The sweet(sour/spicy) life of ginger(hiatus)

"The Certain Someone"

That fateful day, changed Leb forever.

Lebkuchen was playing around, playing by herself.
She wished she could play with others. It would be more fun and not lonely.
Sometimes, she wished her father could pay attention to her at times, especially at this hour.
But unfortunately her father was working somewhere else to support her and Mother.
The outer side of her home wasn't exactly great, the roof was made of straw, the wood wasn't exactly the best for building. The building was also quite old for it's time.
Part of the outer side was going to need repairs soon since it was pretty old.
Same thing with the inside. Some of the wood was rotting away.
But Lebkuchen wasn't sure if they could be able to repair the home since it would be expensive.
Often, when Lebkuchen wasn't playing or working, she would always check in her mother's room to see if Mother was okay.
She decided to check right now to see if Mother was doing okay.
When she entered the room, the room was awfully quiet.
She felt if the environment around her was dead, as if the life was sucked out.
She noticed her mother wasn't breathing so much, and quickly realized to check her pulse.
She learned to check the pulse of the heart if someone wasn't breathing that much, or not at all from her mother.
She checked her mother's pulse as her mother was laying in bed, and noticed her pulse wasn't thumping too much.
Lebkuchen quickly came to the realization that her mother was going to die.
Her mother was going to die in front of her daughter.
Lebkuchen tried to hold back any tears, but she couldn't.
Just as about she was going to sob, she felt a hand on her head.
It was her mother, comforting her like she had always been.
Her mother was weakly smiling but she knew she would die.
Lebkuchen continued to sob, her mother giving all her physical strength to be with Lebkuchen one last time.
Lebkuchen wondered, why did God do this? Why her mother should have to die so suddenly? She wished it was all of a dream, but it wasn't.
Her fear had come true, but before her mother stop moving, her last words were "Lebkuchen, there will be a s-someone, who w-will be there for y-you..."
And that, her mother's life came to end.
Lebkuchen cried so hard, she felt as if she was taken away.
As if a very important piece of her life was taken away from her.
As if it was nonexistent and was dreamlike.
Lebkuchen couldn't believe it, her mother was dead.
She wished her father was here to comfort her.
The front door had been opened, Lebkuchen heard it open.
Her father later came through the bedroom door.
However, his look was not of concern, it had none at all.
Her father quickly realized his wife was dead, and to Leb's surprise, started cold words that his wife was stupid, or naive.
Lebkuchen didn't understand at first, how could her father say that when she was dead?
It took her a few mins to realize her father never really cared for her mother all. Not even Lebkuchen.
However, by this time, her father was glaring at Lebkuchen at what she would do.
Lebkuchen remembered her father giving her beatings, or slaps at time.
But in the end, she wished she could get some attention or affection from her father until now.
She decided, the thing she would never do was run away.
Before she could run away, her father suddenly grabbed a knife from the kitchen and threw the knife at her.
The knife gave Lebkuchen's right arm a medium wound.
The wound was bleeding, and the knife felt sharp enough to cut some of her skin off.
After she ran out of the home, she could faintly hear her father demanding her to get back here.
But Lebkuchen didn't care anymore.
She ran through the market, and bumped into a few people, one of them was cursing Lebkuchen for bumping into them.
What was even worse that the blood was dripping all over her arm from the knife, Father had thrown at her.
The wound felt like someone was stabbing through her.
She had to run for a few periods at time, and then walk all over again.
She had exactly ran for seven minutes, and realized she was near the end of Kieferburg.
She noticed there was a trail to the right, and so decided to go there.
She wondered if her arm could ever be bandaged and was walking quite painfully.
Blood continued to drop from the left arm.
She had walked into near the outer woods, is when she realized there were trees everywhere on the trail she went to.
She noticed there was a cottage in the far distance, perhaps they could help Lebkuchen with her wounded arm.
But she decided to hide a tree near the cottage when she saw a figure near the cottage.
She hid near one of the trees, but the pain was making hard to hide.
She noticed there were trees everywhere around the cottage, and noting that there was a girl chopping wood with an axe.
