Destiny Enslaved (editing)

Part 25

hi everyone- I'm back!

sorry for being gone so long without so much as a note but the past couple of months have been- complicated, to say the least.

first, I went on holiday with a bad back- not too bad.

whilst on holiday my aunty Sarah passed away. it definitely knocked us all but it was expected in a strange way.

then I woke up to my mother sobbing as she told me that our lovely staffy Jasmine had died. it was a real shock. we didn't get the chance to say goodbye.

and well I haven't really written since

oh! and the bad back turned out to be a sequestrated disc which nearly put me in a wheelchair and I had to have emergency surgery on that...

so if you have read this you'll probably be able to sympathise with the writer's bloc I have been having- just trying to get back into the flow.

so without further ado here's a rather shitty chapter

sorry xxx

When I reluctantly awoke it was to the sound of clattering dishes. Rolling over sluggishly I was struck still by the scene before me. it wasn't horrific or anything such- more queer than alarming. Never the less I found myself afraid to move in case I shattered the strange calm of the morning.

Floki sat next to a nicely flickering fire staring into a great iron pot which was suspended above it he was silent as his blue eyes followed the gently stirring of his spoon. But his expression was warm as he laddeled the contents of the pot into a wooden bowl which was then offered to Aziza. Aziza carried the bowl of food to the girls still huddled on lovely furs surrounded by forboding instruments of death . from the looks of them this wasn't their first bowl and it wouldn't be the last as wooden spoons shovelled what looked like oats into their hungry mouths. Soon enough a chorus could be heard of spoons being scraped across the surface of fast emptying bowls.

I prop[ped myself onto my elbows watching as Aziza went back and forth retrieving bowls to refill from what seemed like a bottomless pot. The girls warily eyed Flokifrom a distance. In spite of their hostile stares, I heard the faint tune form Floki float on the undercurrents of the breeze: a whisper of spring.

I would have hoped to stay there perhaps enjoying the odd atmosphere of shelter from the storm. A small reprieve from reality.

Beyond the beige tarp of the tent, the trees encroached on the arid soil. They were glistening in the clear morning light as it hit the heavy drops of water that clung to branches and green leaves. The small black silhouettes of the birds darted in and out of the canopy. A salty breeze suddenly breathed new life into the tent refreshing my lungs almost like the sea was kissing my skin.

It was the perfect setting to lull me back to sleep.

But as Aziza reached for yet another bowl from Floki offering it to the youngest girl in our party. The girl just so happened to give me a cursory glance but made a double take when she locked eyes with me. she gasped and dropped the bowl thus alerting everyone to my conscious state. The three girls still eating suddenly scurried backwards to tighten their trio - noticeably excluding the young girl. I scanned their clothes- fine silks- and their smudged make up told me they had most probably been a part of a noble man's harem. Though I didn't recognise them from my former master's harem.

Aziza tried to calm the strange reaction of the women but when she too finally looked to me her reaction was much the same as theirs though she didn't insult me be propelling herself backwards repulsed. Did I have REALLY bad bed head?-probably not that lucky.