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part 3

“Why should I leave? Like I’ve said before, I got here first? Besides, I have this monkey to clean before it can be roasted. But if you needed to wash your damn clothing, just wash it then.” He returned to his skinning.

Akina’s face blushed red in the moonlit night, “I was thinking more of a bath than a wash. Would you mind just leave please?” Akina said angrily but some how it came out as almost shy.

Acting in an innocent way, he patted his shoulders and arms, “In fact, I don’t mind at all, would you like me to join you as well? I do feel a little sultry at the moment, and I’ve been longing for a—”

“How dare you say such a thing? Don’t even think about it. Have you no manners?” She said defensibly.

“Relax, it was only a jest. Don’t haste yourself. I’m almost done skinning this fat ape.” They were in an awkward silence until he was almost done skinning and gutting, “Are you sure you’ll be okay here by yourself? Eliasius’ minions could be anywhere. Hey, where is Eye-Za anyway?” Sade questioned out of curiosity rather than concern. When I find it, I’m going to have a long chat with that damned eyeball.

“She was fascinated by the fire and decided to stays behind and guards it. I couldn’t even convince her to come with me, so I told her to keep herself safe from the seeing eyes. Can you check on her when you get back? I wouldn’t like her to be taken again.”

“As you wish, my lady. I’ll be back in a half an hour, all right? Make sure if you run into any trouble at all, just yell out or something…” Finished cleaning up the monkey, he chucked the wasted guts off to a nearby tree, and then washed his bloody hands and dagger with clean with water.

Disgusted by the fowl sight, “Aye, Sir!” I rather die than giving you a benefit from saving me, you black-hearted spawn of Satan!

Surprised by Akina’s quick confirmation, “Well, that’s the spirit, if you keep that up, we will be back to Ferrah castle in two days hence.”

“When are we going leave?” Akina said as she sat on the rock as far away from the blood as possible and then slowly rolled up her right sleeve.

Sade suddenly felt curious about the faceless girl all over again. She might have an ugly face or something, but her arm and hand looked smooth as silk… “Uh… Tomorrow at dawn, are you all right with that?” He said mindlessly as he awaited her to take the damned hood off.

“Fine by me and— Hey, aren’t you going to leave? And stop looking at me like that!” She hastily unrolled her sleeves and covered herself again. In your dream if you’re thinking of having a sneak preview, you sneaky b*****d!

“It is strange, why do you cover your face like so? Do you favor your chin? Are you sick? Perhaps a bad rash? Burn? Pox? Come on, give me a hint.” He questioned as he listed out the possibilities.

“None of your business! Just leave me be!” She said nervously and covered herself all the more. At this rate, she’ll successfully make a cocoon around herself in the next five minutes.

Dumbfounded by her hot tempered tone, “For all it’s worth, Akina, it is the inner appearance that counts...”

With those tender words, Sade walked away leaving her shaken in the heart. “…inner appearance…” Akina thought wearily, and slowly started on her bathing routine. If his words were only true as he said it was. I wish my appearances weren’t such a curse… I have to get away from this man, he is too suspicious for his own good. And why do I feel so weak whenever he talked or looked at me? Akina continued to bathe slowly in the cool water and turned her mind to another important matter. Suddenly, her face turned hard with anger. I have to continue my search for Eliasius. He must pay triple for his crimes —

Unexpectedly, Akina felt a sleek, yet slimy movement curling around her left arm and slowly down to her bracelet, and then slowly tightened itself around her wrist. In an instant, she pulled her arm out of the water and screamed.

“AHHHH! Get away from me!” Akina yelled fiercely, frantically trying to shake the nasty looking snake off of her forearm. But it was too late, for the small blue snake had reacted to her panic by bitten her and hastily ran away. Panicked, Akina jumped out of the water and grabbed her cloak and put it over her head and shoulders, “Wha-what is going on? I feel so weak…” Holding her arms, Akina could feel the venom flowing through her veins like chill from the winter frost. Next, her heart beat heavily then her eyes started to feel droopy. She tried to keep them open, but they wouldn’t do her bidding, even her body felt numb, and atlas she collapsed on her stomach facing the ground with a loud thump.



