The Waterfall's Nymph

Chapter 7 – Hard Truth

Sulfus woke up in the next morning, he was totally curled around the blankets and sheets of his bed, it was so cold outside that he didn't even want to get out of there. But apart from the cold, the sun went through the small holes of the shutter from his window, filling the room with the morning's light, causing as well the awakening of the boy. He looked at his cell phone, with a very sleepy face, to check out what time was it: 10h30.

He placed the object again on his bedside table and allowed himself to cuddle a bit more, it was Saturday after all, he just wanted to stay curled in his bed, he was too tired. He was about to fall asleep again when he started hearing laughs from the outside, coming from the garden.

Taken by the curiosity, he stood up from the bed and dragged himself to the window, he opened the curtains and the shutter of his window, he peeked outside and saw Elisabeth trying to teach Nymph how to make snow balls and throwing them against a tree, his little sisters laughed at the fact that the blonde haired girl was a bit clumsy in doing that. Something that caught the young teenager's attention was that he had noticed Nymph wasn't wearing anymore the white dress that he always had seen her dressed, she now wore a pair of tight jeans, brown snow boots and a warm purple jacket, he couldn't see her shirt because of the jacket. But he also noticed that the girl wasn't used to that type of clothes, she had a hard time moving in them but Elisabeth always helped her up whenever she lost her balance and fell, making a huge hole in the snow, one more reason for the child to laugh so much.

Deciding that he too wanted to join the game of these two, Sulfus smiled and went back inside his bedroom. He changed his clothes and walked out the room, going downstairs where his parents were at the living room, sitting on the sofa, Edan read his newspaper as usual while Seraph read one of her romance books that she loved so much.

"Good morning" said the boy, his parents' attention was turned immediately to him, his mother smiled

"Finally awake" she said, joking because she knew perfectly that her son loved to sleep till late, he understood her joking tone and only rolled his eyes before going to the kitchen and ask Bianca to make him something fast since he wasn't very hungry. After having breakfast, he decided then to go to the garden of his house that now was filled up with snow, where the two girls were playing...or they had been playing because when he got there he couldn't see them. He found it weird...he hadn't seen them go inside the house, where were they?

All he felt next was something hitting on the back of his head, filling up his rebel blue hair with snow, he turned around but barely had time to react because not one but three snow balls hit him right on his face. He shook the snow off his face and looked at where they had come from, but nobody was there, however he could hear a very low giggle of his sister.

"Very funny, you two" he said while he tried to understand where they were hidden, he walked silently on the snow, trying not to make too much noise. That's when he noticed a bit of Nymph's blonde hair hidden behind a bush, he rolled his eyes but smiled "Oh where could they be?" he crouched down and filled up his arms with snow and walked to where they were hidden, he found them both laughing at what they had done to him, however they didn't notice the "danger" that was right above their heads, they only noticed it too late when Sulfus let the snow in his arms fall upon their heads, he laughed.

"Take that!" he said between laughs while the two girls got out of under the snow, shaking it out of them, Elisabeth pouted as she stood up and crossed her arms, Sulfus keep laughing and flicked her nose slightly in playful way, she started giggling too. The boy then helped Nymph up "Lizzie, what do you think of showing Nymph the city?" he asked then to his little sister

"Yes, yes!" she answered very happy

"Go warn mom and dad, we'll be waiting for you at the gate" the girl nodded and run happily back inside the house, Sulfus turned his attention back to the blonde girl standing in front of him, he smiled at her "Did you sleep well?" he asked, the girl nodded and also smiled at him. She followed him when he started walking towards the gate.

"You know, there is something that I want to ask you, about the place where you live with the wolves" said the boy, catching the girl's attention who looked at him with a look as if saying for him to go on "Yesterday when I went there looking for you...I noticed something...the lake wasn't frozen, moreover nothing in there was filling with snow, how is that possible? We are in Winter..."

The girl wanted to explain him but the fact she didn't have a voice didn't allow her to do so...how could she explain it to him? It was a bit hard doing it with gestures...seeing the hard time the girl was having in trying to explain him, the boy tried to help her by guessing

"Is it because of the water? The magic?" he tried and received a nod as a response, meaning that he was right "You mean that the magic in the water besides healing wounds, is also able to keep that place safe no matter the weather changing?" again the girl nodded, he was amazed, he never though magic really existed, let alone that it had so much power...however another question went through his mind "But...tell me, what can happen if that magic disappears? The place won't be protected any longer and can...die?" the girl put a sad look and slowly nodded again, looking down...

