Towards the Winter Cabin of Serenity and Madness, Cinderella Runs - Chapter 33
As soon as Kyden arrived at the cabin, he found the quiet interior odd. It was only after circling the cabin and coming back that he noticed the note.
The instant he read it, fury surged through him till the top of his head. A level of anger he hadn’t felt in a long time.
‘Left? Why?’
Kyden crumpled the note, feeling a boiling sense of betrayal from the soles of his feet.
He couldn’t understand her reason for leaving. She had nowhere to go. Where was she heading? Kyden had just come up from the village, and Roel had expressed no intention of going down there.
If leaving from the cabin and not to the village, then where? She would clearly die wandering the forest.
She was too frail to withstand the winter cold, and she needed to share his warmth every night just to fall asleep. How could she consider crossing the mountains? It was impossible.
She had left on her own accord. Should he go after her?
‘I have to.’
Kyden didn’t ponder for long. She might be carrying his child, and it wasn’t up to her to just leave. He couldn’t just let her die.
He needed to know what she was thinking to be at peace.
Kyden promptly left the cabin, tracking her small footsteps. Fortunately, the wind hadn’t erased the faint prints in the snow. It seemed she had left quite a while ago.
‘Damn.’
The memory of a drunken man, wrecked by his wife’s departure and subsequently living a dissolute life, cursing the world and women, came to mind. Kyden had always scorned such men, thinking they should have treated their partners better when they had the chance.
Why he saw himself in that man was beyond him. He had treated Roel well, satisfying her every night. There was absolutely no reason for her to brave the dangers of winter to leave.
‘What a pitiful sight.’
Despite mocking himself for chasing after a woman who had left home, Kyden accurately followed Roel’s trail with surprising precision.
Given Roel’s slow pace and narrow strides, Kyden was confident she couldn’t have gone far, allowing him to follow with ease. As this assurance settled, his boiling anger subsided, regaining his composure. He needed to hurry if he hoped to find her before sunset.
It was odd when Roel’s footprints vanished at a certain point. Had she stopped here? And if so, where did she go next?
The resurfacing anxiety and restlessness urged Kyden to broaden his search.
‘She turned back.’
But why? Did she encounter a wild animal? The thought of potential danger quickened his heartbeat. Kyden ran back the way he came.
As dusk approached, the search grew more challenging. If he couldn’t find her today, Roel’s chances of survival would sharply decrease. He clenched his jaw in frustration.
Stupid! What was she thinking leaving the cabin! Worry now eclipsed his feelings of betrayal. He was afraid of losing Roel entirely.
He frantically scoured the mountainside, when he suddenly heard a human scream.
“Ahhh!”
It was Roel! Kyden Instinctively rushed towards the source of the sound. He called out to her, and faintly heard her respond.
It wasn’t a hallucination. Roel was sitting there, relief and a shiver running through him as he approached.
But then he stopped. His heart screamed to rush to her, to hold her close, yet reason held him back.
When he saw her face, his blood boiled, yet his mind was clouded with confusion. He couldn’t fathom Roel’s feelings. She stood there, watching him, her face filled with fear and visibly cold.
Suppressing his anger, Kyden brought Roel back to the cabin. Though he couldn’t help but raise his voice and scold her. But her continuous apologies left a bitter taste in his mouth.
He didn’t mean to frighten her. He wanted to know if she left because she didn’t like him, if there was someone else she loved, and what he could do to make her happy.
But he was at a loss. There was no way to understand Roel’s heart.
‘It was just a joke…’
That seemed impossible. Kyden knew how far she had walked, yet he chose to be fooled by her lies.
Kyden hoped Roel’s tears would stop.
He extended his hand and gently wrapped her injured ankle. A pained cry escaped her lips as the severe pain struck her.
“Try not to get hurt.”
“I’m sorry…”
Kyden sighed deeply, his frustration still did not go away.
* * *
After bandaging Roel’s ankle, Kyden carried her to the bed and tucked her in warmly. He added logs to the fireplace to increase the cabin’s temperature and rubbed her cold body to warm her up.
“I’m okay now.”
“Stay still. A little longer and you could have gotten frostbite. You might have had to lose some toes.”
“….I’m sorry.”
Though his face and tone seemed stern, almost angry, there was an underlying warmth and concern in his words. Roel was relieved by this that her eyes welled up with tears once more.
