Claimed by Callista

Chapter ✺ 19

Back at Sovrex, after a week away, I was intercepted by my mother quite suddenly. She pulled me aside from Nyaor, Callista and Osrunr – who were busy helping around the tribe anyway after my return.

My mother and I stand at the edge of a pond, where she crosses her arms over her chest and looks into the trees, looking far too serious.

"What's the matter, mama?" I ask her carefully, curious by her interception of me.

We had barely spoken since my integration into the tribe, and hers.

"We need to talk about your father."

Father died when I was seven... she rarely talked about him and I tried not to, as I missed him dearly and he meant the world to me. The memories were too painful.

I approach the topic carefully, to protect my own heart and mind on the sensitive subject.

"...okay... what do you want to tell me that I don't already know?" I try not to snap about all the times she said was I just like him; in a negative sense. Namely reckless and outspoken.

"Your father was a strange man," she nods to herself, rolling her eyes, looking at the sky, before looking back down at the pond, "...he held strange knowledge. Often spoke of things I did not understand, so he stopped telling me. Over time he lived with the land, and integrated to our tribes life. He loved the peace."

"I remember when he used to say, putting me to bed, that outside these forests, was a great vast land..." I recount him dramatically, swiping my hand through the air.

"Yes," she nods, "I never believed everything he said. But now I worry, that he is perhaps not dead, but alive – and coming back to see you. Potentially taking you from us all, to his vast lands. Wherever and whatever they may be."

"...father is alive...?" I focus on that point, the rest is crazy talk, "W-wait.... you – you suspected father is alive and you did not tell me? I thought he was eaten by a crocodile," I hiss at her, "You told me –"

"A mother will lie to protect their child," she hisses back, eyes ablaze, "Listen to me."

I stand back from her, feeling my heart split open in my chest.

"Are you saying father left us?" I ask, the pain in my chest is excruciating. She nods and I feel tears abruptly pour out of my eyes, as I feel as if a child once more, "Why would you lie to me, mama – I grieved him terribly."

"Because I did not know if he would come back," my mother approaches, she sees the need to run in my eyes, so she apprehends my wrists – but not lightly. She claws down on me, forcing me to stay. The pain shakes me out of my emotion, and I focus on what she has to say.

"Last night I saw a camp, far away – outside the valley. You need to alert the Magus."

"What camp?" I ask, "Why is a camp a worry – have you gone mad –"

"I saw thousands," my mother whispers.

I pause, closing my lips.

"Thousands of what?" I inquire, I could not even fathom the number, it was so rarely used.

"People," she whispers.

"You're crazy," I pull away and she claws me deeper.

"Believe me, don't tell everyone, I know it sounds crazy but you must listen and look for yourself," she commands me, and I see the real fear in her tone, "Your father may have been telling the truth, that there is more out there. Okay?"

"What do you want me to do again?" I ask, flustered, and flabbergasted.

"We need the wisdom of our Magus, to guide us, okay? Do you understand," my mother finally lets me go, "Yehseeka, do not disobey me this time. Please."