* * *

Sade heard Akina’s scream and immediately ran toward the water fall as fast as he could, Eye-Za following closely behind.

He was breathless when he reached the waterfall because he forgot to breathe most of the time because of all the anxiety he had for her. When he saw her lying on the ground, his heart almost gave out. Then the blood flushed from his face as he ran closer and still she didn’t budge an inch from the wet ground surrounded her.

“Lady Faye?” he called. Without another moment to lose, Sade knelt down and carefully settled her cold body in his arms. Fear racked his brain as he tried to figure out what had happened to her. He shouldn’t have left her by herself like that, what was he thinking? That woman keep taking years off his life, he’ll never be truly at peace with her. Just as he was about to knock the black hood off to see how she fared, he heard a small moan.

“Keep your hand off of me, you colt!” Akina tried to smack him with her left hand, but the strengths were zapped out of her and she suddenly fainted again.

“Damn you woman!” Even when she’s in danger, she still wants to keep the bloody hood on, what a stubborn fool! He caught her hand and let it down gently back to her side, right then he saw two pale blue and purple bite marks. “What in the world? Damnation, you were bitten!” Panic reached his brain once again, as he thought of what to do. “Hold still, Akina, don’t move a single muscle.” Sade set her down gently on the ground and seized out her left arm for a clearer examination in the bright moonlight. Swiftly, Sade put her forearm to his lips to suck the poison out, and then spitted it on the ground. He repeated the process until he tasted only blood then looked up to find the floating eyeball floating near by.

“Eye-Za, you know her very well don’t you? Do you think she will be all right?” He couldn’t believe himself that he just asked an eyeball to answer him. For goodness sake, all it did was blink and other strange thing, all except talk.

Eye-Za flew closer to observe Akina more carefully, after a few moments, it blinked Then she Eye-Za turned to Sade and nodded up and down.

“I hope that was a ‘yes’ then?” Sade felt relief as Eye-Za confirmed by nodding again. “All right, let’s bring her back to the fire so she won’t catch a chill. I wouldn’t like her to cough her brain out, I had enough with her nagging as it is, no need for that, eh?” He chuckled hysterically as he picked up the rest her garments by the bedrock and held Akina up in his arms once again and walked toward the fire. Sade was also glad Akina was lighter than he expected of her under the thick, black cloak.





* * *



“Come, reach for me, I will avenge your parents and everyone else’s death. Remember their pains? Yes, your whole village was burnt to ashes, come now, reach for my hand dear, together we will avenge for Tandonia, we must destroy, destroy…” With promises of fulfillment, Akina reached out her hand to the terrifying dark shadow whispering in her mind. “Destroy, must destroy Eliasius, Destroy!” Akina yelled out as she grabbed a hold of the strong, broad shoulders.

“Lady Faye, are you all right? Shush now. It is only a dream. It can’t hurt you.” Sade softly spoke as he embraced her in comfort.

“It was horrible, Sade, it was horrible. He killed everyone in Tandonia. Now he is after me.” Akina hugged Sade fiercely and started to cry, but no tear was shed. The pains inside her were so unbearable, no words or tears could solve them. I will destroy Eliasius and rip him into a million pieces. Akina vowed to herself.

“Shush now, everything would be all right, I promise…” Sade comforted her again, enjoying the strange magical warmth spreading through his body.

Realizing what she was doing, Akina abruptly pushed Sade away, “What do you think you are doing?” She yelled at him.

“What, what am I doing? At least I’m not the one who yelled and grabbed someone nearby in her dreams. You are impossible you know that?” Sade turned back to the fire and checked on the roasting monkey. “Now look what you made me do, our dinner is getting burnt, no thanks to your melancholy dream—”

She then answered with terror in her voice, “I’m sorry, all right? That same dream haunts me every single night, do you think I could help it if I could?”

“You should learn how to take a jest sometime, my lady. How else would you survive this cruel world?” He tried to cheer her up a little.

