The Great Goddess Tree Tale

XXIII - Sailors' massacre

Two weeks after the encounter with the fisherman in the tavern, the topic reached a turmoil and became central to the small talks in the village. The citizens were commenting on it and the elders had their part in confirming the accuracy of the tale. The Tree that was gone for decades had made its comeback to haunt the villagers; people were scared, but others, however, could not understand that story as something beyond fisherman telltales.

Lying down with Kalima on his bed, Mat was on his spare days combing the brunette's long hair; he fingered her thin hair strands, but his mind was in a place far away from their present, where human eyes cannot watch its flows.

"Do you love me?" she asked.

After a few seconds without noticing the question that was made, he finally answered

"What?"

"You heard me. Do you love me? Do you really want to be with me?"

"Of course, I do, my brunette. I want to stay with you, we are together already, to be honest."

"But you want me only for lust... I don't know if you're up for other things beyond it."

"What do you mean?"

"Look at how long we've been together. Do you really want to stay with me? Have you thought about proposing? What do you want from me?"

"!...!... My Kalima...! You want to marry? Is that it? Okay, we can marry! I thought we already were somehow and that you did not care about those social conventions."

"I'm not into anything like that, if I were, I'd had married years ago in the Continent. I've always been free as the wind; I've always been like this and perhaps that's why I ended up in this Inn far away from anything. I don't know whether is good or bad, but this is my nature. But this ain't what I asked you: I want to know if you want me as your wife! If we can be a family someday."

"Family? You mean, children?"

"Yeah, maybe. Why not? I'm not any girl in her twenties and if we're having children I cannot wait for long."

"But you want children now?"

"It's not a bad idea! If I had a husband, I'd probably be a mother already. You know what? Good evening, Mat Salans! Doctor Salans, good night!"

She has been a little bit weird on those days, thought Mat.

Kalima was different these past few weeks, for sure. She had gone see Elise Marie twice last month and was also more aloof to Mat's encounters, shier. Mat was not suspicious of anything, his mind diving deep beyond human quotidian. The day after, he woke up early and soon made his way to the road, directly to the village. The same path, but with recent apprehensions, eyes wide-open, attentively listening to any unusual sound: this was Mat's vigil on his way. It's not that he did not want his supernatural companions' company anymore, but this would be a terrible moment for an encounter.

He got to work and soon had already a line for his service. Men, women, the elderly, and children. And he could attend all of them well. He liked his job. He believed deeply he needed to make the world a better place and the destiny chose this isolated village for his mission. He had also learned to appreciate these people with the smell of fish and salt in the body; besides the current tribulations, he believed in a close future in which things would come back to normal and he would be able to adventure as before.

After his duty, he got his wagon and went back home without hurry, less apprehensive than before. Hope was growing in his chest telling him good things would appear. But perhaps, the flow of the river would not flow to his desired direction and turbulences were to come.
When he approached the half of his path, he got that huge shock. The Tree! It was there, twenty feet from the road's border into the woods. Its powerful roots had even penetrated the little boulders in the road, making waves on the way. The Tree was so big that could cover almost all the road with its top. Mat lost breath for a minute, not able to pronounce anything. He stopped the wagon, got down and repeated to himself: