The Forbidden

Chapter 4

"You came back!"

Despite the force with which the child propelled into him, Semyaza did not move. He merely stared down at the top of her head. Who was she?

"What took you so long?"

Her head was almost at the height of his hip, a dark crown of hair pressed to his side while she wrapped her arms around his waist and held on tight.

"I told everyone every day that you were coming back. I told them again and again and again. Didn't I Regulus?"

"Indeed, you did child," the Grigori replied as he joined them.

Semyaza's gaze lifted to pin him in place. This child could not be Rachel. Where was the child he knew? Had something happened to her in his absence?

"She has grown."

His attention returned to the child. This was Rachel?

"I'm much bigger now," the child attached to him said as she raised her chin. "I'm bigger than all the other girls my age. I'm even bigger than some of the older ones. My mother says I grow faster than the corn in the fields. We have more fields now, did you see? It took a long time to clear them. But I'm not as big as the corn is now. It's ready to harvest soon. I helped plant it. Could you see me doing that? My mother says I am good with plants and animals. But you probably already know that. You must be able to see everything from up there."

The earth brown eyes he knew so well sparkled up at him. There was no denying it. It was Rachel. A different  Rachel, but Rachel nevertheless.

"You have to stay for the festival. It's so much fun! There's lots of food and we play games and the adults dance. Regulus danced last year. But he wasn't very good at it. You can dance with me. I will teach you the steps. And I can show everyone who doubted me that you came back like I said you would. Caleb didn't believe it. Every time I said something about you coming back one day, he said you never would. Not ever. He was wrong and I was right. But Regulus says we should be kind to one another, so I won't say that to him. I'll just show him and then he can apologize. Because you should always say sorry when you are wrong. I feel bad for Caleb. He doesn't like being wrong. Saying sorry won't be easy for him."

Why did she talk so much when most of what she said provided unnecessary information or was repetitive? Was it not dangerous to her well-being that she spoke so much without pausing to take a breath? How did he make her slow down or stop?

"That remains a mystery," Regulus said. "But should you discover a remedy, I know many parents who would be grateful for a brief respite. Come. There is much for you to see."

Rachel detached herself from his side and enfolded one of his large hands in both of hers, tugging on his arm. "Everyone has been working really hard while you were away.  We have lots more homes for people now and the bakery and the pottery are bigger and we learned how to take things from rocks which can make stronger tools and how to make special stuff from wood that burns longer and hotter and -"

Semyaza wrestled his gaze away from her. It traveled beyond Regulus to the boundary wall he had seen on his approach from the sky. He had hoped it would look larger from the ground.

"It's a start," Regulus said as he stopped walking and turned around. "They've been working on it steadily between harvests and clearing land for the last three years."

"All the adults have been helping. Haven't they done well? They worked all through the winter and it's almost done now. There's just a small gap over by the meeting hall and a gate to hang and the last part of the walkway to put in and -"