Inheritance: Threads of Fate

Chapter Twenty One - Threads of Fate

"Whoa there..." Caspian slowed your camel, and everyone else slowed behind you. "I think we're far enough..."
You looked back into the darkness, not a sound or sight of guards or horses other than Abra. Just the stillness of the desert night and the shifting of sand as you walked.

"Did we actually get out of that in one piece?" Zumi trotted up next to you.
"There looks to be a rock formation." You noted off to your left. "Lets camp there for the night." You didn't want to answer him, in case you jinxed yourselves.

Once at the outcropping, you all dismounted, Raxe helped your father who was visibly shaken still.
"I'll get a fire started." Caspian placed his hand on your lower back.
You walked over to your dad as he got both feet firmly on the ground. You stared at each other for a moment, then you ran and threw your arms around him.
"I can't believe it. I can't believe I'm holding my little girl." He cried into your hair.
"I missed you so much." You cried as well.
You felt the warmth from the fire behind you as it started up. He pulled you away. "Let me look at you." He said with tears streaming down his face.
He was a shell of the man you knew. Extremely thin, his skin was dark and wrinkled from his years working in the sun. His black hair was now grey, and he had a full bushy beard where a light amount of scruff once was. His brown eyes were the only part of him still recognizable.
"My, you're all grown. Aren't you beautiful...you look so much like your mother..." He whispered. "I'm so sorry..."
"Don't be sorry Dad, you didn't choose to leave." You tried to comfort him.
"And you!" He grabbed Raxe by the arm and pulled him into a hug. "What happened to that little urchin who followed my girl around like a lost puppy?"
Raxe laughed, "He still does apparently."
Your dad laughed, boy did you miss his laugh. "How is it you're both here?"
You and Raxe led your dad over to the fire where Caspian and Zumi worked to get camp set up. You took turns explaining as much as you could remember, from Raxe and his fathers abduction to your avoiding capture, (you didn't include the details on how you avoided it...), then your meeting Caspian, journey to Calormen, Zumi, and everything in between.
"King!?" Your father looked at Caspian, who was helping to cook, and looked up when he heard your father address him. He came over and knelt at your fathers feet.
"It's an honor to meet you sir." Caspian grabbed his arm.
"Sire... I'm the one who is honored...to have you help my family in such a way..." Your dad tried to get down on his knees to bow.
"No Sir, no." Caspian grabbed him by the elbows. "I forbid it. You do not bow to anyone anymore."
Your dad started tearing up again. "I am sorry for abandoning my country."
"You did no such thing. And you behaved honorably given the circumstances. It is I who must beg your forgiveness, for allowing your islands to succumb to the slave trade in the first place." Caspian bowed his head.
"Are you two just going to keep apologizing to each other all night or are you going to come eat?" Zumi called out.
You laughed, "Sit Dad, I'll bring you a plate." You put your arm on Caspian's shoulder and you looked into each other's eyes as you walked over to the fire.
"It must feel surreal for you..." Zumi spoke softly. "I can't imagine seeing my father again..."
"I gave up on this dream years ago." You responded, pouring some soup and grabbing a few slices of bread. "This is all Caspian's doing." You looked back at the three of them talking.
"He may have been the one to start it, but the rescue, the escape... was all you." Zumi insisted. "You're dad is free because of you."
You smiled, watching your father laughing with Raxe and Caspian, then you began to feel anxious. "He's not free until we're back in neutral seas..." You reminded yourself out loud.
You brought the plate to your dad. "Thanks Ladybug." He responded.
"Ladybug. I like that for you." Caspian nudged you chuckling.
"Oh she didn't tell you how she earned that nickname?" Your dad's eyes lit up.
"Oh no... Dad..." You tried to stop him.
"When she was about three or four, we were walking in the woods and I accidentally stepped on one. She wailed! As if I had just murdered her own mother! She was inconsolable."
"Aww... poor little baby..." Caspian wrapped his arm around you as you hid your face in your hands.
