The days in Luminor have passed quickly. Before she knew it, Kalmia was already on her way back to the village where Dedrik and she lived together. Once again they passed the large, prosperous fields, the bridges, where ships passed underneath and the mountains splitting the east and the west of Menia from each other. In no time they were back in the poor and rural region around the village of Grona. Just in their travel back Kalmia actually found out that the village that Dedrik comes from was called Grona.

  She would stay in Grona for four months before the school year in the Silver Island Academy, or how most people seem to call it SIA, would start. While on the way back to Grona, Kalmia asked Dedrik how far away that academy would be. All that Dedrik had told her that it’s very far away and that it’s as the name would say is an island. Apparently somewhere far off the coast in the ocean.

  While that leads to it being very isolated it also leads to it being neutral between the nations.

  Before, however, she would get this far away from home, she first wanted to see after her father and the people in her home village. Last time she had seen Adam, he was bleeding out, having lost his arm because of her biting it off.

  In her mind, Kalmia defended herself by her having to protect herself and her freedom, however she really didn’t want to hurt Adam. She really hoped that he had survived but wasn’t sure if that would be a good or a bad thing… especially while she was still in this form and after what had happened.

  A few days after having gotten back to Grona, Kalmia told Dedrik that she would be gone for two or three days because she had to do something important before she would feel good to go to school. He didn’t think much of it and agreed. Before she went on her way he gave her a linen bag full of food that would be enough for multiple days. Inside was mostly just bread as it would last longer than meat. After saying her goodbyes, Kalmia went the way she thought she had gone when first getting to Grona, past the large fields where she took the clothes off of a scarecrow, which now was wearing clothes again, to the edge of the forest and into the dark depths of the forest. It seemed far nicer and calmer now, that she wasn’t in immediate danger.

  After a while she found the hut, in which she had spent that one night, right after transforming and where she had fought the wolves. By now it was in an even worse state than it was just half a year ago. The roof was completely gone by now and the walls seemed like they had burned down. After looking around for a little, Kalmia realized that the trees, that once were there, were now mostly gone or burned. Did… she cause that because she didn’t put the fire out?

  As long as it didn’t hurt anyone it didn’t matter anyway. She looked around a bit more, to check the damages and as she didn’t find anything too bad, continued her way towards the village she grew up in.

  Her memory of the rest of the way was a bit hazy because she was in a hurry when fleeing into those parts of the woods. After a while however, she arrived at the spot where she climbed up that tree, where the branch broke off. From here on out, it wasn’t far from the village and Kalmias home.

  The sun was barely on the highest spot if would reach all day, when Kalmia arrived at the beautiful flower field. It was full of those beautiful lavender flowers. There was a large pond and over at the end of that field was a large tree and in the distance, one could see the house where Kalmia, or rather said Egas, grew up in.

  Slowly walking through that field of lavender flowers, thinking about what happened at that day, which changed her life, Kalmia walked into the direction of the house. When she got close to the tree she saw some kind of memorial. It seemed to be in memory of her former, male form, Egas. Now that her situation calmed down and she had time to think of it, Kalmias thoughts went back into her denial of her current form. She wanted to get back into her male body, but didn’t know how or whether even if she could achieve that. A tear rolled down her cheeks in thought of that but in the end she couldn’t do anything for now.

  After what felt like a short time but really was half an hour, she continued walking towards the house, where she had grown up for her first thirteen years of life.

  Once she arrived at the house, Kalmia had instantly seen that it seemed… kind of abandoned. The grass around the house had grown knee high and the windows were very dirty. When Kalmia got around the back of the house to the garden, the vegetable garden, which her father had planted and cared for each year, was very overgrown. There were weeds all around and the only plants she could see were ones that were returning every year but not any newly planted vegetables.

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  Slowly, Kalmia walked over towards the backdoor of the house. It was not locked so she just went in. Inside she found the house completely devastated. On the table was still the drawing that her father had drawn her because of the soup. Kalmia felt weird. It was a weirdly emotional feeling and a fear. What happened to her father? How did he react to Egas sudden disappearance? Kalmia really did not feel good when thinking about it.

  Looking around a little bit, Kalmia realised, that even the doors of the kitchen cabinets weren’t hanging properly. Behind those doors, the cabinets seemed to be empty, only worthless stuff left behind.

  Kalmia made her way towards the bedroom. Once she opened the door what she found behind was… nothing. There were two beds made out of straw and a few pieces of clothing, nothing else. Not her father lying there and also no hint on what could have happened here.

  In her mind, Kalmia started to guess that the worst had happened to her father or that he moved out to not have all those memories rising up. In case of moving away, how could she be mad about that? While being here all that happened to her emotional state was that it mixed her feelings between nostalgia and sadness.

  Kalmia went out of the house again. She thought about entering the village is but deemed it to dangerous. If Adam was still alive he would have told the people how she looked and they would think she caused the death of “Egas”. In that thought she decided to go towards Grona again. On her way there however she had seen Filian, that little prick, walking through the Lavender field. To lighten up her mood she decided to scare him. He seemed to not be very attentive about his surroundings so Kalmia went into the lavender field and started to sneak down. Slowly but surely she sneaked towards Filian until suddenly, when she was right behind him she rose up and grabbed him.

  “EEEEEEH?!?”

  “LET ME GO YOU FILTHY BEAST!”

  Filian was thinking he could command her. He never changed. But Kalmia would not let him get away from her little revenge.

  Filian had enough room to move to turn around. What followed next was an expression in his eyes that both told his fear and… some other feeling…. Kalmia quickly shoved that thought away because she really did not want to think of that. Quickly she regained her composure and continued:

  “You think I would let you go? Why would I do that? I am hungry for meat…”

  The fear in Filians expression materialized stronger.

  “I-I-I g-got m-m-money”

  “And what makes you think I need money?”

  “EEEEEH!”

  In revenge to all that Filian had done to her all her life, she decided to punish him a bit more. She threw him into the air with her newfound strength. While falling back down, he had already passed out. After catching him again, Kalmia took all of Filians clothes off and took them with her. After that she went over to the tree and threw him up as high as she could. She didn’t think it would endanger his life. Back when she still lived here there were many people coming around this area so the odds that he would be seen sooner or later were quite high. After this small revenge she had longed for for a very long time, she made her way back to Grona now.

  Only after she got back into the forest, she threw the clothes she took into a hollow tree stump that was somewhere closely to her. The revenge she got on Filian was sweet but it didn’t distract her from the thoughts of her father as she hoped it would.

  Once again she made her way through those paths she had already passed through when fleeing out of the village. This time it seemed entirely different than when she fled or when she walked to the village this time around. It all seemed darker than it used to. Everything around her seemed so familiar, however also so… distorted, as if she was in a fever dream. When walking the path without her realizing, tears started to roll down her cheeks. At first it was just one but with time it became more and more. When she arrived at the little hut, she broke out in a full on crying. It took a long while for her to regain her composure to continue the path to Grona. Once she arrived at her destination, it was already late at night, however Kalmia had no problems navigating through the dark. It was a useful skill she gained since she turned into… this form. Kalmia made her way over to the house of Dedrik and knocked on it. She was a bit early for what she said when she would return so she didn’t expect him to expect her, and indeed nobody answered the door.

  Kalmia however had a key, that Dedrik gave her, with her. After unlocking the door, she sneaked into her room, or rather dragged herself towards her room while trying to be as quiet as possible, and, with a heavy heart fell onto the bed, crying herself into sleep, hoping to get some other thoughts again after waking up.

  **CHAPTER 11: END**