Try and Catch Me

Recovery
“How are your wounds?” Lia asked in a quiet voice.

“Fine.”

“…I’m sorry I was such a jerk earlier and I’m sorry for leaving just like that. It’s just…” She cut her words, not knowing how to continue. Everything she would say would come out as an excuse; they would both know it. But she could not lie either.

“I know. I’m sorry too for raising my voice.” He lowered his voice and added, “A note would have been nice, though.”

Lia nodded. The silence stretched on between them but no one felt the need to fill it in. On her part, Lia was comfortable. This silence was soothing if not healing. After a while, it was Lia who broke the silence first.

“Remember how Tamara became my mother?

Eldric glanced in her direction. “You said, she adopted you when your parents died.”

Lia nodded. “My parents died due to sickness. There were only three of us. We were poor but happy. And because we are poor, we kept on changing places, camping here and there. I-I guess that didn’t sit well to most people as we were shooed away most of the time. It didn’t really matter. Until one day, my parents got ill and nobody wanted to help. Only Tamara stepped in. But they were already too ill to be cured. They died and she took me in. But when I learned that living with her means, living in seclusion…”

“You rebelled?” Eldric guessed.

“You can say that. I hated every minute of it.”

Lia swallowed she was not sure why she was telling these to Eldric, it was not even her memories. But she felt really sad that no one seemed to know how much kindness the world owed to her mother. Yet she kept on being deprived of that, Lia included.

“But things got better?”

“Yes, in a way. I realized that she wasn’t the witch everyone seemed eager to prove anyway.”

Eldric turned to her so his body was facing her fully. “I’ll find out the organization behind this and then I’ll clear your mother’s name.”

“That’s not the reason I’m telling you these.”

He shook his head in response. “I have a lot of reasons to find that organization.”

“But not clearing my mother’s name.” She insisted.

“No, I do. First, I owe her–you, both of you, my life. Second, she’s a friend. Third, your story just now reminds me of the King.”

“The King? As in the King of this country?”

Eldric laughed. “That very king. You see, His Majesty picked me off the streets when he was still a prince. Everything that I am today, it’s because of him. So if anyone tries to slander him, I’d cut them down for him.”

His words posed a lot of questions but Lia decided to leave them for now. “No one, in their right mind, would do that to the king,” Lia said but she could not help the corners of her lips to curve upwards.

“I can’t bet on that. He has a lot of enemies.”

“Like the organization?”

Eldric nodded. After a while, Lia stood up. “Do you mind if I take one last look around?”

Eldric gave her permission and she went around the house. It was black and dreary. But she only wanted to take one last look. She reached the small backdoor and saw a pot of plant. The plant did not survive the fire but the pot did for some reason. They used this pot to leave notes to each other in case the other needed to go out while the other was away. They rarely use it but Lia remembered it now when saw something sticking out under it.

“Lia, are you done?”

“Yes!” Lia jogged towards Eldric, slipping a crumpled paper inside her pocket.