He/Heroine And My Villainess

HE/HEROINE AND MY VILLAINESS

(THE CHILD IS FINE)

"Here, keep it safe with you," the officer said. The young Mary then immediately took the vase out of the officer's hand, hugged it in her embrace, and went out, not waiting for any other words from them.

The young child strolls into the town with her mother, Ash, inside the extravagent style vase, looking through every stall as if her mother was walking beside her.

She went over to the hairpin stall and looked for something that would be well suited for her mother. 

The merchant who was selling saw her looking through her products and went over to the child to ask about her preference, but the young child only said that she was only looking, then left in haste as if she saw something she didn't want to avoid. 

It turned out that the man who owned the hairpin stall was one of the people who had helped her before. She hurried her pace, thinking that the man must be reporting to the other parties who brought her to the physician's house.

The young child didn't want other people whom she did not have a relationship or connection with, to give her deep care or warmth.

It made her feel uncomfortable and very unpleasant. She does not use other people's kind gestures because she was born with her mother's care and warmth gestures. 

Her mother also takes care of her daughter with no help from other people. So having other people's consideration and warm gestures out of the blue made the child somehow feel weird. 

The young child hugged the vase that had the ash of her mother close to her, then hurried somewhere where no one could find her, because she had a speculation that the people who came by their house the other day would come by again to take her into custody. 

She went further inside the forest and rested under the Higan tree that was surrounded by a pond, and only a wooden bridge connected to it for you to get to the other side.

This was made by her mother. When her mother decided to take a break from selling goods and products, she would take her child for a picnic inside the forest and bring her to the place she and her husband used to hang out when she was still pregnant with her child. 

No one knows this place inside the forest except her, her husband and their only daughter, Mary. The young child sat under the higan tree that had full-bloom flowers and put the vase beside her. 

Her eyes then lingered around the area for a second, until she felt her eyelids getting heavy. She tried to stop it by blinking three times and stretching her arms, but failed. It was like her eyes were yelling at her to take a break for a while, everything would be all right. 

So she gave up and let the slumber eat her up. She lay down on the green grass and hugged the vase close to her chest. 

Once she closed her eyes, a soothing wind passed through the area, making the tree see and its leaves or petals make a rustling sound that was pleasing to her. Giving the young child a relaxing vibe and sensation until she fully realized how tired she was from the day.

The child stayed inside the forest for five hours, until she was woken by a sudden coldness that touched her nose and skin. She opened her eyes in a snail's motion and sat up off the ground, carrying the vase in her arms. 

When her vision got clear, the young child then saw that it was now night and it was snowing. The voices and noises from the toen seemed to have lessened.

This leaves the young Mary with the belief that she must have napped for too long. The young Mary was surprised and couldn't help but reach her left hand up to make the snow fall into her palms.

"Mother, look it's snowing," she said in her tired and raspy tone of voice. She holds the vase tight in her hands and leaps up as if she wants her mother to see the snow that keeps falling like rain drops to the ground. 

"I wish you were still here with me, mother," 

The young child brought the vase close to her chest, then strode out into the forest to go back home, but when she was almost close to their residence, she saw many familiar faces. One of them was the man who had brought her to the physician's house.

The young child felt grateful and blessed for his help, but that was it. She doesn't need anything else. If they feel pity and sorrow about her, she understands, but the young child just couldn't accept anything else than what they had already given her.

She stopped in her tracks and turned around, running away from all of them while keeping the vase safe in her embrace. 

She goes back inside the forest and hides under the higan tree, huffing and panting from running at a fast speed. 

The young child looked up to the sky and couldn't help but shiver because of the cold that the place gave out.

The snow is now surging higher and the places inside the forest now have abundant snow covering every space, grass that grows as well as the top part of the tree.

The young Mary only wore thin clothes, and the coldness could be felt in every inch of her skin, making her feel uncomfortable and trembling from so much coldness. 

She put the vase inside her clothes as if she was trying to protect her mother from the cold, then she put her hands inside her pants pocket to keep it warm.

But it still did not work. The cold is just too strong, and later on, the wind becomes heavy. bringing the temperature of the place to a very high rate. The young child began to quiver and felt numb in her foot. 

She could not handle the coldness anymore. She stood up to the ground with the vase in her embrace, then decided to go back home. But I stopped in the middle, thinking that the people who were searching for her were still there. 

Then where could she go? She didn't have any other place to go to. She thought of the noble girl she had met before, but she remembered that she was not from here either.

The young Mary started to feel irritated and thought it unfair. She could not believe that after the good things she received, there would be consequences.

Her mother always told her that every blessing has a surprising meaning, but she did not know that the surprise meaning would be something she could not imagine losing in her life. 

The young Mary looks at the vase in her arms and says,

"Mother, where should I go?" She asked if her mother could still hear her. After that, she glanced into an empty space and started to walk again because she could not afford to stop and would not find shelter soon. The snow is getting heavier and thicker. 

The young child was battling whether to go back home or find some shelter somewhere for a few minutes, until she ended up deciding to go back home and check if all the people she was trying to isolate had already gone home.

But to her surprise, they were all still there. They were inside their house and they were all eating the crops that her mother had restored in their dirty kitchen for winter. The younger Mary could not help but feel angry and said,

"How dare they eat someone else's hard work of planting under the sunny days?" Her voice was disgruntled and she felt annoyed but she could not do anything because if she went over to them, they would probably bring her in to their care forcefully. 

These were the things that the young child speculated about, but in her heart she felt that would be the case, considering that they were still waiting for her inside their house. 

The young Mary clenched her teeth in rage, then turned to the left. She strode to the town square and found a stall that had a cloth cover.

The cloth was already thin enough and could make someone warm enough until morning came. She went close to it and untied the cloth that was covering it. 

She saw a wood stall stand that was formed with an uncovered side under it. Then she went under it to take shelter and cover herself with a cloth while the vase was also under her cloth, keeping it warm. 

The night goes on and the snow becomes more heavy and unbearable. But the young child was still snozing comfortably, hugging the pecious vase under her mother's loose shirt that she decided to wear under the wood stall while being hugged by the thin cloth all over her body like a caterpillar cocoon. 

To be continued.