Kalmia was still sleeping in her bed well past sunrise. Dedrik didn't realise she had already returned, so he went on with his usual day, which was doing a sermon in the church. The sun was almost at its zenith when Kalmia finally woke up.

She hadn’t slept well at all and wanted to continue laying in her bed. For all she thought it would be best to just continue sleeping. At least then she wouldn't have to think about her father.

For many hours she didn't move out of the bed. Even though she got very hungry, she refused to get up to get something to eat. She felt like she had to puke, but nothing ever came out. That feeling came from deep inside her stomach. It felt worse than her entire transformation into this form. Not on a pain basis, but rather on a feeling basis. Never in her life had she felt anything like that.

For the entire day she did not move out of the bed. When night came she was too hungry and thirsty to fall asleep again, so she just continued laying there. The hunger and thirst she felt couldn’t compare to the pain that her father potentially felt due to her disappearance? Ever since she left she had gone on with her life without even thinking about how he would feel. She felt like she had a larger problem but she could at least have left some information to her father.

She didn't know whether or not what she had done was the right thing. All she knew is that she would probably never see her father again. It all was made so much worse by the fact she couldn't even say her goodbyes to him.

All night she didn't move out of the bed. Only the day after did she finally get up to get something to eat and drink. When she went down towards the exit to the local well to get something to drink, she met Dedrik.

"Oh, you're back already? How did things go?"

"I prefer not to talk about it."

"Why is that? Something unpleasant?"

Kalmia just walked past him without saying anything. She was tired and didn't want to talk at all. Even less about her current mental state.

She walked out the door with a wooden bucket in her hands and went right towards the well. She tied the bucket to a rope and threw it into the well. After that, she pulled it back up again and loosened the knot. Then she went back inside the house again and towards the kitchen. Dedrik had put something to eat on the table. He had a very strong impression, considering the encounter just a few minutes ago, that she was not feeling well and wanted to ease it a bit for her. One slice of bread is all she ate, however. After having eaten that, she felt nauseous again so she excused herself and went up into the room, where she once again laid down on the bed.

For the next two weeks Dedrik would lay down something to drink and eat in front of her door every day, so she would have some nourishment each day. Every morning he would knock on the door, to ask whether or not she would be willing to eat at the kitchen table with him. Every time she told him that she would not feel well enough.

After that it still took three days for her to be willing to go down to the kitchen to eat with Dedrik. She was still not talking much, but at least she would show up outside of her room again. By now she had eyebags under her eyes which had developed due to several nights when she couldn't sleep. Her once so happy and friendly eyes just looked tired now. Her posture degraded into a hunchback, and her expression said nothing but to leave her alone. It was as if she was a completely different person who was always in a bad mood. Another few weeks were needed for her to get to a state again where she would feel comfortable talking again. She always refused to tell Dedrik what was going on with her though.

The start of the school year was not far away so Dedrik tried to somehow brighten her mood up a bit more. For that reason he told Kalmia that she should come down to the kitchen that evening. In secret he had baked a cake while she was up in her room. It was simple to bake something as long as one had a cookbook, however sugar was quite expensive and difficult to obtain. It took Dedrik a while to get the sugar, but after a week of waiting for the local store to get some, he was finally able to bake the cake. As he hadn’t baked anything at all in a long time, it took quite a while, with a cookbook, for him to finally get it done. One could say he tried his very best to make her happy... or at least brighten up her mood a bit more.

When she came down to look at what Dedrik had prepared, he sneaked up to her from behind and held his hands over her eyes.

"What are you doing?"

"Well, I wanted to surprise you... and if you see it, it won't be a surprise...."

"Fine... then lead me where you want me to go."

Dedrik smiled a bit and led her to the kitchen, right in front of a chair.

"Now, please sit down."

Kalmia did as Dedrik said and sat down on the chair that was behind her.

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"Keep your eyes closed."

After saying that, Dedrik removed his hands from her eyes and took a fork into his right hand. The cake was already sliced, before Kalmia came down, so he just poked through a slice of the cake and brought it to Kalmia's mouth.

"Now open your mouth."

Kalmia opened her mouth and, as soon as she had felt something entering it,closed it again. She tasted the delicious and sweet taste of cake. It was the best cake she had ever had in her mouth. It had a very nice and sweet taste. After getting through that she got to a layer of apple. It tasted pretty fresh, considering it was still early in the year. Because they were baked though, they were still quite tender.

She started smiling a little bit. She couldn't stop herself from doing that.

"So... what do you think? Do you like it?"

"It tastes..."

Dedrik got visibly tense.

"Better than those cakes we bought in the city."

Dedrik’s tension all dissipated in a moment, and he started smiling.

"Well you know... I baked that myself."

"Wait... you can do that?"

By now Kalmia had her eyes opened again and admired the - quite large - cake in front of her.

"Took me a while, but because you were essentially staying in your bed the past few days, I had plenty of time to bake this."

"Was it... a lot of effort?"

"It sure was. But it was worth it to see you smile again."

Kalmia hadn’t thought about Dedrik at all. In the past - almost - year, he had taken care of her and taught her a lot. She couldn't get over the loss of her father, but at least she still had someone that wanted her to feel good and wanted to talk to her.

Her mood lifted up by a substantial amount, even though she still felt some emptiness deep inside of her.

"Then go ahead and also eat some yourself. You deserve it more than me."

"Sure. I hoped you would say something like that. Baking it made me quite hungry. But first..."

Dedrik took a can of tea that he had prepared on the stove and filled two porcelain cups with it.

It was not the same kind of tea that Kalmia had before. When she brought it to her mouth to drink, after it had cooled down a bit, she tasted about the same basic taste, but it was a lot woodier than the teas she usually drank with Dedrik.

"Hmm. I like this one."

"That's nice to hear. I usually don't drink this type of tea but I also really like it."

"Why not?"

"It is quite expensive."

"Too expensive for you?"

"Yes, even for me."

"Hah... interesting."

When they were done with the cake, Kalmia had eaten about half of it and Dedrik a fifth. The rest was packed in a bit of paper and put on a shelf. That would lead to it being fresh a bit longer so that Kalmia could eat the rest later.

Dedrik had achieved his goal for the day. He managed to brighten up Kalmia's mood a bit. This was very important to him. Not only because of the school but also because he really wanted to see her happy again. It hurt him seeing her in the state she was in for what was essentially an entire month.

The time they still had left was used with them spending some time together. Dedrik tried his best to not bring up anything about what had happened to her, and Kalmia tried her best to hide when she had bad thoughts from Dedrik.

A week later, Dedrik remembered something.

"Oh yeah, the written entrance tests."

"... Yeah? What about them? Did I pass?"

"You were decently fine in the literature test and pretty good with the maths test.

But your Menianese grammar test was, to be frank, quite bad."

"Eh. Does it really matter?"

"Yes and no. You should catch up on that. It's not in the entrance test for no reason."

"Do I have to?"

"You better do. Otherwise you will have problems at school."

"Eugh. I hate this subject. But sure. I'll try."

Kalmia focused her time on learning for school again but this time around with a lot less focus and a lot less pressure. The day of her departure came closer and closer until the day she woke up to a horse drawn wagon standing in front of the house.

**CHAPTER 12: END**