Shay's Pov
Our hairs swayed and stirred in the wind as we ran.
Three other of his men followed closely behind us.
Then we stopped on a hill to gape down at the village below the scope of the hill. Slowly, he turned to look at me letting go of my hand.
I caught his face under the moonlight, he was indeed down to earth. His eyelids were painted with dark ink as I'd seen in my mirror.
"I never expected you here," he said to me.
I was trying to catch my breath, I swirled to look at the men behind us, they were on the lookout for the enemies probably behind us. The three of them had almost the same hairstyle as the man before me.
"I can't explain it either," I said between breaths, trying a smile now and then.
The sight of him was magnificent, he was well-built, muscled, and tall. There were a lot of things I wanted to ask him.
"I have a lot of questions to ask you," he said, reading my mind.
"I too have my questions but," I paused briefly, "who were those people?" I asked, referring to those who had taken me prisoner.
"Those are the Tarks, they are our greatest enemy," he explained.
"Then you are?"
"I'm Kai, son of the land of Siuan," he introduced himself.
"Kai," his name played on my tongue, "I showed them the cowry you left at the cave to the Tarks, they came at me when I did that."
"You shouldn't have shown them that. That cowry indicated that you're linked to we, the Siuans. You must have met the prince of Tarks then. The man with the spiked hair is the prince of the Tarkish people, the lady is his sister." He explained.
"But you guys share a boundary with the Tarks," I said to him, noticing the piece of grassland that separated them from the Tarks.
He nodded, "Meet my comrades. They are the warriors of Siuan, Ajai, Iywei, and Tasi," he introduced.
Ajai was slender with an elongated face, his nose was pierced with a silver ring. His hair was full and had the same scrapped haircut as Kai's.
Iywei was stout but hulky, one of his teeth was colored when he smiled.
Tasi looked younger, tall, and had scars on his upper arm.
Tasi spoke up in another strange language to Kai, I was puzzled. They didn't understand English? I turned to look at Kai.
"We leave now. I'll explain everything to you when you are finally settled. The Tarks have realized that you have escaped," Kai said to me.
"My men will guide you, your godmother has been waiting for you. I will meet with you soon, I promise," he put in, turned, and left.
I was more confused.
Godmother?
Who was my godmother?
I certainly do not have one in the human world.
Why will I have one here?
And where was he going to? Leaving me in the care of his friends.
Ajai, Iywei, and Tasi led me down the slope, and led me into the village. At the gate which led to the entrance of the village, some young men who did pass as vigilantes were seated round a fire, eating roasted meat.
When they saw me and Kai's men, they all stood up greeting the warriors and gaping at me.
Haven't they seen a woman before? I asked myself.
They all began to converse in the language that I had earlier heard them speak. I noticed that it was different from the Tark language.
Their houses were made of thatched huts made out of straws and wood. Most older people were outside. I couldn't see any children in sight probably because the night was late.
They all gathered around me, looking strangely at me. Would they be able to understand me if I spoke English? I asked myself.
Their dressing was almost similar to the Tar'kish people. But the Siuan women dressed modestly, covering all delicate parts of them. All women and young girls had their hair let down. But, the teenage girls had shorter hair while the older ones had longer, black hair.
One of the teenage girls reached out to touch my dress, I looked down at her face then she smiled at me. I smiled back at her.
"Does anyone understand me?" I asked, looking up at their faces.
Iywei explained to them in their language how they'd found me, the only thing I caught in their conversation was Kai's name.
"Where is Kai?" I turned to ask Tasi.
Tasi shook his head.
"Kai?" I repeated.
"Away," he motioned.
I sighed, shrugging, at least I got an answer. Was Kai the only one who could speak English? How was he able to learn it? Why was he the only one being able to speak English?
"I have waited endlessly for you. Why did you keep us waiting?" I heard a familiar voice, a woman's voice.
English? Does someone else understand my language? I thought to myself, craning my neck to catch a glimpse of who was coming.
The others stepped back as a woman in some heavy clothes stepped into view. She had a skull of an antelope over her head. Her legs had beaded chains as anklets, cowries chains were entwined around her wrists. Her dark hair was longer than any Siuan woman.
Goosebumps shot the whole of my body, and the hairs on my body stood rigid.
Suddenly, I felt cold, like being placed inside a cage of ice. Maybe, this was a dream. Maybe, I was dreaming.
Yet I pinched myself and realized that this was not a dream. She came towards me, taller in her medieval style of dress. She wore wolf skin as her dress. Her eyelids were painted like that of Kai.
She was my grandma, Emilia.
Exactly alike.
"Grandma?" I called out in shock.
"What took you so long?" She asked, looking down at me with those sweet eyes of hers.
No, this must be a joke.
Ma Emilia had died, her autopsy said she had died from high blood pressure.
What was happening right here?
This must certainly be a joke.
I swirled around staring at each of the Siuan's faces. They all suddenly felt eerie to me. My head swooned in circles, and staggering I fell into a total bliss of darkness.