Felicity: The Sixteenth Life

Chapter Three: The Girl in the Cabin

It wasn’t a hard task to slip from the attention of the employees of the Acker household. After all, everyone from the highest in the hierarchy up to the humblest servants were ‘busy’ preparing for the home-coming of the Count. Thus, the five children had no trouble sneaking out of the main house, proudly trudging side by side, quite impressed of their feat as if they were a group of soldiers who were successful on their first mission.

Slipping out from right under the noses of their caretakers had always given the children a sense of accomplishment, and the fact that the security around them had not tightened ever since they started on their mischievous little plots made them think that the adults were underestimating them and thus, they answered this with further mischief.

At least that was what the children thought…

However, the adults were not underestimating them at all. There was simply no need to tighten the security because the children were already under enough surveillance to guarantee their safety.

Right at the annex of the Countdom’s Ruby mansion, there was an office dedicated solely on the protection and surveillance of the Acker children. After all, they are the heirs of the Countdom and thus, the future of the Ackers who would be carrying the bloodline for the next generation.

Two years ago, Eric Stranoff, a magic knight, had been appointed as the commander-in-chief of the Obsidian Order. They were the knights responsible for protecting and guarding the Countdom’s properties and also served as the bodyguards of the members of the Acker family.

There was one important requirement to become the head of the Obsidian Knights and that was the possession of the magic skill ‘Veiller’, the ability to control the senses of any living organism having the five senses that humans have. To put it simply, Veiller-users may train animals like birds or dogs and have them scout over areas where the caster couldn’t physically reach. What the animals would see, smell, feel, hear or taste, the caster would share the sensations as well. Veiller-users are considered at A-class rarity thus, there aren’t many of them and the fact that the skill is inborn doesn’t make it an easy skill to obtain.

Eric usually didn’t have to utilize his Veiller skill on babysitting children however, after Young Master Ryder’s several successful attempts at duping the knights on patrol and actually crossing the Acker property borders, he found it necessary to pin a few of his surveillance birds on the heirs and heiress.

It was right after lunch on his rare day off that one of his surveillance birds assigned on watching the children alerted him of suspicious movement. Upon receiving the signal, all he could do was sigh.

“Sheesh, these children really have the worst timing at launching their shenanigans… Why is it that they do stuff mostly on my day offs?” he complained under his breath before putting down the glass of wine back on the table. He would be very busy for the next days to come thus he was hoping to have a full day of relaxation before dealing with the mountainful of paperworks and reports that the Count would be expecting on his return. The young masters and young lady were all busy since early morning thus he thought that the day would be peaceful. It seemed as if a pail of cold water was thrown over that wishful thinking.

Reluctantly dragging his feet back to his office, he went towards the surveillance crystals and activated the third one. The smooth surface of the crystal flickered to life and on it, the figures of the naughty heirs of the Countdom could be seen from a bird’s eyeview.

Judging from the familiar sceneries, Eric concluded that the children were still inside the Acker property. As a matter of fact, they just passed by the Ruby mansion.

“What kind of adventure are you guys plotting this time?” Eric asked aloud as he settled comfortably on his office chair, his eyes lazily surveying the surveillance crystal.

He watched the children walk on in silence, looking around every now and then for any patrolling knights or servants running errands. Eric frowned when they crossed the boundary of Ruby mansion which marked the limit of the land under the Acker property.

It didn’t take him two seconds to guess the final destination of the kids but as he could not be sure until they get there, he just quietly watched. Ten minutes later, his foreboding proved true. The children arrived at the side of the abandoned Opal mansion and it didn’t take long for them to find the front entrance.

When Eric started working for the Ackers, the Opal mansion as well as its surrounding lands had already been taken off the range of the properties under the Countdom’s name. Count Herald only stayed long enough to appoint Eric as the new commander of the Obsidian Order since he received an urgent notice to return to the battlefield, thus it was the Head Butler, Sir Merill Thormund and the Head Maid, Madam Clementine Morton who filled in the details of the Countdom and explained them to Eric.

To properly perform his duties, one of the vital information that should be given to Eric was the complete map of the Countdom’s properties. That way, he would be able to know the boundaries of the Countdom at which he had to provide proper surveillance. That was when he was informed about the peculiar circumstance of the Opal mansion and became privy towards one of the Acker Countdom’s innermost secrets.