Sulfus now understood the reason she had asked him to not tell anyone about that place...there were too many cruel and selfish people in the world, if they found out such richness and power they would end up destroying that place and would use the magic for evil purposes "Well, don't worry, from my mouth nobody will find out about that place" she smiled at him in a thanking sign. It didn't take too long until Elisabeth reached them. As much as he loved his sister, there was another reason of why Sulfus had decided to take her with him and Nymph, he knew if he walked by himself around the city with a girl that he rumors and bad talking about his family would come back, saying that he was flirting with another when he was about to get married with the only daughter of the Rosso family, etc...

"Well, let's see...where I can start...oh, you see that place over there?" said Sulfus, indicating the huge building, painting with many colors that looked more like a palace "That's my school" Nymph tilted her head in sign of confusion "Uh well...what can I say...school is a place where basically you learn many things, writing, reading, counting...and there are many years, you can consider them as levels, you can say that the more you learn, the higher the level you are is, you understand? I for example, I'm at the last level, when I finish this I will have to choose something that I want to do in the future, to be able to enter in a more advanced school. Elisabeth is only on her second year, though." The girl nodded, seeming to have understood the boy's explanation.

The guide through the city continued, obviously and just like excepted, the people would whisper between each other things about who was that girl, why was she with Sulfus, was she some cousin that was going to stay for a while, and many other things...Sulfus just hoped that none of these things became a new rumor that would end up in the first page of the newspapers and magazines, it would be another headache his family would have to handle. They showed to Nymph clothing stores, restaurants, the many types of houses, lots of things, the girl seemed fascinated with all of that, she had never seen such things!

But that's when...

"Sulfus?" said suddenly a voice, the boy turned around and was surprised when he saw who it was...you guessed right, it was none other than Kabale herself! She was staring at her boyfriend, his sister and the blonde haired girl that she didn't know who was...

"K-Kabale..." murmured the dark haired boy, he noticed that she was staring right at Nymph...he looked at this last one and then back to girl in front of him...he sighed...he knew this moment sooner or later would arrive...but he had to try to control the things...

"Who is she?" she said directly, the purple haired girl glared at Nymph with her amber eyes...who was she and why was she so close to HER boyfriend, to HER fiancée...? She didn't like this, not a single bit of it...

"Lizzie, can you go back home with Nymph, by yourself?" said the boy, turning to his sister who, even though she was just 7, had understood immediately the situation and taking Nymph's hand in hers, she told the girl to go back home and that Sulfus would reach them later, Nymph was worried but obeyed and returned back to the Zolfanello house with Elisabeth.

"House? She lives with you? Who is she Sulfus? Are you betraying me?" yelled the girl, seeing that the attentions were gathering around on them, Sulfus acted quickly, he grabbed the girl's hand and guided her to a more isolated zone, as far as possible from the public places where someone could hear their conversation.

"Listen to me, Kabale, this is not what you are thinking!" he exclaimed

"It's not? Then tell me what it is! That little girl lives with YOU and you want me to think exactly what?" continued the exalted girl "I knew you were hiding something from me and now that I saw it by myself, proves me that I was right the whole time! You're just a womanizer and traitor!"

"And what exactly did you see, Kabale? Tell me! What you saw was me, my sister taking a walk with a girl around the city! That's all! Did you see me kissing her? No! No because I didn't do any of that! And since you want to know so badly who she is, I will tell you! She is the girl who I own my life! If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't be here anymore! On the day I fell on the river, SHE was the one who saved me, if it wasn't for her, I would be dead by now, deep in the river!"

"And is it necessary for her to live with you?"

"Don't talk about what you don't know! She is living with me because I decided to help her, I'll let you know that she has no family, she has always lived in the forest, she doesn't know anything about our style of life, I decided to help her know better all of this as a favor for her having saved my life!"

"So you got a savage in your house?"

"ENOUGH! That's enough Kabale, I'm tired! I'm tired of all of this! I'm tired of your jealousy scenes, I'm tired of you wanting to control my life, with who I can talk or not, you don't have any kind of right over me! I'm tired of this lie, I'm tired of pretending that I still love you, when that's not true, I'm tired of smiling when I have no reasons to do so, I'm tired of admitting that I want to marry you when that's not true!"

He realized too late that he had talked too much...he shouldn't have said that...at least the part that he didn't lover her any longer, it wasn't a lie though what he had said but she shouldn't know it...oh well...no use crying over spilled milk, now he had to face the consequences...but it didn't matter anymore, he was tired of all of that...

