The Spirit Wilds: Magic of the Green Sage (Fall of the Sages Book 1), стр. 9
“I’m not supposed to be fun! I’m your mother, I’m trying to keep you safe and do what’s best for you.”
“You always say that, but did you know what was best for dad? No, so you don’t know what’s best for me or Telli.”
Tuni knew that was the wrong thing to say as soon as she said it. What happened to her father was not her mom’s fault. It had changed her, when he died, changed them all, but Tuni had been young, so she grew to be who she was—carefree and happy. Her mother, though, had closed in on herself. Their mother still loved them, but the joy that had been there as a child wasn’t there anymore.
She put up her hands. “I’m… I’m sorry. I didn’t… I didn’t mean that.”
Her mother said nothing. She was deathly still, which really made Tuni’s skin crawl. Tuni waited for her to blow up at her, to yell and rage and maybe even slap her, but she didn’t. She just stood calmly and went inside without a single word.
Yeah, that wasn’t good at all.
Tuni cursed and hit herself in the head with her fists. Stupid! Why did I say that?
She followed her mother inside in time to see her go over to the cauldron, pick it up by the handles, and carry it out the front door. Telli stood from the table and beside Tuni, looking as incredulous as Tuni felt.
“Mom, what are you—”
And before they could do anything about it, their mother dumped the contents of the cauldron—their dinner—onto the grass in front of the house and tossed the cauldron aside. Then she calmly walked back into the house, fished a bottle of old wine from the cupboard, and went to her room. She didn’t even slam the door, just closed it gently and locked it. Terrifying. Tuni would have rather had her yell. She knew how to deal with pure rage.
Telli looked at her mother’s door for a long while before turning to her sister. “What the heck did you say to her?”
Tuni pulled out a chair, slumped into it, and put her forehead to the table. “I said something bad.”
“How bad?”
Tuni repeated what she said. Telli gasped, which Tuni found dramatic, but as a very dramatic person, Tuni couldn’t rightfully judge. “Tuni…”
She groaned. “I know.”
Telli sat beside her and tapped her fingers against the table. “You better let her cool off tonight. She might say something we’ll all regret if you go in there now.”
“Yeah.”
Her sister stood and went to the cupboards. “I’ll see if I can salvage us some dinner.”
“Thank you.”
And so, they stayed silent for the rest of the night, the only sound being her sister’s cooking and their eating once she was done. They cleaned their dishes when they were through and called it a night. Neither was in the mood for talking much. Tuni hated herself for what she’d said.
She climbed into her bedroom nook beneath the mushroom roof. She shared the sparse space with her sister, though Telli decided to stay down and read a little while longer. That was fine with Tuni, since she wanted to be alone.
Soon, her guilty thoughts turned to drowsiness, which turned to sleep, and a dreamless night embraced her.
4
Tuni
A night of sleep hadn’t done much to improve Tuni’s mood. In fact, it worsened it.
She rolled out of bed in a twist of guilt and anger. Guilt for what she’d said to her mother, and anger that her mom made her feel like that. She wished nothing had changed, that they could be like a mother and daughter should be, but Tuni wasn’t going to compromise who she was to please her mother.
She shouldn’t have said what she said, there was no getting past that. Either way, her mother should have loved and accepted her for the person she was, instead of always trying to conform Tuni into the person she wanted her daughter to be. It was infuriating. Tuni didn’t like being put in a box like that. She wanted to be whoever the hell she wanted to be.
It was past dawn, and she could hear her mother cooking something below. They still hadn’t spoken a word to each other since the previous night, and Tuni was in no mood to speak then, so she rolled out of her bed as quietly as she could. She pulled on some shorts, and a short-cropped sleeveless shirt that exposed her stomach. Those in Al-Sevara would find her outfit scandalous, risqué, but it was hot in the wilds.
Telli still slept in her bedroll beside her. Luckily, she was a heavy sleeper.
Once dressed, Tuni scooped up her bow, quiver, and backpack, and climbed down the ladder from their nook. The ladder creaked, but the sound of cooking was so loud that her mother didn’t notice.
Mom’s back was to her. Once on the floor, Tuni picked up her boots and snuck over to the back door, since it didn’t squeak when opened. As quietly as she could, she eased it open and squeezed herself through, then closed it behind her without so much as an audible click. Then she put on her boots and took off.
Not wanting to see her friends or deal with the niceties of her fellow villagers, she hopped the little fence around her house and went to the northeastern edge of the town’s spirit barrier and hopped it too, then skirted the town and made her way south into the wilds.
Her mother would be beyond furious with her for leaving again, but Tuni couldn’t stick around. She wasn’t ready for the conversation that they needed to have. She was still angry, and so was her mother, and they both said stupid things when they were angry. No need to make things worse. Once she cooled off, Tuni would come back and apologize.
But that would be later. For now, she had exploring to do.
Tuni hiked south for several hours, off any beaten trails or the “official” roads that the