Chapter 2 – Back to the beginning

Her long, dark coat was blown by the wind wildly as the knocking sound of her footsteps echoed on the street where she was walking between the talking people on those shining, silent streets, keeping her face without expressions. Suddenly two children appeared not so far from her, a boy and a girl. They were playing tig laughing carelessly and ran around the red haired woman who stopped for a while to let them run safely. After some circles around her they moved on and ran gaily a little far, and the little girl fell on the street. The boy ran to her worrying.
- Hey! Are you okay?
The little girl smiled back at him wide as her friend ran to her and pulled her from the ground to help her stand up.
- Yes, I'm fine! – she answered gaily and stood up like nothing happened. The boy closed his eyes kindly and smiled back at her glad and relieved, and they continued the game running away happily.
Dana was watching the scene from far, deep in her thoughts. She couldn't help, her rigorous lips now slowly melted into a soft, nostalgic smile.

12 years ago

The eight years old girl was walking on the street with a little hanged head, pouting with gruff and disappointment. It was hard to get here but after she escaped to finally be here, the answer from everyone was the same; the people she had asked in the small village sadly shook their heads with a no, and she couldn't get forward on what she wanted to know. The scent of the colourful, big flowers blooming at the edge of the dirt road she was walking on filled the warm summer air, and the glad singing of the birds melted with the sound of the wind as it blew through the big, green leafed trees. Even the sky had a so beautiful blue shade with only a few white clouds on it like the nature wanted to make her happier by its own way but the girl was walking with the same disappointed face.
- I can't believe! The pirates I asked to bring me here had already left and now I'm stuck here gaining nothing! – whined the girl. The fear from being lonely and the anger swirled inside her. – How could I be this stupid?! But then... why? Foosha... Foosha... What did she want to say with it...?
She was so deep in thoughts with a hanged head walking forward instinctively that she didn't notice the boy. She awaked only when their shoulders hit each others and she realised she walked against someone on the road accidentally. She looked at him with her startled, fragile expressions.
- I-I'm sorry! – stammered the girl embarrassed as her cheeks turned into the same colour of her hair. A boy looked back at her. His hair was black just like his eyes and his cheeks were freckled. He couldn't be that much older than her but his look seemed to be rough. He was holding a long iron bar in his hand.
- Hey! Be more careful while walking! – said the boy with gruff. It made the girl tremble and forget about her bad thoughts.
- Okay... – gulped Dana and nodded quickly still watching him. He was still glaring at the red haired girl, thinking in silence.
- I have never seen you here before... – said he as raising his left eyebrow suspiciously. – Who are you?
- My name is Willow D. Dana! – answered the girl fast. – I travelled here from another island to-... know something. And who are you? – asked she with that wide, enthusiastic smile on her face. Even if he didn't seemed to be a so friendly type the girl was glad that she found someone finally she can talk to. In this way she felt less lost on this unknown place she had never been before.
The boy was watching her for some long moments before saying anything. Dana didn't know in that time what he was thinking about and she realised only later the thoughts what were inside him even in this young age. He knew it well already in that time that he can't say a lot about himself especially not for a stranger.
- Ace – he answered simply.
- ...Ace... – repeated the girl quietly on her childish and naive voice, watching him with her huge eyes. Saying his name just felt so great somehow. Warmth filled her inside and even if only a little in that moment but the loneliness started to vanish. Ace kept his stubborn, gruff face but the girl's still kind, honest look made a slight blush on his freckled cheeks. Like the fact he got a little embarrassed made him pissed off, he turned away from the girl and continued his way on the road.
The girl's face became scared as she was left alone again. She couldn't bear anyway without a word.
- Hey! Wait! – said the little girl as she stretched her arm toward him instinctively after making a clumsy step again but he didn't care. – I was stuck in an island I don't know anyone!
- Not my problem.
- Hey, don't go away!
- Get lost!
The girl pouted her lips again with gruff and frowned at him. But she couldn't bear for long she started to run after him. The boy looked behind at her angrily.
- Geez... I hate clingy people! – growled he and fastened his footsteps. The girl was following him stubbornly what made Ace turn his way toward the path leading deep into forest. He stopped at the border of the path and the dirt road, glaring at the girl.
- This forest is not for weaklings like you. Don't follow me here!
As he finished the sentence he vanished. The girl was looking inside the dark forest where his silhouette faded away fast. It didn't take a long time... Ignoring the warning she walked inside.
- Ace! – shouted the girl for him scared running inside the forest deeper and deeper, getting more unsure with her every steps. The calming sounds of the forest disappeared after a while. And then she heard a strange sound of a bird what was like a screech and made her shake for a moment. On the island she was from there wasn't really dangerous places or scary animals. So here in this place everything seemed to be so strange and frightening. She heard some twigs were crunched on the ground behind her what made the trembling little girl turn toward the sound. She has lost the track after the boy. Just like the way of turning back to the safe road. She shivered from fear, looking around everywhere scared.
From the behind of her back again suddenly she heard a wild, animal growl what made the blood freeze in her veins. As she turned her face back, every motion seemed to be so slow. She saw an enormous tiger walking toward her with a hungry look. Its big fangs were shown signing the death. Dana couldn't even move from the fear, she just stood there with widened eyes and her legs didn't want to obey to her. But she wouldn't even have the time to run away... because the tiger suddenly growled again and ran toward her.
Suddenly in the last moment the boy she had met here appeared, jumping between the girl and the tiger with the iron bar in his hand brandishing it toward the predator. Dana fell back from the shock, fear and surprise still in the trauma. If Ace was only a second late... She would be the lunch of the tiger as a child. But he came back... only to save her...
The girl started to worry because she didn't want him get hurt because of her but her jaws fell watching him. He didn't look like someone who needs to be worry about.
"Even if he can't be that older than me... It's amazing how well he fights..."
When the tiger attacked him the boy got away from it and attacked back, always the weak points of it. After a short fight the tiger thought it better to give up and decided to search after another prey. When the predator vanished in the bush and disappeared, the boy turned toward the red haired girl, very pissed off.
- I TOLD YOU TO NOT FOLLOW ME! – shouted Ace. – OH MY GOD WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!
From his loud voice the girl's huge eyes widened again and now filled with tears, her mouth started trembling. She was always a sensitive type but in that time when she was a child she could be easily made cry even only by someone shouting at her.
- But I don't know how I could return back...! – said she on her trembling high voice and bit her bottom lip while the cry. – And I don't even want to return back...! I don't belong there... neither here... I just want a place I can call home and I want to return to! I want friends...
The boy was looking at her for a long time deep in his thoughts. He didn't really know what he should do to calm her. At the end he sighed fretfully and lowered the iron bar.
- If you want to follow me so that much anyway, at least don't drop behind.
As he stretched his arm toward her to help her stand up the girl blushed fully and deeply again. She stopped crying from the surprise. Ace still glared at her with his dark eyes and gruff, but the blush appeared on his cheeks as well. Dana raised her arm to accept his help and grab his hand, and he helped her stand again, making her tears vanish and evoking a wide, true smile from her heart on her face.

The woman chuckled from the old past memory. It seemed to be so impossible in that time that what happened later and how their relationship changed as they grew up together by each other's side getting so close as time passed. But looking back she was sure in that even if she didn't find what she wanted on that day in Foosha, she found something else important what she never regretted and changed her fate forever.
She turned her look, now watching the street forwards her again. She needed to continue the journey. She turned on the street and leaving the children back, she vanished in the crowd.