Chapter 24 –– Father

"Moshe, do you know what these flowers are?"

"No. What are they, father?"

"These are called Rhizantella flowers. They are so rare because they only grow here, in our village. Come, let me show you how to arrange it."

My father showed me how to identify, differentiate, pick and choose flowers in the wild. He then taught me how to arrange them beautifully into a bouquet.

"One day, you will make one yourself and give it to the person you love."

My father gave the bouquet he just made for me. It was small, but I found it very meaningful.

"When will I find someone like that, father?"

My father chuckled at my innocent question. Thinking back, I'm sure not even him would know how to answer that question.

"Soon, my son."

He then hugged me tightly and carried me on his shoulder. We returned home with a bouquet that I made for the first time to give it to my mother.

“You’ve woken up?”

Moshe saw Noam right in front of him the moment he opened his eyes. After bawling his eyes out, he fell asleep on Noam’s lap. Noam then waited for Moshe to wake up while gently caressing his head. Noam felt Moshe’s hair and fur and found them to be very soft.

“Where are we?” Moshe asked.

“We’re still here.”

The two of them were still where they were, at the cemetery by Moshe’s father's grave. Noam was waiting for Moshe to wake up before leaving the site.

After having a small talk about what happened while Moshe was asleep, Noam and his suitor then left the grave to return to the manor.

After they arrived at the manor, Lady Zara asked why they came home so late. They were supposed to be home for dinner, yet, they came to the manor hours past the first nightstone. Lady Zara was worried that something had happened to them.

Moshe explained that they were too caught up in the events that they forgot the time. It was a lie, of course. Moshe did not want to explain the whole story because he didn't feel like starting a long conversation out of it.

After the two of them had a late dinner, Lady Zara summoned Noam to her room to have a conversation with her. Noam then came to her room after he was asked by one of the maids who worked in the manor.

"You called me, Lady Zara?"

Noam knocked on the door to let Lady Zara know that he was already in front of her room. Lady Zara then opened the door and let him in. She told him to have a seat at the corner of the room to have a conversation with him.

"You two went to his father's grave, didn't you?"

Lady Zara went straight to the point with her first question. Felixia tribesfolk are known for their straightforwardness, which other tribes might find hard to get used to at first.

Noam was silent after he was asked that question. Since Moshe didn't tell her the truth about going to the grave before, he hesitated whether to snitch his suitor or to go along with the lie.

"It's alright. I know Moshe was lying," Lady Zara added, fully aware of her son's actions and behaviour.

Without saying a single word, Noam just nodded, agreeing to what Lady Zara said.

"I see. I can tell whenever he visited his father's grave. He always comes home gloomy afterwards."

Noam somewhat understood what Lady Zara meant. He also noticed how different Moshe behaved after the two of them returned from the grave.

"But not this time. Maybe because you were there, but today he looks rather.....relieved."

Lady Zara looked glad that Moshe was not as gloomy as he used to be. She noticed how Noam changed him, little by little.

"I don't think he told you this.....but the reason he started puffing....was because of me."

Noam totally did not expect to hear that from Lady Zara. Nevertheless, he kept on listening.

"When Lord Kohath–– Moshe's father–– passed away, it truly shook Moshe's psyche. He became depressed and stopped speaking for years. To add matters worse, I mated with Lord Kohen–– Aaryn's father–– six months after Lord Kohath passed away."

Noam was intrigued to hear Lady Zara's point of view of the story. This was something that he had heard yet, neither from Aaryn nor Moshe.

"It's not that I didn't love Kohath, I truly did. However, according to the customs of the village, it was my duty as the chieftain to have a mate by my side ruling the village with me. The tribesfolk won't accept me as their chieftain unless I provide them with a consort. Out of all the mating proposals I received after Kohath's passing, I chose Lord Kohen as my consort.

At first, I thought Moshe was going to be mad at me for attempting to search for another mate the same year his father died. However, after I told Moshe the news that I was to have another mate, his reaction was totally unlike what I had expected. Instead of being angry at me, he was compliant. All he said was 'I understand, mother.'

