Walking down the elven road

Chapter 13

Melya decides to sneak up to the person, scare him so bad he pees his pants so he goes away, to at least change his clothes. Carefully she steps forward on the stones, cautiously not stepping on the little twigs which make such an awful noise when you try to scare someone. She still doesn’t know how to scare him though. Yelling: “Booo!” probably isn’t very scary and she would wake half the castle. A lot of people wouldn’t appreciate that, and besides, if everyone is awake she loses her me-time. Even before she has chosen one of the many hilarious options, the man turns around. It certainly doesn’t matter anymore.

It’s Kithan.

And it’s probably not the best idea to make your boss pee his pants.

 

“What are you doing here?” he says, sounding quite annoyed.

“I could ask the same of you,” she answers boldly.

“Couldn’t you just go away?”

“This is the only garden I’m allowed to go to. So why did you come here?” Kithan sighs.

“Why would you care?”

“Well, since I’m your personal servant and I have to take care of you…” Melya’s courage starts to fade away slowly.

“So the only reason you would ask how I’m feeling would be because it’s your job. Not because you are my friend or anything. Everyone is like that, even Zaran. They only care about my title.”

“So it is loneliness you have, and loneliness you seek.”

“That doesn’t make the tiniest bit of sense.”

“It does to me. It’s very simple. You are lonely because basically all the people around you don’t care about you as you. But even though they do not care they are still around you, and they deprive you of your rest. So you go to a place where no-one disturbs you. Like you come to the servant’s garden, which has almost no guards. I also think the hunting thing also has something to do with this.”

“There’s definitely more to you than meets the eye. First, a healer, now, a philosopher.”

“My parents raised me well.”

“I’ve never known my mother, you know? The Queen is just my step-mother.”

“I’ve heard some wild stories.”

“Really? Like?”

“Your mother would have been a forest witch who cast a spell on your father to have him fall in love with her.”

“That’s not very creative.” She shrugged.

“I wasn’t the walnut who made this up.”

“Walnut?” Kithan laughs.

“A more sophisticated version of ‘nut’. My mother told me it was rude to call someone names, so I made up nicer versions. She didn’t really approve of those either, but she was more okay with it than the original version.”

“Right. Well, since my so-called seeking for loneliness is obviously disturbed, would you like to walk with me?”

“Of course I would.” Kithan walks off, still on the King’s beloved grass, toward a huge, old fountain on the edge of the garden. Its stone used to be as white as snow but when the angels standing on the top came crashing down in a storm the weeds around it weren’t cut anymore so the whole thing is covered in creepers with big leaves. There is still some water in the fountain, lilies and frogs live in it. All together it reminds Melya of the ever-present nature of Mother Earth, always struggling to stay alive, its roots sunk deep in the earth.

“This was my mother’s favorite fountain,” Kithan says softly, “Hanna, her handmaid, told me that. My father and mother had a fight, as it seems, and she left. The King was so angry he had the guards break down her fountain and degraded all of her maids to a low level so he didn’t have to see their faces and be reminded of his wife. He never talks of her.”

“So that’s why no-one seems to remember her.”

“Exactly. Everyone who wants to have a career in the palace would be wise not to talk of my mother.”

“Do you know who she is? Where she went, where she came from?”

“I don’t know where she came from. I know that when she left she returned. Hanna says she was very beautiful, a narrow face just like me, weird ears just like me…”

“And do you know her name?” Kithans face lights up a bit.

“I do know that! Her name was Xoriah,” he says. Melya breathes in sharply and pales. “What is it?” he asks, “Are you not well?”

“I am, I mean, I am well,” she mumbles.

“Then what is it?”

"Xoriah... She banished me."