It was quite unusual for girls to chop lumber, traditionally males chopped lumber to help their families in the rural areas.
More surprising,it was night time, and barely anyone worked at hours like these.
Lebkuchen wondered if this girl had to work extra long hours just to survive.
The girl look quite tired, even annoyed as to chop all of the lumber.
The girl wondered if she would ever finish all of this at this hour, she just wanted to sleep in a comfy, warm bed.
She hadn't have enough food in days, and labor was back breaking enough.
Cold, sleepless nights were the worst.
Sometimes the cold was so bad in the winter, she nearly got frostbite.
But in the end, she had a loving family to her side.
But the girl felt as if she wasn't alone.
She wondered if someone was watching her.
Then she realized that indeed a certain someone was watching her.
She was quite easy to spot since Leb didn't exactly choose a great spot.
Leb realized that she was spotted and panicked, murmuring that she was sorry.
However, much to the girl's surprise, the young girl looked surprised and even as if to befriend Leb.
Leb cautiously stepped out, wondering if this was a trick.
The girl didn't look like she wanted to harm Lebkuchen, she looked like she wanted to know and help Lebkuchen.
Lebkuchen was uncertain at first considering she had never known the girl personally, or where she was really.
What if the girl was going to hurt her, or worse leave her out here?
The girl widened her eyes when she saw Lebkuchen with what it looked like a wound on her arm. A medium at that.
The girl introduced herself as Elise, and explained she was used to nights often like tonight.
Lebkuchen was surprised to hear at the last piece of the info Elise had given.
Lebkuchen wondered if her father or her family had good relationships or not.
Elise asked who Lebkuchen was and when Lebkuchen gave out her name, Elise thought it was a unique name for a girl like herself.
Lebkuchen became a bit flustered hearing at this and said she wasn't that unique, but Elise gave a small chuckle.
She thought Leb would be a good nickname for her.
Lebkuchen was quite embarrassed at first remembering Elise giving her that nickname.
But made a slight smile, remembering that Elise and her had good times in their childhood, embracing her nickname afterwards.
After giving Leb her nickname, Elise looked quite worried as the wound was still there and bleeding.
Worried, Lebkuchen wondered if she would ever get back home. But the pain made it impossible to do.
Elise decided to go back inside to her home, and got a bandage to wrap the wound around Lebkuchen's arm.
Lebkuchen was very grateful that that Elise had done that.
The pain was gone, but Elise wanted to know what happened to Lebkuchen.
When Lebkuchen heard what she had said, she felt guilty and still horrified at what happened to her mother.
Lebkuchen immediately tried to hold back tears like earlier, but it was no use.
When Lebkuchen tearfully said that her mother had passed away in front of her, and her father had said cold words about her, and threw a knife at her, causing the wound.
Elise looked horrified and heartbroken.
To Lebkuchen's surprise, Elise had walked up to her and hugged her tightly.
Elise couldn't believe she had a father like that.
The thought of having a father like that made her angry.
Lebkuchen was now sobbing, the events came back to Lebkuchen's mind once again.
But it felt quite warm as Elise was hugging her.
Lebkuchen felt safe and secure at that moment,like her mother was still there for her.
Lebkuchen shed a few tears remembering that scene in bed still, as to her that hug meant everything to her.
Elise was there for her, when nobody else was there for her.
Elise later stepped back, but wiped away Lebkuchen's tears.
She felt she had to do something, she couldn't forgive Lebkuchen's father for doing that to her.
She decided Lebkuchen would stay with her, and sleep as well so Lebkuchen could feel safe.
When Elise explained that Lebkuchen would be staying her, Lebkuchen was unsure and frightened.
What if her father could be searching for her?
Even worse, her father didn't care for her at all, and likely would beat Lebkuchen up again.
However, Elise wasn't taking no for an answer.
She decided to ask her father so her friend could stay at her home.
She didn't want Lebkuchen to be scared or sad.
She just wanted her to be safe.
However, as Elise went into the cottage, Lebkuchen was already thinking.
She already decided but with fear, go back to her home.
She felt like Elise was too kind to her, and reluctantly ran away again.
Back to the same trail she saw, into the market and into her own home.
Elise already had convinced her father to let Lebkuchen stay at their home.
But when she got back outside, Lebkuchen was nowhere to be seen.