They deserve it all.

Chapter 15

His sudden paler skin, his thinner frame, his shaky voice, and when he sees me he feels the need to stand up as straight as possible.

"Who are you?" He has a spell wash over him, a spell that gives his dark skin the same glow it used to have, that gives him his strong and muscular frame again, that gives his yellow teeth a white shine to it.

When I see him, I get ... angry. But it's not this overwhelming type of anger, it's an anger caused by how angry I am at someone who is helpless. I would never kick a man when he's down, and I guess that I thought about all these ways I would subtly make him feel bad, but I can't. If he's sick, I can't be angry at him, at sick man in obvious need of help.

"Father." I bow down, my long locs slide over my shoulders and I squeeze my eyes shut tightly to make sure I keep my sudden emotions in check.

"Willow?" His eyes are big and they sweep right over me, the spell faltering along with any and all his walls. "Willow ..." His voice is that of a stressed man that is relieved. And so he jumps up, his pale and gray complexion now in the sunlight, his skin is so dry that there is no glow, all I see now is the white marks on his upper arms, the scratches he made, his dilated eyes ... I can basically see his illness. "Is that you?" He asks as he begins to limp towards me. "Is that really you?"

I nod awkwardly when he opens his arms as he limps towards me. He doesn't look like the same man, he looks different, not in a good way. He looks like something horrible happened to him.

When he reaches me, he pulls me in and hugs me with all the strength he can muster, it isn't much. He's gotten weak, very weak. He's ill and he needs me, so in that moment, I let my guard down, and hug him back. I make sure not to crush him, but even now in this moment, the moment where he looks up to his daughter and pushes her hair away to really look at her, I'm angry.

"Oh, my sweet darling daughter ..." He says with a certain look on his face.

He hugs me more and more and more tight each second that passes. When he finally lets go, his shaking hand is placed on my face and he keeps it there, his eyes traveling through mine, searching for something. Maybe an answer, a question, something to say.

"Willow ..." He says with uncertainty.

"Hi." When I speak, I don't have any power over him. Maybe in the arena I would, but right now my voice is soft and suddenly I'm 6 years old again, happy that my father is even or just there. And I guess that being away for over half a decade makes me angry as he promised it'd be a year at most, but I guess I'm also not angry enough to get angry right now.

"Oh, how I missed your little face- and how tall you've gotten!" He says as he hugs me again, this time only short. And when he pulls back and looks at my face again, he hesitates. And it's what I feared, to have to answer his questions.

He parts his lips and investigates my face some more, in main time his full weight is on my arms, it isn't heavy, not at all, which really worries me.

His eyes go over my face once again. "Your ...?"

"My spots?" I touch my own face, my finger softly gliding over the smoothly applied foundation, causing his full body weight to shift to my other arm, which still isn't heavy enough to make me say anything. "Yeah, well, the other Lands had similar skin conditions and were capable of giving me medication and treatment." I pause for a little bit, my voice is now almost a whisper as I'm still thinking that me being here with my father is just surreal. "It worked."

"So ..." He begins, his voice filled with doubt. "Are you cured now?"

I slightly nod, not giving him full trust in my words as I don't want to lie to him completely. My appearance was never a thing to be concerned about, it was harmless, but because it was all people could see, it was all they could think of, all they could be scared of. "Kinda. My skin is better now, as is my hair though it did take away all the pigment." I say as I point to my now blonde hair.