The title to Opal mansion and its surrounding lands and infrastructures were transferred to the name of a commoner woman named Dalia. As for who Dalia was and what was her identity towards the Acker family, Eric knew nothing about it. He was sworn to secrecy about the reason why the Opal mansion was written off from the Countdom’s properties via a blood pact, then he was told, or more accurately, warned, to leave the Opal mansion alone. He was to never set foot in it nor send any of his surveillance animals near it.

Eric had to admit that he was quite curious about the matter. Was it possible that the Count was concealing an affair with this Dalia woman?

As a noble himself, Eric knew that it was an open secret that every aristocrat family hides its not-so-gracious agendas from society’s prying eyes with their own strategies however, he did not expect the Acker Countdom to actually have one. Count Herald Aidan Acker was famous for being one of the most upright blueblood known to Giovanni Kingdom’s existence and he was very loyal to his wife who was the second daughter from the Edbert family, one of the three existing Dukedoms in the whole kingdom.

But no matter how curious he was, Eric never dug further into the matter. He was to become one of the Count’s closest aides, thus he must learn to be loyal and to know his place and boundaries.

Eric was pulled away from thoughts of the past as the Acker children began to wander around the old building’s premises. He willed for his surveillance bird to come closer to hear the conversation of the kids.

“Liam and Haize will search the second floor, Chase and Carter will scour the first floor and I’ll be the one to look over the other infrastructures outside the mansion. Take whatever interesting things you can find then we’ll meet up at the entrance in exactly one hour,” second young master Ryder told his siblings in an authoritative tone.

“Got that,” Lady Hazel said with a nod of her blonde head. The youngest twins also nodded in understanding.

“Wait,” first young master Liam suddenly said before they were about to separate. “Since we’ll be taking some loot in the first place, why can’t we make this a competition? The person to bring back the most interesting parcel can have a prize; how about that?” he suggested.

“Cool idea, older brother,” Ryder said with a grin. Hazel and the twins also looked quite pleased at the proposition of a contest and the idea of a prize.

“What’s the prize gonna be?” Chase asked eagerly.

“Well, we’ll decide the prize once we show each other what we’ve got…” Liam answered.

With that, the siblings finally part ways and headed towards their prospective areas. Eric responded to the situation by summoning two more surveillance birds. He put one on each team, putting the most experienced mana-trained bird onto Ryder which Eric had known via observation to be the one who invites trouble the most. If the need arises, he could aid the young master with spells using the bird.

