Coralie and the Awakening Gods

The first time I saw him, our eyes locked. He had a gentle and honest face, like he wasn't thinking about anything but that moment. His bright blue eyes shone at me, and for a moment, I forgot about my mother's death.

I grew up without her - and without my father, who had mysteriously disappeared ten years ago after the fire. She was my only family. I felt alone in the world, like the weight of that loss had somehow sunk into my bones, to stay forever. My father's brother, Kenneth taught me how to defend myself when I was on my own, but we rarely spoke.

That day in the woods, we just started talking. It was easy - he asked about my life and I told him about it all: my mother and what happened to her, growing up with my aunt and uncle, learning about hunting and self defense from Kenneth.

"You're a strong girl," Kenneth said as we walked back to his cabin for dinner that evening. "Your mother would be proud of you."

I smiled weakly at him. "Thank you." He seemed sincere, but I knew that even though he was an adult and knew better than me, it was still hard to disassociate someone from a dead loved one.

"So... you never really told me why you left home." I said quietly as we reached his front door. "When did you move here?"

Kenneth looked down at his feet before answering. "It's been ten years." He glanced at me quickly before looking back down at his shoes again.

Ten years? And he hadn't said anything to me since? Why now? "Why didn't you ever visit?"

"I tried," Kenneth said softly. "But your aunt always said that she didn't want me around." He sighed heavily before opening the door for me. I stepped inside before turning to look at him more closely in the dim light of the entryway. His brown hair had grayed lightly over the past decade or so; faint lines were etched into his forehead and around his eyes from stress or worry or both. He looked older than thirty-seven - probably from stress or worry or both as well.

"Did mom know you moved here?" I asked slowly as we walked towards his kitchen area where dinner was already sitting out for us on the table.

Kenneth nodded his head as he sat down across from me in one of the chairs there - he must have finished making dinner while I had been out hunting earlier today with my bow and arrow set. "She wanted me to move away with her - far away from this place - after your father disappeared." He stopped talking abruptly at that point, looking down into his lap as if searching for words in them instead of on his tongue. Finally, he looked up at me with those beautiful cerulean eyes again and continued speaking in a low voice filled with pain and regret. "But... I couldn't leave her by herself like that... not after losing your dad..." Tears began to well in his eyes before dripping down onto his cheeks; they were tears of regret over things left unsaid or done wrong ten years ago when everything changed so suddenly in our lives forever.