Empress Dosha

Chapter 17

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Dosha rounded every nook and cranny of different buildings finding for the particular place she was looking for.

She shivered from the night's cold breeze that gave her goosebumps and secured her fleeing shawl tightly around her.

She knew somehow that there must be some sort of library there somewhere and she was right, she finally found it not after giving up of finding it herself and asked for directions, from people who had stayed there for a long time.

The old wooden door creaked open as she entered inside the blinding darkness, she was glad she held a lamp, and used the fire to light other lamps. The library was a little wide and had different corners. It smelt of old papers and dust, there were little cobwebs that she used her hands to clear, grimacing after the work done.

The place was neatly arranged but very dusty, she sneezed two times, sniffing and proceeded. She dusted a carpet and sat down in front of a clean low table tucking her feet behind her, and opened a dusty book, everything wasn't written in Hausa but in a foreign and attractive language she doesn't know of, the letters looked similar to that of Warjawa.

She closed the book and looked around again, something caught her eyes, her face lit up. It was many sketchbooks and sketch pencils of different colours, she hadn't seen coloured pencils since she fled away.

She stood up, letting go of her shawl and carried a lamp that'll aid her in carrying it. It was on a high wooden shelf and she was confident enough that she could reach it from afar. But getting closer, the confidence depleted second by second as she inched closer.

She sighed looking up, but she couldn't give up. She tipped on her toes reaching for them, even jumping. She was tall for a woman but still couldn't reach it. She finally grabbed the edge and pulled it towards her but stumbled, the sketchbooks and pencils toppled in her hands. She tried to grab some of them, but they ended up falling.

She hissed bending down to pick it but halted when she heard an unfamiliar dark chuckle, in the dark part of the room. She took in a sharp breath, slipping her index and middle finger into her left sleeve, and with the aid of her thumb, slid her knife out and pointed it into darkness.

"Who's there?" She asked loudly. She heard the chuckling again, seeing a dark figure walking out of the shadows. She heaved a sigh of relief dropping the knife.

"So, if it is an armed thief, you would use a knife to defend yourself?" Rashid chuckled deeply.

"I know how to defend myself well and I know how to use a knife well." She sassily answered picking the almost squeezed sketchbooks and pencils up from the ground, walking to the table.

He watched her walk smiling dearly at her reply.

"How long have you been in the dark?" She asked setting the items on the table.

"Long enough, I watched you walk in here and sat there, opened that book, then walked over to the shelf and tried to pick those sketchbooks. I also saw you almost falling down." He teasingly answered gesturing for her.

"You saw that!" She stated turning her face to hide a blush. She wondered how he sat there in the dim light and watched her every move. If he was the same man she knew two years ago, she knew him to be mysterious.

"Yes," He bounced slightly on the heels of his feet. "Do you carry a knife with you everytime?"

She chuckled, "Yes I do. You don't know if you will have an attacker. I started using it since two years back when those men almost took me, and it was the same knife I used in stabbing that animal." Dosha explained, more than bargained, scrunching her nose in disgust.