Ald swore the farmhouse had never been that far away from the main gate. His thighs burned, the palm of his feet were sore, his head nodded on its own, betraying alertness at every turn.
A long while ago had the friendly raven left him, flown away to mix in with the blurry shapes of the horizon. Approaching the door of his home, he reached for his keys, and stopped. What if Kali was inside? Could he leave again if he returned to her so easily? And despite the doubt… bed called. To sleep, to stop thinking and feeling for a while, that would be a bliss, he though. After inserting the key in the hole, but before turning it, he realized he could not go into the house still dressed as a soldier. He had to stash the leg plates, the wristbands, the sword, the club and the chainmail away in the farm’s toolshed. He had not been given any sort of hard chest protection, as Gleur had considered the extra weight would only slow them down and they were unlikely to face anything far too dangerous in the forests.
Once he got rid of everything that could identify him as a soldier, he lingered in the toolshed for a while. There, in that small wooden room he had built in his youth, lay all the (movable) tools of his professions. The farmer’s hoe, sickle, gloves. The blacksmith’s hammers, aprons, pincers. His old military uniform, the helmet, the saber. His life, present and past, was there. The future, too, he hoped. To die farming, to die forging while Kali and her adoptee visited him now and then. Too much to ask, maybe, but too humble of a wish, at the same time.
He could sleep there, on the ground, maybe using chainmail for pillows. There, on the dirty boards, with only his clothes separating his skin from the wood. That way he could have a mediocre night’s rest without having to make up excuses for why he was leaving again the next day.
But what good did it make to lie to Elvisat? She was taking care of Kali, and she knew what he had gotten into. IT was only fair to her if he went into the house, pulled her apart from Kali and informed her of the current situation. Then, he would just need to lie to the child a bit more.
Soon enough he left the shed behind and dragged his feet up to the house. He would enter wearing the best weary smile he could come up with. He flipped the key, opened the door, and was received by the endearing scene of Elvisat losing a card game against Kali.
They both immediately turned their heads against Ald after heating the door.
“Greetings, people,” he said, jokingly.
“Ald! I thought you wouldn’t come back until next week!” Exclaimed Kali, running to meet and hug him.
With all the class so becoming of her, Elvisat stood from the chair, put on her grumpy face and approached Ald, who, didn’t know where to hide, or how to do it with Kali glued to his leg.
“You have returned early.”
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“Unforeseen circumstances tend to have that effect.”
They both were aware they had to communicate surreptitiously while in presence of Kali. Kali, on her part, considered Ald was behaving a bit weird. He was not lifting her in his arms, nor asking them what they had done. For someone less innocent, it would have been suspicious. For her, instead, it was disconcerting.
“Ald, we had so much fun playing cards, do you know what we played?”
“Something exciting I am sure, Kali. Now, let me get some needed rest, yes? Your caretaker is tired.”
Kali harrumphed and stormed back to the table, where she began playing solitaire.
“And?” asked Elvisat. The old hag had positioned herself in the way to the bedroom, and not out of carelessness.
“Today is not the day you know. Tomorrow, maybe.”
“Oh, but today is, young man. One word, give me one word that quells an aspect of my curiosity to spur anotrher. One word and I let you go to sleep.”
Ald looked at the roof, then at the floor, and then back at Elvisat. What a chore it was to please her.
“Niece,” Ald finally mentioned, before advancing towards the room, gently pushing Elvisat to the side.
Elvisat walked the orchard hand in hand with Kali, appreciating the fruit trees as her little sister babbled about how to take care of them. At her tender age Kali had learned almost everything there was to know about the trees in Ald’s orchard.
“And, Kali, which tree is your favorite, among all of these?” Elvisat said, gesturing with her open hand at the multitude of plants of trunks thick or thin; with leaves orange, blue or green, with bark so dark or so clear.
“The Galul trees. Their fruits are the sweetest in our farm. Well, the fruit of the old trees, the fruit from the younger tree is yucky. Ald says this is because the tree still needs to mature. According to him, in about five or six years it should give fruit as good or better than the otherb two. Six years, that’s!” she started counting with her fingers. “Two times three! I am three! I will be old and toothless and ugly by then!” she finished her diatribe. If there was something Kali was passionate about, it was sweets.
“I don’t believe you will be toothless, Kali. Look at me, I am fifty-four and I still have all forty-four of them. I am only on my third dentition.”
“Your diet must be boring, big sis.”
“Ald gifts me fruits now and then.” She raised her hand and pointed towards a tree with long, lanceolate leaves and purple fruits whose surface resembled the convolutions of a brain. “Freeblebay is my favorite.”
“Yuck!”
“They make for an exquisite lam, dear. One day I will teach you how to do it, when you are older and have more patience.”
Kali looked at her straight in the eyes.
“I thought I was very clear when I stated: yuck.”
“You are impossible, Kali. Ald loves the impossible.”
“He also loves these trees! Most are older than me,” Kali said, as if it wasn’t obvious from looking at the plants.
“I’d wager some are older than Ald himself.”
“I don’t know. But now I wonder something: why aren’t all trees born the same day?” Kali said, looking up at the fruit tree they were currently passing below, with its round, turgid, red fruits.
“Like most Felsians?”
She nodded energetically.
“Well, Kali, in time you will see we are the exception and not the rule, when we talk about birthdays.”
“But why?”
Elvisat swallowed and averted her gaze, now searching the sky above their heads.
“Caprice or blessing of Our Celestial Mother and Father. Given Ald is sleeping, do you want to go to the commercial district and buy some cake?”
The high-pitched, mirthful noise proffered by Kali scared away a crow that rested among the boughs of the older Galul tree.