Chapter 12

-Good morning Dali - said Alisha stretching her arms over her head and looking over at me with a smile

-Good morning Alisha - I said imitating her smile

-Let's see if this place has running hot water - she said getting out of bed

-If it doesn't I'm going to shower at my parents place, I refuse to shower with cold water - I said trying to match her energy

-Me too - she said laughing - how was the full moon?

-Freeing... I needed to stop thinking and completely clear my head after the day I had

-I get it, nothing like transforming into a wolf and run through the woods to stop thinking

-I didn't mean that my day was bad because of you - I said quickly not wanting to offend her

-I know that, stop worrying so much about it, okay? I know this isn't what you wanted so I'll be as patient as you need me to be - she said smiling and then kissed my cheek - but we have to start planning and thinking about the things related to our wedding, I don't know about you but I'll rather plan it ourselves instead of allowing our parents to do it

-Totally agree

-Perfect - she said smiling again

I smiled back at her being unable to not feel guilty about what I was planning with Aldahir and how it would most likely hurt her. She - of course - didn't suspect anything at all so she jumped out of bed and went into the bathroom.

I stayed there, sitting on the edge of the bed thinking of the most effective way to sell as many of my paintings as possible. The were quite popular to be honest, out of all the travel souvenirs people could get a mini painting of the place they had just visited, was - according to the tourists - one of the cutest and most original things the had seen. Unfortunately for me, I couldn't really sell them for a lot of money, the charm of the paintings was the simplicity and the pretty cheap price, which made people not think twice about buying them.

The only thing I could do was hope for a lot of people to visit the National Park that day. With that though - more like a wish - in my mind I showered after Alisha came out wrapped in a purple towel happily announcing "we have hot running water!" Her happiness made me laugh and after my shower I dressed up and went straight to open the little kiosk I had near the exit of one of the National Park trails where I sold my paintings.

When I got there I decided to take a bit of a risk and head back to my parents house to get some other paintings, I decided to get some bigger ones that honestly I never intended on selling, but they were pretty, kind of elegant even and I knew someone might buy at least one, which would give me a decent amount of money.

I decided to take the biggest painting I had, which was of the outside of my parents house, said painting was kind of rustic and it looked almost like a photo, I also grabbed a series of paintings I had done of my family, Alisha, Daiki, Arden and Aldahir as wolves, each painting had a strong accent of the color of each of their eyes and it made them look as if they had a color filter on them, which in my opinion was cute and fun, lastly I grabbed another series of paintings of the forest where you could see the river that ran through it, I made one painting of the same place during the four different seasons of the year so each had a dominant color and I knew they would look great in someone's living room.

Once I had the paintings I arranged them all over the kiosk making sure to outshine my usual products with them and I made a price tag for each one, of course I wrote a ridiculously high price and then crossed it out writing down a decent price to make it seemed as if they were on sale.

I sat nervously behind the little table I had hoping and praying for people to start showing up. My wishes started becoming true when at around ten in the morning a big group of people came out of the trail, they seemed to be a family and apparently having a bug painting of a black wolf with blue glowing eyes at the front of the kiosk was a pretty good idea, because a little boy - about seven years old - came running yelling "It's a wolf! And it has blue eyes!" One of the adults, a middle age woman, came up to the kid laughing and stared at the painting I had made of Izan.

-This is pretty original - said the woman analizing the glowing blue eyes - you made it, right?

-Yes - I answered smiling

-It's amazing, mind me asking why are the eyes so blue?

-It's a theme I wanted to play with, I made others with different eye color - I said pointing at the other paintings

-They're amazing, really, I guess you see a lot of wolves around the National Park

-All the time, they are kind of the main attraction of this place

-Mommy can I get one for my room? I have some money you gave me - said the kid pulling her blouse

-Or you could spoil him a little, get one for his birthday and save the other one for Christmas - whispered a teenage girl in the ear of the woman

Her comment made me laugh, which I had to hide because I wasn't supposed to be able to hear her whisper. They whispered to each other for a few more minutes and after the woman rolled her eyes and the teenager laughed at her the woman turned to the kid grabbing the money he was holding out.

-Let's do something, I will get you as a birthday gift...

-And I will get you another - said the teenager cutting the woman off - but, we will save it until Christmas

-Yes! Thank you! - Said the kid jumping up and down in excitement and then hugged them both

-Okay, so pick the one you will get for your birthday - said the woman getting down to his level

-The black one with green eyes - said the kid pointing at the painting of my mother

-All right, and which one will I give you for Christmas? - Asked the teenager

-I like this one - said pointing at Izan's painting - but I want that one, the wolf's fur is blue - said pointing at a painting I had done of myself

-Okay, could you pack those two for us, please? - Asked the woman pulling out her wallet

- Of course - I said smiling
-
While I packed the paintings, wrapping then with brown paper to than put them inside a paper bag the woman and the teenager pulled out the money to pay for the paintings, they thanked me, same as the kid and then paid me. When I grabbed the money I felt incredibly proud of myself, I wasn't the best seller, but my art was good enough to sell itself.

To my surprise - and relieve - I sold all my big paintings, and as usual a lot of the tiny ones. That made me feel kind of stupid for not selling bigger paintings before, but I don't stop to think about for too long, I collected all the money and closed at seven, exactly when the National Park closed.
I collected all my things, put away the money and ran back to the cabin hoping Alisha wouldn't be around. Thankfully she wasn't so I quickly grabbed a bif suitcase where I put some of my clothes, all my personal items, all the money I had, the most valuable art supplies I owned - thinking I could make some extra money with that - and some pieces of jewelry I thought I could sell. Once I had the suitcase packed I showered, changed my clothes and sat down to write a note to Alisha.

I didn't over think it and simply thanked her for everything she had done for me and apologized for leaving her like that. I left the note on the bed, but under one of the pillows, besides that note I made another presenting an excuse for why I wouldn't be around when she came back to the cabin.

"I'm cleaning my kiosk, I had an incident with a kid today and I need it to be clean for tomorrow.
I'll see you later."

I left that note pinned to the door and then went around the cabin tossing around some of the things I was leaving behind so it would seem like I tried to organize them, and failed. Once I did that I grabbed the suitcase, a bennie, a sweater, my earplugs and left the cabin.
At that moment I realized Aldahir and I hadn't established a place to meet up and leave, but I assumed seeing each other at our place in the woods would make sense, so I went there and waited for Aldahir to show up.

-I forgot you no longer have a phone - I heard Aldahir's voice

I immediately jumped to my feet and ran to hug him, he hugged me back and then kissed me grabbing me the waist. When we pulled apart we grabbed our suitcases and started walking through the forest to reach the human town, where we would get our bus tickets.
After buying the tickets we went into the bus that would take us to Toronto and we sat at the back of it, by Aldahir's suggestion, once we sat Aldahir grabbed my hand and smiled at me, I returned the smile and laid my head on his shoulder.

-We're actually doing this Dhalia - said Aldahir

-Yes we are - I said smiling