Page 30 of Mushy Stuff
“Take your cart and go. Never come back to this place.”
Both females climb up onto the cart as quickly as they can and leave.
Chapter 22
WhileIcircletheperimeter of the estate, I remember a gate in the wall that my nursemaid would use to sneak me out of the estate so that I could run free and play without worrying about my birth mother seeing me. I remember that the lock on it was broken. I only have a vague memory of where it is, but I follow the wall and hunt for it or any other hidden entrance into the estate.
I head to the backside of the estate. Once I am behind it, I run into overgrown vines and plants. Excellent cover for me. I make my way through them.
Near the heart of the plant life, I find the old gate. It’s dirty from the elements and the plants, but there’s still the gilded gleam of the metal in certain spots. Vines are tangled through the gate, so I have to break it free before I can open it.
It creaks open and I slip in. I stay hidden within the vines for a few minutes to make sure that no one was drawn by the noise of the gate. Once I’m certain that no one is coming, I creep onto the estate grounds.
Being back here brings a flood of memories back from when my nursemaid was raising me. My birth mother had been horrible, but my time with my nursemaid was fun.
The building closest to the gate is the servant quarters. I make my way towards it.
As I creep behind it, I catch a scent from one of the open windows. It stops me in my tracks. I know that scent. It’s engrained in all my earliest memories. Nanni. Is she still here?
I follow the scent to the open window, and peek inside. I can hear voices, but not well enough to tell if it is her. One of the voices sounds like a child’s voice.
I wait at the window, hoping to see someone.
A child runs across the room and stops while still in view of the window. She’s a female Guardian. She has Elven ears and build, and her Guardian traits seem very similar to mine. Too similar to be a coincidence.
She must be another child from my birth mother and father.
I’m unable to look away as that realization sinks in. I’d never considered that I would ever have a family, but Iknow that my birth mother did not let my father go free, so she would have had ample opportunities to become pregnant by him again.
The child turns and looks at me. She goes still when she sees me peering in the window.
For a moment, I am frozen and do not know what to do.
Then, a female Guardian steps into view. She has her back to me, but I know this is Nanni just from seeing her back. She is half-Elven like I am, but her skin is a dark mottled brown. Her legs are lightly furred like a deer, and end in delicate hooves. I can’t see it, but I know she has a short, fluffy tail similar to a deer as well. Her hair is long and brown, with green vines growing through it. Her antlers are lighter than mine, and she has soft yellow flowers growing around the base of them and on the tops of her shoulders. She wears a strip of brown silk fabric tied around her chest to cover her small breasts. She has also wrapped and tied a strip of the same fabric around her hips to form a skirt.
I whisper, “Nanni.”
She turns, and when she sees me in the window, she gasps. “Wold.”
Then she motions for me to stay where I am. She grabs the child’s hand and they quickly walk out the front door, then come around to the back of the building where I am.
She reaches up to put both of her hands on my cheeks like she used to when I was small. Then with tears her in eyes, she says, “Oh Wold. Look at you. You’ve grown up.”
I smile and say, “Nanni.” Then I step towards her, open my arms, and wrap them around her the way that Lydia does to me. She startles and freezes for a moment but recovers quickly. Her eyes dart around us, then she whispers, “What are you doing here? You can’t be here. You must leave.”
I give her a dark look and say, “They have my mate.”
Nanni gasps and covers her mouth. “The woman that everyone has been talking about? Is she in the main house?”
“I do not know where she is. I am hunting her scent. They took her from the market and brought her back here. I followed her scent here.”
“That must be the woman everyone has been talking about. The staff has spoken of nothing else tonight. The servants were getting her prepared for dinner with Lord Varik.” Nanni says.
I growl. “Who is Lord Varik? Is my birth mother not the lady of this estate?”
Nanni gives me a sad look. Then she says, “Wold, your mother died almost five years ago. Varik is her son…your half-brother. He is the lord of the estate now.”
I just stare at Nanni. I finally say, “How?”
