Chapter Fourteen

The next three days went by agonizingly slowly. Nia didn’t know if that was because of their relaxed pace or because of the frigid cold biting at her, clawing at her thick winter dress, trying desperately to get inside. It was a constant battle to keep warm, one that her magic only helped to put into a stalemate.

She didn’t want to complain. It was her idea to leave before spring, before the snow had melted and the temperature had risen to something slightly more tolerable. So, she suffered in silence, at least until Mister Greeny felt her violent shivering.

After that, he had forced her to stop every few hours to warm herself against his core, the glass-like ball of emerald and churning gold held deep within his chest. It wasn’t as warm as a fire but immeasurably more beautiful. The first time she had seen Mister Greeny’s core, she was left speechless, and when she had pressed herself against it, she had never felt so safe.

Not even in her mother’s arms. That thought caused a lance of guilt to pierce her heart.

She kept that thought to herself as they walked, and eventually, through the trees and the piles of snow, they could see the outskirts of the village. It looked just the same as she remembered. The buildings were short and squat, the planks of timber that made them held together by chiseled joints and wooden dowels with ribbons of woodsmoke trailing from thatched roofs covered in a thick layer of dirty snow.

Knee-high valleys of snow snaked between the various buildings, carved by shovels and sweat, many of those responsible she could see still hard at work. Keeping the snow clear was a never-ending task during the winter months, one she was lucky to have avoided. Although she hated her time in the village and almost all of those inside of it, she couldn’t help but feel a mixture of anticipation and relief as they drew closer to her home.

You should go on ahead. Mister Greeny said to her as he stopped, lowering himself so she could more easily slide off his back.

“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” Nia told him as she wrapped her arms around his giant head, her hands never touching each other. “Wish me luck.”

With those words, Nia hurried off toward the village. The deep snow was no obstacle to her hurried steps, but the hidden roots were, as she soon discovered. Hardly ten feet into her happy return, Nia fell face-first into the cold snow, her arms flailing out to catch herself and her startled screaming echoing through the trees.

Her home hadn’t changed from the day that she had left. It hadn’t been very long, only three months or so, but it felt much longer to her. Nia stood before the closed door and brushed the clinging snow from her damp clothes with shaking hands. She was having difficulties steadying her shallow breaths, and her chest thrummed painfully as her heart tried to escape.

She knocked.

She could feel hostile eyes boring into her back as she waited. Some villagers had spotted her as she entered the village, many following after her at a distance, not speaking a single word to her, only watching with poorly veiled sneers. Yet another thing that hadn’t changed in the short time during her absence, somehow it felt even worse than before. She did her best to ignore them.

A heavy clink rattled the door before her, and it began to open slowly. Nia’s breath caught in her throat as her eyes quickly adjusted to the dimly lit entryway, revealing her mother. She had never looked so sad.

And it broke her heart.

“Mama…” Nia sobbed, reaching out to her sickly-looking mother only inches away from her.

Her mother’s face was gaunt and pallid, with heavy purple bags under her dull eyes, as if she hadn’t eaten or slept a wink in weeks. Her long, golden hair had turned brittle and grey, and Nia could see patches where it thinned so much so as to see her scalp. She wore a disheveled dress over her malnourished frame, rumpled and brown and just as miserable-looking as she was.

And as Nia wrapped her up in a hug, she collapsed in her arms.

Nia gently washed her mother’s face with a soft cloth while waiting for her to recover. She had managed to carry the deceptively light woman to her bedroom, ignoring the mess the house had devolved into on her way. It looked like her disappearance had had a much greater impact than she thought it would have. She wondered where her father was.

“N—Nia…” her mother muttered, her sunken eyes fluttering weakly as she stirred.

“Mama. Mama, I’m here.” Nia cooed. “I’m okay, I’m here. I’m so sorry I left, but I’m back and I’m okay.”

