Key To My Heart || Slugterra

47| The Past

4 days before war...

"Alessia?"

I looked up from the map I was studying and saw Master Lian at my door.

"Master! What brings you here?" I asked as I kept the map away and stood up from my chair, wondering why she was awake at this hour. It was literally midnight.

"May I come in?" she asked.

"Yeah! Absolutely," I said, and she took a step forward. Her eyes scanned though the plain, minimalist room. The working table was placed in front of the door. The bed was beside the door, and the wardrobe was placed beside the bed. There were shelves built in the wall where the table was put against.

My slugs that were fooling around in the room stopped and looked up at Master Lian.

After she examined the room, she then looked at me straight in the eyes, without a clear expression.

"Alessia, do you know who you are?" she asked in an unusually calm tone.

"Who I am?" I questioned, raising an eyebrow. "What do you mean by that? Of course I know who I am! I'm Alessia, the protector of-"

"As in, your origin. Where do you come from," she explained herself. "Whenever I'm in the same room with you, I can feel something. You are always different than the others. It almost feels... more comfortable when you're around."

... what?

"I'm sorry. I don't know what you're talking about," I said and let out a soft giggle. Master Lian smiled at me.

"It's okay. Who are your parents? Maybe that can explain what I am feeling," she asked. I just looked at her, not knowing what to say for a moment.

"Well actually, I grew up in an orphanage," I confessed after a long pause.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," she said in guilt.

"It's okay. I'm used to it. It's just... I don't usually talk about it," I said. "My parents abandoned me on the streets when I was still a baby. A kind, elderly lady found me in a box, drenched in rainwater, shivering in the cold. I would have died that night if she didn't help me. I can't be any more grateful for her, but because of her age, she was physically unfit to take care of me, so that was how I ended up in an orphanage. The lady would sometimes come to visit me, but one day, I remember I was waiting for her at the gates, but she never came. I was too young at that time to realise that she probably passed away.

"Years went by and don't get me wrong, I am beyond grateful for the financial aid my orphanage granted me, but I knew that I couldn't stay there forever. I started working part-time at a very young age, while still attending school. It was tough. Everyone looked down on me, even the adults. Until..."

I paused, taking in a shaky breath.

"Until Eli came into my life, and things were never the same again."

A tear escaped my eyelids, and I looked down to hide it from Master Lian.

"Yeah, that's my story. There is a part of me that still believes they still love me, and they abandoned me because they were going through something out of their control and had no choice but to leave me. I really tried to search for them, but I gave up a few years ago. I didn't know where else to look. No one knew about my parents' whereabouts. The only person that possibly know about my parents was that lady."

I took the courage to lift my head and smile at Master Lian. She was shocked and speechless.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know," she apologised again.