Between Winter 7 and Winter 8
I opened my eyes to a banging sound as I grumbled to look at my clock. 4:10 AM. It was probably just the wind banging on this old house, that is until I heard it again and the murmurs of my parents wondering 'who in the world is visiting us at this hour?'
I strapped on a robe, leaving my room, my parents had done the same. The knock came again only a little louder than before as we hurried downstairs, who in the world visits people at this hour? I twisted the knob and pulled the door open, cold winter wind and snowflakes flurried in my house as who I saw shocked me.
Dorothy and Barrett.
"We adore visitors." Mom began, "But Dorothy, couldn't you and Barrett wait a little later? It's much too early now to…" Barrett interrupted her.
"It's Leonel. Is he with you?"
My eyes widened; Leonel didn't go home? Where was he? Worry seemed to overfill me. Dad looked over at me as I shook my head.
"No, he's not here." My dad replied.
"We-well…he hasn't come home since this evening." Dorothy's voice was as always quiet, but this time it was shaky as I caught a glance of a teardrop sliding down her fair-skinned face, my father also saw this and nodded.
"We'll search for him; I'll ask Jake, Tanya, and Douglas to help." I grabbed my father's hand, looking into his eyes.
"I want to help search for him as well!" I felt that his disappearance was my fault, if I hadn't been so cruel to him, and tried to explain a little better, none of this would be happening!
"N-no! Absolutely not!" Dad exclaimed, "I'll let you wait at the crossroads, but that's it!"
"Have someone search Blessia Island, the town, Trieste Forest, and Messina Valley! Dorothy and I will search the Padova Mountains!" Barrett said as dad nodded, heading into town to gather others; Dorothy and Barrett headed towards the falling star path as I followed closely behind.
"Wait here." Dorothy instructed me as she and Barrett made it into the Padova Mountains. Tanya and a team passed me towards Messina Valley as dad and another team went into Trieste Forest. I felt my heart race. I had a feeling I knew where he was as I quietly snuck into the Padova Mountains.
"I hate orcs!" I overheard Barrett exclaim, as I tried to stay hidden. It was odd, though. For some reason, the monsters paid me no mind and I couldn't understand why. I tried to waddle as quickly as I could to keep up while staying hidden. That's when my eyes widened at my next sight.
A necro was holding up its long, bloodstained metal scythe. It noticed Dorothy and Barrett interrupting it's kill. My heart pounded into my throat. His golden locks were stained with blood, his outfit was ripped and a reddish brown color soiled his original cream-colored outfit.
"Leonel!" I screamed.
"Clara?" Dorothy asked in worry as she stopped me from running closer to Leonel and allowed her husband to slay the beast with retorn magic. As soon as a hood dropped to the ground, Barrett took his only child in his arms, motioning for us to follow him out of the cave.
"Your parents will deal with you later, Clara." Barrett scolded. However I noticed his eyes widening when the monsters began to leave us alone. We rushed out of the cave as fast as we had entered; Barrett laid his son down on the ground, his hands were stained with his blood, as he began elevating his head.
"He's breathing! Dorothy! Go get Dr. Ray!" Barret ordered as I watched Dorothy run, it was the fastest I had ever seen her run. A cough caused my head to jerk to the source, Leonel's blue eyes fluttered open weakly.
"C-Clara…" he began, but he was interrupted by his father.
"Don't you dare speak, Leonel!" Barrett clutched his son a little tighter; tears began forming in his eyes as they crept out, "Don't you dare speak."
I sat in the waiting room in worry. Barrett was sitting to my left with his head in his hand, rocking back and forth. To the right, my parents were sitting next to each other, squeezing each other's hands. Dorothy was in the room with Leonel and Dr. Ray, doing what they could to save his life. My heart was racing, causing my baby to kick with excitement; too bad it couldn't understand what was going on.
Tears began to form and I wiped the edges of my eyes with the palms of my hands. Dorothy walked out of the room a few moments later with a smile on her face.
"He's going to be just fine!" She announced as a wave of relief hit me. Barrett stood up, slowly walking towards his wife embracing her for a long time, I felt more tears form in my eyes, tears of happiness! I was overjoyed to know he was going to be okay! I had to visit him! So, without a moment to spare I rushed into the room he was in, he blinked a few times and looked at me.
"Clara…" he began as I placed my finger over his lips.
"You're going to be fine, Leonel. Your mom said you would be okay." He wrapped his hands around my wrists, removing my finger from his lips.
"I just wanted to say that I'm sorry. When you said those things to me, I wanted to show you I was strong by bringing you back a war trophy in hopes that you would find me masculine and in hopes that you would..." He paused for a second, "Marry me. But the necro snuck up on me and I'm sorry…"
"Marry you?" I asked in shock.
"Yeah...I-I was going to propose to you on the night of the Shooting Star Festival...then, you said those things to me and I threw the engagement ring into the bushes. I know you don't feel that way about me, but I do care for you, Clara...and I'm sorry." I shook my head.
"No, Leonel. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said all of the terrible things I said to you." He just laid there in silence, with only the inhaling and exhaling of his breath.
"How's the baby? It won't be long now!" I smiled and took his wounded hand, gently placing it on my belly; he was too weak to retract his hand when it kicked his palm, instead he just smiled and allowed me to place his hand on his chest.
"We still have until Spring. I'm going to be leaving for the capital on the twentieth." I saw his eyes hold disappointment.
"I hope I'm better by then." He grumbled.
"I'm sure you'll be fine by then." I began, "You're strong in a different way." I turned to leave, but his voice stopped me.
"You'll be here later, right?" I turned his direction and nodded my head.
"Of course! You know I will be, Leonel!" and with that, I left the hospital with my parents.
"Your mother and I will deal with you later, Clara." Dad scolded me on the way home. I blushed. What I did was stupid.
"What you did was dangerous." I saw mom's eyes wield with tears. "You have no idea how much you mean to us, Clara." I felt awful. I stopped walking as my parents noticed that I wasn't walking with them anymore. They turned around as I rushed as fast as my body could towards them. I embraced them.
"I'm sorry." I began to tear up, breaking the embrace before I embraced only my mom. "I'm sorry for making you worry all the time. And I'm sorry I'm not the perfect daughter. And I'm sorry…" Mom stopped me, holding me close.
"Clara! Don't you dare apologize about that! We love you. You're the best thing that has ever happened to us!" She broke the embrace, lifting my face to look me square in the eyes. "I worry about you because it's my job to worry about you! And no one is perfect, but you're perfect in my eyes! Don't ever think I don't love you! Because it's not true! I love you more than you know!" We began to cry, embracing each other.
"I love you, mom!" I sobbed.
"And I love you, my darling, Clara. Once this baby is born, you're going to understand how I feel about you." I embraced my mom tighter. I was starting to understand her feelings. My baby meant so much to me now! I didn't know I could love someone so much before even meeting it! And I couldn't imagine my emotions that would happen as soon as I saw its face!