It hadn't changed me. My innocence and ignorance were sheer endless. After all these years, after all that'd happened I was still asking for a rope at night. Even in my current state I thought I needed to protect myself against others by using a rope...

"Theta."

My father's soft voice emerged from somewhere beside my ear. I opened my eyes slowly and turned my head towards the voice. My father's strong fingers caressed my cheeks carefully.

"You should go back" he whispered.

I sat up and pushed back the sheets, nodding in agreement and getting to my feet. My father grasped my shoulders quick-reacting and laid an arm around me.

"But first you'll have some breakfast."

Then he knelt down to remove the rope from my legs.

I was exhausted. I had hardly found any sleep. My head was spinning and I couldn't remember why I had left the academy the night before. Though, in the end, it all seemed as if it had been for a greater good...

I rested my head on one hand while I nearly dozed off at the kitchen table. My father placed a mug in front of my face. Small vapours of fume emerged from it. I sighed half asleep.

"It's not tea, is it?" I asked in a muffled voice and had a hard time keeping my eyes open.
"It never hurt anyone" replied my father with a firm undertone and added: "Why don't you try it?" "I hate tea" I replied and slumped back, my head falling onto the table.

"You haven't changed a bit" sighed my father "but you're grown up now. You have learned to endure deprivations. So why don't you have a sip?" "It's only tea" I mumbled into my arm. "That's why I don't understand why you're making a fuss about it."
"Darling, please."

I raised my head to see that my mother had placed a hand on my father's shoulder. "Do you think he should drink it? In his current..." "It's alright, it won't harm it. Him. It doesn't matter."
"What?" I asked irritated "What do you mean, IT?"

"I'm sorry dear" my mother took a step forward and hesitated before embracing me. My father stared at his feet.

"What were you talking about?" I asked "What IT?

"All of a sudden you're awake" mumbled my father and stood up.
"Come on. We better get going."

I arose likewise, supporting my aching back a bit. My mother made way for me. Her eyes were fixed on my face, she smiled faintly, as if she tried to evade looking away, as if she was fighting against getting distracted from something a trifle lower...

"We?" I repeated wondering.

"I guess there will be a lot to explain" my father went on after he'd dragged me out of the house carefully. He'd hugged me and I had waited for any usual words of farewell like 'Take care of yourself!', 'So long!' or 'Don't break a leg or you won't be able to run.'
But instead he was now walking by my side. "But I figured it would be best if I told them... you know, urgent family reasons, your mother had the plague or something... A justified reason to explain your absence; I'll think of something, don't worry."

I breathed in deeply and sighed. I didn't dare to look up.

"Thank you" I mumbled quietly.

My father had nothing to add; neither could he think of anything to reply.

It's strange meeting someone who combines the qualities of being someone you've always looked up to, someone who has taken good care of you and someone you're treasuring undying love and thankfulness for. And it's even stranger when you meet him after several years in which you haven't seen or talked to him; beside the monthly letters of
"Everything's fine your mother's doing a lot of gardening lately and she tried transplanting the small golden bushes, the large apple tree and the cat; she must be getting old."

I had nothing to talk about with my father.

I wouldn't have known what to say.

I was still scared; somehow the uneasiness arose in me again as we neared the academy.
I knew that there would be a lot to explain.
And I feared who I had to explain it to.

I sighed quietly and stopped in front of the open gate. My father paused before squeezing my hand a bit. He lowered his head and pushed my hair out of my face. I wouldn't even dare to look him in the eye.

"I'm scared" I mumbled quietly and stared at my feet.

My father cleared his throat. You could literally see him searching the sky for the right words.

"We'll see to it" he replied after a while and tried to smile "Don't worry. There's nothing in this world you need to be afraid of."

My father had never been the lucky type; most of all because he was married to my mother. And you couldn't have said that he was personified tactfulness, either. But this time, at this moment his streak of bad luck turned a different colour.

I had noticed a red tree near the entrance swinging quietly in the breeze; it had been one of the rare trees that hadn't been cut down so far because most of the people were scared of it; and it was botanically rare because its leaves were a shimmering wine red.
People had claimed before that, due to the shapes of its leaves, the tree tended to whistle in the breeze.

Only this time someone else did the whistling for it.

I clutched at my father's arm as I saw Koschei climbing down from the tree; he took the last few feet in a jump and had a very ungentle landing; but he smiled nonetheless and turned his head in my direction, approaching me within a few steps.

My father eyed Koschei up closely.

"Teratism" hissed my father between gritted teeth and pulled me towards him.
Koschei stopped in front of me, ignoring my father.

"You've been missed" he explained and reached for my hand. I flinched and took a step backward, asking absent-mindedly "By whom?"

"By whoever who's missed you" retorted Koschei and chuckled "And I wouldn't exclude myself."

"Don't you have lessons to attend?" snapped my father and I felt his knuckles closing around mine. I looked up to him uncertain before meeting Koschei's mad gaze.

Koschei put his head to one side.

"So has your son" he replied while smiling and reached for my hand once more "And if you don't mind, I'll escort him..." "I DO mind" interrupted my father and gave him a death glare; his mouth formed the word for Koschei's opprobrious name. "Keep away from him."

I didn't know if my father had addressed me or Koschei, but anyway I nodded my ascent.

Koschei chuckled and I sure was glad that my father had grasped my hands.
Back then I hadn't known why my father had been furious; but looking back at the day I shouldn't have wondered if my father had smashed in Koschei's head.

But I didn't know.
All I knew was that Koschei had come between my legs; and at least I had had the heart to tell my father about it.

"Why don't you just run off like as usual" continued my father "Why don't you just get lost?"
"It's your son who looks rather lost" replied Koschei and chuckled, taking a step back as a precaution "Lost in thoughts... lost in time and space..."

My father pushed him aside and entered the academy, pulling me after him.

I heard Koschei laughing behind my back.

"So you're his pull and push-along toy, too?"

I closed my eyes as my father rushed through the corridors.