The Great Goddess Tree Tale

I - Kalima's letter

Mat Salans had just arrived at his dorm when he noticed upon his bed a letter. Usually, he didn't receive much mail at the Inn, so he started to open it avidly. The stamp upon carried the flag and insignia of the nation. Very typical of half of the '30s in our country.

It was from Kalima Noisiv. Long time that he didn't saw her. Years passed since her face was brought to a thought. She was the only friend from a time when his parents were alive.

He sat down in bed and his eyes revisited that lost, sweet and gloomy times; a childhood in the outskirts of his hometown.

Kalima Noisiv and Mat Salans born in the capital's surroundings; him, three years before. His parents used to work at old Foundry as half neighborhood did. Kalima stood at the front door waiting for her dad to come home, while Mat was looking for some adventure. He was always a very curious boy, imagining solving a hidden mystery in the neighborhood. And of course, he was always counting on Kalima, his for-every-time helper.

They grew up together this way until the accident involving Mat's parents.

All town caught a view high in the sky, the smoke from the fire on the Larder. His mother was working on the second floor in the exact moment of the fire starting. His father had just arrived at the place to seek for her. At some point, both got stuck. Sadly, they both were consumed by the flames. Ten people died in the Great Fire of the Larder in total.

Mat got so astonished, terrified by the accident that he couldn't speak for a month. He wasn't seen at his parent's funeral. His world got smaller. He was eleven and already had to carry this mourning for the rest of his life.

After that, Mat was taken to live with his uncles to the South of the Province and lost all contact with Kalima. His uncles thought that he should put all the past behind, including Kalima, for the boy to get over the tragedy in the dawn of his life. So, it went all over his youth. Even unconsciously he didn't talk about the childhood and, with time passing by, his memories were just like the drawings on an old painting in a forgotten room.

That was the motive that made Mat so bewildered about Kalima's letter, twenty years have passed. It was such as he took back that dusty old painting from that faraway reminiscence. He took no longer and opened the wrap.

Kalima from start was weaving how she managed to find the old friend and his address at the Inn near the downtown of Capital.

A college colleague of his told her about Mat Salans,

a stubborn-gaze guy; no easy to forget about him. Elise Marie also took classes of medicine and met Kalima during teen years. They are close friends.

Mat wasn't that close from Elise but had some contact. They even worked on projects together at College. In summary, the letter told him a few about the old friend's life and invited him to meet her at her new address.

Kalima's parents had also moved away after the Fire, but nowadays Kalima was living by herself at Great Isle, by the north of our Nation.

She received a dowry from her parents and decided to buy a small Inn at Great Isle. The invitation was for him to take off a few days to stay along with her.

Mat got surprised by the invitation, with the letter, and with Kalima. She was an another-time person. Now he was graduating, his life had taken new directions, the past was a non-visitable place for Mat. However, the sweet nostalgia from childhood times with Kalima flooded him. By the end, he decided that nothing bad would come from a quick visitation, given that school recess had already begun.

He wrote her back thanking him for the invitation and confirming his visit. He got ready on a few days and departed to the Great Isle - heading to Kalima.