The Night Rider

Chapter 57

'Why didn't you ever tell me you knew this?' I stare ahead at the vast mountains and its colored lines. My red dress blows with the wind, making it float. 'It is my duty to save the lines but also to guard them. The less one knows the better'. With those words I turn to Noa. He stands perplexed with the book clutched in his hands.

'I know more than you think. I don't just keep magic, I keep my own secrets'. It's a confession he doesn't have much of yet but the first time I've said it out loud. I have a gift for seeing the future when I focus and interest on it. I didn't want to escape my disappearance just for the sake of it, but also because of what it will bring. A war for the lines and their magic is on the cusp and will have its final push once I disappear, which is the reason for that book.

You may wonder why I never expressed that. Life is finite for many but endless agony for others. A coming war will not help the many, it will be a time of death and destruction. 'Why do you say this?' Noa's words are soft. 'Because something is coming that is inevitable, something you must prepare for. The book answers many things'

*

Slowly my eyes open through the morning light. I have to concentrate to understand where I am. As soon as my eye catches Noa lying in the bed next to me, I remember how we got home. Don't get any ideas in your head that aren't true. The sleeping boy next to me has his black hair hanging tousled along his face. He seems to be peacefully in dreamland which secretly brings a smile to my face.

Despite it being a cute sight, I still get up from my bed. Dressed only in my underwear, I walk to the closet and open it as quietly as I can. I take out a silk dressing gown and pull the black piece of fabric around me. It covers just enough to walk to the kitchen, I think to myself. On my toes, I walk out of the room and close the door gently behind me.

With my bare feet, I walk on the carpet through the hallways. It's still early, which is obvious from the number of guards. I have no sense of time, not for months. The days go by, half of which I don't even notice. I want to continue my way along the corridors and doors but am startled out of my own thoughts.

'Rafiki!'. I shrug and turn my head in a swift motion. I look into the dining room and see Chea sitting by herself at the table. Her legs are resting on the wooden table. She is wearing simple green pants and a black sweater, nothing special or neat. She sits up straighter and puts her feet on the floor. 'Come here,' she urges.

Reluctantly, I walk over to the blonde woman, waiting for the hundredth sermon. 'Would you like coffee?', she asks politely and stands up. I am surprised at her suggestion but nod anyway. She grabs a mug and the pitcher that is on the table, I meanwhile take a seat on a chair. She pours the brown liquid into the mug and sets it on the table in front of me. 'Thank you,' I mumble. Chea takes a seat at the table again and takes a sip of her coffee herself.

'Probably you are expecting a lecture from me or that I am going to tell you what all needs to be changed, I will reassure you. I called you because I want to tell you something about myself'. This woman surprises me every time I speak to her. I don't answer but take a sip of my coffee. 'When I was very young, about six years old, I ran away from my parents. I wouldn't call them my parents, but there's an idea.

I have known Chea for a long time but I have never heard her story in detail. I am intrigued and listen carefully. 'From the age of four my powers and true nature came out. I was born with two people as parents which meant they understood nothing of what I am. Your daughter of four turning into a Cheetah, in retrospect I understand the confusion. They became afraid of their own daughter, locked me in my room for hours and going to school was not even an option anymore. Of course I could not control myself and especially on full moon nights I attacked them.  One night I heard them talking from my room about wanting to place me out of the house'

Chea stops talking for a moment and lets a sigh pass her lips 'I was ahead of them and fled from my window, ran for hours and finally ended up miles away on a farm. I climbed a tall tree and sat there for hours exhausted until a man came out of the farm, Tim was his name. He brought me inside and let me stay overnight with his five-year-old daughter Lisa. I stayed there for several days until I didn't keep my true nature in there either. Both were human and understood even less'

Chea gets a smile on her face as she tells this 'In the end, despite everything, Tim decided to take me in and raise me. He was a single man with two daughters, one of whom ate his chickens. He didn't have an easy time with me but he never evicted me from the house. Lisa was like a sister to me, and my best friend. I went to school and lived a "normal" human life for a very long time. I continued to eat Tim's chickens, occasionally unruly and often disappeared at night but I was fine'

I take a sip of my coffee and am drawn into her story. 'As soon as my adolescent years started he tried to show me the door several times but always Lisa put a stop to it. They may not have understood me the way you do, but they tried their hardest. Around the age of fifteen my powers started to take a different turn which led me further and further into that world of magic, I got to know Alysha and Novak and later Elien, Celeste and my first boyfriend Aishat. At the age of seventeen I left Tim and Lisa to walk my own path but I continued to visit them often until a very long time. By now they are both dead after a long life but I am not as grateful to anyone as they are. What I want to say with this story, people are not that bad'.