Fighter (Snow White with the Red Hair fanfic)

Chapter 33: Tree of Memory

I felt paralyzed, I could tell there were eye bags under my eyes, and I was yawning a lot. Obi looked at me when I got out of my room.

"Woah, Miss, are you okay? Did you get enough sleep?" He asked, concerned. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Anyways, it's almost time for breakfast. C'mon, we gotta get ready."

I nodded my head and went to walk down the stairs that led to the breakfast table. I saw Zen at the bottom of the stairs and got distracted. Suddenly, I missed a step.

Zen's eyes widened. He ran over. I started falling. When I hit the bottom, I could tell there was a bruise at the top of my head. "Ow, I guess I'll have to treat that later." I said to myself. "Shirayuki! Are you alright?!" Zen yelled, still running over.

"I'm fine. I just wasn't paying attention is all." I told him. He reached me and looked into my eyes. "Go back to your room please."

"What? Why?!"

"You haven't slept yet."

"How can you tell?"

"It's obvious that you haven't slept. I mean, you look tired, your voice is a little bit like a yawn whenever you say a sentence, and you weren't able to react to that fall."

"But-"

"No 'but's. Please sleep."

I nodded my head and went to go to sleep. There wasn't even a point in sleeping at this point. The sunlight was shining through my door and into my eyes.

I figured that there was no point in staying in my room if there was work that had to be done. While everyone was eating breakfast, I crept open my door to see no one nearby. I silently ran off and into the forest.

There was lots of shade and some berries that I could eat. It wasn't too far from the village either. I figured that I would go back around noon.

Meanwhile...

"Shirayuki, are you in there?" Zen asked as he knocked at the door. He opened the door, assuming I was asleep. His eyes widened as he saw an empty bed. He ran out of the room and into the forest without a word.

Back to Shirayuki

They killed her...they killed my mother. It was in this forest around here. They tied her up and had beaten her to death.

Before she died, I heard my dad yell her name. "Aka!" He yelled as she had coughed up more blood. I saw my young self crying. A lot. I was probably less than two or three years old.

The... murderers had let Father and me go while Mom's corpse was still tied up. How could they? Suddenly I hear my young self screaming and crying. "Mommy! Wake up! Mommy!"

"Shirayuki. Shirayuki wake up" I open my eyes to see Zen, he looked worried. "You gave me a scare running off like that." He told me. "Zen! Don't run off like that" I heard Mitsuhide yell in the distance. 'Sounds familiar' I thought to myself.

"Why would you run off?!" Mitsuhide had started to lecture Zen. I zoned out and started looking around. Suddenly I noticed an engraving on a nearby tree. I walked over to it. "In memory of Aka Chiro 7/30/04"

I whispered to myself. "Mom." Zen looked at me. I started to tear up. "Hey hey, are you okay?" He asked in a comforting tone. "Yeah I'm fine."

"If you say so. Anyways I have breakfast back at the village in case you want some."

I nodded my head and we started walking to camp. We got there before breakfast had ended. I ate and we started working. We worked on training the villagers how to grow herbs and make medicines.

They all seemed happy and supportive of using medicine to help each other out.

I'm sorry that this is taking long. Midterms aren't fun.