[Chapter Size: 2500 Words.]
Third Person POV
Ellander.
...
...
In a forest within the territory of Ellander, a dense woodland still surrounded the city. Madara and Ciri appeared the next moment, silently, using Hiraishin.
Ciri immediately looked around before turning to her husband.
"Why didn't we go straight to the temple?" she asked, her tone slightly dissatisfied.
"Calm down." Madara placed a hand on her shoulder. "The city is right in front of us. We'll get there in an instant. I just didn't want to suddenly appear and scare the people there. That wouldn't be fair, would it? Especially for Aren..." Madara spoke in a calm and serious tone. Ciri stared at him before nodding.
"You're right... I'm sorry," she murmured.
"Of course. Let's go." He gave a small smile before picking her up like a princess.
"What are you doing?" she asked, surprised.
"We're going there without causing magical disturbances. Your movement could attract too much attention in this city," he said before starting to run with Ciri out of the forest.
As he ran, they caught sight of the city's walls half a second later. Ciri simply accepted it while the wind struck against them, and she tightened her hood so she wouldn't ruin her hairstyle.
Madara leaped over a river and continued advancing toward one corner of the wall. When he noticed there was no one watching that side, he stopped, jumped directly onto the wall, and continued running vertically before vaulting over it, heading straight for the rooftops of the city's houses.
Like that, he jumped from roof to roof until he reached the temple in one corner of the city.
Madara looked at the place for a few seconds. Then he ran toward it after dropping from the last rooftop, heading into a blind spot before making another super jump over 30 meters high and landing smoothly on the temple's own rooftops.
With one more jump, he was in front of the courtyard where Ciri used to train with Yennefer, as well as the pavilion where they lived...
He could immediately feel Ciri's discomfort as she shifted restlessly. "Nervous?" Madara asked.
Their eyes were fixed on that side of the temple, which, unlike the entrance full of people, was quite deserted. They searched the area for any sign of a three-year-old little boy, but there wasn't even a trace of him, at least not outside.
"I am..." Ciri admitted. "I'm terrified."
Madara simply nodded in response. Having nothing else to say, he jumped down and his feet reached the courtyard grass.
After that, he placed Ciri on the ground while looking around the area. There was nothing unusual. Not a single person on that side. But there were toys...
"That..." Ciri recognized the unicorn Madara had made out of wood for Aren when he was only two months old. He was also surprised that the wooden unicorn, far sturdier than normal due to the special tree he had created with Mokuton, was still there.
"Our son is here, at least..." Madara said.
Madara could activate his Sharingan, and Ciri could use her future sight, but neither of them seemed to have any intention of doing so. They wanted to find him naturally.
Ciri simply grabbed Madara's hand and squeezed it. Madara accepted it and moved forward as they walked through a roofed corridor connecting the main structure to that pavilion at the back of the temple, the area where they used to stay.
He remained silent as they approached the entrance to that place, while Ciri continued clutching his hand, her grip growing tighter and tighter.
Suddenly, they heard it:
Laughter.
The laughter of a child.
He sounded happy as they could hear tiny footsteps coming exactly from the entrance they were about to pass through.
And then a boy appeared running, looking behind him as if he were fleeing from something. But he wasn't afraid or in danger. He was simply having fun while letting out those laughs.
Until his eyes turned forward.
Just as he was passing through the entrance to head into the courtyard, in an attempt to escape, the boy stopped laughing the moment he saw the two strangers with hoods, lifting his little head and observing them.
His eyes quickly searched through memories of those two unknown people who, somehow, had captured his attention. It was as if he felt something familiar coming from them, even though he could only see his face.
Madara and Ciri stood there, looking at the boy...
Aren was adorably tall for his three years of age. His black hair was messy but very short, and his little face was round and delicate, with slightly full cheeks reddened from the game he had probably been playing until their arrival. His large dark eyes watched the two of them with innocent curiosity, almost shining, as he tried to understand who those strangers were.
