Page 26

“I brought this for you, Miss Lindiwe,” Susie said, her straight hair shining bright orange in the sunlight.

Susie’s hazel eyes crinkled from the overly large, awkward smile she wore as she handed over a pale clay bowl through the door’s threshold.

Her stained apron showed its age, despite looking clean, and it helped to accentuate the curves of her thin frame.

Freckles dotted the backs of her hands, her cheeks, and even her chest, which was partially hidden away by her plain navy corset and its matching dress.

“You really didn’t have to,” Lindi said, as she reached out and took the offering. Refusing could be considered rude, especially as readily made food was considered one of the greatest gifts.

Susie’s left cheek twitched with nervousness as she gave a laugh. “Well, it was made with one of your chickens.”

But all our chickens would have died by now. Did she mean a hen that had been born from one of her family’s?

Lindi looked down at the bowl of pea soup that had strings of chicken meat in it. The thick broth was a rather bright yellow, and it wafted with the scent of carrot, parsley, onion, and parsnip.

She figured the chicken had been at the end of her life, unable to lay anymore eggs, and they wanted to eat something high in calories.

Edible meat was a rare luxury, since most went to the nobles to eat lavish food.

Farmers and peasants, on the other hand, scrounged for whatever food they could find, which mainly consisted of vegetables and fruit.

She even noticed a few wild mushrooms in the bowl. Susie had likely gone foraging for them, as well as the wild herbs, to add taste to their mostly bland food.

Lindi offered her a placating smile.

Why are you here? was what she really wanted to ask.

Lindi wanted to be left alone, as she didn’t want anyone to pick apart her lack of ageing. Thankfully, she’d never met Susie before, as she was a new wife to the village. If anyone did ask about her youthful features, she planned to lie and say her mother had always looked young.

“I appreciate it,” she answered, hugging the bowl to her side. “I saw Joshua planting barley seeds with two other men today.”

Susie was Joshua’s wife, and Lindi was thankful he managed to find one, despite his quiet and often shy personality. She seemed similar, reserved and unsure – a perfect match, in Lindi’s opinion.

Susie’s pale cheeks pinkened. “Y-yes. He told me he saw you when he was working your farm.”

Lindi figured the gesture of food was due to the free land they were allowed to farm, with her parents being deceased and Lindi mostly absent.

They wanted to show their thanks, even though they didn’t understand she was just happy to see all her parents’ hard work building this place wasn’t going to waste.

Their essence lived on in their land.

“It appears my family’s farm has become the entire village’s,” Lindi said with a shake in her voice. She quickly swallowed the lump of emotion forming in her throat. “Hopefully the yield is good and feeds Rivenspire well.”

Susie’s forced smile began to fall. “We don’t mean to profit off of your loss, but farming the extra land–”

Lindi reached out to grasp the woman’s forearm and gave it a tentative squeeze. “I don’t mind, really. I don’t intend to stay much longer and it’s better if it’s being used.”

She’d been here seven months too long.

Lindi had been discovered not long after she gave birth, and their warm welcome had made it hard for her to leave.

Part of her didn’t want to, even if that was best. It was her home.

She had every right to stay in it so long as the land was being used for its intended purpose and her tithe was given on time.

“Are you sure you can’t stay, Lindiwe?” Susie looked at the bowl in Lindi’s arms. “Maybe you can marry–”

“No,” Lindi quickly cut in. “I refuse to marry just because I have to. I just wanted to get through winter and visit home.” She forced a laugh while gripping the bowl tighter, and said, “I honestly thought someone would have moved in by now! No one has told me about who was last here, since I can tell it was once occupied.”

There were plenty of couples in the town. With her family home vacant, she expected at least one pair would have wanted to leave the nest and get away from whichever parents they were living with.

Lindi’s forced humour wasn’t greeted with warmth.

Instead, Susie looked away as she muttered, “We’re all a little uncomfortable with the idea.

.. with everything that’s happened.” Then she held her wrist and scratched at the side of the joint.

“People think it’s cursed. The man who was living here last grew ill and died of an unknown sickness.

The person before that just disappeared overnight and no one knows why.

