Lia’s outstretched hand warily, before placing her own in hers. Lia guided her to sit on her lap, her back against Lia’s chest. She felt Lia’s arms slowly encircle her thin waist, holding her comfortably.

“You know why I abandoned you.”

Doubt nodded, holding one of Lia’s older hands in both of her own, inspecting it, tracing all the crisscrossed scars with a finger.

“I hurt you, Lia. I know now, I went too far. I raged and made the others act, I put you in danger. I hurt Papa.”

“Our actions caused him pain, yes. With blood on our hands I cast you out, you made me question what I should not have.”

Doubt looked back to Lia’s hand in her own, slick with blood that coated them both to the elbows, “But finally, I can not deny that you were a part that forced me to be stronger.”

Lia gently kissed the top of the girl’s head.

“I’m sorry Lia.”

“I know you are.”

The warm tone of a mid-autumn afternoon lit the sky, clouds making their way among the mountains in the cooling air. Leaves of umber, rust and gold drifted with the breeze and clung tenaciously to the trees that were trying to let them go. Forest animals were still out and foraging for their winter stores. A fleet form pushed its way through some underbrush, copper hair snagging on some trailing branches as she tore her way past.

Lia stopped for a moment, catching her breath through her sobs, tears tracking down her cheeks she wiped at them roughly. She had stormed out of the house half an hour earlier after Harks had refused to talk. He had berated her and she knew she was wrong, but she had to know. It had ended in an argument. An argument where she had pushed too far, even questioning his motivations for helping her.

She turned and continued walking into the forest, climbing up the slope of the mountain. Trying to get as physically far away from her guilt as possible. She slipped, falling to her hands and knees. Her tears came in a flood as she angrily sat, pulling her knees up and hugging them. Clenching her teeth, she screamed her frustration before breaking into tears again. She could see the disappointment in his eyes as he found her sitting on his bed, going through the few letters he kept stored away. The burning shame she had felt in that instant had made her lash out, trying to cut him with half formed arguments and immature reasoning.

She cupped her face in her hands and cried openly. Earlier in the week he had received a number of sealed letters, when he hadn’t before. After reading one of the letters he had seemed unsettled then distant. He did not wish to speak of them, despite her pestering, instead telling her not to be concerned. She didn’t understand the feeling, she had never felt it before, but not knowing drove her crazy. It worried her and after two nights without sleep, she had somehow come to the irrational conclusion that he was going to leave. Doubt had clawed at her mind until her only option was to strike out. After what she had done, she was certain if it wasn’t his intent, it would be now.

Lia hung her head, sobbing quietly. She didn’t know what to do. She had allowed her fears get the better of her. She dug her nails into her palms, the sharp pain clearing her mind. She didn’t want him to leave. Lia sat, at odds with herself. She thought hard as her tears continued to fall, she must make sure he didn’t leave. She had to apologise, beg even, he couldn’t leave her. Her eyes widened, was the letter he burned from his family? He would leave her for them, for the daughter she reminded him of.

She looked down the mountain and through the trees. He was hers now. She had to make sure of it. Lia stood and started down the ridge, blindly following an animal trail as she wiped at her tears and puffy eyes. Distracted by the fierce tumbling of her own thoughts she finally looked up, the light was now cutting through the trees at an angle. Lia frowned, quickly shifting off the trail and searching for a better vantage.

Holding a hand up to shield her eyes, she held her breath. The sun was moments away from starting to set. She quickly looked around to find that she did not know exactly where she was. Returning to the animal trail, she followed its descent down the ridge with her sharp eyes. Turning, she looked up along it.

“Lia, you took the wrong ridge.” she said to herself in frustration.

She started ascending the mountain, trying to retrace her steps, following the trail back up. In the distance she heard a low growl and in response she picked up her pace. Finally, as the light started to fade she reached the saddle of that arm of the mountain.

Peering down through the trees panic started to set in. She was running out of daylight. She had nothing with her, not a knife, water-skin or even a jacket. The last meal she had eaten was breakfast and her head was starting to spin. Biting at her lower lip, she continued walking along the crest, looking down the slope and trying to make sense of how she had got there.

Tears started to flow again as the fiery orange hues of the half-set sun poured through the forest. Her doubt was fast turning to fear. She was defenseless and unprepared for an evening romp through the wilds. She hadn’t taken note of her path as she ran from the village. The combination of the fading light, hunger and panic made the forest appear hostile and foreign. Lia leaned against a tree and tried to calm herself, taking deep breaths.

A howl erupted from nearby, shaking Lia into motion; a faint cry escaped her lips as she gasped. She fearfully turned, peering around the side of the tree she had backed up against, rubbing at her eyes and trying to clear the blurriness. Her eyes darted back and forth, searching the underbrush. Rolling back around the trunk of the tree, concealing herself once more, she closed her eyes and concentrated.

Lia called on a strand of the thread for a single moment, she didn’t need to see them when she could feel them. The embers of blue in her eyes died down while she quickly glanced around the tree and up the mountain. They could smell her; the remaining warmth of the day was rising up through the valley, drawing her scent with it as night descended. They were coming. She shook her head, vertigo and a nauseating twist in her stomach reminding her that if she wanted to remain standing, she had to avoid her powers.

She skirted the edge of the saddle as she haphazardly ran, looking down and trying to remember which ridge was the one that led to the village. Finally she could wait no longer, her keen ears picking out the sound of guttural panting over the fevered beating of her own heart and slid over the edge, getting her feet under her and trying to stop herself from falling. All she could do was focus on keeping her legs pumping as she ran, her feet snagging occasionally on uneven terrain on the steep decline toward the valley.

