11 Evelyn

Swinging and jumping down from the branches of a tree, my bare feet stop moving as they land squarely at the ground.

"You've gone a long way from your clumsy climbing", I hear someone tease me. I turn my head to see the very same person I was thinking about moments ago.

I smile at her jest. Since I have decided to leave, I had started making a few large barrels with whatever fallen branches and the like I could find. I carve them into pieces using a sharp mineral stone to make them fit together, before asking for help from the Nymph-kind to tie them together. It took a lot of trials and errors before I could get it right, seeing as different branches had different sizes and shapes.

I walk to one of the barrels nearest to Evelyn's old willow tree. Practicing every day made it particularly easy to fetch water now, so I made a few barrels on my free time that I fill with water. I placed one to two barrels near each sister Nymph's tree so they could reach it with their branches and vines anytime.

It is the same barrel of water that I stare at my reflection—amber eyes and white hair. Dipping my hands on the barrel, I cup some water to splash my face with whilst eyeing the thin black line had started to form on my left cheek through my reflection. The line grew just below the eye—a sign that my coming of age was coming.

"You've already decided, haven't you", Evelyn questions in a matter-of-fact tone.

I turn to her and seriously reply, "There are things I want to see for myself."

She hums a non-committal answer. I go to take the few fruits I found near the river, along with the smoked meat I made from one of my hunts. I wrap them all in two separate cloths before putting them in a bigger cloth that which I tied around my thin waist.

It seems that gaining any muscle with this body is just nearly impossible. No matter how hard I train, neither do I gain fat, or any muscle. I still look like a child, despite almost coming of age. Inwardly, I sigh.

"You're not going to bid farewell to them?"

I freeze. Hanging my head lower, I remain silent. I did want to say good bye but I don't particularly like farewells. It'd just be harder to leave.

Resolutely, I answer, "I'd be back someday to visit anyway, and you'd probably think it had only been a few days."

Evelyn chuckles in agreement. "Go", she says. "I'll handle the girls when they look for you."

"How?" I gave in to my curiosity but Evelyn just continues to smile.

"I'll manage somehow", she replies as her hand caresses my head. I froze on the spot yet again, extremely befuddled and surprised.

Did Evelyn…just pat me?

I direct a puzzled gaze at her.

"You've been with me the longest and the closest. Don't look so surprised."

Even if it's just been two years?

She takes my hand in hers and stares at the single blade of leaf that wriggles a dance as if a child wanting to attract the attention of its parent. Another seed appears in her other hand as she turns my palm up, and inserts the seed at the pulse of my wrist.

"Take it with you. It'd help you remove any poison", she instructs as the seed grows and intertwines with the previous blade of leaf to weave an intricately braided green bracelet. It embedded itself on my skin yet if I try to touch my skin, it moves away or climbs up to my arm.

"Just how many seeds, saplings and fruits do you have in your collection?"

She winks at me. "That's a secret."

Shaking my head, I pat the bracelet. "Thank you", I say in all sincerity.

"Go. The more you stay, the more spoiled the girls get", she jokes, before she adds, "We'll be right here should you decide to visit." She pauses for a while before adding, "I will be right here should you decide to visit."

I gaze at her for the last time, before nodding once and walking away. This concluded my stay with the Nymph-kind for the last two years.

After I had left, Margarethe shows up and says to Evelyn, "Is it fine? Wraiths live only a couple centuries—a fraction of our lives. And I do believe he's just a half, though I'm not sure what the other half of him is. His lifespan could be shorter or longer depending on that other half. You could have forced him stay, you know. It's not that bad to have a pet bring you water and fertilizer whenever you want."

"He's not a pet", Evelyn sighs. "He is free to live the life he chooses. Wouldn't you want the same for him?"

Margarethe did not answer her. Perhaps it's because Evelyn's old age but Margarethe felt that if it was her, she would have just tied the child to her or simply made him a tree, if need be. It's not like it's the first time.

Maybe Evelyn's old age has gotten to her, Margarethe thinks to herself, as she eyes Evelyn's back before vanishing at the trunk of her tree.

Evelyn looks to the direction I have left for a little while longer, saying to herself, "If I could, I would have gone with the oddballs of human-kind that had chosen to hide with the Hunter-kind. If only I was just a seedling then—if I had gone with them, perhaps my sentimentality and views wouldn't be this ridiculed… A Nymph being sentimental, indeed how odd I am", she laughs at herself.

And yet this was all unknown to me.