“Did you enjoy your dinner, Charlotte?”
I called out to my five-year-old daughter whom I cherished dearly as I sat right next to her on her bed.
There was a single dimly lit candle on the dressing table. It was placed right beside her bed which was big enough to fit a family of three. Because her bedroom was quite small, the warmth from the candle was enough to give off a warm, cosy atmosphere during a cold autumn night. The dark brown wooden flooring and walls only added on to the already comfortable bedroom. With the walls also decorated with my daughter’s ‘artistic’ drawings, it truly had become my daughter’s den.
“Of course, Papa! Mama’s cooking is the best!” My daughter exclaimed as she raised her arms into the air, expressing her love for my wife whom I also cherished dearly. I giggled and then continued the light-hearted conversation while trying to put her hands back down on her lap.
“Well, make sure you let your mother know when she finishes her chores. So in the meantime, what would you like to do?”
“Hmm…” she thought while putting her fingers on her chin, stroking her invisible beard. “How about you tell me a story, Papa?”
“A story, huh? Well, I don’t exactly have a bedtime story I can think of at the moment…”
“Hmph, Papa is no fun!” My daughter retorted as she looked away, towards the opposite direction and pouted. Her reaction gave me a sharp jab through my heart as if something inside me just broke. I quickly tried to think of a befitting bedtime story for her before she could break my heart even further. But before I could think of anything, my daughter turned back at me with the brightest of eyes and came up with a suggestion.
“Ah! Tell me about your adventures! Papa used to be an ‘Adventurer’, right? Then, Papa must have a lot of stories to tell, right? Right?”
“Well, that’s true. But that would be a very very long story…”
“Why not? That’s actually a pretty good idea for a bedtime story to tell, isn’t it?”
Before I could finish my sentence. A beautiful lady had just walked into the room. She was in her nightgown and was wiping her wet hands with her towel while eavesdropping on our conversation. It would seem that this beautiful lady had just finished her chores.
“Mama!”
My daughter called out as she jumped out of the bed and ran towards her mother’s embrace.
“Hey, no running after a meal,” I called out to my daughter.
“Thanks for dinner, Mama! It was delicious.” My daughter said and smiled as she continued to indulge in the embrace of her mother’s arms. She then turned and looked at me with the same bright eyes. Clearly, she was expecting me to give her a response for doing exactly what she was told. I gave her a thumbs-up as a sign of a mission accomplished.
“Well, I guess it doesn’t hurt to spend the rest of the day talking about it,” I replied, still seated on my daughter’s bed.
“Mama! Come join us too!”
“Of course I will.” She said as she carried our daughter. After spinning her in the air with a couple of playful turns, she then sat next to me with our daughter seated right on her lap. She then noticed that my eyes were focused on our daughter’s seating position. She smirked and shot back at me with a smug face.
“Why now, is Papa jealous of her own daughter?”
“I would be lying if I said I wasn’t.”
“You never changed, do you?”
“Huh? Did Mama go adventuring with you too, Papa?”
“Woah, slow down there, dear. You said you want to listen to Papa’s adventuring story right? There is still a while till that happened. Now let’s see. Where do I start?”
I said as I thought about a good starting point for my story. After pondering for a short period of time, I came to a decision. With that, I looked into the beautiful eyes of my wife and the once again hungry eyes of my daughter, I began my story.
“Ah! Got it. You see, Papa and Mama were not ‘Adventurers’. Papa and Mama are also not from this world. We are what the people called…”