Vernor remained silent, and the effort he put into asking that question seemed the most he could do. He was still in great pain. Of course, stopping the blood flow wasn't enough to cure him. However, without looking at him, I easily imagined him grimacing in front of…my father.
"If you are my father," said I, standing on my weaker legs more than ever, "perhaps you can explain to me why you abandoned a dying woman and a baby in a forest infested with such monsters."? Why didn't you come back so long to help us before my mom died? Why do you now show that the seniors took care of my education when … you were somewhere beyond the deep waters on your boat? I do not want to see you! Take your bloody flesh and return to the sea.
I threw him the slide I had left and turned on my heels, taking a firm, firm step toward the woods.
"Cylia"! Then I heard behind me. Don't leave me with them! I can't walk. Cylia!
He was right, I shouldn't have left him. But I couldn't stop and turn around to pick it up. I wouldn't have worn it on my own. So I turned my ears deaf, tears streaming down my cheeks, until I reached the edge of the forest. There, I started running and then jumped onto the first large branch within reach. I climbed a bit as I was getting ahead and finally sat down, with my back to the ledge.
I had just left my friend, my one true friend – the one who risked his life to save mine – in the hands of my father. The dad you just found after all this time. He said he came to get me. Why?
Why did you run away in particular? It was obvious I would have to go back. Unless it's for Vernor. It was out of the question for me to leave him there! However, to meet the blue eyes of this man – the first I had ever seen in my life – seemed unimaginable to me. My feelings were very confused. I wanted to hug him before leaving as I did. I also wanted to hit him. He understands the intense anger I felt. All I could do was cry. Shedding more tears than ever. It was a complete mess in my mind! I've never been so lost far from home, so far from my boyfriend, without any reference, not even my good old buttocks-marked fork. Yes, I didn't have a great view of the big water to reassure me. Only the wind in these little trees that have no wings and the feeling of having, again,
"I didn't think you would run away from me," said my father's deep voice.
Hearing it so close startled me and I almost fell. Then I turned to him angrily and saw him standing in the tree behind me. I didn't even hear him come close because I was so lost in my moaning.
"Can I sit over there?" he asked, pointing to my sub.
I did not answer. The truth is, I didn't know what decision to make. His presence reassured me. He was able to kill a creature and eat it. Not me. On the other hand, if I left, it was first of all that I thought calmly. What I couldn't do at all, I had to admit.
"I think I can take that as a yes," he concluded.
Jump from my bough to my bough. Flexible and powerful jump. He landed a funny jab, and his footguard left a slight gash on the branch. Less deep than that which we have already crossed with Vernor, but comparable. He had a lot in common with the creatures below.
"I think you have a lot of questions. It's normal. Know, however, that I haven't given up on you and your mother. It's not true…
"Leaving us here for sixteen rites, and I dying and becoming the whipping boy of all the region, wasn't that abandonment?" I am sure, then!
My father looked at me but I looked away and faced a multitude of trees instead. He sighed before continuing.
"When I dropped you and your mother off, she was bitten by a sea creature called a Pmenth. The monster was making a meal out of it, but we stopped her. Its venom kills so slowly and we thought we could save your mother. We also thought we made it. When her memory started to fail, I knew we wouldn't We weren't far from here and I knew that at least in this big tribe, you had nothing to fear.
- She's dead! I cried, my face drenched in tears.
"She would have died with us anyway," he replied without much emotion. You are to find yourself living in the sea with a group of dirty sailors. I had no qualifications to take care of you. I'm not sure you wouldn't have ended up in the water or been eaten by some critter. Your mother has lost her memory. Sometimes you don't remember me or you. She needed help raising you properly. I left you here for your good.
"Why only go back now if this is true?" My education ended long ago. And if you know that in liberation, you choose your path, and you know that too, right? I spat in his face.
He wiped a crackle he received under his eye and gave me a strange look.
- You will quickly understand, if you come with me, that the sea, and my crew in particular, are unsuitable for a girl of ten years of age. But I understand your disappointment and I'm sorry Celia. Today I'd like to make up for some of the time we didn't have together if you don't mind. I will tell you the details of our adventures with Amelia if you wish. We will live wonderful adventures and rub shoulders with danger. Those sparrows that cut off your friend's leg are nothing compared to what you will find at sea or in some of the countries we visit.
He said all this with a smile, and despite myself, I found myself dreaming of adventure. Of course, I wanted to follow him. Whether it was my father or a stranger, I would follow him. But specifically: it was my father and he had abandoned me earlier in the ritual. And now I'm supposed to forget the past and follow it without saying anything?