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Unfocused eyes stared up at her, hollow and miserable. Her mother's look hinted at something terrible, much worse than the worry she must have felt because of her disappearance. It was a look of relief and blame, a silent accusation that no amount of love could conceal.

“Nia,” her mother’s feeble voice caused Nia’s stomach to drop. “Wh—where did you go? I thought they took—”

Warm tears fell from the corners of Nia’s eyes as she caressed her mother’s face, interrupting her. “I went to find my parents…” Nia flinched when she saw the hurt on her mother’s face. “My birth parents. Mama, they died. I thought that maybe they were still out there, somewhere, but they’re not.”

“Oh, Nia—” Her mother started to say before her daughter interrupted her again.

“But I found the Forest Spirit mama. He’s the one that saved me when I was a baby; he’s the one that brought me to you and Dad!” Her voice had grown high and excited as she smiled. “He’s out in the forest, waiting for us. He wants to meet you and Papa.” She looked around the house for a moment before asking the question that had been at the back of her mind. “Mama, where is Papa?”

“No one would help us look for you.” Her mother told her as she sat up and squeezed Nia’s hands. “They refused no matter how much your father and I begged and pleaded with them…”

“Mom, where is Dad?” Nia asked with trembling lips and a heavy heart.

“He’s…” Her mother stammered as her body was wracked with painful, jolting sobs. “He’s behind the house… underneath the oak tree…”

“No… No, no…” Nia’s shocked words turned garbled when what she heard turned into an overwhelming loss.

“He—he went to the river to look for you.” Her mother continued as she wiped away her mournful tears with the hem of her sleeve. “He must have thought they had taken you. But they didn’t, did they?”

“What? Who would have taken me?” Nia asked, her throat thick with misery.

“Your father followed them, and they killed him.” Her mother’s eyes became hard, “They slit his throat, Nia because he went after them to save you…”

“Who?” She asked again, her mother’s words igniting a wrathful fire deep in her belly.

Her mother pulled her hand away from Nia’s, an indecipherable expression covering her face like an eerie mask. “ Your kind, Nia. Humans.”

“I—I don’t understand…”

“Your father went looking for you, Nia, and they killed him. They killed your father, and it’s… it’s your fault.” Her mother's words were charged with anger and grief. Tears ran down her face as she struggled to stand, pushing against Nia, who was still kneeling next to the bed.

“Mama… You don’t mean that…” Nia argued weakly, the heavy weight of guilt chaining her to the floor.

“You need to leave, Nia.” Her mother ground out quietly, each word slow and deliberate.

“What? Leave? Now?”

“Get. Out.” Came her mother’s barking reply. “You’ve always hated it here, I know that. You couldn’t wait to leave, even after everything we’ve given you…” Her mother half screamed, half sobbed as she continued. “Your father, my—my everything, gave his life for you, and that would have never happened if only you loved us as much as we loved you!”

“No, Mama, I lo—”

“Instead,” She shouted over Nia’s attempt to interject. “Instead of thinking of us, you only thought about yourself, spurned the life we had given you, all for people who had given you up without a second thought!”

“That’s not true! They died, Mama!” It was Nia’s turn to shout, her voice shrill and cracking. “They didn’t give me up! They died to protect me!”

“OUT! GET OUT!” Her mother wailed, slapping Nia across the face. “You’ve already died to me, Nia. If only they had taken you, then your father’s death would have meant something; instead, he died just because of a selfish little girl…”

Nia stood there in utter disbelief as her fingers trailed the welts already rising from her cheek. Instead of pain, all she felt was a bitter numbness, a void in the center of her chest where her heart used to beat. The world around her dimmed, and the colors were stripped away like leaves in a gale. She didn’t even realize that she had walked back into the forest until the willowy arms of Mister Greeny were wrapped around her.

She didn’t say a single word to him, only hugged him back and cried, and only when the warmth of his emerald core pressed itself against her cheek did she feel anything at all.