“I was like that once, a light-hearted girl without a care in the world. It was on my twenty-second birthday, I wondered off into the forest for a little air, but when I came back… I saw Tandonia was burning in front of my eyes. It was so horrible! I lost my laughter that very day, now I feel so alone…” Feeling very frustrated, Akina bent her head down toward her ivory hands, crunching up the cloak fiercely above her lap.

Seeing her sudden hard tensions, Sade changed the subject, “You scared the devil out of me when I noticed you were bitten by a snake. Are you all right now?” He asked caringly.

“Yes, I think am fine now. I still don’t know why the snake had bitten me, I was sitting very still, I didn’t disturb it or anything. How long was I asleep?”

“Nothing much, only an hour or so. But are you positively all right?”

“Yes. Thank you for saving me. I’m just sort of hungry.” Akina rubbed her stomach and stared at the monkey on a stick roasting over the fire.

“Oh yes, here! I almost forgot, try this, it might be a little burnt, but it’s mighty tasty!” He handed her a leg ripped off of the roasting monkey on a stick.

Akina stared at it for a while, “It certainly smells good, but what does it taste like? Are you sure it’s safe?”

Sade stared back at her with amusement, “Yes, it is very safe. It tastes just like chicken, too. Well, don’t let it get cold, try it.”

Akina gave in hungrily, she took off a bite out of the leg and chewed, “Hmmm… Yes, it does taste like chicken, and a little chewy as well. It’s delicious!”

“Oh really? I’ve heard monkey tasted pretty bad, let me see if you’re right.” Sade ripped of the other leg off the stick and chow it down.

Akina paused and looked Sade right in the face, “Wha-what did you just say? You never had any before?”

“This is good isn’t it?” Sade stopped his chewing and glanced at her amusingly, “Nah, I never had a chance to. But hey, you got to do the honor, didn’t you, so be happy!” He added sincerely.

Frustrated, “Why you— you tricked me!”

“Yes, so?” Sade replied and went back eating.

“I despise you!” She cursed at him. Then gave up her anger and hunger altogether, Akina just stared at Sade cautiously under her hood and continued biting down the meat.

Sade knew when he should change the subject, again, “Hey, does Eye-Za eat at all?”

“No, she doesn’t eat, she just refreshes with water. Come to think of it, she does look a little dry”

“Here.” Sade held out his skin water sack to her.

“I-Uh, thank you.” She reached out and accidentally touched a part of his hand; a jolt went down her spine.

After a short while later, “Well, I’m done eating.” Sade stood up and stretched himself, “I’ll be back as soon as I bathe and refresh myself as well. Tomorrow is our beginning to journey back to Ferrah, it might take a few days though. For you, Lady Faye, you should get more rest after that nasty snakebite. Wouldn’t want yourself fainting over me would you?” He chuckled a hearty laugh and walked away.

Arrogant b*****d! Akina cursed him under her breath. Then she continued pouring water down slowly on top of Eye-Za, “How are you feeling now, Eye-Za? Much better?” With a few blinks of confirmation, Akina stopped, “All right, I guess we should turn in, Eye-Za, I’m tired and ached all over.” Akina walked over to the fire and added more wood, “I’m glad you can formulate fire from your eye, Eye-Za, or else that idiot would of laughed in my face until the blood drained from his brain… Which wasn’t a bad idea though, but I’ll let him live for now.” Akina now turned to the leaf puddle in the corner by the tree where she slept before, “Well, at least he has some decency, he made a bed for us. Where is his?” She considered the thought and said, “I guess we could make him one, so he won’t get so grumpy when he wakes up in the morning. Come on now, Eye-Za, let’s get to work.” Then both of them went happily to work on building Sade a leaf bed.

Well, will you look at that, she has a soft side after all. Maybe Lady Melina was wrong about her, how can she cause the world destruction ruthlessly, when she’s out making me a leaf bed? How many sides does this girl have anyway? Sade thought to himself behind a large tree with heavy leafing, where Akina and Eye-Za couldn’t see him. He combed his wet hair with his fingers, still dripping with water from his bath. Maybe I should leave for now and return a little bit later. Even though I enjoyed the arguments, there is no need to cause another one. I wouldn’t want to end up on her hit list if she ever turned evil. He chuckled softly and walked off.

end of part 3