"Miss Leticia, thank you for today!"
"That's nothing sister. I'm just happy that we could send a child with a smile."
Leticia waved her hand and said goodbye to the sister's in the orphanage after a successful day.
The top of the hill where the orphanage was located overlooks the town and can be seen the old houses below it. Leticia stare at the horizon for a moment as the sky was painted ablaze with fire as the sun set.
"I should go home now…"
Leticia's day is the same as usual, her routines and work schedule come back to the way it used to as the attacks of the bandits stop permanently and the whispers and tension in the air at the South diminished and the people heaved a sigh of relief as the town is safe again.
The patrol guards rarely scouted the area nowadays and the townsfolk learned the news that the Baron who administers the borderline of the South has requested help from the capital and that's why the situation was handled silently.
With a basket full of bread in her hand that the sister's gave her, Leticia walk with light steps and a happy heart as the world that she once feared is more peaceful than she thought it would be.
The first memory that she has with the village of Oakland seems to have happened yesterday but it's been three years that Leticia stayed here in the Otis Kingdom.
"Let's keep this peace!" Leticia shouted at her head.
She didn't know that her destiny was about to change.
***
After she attended to her work, Letica went home, tired, but at the same time filled with fulfillment.
One of the children in the orphanage was adopted by a family of merchants that is famous for taking care of the children who showed prominent results and has a knack of talent for business.
Leticia giggled when she remembered the face of Anton, who got adopted because of his wits and charming answers when the merchant was asking for directions to the director's office.
"I knew that child could do it…"
The look on the children's faces who wished for Anton's bright future was so lovable that Leticia always thought how the children can be so innocent and loving at the same time.
Leticia recalled the voice of the child who always asked her questions whenever she was in the orphanage to teach and help the nuns.
"Leti! When I grow up and get rich, I'll find you and give you the best foods and dresses! I promise!"
Anton cheerfully said his vow to Leticia as he guarantees that he will find her when he becomes successful in the merchant family that adopted him. At the wave of his hand he hopped on the carriage with the sponsors that will be his new family.
At that time, Leticia smiled and waved her hand at Anton whose eyes were red and clouded in mist. She knew that Anton was trying hard not to cry in front of the other children as he will miss them.
The children at the orphanage actually come from different locations and not from their town and were sent to Oakland where they teach them etiquettes, crafts, or house chores... that could be possible work they could acquire in the future when they left the place.
'I hope that those children could find a family that would appreciate them and love them as their own…'
Leticia smiled sadly. She remembered one of her past but then quickly forgets about it when she recalled that the children have different destiny than her.
"Let's pray for Anton's bright future and wish for the destiny of the other children later…"
Leticia mumbled as she smiled thinking of the faces of the children.
Certainly, most of the children that are here were smart, lovely, responsible and independent.
So most of the people who want to adopt the children came from a promising house because of the reputation of the orphanage as well as the director who always bragged about the children's talents whenever he visited the other towns.
It is the reason why there's a lot of children that get adopted from the orphanage or hired and become servants or maids for the nobles.
That's why, every year, there's an event where the priest and the sisters will invite guests that come from different towns and cities who are interested in adopting or hiring the children.
Truthfully, Leticia was always bummed out whenever the annual event happened but
"This life really is great…"
Plopping down on the sofa of her small house that she brought after working a lot of part time jobs in the town, it has a scent of wood and the spring flowers that can be seen at the back of her house.
It has a mini garden and a farm too. Being by herself in this house, she begins to become self -sufficient in things that she might need.
Leticia was pleased at the quiet life in the town.
She decided to make her dinner now that the sun has set.
Looking at her storage room where the staple of food like potatoes and such are stored and the dried meat were hangin at one corner at the wall.
It was actually the food that the townspeople harvested and the meat came from the butcher shop that Mr. Frederick owned.
"He gave me such a bargain last week…"
Leticia's life can be said to be simple and peaceful.
Taking the things that she needs from the storage room. She happily walked to the kitchen and prepared everything.
From beating the eggs to making a soup, to chopping the leafy vegetables to make a salad and to cutting the meat to cook in the hot fire.
"Haa… that's perfect!"
With her hands on her waist, she smiled when she saw the hardship that she made resulted in a wonderful meal.
"Let's eat…!" Leticia said to no one.
She clapped her hands together as she always does when Leticia is in front of the food.
As she stayed in this small house with herself, she began to pick up the habit of talking to herself because of how silent it is.
Let's face it. Leticia is lonely whenever she comes home.
"Whatever… I like this silence."
Still, Leticia was content with her life here than she was in her own world.
Anyway, finishing the daily chores in the house she began to prepare her bed but before that Leticia first sat beside the candle light and looked at the window outside.
After adjusting to life in the countryside, Leticia was now fond of knitting while she enjoyed the music that came from nature during the night.
The swaying sound that came from the leaves of the big tree in front of her house gives her calmness as the night deepens.
The night seems to lullaby Leticia accompanied by the warmth that comes from the fireplace. It made her sleepy.
***
As the night gets deeper and only the howl of the animals are heard, a different sound mixes in.
Whoosh~… Toosh!
Step… Step…
Leticia, who falls asleep at her favorite spot in her room, abruptly wakes up because of the noise that was different from the usual nights.
Toosh! Clang~
Thud!
The ruckus that seems closer than she thinks made her fully awake. Leticia, jerked up from her seat where she had accidentally fallen asleep.
"What's that noise?" She whispered, afraid of what it was.
Leticia immediately gets the crow bar that she always hides under her bed.
Clang! Crash!
Understanding that the noise was close to her house, Leticia enforced herself to be brave and silently went her way to the kitchen with her crowbar held close to her chest. The back door was located there in the kitchen where it leads to her small garden.
Thud!
"I'm going nuts… why does it need to be in the middle of the night!"
Curses!
She was the only one in the house and the next neighbor five houses away from her house.
As Leticia walks nearer to the door, she's arguing with herself.
"Really… why do you need to live here where the neighbors are five houses apart." she mumbled.
Leticia always has a dream when she was on her own world to have a house with a far apart neighbors with a lawn and back garden where she can farm her own vegetables because she wanted to have a peaceful life away from the gossips and nosy people that surrounded her all her life but right now she seems to think that she achieve her dream too early and the other circumstances was not considered. Like what she was experiencing right now.
Pak! Pak! Pak!
Leticia smacks her head as if a punishment for being too relaxed in this town.
She leaned and peered at her small window located in the kitchen where the small garden can be seen and saw a black silhouette lying in the grass and destroying the greens that were almost ready to harvest.
"Seriously…?!"
For Leticia, the garden is the second most important part of her house. The first, of course, is her cozy bed.
Anyway, Leticia hates it when her grown vegetables get damaged, even if it's from the pest, the weather, or lack of water..
She hates it because all her effort will go down the drain if it gets damaged and ruined. Especially, if all this harvest will go to her stomach.
"Damn it… my garden! My vegetables! My food!"
Click!
Opening the door with her hand held in the crowbar tightly. Leticia marched to the unknown silhouette in her garden.
Because of the moon glowing so bright, Leticia could see the path and thankfully her eyes already adjusted to the dark.
As she slowly got nearer, the silhouette became clearer.
"Huh?"
"... a man?"