Long Gone Memories

After the chief told the old man about it, the old man involuntarily dropped the long wooden stick in his hand to the ground and took a few steps back. Up until the fall he had, and the strong impact on the ground, his face affected me most deeply, cause of the shock of the truth and how out of the water it was.

We had known each other lost. Or dead to be more clear.

Years upon years passed. Birthdays, big changes, deaths. Everything had happened, with or without each other for so long that I had even forgotten what my grandfather looked like. I was just as shocked as him, shocked about something so unbelievable could happen here.

Because my grandfather, who I thought had been dead for many years, turned out to be alive.

"Grand... pa?"

I found myself crying unwillingly.

At that moment, my eyes began to fill up, as if I could remember all my memories of him, and all my feelings of loss filled my heart. Our hearts were crushed by the burden of all the moments we could spend together, while we were trying to process the happiness of having each other once again in our minds.

He then moved towards me. With the smallest steps, he could take with the baffled expression he had and his mouth wide opened.

I also moved toward him. Not knowing that it quickly became an instinct to talk to each other or at least test if this was real or not.

Our eyes were brimming with a readiness to cry at any moment. Looking at each other, he and I seemed to be trying to believe, slightly tilting our heads to the side.

We didn't know what to say.

What to do.

After all this reminiscing and unable to portray emotions, we approached each other as two bare "strangers".

And when he got close enough to touch my cheek, he said slowly,

"Lezlie. Is this really you?"

A stranger who just didn't know me, a person who was no longer the sadness and anger of my family, a great fate, and a person who I now knew was my grandfather, covered in happiness, didn't know what kind of movements his gestures and facial expressions made out of excitement.

He didn't know a single thing about what he was doing.

"Folks! My granddaughter has returned!"

He was shouting nonchalantly, even the attention of the creatures outside.

Actually, In fact, I was as happy as he was. Obviously, seeing my grandfather, whom I had never seen, and being able to hug him, perhaps as he took all my worries away from me at that moment, made me happier than I had ever hoped at that moment.

My grandfather was also still talking with a happy expression when he left me.

Then turning his head to the soldier, he started giving orders to the soldiers with a big smile on his face,

"Ediaro, tell the servants to arrange something to eat and a place to stay. I want the best preparations to be made for my granddaughter!"

"Yes sir!"

The soldier quickly left there to fulfill the order, and with hasty steps went to inform the person called Ediaro. And while he was on his way to give out the orders, the other soldiers had dispersed and begun the actions necessary for the preparations. With all the quick steps and a big sound rising behind the tents and just from the middle of the area, everything soon became very loud to even listen to.

We were also happy that my grandfather kept us here. We thought we couldn't convince them, so we could go out again. However, instead of taking us out, we had gained his trust in us, thanks to Royan's knowledge.

It was all of a sudden event, but I was grateful to him. That even though we were someone he didn't know, he managed to calm things down and saved us with a single piece of information. And even between all those angry assumptions that my grandfather made beforehand.

I thought, if I get a chance to be able to do it, I'd like to thank him. Talk about him and how I appreciate something like this, when my friends are so in despair of finding a solution.

"Come on! Come on! Let me show you how much we can prepare!"

But at that time, we were also trying to understand the events occurring around us, and go along with my grandfather's excitement. Which made my grandfather once again begin to talk with a beautiful smile, turning his head to me.

"Grandfather. I thank you for your kind behavior. But I don't understand anything. My mother told me that I shouldn't have brought this topic up, for many many years, and that you had passed away. But if so that is true, how could this kind of thing happen at such an unexpected time?"

He let out a big sigh after I said those words.

"No. That never happened."

It seemed that there was a reason why my mother kept telling me to keep it a secret, and there was a reason why she wanted me to know that way.

But if I have arrived here, why would she lie about such a thing, that was much more important to me in my life?

If so, why didn't I have the right, to even know my family relative still was living somewhere out there.

Nothing made sense. So I had to know.

"Then why? Why my mother would even consider doing such a thing before her death. Why would she say that you passed away when everything was going wrong for her?"

He stopped for a second.

The steps he took in happiness and the smile he didn't miss on his face ended with the words and words I chose at that moment.

I was, at first, startled by the fact that he sucked in the cold thick air and didn't even turn his head at that moment. His back, and his clothing which was very much wet after the big rain, stood in front of me, not even considering moving in any direction.

But his kind heart, too, had taken one last look at me before he spoke, while it was parched with pain. His eyes were dimmed with more darkness, and it was as if he had been standing there for seconds, looking at me with sadness and seriousness for a century.

The fact that my mother had died at that moment, with me speaking to her in a way that supported it, was now firmly etched into his mind, and it was certain.

Maybe they were the worst words that could have happened to be said, but I also knew that they were the words that I decided and spoke at that moment.

"Come with me to the chief's tent. I'll tell you about it there."