-2018- B...: Maquia When The Promised Flower Blooms
Maquia didn’t understand loneliness. Not yet.
Ariel stared at her. His beard was white. His eyes were tired. “You… you’re still…”
“Stop treating me like a child,” he snapped, his voice cracking into a man’s baritone. He stood a head taller than her now. She still looked fifteen. “You’re not my real mother. You’re… you’re nothing .”
“For saying you were nothing.” A tear slid down his temple. “You were… everything.”
Maquia fled. She didn’t remember running. She only remembered falling—tumbling through a roaring river, emerging in a forest thick with the smell of pine and mud. And there, in the hollow of a dead tree, she found him.
Maquia didn’t understand loneliness. Not yet.
Ariel stared at her. His beard was white. His eyes were tired. “You… you’re still…”
“Stop treating me like a child,” he snapped, his voice cracking into a man’s baritone. He stood a head taller than her now. She still looked fifteen. “You’re not my real mother. You’re… you’re nothing .”
“For saying you were nothing.” A tear slid down his temple. “You were… everything.”
Maquia fled. She didn’t remember running. She only remembered falling—tumbling through a roaring river, emerging in a forest thick with the smell of pine and mud. And there, in the hollow of a dead tree, she found him.
