Hidden by mist chapter 4

         I saw it coming before anyone else but I refused to believe he would die, he is my father after all. Glancing over I see Sakina leaning against the hut still trying to get a grip on reality. Her blonde hair that is usually well kempt and cut the way that some of the traditional noble woman cut their hair where jagged triangles stick out, in the front is stuck to her face which is still wet from crying and not being bathed, her eyes the color of the soft green yellow of the meadow on hills that extend for a day journey on foot.

            It’s Zokoro’s voice that snaps me back to reality voice that snaps me back to reality. “What happened?” The edge of fear is evident in his voice and I think he’s starting to worry I have a life threatening disease or something. “It’s Rayfemott. He’s dead.” I choke on the last word and Sakina loses her small grip on reality and starts crying and screaming. Zokoro is surprised by her mental breakdown and I run over beside her, sitting down while

.my hand finds hers and I whisper as soothingly “Shhh. Shhh. It’ll be okay, it’s okay.” I can barely get out the words knowing that they are lies. She’s still screaming so knowing she won’t remember it I send a small blue ball of glowing light that finds her and her screaming andwild thrashing stops and so does her crying. She’s out and won’t wake up for at least another moon high so I get up.

            I find myself in Zokoro’s arms again and know he’s only staying strong and fighting tears for me, knowing I could turn into Sakina, the blonde heap on the floor at any second, just like I’m staying strong for her but since she’s unconscious I’m finally allowed to cry again. I look into his brown eyes for a second and throw him into the wall of the hut and kiss him. I know he likes me and I’m tired of fighting my feelings, I guess I haven’t even figured them out yet completely but this feels natural enough and he seems fine with it until I realize he’s tense and stiff and pushes me off of him, obviously shocked at the kiss, shakes his head and gently whispers, “Hetaya…’

            I’m breathing heavy and I’m still confused as to why he pulled away. “What?”

            “You’re only doing this because you’re hurt. You’re an second away from being broken, I think it’s best you, I don’t know but right now not that.” He sighs as he looks to the dent I made in Sakina’s hut. I know I’m stronger than everyone but still I sometimes forget and just hold my hand out and tiredly make a motion that looks like I’m asking for the wall to come to me but instead the dent is done and I fall on the ground.

            I can function perfectly fine without ever sleeping but sometimes it’s relaxing and Zokoro can sense that. “Are you staying here with your sister or are you going to go up to the hut.”

            “Here, how about you?” I say rubbing my eyes after a few seconds I feel like I’m starting to wake up and forget sleep.

            “I’m going to make sure you don’t break down like her.”

I can’t help but laugh lightly at the sentence and he does too while he sits down and I rest my head on his lap and curl up next to him. I don’t think I will ever read his mind, he’s the only person whose privacy I really one hundred percent respect and he moves the hair out of my face and it’s all I can do to not go into his mind and figure out whether he’s angry, or mad, or happy about the kiss but at the moment he just seems confused. He shrugs it off and glances down at me. “So what’s happened while I’ve been gone.”

“Well we’ve been a little low on food, I’ve managed to hunt for the village pretty well but since you guys were stupid enough to take almost all the hunters this time. But, I was lying in our hut talking to well…” I want to say her name, the girl I tend to drift to who I could call my mate but, after today I realized that maybe I don’t love her, besides Zokoro would be hurt and I can’t deal with more hurt over one girl who I like. “Just someone, but we heard screaming and I already knew what happened so I went to find Meko and once I found him I held his hand and told him it would be okay when he fainted and Sakina got worried and someone screamed that our dad died and she went into hysteria.”

“That’s it?” he asks obviously expecting more. I don’t know how he knows me so well, but it’s kind of nice to have someone who completely understands you.

“No. My mom thinks it was Fayone who killed our dad. And she told the village justice people.” I whisper.

Zokoro’s eyes go wide because even if they didn’t get along before the past moon, recently they became good friends and Zokoro even taught Fayone the basics of hunting. “He couldn’t of.”