It’s... made everyone wary of living in it in case they meet their demise.

We were considering demolishing it before you returned. ”

Lindi’s features stiffened, and she looked away as well. Others have died here? It made sense, considering the mess of rags and empty bottles of herbal medicine that had been left behind.

People tended to be quite superstitious when it came to repeated deaths. If they were thinking of destroying it, they probably wanted to give it some time before deciding what to actually do with it. Not to mention who would do the job, and what the costs involved would be.

I can’t believe my home will be destroyed once I leave.

When she, too, just up and disappeared without a trace.

“My apologies. I didn’t mean to share such frightening news about your residence,” Susie said, bringing her softer gaze back to Lindi’s firmer one. “Joshua wanted me to say hello and offer you some food for letting him tend to the land. Please enjoy the meal.”

“I’m sure I will,” she answered as the woman stepped back to leave her pathway.

She waved as Susie walked away, and the young woman shyly did it back to her before hurrying off like someone had lit the back of her skirts on fire. She’s probably afraid of this house.

It hadn’t taken long for a few of the men farming her parents’ land to realise the unmaintained house had become occupied. She’d probably been spotted from a distance while she’d been outside, as she’d found herself incapable of remaining inside.

They’d come to evict the unwelcomed squatter, only to discover it was Lindi who had returned home.

Then again, one of them would have eventually noticed her peeking through the windows when they were working the field. She couldn’t have stayed hidden forever, not with her staying the entire winter so she didn’t have to fight the cold.

Once Lindi closed the door to her home, she placed the bowl of food on the table and pulled open the neckline of her cream underdress.

“You were on your best behaviour that time,” she said warmly to her child nestled against her chest. “You didn’t even make a peep.”

She hadn’t quite appreciated Joshua and the others calling them a dog, but she had no other option but to let them believe that.

When her child had been bashing and growling at the door while she’d been outside answering their questions, they’d enquired about the sound.

Then they’d wanted to meet the little puppy, and Lindi had made every excuse under the sun as to why that wasn’t possible.

On the odd occasion, Joshua would try to strike up a conversation outside her door.

He seemed more confident speaking with Lindi now that he had a wife, as if the potential of Lindi being one had made him nervous.

Unfortunately, she would have preferred him to remain hesitant, rather than have her child going feral in his presence, as if they wanted to protect her.

They weren’t very keen on strangers.

At least that answered what would happen if she were to enter a town with them – a bad idea.

She wondered if that would get worse or better as they got older or, rather, bigger. It would definitely be harder to hold them back, since they were quickly gaining strength.

They’d grown over the past few months. What had once nestled perfectly in both her hands now overfilled them.

Lindi thumbed the sail fin that had begun to grow down their back, while her fingertips tickled against the softer ones running down the sides of their little forearms. When they breathed, a set of gills against their throat twitched but didn’t flare, but their flesh did glimmer with the minutest imprint of iridescent scales.

The changes weren’t extensive, but Lindi had grown hyperaware of every little thing about them. The size of them, the shape of them, and even the texture of their dark-grey flesh. They were still soft and squishy, as if they didn’t have a single bone in their body, but they were different.

They didn’t seem unhappy, so she didn’t mind. Whatever worked for them would be fine.

Lindi had grown utterly attached to them. She enjoyed playing with them, to the point that she moved all the furniture out of the way of the living area so they could chase her without bashing their head. She sang to them, cuddled them, told them stories.

Every waking moment was spent with them.

It was nice to have a companion, especially as trying to speak to Weldir had become pointless. He never answered, and she wasn’t sure if that was because he slumbered or was just ignoring her.

She had the impression she was being watched, but that paranoia had long become her life. Whether he was or wasn’t, Lindi knew currently she was alone. He had no answers regarding their strange child and could do nothing to assist.

He could only witness, which made him useless to her.

I don’t need him. I don’t need anyone.

She pulled her child from her dress and lifted them into the air. “It’s just you and me.” They let out a squeal in surprise until she pressed them against her face, and they held on as they nuzzled her back. “Do you want more fish? I’ll eat first and then take you to get more.”