Seraph

3

They both sat in silence until they heard hurried steps coming up the path in the orange grove. They both looked at each other, then at the door. Serafina didn't typically get guests unless there was trouble in the town that needed her assistance. Usually, it was just to see if it was alright if a family were to move in. The people of the town did leave her gifts on occasion, but they usually left them when she was out. So she knew this was different. She got up and went behind her changing screen in her bedroom area to speedily change into her black dress, it had long lace sleeves that kept her completely covered. Then she grabbed her black lace gloves and her black hat with a veil. She looked as though she were a widow in mourning, it's how she always dressed in town during the day. She then went to the door to open it just as the woman was calming her breathing after having just run up.

The fear was obvious on the woman's face. But she knelt in front of Serafina to beg with tears in her eyes, "¿puedes ayudarnos por favor Doña?"

Serafina calmly looked at the woman. She appeared to be in her early thirties. A bit tired with a heavy tan after working the fields, but still pretty. She remembered her as the first that arrived with her husband about ten years prior with two young daughters. They had asked her if able to set up a farm past her grove after their own town was raided and settled by a gang roaming the area. Her family had fled with hardly anything. So, Serafina allowed them to move over out of pity. They always treated Serafina respectfully as their benefactor and deferred to her when others asked to move near their farm after seeing how peaceful and prosperous they were. When others began to move over, even they began to treat her as a type of village head or mayor.

"Quizás. ¿Qué pasó?" she calmly asked in perfect spanish.

"¡Los hombres fueron a comerciar en el este cuando fueron atacados por bandidos! Normalmente no te molestaríamos por algo como esto, pero había niños con ellos. Este viaje suele ser seguro, por lo que no vieron el daño, ¡pero ahora se llevaron los niños! ¡Por favor, ayúdanos!" she rushed out clasping her hands together in front of her.

Red had no idea what they were talking about and being as nosy as he was, he decided to come over to see. "Miss Hart, what's goin' on?"

"It seems there are some bandits kidnapping children on the roads near my town." She responded with a hint of annoyance in her whispered voice. "I'm going into town to ask a few more questions before I go. Care to join? If you can't control your hunger near these people, then stay near the town entrance until I'm ready to go for the children" She ordered.

"I'll wait," he responded then pulled his leather work gloves from his back pocket and grabbed the cowboy hat hanging on the wall that Serafina had up as decoration to block his face from the sun as he walked with head down to the other end of the grove near the path to the entrance that led to the next town over.

"Levántate," she helped the woman up. "Llévame a hablar con los que regresaron."

"Is he coming también?" she asked in her heavily accented broken English. Her confusion was written on her face as she had never seen the Doña with anyone before. Nor had she ever seen that man in general around the town. She didn't even know the Doña spoke English since she and her husband only ever spoke Spanish to her.

"No, él me va a esperar." She responded as she followed her to town.