A little than twenty-minutes later, Eric proved to himself just how well-played his decision was.

~~~

Ryder placed himself on the outdoor exploration on purpose because he enjoyed nature the most. However, after wandering across the wild plants that covered the entirety of the once-beautiful flower garden, he experienced misgivings.

“I might be in quite a disadvantage for the competition,” he thought to himself as he scanned his surroundings. After all, what loot could he possibly take from the outside of the mansion?

When he spotted the dried-up fountain in the middle of the garden, he tried scraping off a piece of granite adorning the side of the fountain but despite it being ancient, without the proper tools, he couldn’t get one out. A little frustrated, Ryder started looking for a rock big enough to whack the fountain with. If he destroyed a portion of the fountain, perhaps he could get some of the stones out.

It was after spotting the perfect rock that Ryder saw it – the back of a small cabin right down the precipice from where the garden was. Intrigued, Ryder put the rock down and started ambling towards the drop-off. It was a little steep and the only path leading towards the cabin from the garden was overgrown with wildlife. Despite the situation, Ryder made a firm decision to do whatever it takes to get to that cabin.

He carefully trudged towards the edge of the precipice and after looking for footholds, started climbing down. Eric almost fell off his chair upon witnessing this and quickly sent over his surveillance bird closer to the naughty child.

“If he falls off that drop-off the wrong way, he could get killed,” Eric thought and began preparations of sending over a wind spell through the bird so that he could activate it the moment it would be necessary.

Fortunately, he needn’t use the spell at all for Ryder successfully climbed down the steep cliff. Sweaty and panting but grinning proudly, Ryder ran towards the cabin. Eric heaved a great sigh of relief and ordered the bird to continue following the naughty child.

“I swear this kid is gonna kill me of heart attack one day…” Eric breathed out as he plopped back to his chair.

The moment Ryder reached the cabin, he was shocked to see actual smoke coming from the cabin’s chimney. He stopped in his tracks and began walking towards the small house in a more careful manner, his face full of question marks.

What he saw next made his eyes even wider. Eric, who was still watching through the eyes of the surveillance bird was equally bewildered.

In front of their very eyes is a garden, a small garden full of flowering plants, some actually having fruits. Heads of cabbages and onions poked out of the earth at one field, and leaves of rootcrops that neither Ryder nor Eric could recognize on the other side. There was a small table and a chair on one corner, and on top of the table, there were some kind of yellowish pieces that might be sliced fruit or rootcrop, laid quite meticulously on a steel tray to dry under the sun.

The very center of the garden was an open space that connected the gate to the front door of the small building. One could practically cross over that space with just ten average adult steps. The gate was made of wood, painted over with a nice hue of green and blue, and circled the entirety of the garden, making the front of the house look like it was owned by some kind of fairy or wood sprite.

Ryder wanted to see better and thus ambled towards the gate. But even before he could put one more step closer, a great big white dog suddenly leapt out from nowhere and lunged at Ryder with a hostile growl.

Ryder screamed and fell to the ground on his back, the growling dog on top of him. Eric prepared to launch a wind spell to propel the dog off of the young master but a strong, childish female voice distracted him.

“Down, Kenley! Come back here boy!” the voice yelled calmly, full of authority.

At that instant, the dog’s ears perked up, stopped whatever he’s doing to the young master and quickly went to the source of the voice with a bark.

With tears in his eyes, the scared Ryder started to pick himself up from the earth and he looked at the direction where the dog went. A girl stood there, small in stature, with long wavy brown hair in a messy bun that missed quite a number of stray locks strewn all over her neck and shoulders. She blinked at Ryder with a pair of clear, intelligent, deep blue eyes whilst the gigantic dog ran in circles around her with its tail wagging.

“Down,” she said, a little softer this time and the dog stopped to sit right beside her. She placed a small hand on its head, seemingly petting it. “Stay. Good boy,” she told the dog before patting it once in a loving manner and directing her attention back to Ryder.

“He’s trained to maul over any trespasser so don’t blame him for lunging at you… He’s just doing his job as a guard dog,” the girl told Ryder in the clearest, calmest-sounding voice that Eric had never heard from a child before.

“Where did you come from?” she added while walking towards him.

Blinking the tears from his eyes, Ryder impulsively answered. “I climbed down from there,” he told her, pointing at the precipice where he came from.

Meanwhile, Felicity was currently weighing the facts in her smart little head. The boy didn’t come from the town, thus the secret pathway that she uses to get to the road leading to Burke’s town had not yet been discovered. If he came from that steep drop-off where the Opal mansion’s old garden was situated, then he must have come from inside the Acker Countdom’s properties.

