Curiousity Kill the Cat (Part 1)

Alice Faelind is a curious girl. She cannot resist to explores new things, and the forest behind her father’s new house is a new thing.
She just moved to her father’s house after her mother left with her new husband with only a letter, telling her to go to her father and a bunch of money to get there. She finally went to her father’s after packing her thing which was not much as she’s a practical girl. Her father lived in Ireland near the forest. She arrived at the house and just stood there, gaping in awe. “What a big manor..”, she murmured. With small tiny step she walked into the front garden. Not even thirty steps into, she stumble upon something. “MEOW!!”. “Ah sorry little neko, didn’t see you there” she said apologetically. The small black and white calico cat seemed to huffed and walked away with his tail up in the air.
“Ah, even a cat ignored me…”
THUMP!
“Who’s there??!!” yelled the tall skinny man on the other side of the fence. His face full of sadness with that homeless look at his face, his shirt is decent enough to wash the dishes but he doesn’t look much. “Ummm… excuse me sir, I think I’m lost. Err, is this Mr.Faelind’s house?”. He looked at me oddly, “You are not lost, but you’re purpose must be interesting for you to come all the way to this isolated manor. Why do you look for Mr Jacob, hm?”. Alice blushed and fidgeted in he place, “Well sir, I’m Alice Faelind…. Mrs Karen Johnson’s daughter and supposedly, Jacob Faelind is my dad….” The man widen his eyes as if he was surprised. Quickly he opened the gates and hugged Alice. Not trying to refuse Alice let him hug her. His face are red and full of tears, he cried a little and soften his voice “Alice…oh my dear Alice….what kind of father am I? I can’t even remember my own daughter face.” Wiping his tears, he took Alice’s appearance with his hands on her shoulders as he smiled softly at her surprised eyes of his daughter.

His daughter!

She was so small when he last saw her. She was still in diaper when he was forced to leave her and her mother. Oh Karen, his beautiful sweet Karen. How he still missed her so much. He knew that with his daughter arrival, it meant that Karen had moved on. He sighed. It’s not the time to think about his love. His lost love. He took Alice’s bags and steered her into the manor with his hand on her shoulder.
“Come dear, I’m sorry but I didn’t really expect any company this soon. Well, this is an old house after all, and please mind the slight dust.”
Alice just nodded and walked beside her father. Her father. She couldn’t believe it. All her life, her mother told her that her father left them one day and never returned. All she had of her father was a small necklace with silver chain and sliver pendant of an emerald stone shaped of a leaf. It was beautiful. She always cherished it. And here she was, going to live with her beloved father. Suddenly she felt giddy with the idea of exchanging stories with her father. She skipped into the manor with her father, with light heart and unconsciously she hummed a tune her father used to sing her before bed. Jacob, her father, turned his head towards his daughter as she hummed the old tune and he smiled. He thought that she didn’t remember anything about him. It seemed that he was wrong.
And that’s not going to be the only time for him to be surprised of her daughter. He’s going to get used to his daughter’s surprise element. After all, they don’t know what awaits them.

____line break_____

They walked into the manor and Alice saw the kitty she accidently stepped on earlier, sitting on the table staring at her with his blue eyes. She winced recalling the incident before. “Err…the cat, is he yours….Dad?” she hesitantly asked her father, her eyes still on the cat. Her father followed her sight and chuckled when he caught sight of the cat. He put down her daughter’s bags on the end of the stairs and walked over and put his left hand around Alice as he too stared at the cat. “Yes. His name is Juan. He’s my companion over the years living alone in this manor and also the guardian of this manor.” The cat, Juan, meowed and licked his paw. Alice looked at her father curiously. “Guardian of the manor?” she asked, her eyes going between her dad and the cat. Then she took double take at the cat. She could have sworn that the cat has just winked at her before walking away out of the living room. He WINKED.

“Can a cat wink?” popped a random thought in Alice’s head. Well, this one apparently could. She thought dryly.

She was brought out of her random thought by her dad’s voice, “Come Alice, I’ll show you your room.” This excite her, curious and giddy about having a room in this big manor.
They walked up the spiraled stairs to a hallway. The hallway was quite big and full of fancinating paintings. One of them was a painting of a beautiful creature with mocha latte skin, her dark green hair was shiny and long to her back with light brown almost golden almond shaped eyes, with faded yellow shirt worn under a brown vest and brown pants to the calf. The creature was painted with green almost transparent wings on her back and bare footed. The word - dryad, the wood sprite - rang through her brain.

Her father tapped her shoulder and grabbed the knob of the door beside the painting of the dryad. “I hope you like your room.” Her dad said and opened the door.