Of Memory and Might ["The Fates Book I" fanfic]

1.4 - Donuts and Dreams

Author's Note: And finally, a short scene with young Cloe!! I hope you enjoy, and if you do, I do hope you'll vote :)

The next two scenes, if I post them, will be #Eldria scenes :)

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Scene 4: Donuts and Dreams

 “...he looked more like the dad who used to take her on morning hikes followed by donut runs, in the pre-divorce days.”

~Nicole Fearahn, The Fates Book I, Part 2.11

 A.D. 2001

 “Cloooeeeee!”

The little girl tucked her favorite stuffed animals back in, tucking the covers around them in her flowery twin-size bed. She grinned down at them with a gap between her front teeth, her bright brown eyes sparkling with affection. Then she leaned down and placed a kiss on each forehead, much like her father and mother did to her.

“Coming!” She finally called back down the stairs. Chuckling to herself as most seven-year-olds normally did, she pulled on her pre-tied Sketchers sneakers, slipping a hair tie around her dark brown locks (the little hair she had, at least).

The young girl hurtled down the stairs, yelling as she did so. “We’re going on a hike! We’re going on a hike! We’re-eep!”

She was cut off by a pair of arms lifting her into the air, swinging her around and marvelling in her high-pitched laugh that bounced off of every picture frame in their humble home. John Turner smiled up at his treasure.

“Ready?” He asked while setting her down. “For our hike?”

Cloe grinned. Nodded like a bobble-head before sticking her tongue out and racing into the kitchen, where her mother was cooking breakfast. She danced around Silvia, squealing.

“When can we go?”

“Slow down, young lady!” Her mother laughed a warm laugh. Pushed a strand of black hair away from her brown eyes, before sticking it back into her messy bun. She wiped her hands on her apron and kneeled down beside her daughter.

“I also put together some trail mix. Only a little, though,” she winked. “I think your dad has something planned for after your hike.”

Cloe gasped dramatically. “You do?” Her tone was almost accusatory.

John and Silvia exchanged a look before he nodded. “You bet.”

It was fair to say that afterwards, Cloe gave them no chance to sit down. She barely ate the scrambled eggs that Silvia had cooked, instead bouncing about the table and enjoying chasing her father around the house while he tried to put on his shoes.

John shook his head while his daughter climbed into the car. “What am I going to do with you?”

He buckled her seatbelt for her, kissed his wife on the cheek and they were gone, on their way to the mountains. Miraculously, or perhaps mysteriously, Cloe went silent the moment the winding roads and trees had surrounded them.

John looked back, to see his daughter observing the view. There was something in Cloe that was purely drawn to darkness. Just the thought of it reminded her of another day, another time when perhaps she wasn’t so far into the light. Her hand tightened on the arm of her booster seat.

“You all right, honey?”

Her father’s gentle voice snapped her out of it. Little Cloe nodded. “I just wish I had brought Lucy.”