Chapter 236: Orphans
Standing outside a simple tent, Milo put on a feeble smile when he saw the flame haired human approaching the tent he shared with his wife Juni, his mother, and a younger woman named Cetna who would have been his sister-in-law if not for...
"Good morning, young Ollie," Milo said, trying to keep his tail from drooping as he waved to the young man. "I didn’t expect you to come visit us, especially so early."
"How is she?" Ollie asked, with an expression on his face that Milo had come to interpret as concern. It was hard to tell with humans, especially young ones like Ollie who lacked even the shortest of whiskers on their faces, but the eyes seemed to say much for humans of all ages and Ollie’s looked... clouded.
"She drinks the broth you made for her," Milo said. "I don’t think she even tastes it. I just put it in her cup and she drinks it instead of water. It, it’s not enough," he said, his whiskers twitching in frustration. "It’s not your fault, I just don’t know what else to do after..." After his brother died.
Even now, several days later, he still found it hard to say the words. At least, once he’d arrived in the Vale of Mists, Juni had been here waiting for him, grateful beyond words that he’d survived. His mother, on the other hand, had cursed and spat at him when she woke in the healer’s tent.
"You should have let me burn with our home," she’d spat with eyes that burned with resentment. "I had memories there. I could still feel my father’s touch in the wood of our walls and mother’s claw marks on every piece of furniture. Now I have nothing to touch to feel them. I didn’t want to be an orphan!"
"And I didn’t want to raise a child without a grandmother!" Milo shouted back at her. "Your claws are still sharp, mother. Your bite is still fierce! You can leave more marks behind in the years to come, so why can’t you stay with us? Or do you want to make me an orphan with no home and no past?"
Things had only gotten worse after that. She hurled insults at him but Milo pressed his tail to the ground hard enough that his body shook and refused to hear the hateful words she said. She didn’t mean them, not really, and without trees to remember her words, he wasn’t about to recall them either.
But now that several days had passed, he was at a loss for how to help the woman who had once been the pillar at the center of their village. Her roots had been eaten away and she’d come toppling down but he didn’t know how to stand her up again.