Dreamwalker's Bride - Chapter 229

Chapter 229: Loneliness
Mia didn’t like saying that out loud. Of course loneliness was worse, wasn’t it?

She was upset with her family, certainly, for not reminding her sooner of the memories she’d lost, but not ever having her family around at all sounded unbearable.

Yet, Ford had proclaimed his life of not trusting anyone as if it were normal. Commonplace. To be expected. So she had doubted herself for a moment.

She continued to support him under one arm. Despite the weakness and hunger he’d suffered from when he first arrived, she could feel strong muscles through the fabric of his shirt. He didn’t really even lean on her at all, she was there more for balance than any weight bearing.

Mia helped him up the stairs and into the house, where everyone was gathered in the sitting room. Grandma was telling the boys a fairy tale as a bedtime story, while Daniel recreated images from the story book in the air, making the dragons seem alive, and the fire they breathed seemed like it would consume the younger boys sitting on the floor.

“Oh,” Ford breathed the word from beside Mia. She looked up at his face. His eyes were wide, and she smiled. Daniel’s magic was startling at first, in its beauty. Her cousin could be a bit shy, but loved to show off when asked.

Releasing his arm, Mia fled to the dining room and pulled in a chair for Ford to sit down. She knew the crutch probably bothered his shoulder. He looked at her strangely when she offered it to him, but sat down while she remained standing.

Grandma was deep into the story, and Mia turned to listen.

“But worse than the dragons, you see, were the cave wights who controlled them. Crafty beings, beautiful and shrewd. Ghostlike, they can remain unseen, hiding in the air, in the rock, in the water.”

Daniel conjured an image of a graceful, translucent being with a wicked smile and black eyes with startling white pupils.

“How do they control the dragons?” One of the younger boys chimed in.

“The dragons loved gold, but cannot mine it themselves,” Grandma explained. “They must steal it from others and hoard it, or be paid it. The cave wights care not for wealth, but for their territory not to be infringed. When it is invaded, they are vicious and take swift retribution.”

“What happened next??” The littlest cried anxiously, and Daniel’s images changed as Grandma continued speaking.

“The brave prince knew that the dragons were working for the wights, and so he set out from his castle and rode hard many days to the outlying places of the world where the Cave Tyrant, the leader of all the cave wights, was said to dwell. It was an arduous journey, and he only barely made it alive.

“The Tyrant looked down upon his lowly state, and raised a fist to kill him, but the prince offered a treaty. Humans would forever leave the territory of the wights, and in exchange, the wights would take the dragons deep underground with them.

“A deal was struck, and the wights and dragons disappeared from the surface of the earth, never to be seen again by humans.”

As Grandma concluded the story, Daniel tiredly finished projecting the images he recalled from the storybook the children had read on them. He yawned, and his mother put a hand to his cheek.

“I think it’s bedtime,” Anaisa said gently.

“Bedrolls are right there,” Grandpa directed. “Make yourself comfortable in here, boys.”

“Yes, Grandpa,” Daniel answered for all of them.

“Go right to sleep,” Trace warned his sons with a raised finger.

Everyone took the cue to head to their respective sleeping places. Even if tomorrow was a day of rest, life started early in the morning on a farm.

Mia gave a half smile for her cousins, but was feeling exhausted, herself. She went to get all the things she would need overnight from her room and put them in a bag, then took that and a bedroll to her parents’ room so that Uncle Trace and Aunt Anaisa could take hers.

When she entered, Her mother was sitting on the bed with a concerned look.

“Are you ok, Mia?” She inquired gently. “I’m… I’m sorry.”

Mia didn’t even ask what Sarah was apologizing for.

“Why did you do it? Why keep it from me?” She demanded. Mia could think of several times across the years where she’d asked about the strange bits of memory she had, and no one had shed any light on it.

For a long time, she’d assumed they were pieces of dreams, of nightmares that she couldn’t quite grasp.

“It seemed better that you did not remember,” Sarah said quietly. “I was badly frightened by what happened. Being taken, with my children, from my own home… I did not know what would happen. They blindfolded us, tied us up. I did not always know if you and your brothers were nearby, or if you were taken.

“I couldn’t… it was terrifying. When it was all over, after we were freed, we did not talk of it anymore. You seemed to forget, and I was glad.”

“Glad?” Mia clenched her jaw. “Glad that your daughter’s mind was broken so badly that it could no longer hold memories?”

“Children’s memories are tricky,” Sarah said softly. “They can recall with perfect clarity some insignificant detail of some mundane event, but sometimes bigger things are quickly forgotten. I’d hoped that the memory was gone forever and would not plague you. I did not know how to bring it up, or discuss it… it was easier to let it lie.”

“Easier is not always better,” Tears streaked down Mia’s face.

“I was traumatized as well, Mia.” Sarah swallowed and looked down. “I did not know how to adequately bear my own fear and yours. When yours disappeared, I worked on my own. When I was finished moving through it, I did not see the merit in trying to dig something up that you’d forgotten.”

“Well, it’s been dug up now, hasn’t it?” Mia shut down the conversation by snapping out her bedroll on the floor and crawling into it, still fully clothed. Her nightgown and the next day’s clothing were untouched in her little knapsack.

“I’m sorry, Mia,” Sarah said again as Seth entered the room to go to bed.

The girl ignored the words and pretended to fall asleep.