“How are you feeling?” Cellestra asked warmly, but with a hint of hesitation in her voice. My parents were still far enough behind us to not hear her words. They were slowly catching up.

“I’m…” I sighed. “I don’t know…” I said softly. “I’m happy. I got my parents back. No one is going to take that away from me anymore. It’s just that all this has made it so clear to me that I missed such an important part of my life. I wish I had memories of how things should have been.”

“It’s okay,” Cellestra whispered. “There are plenty of new memories to make, still.”

“You’re right. It just… it still hurts.”

Cellestra nodded, but said nothing and patted my spider head softly.

“Thank you,” I said after a while.

“It may sound weird,” Cellestra eventually said. “But you have a little sister. Are you not excited to meet her?”

“A little sister? Goddess, I hadn’t even realized that yet.” I paused. “A little sister…” I whispered. “I have no idea what to think about that. Would I not scare her?”

“You’re a giant fluffy, walking pillow. I think you’ll be fine.” Cellestra said with a shy smile. “At least once she gets to know you.”

“Thank you for the reassurance,” I said half-jokingly. “But I don’t know how I do with kids. I’m curious what she’s like if that answers the question.”

“That’s fair.”

My parents sped up their pace in order to catch up with us. When they did, it was my mother who spoke first again. “Kealyna, Cellestra, can we… invite you over for dinner or something later?”

I chucked and scratched my head. “Well…”

“It’s okay. We have a table outside we can use so you can join us.”

“There’s this other thing going on as well,” I said. “I don’t think I’ve eaten in a week and I’m not hungry whatsoever.” I shook my head as I realized what I was saying. “I mean, sure. I’m positive that Cellestra would like something other than dried meat for a change.”

The brunette giggled and then nodded. “That’d be lovely,” She said warmly. “Thank you.”

We reached the edge of the field again and turned around. After this next line, we would have about a quarter of the field done. At this rate, we would easily finish this within two hours. Plenty of time to talk about things.

“So tell me,” I started. “How is this place? To live in, I mean.”

“For you?” Keelarin remarked. “Hearing from what you’ve gone through, probably boring. Not much happens around here. Though there was the alarm bell ringing yesterday. Not sure what that was about.”

I held up a hand. “Sorry.”

“Oh, so that was you?”

I nodded. “Seems to be the normal reaction when people first see me. I was glad there wasn’t too much confusion. Though, I guess the braziers helped a good deal with that.”

“Well,” My father continued. “Besides that one incident, life has been quiet. Everything we need is right around the corner. We make more than enough money to live and to send Elira to school.”

“Elira is her name?” I asked.

“Oh. We forgot to tell you,” My mother filled in. “Yeah. That’s her name. We’ll pick her up in a couple of hours.”

“What’s she like?” I asked.

“She’s… shy. She’s still getting used to a new environment, but she’s slowly getting there. She seems to have a curious nature that’s starting to surface.”

“Curious, you say?” I chuckled. “Might come in handy when it comes to her meeting her big sister.”

I made sure to emphasize the word big, which caused Lilinia to start laughing. My father also let out a chuckle as he turned his head to look at the pattern at my abdomen again before looking back at me.

“What about the forest here?” I continued. “Anything special going on there? Large, dangerous creatures we need to be aware of when we sleep there?”

“You,” Cellestra suggested with a grin. I smiled at her joke, shaking my head.

“Nothing to worry about,” My father said. “Adventurers venture into the forest regularly to clear out anything that can cause harm due to the shrines’ proximity. Other than that, I believe there is a beginner dungeon somewhere close, but you’d have to check with the guild.”

“We’ll do that. I’ll also start breaking one of my heads over how we’ll fix shelter. Any chance we can have that dinner a bit early so we have some time to figure things out in the forest before it’s dark?”

My mother nodded. “Sure.”

A few more seconds of silence passed before my father spoke up. “I guess there’s no chance to convince you to work on the farm instead, is there?”

I shook my head. “Afraid not. There are some things that are coming for me sooner or later. That is likely to include some of Hograd’s fanatic followers too. I want to be ready when that time comes. I don’t feel much for dying… again. By the way, if you have questions for Elysa, don’t hesitate to pass them on to me. I’ll make sure to include them when I talk to her.”

“Will do,” Keelarin replied.

I reached the point where I didn’t know what to talk about anymore. I felt confused and awkward about it because I hadn’t seen them in so long. There should be much more for me that I wanted to know, I just felt… empty at the moment. I think the situation was made more difficult by the fact that for them, it felt like it was only weeks since they’d seen me, so their reactions to our reunification were vastly different than mine. Even so, they believed every word I’d said. I was thankful for that.

I simply enjoyed the presence of the people I loved being near me and continued my work in silence. During the silence, I could see my parents’ eyes dart over my body every now and then. I wasn’t sure what to think about it, but I was relieved to see that there was no aversion in their gazes.

I chuckled at what was said earlier. About how Elira was supposed to be curious. My parents matched that description pretty well themselves.

Eventually, they asked some more questions. About what I had in mind for the future, among other things. Unfortunately, I was unable to answer anything regarding the long term as I was unsure about it myself. For now, I had my mind set on joining the guild, exploring dungeons with Cellestra and perhaps, making a bit of a name for myself. This peaceful city seemed like an excellent place to start.

After an hour and a half, give or take, I finished tilling the last of the field. I stepped off the dirt to observe just how much I’d gotten done in this little time. My legs had gotten dirtier than they had ever been, which made me long for that shower once more. My beautiful white hair along the length of my body wasn’t spared either.

“Is this where I tell you that I can also do this?” I said as a joke when I held up my hand and allowed water to flow down in front of me. I stopped it after a few seconds. “Unfortunately, I won’t be able to summon nearly enough to water the field.”

“That’s… a pity,” My father let out with a grimace. “Thank you so much for your help. Is there anything we can do for you in return?”

I shook my head. “Don’t worry about it. You’ve done enough for me in the past. I wanted to do something back.” I made sure to turn to each of them to let them know I was looking at them. “Thank you so much. I’m just so happy you’re back in my life.”

My mother walked up in front of me and took me in for a hug. “And you in ours. We didn’t know what we missed until today.”

I hugged her back with my pedipalps and ran a hand through her hair. “You know, I’ve always loved this hair.” I referred to her and mine both. “It was my last and brightest memory of you.”

She kissed my forehead. “Yours is a mess right now.”

“I know, I know. I'll take care of that… probably tomorrow.”

“I’ll go pick up Elira,” My father mentioned. “I doubt they will mind if she leaves a bit early this one time.”

My mother nodded as she let go of me as Keelarin appeared behind her. He gave her a quick kiss before he started walking towards the city.

“In the meantime,” Lilinia said. “Can I offer you both something to drink?”

“Do you have tea?” Cellestra asked without hesitation, causing me to giggle.

“We do, yes. What’s so funny?”

Faragi

 

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