Checkmate - Chapter 15: Chapter 15

Liezel and Fallon left the table to help Hildegard find Mikebot's spare parts inside the trailer, leaving Hana some space.
"Hana?"
"Althea," Hana gazed up from her plate to get a glimpse of the blonde. "Did something happen again?"
"No, not at all," Althea flushed for a moment at her earlier spicy episode then offered a hand. "When I was a little girl, my mother used to bring me to this beautiful private garden not far from here. May I ask you to accompany me to a pleasurable endeavor?"
"What?" Hana can't help but wonder where that request came from.
"We could kill two birds with one stone. Roaming around in nature could help you in your creativity boost for later."
"Oh! That's a great idea!" Hana glanced at Althea from head to toe. "You sure you don't want to get changed to more comfortable clothes?"
Althea regarded the long sleeves and shorts she was wearing on the shoot before the break. "It's as comfortable as my casual wear."
"Then off we go! Hold on; let me get my camera..." she bounced towards the table where she left it, arming herself and ready for an adventure. "Let's go!"
Althea smiled at her, and then looked at the others who were still preoccupied with their break. Joshua caught their glances and gave them a secretive smile and a slow nod as they sneaked out from the group.
Hana trustingly followed Althea in the expanse of the forest park in foothills of pine trees. No one travels into the interior of the forest unless they are hikers or wildlife enthusiasts.
The sky got darker than it had been and Hana hoped the bad weather would go away before it rained or the rain would only come and go.
"Where are we headed to, by the way?"
"I think we're headed to an enchanted path where faeries live." Althea teased, feeding Hana's imagination.
There was a small path at the edge of the clearing, and scarcely three steps into the woods, the wild rabbits flee from them. Their footprints pushed aside the deep brown of fallen leaves and red chokecherries to reveal the moist green grasses. She soon came to a clearly marked trail dotted with the hoof prints of deer; it took her to the tree line and they walked across the open space, her feet crunching through the leaves into the dry grass below.
The path had narrowed; it was no longer the wide highway used by hunting parties. Instead, tree roots crossed the path, half-hidden by the mossy undergrowth. They passed young saplings clustering around the bases of the tallest trees like children surrounding their mother.
She thought that if they continue to walk along the border of the woods, Hana and Althea would eventually come to another landscape.
"You told me this used to be the place where your mother brings you to?"
"Yes, it was. She would let me play in the park or sometimes bring me here to explore the forest. I had a map I drew before when I was seven, but... I lost it."
Hana's face creased with worry. Althea couldn't handle seeing her like that.
"Oh, don't worry; I've committed the directions to memory. So, we won't get lost. My only regret is that I never get to draw the directions of a certain place. The memory is still here, but foggy. I only remember a small hill and on top of it is a lone tree with red fruits."
"I trust you to lead me, Althea," Hana said. "That place sounds awesome! I want to see where you often spend your childhood! But why does your mother come here often?"
"I'm not sure if that actually. When I was young, I was off to my own adventure, but there were times when I get tired, I come back to her and often see her talking to herself or raking the place of fallen leaves and taking care of the trees and plants."
"She's taking care of a public area?"
"Yes, she volunteers sometimes." Althea smiled, although it bears longing and nostalgia. Then she fished for something in her clothes and showed Hana an old key. "But the part where we're off to is private property."
"Oh, okay!" Hana wondered as they went over the fence to which Althea has a key.
The herbs brushed against Hana's shorts as she went down the path and out the low tree line. There were a lot of beautiful sights so her camera had been busy flashing all the angles she could capture.
They came upon a bubbling stream that Hana had heard from afar; she knelt and dipped up a handful of icy water to feel it in her hand. She gasped at the shocking cold of it. Wide, flat stones showed her the way across the streambed, and she stepped across carefully to avoid falling into the water.
On the other side of the stream, the woods transformed into the dark forest Althea might have known as a child: peeling, soft brown bark on the trees, and leaves like drooping feathers. The sky seemed to retreat far above, and she had the strange sensation that she was shrinking, that soon she might be no larger than an ant crawling over the ground.
Here the woods were a secret place, and she knew she was trespassing. But Hana went on with Althea because she could not go back. The place was beautiful. For a place that was shaped by human hands, it was carefully structured pretty well.
Hana wondered then. If Althea's mother took care of the area and she spoke of how clean and proper it was, wouldn't it be still neat and spotless? But why was the place overgrown?