That scared me the most. I was ready for him to be angry at me, to finally express his emotions the healthy way, and yet, he didn't. It was as if he lost all of his emotions. His feelings. His soul. He never asked me for anything, except for one. He wished not to live together with Lord Kohen and his son, Aaryn. It was a tough decision for me to make, however, I granted his request. I respected his wish not to let his step father and step brother live under the same roof with us. "

Noam finally figured out why he hadn't seen Aaryn in the manor, despite the two of them being step brothers. Turned out, Aaryn and his father lived in another manor nearby, separated from Moshe and his mother, even though they were family by law.

"When I heard that Moshe started puffing from Aaryn, I couldn't contain myself and lost my temper at him. I confiscated all of his puffs and put him in a home prison. I interrogated him to figure out where he got his puffs from, but he wouldn't speak a single word to me. Later on, I figured out on my own who the dealer was and punished him accordingly in order to stop him from selling any more puffs to Moshe.

I tried all sorts of way to make him start speaking to me, but to no avail. In fact, what I did actually made things worse. His mental stability deteriorated drastically to the point that we almost lost him. In a literal sense. I was frustrated. Not at Moshe, but at myself. I felt like I had failed as a mother. I should have been there when he needed me, and yet, I wasn't. He even had to resort to puffing instead of relying on his mother as his support system. Now, even though he is more stable than he was before, he had become a completely different person from the Moshe I once knew."

Noam sympathised with Lady Zara. Even though he never experienced such a thing, he still felt sorry for them.

"It's not your fault, Lady Zara. I'm pretty sure Moshe does not think of you that way. He might not understand everything that you did, but he still loves you just as much as you love him. I'm pretty sure of that."

Having this conversation, it reminded Noam of something similar he had with his brother about their grandfather's legacy. Noam still doesn't understand his brother's reasoning on why he gave up on their plan to go to the surface, but just like this same conversation, maybe his brother had a reason that Noam himself not ready to understand yet.

"I'm sorry that that happened to you, Lady Zara."

Noam held Lady Zara's paws to show his sympathy. Lady Zara appreciated it as she wiped tears on her face.

After having such a heart-felt conversation, Lady Zara and Noam felt like they became closer than they were before. The two of them cared for Moshe sincerely, doing their best to make sure that Moshe would regain his light one day.

The following day was the last day of the Redfyre Carnival. The event started at around 10 in the morning and was conducted at the village’s main square. There were food stalls erected all over the area, as well as merchandises and games, just like the days before.

Moshe and Noam came a little bit late to the venue. The two of them were tired after coming home late yesterday and decided to sleep a little bit more before coming to the event. Upon arrival, they went straight to see the performance on the stage.

“What is that?” Noam asked while pointing toward the stage.

In front of them, on the stage, there was a huge orange cat costume with people controlling it from the inside, puppeteering it and making it dance acrobatically. It was moving to the rhythm of a traditional Felixia tribe music, stylized by the sounds of cymbals and drums. It was the “cat-out-of-the-bag waltz” dance that was performed on the first day of the carnival.

“On the last day of the Redfyre Carnival, we hold this contest where people come up on stage in groups to show their best cat-out-out-of-the-bag waltz performance. This contest lasts for the whole day, so we don’t need to watch all of them.”

Just as Moshe said, each group came up on stage right after the other. Noam was impressed by the performance in the beginning, but got bored pretty quickly after watching a few of them.

“Felixia Tribe sure does like contests, huh,” Noam said, as his eyes wandered around his surroundings.

“We are indeed known to be competitive,” Moshe replied.

While walking away from the stage, suddenly, one of the puppet costumes crossed paths with Moshe and Noam and bumped into them. Due to the crowd squeezing them from all sides, Moshe lost sight of Noam. The moment the people in costume passed and people started to disperse, Noam was out of sight.

“Noam?”

He tried looking for Noam, but he was nowhere to be seen. He then looked around the square to find him but to no avail.

Noam had gone missing.