He had a small nose and a childish mouth slightly parted in surprise while he still caught his breath from running. His simple clothes, pants and a shirt made with great quality, were probably something Yennefer had provided for the boy with everything Madara and Ciri had left behind for him to be cared for with. He was barefoot, his tiny feet firmly planted on the temple stone.
Even standing still, Aren seemed full of energy. There was something extremely innocent about him. Something warm. To Ciri, there was a comforting feeling that made it seem impossible not to want to hug him.
Ciri's eyes trembled... And it didn't take long for them to fill with tears as recognition and fear began to appear around them.
Meanwhile, Aren couldn't exactly understand what was happening there or what it meant, but he could see that those two people seemed surprised to see him, especially the woman.
Did they know him?
"Aren..." The words left the woman's mouth unconsciously, almost like a whisper she wanted to cling to like an anchor. Before she could control herself, two streams of tears ran forcefully down her face.
That seemed to affect the boy a little.
"Are you okay?" he asked, making Ciri choke up at the obvious concern in the boy's voice, and she began to cry even harder.
The boy couldn't hold himself back and took steps toward Ciri, feeling very sad seeing her cry even though he didn't know why.
"Aren, you ran back to the courtyard!?" A voice came from inside the place as a woman neither Madara nor Ciri knew, who looked to be around thirty years old, stepped out wearing the simple robes of a temple priestess.
Then she saw the little boy standing there, approaching two strangers.
There was no way other people could be in that place without Nenneke's permission, which certainly meant someone had invaded, and she hadn't been warned nor received any sign from Nenneke.
That immediately alarmed the woman.
"Aren, don't go near them! Who are you people!?" she exclaimed, trying to reach the boy, who was already standing in front of the crying woman.
That also made the temple priestess stop in the face of that strange situation. Madara merely watched as Ciri crouched in front of the boy, who somehow seemed deeply worried about her.
"Are you okay? Who are you?" he asked.
Ciri seemed to break down even further in tears. She looked at him with a smile, as if she didn't deserve those worried questions, but she couldn't stop herself from grabbing him and pulling him close.
Aren didn't even have time to react, while even the temple woman choked at the sight. The strange woman began sobbing, holding Aren tightly in her arms...
The little boy stayed there, caught in the woman's embrace while she continued crying heavily.
He immediately wanted to comfort her. Somehow, her crying bothered him, but at the same time, the child felt as though he was inside the best hug in the world.
Not even Aunt Hilda or Grandma Nenneke had ever given him a feeling like that. He felt a warmth he had never experienced before.
At the same time, he was scared.
Why was that woman crying so much?
And a feeling of wanting to comfort her kept rising in his childish heart. He didn't like seeing adults cry, but she awakened a stronger protective feeling in him than any other scene like that he had ever witnessed.
"I always wanted to see you... I counted every single day until I could finally see you, Aren..." the woman began speaking through her tears, and there was pain in her words.
"W-who are you?" he asked, a desperate feeling rising in his heart the moment he heard those words.
The boy's question seemed to strike the woman even harder, making her even more emotional. She tightened her hold on him, and her tears began soaking Aren's own face, as if he might escape at any moment.
The man crouched beside them.
Aren looked at him and realized that the man looked extremely similar to himself when he removed his hood.
The same eyes.
The same hair.
A shock of reality began to hit the boy as he stared at the man, completely frozen.
The man placed a hand on his head, running it through his hair while giving a small smile.
A gentle smile.
"We finally met, son," he said.
And that hit Aren in a way he had never felt in his entire life.
The doubts that had been growing in his heart about those two strangers were immediately confirmed!
Not just because of blind hope, but also because of the many questions he had asked over the last year to Grandma Nenneke, Aunt Hilda, Grandma Yennefer, and the others who always visited him and said that his father and mother would return one day.
It was unfair. It was very unfair. They always said that.
