Confusing Answer

Faking a smile, Jean perked up and blurted,

"For how long have you been staring at me?"

Natalie smiled wryly and looked away. She then lingered for a moment and said,

"From the moment you folded your arms."

Jean was stunned for a moment.

'So, she is sensitive to notice my body movements, but she can't sense this cool air around us! How ironical!'

Jean thought to himself before turning to face Natalie.

"And what is that gaze for?"

Jean asked nonchalantly.

"And what was that folding of arms for?"

Natalie asked jokingly.

'Don't tell me that she isn't feeling this cooling effect.'

"It is the cold"

Jean answered with a frown.

Natalie chuckled and looked at Jean.

"What do you expect from a forest? Though I can't feel the cold myself. It is just a cooling breeze."

"Exactly, that breeze was what I was referring to… where is it originating from?"

Jean asked with a gleam of curiosity evident in his blinking eyes.

Although he was somewhat sure that the breeze was blowing from the direction they were heading to, he still felt a sense of urgence in getting a reassurance.

Natalie stared at him blankly for a few moments. Clearly surprised by Jean's behaviour.

Since the two began the tour of the house the previous day, Jean has been behaving strangely. This was something that puzzled her on several occasions, but during all this time, she had tried as much as possible to maintain a reserved state.

Jean on the other side, was not sure with why he was behaving out of the ordinary. He had developed some strange feelings since the moment he gazed at the ominous tree and felt something unusual.

'Maybe I am just being paranoid'

Jean thought deeply after reflecting on his current weird character.

At that moment, Natalie stared ahead, her look distant. She then raised one of her arms and pointed at a spot right in front of them.

"Right there… there is where the breeze is originating from."

Not sure with the exact spot that Natalie was referring to, Jean wore a complicated look and alternated his gaze between Natalie and the possible spot ahead of them.

At this point, there were two main questions running through Jean's mind.

Which exact spot did Natalie point at? And what could be the source of the breeze?

Without further hesitations, Jean scratched the back of his head and turned to Natalie.

"I know this might sound weird but just try to take it the way it is."

Pausing for a moment, Jean gulped and then stared in the distance.

"I am not that sure with the spot you are referring to, but make me understand. What could be the source of this cool soothing breeze?"

Upon hearing this, Natalie was puzzled for a moment. A few moments later, she pursed her lips and looked at Jean.

"This could have been a topic for another day, because it can get you confused."

This statement made Jean to feel blood in his veins freeze, followed by a headache. This was the first time Jean hearing his mom telling him that what he wanted to know could confuse him.

While growing up, Jean had asked his mother so many questions on matters that he didn't understand, but never for once had his mother used the word confuse in any of her previous answers.

Since this was the first time Jean hearing this from his mother, he was dazed.

'What could be that that could get me confused? I am not sure if I want to hear this.'

Pondering on the possible answer that he was about to receive from Natalie, Jean found himself losing some courage of hearing the answer.

In an instance, an eerie silence settled between the two. Their movements slowed down and everybody wore a thoughtful expression.

After a few strides, Jean noticed something in front of them. Roughly a dozen meters away from where they were, the ancient pavement ended. While he was about to ask Natalie about this, Natalie's voice echoed.

"I know you were wondering why I was taking long to explain my point, but I was finding it difficult to come up with the best explanation. But I will have to at least give you the simplest explanation I could muster."

This statement, made Jean forget the question he was about to ask and direct his concentration towards what Natalie was about to say.

'I hope it is not something that can be hard for me to take. She is my mom after all and caring for my feelings must be one of her priorities.'

Jean thought for a while as he tried to focus on what was to follow next.

"You see that spot where this pavement ends"

Natalie said in a neutral tone while pointing at the spot where the ancient pavement ended.

Jean on the other side, gazed at the spot with a complicated look before glancing at Natalie.

She then continued,

"A dozen meters beyond that spot, is where the breeze originates from."

'I need to know its source, that is what I want to know.'

Jean cursed inwardly.

With wide eyes, Jean opened his mouth, closed it and opened it again, but before he could utter anything, Natalie resounded once again.

"I know you must be wondering what could be emanating the breeze itself"

Natalie said with a subtle frown on her exquisite face.

'That is what I want to hear. For now, I don't care about its implication anymore. I can take it.'

Jean thought with a smirk. He then nodded, urging Natalie to continue.

"The area at the spot beyond the end of this pavement, is the source of the breeze."

Natalie said with a faint smile and glanced at Jean.

"How can such a possibly small area source a breeze? Is it some sort of magic or what?"

Jean said with a serious face.

"That is why I started by telling you that the answer could confuse you. I think you can now confirm what I previously said."

With a wicked smile evident on her face, Natalie explained to Jean why she expected him to be confused by her answer.

A few moments later, the two were now standing at the edge of the ancient pavement. They were now exchanging gazes as if each of them had a burning question to ask.

A heartbeat later, Natalie directed her gaze to her right.

"Follow me."

At this point, a sense of unease had been tormenting Jean for quite a while. This was from the point he got the confusing answer from Natalie.

'If an area has the ability to source such a breeze, how can someone convince me that this is normal? How am I even sure if she isn't taking me there?'

Jean pondered on the matter with a lot of reasoning as he reluctantly moved in Natalie's direction.

After walking a half dozen meters to the right, they turned to the left and commenced forward. During this time, Jean was keen enough to notice the difference between the trees in these parts of the forest and the other parts that they previously visited.

Unlike the other parts of the forest, these parts constituted trees that looked more ancient, tall, leafy and extremely huge in sizes. There was absolutes zero undergrowth in these parts of the forest. The trees looked more natural than planted.

'This part of the forest looks more natural to me than the other parts. If it is truly natural, how weird can that be? A natural ancient forest in the middle of a modern city!'

This part of the forest was indeed natural. It could be weird to imagine such a precious resource existing amongst at the core if not the core itself of a young city like Kili city. Perhaps one could say that, there were some possibilities that the city was build in a natural forest which could have led to its depletion over time.

It was so hard to find such ancient trees within the city as all that dominated its vegetation was young trees that were mostly planted. This fact alone, could make the thought of thinking that the city was build in a natural forest quite unreasonable.

The trees on these parts of the forest were closely parked, and the dual was facing the challenge of traversing across the forest. The challenge that they had previously avoided by maintaining their course along the pavements. Now that there was no pavement to take them to where they were heading to, they had no other choice other than to face the challenge head-on.

Trailing from the back, Jean could feel the breeze growing stronger with every step they made. This signified only one thing. They were nearing its source.

With this thought running through his mind, Jean almost tripped. Faking a cough to attract Natalie's attention, of which he managed, Jean forced out a stifled smile.

"Mom, where are we heading to?"

Stopping abruptly, Natalie glared at the approaching Jean. Noticing this, Jean slowed down and looked down out of embarrassment.

"I thought you were smart enough to guess our possible destination from our direction."

From Jean's previous judgement, he had deduced that they were on their way to the source of the breeze. But since he wasn't sure about this, he asked Natalie for confirmation.

At that moment, Natalie resounded.

"We are on our way to the source of the breeze."

Natalie said with a hint of exasperation in her voice.

On hearing this, Jean flinched and in the next moment, he felt his head spinning.

(>_<)