Chapter 60

                                    

                                          
Rowan squints when she steps through the trees. There is something sitting on the stone wall bordering her yard, leaning against one of the stone posts beside the gate. It's small, maybe the size of her hand? She moves closer, pushing through the tall grasses. Rowan picks up the object from the wall and turns it over in her hand. It's a large leather pouch and there is something hard and relatively flat inside it. Rowan frowns. 
                          
What is in the pouch and where is the opening? She holds it up and feels along the edges, but it just appears to be a seamless piece of leather the whole way around. She sighs and places the pouch in her bag. The gate swings open with a soft creak and Rowan steps through. Instead of heading directly inside, she walks over to her garden. She pulls up a few carrots from the earth and shakes them off until they are relatively clean. 
                          
Rowan unlatches the back door before she nudges it open with a hip, letting it close behind her. She taps it with her foot until it clicks shut and carries the carrots into the kitchen. Arwen is sitting at the table, staring down at its wooden surface. Rowan dumps the carrots on the countertop and slides into a chair beside her mother. She leans her head against Arwen's shoulder.
                          
"What are you thinking about, Mum?"
                          
Her mother's head snaps up and she looks at Rowan. "It's nothing."
                          
Rowan folds her arms. "It's not. You were thinking very hard, otherwise you wouldn't have reacted that way when I spoke. So what is bothering you?"
                          
Arwen lifts her hands from the table, revealing a golden leaf pendant. She picks it up and twirls it between her fingers, watching the light dance off of its surface. "I've just been thinking about your father."
                          
Rowan pulls back in surprise. "What?"
                          
Arwen twirls the leaf again. "Your father gave this to me, you know." Rowan's eyes widen and Arwen smiles sadly at her expression. "Oh yes. He gave it to me the day we found out we were expecting you. About five or six months later, he . . . he left."
                          
A tear slips down one cheek and Rowan wraps her arms around her mother. "Mum-"
                          
Arwen shakes her head and pats Rowan's cheek. "I'm alright, sweetheart. I promise. I just wonder what he would think of you if he could see you now. If he could see what a strong young lady you have become."
                          
There is a shadow in Arwen's eyes and Rowan frowns in concern. She's beginning to understand what brought this on. "You had a really bad nightmare last night, didn't you? Worse than the others."
                          
Her mother nods. "I just wish I knew what brought them back."
                          
Rowan's frown deepens. "Brought them back?"
                          
"I had them all the time when I was pregnant with you, after he left. Almost every night."
                          
Rowan looks down. "I'm sorry."
                          
Arwen cups Rowan's cheek. "Oh, sweetheart. It isn't your fault. They'll pass, just like they did before."
                          
"How long have you been having them?"
                          
"Since that night you had a nightmare."
                          
Rowan pulls back. "That's why you were crying the next morning?"
                          
Arwen frowns. "What?"
                          
"You were crying in your sleep." Rowan pauses. "What are the nightmares about?"
                          
"Always your father. I dream of the memories we created."
                          
"And that makes it a nightmare?"
                          
"Yes and no."
                          
"Umm, can you explain?"
                          
Arwen looks over at Rowan and her hopeful expression. "You just want to know more about him, don't you?"
                          
Rowan shifts nervously. "Yes? Gran said not to ask you, but . . ."
                          
Arwen's mouth twitches up into an attempt at a smile. "It's alright. I really should have told you about him before now. I don't blame you for being curious. I was walking through the forest when I met him. Back then, I would often just go for strolls in the woods. He was foraging, just like you so often do. He had red hair like yours, but not so bright. His eyes were bright green, the colour of spring grass. I remember that still, how bright his eyes were. He told me he was from the town a few miles away, but I don't think he ever said what it was called. He was sent into the woods for training, he told me. I think for how to identify different species."
                          
Rowan glances down to find that her mother is twisting her hands together, nervous. Rowan places her palm over Arwen's and the movement stills. Her mother takes a shuddering breath.
                          
"After that, we would meet in the forest every day. We were friends, at first. But it soon grew into something more. We fell in love and I brought him back to meet my mother. She was wary of him at first, she was always so protective of me. She still is, that's why she didn't want you to ask me about him. He came to live with me, he said he liked our home better than his, it was so free. A year passed and he proposed. The ring was strange and lovely. I've never seen anything like it since."
                          
"What did it look like?"
                          
Arwen pulls a chain from beneath her shirt. The band is made from curling vines of white gold, dotted with golden flowers. The flowers are set with tiny amethyst centres. At the very centre of the ring is a dark emerald, almost the exact colour of the forest beyond the house. Arwen smiles down at the ring and slips it back inside her shirt. She looks up at Rowan again.
                          
"I found out I was pregnant a few months after Coillen proposed. He was so happy, he couldn't wait to see you. He knew you would be a girl from the very start, but I thought you would be a boy. He had the strangest ways of trying to convince me otherwise, I never understood. He was so excited when the doctors said you were a girl. But just before he left, maybe a week or two before, his mood began to change. He was jumpy all the time, nervous. It was like he was afraid of something. He tried not to let me see it, but I knew something was bothering him. No matter how hard I pleaded, he would never tell me. And then he left." She shakes her head. "Come, help me with dinner?"
                          
Rowan nods. "Of course, Mum."
                          
Arwen smiles and gets up from her chair. But the smile is fixed on her face, it doesn't bring any light to her eyes. She's doing it for Rowan's benefit, not her own. Rowan wordlessly begins to wash the carrots, scrubbing the remaining dirt from their colourful skin.
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Aww, we know more about Rowan's dad! Why do you think Arwen's dreams were nightmares? What do you think was scaring Coillen? Why did he leave? Tell me your thoughts!
                          
Happy reading and I'll see you next chapter!
                          
~Goddess of Fate, signing out.