The Pain in My Heart [Completed]

Chapter Twelve - Zaria

 What do you say to a girl who just tried to poison the queen of your kingdom?

"How old are you?"

An easy question. She looks to be 6 maybe 7. I remember when I was her age. I was just like her. Following blindly without being able to do anything for yourself. Being a slave and a puppet.

"I'll be five and a half this summer," she answers. A part of me is even surprised she decided to talk to me.

"A summer child. Is that why your mom named you Willow?"

"My dad named me," she says holding tight to my hand. Her tiny fingers wrap around mine, half the size. "He found me in a willow tree."

Abandoned, I think to myself. How much worse can her story get?

"Who is your father?" I ask. Maybe he's not Malakan. "What's he like?"

"I don't know. I don't see him," she says, and I have to remind myself to slow my pace for her little legs.

"I'm taking you to a woman named Lucy. We're going to help you get to a house in Senwain."

She stops in her tracks. "No." Her voice changes suddenly with a gripping intensity.

"No?" I ask.

"That's a bad place. I don't want to go there. You can't make me!"

She starts twisting in my grasp. I hold on tighter without trying to hurt her frail body.

"Let go!"

"Hey, hey, hey. What's going on?"

"Lucy!" I breathe. "Thank goodness."

"Who is this?" She addresses the little girl currently climbing my leg like it's a tree, leaving bite marks up and down my leg.

"It's a long story. I'll tell you later." I suck in air between my teeth as Willow bites down again. "We need to get her to the old lady in Senwain. You know, the one with the desserts."

"Ophelia? Yes, right away."

She goes to remove Willow from my body and the second Lucy's cool touch reaches her, she relaxes.

"Hey there," she says brightly.

The one thing I always like about Lucy is she never asked too many questions. She was always ready for whatever life threw at her. The good and the bad.

"Lucy, this is Willow. Willow, Lucy." I introduce them and without hesitation Lucy embraces her.

"My name is Willow," she says.

"I hear," says Lucy. "Now, what was all the yelling about? It's quite an odd hour to be making such a fuss."

Willow's scowl returns. "I don't want to go to Senwain. It's a bad place."

Lucy releases all the tension in her body and I see her melt. "Whoever told you that? Senwain is filled with the kindest people I have ever met."

"My mommy told me. And she said that Senwain is the reason we are living in the woods and in caves."

Just then I realized I had never really seen Malaka. Surely I traveled up the mountain to Eden's cabin. I had never thought Malaka would be any different from the grandness of Lumbridge.

Lucy looks up at me, and we both know that this could be a losing battle, but she tries anyway.

"As Princess of Lumbridge, I owe it to you to take you to a place with a roof over your head and food on the table. And I promise to you," she turns Willow to look at her. "You will never live in the forest again. As long as you are here, you will be welcomed as one of us."