Page 9 of Petals for Vicious Secrets

7

Hope

Acouple of plain chairs sat around an oval-shaped oak-tree wooden base that did the job as a table in the main room of the treehouse. They had a metal fire pit on one corner, rudimentary but lifesaving on the cold winter nights, next to one of the three windows that covered the walls. The windows were open and big enough to act as doors when they climbed home.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Hope lifted an eyebrow. She couldn’t see where her mother was going to sleep in this room that was cramped with many items they had gathered throughout the years in Verdania. Mother and she kept building shelves to store and somehow organize everything they got from deserted houses, Trading Days, or made by themselves.

They had a considerably large number of books, many pans, pots and cooking utensils, a large stash of weapons that mainly comprised knives and daggers, various racks and tools they regularly used for growing their own food, many hunting devices from fishing nets to big animal traps, and a whole lot of other stuff.

In the other room, where they usually slept on two homemade floor mattresses, they kept all their clothes, shoes, and the few things they cared about safely.

“I don’t mind sleeping in this room, Aurora,” said Nina. Since the day she arrived at the treehouse with Hope after running from the cave, Nina had been sleeping on one side of the room, beside the table.

Aurora looked at Nina with a smile. “I prefer you two to use the bedroom. If it’s not cold, I usually go to the roof most nights, anyway.”

At night, the rooftop was… magical. The sky almost felt alive, with thousands of twinkling stars that seemed to talk to each other. When it was full moon, the red tinge of the moonlight over the dark trees of the island was breathtaking.

“Mother, would you come with me to fetch some water, please?” Hope asked, grabbing the big pitchers from the top of a shelf. Aurora looked at her with disguised relief on her face.

“Sure, give me a minute.”

Aurora put her boots on and packed different things in the loose bag that hung from her shoulder. Nina grabbed a ragged blanket and the book she started reading the day before and went to the bedroom she would now share with Hope.

Hope climbed down the tree, smiling at the birds and squirrels on nearby branches. After all those years in the woods, the animals were used to their presence. When Hope reached the floor, she stretched her legs and arms while taking deep breaths. She could feel the tension of the past few days building up on her shoulders and neck. Again.

They started walking quietly towards the river. Hope always enjoyed walking in the woods. The crunches of the leaves and branches under their feet, the distant animal noises and the sound of the leaves moving to the compass of the gentle wind made her heart feel whole.

“How are you feeling?” Hope asked while stopping to pick some ripe apples on a tree they frequently passed by.

Aurora sighed, as if looking for words. “I’m not sure.”

Hope waited in silence, giving the much needed time her mother required any time she was about to open and talk about anything that mattered.

“I don’t understand why the Rulers were in Verdania looking for that boy. It worries me they might come back for Nina, and you would be in danger too because we’re helping her,” Aurora said, and stepped over two big roots that shaped the path. “But, on the other side…”

“On the other side?” Hope asked when her mother didn’t finish the sentence.

Aurora swallowed and looked at Hope’s big, dark eyes. A reflection of her own. “On the other side, I think I shouldn’t have allowed us to become so… distant from the world.”

Hope knew what she referred to. Other than the people they rarely saw in the woods or on their occasional visits to Cralia and the other towns, they barely interacted with any other human beings. Ever. The reasoning being that it wasn’t safe to trust others, and that it was a risk to establish a relationship of any sort with someone who might die the following day. Or get them killed.

Aurora looked down as a ray of sunshine got through the tree branches and illuminated the long scar that crossed her mother’s neck.

“I think many changes have been long overdue,” Aurora sighed, bending to pick some berries from spiky bushes at the edge of their path. “Nina seems like she has lost so much, and I doubt she will betray us. Besides, it’s nice to have her around. Life might be too short to spend it alone. What do you think?”

Hope couldn’t help but smile.

“If we don’t risk, we might not get.”

They finally reached the river and, after filling their pitchers and washing themselves, they sat at the edge of the riverside with their feet in the cool water. Hope made a ball with her jacket and used it as a cushion as she laid down to look at the blue sky with her hands behind her head.

“Do you think we can help Nina find Raoul?”

Aurora stayed quiet for a while. “I know for a fact we can,” her mother finally said. Hope looked at her, lifting an eyebrow with a questioning look. “What I am not sure about is if we want.”

“What do you mean, for a fact?”

Aurora hesitated, as if wanting to pick the right words. “I never lied to you. Not in my whole life. But I might have not told you some things. Being injured… It made me reconsider my approach to some things.” Aurora put both hands on her knees and looked at Hope. “I thought you were not ready, but I can see now how wrong I was.”

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