A tall, frail woman covered bruises walked across the forest. Each step was slow and crunchy, as her fingers brushed over leaves and twisted roots in search of the familiar herbs she used to tend her wounds. Like usual.
Despite the scars littered across her limbs, her face was free of them.
She bent for a dark-leafed plant, her midnight-black hair falling over like a veil.
That was when she froze. A child's cry piercing through the silence.
She flinched, her hand twitching at the herb. Her instincts urged her to turn away. She knew the strange creatures of the forest, it would be suicide to follow the cry. However… she hovered her hand over her chest, gently feeling her own heart beat.
In that fleeting moment, her feet scurried before she could even process it. Bursting through a wall of dense, brambled bushes, she entered a small clearing bathed in sunlight.
There, lying in a bed of wildflowers, was a woven basket. Inside, a tiny infant flailed and kicked, his cries softening as if sensing her presence.
She approached slowly, catching her breath as she knelt beside the child.
His skin was wrapped in pristine white silk. He looked as though he had only just entered this world. With warm hands, she lifted him into her arms, feeling his warmth with hers. His crying ceased, his tiny eyes fixing on her with a calm face, almost unnatural for a baby.
A small smile softened her face.
Then, a glint caught her eye. She turned to see a metal tag slipped between the silk. She gently lifted it, tracing the single name engraved upon it in runes. She glanced back at the baby, her face beaming.
"Hello, Aric."
The voice reverberated through the quiet forest.
She pressed a hand to her chest as she looked into the child's emerald-green eyes strangely staring at her.
"I am Lilia," she said softly.
**
"Fww… Fww..." Lilia exhaled heavily, clutching Aric in her arms.
Taking a step, the forest cleared to reveal a tall log wall, its rough surface towering about 10 meters, being held by thick ropes.
Two figures stood by the gate.
The first was a young man who slouched on a sack of hay with a metallic polearm leaning against the wall nearby.
The second figure, an older man with tanned skin and messy black hair, leaned against the wall while a sword hung at his side. His gaze flicked briefly to the woman for a brief moment before returning to his idle stance.
The younger guard, however, straightened, his face pulling into a grin while his gaze lingered far too long on her battered body. He spoke in a language Aric didn't understand.
Lilia stiffened slightly, holding Aric tighter whilst she approached the older guard instead, speaking in the same unfamiliar tongue.
The older man nodded curtly before he moved to open the gate. With a groan, the heavy wooden doors creaked apart, revealing the path beyond. Without looking back at the younger guard, Lilia stepped inside. Though she didn't say much, Aric could see the evident discomfort.
Inside, she followed a dirt path, entering a grove of trees, soon, reaching a small hut. Her pace became slow as she reached the entrance.
She looked at Aric with heaved breaths as she smiled.
A modest hut that looked as though it had seen better centuries. The roof was a patchwork of hay straws, while the walls were hardened clay, clearly weathered. Lilia made her way to the so-called "door," which was nothing more than a tattered curtain swaying gently in the breeze.
Inside, the house was worse. There were only two rooms, as far as Aric could tell. The main room he was looking into was basically empty, sparing a knee-height table at the center. To the left, the room mixed into a cobblestone area, where a small furnace sat surrounded by stray bits of firewood.
Directly across from the entrance was the second room, separated by a vermillion curtain. A bedroom? Probably.
It wasn't like there were any other beds to be had, unless the table could be counted as one.
But what truly caught Aric's attention was the young girl, around 8, seated cross-legged on the floor, her hands sculpting a block of wood into a figure. She seemed utterly engrossed, oblivious to the arrival of Lilia and her unexpected guest. Lilia sighed, placing her herb-filled bag on the table before gently (or not so gently) whacking the girl on the head.
"Nessa, how many times have I told you to finish Miss Maiw's laundry before getting lost in your little hobbies?"
Nessa uttered a fake yelp and clutched her head in a pout. "I did half of it!"
Lilia had a twitching smile, "Complete it."
Groaning dramatically, Nessa stood up, only to freeze in the middle of her movement when her eyes met the bundle in Lilia's arms. "Holy Regia! Mom, why do you have a baby in your arms?!" she blurted out, pointing at Aric as if he was an alien.
Lilia glanced at her daughter, then looked at Aric.
Aric, utterly lost thanks to the incomprehensible language, tilted his head in confusion.
Lilia leaned forward and bent over Nessa for a better look at the baby. "Nessa, this is your younger brother, Aric." Nessa narrowed her eyes and a thick silence covered the room.
Aric blinked and mumbled a begrudging "hi" in baby gibberish. Nessa's face became red and she poked his cheek.
Gasping, she squealed, poking again and again."So cuteeeee!"
Aric's patience snapped. A vein practically popped on his tiny temple as he attempted to bite Nessa's finger off, only to be thwarted by a minor inconvenience: he had no teeth.
Nessa burst out laughing at his failed attack, which only fueled his frustration. He flailed, trying to punch her hand away but the giggles multiplied.
This girl was testing him...
"That's enough, Nessa," Lilia chuckled, clearly amused. "He'll get tired."
Nessa pulled back her hand but turned serious as she looked at her mother. "Mom… what about him?"
Lilia's face darkened before she straightened and strode toward the vermillion-curtained room with Aric in her arms. She muttered bitterly, "He wouldn't care much. As long as he has money for booze, he wouldn't even notice."
Nessa looked conflicted, her lips forming a thin line. I'll go finish the laundry now."
Lilia hummed her approval as she stepped into the other room. The "bedroom" turned out to be as unimpressive as the rest of the house. A single ragged bed occupied one corner, its wooden frame sagging under the weight of age.
Lilia placed Aric on the bed and started to undo the upper layers of her clothes.
Aric instinctively tried to avert his gaze, but curiosity prevailed. His tiny eyes became wide at the sight of her scars. They were everywhere. They were everywhere – long, jagged lines across her back, her arms, and even faintly visible on her chest.
Some were faded, old scars while others were unnervingly fresh.
'What happened to her?' Aric's mind raced.
Soldier? A mercenary? Or...
Before he could ponder further, Lilia brought him closer to her chest. Aric snapped out of his thoughts, shutting his eyes tightly.
'Survival it is!'