Felicity gave the kid’s clothes a quick scan. He’s wearing nice clothes made from high-quality fabric. She quickly decided on three possibilities regarding his identity.

One, he’s a kid of a servant or an errand boy of the Acker’s household who somehow got his hands on some good quality clothes and accidentally reached her cabin while playing and snooping around.

Two, he’s a noble kid who visited the Countdom who went off unsupervised, got lost and came to her cabin by mistake.

And three, he’s one of the Acker children who went off unsupervised, found the Opal mansion while playing and came to her cabin by sheer coincidence.

Whichever of the three options may be true, one thing is constant. Felicity is not planning on getting acquainted with anyone even remotely affiliated with the Ackers.

“Then you should go back,” she told him and was about to turn around towards the house if not for the boy’s sudden cry of pain.

Felicity looked back at him and saw the boy let go of the left arm that he had been clutching with his right hand. Kenley must’ve scratched him when the big dog lunged and the three diagonal claw marks on the boy’s forearm drew quite a bit of blood.

“Bleeding…” the boy said in a panic as he noticed his injured limb. “I’m bleeding!” he yelled out and started to cry, whine and sob as if he was about to die any minute.

Felicity sighed. If her dog injured him, it is her responsibility as Kenley’s owner to take care of the consequences. She went towards the boy who was now sitting on the ground and yelping like a puppy while staring at his clawed-out arm.

Felicity crouched towards him and helped him up. “Stop your whining really… You’re not gonna die,” she told him whilst taking off her waist apron one-handed and using it to cover the boy’s injuries. “Let’s clean the wound first,” she said as she ushered him towards the house.

Eric was watching the scenario unfold through the surveillance crystal’s screen with wide eyes. He had no idea what was going on. He brought his attention towards the other crystals which showed the two sets of twins on their exploration of the Opal mansion and became even more wide-eyed upon seeing how the inside looked.

The place was thoroughly a ghost house, with enough accumulated dust, spider webs and decaying furniture to safely assume that it had been years since it was abandoned. The whole mansion was dim if not for the open windows that let some sunlight inside. Although the dark sort of scared them, Liam and Hazel held each other’s hands and went through each room in the second floor.

In the half hour that they have been rummaging, they had brought out quite a number of items that came from the different rooms and found a cloth big enough to improvise a bag that can carry all of their loot. They were starting to go down slowly, watching their steps carefully to avoid slipping to their death in the grand ancient staircase and in a few minutes, settled outside the front of the mansion to take a better look at their booty under the bright sunlight.

The youngest twins, Chase and Carter had also collected what they could from the first floor and contrary to the older twins, did not get scared by the dark at all. They even raced each other across the hall on their way out and rendezvoused with their older brother and sister at the front.

With the two sets of twins obviously doing fine, Eric directed his attention back to the crystal surveying Ryder. The young boy was now making quite a fuss as the unknown girl cleaned his wounds with soap and warm water.

“Geez, you’re such a wuss…” the girl commented as she dried Ryder’s arm.

“I am not a wuss! Don’t you dare call me a wuss!” Ryder shouted in a mixture of tears of pain and humiliation.

The big dog who was watching by the side suddenly stood on its front paws and started growling.

Ryder flinched and looked scared at the dog’s sudden change in behavior.

“Don’t yell at me. Kenley would take it as a form of attack,” the girl told him calmly.

“How can I not yell? You called me a wuss,” Ryder retorted, his volume of voice much lower this time.

“Then stop acting like one,” the girl remarked matter-of-factly as she prepared to apply some medicine on the wounds. Before actually applying the ointment, she put her hand inside the pocket of her dress and took out a candy. She began unwrapping it.

“The medicine will sting so I bet you’ll be yelping and crying out loud so put this between your teeth to keep yourself quiet,” she told him and reached over at his face with the candy between her fingers.

“I’m not gonna cry,” Ryder said obstinately but nevertheless, opened his mouth to bite the candy.

The girl seemed amused by his response and gave a little smirk before scooping some ointment with a small wooden spoon and applying it on the wounds directly.

Unwilling to humiliate himself any further, Ryder clamped his teeth tight on the candy, swallowing every urge to cry out. Looking at his brave front, the girl seemed to pity him a bit and blew gently on the wounds as she applied the medicine.

Then she took out a roll of thin, white cloth from the box where she got the medicine and began bandaging the young master’s arm.

“Done,” she said as she secured the knot. “Now, get up and go back to where you came from…” she told him, stood up, went to the front door and opened it for him.

Ryder blinked at her as if unsure of what to do.