The leaves whispered gently when the breeze rustled through. The trail was carpeted in a slightly dam player of fallen leaves, and the ground was spongy beneath her feet. Using macro settings, Hana took a photo of the young beetles creeping purposefully forward on the earth.
"Do you girls want to visit my home before heading back?" an old woman's voice asked them out of nowhere.
Althea and Hana spun around their heels at a shock to find a form of an old and pale but beautiful woman. Her green eyes were adorned with the great wisdom she has possessed over her years and her long teal hair was adorned with a tiara made with leaves and flowers and two grill-horns.
It seems that she noticed the girls' unsteadiness and a reluctance of answering back.
"Why hello there young ones, forgive me for startling you but you remind me of young girls who hunger for art and thirst for inspiration."
Hana stared at the woman's choice of clothing: a green long dress filled with vines and flowers. "Excuse me, Ma'am but... are you a hermit?"
The old woman gave a whimsical smile. "Awfully honest aren't you darling? Yes, I live secluded from society. You girls came from the forest park, I presume? You weren't the first pair of girls who roamed out of the place into the wild forest—searching—seeking for whatever life's purpose you all try to look for."
"Y-you live here?" Althea asked, cautiously. She couldn't even process where the old woman could live. Maybe she meant she lived around here, this is her private property, and the old Professor only wanted to give a sense of vague.
"Yes, I do. You two are girls of adventure. Of course, I do believe that you would like to walk around the woods with someone familiar with the place."
"Oh please," Hana replied.
"Hana!" Althea pulled her wrist, her eyes widened in alarm as if almost sending a message. And thankfully, Hana read it.
"Althea! She seems trustworthy!"
"Althea? Oh! You're Bernadette's little girl."
"You're acquainted with my mother?"
"Yes, now that I looked at you closely, you do bear quite the resemblance. You are a Lancaster; look at your unique hair. I know your family."
"Everybody knows my family."
"No, I know them personally. Your mother Bernadette, she would come here before her unfortunate bed-ridden."
"Your mom's sick?" Hana asked.
Althea's heart became heavy inside her chest. Hana couldn't read her beyond that but she knew something was definitely wrong. Althea's proud and regal posture weakened
"I also know Andromeda." She said, averting the topic in need to change the mood.
"YOU DO?" Hana's heart leaped.
Althea crossed her arms. "How come you'd known those people?"
"They come to me," the mysterious figure replied, unperturbed. "They are my students. They might have mentioned me in instances you don't recall. They all know me as Professor Oakley."
"You're a professor." Althea mused as if she couldn't believe it.
"Eh?" Hana racked her brains. "The name sounds familiar."
"You might have heard of me, but the information passed through the other ear." She smiled whimsically. "After all, they treat me like Jack Frost."
The simile was something Hana couldn't comprehend, but the neurons in her brain connected and a memory resurfaced. "OH! Professor Andrea mentioned you days ago! I was supposed to tell you something, gah—I don't remember what it is."
Professor Oakley sighed. "Come I need to show you something."
As they walked into the rich smell of the wet earth and growing plants, a path opened wide before them like an old carriage road just rediscovered.
Althea gulped air. She started having second thoughts about going with a stranger—even if the said stranger knew her when she was little. Hana, on the other hand, trusted her and she wasn't feeling any sort of danger at all. Maybe because it was just a weird anxious feeling that clung to her chest.
"I hope you girls don't think I'm a bad person or something."
"Oh not at all!" Hana's smile was contagious. "You remind me of my Grandma, professor. She's headstrong and wise beyond her years, maybe because that's why I feel safe with you. Besides! Professor Andrea knows you too."
"Andrea?" the old lady's face creased until certain recognition came to light. "Oh her, my old age seems to be coming to me."
Professor Oakley led them from their left and continued sauntering when the soft pour of rain came. At the point of their passage, the drizzles of water tickled them, and trees began to change. They stretched taller, and the soft, pale bark darkened, roughened.
The gathering darkness, the rise, and fall of the ground, the giant, silent trees around them were like columns supporting the vanishing sky fall of it were familiar. Here, the rain seemed thinner and lighter. And soon the path became clear again: It was narrow but hard-trodden, and the trees parted from it willingly.
In the distance, Althea could see the edge of the woodland, some kind of building outlined in dim light, and perhaps a hill. A faint prickling on the back of her neck, as if she had been to that place before—or maybe she did with her mother, and time served as poison to her memories.
The ground ascended in a slope toward the edge of the woods, and when she approached the uphill portion, she knew where she was. Althea and Hana stepped out of the woods into the shadow of the hawthorn tree and looked up the hill where it stood.