They always said his parents were somewhere out there, but that one day they would come back.
In the first year, Aren didn't understand.
In the second year, even though Nenneke took very good care of him, he knew he felt that something was missing in that corner of the temple.
He couldn't join the other children in the city, but he also felt that something was still missing.
Until he discovered, through rare conversations with other children in the temple's other courtyard, that every child always had a daddy and a mommy.
Then the questions came:
Who were his parents?
Where were they?
Why did they leave him?
Everyone always answered that his parents were two incredible and strong people. The strongest that existed. That no one could fight against them.
That they were heroes.
His questions would immediately come flooding one after another:
What were they like?
What had they done to make everyone like them so much?
Aren immediately wanted to know everything. Even so, one question always came before any other:
"Where were they?"
The answer was always the same.
No one knew.
Everyone said they didn't know.
Then came the stories.
His mother could defeat giants alone with her sword. She could cast more powerful magic than any other sorceress on the continent.
His father could make every king tremble just with his presence. He could change wars, fight several dragons at the same time, save entire cities from destruction, and even battle an extremely powerful entity that threatened the world.
But even so, that question always returned, even after hearing all the answers:
"Where were they?"
He could see the pity and hesitation in everyone's eyes whenever he asked that question. He could also feel that they were avoiding an answer.
There was sadness in their eyes, as if they also mourned the loss of his parents. Aren had spent the last year asking himself that every single day, especially when he lay down in bed, feeling somewhat lonely.
Where were they?
Why did they leave?
Why did they leave him behind?
Along with that came anger, fear, and a feeling of abandonment.
Even so, he still wanted to have them with him.
And that hope, even while mixed with all that pain, still existed.
The hope that one day he could meet them.
That they would come for him.
That he could have someone to call mommy.
That he could look at his father and admire him. Ask him things and play with him...
Even though each day made him shed a few tears hidden from Grandma Nenneke, he still had hope.
Hope that they would return.
That everyone would reunite.
And that they would say they loved him.
That he was their son. And that they wanted him...
He just wanted to have a daddy and a mommy, just like he had heard Aunt Hilda and the other children had, the way every child his age was supposed to.
And then, while he stood there, that woman hugged him while crying as the man touched his hair.
The woman who had been standing there watching the scene heard Madara call Aren his son. She immediately covered her mouth in shock.
They had finally returned. Or at least, that was what it seemed.
The man looked at her. "Could you call Nenneke and tell her we've returned? We came here to see our son," he said.
She swallowed hard and nodded. Despite her reluctance, she immediately passed by them and ran toward the temple's main area to call Nenneke.
Ciri finally pulled back a little from the boy, who was still in a state of shock, processing what was happening. She removed her hood and revealed her platinum hair for the first time.
Her face was completely covered in tears as she looked at him.
"I'm your mother, Aren... For three years, I've been wondering how you were doing..." she said, delicately touching his face with her fingers. "You've already grown so much... You're becoming such a handsome young boy."
He stared at her, completely ignoring the last comments. He only heard the first part. "Mommy..." he murmured, while she expressed fear and happiness at the same time.
"Yes... I am your mommy, Aren," she answered tearfully.
And Aren simply jumped into her arms, as if his childish hope had finally come true.
"I always wanted to meet you!" he shouted, beginning to cry as well.
Soon, his face was just as wet as Ciri's while she held him tightly and lifted him up.
"You can cry, son... Let's cry together," Ciri said with a laugh full of happiness.
The boy truly began to whimper, and she joined him.
Madara merely watched the two of them there, embracing each other, with tears in his eyes. It couldn't be said that he and Ciri had been good parents, after all, they had been gone for three years.
But everything would change from that moment onward.
And even if the boy felt resentment toward them after that initial meeting, after all, it still didn't change the fact that they had disappeared, they would take care of him from now on.
They would protect him. And give him a future.
Madara silently promised that.
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