She found the cub sitting on her lap, though she flinched she wasn't all that startled.She approached the cub with a hand to pat his head on a slow pace,the pup was careless as any child.It stuck out his tongue enjoying the attention he was receiving.
Valecta smiled ,a tired smile on her face as that became the highlight of her day."serkhat yotur iyyot zezu",she told the little quiet child next to her who was glued to her arm trembling with his memories of all the shocking things that he had seen that day."That means a child's love is the most precious thing to obtain", the child stared at Valecta in anticipation .Valecta had a soft toned soothing voice which made everyone around her comfortable and calm.Valecta's one hand rested on the cub's head and another on the child's.
"In my mother tongue 'zezu' means precious. Shall we name the cub zezu?". The child nodded shyly looking at the cub. After hearing it's name, the cub gave out a precious little growl. The mother had laid dead, Valecta turned her head to notice this. Her smile dissipated and a sorry look appeared on her face as she picked up the cub held it in her arms and hugged it. When the cub was put down it ran to his mother nudging at her, the mother gave no sign of life and yet what could a 2 month old baby cub know.
Valecta felt her heart burn as she saw the cub lay down next to his mother seeking her warmth.
A burial for the animal as its cub slept through the night. They weren't safe in this wilderness they needed a place to stay. She picked up the cub and the child and headed to the child's home. Returning to the child's mother's dead body laid out front, she covered the child's eyes as they entered his house. The child hugged the cub and was left to sleep in his own quarters while Valecta slept with them with an instinct to protect them.
Morning arrived and the sun shone on their faces through the torn curtains.Valecta noticed the cub sitting on her chest and gave it a smile and ruffled it's fur. The child was still asleep. She left the room and sat for a while to think. Think about what she should do going forward. What is it that she wishes to do with her life now that her purpose for life had been gone.
And as she thought that, she remembered the conversation she had once with her mother. As they laid next to each other about to sleep, her mother had spoken about finding a buried box behind their house if there happened to be any misfortune.
Valecta rushed to the place where her house once stood and looked being it's ashes. She dug the ground with her hands, dirt getting into her fingernails. She reached the stage where the solid object touched her skin.She dug some more and released the silver box out of the suffocating dirt. A key was required since all were ashes, she decided to break the box with a nearby lying stone.
The sound of thumping on the box was loud but alas the box was bound to open. Nothing more than a Few precious gold coins that could suffice for food for about a year and a scroll. "a scroll..?", she thought to herself. Naturally she was curious, regardless of the fact if it was meant for her or not she opened the scroll to find a handwritten letter by her mother. There was nothing special about the letter. No words of affection neither affirmations nor any information. Just an address. The address seemed to lead to a temple on the sacred mountains of ashhar.
One of the largest cliffs in the world and a temple that resides on top of it." Why would mother write such a thing instead of writing something comforting?", Perhaps what she needed now more than anything were a few words of love. But no matter, she made up her mind to head to the address written.