The Enchanting Rapture (#1)

Chapter 5

Annika 

     She didn't understand what was happening until she was suddenly standing to Soren's back. The wounds decorating her frame protested at the quick movement, but Annika stayed silent. 

     "Please, apologies for my actions, but there's something I must tell ya'," Jadris said from somewhere in front of Soren. 

     "What do you want?" Soren demanded. Annika almost moved away from how deadly he sounded. His body was tense, and Annika knew he was ready to spring into action.

     Jadris sighed copiously, clearly exhausted. "Ya' know a woman of the name Flaria?" Annika's eyes widened at the name. If she was correct, the name was of the unsurpassed and most powerful seer in history. 

     "What about her?" Soren sounded surprised, obviously taken by shock due to a simple name. Did Soren know Flaria? 

     "Years ago, my pregnant daughter was murdered," her voiced cracked with forlorn, "but the baby survived... barely. A day after, an old woman came by my house for refuge. I couldn't at the time, I was still mourning. But as I was sending her away, she got this odd look in her gaze, as though not truly in front of me. She'd then looked me right in the eye and said 'don't leave your home, you and the babe'll die if you do'." 

     "What does it mean, Jadris?" Soren inquired. Never did he move. Annika waited patiently. 

     "You'll see," the woman reasoned, "when she said that, I was astounded, I told no one of my plans. So I stayed, it might not have been smart, but I stayed with the babe, and allowed the woman to stay too. Not a couple hours later did I get news that a savage tribe had ravaged the town I had planned to go to. Everyone was killed, even the children. I went straight to Flaria and thanked her, offering what I could in pay of the immense debt." She halted her words as though stuck in a dreamland. 

     "She asked for but one favor, and that I couldn't deny." Annika was now anxious. 

     "'Tell the girl with eyes of the storm to find me' she said 'up in a place she knows none can touch: home.'" 

      Annika immediately flinched back, thrown in a fury wind of emotion. Home. She hadn't thought of home for many years. Annika didn't realize she could go home. Annika could go home. 

     She ran without direction, she dashed away, feet pumping severely. Annika sensed Soren was right behind but she did not care an ounce. She just had to escape an adversity that was not so easily abandoned as slavery. Annika desperately needed to elude the pain of memories she had stored so deeply into her heart. It was a wonder they bubbled up to the surface of her mind at all. 

     She'd take a whipping any day over the inner turmoil. 

     As swiftly as Annika bolted matched the time it took her body to give the reminder that it barely managed to walk, let alone run. She leaned against the nearest tree, booming with a perilous pant. It was clear Annika's mind and body were not in accord. 

     Eventually, she managed to sit her body on the rough bark of the wide and hight plant. The cloudy sky made it hard for Annika to figure out the time, but it had to be past dinnertime. 

     A moment of peace broke out into the chaos of her thoughts.

     The scents of grass whisked softly into her nose, bringing a hint of freshly wet green life taste to her tongue. Wet steam from the hot drizzle clung to her bruised cheeks. Annika placed her hands against recently moistened grass and let the sleek blades of verdure anchor her to the very roots of life.