Beautiful Cries

Chapter Twenty-Four: Shades of the Past

Damari choked on his own saliva as his father's words sunk in, causing him to double over and attempt to catch his breath.

"What makes you ask that, Father?" Damari breathed, rubbing his aching throat while Maarika and his father made their way from the old cottage towards Alena, Rhadamanthus and the other woman.

Leon smirked, bumping Maarika up higher on his shoulders. "I know these things, Damari. Anyone with eyes can see that you're head over heels for that girl."

"I am not."

"Oh don't worry, she is too." Leon sympathized immediately with a horribly unconcealed smirk.

Pressing weary hands to his face, Damari let out a nervous laugh that shook his shoulders precariously as he looked at his father suspiciously.

"Why do I have the feeling that you are going to do something rather out of place, Father?" he questioned lowly, watching his father closely as he set Maarika down gently onto the ground and looked over at Alena inconspicuously.

"Perhaps, Son," Leon murmured more to himself than Damari, "that is because I am about to do exactly that."

With those cleverly placed words, Leon winked at Damari and then made a dead sprint across the fields, leaving Damari and his sister trailing behind him in his grassy wake.

"Father!" Damari shouted, staring at Maarika nervously as she moved closer to him with her doll held tightly in hand. "You can't just leave me with this little sea nymph!"

"Hey!" Maarika grouched, her hands fixing themselves pointedly on her tiny hips. "Only Daddy gets to call me his little sea nymph. Not you, Mister!"

At her fiery words, Damari's eyebrows rose of their own accord, making him look at her in shock while she nodded her head and gave him a cheeky smile before skipping off after their father.

Shaking his head lightly, Damari laughed as Maarika's hazelnut colored curls bounced back and forth as she skipped across the grassy fields, not stopping until she had finally made her way up next to Alena and the blonde haired woman.

~~~~~~~~

"Are you sure that this is the right house?" Alena asked nervously, watching Rhadamanthus carefully as he stood in front of the petite looking cottage, hands placed thoughtfully in his pockets.

He shrugged his shoulders and smoothed a hand through his hair nonchalantly, acting more like a creature above ground then one below it.

"As I told you, this is the house of the one you spoke of. How she responds to you is of her nature, not mine."

Grumbling to herself about uncooperative judges and lack of intelligence, Alena smirked, sliding her age old mask into place.

For the first time in what felt like eons, Alena felt her palms begin to grow sweaty, her heartbeat beginning to race while butterflies fluttered in her stomach.

Oh get over it already, it's not like this isn't your first time meeting.

Laughing under her breath she remarked. "It might as well be."

"Would you rather me knock?"

Rhadamanthus' soft spoken words caught Alena off guard as he held a hand over the ancient looking wood, waiting for her to give him permission to set her fate in motion.

Jerking her head to the right in a semblance of agreeing, Rhadamanthus knocked carefully against the door so as not to disturb or frighten the occupant that was in no way used to the company of visitors.