- Let me give you something as if he understood my inner questioning. Let's go back to your friend Vernor, who's afraid we'll eat him. Spend the rest of the day with us, watching my men and savoring the taste of fin cooked over a fire or smoked. Tomorrow, at the latest, I will take you both back to the Sener region so that your people can take care of your injured friend. Then you will decide whether or not to sail with us. Yes?
I hesitated. He showed us a way home. I wasn't planning on going back, or at least I didn't know how to get to the area. With Vernor injured, that ignorance had turned into an absolute impossibility. If he claims he can bring us back, our healer can cure Vernor. I could not refuse such an offer. So I ended up nodding my head.
- He said well, without showing more enthusiasm. Follow me next. Let's find your friend. Miss you.
My father fell to the ground because I got off more carefully. I had jumped from such a height before and vividly remembered the feeling of landing. On the other hand, he made no effort to break his fall.
"I thought you left me there," Vernor whispered as I approached him.
"No," I smile. I will never do this to you. But I needed to… I don't know, to run away.
"Have you come to a middle ground?"
"Let's say yes. He will indeed take us home. But only tomorrow morning."
After a moment of shock, Vernor told me he wasn't going until the next day. When I worried about his injury, he reassured me. He thought he would starve. It was unthinkable to eat meat dripping with blood, he cried out when offered. My father—it was strange to call him—then pointed out two of his men who were busy making a fire in a ditch. After a few moments, he said, the meat would be done. The rest will be smoked to carry on his boat. Some of his men went off to hunt more creatures. He added that this would also ensure our safety during the night.
"If not, I can go pick some leaves for you," I suggested. But I didn't see any Quilbras around.
"Is there anything edible here?" Vernor lamented.
My father argued that there were many edible plants a little up the hill and offered to accompany me while his men continued to manage the fires and food. I left my boyfriend again, but this time he was to go get his food. So he let me go without complaining too much.
My dad walked fast and I struggled a bit to keep up with the climb. With his pads on his feet, he didn't have to worry about where to put them. The hard ground hurt when I wasn't careful.
"Those are pebbles!"
- I beg your pardon.
Stop and pick up a piece of solid ground.
- It's a pebble. No solid ground.
- Oh!
I discovered that even in my language there were many words I did not know. There are no pebbles in the trees. Nothing more than sand, shoes, and clothes. Because he wasn't wearing armor like Becausee thought. It was clothes. This mysterious term referred to whatever he was wearing. But every piece has a name. But at this moment, too many names did not cross my mind. We didn't carry any of that on Earth. We didn't have a reason to hide our bodies after all. Why us? We've all been made the same. However, my father explained to me that, outside of our tribe, no one walked without clothes. It protected from the cold. Of rain or sun but also to decorate oneself or show one's position in society. I didn't understand that last part. But what I understood, The reason was that the other men were looking at us strangely. My father explained to me that if we don't have clothes, we're like animals. How strange!
He also told me of his tools, giving each one a name. I didn't remember any of them, but I did remember some of their functions. There was the guy, who was suspended by his legs, allowing him to jump higher or absorb shocks in his legs. He had something parabola in his arms and everything just worked thanks to some kind of box in his back. I also learned that what I initially thought was a stick was actually what killed the monster. Flippers. With this, he could take a life after being several scenes away. He did not use the term "view", but rather another term "view" that escaped me at the time, to designate a distance which he then translated into views. There was so much I didn't understand as he spoke to me in my language.
"But since these words are in my language, then is there a Senir somewhere who uses them?"
"Of course, Celia. Where do you think your mother was from?"
He picked up the pace before reaching the top of the hill, leaving me dreamy. There were other tribes of Senir beyond the sea. If my mother had come from one of them, would I have found my origins there? If I decide to follow him, I can spot them and possibly meet members of my family. My real family…
- Look at this! My father called, interrupting my train of thought.
I finished my climb to pull myself up next to it to warm myself up and discover another expanse of water, huge on this side too. At our feet, as if invisible borders were drawn, plants spread out by the hundreds. I smiled thinking of Vernor's crumbling stomach when I saw my father's finger pointing.
Following him, I this time discovered more closely the boat on which he had arrived. I lacked the vocabulary to describe the construction, which looked like a branch of Silpa with upright stakes and large leaves waving freely in the wind. There were still so many details that caught my attention and an involuntary smile pulled my lips.
"I give you my ship," he said, puffing out his chest. Here comes the salamander!