“He didn’t.” I snarl. “It wasn’t him, but what I don’t get…” I haven’t really looked into what happened so there’s no time like the present. I search through my mind and see Fayone watching the murder, and his anger. He guessed right away who the killer was and of course he was right because he was at the right angle to see, unlike my mom who could only go my assumptions and the body structures which closely represents Fayone’s but she never saw the murderer’s face. I now see him this morning walking to a distant village with determination all over his face and once he gets there he grabs a stick and finds a fire that the villagers must of used the night before and forgot to put out and sticks the stick in the fire at chucks it at a lodge and watches it on fire. People figure out his location and he runs back to Bayona when they find him and shove him against a post and tie him there with an extremely strong vine and in a wooden cage that you couldn’t get through unless you knew a special opening and I look back to who was chasing him out of the village. I knew his face but hadn’t found a name yet. My eyes shoot open and I hiss, “Decapayon.”

He’s angry but not shocked. “Get some sleep.” On trading trips they rarely get sleep, plus I need to sneak off. He shakes his head in refusal and I hiss, “You never get sleeps on those trips! You’ll fall over in exhaustion at any moment, we can talk when you get up!”

            “Ughh, I’m not going to win this am I?” he snorts.

            “No. So sleep now, talk later.” I demand, even the look in my eyes is an order and he huffs and mutters something about me being a crazy little girl and wondering why he still talks to me and I roll my eyes and remind him he would be dead if it weren’t for me.

            He slowly drifts asleep and once I’m sure he’s really asleep I try to get up without moving too much knowing if I do he will wake up. I make it outside of the wooden and stone hut when the smile that was on my face disappears and the anger is evident. I make my way toward the meadow where I pick an apple from a tree and make my way toward main camp where all the villagers eat and pretty much live right on the outskirts of. I find the post hidden behind the large wooden lodge where trials are held. “You look terrible.” I say as loud as I dare knowing I could be executed for what I’m about to do.

            Fayone is tied to the post with bags under his eyes and looks as if he hasn’t eaten or had anything to drink for days when I remember he’s been tied up for 3 days now, I remember how I felt when Sakina woke up. I hadn’t ate since dad’s death either but that was by choice. I get on my knees in front of him and glance around to make sure no one can see us and then push the apple in his face. “Eat.” I order. I have to hold up the apple because he can’t himself with his hands tied up.

            He devours the apple as fast as he can when he realizes his lips are wet. “Why was the apple so wet?”

            “Soaked it in the water from the river.” I smile proud of myself. “You need water more than food so yeah. Oh that reminds me, I can do this too of course. Thirsty?”

            He nods. “How are you going to get water to me?” he questions doubtfully while his eyes are showing how eager he is.

            “Open your mouth.” I can’t fight the grin that is creeping on my face. Doing as I told him, he opens his mouth but his eyebrows are raised curiously wondering what I’m about to do. I hold out my hand and water started coming from it practically dancing, right when I pointed my finger the water started moving towards Fayone and then he could pretty much drink it while it floated in mid air. Once he was done I closed my hand and then opened it again while the water found its way back to my hand and disappeared as the tenticles started shrinking until the tip of them went in my hand. Fayone is speechless at the moment so I take the opportunity to start a conversation, “When’s your trial?”

            “Tomorrow,” he rushes out as fast as can. “What was that?!” His eyes are as wide as eyes can be and he’s waiting for an answer that would take much too long to explain.

            “I’ll tell you later, but all you need to know for the moment is magic and on that note I got to go, but I’ll tell you tomorrow when you’re proven innocent.”

            I’m already on my feet ready to sprint off when he whispers, “Where are you going?”

            I sigh and stare off in the distance impatient, I’ve wasted too much time. “I’m finishing your job. Now anyways don’t tell anyone about the magic, not mom, not Sakina, nobody is aloud to know, also don’t tell anyone about the apple or water I’m not in the mood to get executed.” The last sentence makes him frowning as he remembers that he could be the one being executed tomorrow. “You’re not going to get killed, trust me.” And with that I take off sprinting.

            I’m almost there and I can process the sounds of villagers laughing and talking when I hear footsteps coming toward me and I turn invisible and make sure to stay out of the villagers’ way and stay extremely quiet. The thought disgusts me that I was hear not even six cycles ago and I still see patches in the forest where there are no trees due to me poking them and having them fall over or burning a single tree to the ground without burning surrounding ones, all parts of Decapayon’s “training”.

