Womanish Lady

Chapter 30:

   By the time Nali finished telling the whole story, she was back to crying again, while Fuyaiyah's eyes remained big, but now she was shaking.

"But," she said, looking around in the snow as if it would form words for her. "That doesn't make sense!"

"What doesn't?" Nali couldn't look at her.

She didn't respond. In Fuyaiyah's mind, there were so many things that didn't make sense to her that she couldn't get it all out.

Finally, Nali slowly looked at her. Fuyaiyah's eyes met hers. There was a still look on her face - nothing of sadness or anger or any other appropriate emotion.

"What?"

"Thank you for telling me, Nali."

Nali's heart skipped a beat.

"To be truthful, I would have moments of suspicion and doubt while growing up in the village. They were brief, but occurred too often for me to forget about it."

"You did?"

"Yeah. It was strange that, while all of the other girls in the village were acting one way, I was allowed to do whatever I wanted without much reprimanding. Also, I never saw anyone else get as much love from the other villagers as I did. It was strange how everyone knew my name though I never introduced myself before. Also-"

Nali waited patiently, astonished.

"-it was scary how, in the day, it was so lovely and warm, but, in the dead of night, it was like a ghost town. I'd woken up a few times and the air would be so quiet. I would look out the window and see no signs of the lovely, warm Village of Harmony like in the daytime. It truly was a false village, wasn't it?"

Nali wanted to cry again. They had all worked hard and passionately to make sure their first Headmaster's daughter lived a wonderful life.

"Why don't you hate me, Fuya?"

Fuyaiyah, who looked off into the distance, whipped her head back at her.

'Why would you think that?" She practically screamed.

"Because! Everything around you was false! Everything you loved about the village, mother - me! We were all false!"

Fuyaiyah's body surged up with passion and she grabbed her sister's shoulders.

"The thought never even crossed my head!" She started. "You were such a wonderful big sister to me, and your mother was a very nurturing mother to me too! I felt many moments when the love I received was real! You said that the whole village loved my real mother, right? If they willfully took me in and tried their hardest to give me a wonderful existence - look at how I grew up to be! I sense nothing false in that!"

"Fuya," Nali responded in a small voice.

"Besides! A false family that shows true love is indisputably better than a blood family that can't love each other properly!"

Nali was so relieved that she felt dizzy for a moment.

"So, does that mean you'll still stay here and help us fight Everwinter?"

Fuyaiyah stood up and looked back.

"I was about to develop into a nice woman because of you guys keeping me in falsehood. You all tried your best but, it feels like the spirit of my real mother awakened more in me. A lot of things don't make sense yet so - I'm going back to Everwinter!"

She then ran off.

"Fuyaiyah! You can't do that! We're about to attack the kingdom in a few months!"

She stopped and turned to her older sister.

"Please. Let me get the full truth. I want to see Thylin - my father. My brothers, my step mother, and - most importantly - my uncle!"

"I can't protect you if you go back there! Nobody knows that you're related to them. They'll treat you the same as they did before."

Fuyaiyah smiled.

"I don't need protection from my own family. It's okay. I'm going to help both of my families, and stop this war from happening!"

"That's wishful thinking, Fuyaiyah!"

"Somehow hold off the attack for me please!"

Then she was gone. Nali sighed, then felt like laughing.

"Classic Fuya. You get out of trouble just to go right back into it."

Just then, Norekeito finally found Nali. They embraced each other and looked in the direction Fuyaiyah ran off in.

"Did she run off again?"

"Yep." She sighed.

He sighed too and started to leave.