The Chronicles of the Tower -1-

Chapter 2 -The man in the grey cloak- (pt.2)

It hit Dana on the right arm, it was a small pebble and didn't hurt her. But it was a signal for the others to launch a rain of stones on their strange neighbor.

Dana covered her face with her hands and turned her back on them. She wanted to run, but she didn't. Her pride prevented her from doing so.

She walked away slowly, feeling the pebbles that they were throwing hit her body like needles.

She wasn't sad nor did she feel like crying. She just felt angry.

Never again, she assured Kai, who was walking beside her. Never.

He looked at her. She was not smiling. 

Dana went into the barn and sat on her old blanket.

They say I'm a witch, she said to Kai. I wish I was, just so that I could take revenge on them. I would do terrible things, and make them swallow their insults.

Her friend shuddered. He stood in front of her, took her by the shoulders and looked into her eyes.

Never say that, he warned her. Don't even think about it.

Why? Kai shrugged his shoulders.

It is dangerous. Besides, it's not their fault. Dana stood up quickly.

Oh really? And whose is it, then? Mine, perhaps?

Kai shook his head. I don't know. Maybe mine. Maybe nobody's.

Dana didn't reply. At times like that, inside she held Kai responsible for her loneliness.

Try to understand them, added the boy. They have been playing together since they were born, and you never went with them. They hardly know you. You are a stranger to them.

Dana considered his words as Kai crawled over the blanket looking for a more comfortable place to sit.

The girl looked out of the corner of her eye. If you are my invention, she told herself, how can you move and act in such a natural way?

Since they had been together, Dana had learned to know by heart all the gestures and expressions that Kai did.They were not hers, nor of any person she knew.

Kai was so much more than an idea or an image. Kai was a being defined not only by his aspect, but for multiple details that completed it as a person. The tone of his voice, the brightness of his eyes, the way he had to move away the blond strands of hair on his forehead, his calm and determined steps, his agile and confident movements, his way of speaking, even his way to sit down.

Until that night two years ago ("Liar! Kai it doesn't exist! "), Dana hadn't thought for a moment that her friend was not like her.

Furthermore in their conversations he used to add a totally different point of view from hers. Externally Kai acted like a normal child, restless, naughty, playful and always ready to try new things.

Dana however was calmer and composed, and she liked to think and analyze things before taking action.

However, when she had a problem, she used to react like the immature person that she still was. Inexperienced in the things of life and above all, in relationships with others.

In those critical moments when everything seemed to collapse around her, Kai brought to her an adult's patience and confidence.

He helped her think and learn for herself the things she should have discovered together with the other kids her age. But due to her lonely life she still hadn't experienced.

Therefore Dana had learned to listen to Kai and value his advice And this time it didn't have to be different.

So ... do you think that if I had joined them earlier they wouldn't reject me now?

Kai shrugged again.

We live in a difficult land, he said. Here people fight to survive day by day. Since they are children they form groups. That's how they feel safer. An whoever isn't part of it, is strange, different. An outsider.

And now they don't trust me, Dana completed quietly. Kai looked at her for a long time, wishing he could do more for her.

Sooner or later you will find your place in the world, he comforted her. Don't suffer 'cause of that.

Dana raised her head to look him in the eye again.

Do you think I'm a witch, Kai?

I believe that you are you, Dana he replied without hesitation. And I don't think the rest matters.

Dana sighed and curled up next to him, wishing with all her soul to be able to hug him, and touch something more than air when she brushed his image.

Kai guessed what she was thinking. Everything will be better from now on, he said, stroking her hair tenderly. I promise you.

However, for once the boy was wrong.

**************************************

The change of season brought a especially hard and cold winter. Snow and frost ended most of the harvests, and took away large numbers of animals in the forests.

Hungry and desperate, the wolves came down from the mountains in whole packs. Necessity made them bolder and they attacked the farms reducing the resources of nutrients for the families of farmers.

Things were not solved with the arrival of spring. Cold made way, to a suffocating heat and a drought of course that would be remembered in the region.

Whatever little food had survived the winter spoiled. For a family of twelve members, like Dana's, this was a catastrophe.

The girl soon felt the crisis in her flesh. Food was rare, and her parents and older siblings had to work extra hard to feed them all. Dana lost weight alarmingly, but she was not the only one in the family.

Things got worse when the water started to run out. An epidemic rapidly spread by the mosquitoes, which had increased considerably in number in the last months.

The epidemic killed Dana's older sister,one of her little brothers and her grandfather who was turning seventy-four years old.

The girl had become quieter after the tragedy.

She worked like a nonstop without objections because it helped her to not overthink. She also talked a lot less with Kai, but they were still spending the whole day together.

That kind of bond that united them even without words seemed to get stronger and stronger so they hardly needed to speak to understand each other.