            I walk through the village until I find him talking with a few friends near a fire and I let myself be visible again, I just slightly catch his eye when he sees my hands doing a pattern that he knows all too well and he has just enough time to scream, “That crazy bitch! Get away from here! Get the villagers!” when I open my hand and the whole village bursts into flames.

            I disappear as I walk through the fire knowing no one is dumb enough to walk through flames, because unlike them I don’t get burnt. The heat feels nice on my back since it’s still somewhat cold outside having a rush of warmth really isn’t too bad but I know my next move. I tune out the screaming and panicing villagers until I locate Decapayon’s voice and stroll over, he’s managed to get all the villagers out when I tap on his shoulder as I casually ask how his day has been.

            Four men are all ready to call me now and one punches me to the ground when I scratch him so that he will only have a scar but not bleed, I guess it’s pretty painful because I falls to the ground. The second guy tries to throw a stick that’s on fire at me when I duck and hiss, “Well that wasn’t too polite.” But I’ve lost the third and fourth when I feel a yank on my hair so my neck is exposed and I decide to go with it and immideatly know what to do. I start screaming and shrieking, trying to attract attention and seem weak when the fourth guy is suddenly there with a knife in hand ready to cut my neck, and all four guys seem happy but Decapayon isn’t convinced that they have won which makes me smirk, “Smart boy.”

            The knife is still positioned over my neck ready to slice it at any second when Decapayon decides to even out the score for the years I spent tormenting him while I was here and punches me in the stomache, a weak attempt at trying to make me even flinch in pain. “Why?” He growls.

            That’s what makes me explode. “You killed my father, you tortured Zokoro, and tried to train me as your weapon and you have the nerve to ask me why I burnt down your village?!” I shrug the guy who was yanking on my hair’s grip off of it and slip away from the guy with the knife, both shocked at my strength. “You’re lucky I haven’t killed you yet!”

            I hear two knives flying toward me and hold up my index finger and middle finger on both hands and catch them immidieatly after I throw them back and hear them fall to the ground once the knife lodges itself into their throats I turn to Decapayon. “Where did you get a knife anyway? It must have been a long journey.”

            “Yeah, I guess it was but it was well worth it. I mean considering most villages won’t trade with us such as yours we couldn’t easily go up to you and ask for some weapons, you all would’ve killed us right then and there.” He shrugs as he watches the villagers in the distance comfort one another. He snaps around and says as fast as he can, “Listen we need a home and you owe us.”

            I nod slightly, “You’re going to have to manage for today and tomorrow but we need to get the whole leader thing sorted out.” When I say leader I can’t help but glare. “I’ll meet you here tomorrow, but if you tell anyone I burnt down your village or I’m letting you stay in Bayona possibly, you won’t be around to be a leader of Igili.”

            It’s me who hears the footsteps first but Decapayon doesn’t take long to pick up on them either. We both know who it is and he’s the first to speak, “Zokoro, how are you?”

            “I thought you were asleep.” I mutter.

            “Yeah right.” He snarls. Why’s he being so mean? I catch a glimpse of his face and it’s clear to me, right… not everyone is so forgiving to a village, especially since he was actually tortured. He’s probably trying to show that he’s not weak anymore. “I just faked it.” His voice was still a growl.

            “Snarl at me one more time, I dare you!” I scream in his face and he’s obviously taken aback. Decapayon is smirking at our little quarrel. “Cocky little rat!” I shout at Decapayon this time and punch him on his right cheek. Now both of them are shocked.

            Decapayon tries to punch me when Zokoro threatens if he punches me that he will kill him and I remind him I can take care of myself in a rather harsh tone. Decapayon still makes an attempt and I grab his wrist, “One more move and I break it, got it?” All he can do is nod and yank it away.

            “Wow someone’s angry.” Zokoro laughs.

            I spin around and hiss, “Oh, I’m the angry one?! Why do you think that? Okay at least I have a reason, you’re the one who just came over here snarling.”

            “At least I didn’t burn down a village.” He retorts.

            “I have to go find my sister.” I sigh.

            Leaping from tree to tree I’m about to cry when I reach my hut, I’m too tired to honestly go to Sakina so I find the old withered tree which is miraculously still alive and able to hold the old mangled hut that sits perched up on higher branches but is still perfectly supported. I collapse inside and wait for Zokoro to return but I grow impatient and fall asleep, the first time I’ve been asleep in twelve cycles.