Welcome Home

It was a long, tiring walk uphill.

"It is going to get cold." Ms. Saka warned me. "Unfortunately, I can't stop to let you adjust for the weather. Just... I don't know, I thought I should tell."

"Thanks, I guess." I said, trying to follow her footsteps.

"You may also find it a little hard to breathe." she added. "Not in a dangerous way, but it will make you uncomfortable for a while."

"Alright..." I said. "How high are we going to climb anyway?"

"Hmm... I don't know. Maybe I should count my steps next time." she said.

I silently followed her for a long time. On the way, I had a weird feeling on my face. Soon enough, I found out that my nose was bleeding.

"Myynn nhss-" I tried to talk with my nose closed. Obviously, no one understood anything.

"Excuse me?" Ms. Saka turned around to have a look. "Oh..." she had a good look at me, and then looked back up the mountain. "Just hang on for a minute. We are almost there."

Soon afterwards, we stopped walking. Around us, there was nothing of interest. At least none that I could see.

I stopped holding my bleeding nose and asked "Why did we come up here?"

Ms. Saka, without answering me, dropped her wand and slowly put her daughter on the ground. She raised her hands once again in preparation to use her supernatural powers. A large, smooth shaped rock in front of us rolled to the side, revealing a tunnel into the mountain.

"You are kidding me." I said.

"Inside." Ms. Saka said. "It is much warmer there."

I walked in. Ms. Saka took her wand, carried Sena inside and rolled the large rock back to it's original position, closing the enterance.

As soon as I got to the end of the tunnel, an interesting room welcomed me. This underground room was illuminated by some sort of spherical lamp. Inside the room, there was a table with metal pots and cups on it; which made it feel like a kitchen. On the opposite side, there was a small recess with a blanket in it; which was most probably used as a bed. The room was connected to another tunnel which probably lead further into the mountain, but I couldn't see exactly where.

Ms. Saka put her daughter down and carefully examined her wounds. She then put her hands on Sena's forehead and whispered something I couldn't quite understand.

"Is she going to be fine?" I asked.

"Yes." Ms. Saka said. "Yes, she will be."

Ms. Saka got up and went through the tunnel that lead further down. I watched Ms. Saka disappear, then sat by Sena's side to have a better look at her myself. Just then, Ms. Saka came back into the room with someone else following her.

I stood up.

There was an old man with white short hair and round glasses. His clothes were old fashioned, but they were in pretty good condition despite their age.

He looked at me over his glasses, and a smile appeared on his face.

"So, it seems like we have guests today." he said and chuckled. His voice was indicating to some health problems, but otherwise, he seemed like a pretty good man. "Welcome home, welcome home."

"U-uh, thank you very much!" I said, smiling back.

He turned to look at Sena, who was laying by my side.

"Unfortunate to see such a fine lady in that condition." the man said. "Well, let's see how much we can help."

He walked and sat down by her other side. With his hands, he examined various points around Sena's head.

"Your girl is in good shape." the man told Ms. Saka. "I don't think she needs anything more than her natural healing abilities."

"You won't do anything?" Ms. Saka asked him.

"Well, of course you are worried about your dear girl, I know." he said. "Just bring her down to the pyramid later if you feel that's necessary."

"The pyramid?" I asked, but my question was ignored.

"For now..." the old man said. "Just make some food for our guests, will you?"

Every time I saw it, I was feeling like the old man's warm smile could heal anything.

"Sure." Ms. Saka said.

"Pretty well then. I will be down under if you need me." the old man said and walked into the tunnel. Meanwhile, Ms. Saka started looking into the metal cups on the table.

"Ms. Saka!" I called her.

"Yes?"

"What is the old man's name?" I asked her.

"The old man... That old man is my father." she said. "The name is Engin."

"Your... father!?" I asked. "Excuse me... Just, how old is he?"

"I don't know." Ms. Saka replied. "I bet he looks a lot younger than he is."

"Probably." I said. Ms. Saka continued messing with her metal pots.

Suddenly, I noticed Sena moving on her own.

"Hey? Hey!" I softly tried to talk to her. She didn't hear me for a while. I softly touched her shoulders. "Hey, are you awake?"

Sena rolled over towards me and opened her eyes.

"Oh god..." she said. "You won't believe what I saw."

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"I... sort of. I don't feel really good." she answered me. At this time, Ms. Saka had also noticed that Sena was waking up.

"What did you see?" I asked her.

Sena's eyes locked on to something behind me. She didn't answer me, and kept looking at it. Her pupils grew larger.

I turned around to see what she was looking at. There, Ms. Saka was standing behind me, looking at her daughter carefully. She was the first one to say something in that awkward moment.

"My girl..."

"Mom? I... So it wasn't a dream after all!" Sena said and coughed.

"Too good to be true?" Ms. Saka asked. "I know, because I feel the same. But today, please, believe in miracles. After years, fate brought us together once again."

Sena tried to lift herself and sit. Ms. Saka held her by her shoulders and slowly put Sena back down.

"No, if you are not feeling well, just rest for a bit longer. We will have time to talk more later. Oh, I know..." Ms. Saka went to bring a blanket to cover Sena with. "Here you go, much better."

Sena curled up in the blanket and looked at me. I smiled at her. She smiled back.

"After everything we have been through, I'm glad your incompetence lead us here."

We both laughed for a long time. What a wholesome compliment!