It all Began and Ended with a Tree... Part 6

Hold your horses! Have you read the first Chapter? No? Well here's the link: Chapter 1

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It all Began and Ended with a Tree
Chapter 6

In the room, I have enough time to think. I just needed to point out some things to myself. Everything happened so fast with mother that I had no time to analyze what she was saying. Now in the room, I have enough time to do just that.

I take everything and leave no stone unturned. I collect my thoughts and begin to pry through them. For one, I wonder how mother knew that I was meeting with Elle. Secondly, how did she find out about the carving? It is a conundrum to me, but nonetheless, a grave problem.

I still have no idea how I’m going to get out of this situation. In less than twenty-four hours I will be sold off and long gone. The windows are all barred and the door is locked. The curtains are drawn and no light can enter the room. The entire thing is lit by this chandelier that hung by the ceiling.

My stomach growls and I figure that it is noon. That leaves me with barely more than half a day to figure things out. I look at the door and it creaks open. A servant steps in with a platter of a sumptuous lunch. Mother is just trying to get on my good side now.

I eat it all the same; I figure I need to have energy if I ever need to bolt from the house. I formulate a plan of escape. I waste no time putting it into action. I lunge for the door and I bang on it loudly. The men positioned outside have large batting sticks, if I remember correctly. One of them peeks inside; I wrench the door open and hit him in the face and between the legs. I take his stick and go for the other guard who still hadn’t realized what was happening.

I run for it. I make it outside safely; there is a coach there that is idle. I figure I have to use what I have to run away. I make for it and I open the door. I suddenly realize that was the biggest folly I could have ever made. Immediately, two pairs of rough hands grab me and pin me to a seat. Sure enough, mother was in the coach, as was father.

My eyebrows knot. My glare is intense enough to melt through steel. Still, mother is undeterred. My muffled cries of protest are in vain as are my struggles against those who held me. I look at father, my eyes a mixture of anger, sympathy and pleading. He looks at me and holds the eye contact for a few seconds. I pray that he would understand, but alas, he turns his head to the side and begins whispering to mother.

I glare at both, my blood at a boil. I just want to smash their heads into each other just to have it all over with. Then again, I didn’t want to kill. I want to shake father back to his senses, just so that he could see what mother is doing. I want to have the father I knew and loved as a child back. Mother’s corruption is just making that a harder goal to achieve.

As soon as they are done, mother shouts “Take us to the meeting place!” Much too obliged, the coach driver goaded the horses on. The crack of a whip is all it takes to make us rumble down to the streets. I wonder why mother did not just use the car, it was then I realized, the meeting place must be somewhere secluded. I figure it would be in the forest, a terrain too hostile for today’s car.
The road is rocky and the way is far. Every time we hit a stone, the entire coach lurches in one direction or the other. It is disconcerting and it distracts me from thinking up anything useful. We are now in full view of the forest, the trees are tall and the branches are already interlinked. However, it isn’t dark and dismal, copious amounts of sunlight stream through the canopy. It’s just something else that distracts me from my thoughts.

We go down a hard game trail. The coach rumbles on at a pace that one could classify as a trot. The forest is still and silent. There is no buzzing of flies, no chirping of birds. It just deepens my despair altogether.

I try one last futile attempt at breaking free. Alas, no measure of strength can deter my captors. Mother looks at me and smirks. “Evil hag!” I shout in my mind.

“Don’t you worry dear. Where you’re going, you’ll be comfortable.” She looks at me with cold soulless eyes and then proceeds to look outside. By now we have reached a clearing. Mother gets down, so do the two men. Father stays inside the coach, but he beckons to me to lower the window slowly. I don’t know where father is going with this but I follow his advice all the same.

Mother walks up in front of the coach and yells something incomprehensible. It must have been in the Language of Eld, but my limited knowledge wasn’t able to decipher it. From the trees, men carrying rifles emerge. After them, a fat man and a woman far too young to be his wife but nonetheless holding his arm, emerge from the trees. A sickly girl is in front of them. Mother goes to the man and begins to speak with contempt. “Father.”

“Beth, it’s been such a long time since you called me that. It still sounds no better.”

The revelation shakes me to my core. Thoughts of Elle nag me at the back of my head, but I am too intent on the conversation to mind.

“Hmph. You never appreciated it anyway. Where is mother?”

“Your mother? Why, she was my twelfth wife, did you think she would have lasted?”

“Hm… So is this woman your wife?”

“Yes. Enough with the small talk, where is my slave?

“He’s in the coach.”

“Bring him out.”

“As you wish.” Mother beckons to the men and they move for the coach. Father looks at me, his eyes sad.

“Dave, I’m sorry, I’ve failed you. But let me make it up to you today. When I say run, run down the path, some of my men are waiting for you a ways away. Again, I’m sorry…”

“Father… You’ve nothing to apologize for. It’s all mother’s doing!” A sickening feeling of remorse filled my heart. I look at father, he looks at me, and it is just like the old times. It is just like when I had a problem with someone special, he was always there. Now, the familiar feeling is back, and it’s something I’ve long yearned for.

“But I could have stopped her. It’s something I should have done a long time ago.” Father opens the coach door and turns to dismount from the coach. At the last moment, he looks back and mutters. “I love you, son.”

“I love you too, father…” He tells me to get out a few seconds after him. He adds that I should make sure that there is a wide enough distance between us. He walks up to the two men. My heart is filled with anticipation. Knowing father, he should be able to talk the deal off.

He does the last thing I expect him to. Time slows as he shouts “Dave! Run!” He punches one of the men and kicks the other between the legs. He pushes himself towards mother. Unwillingly, my feet take me farther and farther away from him. Down the path, strong hands grab me and hide me in the trees. They must be from father’s men. My heart jumps when gut wrenching cries arise amidst a fanfare of bullet shots. The bangs of the guns echoed sharply through the trees.

“Father!” I scream. I try my best to resist the urge, but my instincts are telling me to run back and take vengeance. The men help, but I fight them too. A shallow, half-hearted scream of remorse echoed throughout the forest. It must have been Mother, seeing Father struck down. “The heartless fiend” I say in my mind.

A booming voice came after that. “It is a pity, Beth that the deal is off. But I am a man who does not leave without getting what he wants. There will be a slave taken, and it will be you.”

“What? No! Stay away from me!”

“Hahaha! You little she-devil. You will be mine again!”

“You disowned me! And now you want to take me back?”

“Yes”

Stunned, I run with the men who helped me. They take me back to the village. It is then that I realize, it was my grandfather that wanted me as a slave. “Evil must run in the family. I will be the one to make it all change.” I tell myself.

The reality about father sank in then and there. I break down and cry. I walk down to my hut, dazed. The next few hours come and go quickly. I hear a knock on the door and I am shaken back to reality.

I open the door; it is one of the old women of the village. What she says almost turns my already topsy-turvy world into an even messier one. “On behalf of the entire village… We would like to give our condolences about your parents. Since both are gone, you are the only remaining heir of that governance. You will be the logical choice for the role of mayor. Would you be willing to take this mantle of responsibility?”

“Thanks for the offer… I-I’ll think about it.”

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Well, that was a bit surprising. To think... Anyway, here's the next chapter: Something Unexpected