After a few hectic moments of crashing through the underbrush, she managed to stop with her hands pressed to a tree, breathing heavily. The light was almost gone, dusk was gripping the forest and twilight still gave a soft glow. She swallowed heavily, those beasts were above her somewhere, she could hear them. They had her trail now, sniffing at her footsteps above. A long drawn out howl pealed out over the mountains, it was so close it almost stilled her heart.

She quickly glanced at the trees further down; she had to get off the ground, out of reach. In the dimming light she spotted one that had low enough branches for her to climb. She took a deep breath and pushed off from the tree and ran as hard as she could. She didn’t dare look behind her instead focusing on the tree. A sharp pain blossomed in her ankle as it was snagged and she fell in a rough tumble. Sharp yelps, growls and the snapping of teeth descended on her as she struggled back to her feet and limped on, adrenaline coursing through her veins as she made the last few steps and grabbed hold of the lowest branch.

Lia pulled herself up, her strength starting to fail. The pair of wolves jumping up and scrabbling at the trunk in a frenzied attempt to reach her now that the smell of blood was in the air. She pulled herself higher, slipping, but managing to catch herself. Finally she sat in the crook of the tree with her face pressed against the trunk, her arms wrapped tightly around it. Her limbs felt so heavy.

“Papa?” she whimpered quietly, “Please, I’m so sorry.”

She looked down through the branches; she could make out the moving shadows and the gleaming teeth that caught the remaining light. One of the wolves stared up at her, its paws on the trunk, whining and yelping in frustration. She jerked as she heard another howl in the distance and another then finally one of those below tilted its snout to the sky and released its voice, emptying its lungs into the chill night air.

Lia shivered, her eyes clamped shut, trying to block out the sound of the mournful cry. A wailing sound of akin to the screaming of a terrified woman sounded in the forest, echoing the wolf’s howl. She glanced around; the last of dusk’s light being blanketed by the velvet embrace of a moonless night. Bereft of her sight, she pressed herself to the tree.

She could hear them, the wolves below. Their excited yelps and whines as they waited for their prey to fail and fall. Lia shivered, her teeth starting to chatter, the adrenalin was wearing off. Feeling a faint sense of vertigo, she shook her head, righting her balance against the trunk. Accidentally knocking her ankle against a branch, she cried out with the shock of pain. Immediately the wolves below started jumping at the tree again, yelping. She could hear it, their numbers had grown.

Nausea grew in her stomach and she retched, spitting out the bile that fouled her mouth. She almost gagged with the smell. She desperately wanted to use her power, at least to give some light, but the risk of collapsing was too high. She reached down and touched her ankle, wincing, the throbbing was so strong as she partially lifted her leg that she was unsure if she even touched it.

Again there was that shrill cry, like a woman screaming in the forest. Lia blindly glanced around, trying to make out the direction over the sounds of the gathering wolves below. A faint disturbance in the air near her ear made her whimper.

“Papa…I’m sorry.” Lia whispered into the trunk as she started to cry.

A dull thud came from below her and she caught her breath, stifling a sob. She strained her ears, listening. The sounds of the wolves below now growing excited again. An almost nondescript whistle and another thud followed with pained whining and whimpers. Another thud and another in quick succession and the voices of the wolves were reduced to one, panting and whining. She could hear it backing away, the scent of fear strong in the air. Then suddenly a long, faint whistle and a final dull impact and there was silence.

“Papa?” Lia whispered, wiping at her eyes with her sleeve.

She peered into the darkness, straining to see anything apart from the stars through the trees. A faint soft barking sound came from a nearby tree. She could hear faint noises and tried to focus on them, listening to the sound of practiced footsteps. A faint glow sprung to life nearby, slowly descending the slope. Her amber eyes tracked its steady movement until it was only a stone’s throw away. Finally that small glow was allowed to grow, creating a small field of light around its bearer.

“Papa?” Lia called out quietly, uncertain.

There was a short moment of pensive silence before she heard a voice.

“Lia, are you ready to come home now?” came Harks’s voice through the darkness, it was hoarse and rough.

“Papa!” she cried in relief.

“Wait there, I will come to you, dearest Lia.”

She watched through fresh tears as the light grew brighter, Harks making his way to the bottom of the tree. Lia gasped slightly as she saw the dead wolves lying about the bottom of the tree, five in total and all with Harks’s green fletched arrows impaling them. She continued to watch as Harks started to climb until he was level with her, his deceptively broad shoulders in line with her.

His intense blue eyes meeting her amber, he held out a hand, “I have you, my dearest Lia. I will never let you go.” he said, his voice thick with emotion.

Lia nodded, her eyes sparkling in the light thrown by his necklace and reached out, hooking her arms around his neck and feeling him support her as she hitched her legs around his waist. She bit back the pain from her ankle as he climbed back down the tree. Finally, he reached the bottom and placed her down on the ground away from the dead wolves and quickly wrapped her ankle.

“Papa?” she said, watching his eyes as he reached down, helping her stand.

“I will carry you home, dearest daughter.”

“Papa, I am so sorry, I…” she said as he lifted her without effort, cradling her.

He leaned in and kissed her forehead, “Quiet… Nothing can take me from you, dearest daughter.” he whispered roughly before setting off through the forest.