The Guardian Of Nature ~The Rise Of A Heroine

Who Are You?

'Call me Crystallia!'

I'm pretty sure me, mom and Arianna had our jaws dropped at the same time, no question about that. I know I thought about the fact that her name sounded very much like the name of the woman in the story, but I never expected that they would actually have the same name! It felt... strange.

'Come up again?' said Arianna. Her voice tone was enough for us to understand that she was trying to proses what she heard.

Crystallia was looking at us strangely, clearly she was not expecting this reaction. Her body tightened and although I could see that she was trying not to show it, she was not comfortable with this reaction.

'Crystallia, why? Is something wrong?' she asked. A hidden anxiety lingering in her voice.

The three of us looked at each other, like if we where trying to decide who will speak first. Mom and Arianna eventually looked at me and there where no words needed to know what they where telling me. "Thanks girls." I thought sarcastically. "Why is it always me?"

I had to think quickly of what to say. The thought of lying passed through my mind, but was very quickly shoved back where it came from, cause firstly I'm a bad liar, and second I wasn't going to lie to a woman I don't know. At the end of the day I was raised with some manners! In addition, it was all too obvious that something was up, so lying is no use. Seems truth is a one way road this time.

'Well... our grandfather told us a story today. Where, in this story there was a woman named Crystallia, so it's... odd that you have the same name as her.' The air felt heavy and the awkwardness was obvious. 'Sooo yeah. That's why our reaction is like that.'

I couldn't read her expressions very clearly. If there was confusion, questioning or something else, I could not tell, for I guess she did a good job in hiding her emotions. But I did notice the twitching of her eyebrows, as well as her eyes slightly widen once I said that grandpa told us a story. This woman was more than the eyes could tell, I figured out.

'Oh wow, that's something you don't hear everyday!' Crystallia laughed a bit and Arianna with mom started laughing with her after a couple of second, probably cause they felt relief that Crystallia found it funny. I, on the other hand, only force out a slight chuckle as I was still trying to analyse her reactions.

"Her laugh." I thought. "It does not feel real." It truly didn't, not to me at least and I know a thing or two about laughing, as I am the one who's responsible for making people laugh at any given opportunity. So when I say that a laugh doesn't feel real, you should better believe me.

'This is just a big coincidence! Before today, I had never met your grandfather before, so I guess our names just happened to be the same.' She shrugged her shoulders and smiled, but by now I know that I should look twice to her reactions. 'And I suppose that woman must have been from the village your grandfather was born and I can assure you we were born a few countries away!'

'She is from aboard? She doesn't have an accent, what is happening here?

'Must have been a crazy story for you to be looking at me like that!' She chuckled looking at me and I guess there must have been some sort of visible suspicion written all over my face as I spoke to her.

'You got no idea... .'

She picked no the suspicion signal on my voice and dropped the chuckle in her voice, but weirdly enough the begging of a knowing smile was starting to form in her lips. Mom on the other hand glared at me hearing the rude tone in my voice and cleared her throat. I silenced myself and lowered my eyes, not wanting to look into her eyes and she then turned her attention to Crystallia.