Restart Again: Volume 1 by Adam Scott (pocket ebook reader TXT) 📕

a tackle. “Sorry, I just...I thought you weren’t going to wake up, and I got carried away.” She was still smiling, running her hand down the side of my face.

“Lia, how did I get here?” I looked around the unfamiliar room. “More importantly, where is here?”

Lia tilted her head to the side, tears running down her face even as she smiled. “Home.”

***

11. HOME

“Just start from the beginning. At the tree, after I fell asleep.” I sat up against one of the wooden crates, holding a cup of water and a slice of bread with jam. I had only taken a couple bites of the food, but I already felt stuffed, so I sipped slowly on the water instead. The cool liquid felt amazing on my dehydrated palate. Lia sat on the floor across from me and the woman, who I had correctly guessed to be Lia’s mother, stood in the doorway.

Lia nodded. “Well, after you fell asleep, the bell in town kept ringing for a long time. I thought I might have heard people in the forest, so I pulled up your cloak and tried to be as quiet as possible. Nobody ever came near the tree, though.” She paused for a moment to think, then continued. “I guess I fell asleep, because when I woke up, the rain had stopped, and the sun was up. You were still sleeping, so I decided to just stay inside and wait a while.” She frowned. “Eventually, I thought I should get you up so we could leave, but...I couldn’t get you to wake up. I tried really hard, but nothing worked.”

I scratched the back of my head and looked away. “Yeah, sorry about that.”

Lia shook her head. “No! It’s just that...well, I was worried. If you didn’t wake up, I knew I would have to try and feed you and get you water, and the tree was so small, so…” She looked down at the floor, wringing her hands. “I left.” After the admission, she looked back up to me quickly, clearly flustered. “It wasn’t for very long! I promise! I just knew I needed to do something, so I started walking.”

I couldn’t help but laugh, which drew a glare from Lia. “It’s not funny!” she pouted, turning red in the face. “We weren’t too far from the edge of the forest anyway, so I ran home.” Lia looked to her mother who thus far had stood watching us in silence. The woman smiled, and the resemblance between the two became uncanny; aside from the small ears poking out from her hair and the puffy tail behind her, the two could have been mistaken for twins at a quick glance.

“We were amazed when Lia came home. We tried to get her to tell us what happened, but she just kept insisting we had to go somewhere immediately and wouldn’t say anything else.” She laughed softly. “We had no choice but to just indulge her and hope she would explain later.”

Lia was glaring at her mother now. “You don’t have to say it like that!” That drew a laugh from me as well, much to Lia’s chagrin. “I made Father follow with his wagon, because I knew we wouldn’t be able to carry you ourselves. Especially if the guards were looking for you.” Her expression changed to one of suppressed amusement. “You were still sleeping, and I didn’t want to risk anybody finding you, so...well, we…”

Her mother finished the thought for her. “We packed you into a produce crate and shipped you back here.” she laughed. I had to admit, picturing the two of them pulling me out of a tree and stuffing me into a wooden box was certainly amusing.

“And I’ve been down here ever since?” I asked, curious. “How long has it been?”

Lia responded first. “It’s been almost three days since we brought you here. I was worried that you weren’t waking up, but Mother said if we kept you in a safe place to rest, you’d come to eventually.” She smiled proudly, puffing out her chest a bit. “I helped her get you cleaned up, and I even wrapped up your shoulder myself!”

I put a hand to my injured shoulder and noticed for the first time it was wound in tight strips of cloth. “Thank you for that, Lia. It’s feeling much better than before.” I turned to her mother. “I’m extremely grateful to you as well. You risked your safety to look after a complete stranger. I hope I can pay you back somehow.”

Her mother shook her head. “We didn’t have much of a choice, really. Little Marlia was so distraught over you that we knew you must be someone very important to her.” Lia’s face turned fuchsia, and she let out an exasperated, wordless yell as she stomped out of the room. I laughed heartily at her reaction which only sped her retreat up to the top of the stairs where she slammed the door shut behind her.

Lia’s mother chuckled as she walked over to where I was sitting on the floor. She knelt down and took my hand in hers, and I saw her face was now completely serious, all levity from moments before gone. “Lux. You brought my daughter home to us. I don’t want to hear you speak of repaying us for kindness again; We will be indebted to you for the rest of our lives.” A stream of tears cascaded down her face. “We were so scared after those men took her. We knew the kind of men they were, and what they might do to her…”

She trailed off, staring straight through me at some terror far away in her mind. I stayed quiet, and after a moment she snapped back to reality. “Please, tell me. Did they...did they hurt her?” I took a long, hard look at her, trying to get a good measure of what type of person she was. There’s no need to hold back the truth.

“No.” I met her