"Ooh! Pretty!" Hana trekked onwards and continued taking photographs of the scenery. Even with the little rain, Hana found ways to protect her camera.
Althea felt the presence of Professor Oakley behind her and found that she couldn't find any voice to speak.
"Althea!" Hana ran back towards them, bouncing in excitement. "Isn't this the special place that you forgot? The one with the hill, and tree with red fruits?"
Althea's cheeks were flustered. "It seems it is."
Hana turned towards the Professor. "Is this what you are going to show us?"
"Half of it," Professor Oakley said as she seemed to glide across the floor, heading towards the tree and faced back to them. "I've been watching you across the expanse and the binoculars there."
Althea didn't let her disheartened state of mind show on her face and bearings. Surely she had the right to be so after all the planning she did, even asked Joshua to distract Hana's friends so she could get away with Hana and tread on the steps to be closer to the Japanese girl. She had formulated plan B when it all turned wrong. However, she never saw this one coming—she felt somewhat hijacked.
Although thankful that she found the lost path towards the nearly forgotten childhood playground.
Also, she was curious about what Professor Oakley's relationship was to her mother. "Professor, please tell us what you can share."
Professor Oakleysmiled. "You have a lot of unanswered questions, I can see that." She then craned her neck upwards, as if reminiscing the past. "My dears, the stars told me everything I need to know about you and I want to know for myself if they were true."
"Stars?" Hana wondered.
"Professor, do you mean to tell us that you're a psychic?"
"I am more than that." She said. "I am also an artist who can see potentials in students in the craft of art."
"You mean something like best of the best?" Hana asked.
"Something similar of that," The old lady said, smiling. "But... I only teach those who are brighter and fitter than the rest. And I can flesh out who among the potentials are the most special through a test. Students who I tutored and help out become the best of the best."
She let out a series of rhymes which proved that she's not only a psychic but also a prophet. Or perhaps an old lady who's still a child at heart.
"You might have heard of some of those I've tutored. Like Bernadette Lancaster—"
"My mother?" Althea asked.
"—and Andromeda Danton."
"Andromeda what?" Hana asked before it completely registered to her. "YOU MEAN THE ANDROMEDA? NO FREAKING WAY!"
While Hana accepted the fact at auditory value, Althea proceeded to find more explanations. "If what you claim is true why don't people know about this arrangement? Why didn't my mother tell me about you?"
Professor Oakley looked at her composed and collected, "I asked them to sign a nondisclosure agreement. Don't get me wrong, dear Althea; my services aren't something people can buy even with all their riches. And I prefer my privacy."
Althea couldn't even comprehend... she wasn't even ready for that explosion of answers she has asked herself since her childhood. Gradually, she nodded; enlightened with everything that occurred in 40 minutes.
"However, it was unfortunate for Bernadette."
Althea's breath halted at this. She hadn't even told Hana about her mother yet. It was a sensitive topic that she wanted to delay and really hope she could tell Hana someday when she can finally confide in her.
However, Professor Oakley didn't know that. Surely she will spill the beans.
"She finished my one on one program but her health deteriorated. So the world hadn't seen much of her brilliance and Andromeda didn't even finish my program when she set herself off to the world and look where it got her."
"What?" Hana gasped. "You mean she left?"
Althea stared at Hana, her eyes widened. Hana's focus remained on Shiny Andromeda that when she was presented bits of information, Andromeda always lands in the spotlight. Althea didn't know whether to be relieved that Hana still has no clue about her mother or take offend with Hana's insensitiveness.
"She told me it was because of personal problems." Professor Oakley said.
"Aww, poor Andromeda!" Hana said, gushing on about. "I wonder what that is... doesn't matter! I'll ask her when I find her. Oh gosh, I really want to meet her, I've been idolizing her since I was a kid! Now I'm more determined to find her!"
Hana was having the time of her life and Althea didn't. Despite this, Althea was helpless when the negativity that surrounded her grew fainter as she continued to stand next to the brightest star twirling around beside her.
She stared at the Japanese girl, her short bun bouncing at the top of her head. Althea speculated the possibility that Hana does have a crush on her idol as she did once in her youth. Only, Hana's crush hadn't faded.
What would Althea have to do to compete with her?
"Why are you telling us all this?" Althea asked when she came to her senses.
"Nine were considered the source of the knowledge. They passed down by artists before time, with a tremendous power capable of shaping the world. Is it not obvious what my intentions are, my dear girls? You two are potentials and among you is the lucky one."