33 Eikhart Village
-Charm's POV-
"Hello my prisoners! My name's Elena."
After this girl introduced herself, she took several steps until she reached where I was currently trapped in her vines.
"Why are you here?! Are you teaming up with mortals because you're also after the money? Or you're all spies from Citadel?!" The girl's jaw clenched as she gave each one of us her icy stare.
"No! It's not what you think!" I shouted at the top of my lungs causing her to look back at me.
"Our group's mission is to go to different places where the ancient springs can be found and revive them one by one. In fact, we're on our way towards Citadel to revive the last spring of Deity Apollo."
Unfortunately though, her icy stare didn't change one bit and became more hostile towards us than before.
"And why should I trust someone like you… when I saw you teaming up with these mortals?" she spitefuly said, with one finger pointing towards Lance and Johanne's location.
"Charm here is right." Baal chose to chime in all of a sudden. "She's the chosen one of the supreme deities that is destined to save mankind and end this Witch Hunt."
After hearing what Baal said, that's the time I saw Elena's face softened a bit. She looked at me again in the eyes with a calm expression now.
"You're that Charm that this tiger is referring to?" she asked , now her finger pointed at the talking tiger with one of her eyebrows arched as she looked at me.
"Yes I am." I immediately responded.
After that short introduction, she instantly casted a spell that unleashes all of us from her vines' grasps earlier and suddenly disappeared.
"Why didn't you say so earlier? Come on, follow me and you may take your friends with you." Then I saw Elena smile from the first time that we've seen her. "There's someone who wishes to see you."
Without waiting for my response, she immediately turned her back on us and started moving. As for me, I looked back to my friends and I saw them all shrugged at once. So in the end, it leaves me with no choice but to follow this girl.
After several hours of walking, we can finally have a glimpse of a nearby village from where we are currently standing. As I looked at the village closely, I suddenly stopped in my tracks when realization dawned upon me.
"Charm? Are you alright?" I heard Lance asked, but I chose to ignore him.
"Eikhart Village." I said in disbelief, my eyes never leaving the village.
"Yup, this is it. Glad you still remembered it." says Elena.
How could I forget such a place? This is where I mostly grew up and spent my childhood days with Gran-gran.
Ohh… speaking of which! How is she doing right now? Will I ever see her again?
Elena started moving forward again and so did we. Now that I think of it, that must be the reason why I'm feeling nostalgic right now as we drew close to the said village.
"Are you sure we can trust her? One moment ago, she planned to kill us all. And now, we're following her?" I heard Aurora murmuring from the back.
"It's okay, I guess. After all, it seems that Charm knew about this place." Lucas answered for her.
Finally, we were able to enter the village's premises. And soon enough, Elena stopped walking in front of a very familiar place to me. The corner of my eyes sting all of a sudden, and before I knew it….beads of water started falling down on my face, one after another, without a sign of stopping.
This house made of bricks, standing right before our eyes, used to be my home with my beloved Gran-gran. And speaking of which, Elena decided to go near the door and knock three times before speaking.
"Gran? You have visitors!" she happily said.
Oh my gosh… Is this really happening to me right now?
It didn't take that long before the wooden door slowly opened, revealing the familiarity of a tall, scrawny woman as she stepped into the doorway. The small grey bun on top of her head is so tight that it pulls the skin back giving her a strained look. Her nose is a hawk's beak, and her lips became paler than before. The lines on her face and her saggy skin indicates that youth had already escaped from her long time ago, unlike those times that I was still with her during my childhood days.
My hands flew over to my mouth as I looked at Gran-gran standing right before my eyes.
"GRAN GRAN!" I called out to her with so much longing.
I hurriedly went near her and gently threw my arms around her waist. Gran-gran's gentle arms surrounded me as well, and I can't help but to shut my eyes as I feel her warm embrace once again after all these years.
"My child, I'm so happy to see you again." Gran-gran softly whispered enough for me to hear.
No words can describe how much I am happy and grateful that I got this chance again to see her right in front of me and feeling her tight embrace at the moment…
***
Ever since I was a child, Gran-gran had already told me the truth, that I wasn't her biological child and how did she find me back then…
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-FLASHBACK-
"One sunny day, it was almost three in the afternoon when I went to a nearby river to wash off our clothes. And there on the river bank, I saw a basket lying near the tall grasses."
"I stopped walking the moment I heard subtle cries from a newborn baby. And so I immediately went near the basket, and that's when I found you wrapped in a warm white cloth."
Gran-gran stopped talking when she heard the little version of me gasp all of a sudden.
"If you aren't my real mother, then do you know who are they Gran-gran? Or where they could be?" I asked innocently with my big, round eyes looking directly at her.
I saw Gran-gran gave me a sweet smile and gently stroked my hair.
"I don't know the answers to those, my child…" she said.
"But what I do know is that wherever you may come from… you'll always be my sweet, little child whom I dearly loved."
-END OF FLASHBACK-
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Gran-gran was the first mortal who accepted my true identity. She was like my hero back then when I was being chased down by soldiers from Citadel. That is why, I am so happy right now to see her okay and still living normally like before.
As we slowly entered the house, the feeling of nostalgia soon overwhelmed me as I cast my gaze on each part of Gran-gran's house. Series of memories soon flooded at the back of my head that caused my lips to curve up into a smile.
"Looks like you've made a lot of new friends." Her gaze landed on each one of my friends who were right behind me as she walked to her rocking chair and took a seat.
"I've met them along my journey. This is Lance, Johanne, Aurora, Lucas….and this tiger over here is Deity Morrel's talking guardian animal Baal." I pointed to each one of my acquaintances as I state their names. They all greeted my Gran-gran one by one.
"Oh by the way…" I saw Gran-gran motions for Elena, who is currently standing beside me, to go near her in which the girl willingly obliged. "...have you met Elena already? I decided to adopt her when I saw her hiding from those guards that's chasing after her."
My eyes shifted to Elena, who only gave us a shy smile.
"Yes Gran-gran. We've met her on our way to your village." I replied. "Good thing you have company here."
"Granny would always talk about you. That's why I recognized your name earlier." said Elena.
There was a moment of silence after her last statement. Gran-gran asked Elena to bring us something to eat in which the girl followed. A few moments later,, Elena came back with a tray of homemade buns and offered it to each one of us.
"Are you all planning to stay here? Our village is currently hosting its 16th village festival until Saturday, just in time for your arrival." Gran-gran spoke again.
That made me glanced over at my friends and asked them if we could all stay.
"If you don't mind, I'll ask you all to come stay here for a while and join our festival. I bet you're all tired from all that travel you've been through." Gran-gran continued.
I immediately smiled when all my friends nodded at the thought of staying here. With a wide grin plastered on my face, I turned to Gran-gran and nodded as well.
"I guess…there's no harm if we all stay here for a while."
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