Your dad continued. "So I took her deeper into the forest, to show her an entire colony of ladybugs. I tried to explain to her that it was just a wee little bug and it was alright. But she insisted that it had a family, and feelings, and that it mattered. We spent the day counting all the ladybugs, and naming them...hundreds of them... she wasn't content until I felt the utmost remorse for what I had done... My sweet little girl who cared so much about the life of one little ladybug." He ended, beaming at you.
Caspian chuckled. "Yea, she hasn't changed much."
"Except I've attempted murder on full grown men..." You muttered under your breath.
"They were hardly innocent." Caspian argued silently.
"Do you...happen to know what became of your mother?" Your dad asked hesitantly.
"We know she was bought by that awful General Vorsud...and then sold to a Lord in Terebinthia... but that's about it." You answered.
"I tried...so many times in the beginning...I tried to run away. Tried to escape..." Your father looked down at his feet.
You put your hand on his knee. "It's not like you could have just walked out the front gates..."
He shook his head. "I could have if I wasn't so hot headed...I caused trouble, started fights, disobeyed...if I had kept my head down and kept eyes off me I might have been able to go unnoticed..."
"Hmm. Sounds familiar..." Caspian looked at you out of the corner of his eye.
"Oh no Bug, don't tell me you got my temper...that's the one thing I wouldn't have wanted you to inherit..." Your dad looked at you.
"Oh...she got it alright." Caspian laughed. "Though hers comes more in the form of verbal assault."
Your father shook his head again. "That's going to get you in trouble some day."
"It already has, but it's also gotten her out of trouble just as equally." Caspian chuckled.
"Oh?" Your dad pressed.
"Like that fight with Rictor." Caspian looked at you.
"Rictor....not the pirate Rictor...?"
"The very same." Caspian responded.
Your dad was silent, as if trying to gather his thoughts. "Did he... mention anything to you?" He asked you.
"Actually. Yes." You responded and pulled out the Scale.
Your fathers face turned white. "Do you... know what that is?"
"Yes." You responded, and found yourself a bit angry with him.
"I think we should go help Zumi with cleanup... Come on Cas." Raxe excused himself and Caspian.
Your dad waited until they were on the other side of the fire. "So...where did you find it?" He motioned to your necklace.
"It was in Mom's remedy journal. It fell out when I was treating Caspian for pneumonia."
"Did you know what it was when you found it?"
"No. Not until my life was threatened." You responded shortly.
"I... didn't know your mother had it."
"You knew it existed. You knew it had to be in the house somewhere."
"I honestly thought I had lost it, I had no desire to search for it again after your mother and I married."
"Did she know?"
"She knew I was a Captain... and a high ranking pirate... but no, she didn't know the specifics. Only that that was the only thing I had connecting me to my old life. Which is why she probably took it..."
You were growing increasingly angry with him, and you didn't want to. You wanted to feel happy and relieved to be reunited with him. You wanted to talk about all the fun you used to have as a family, and how it will be that way again. But if you had known about his past, the significance of this necklace, you would have kept it hidden, you would have never put it on...
"You could have told us." You mumbled.
"I thought I was protecting you by not."
"Mom already knew you were a pirate, what difference would it have made if she knew the full truth."
"She...might not have accepted me. She already didn't trust me but. If she knew I was in charge? In a position of power? She would have never let me near her."
"So it was for selfish reasons..."
Your dad was silent for a moment. "I suppose it was."
"Did it ever occur to you that if she had known she could have hidden it? Kept it safe? I would have never come across it?"
"It does now..."
"Oh a lot of good that does me!" You stood up and began to pace. "You see this?" You lifted your chin and showed your dad your scar. "This is what happened when I didn't know what I had around my neck. This is what happens when you keep secrets from your family."
You weren't actually mad about the scar, in fact you were secretly proud of it...you weren't really sure why you were so angry, you just felt like arguing with him...and you couldn't stop yourself. You were clearly shouting and you knew Caspian, Raxe, and Zumi could hear every word but you didn't care.