Chapter Seven – Lydia is Loco now.
It wasn’t a cave. It was a fortress. Scott led the girls down to the very last wall. He punched a button and a stone rolled open.
Another world was behind there.
Everywhere green and flowery. There was a small stream that got it’s root from the forbidden river. It excited Margaret.
They weren’t any houses in sight and just vast green space. Only small animals ran about, no bigger mammals.
After surveying and finding only smaller caves inside the place, Evelyn confirmed that that was where she and her sisters would be staying.
Lydia began making weird noises and acting stubborn. She climbed down from Margaret’s shoulder and began running to a tree.
Margaret wanted to stop her but Scott held her back, “Let her play”.
Evelyn found a less creepy cave amongst the many. It was also narrowed in and had a hole inside. Would be very useful at night.
She was the one carrying their heavy bags so she dumped them on the floor and tried catching her breath. How would she make a home out of this cave? How could this forest be her home?
She recognized a rhyme Lydia was mouthing. She turned slowly to her. And saw Scott smiling at her. Like he recognized it.
Evelyn recognized it too. When Lydia was younger, she had grown fond of a young dog and it’s said imaginary owner. That was a song they made before she had the accident that nearly took her life.
It made her lose her memory but she was three then so it was easy to explain to her who her sisters and family were.
Her brain went back to that default whenever she was stressed. Maybe cos her brain never really healed as their uncle had no money for expensive healthcare.
Why was she remembering it now. Was her twisted leg too much pain for her? Or the new feeling of leaving home?
“Lydia, are you okay?” Margaret stooped to Lydia. She nodded with an innocent smile. Margaret knew she wasn’t.
If Evelyn was the tough and trouble sister. She would be the curious and cunning sister. Lydia would then be the wise and wicked one.
Innocent smiles coming from Lydia only showed she wasn’t okay.
“It is not a problem. She’d come around” Scott said to Margaret. He was holding a row of mattresses.
Evelyn’s jaw dropped when she saw the mattresses. Chic and silk. Could only be found at royal palaces.
If such materials were in the open market, the people rather used them to make pretty chic gowns other than using them for just mattresses.
And where did he get a mattress when he had no house?
He distributed the mattresses between the girls. Giving the red one to Evelyn. Blue to Margaret and green to Lydia.
Evelyn was stunned on how he could know their color taste.
“The caves are not usually cold in the day but they can be unbearably cold at night. Stay warm” he advised. The little wolf stayed besides him, tagging along like a normal dog would.
“Have you met us before?” Evelyn enquired, finally tired of keeping the questions in her head.
Scott looked at her. Memories of a small boy running along with a small girl played in his mind.
A small doll fell from the hands of the small girl and the small boy went back to get it for her.
A hunter, along with two other girls, kidnaps the small girl ahead and she shouts to the boy to help her.
Before he could get to the doll, he runs back to save her.
His eyes flash yellow and he’s about growing when another hunter shoots him, making him blackout. The screams of the girl is the last thing he hears.
Scott’s body begins vibrating as he remembers those memories. His throat went dry and his eyes flashes yellow.
Evelyn noticed. Scott excuses himself and leaves them, entering a cave.
“That guy is weird” Evelyn stoops besides Lydia and Margaret, “He knows us from somewhere, I feel it. I just can’t find him from memory”.
“Well, between me and you, the person with the best memory is…” Margaret paused and looked at Lydia, “… is Lydia but she’s loco now so the questions will have to wait”.
Lydia begins humming and singing her song as she molds a clay face with the mud. It resembles a dog face.
Margaret is disgusted and leaves to find materials for making a bed, she couldn’t afford lying on the bare floor. She won’t be able to rise tomorrow.
For once, Evelyn listened in to know what Lydia was singing. She had always credited it to her wild imaginations or a rhyme she picked up somewhere.
She was actually singing, “little furry creature. Rolling like a ball. Furry, furry, growling like a dog. Half man, half dog, rolling like a ball. Half dog, half man, growling like a dog”.
It didn’t make sense to Evelyn. Perhaps it was a song Lydia made for her dog friend and it’s imaginary owner.
“Lydia, get yourself together. If you need rest, take it. No one to push us around now, okay?” she patted her younger sister’s head.
Lydia nodded childishly and pointed at her ball like molds, “furry like a ball, yeh?”. Evelyn confirmed before going inside to meet Margaret.
Margaret was constructive and with her strength had joined to big stones together to make a bed. Enough to take two people.
“If we can find wood, we can place it on the surface. Nice bed we’d be having then” she breathed heavily as she spoke.
Evelyn declined the idea of cutting down trees to make wood. For once, can’t there be a natural habitat that was unaffected by human’s wants.
They could manage using the mattresses that way.
When she tried it, she realized it wasn’t going to work and the stones underneath them were cold as well.
“And this bed is going to be for two only” Margaret groaned tiredly. She can’t roll any stones further and the stones were uneven to begin with.
“Lydia should stay with me then” Scott came back with a tray of fruits. Margaret was shocked to see the varieties of fruits. Evelyn was shocked by Scott’s proposal.Please check at N/ôvel(D)rama.Org.
“Stay with you? Duh! I rather sleep outside” Lydia spoke for herself as she staggered into the cave.
“Anyway, me saw some yummy fruits you have. Give me” she said cutely.
Margaret face slammed. This was embarrassing and so not Lydia.