A Plant’s Life - Chapter 35 Ginger's horror

Even after joining the adventuring party, she silently accompanied her older relative, always staying in the shadows, eyes full of admiration!

She noticed the hostile look in the eyes of Betsy, this led her to release strong murderous intent.

Ginger the hired hand, did not notice any of the alarming signs of hostility, her eyes had a dull and lifeless look.

Alvin kept his gaze on her for some time, then with a deep sigh focused on the road, yet his mind wondered.

How? Why is she so similar? What if….?

As a warrior with decent strength, Julia was always respected, making her accustomed to a certain lifestyle. The last thing she expected was to be troubled by unexpected wonderer!

In her most recent task given by the prestigious Lancaster family, she had to deal with some illegal immigrants, causing a ruckus in their territories. While she was able to banish their majority by intimidation and some light thrashing, one was very persistent. With big watery eyes, a small boy was standing on the ground, refusing to leave the premises. Julia had tried any means, from the temptation to intimidation, but this young dirty brat refused to move!

The issue drove her to the verge of crying out loud unless the task was 100% complete no reward would be handed out. If she informed the adventurer guild or client, her reputation would be in damaged and if she used force, hurting the brat, her conscious would eat her alive!

Some loud screams and curses later, Julia came back, only to find the child soundly sleeping on the ground. Upon closer inspection, she noticed the strange form of the soil, after some simple digging a feminine leg became visible. Frowning after the discovery, she continued to dig around the child, until another corpse was found. Judging from their state, one could conclude that not much time had passed since their death. From the bond the boy shared, it seemed they were his parents. Since there was no need to find the cause of their demise, she covered their remains. The shallow grave suggested, the wanderers to be responsible for the burial.

She sat beside the sleeping boy, slowly caressing his hairs to look at the face. From this weak touch, the boy gave a bright smile in his sleep.

Julia thought: “It looks like I have to bring him away from his parents, such a young age, he should be around 3 to 4 years old. No helping it, if I tell the family they might just help him join them! I’ll take him with myself, luckily, I still have few sleeping pills left from my previous sleepless nights, I’ll just feed the boy some before taking him”

The child dreamt, a happy and bright one, until dark clouds came, taking his happiness. He was living with his parents, smiling all the time, until wolfs came, tearing their beautiful family apart. A scream sounded, then the boy sat up straight. Then he noticed slight movement, of ground, with shock he looked around, finding himself in an unfamiliar setting. He desperately looked around to find his parents, they were with him a moment ago, but now he could not find them. From fear, the boy started to cry, a heart-breaking cry, one sourced from the dept of his loss.

WAAGHHHHHH..hic

Julia turned around to look at the boy, who had woken up inside the carriage. With a little anger she said:

“Don’t scream boy, don’t cry, your parents are gone but you live. This is the cruelty of this life; I will help you get to an orphanage and then are way becomes separate”

It is very interesting, once plans are made, life happens to throw a ball inside knocking over all the pins! During the trip back to the city, slowly the strange duo formed a bond.

Once they arrived at the city Julia took the child in as her own, raising him to be a powerful warrior.

Some years later, the child was now a teenager, living with Julia and her family. She had truly raised him as her own, he was no different for her and her husband than their own daughter.

In the meadow was a small wooden cabin, surrounded by a green field. A call came from inside:

“Alvin, Cilla, come for lunch”

Two happy teenagers ran towards the house, accompanied by a tall muscular man who was laughing out loud. The giant man was Julia’s husband, Fred, he reminded the kids:

“Be careful kids, don’t fall and wash p before sitting down”

They responded in unison: “Yes, father”

Suddenly late at night, Alvin woke up from a nightmare, shouting in his sleep. His concerned parents came to look for him, his scream had woken up the entire household. Julia asked:

“Did you have the same dream of wolfs attacking?”

Alvin said: “Yes mother, it happens less now but it still scares me deeply”

Cilla showed an anxious look and consoled her brother: “It’s ok, you don’t have to be scared, mom and dad are both very strong warriors, they can protect us from anything”

For such a tough man Fred had a very kind heart, he hugged the entire family tightly then assured them:

“No matter what happens, we are here to take care of you two, sleep well and don’t be concerned”

After a period of time, Alvin went to sleep with a smile while his adoptive parents looked after him.

Years later, Alvin was raised to be an expert fighter in his own right. He asked permission from his old parents, said his adieu to his beloved sister, who was grown and had a life of her own. Then set off to write his own story, experiencing a journey, where he had found a group in need of members from adventurer’s guild and joined them.

Withstanding many hardships with the few comrades, to an extent he could call them his second family. However, he never forgot about his family and would send them letters and money.

He could not properly remember his parents, so his guardians had turned into a family. They raised him to be kind and compassionate, yet not be used by others and ask for rewards, instead of simply be a free ride for any desperate person.

Alvin had seen many strange scenes in his time of adventure, yet for some reason Ginger the carrier had given him a strange feeling. As if he could understand the depth of her despair like he had a similar encounter before, but he could not recall anything off about it!

He weakly mumbled: “How? Why is she so similar? What if she has experienced the same thing? Should I ask her? She seems as her world has ended I am sure her problems are beyond my level. It would be stupid if I ask since I can’t help, I am overthinking this”

Behind the dynamic 5 walked two helpers, each with their own set of stories! Rod had been a man of the moment, working only until it helped with expenses, changing jobs frequently as he did not wish to form a profession rather, he wanted more money for less work! He simply had no ambitions making him quite lazy. This mentality had led the man to a more unsafe position, assisting daredevils by carrying their burden.

As they needed to shine at all time and much support was constantly needed. However, no one paid any attention to the supporters of a hero, who normally did the heavy lifting. The crowd chose to ignore them all, rough work diminished the role of their darling. An icon simply needed to be present to steal all credit, overshadowing rest of the team, promoting the agenda of authorities, becoming propaganda.

The last of the bunch was Ginger, she had been a very normal woman. Compared to the rest of the group with their troubled history, the two attendants had a much more reserved and ordinary backgrounds. Her life had been an orderly town girl from an average family, even though she had no talent or skills, she spent her days care-free and happy.

They say happiness is a state of mind, this sentence was visible in this young maiden.

But in a devastating turn of events, one that happened as a pure accident, her fate completely changed, turning sour.

While traveling to another town, she rode the wrong carriage finding herself in this hell!

Out of money she had to work to support herself, earning her ride home, for this, she applied as a temporary worker and a short while later she was hired for her first assignment. A man dressed in a long dark blue robe took pity on her, bringing her to his group. Before she knew, her bag was filled, with much hardship, she carried on. However, her eyes were dull, empty from the happiness which once resided in. She had tasted true despair; the worst had happened!