“What’re you waiting for? You should go back home,” she told him, raising an eyebrow.

“I can’t. I don’t think I can climb up the cliff with my arm like this,” Ryder told her.

The girl scratched her head and looked visibly exasperated. “Geez, you’re a handful… Fine, I’ll help you climb back up,” she told him and went towards a cabinet. She took what looked like a leather belt of some sort and whistled for the big dog. He went to her, wagging his tail excitedly. She fastened the leather belt around the dog’s upper torso, looping it on the shoulders of the front legs. The contraption looked like a mix between a collar and a carriage horse harness.

“Come with me,” the girl said and ushered both dog and boy out of the house. In a few minutes, they reached the bottom of the precipice.

“Now, get on Kenley’s back and he’ll bring you up. Just hold onto the harness carefully so you won’t fall off,” she told Ryder who couldn’t process her words properly.

“What?” he asked dumbly.

The girl sighed and began talking much slower as if talking to a toddler. “Get on Kenley’s back, he’ll bring you up,” she said emphasizing every word, tapping her spine for the word ‘back’ and holding up one forefinger at the word ‘up’. “Hold the harness carefully and tightly, so you won’t fall off…” she enunciated slowly while acting out holding onto the harness. “You got it this time?” she finished.

“Are you crazy?” Ryder exclaimed. “He’s the one who did this to my arm in the first place. Why would I trust this beast?”

“Then feel free to climb up on your own,” the girl merely retorted. “I told you he only attacked because you were trespassing. Kenley listens well to me and he’s a very intelligent mutt so if I tell him to take you safely up the cliff, he’ll do it,” she added and rubbed the gigantic dog’s ears.

Kenley barked once energetically, speaking for himself. He walked over towards Ryder and showed him his back as if asking the boy to get on.

Although still uncertain, Ryder did as he was told. Then he became quite appalled at how enormous the dog’s back was. “Is this a dog or a wolf?” he thought. He felt as if he was riding a pony. “What kind of dog is this big?”

“Good,” the little girl suddenly said, making Ryder snap out of his thoughts. “Now hold on tightly, he’s gonna start climbing,” she added.

Ryder gripped the harness for dear life and then they were off. The dog jumped strongly and nimbly up the precipice using tree roots and rock indents as footholds and in under a minute, they were on top of it.

Ryder got off the dog’s back shakily and as soon as he was on the ground, Kenley went back down immediately.

Ryder then crawled onto the edge of the precipice and looked down for the girl and the dog, but they were already walking off towards the cabin.

“Wait!” Ryder yelled. “What’s your name?! I haven’t asked for your name yet!” he shouted but she seemed to not hear him and just went round the bend, disappearing to the front of the cabin.

Eric watched as Ryder stayed seated near the edge of the drop-off for quite a long time, staring blankly at the roof of the cabin. Almost half an hour later, the two sets of twins began to move, quite concerned about why their brother hasn’t returned yet despite it being long past their rendezvous time.

They went around the grounds, calling Ryder’s name. Finally, Hazel got close enough to the old garden for her voice to reach Ryder. The boy snapped back to his senses and immediately got up.

“I’m here! I’m right here!” he called back to the calls of his siblings.

Hazel was the first to see Ryder running towards them and she gulped down the tears that were beginning to accumulate in her throat. To hide her relief, she gave Ryder a big whack in the head.

“i***t! Where have you been?! We’ve been waiting forever for you!” she shrieked at him.

Ryder rubbed the sore spot in his head. “Sheesh, that hurts! Did you really have to hit me?” he complained. By that instant, Liam, Carter and Chase had reached them consecutively.

The bandage around Ryder’s arm caught capable Liam’s eye and he impulsively took hold of his younger brother’s left wrist. “What’s this? Did you get hurt? What happened?” he asked in a heartbeat.

“It’s a long story,” Ryder replied and thought again of the girl. What happened down the precipice suddenly seemed surreal to him. The girl looked young, maybe younger than him, and from what he remembered of how the inside of the cabin looked like, it seemed that the girl had been living there alone. No, not exactly alone – she got the dog with her…

Was she real? Or was she a fairy or a spirit?

“You can tell us later,” Carter suddenly chimed in.

“Yeah. We should go back home. We’ve been gone for more than two hours,” Chase added.

With that, the siblings decided to go back to the front of the Opal mansion to pick up their loot and go straight back to the main house.

As they went on their way and crossed the boundary back to Ruby mansion, Ryder looked over his shoulder, thinking once more of the girl in the cabin.

His wounds still sting whenever he moves his left arm. That’s enough evidence that the dog who caused those wounds and the girl who treated them were real. They can’t be just his delusion.

“The dog’s name is Kenley, she kept calling him that…” Ryder thought. “I can’t believe I didn’t ask for her name firsthand…” he added with an internal sigh.

Then he comforted himself by making a mental note to return to the cabin later, perhaps even tomorrow if he could sneak out. When the time comes, he would surely not forget to ask her name.