"W-Wh-What...?" mumbled the young girl; shocked with all she had just heard...he didn't love her anymore? The wedding was all a lie? It wasn't true? It wasn't what he wanted? He didn't want to have a future by her side?

"I'm sorry but that's the truth...and please don't blame Nymph for this, because it's not her fault...long time before I met her my feelings for you had already died, I don't feel love anymore for you, just friendship, that's all...I'm sorry you found out this way...and before you ask why I kept this whole lie...it was for the sake of my family's name" and with these hard but true words said, the boy turned his back to his...well...ex-fiancée, you could call it that way and started walking away from her.

But he still heard "You'll pay for this Sulfus Zolfanello!"

However he decided to not take these words serious

~*.*~*.*~

Sulfus entered in his house, sighed and massaged his temples...nice way to finish the morning...nothing better than throwing at your fiancée's face that you don't love her anymore and the whole marriage story is fake! And now he was certainly sure that the Rosso would publish that story in the newspapers...great...just great...but now there was nothing he could do...what was done, was done...

He walked towards the stairs but ended up crossing paths with his father in the hall..."Sulfus, what happened? Why has Elisabeth returned by herself?"

"Not now, dad..." murmured the young boy, he didn't want to tell him what happened right now...he would just disappoint him...

"Oh no, young man, now yes. Tell me what happened" demanded Edan

"I broke up with Kabale, okay?" he said raising his tone a little bit

"What? Why did you do something like that? You were going to get married!" exclaimed the father

"We won't any longer..."

"Is it because of that girl? Sulfus you-"

"For God's sake! You're the second person that thing it's Nymph's fault! Damn it, leave her at peace! It's not her fault! I don't love Kabale anymore and it's not because of Nymph, I didn't love her long before I met Nymph! So stop blaming her!" and with that said, the boy run upstairs, ignoring his father's calls

He was about to enter in his room when he stopped himself from doing so...he turned to Nymph's bedroom...she probably was there. He turned his back to his bedroom's door and walked to the one in front of him, he knocked twice before opening it slightly, Nymph was there and raised her head when she heard the two knocks, she smiled and stood up from the floor, walking up to him. He entered in the room and closed the door behind him.

"I'm sorry for what happened back there...it's something very complicated" said the boy, the girl smiled at him and took both his hands in hers pulling back to the place she was sitting before he had entered. Both sit down again on the bedroom's carpet and Sulfus noticed that on it was a note block with something done in there, next to it was a pencil and a book. He picked up the block and the book...his eyes widened slightly and turned to Nymph.

"You were trying to write?" Nymph curled a bit of her hair on her finger in sign of nervousness before nodding, she wanted to communicate with him beyond the gestures, there were things that gestures couldn't say, there were things that she wanted to tell him but she couldn't because she was mute! So she decided that she wanted to learn how to write, learn a new way of communicating with him. Just like he had made an effort to understand her gestures, she too would make an effort to be able to write.

Sulfus smiled at her "Well, I'll help you but let's start with something simpler, okay? Try to copy too long words from a book is still too complicated for you, so let's start with something simpler" she nodded. Sulfus and Nymph spent the rest of the day dedicating to the young girl's write learning, for a beginning it wasn't bad, Sulfus had helped the young girl write the abecedary lots of times until it had a more correct format, it wasn't easy but slowly, and thanks to both teens' determination, Nymph was able to start writing her first words. The next days would be dedicated to the hardest part.

~*.*~*.*~

Hours before...

Kabale entered fast in her house, in tears, mad, she felt anger, she felt anger towards everything, anger towards Sulfus, anger towards her feelings for him! How had he dared to do something like this to her? How had he dared to use her to keep his family's name? How had he dared to play, use like that her feelings for him? She hated him with all her might right now!

"I hate, I hate him, I hate him!" she yelled

"Kabale?" said a voice, coming from behind the girl, she turned around to the person, it was none other than her father, Edwin Rosso. The only member of her family that was left of her, her mother had died years ago when she was still very young "What's wrong, my sweetie?"

Without even thinking twice about it, Kabale told everything that had happened, without hiding any kind of detail...

TBC...

I hope you've liked it! Please don't forget to leave reviews! Also if you're curious check out my other recent Angel's Friends stories: "Father's Day Gift", I've sent this one in March and only got one review but I would like to get more, to see what you thought! And I've also posted the small prologue of the story I'll write once I finish The Waterfall's Nymph, this story is called "I'll Find You" so far I haven't got any reviews of this one.