Kadian continued running towards the bush, while the vulture remained still. Every step she took, she was grateful it had not fled. She lost focus of her surroundings as she ran, and resorted to a painful fall to avoid colliding with a person. Kadian winced, and pushed herself up from the ground. As she did so, her eyes met with those of a petite old woman standing above her, with grey curls escaping her head scarf.
"Oooh girly, are you alright?" she exclaimed in a sweet, raspy little voice.
"I'm fine." Kadian groaned as she stood and dusted herself off. "I'm so sorry, I almost ran into you."
"Oh it's a'right, it's a'right."
"But I was real close to hitting you and-"
"IT'S A'RIGHT! " Kadian was shocked into silence as the little lady cleared her throat.
"I am Zee. But that's Elder Zee to you-and nothin' else, you hear?" She looked into Kadian's eyes as the two began walking in no particular direction.
"You one of these American kids, aren't you Kadian?"
"How'd you know my name?" All of the day's strange events were beginning to overwhelm Kadian.
"Heard you talking to Sister," Zee said.
"Oh." Kadian sighed.
"So you're Kadian, eh?" The older woman looked her up and down.
"Yes. Does that mean something?" she asked cautiously.
Zee stared at Kadian, then began to snicker. "You heard Sister!" she exclaimed teasingly. "You're gonna rule Azuraya!"
The two were no longer walking, for Zee was bent over with laughter. Kadian nervously faked a laugh. What was so jarring about the idea of a female ruling the land, or saving the village?
Now there were too many unknown factors of course-for example, 'rule' could mean many things. What would it mean for a woman to rule Azuraya? Would she be some sort of queen, or would her word simply have more power over anyone else's? And no one had yet elaborated on what the 'danger' in the story was supposed to be.
Kadian decided she would ask. God forbid that the 'danger' was real, and decided to drop by during her stay.
"So, Elder Zee..." Kadian said once the woman finished wiping her tears. "What exactly is this 'danger' that's in the story?"
Zee shrugged and grinned.
"You don't know?"
"Nobady knows! Nobady looks into the details of a crazy man's lie."
"Wait, was it supposed to be serious?"
Zee looked at Kadian and shook her head. "Ooo child," she said. "There's just too much you don't know!" She paused and looked around. "The otha kids are the off da reserve?"
"How'd you know?"
"It's the only place they eva want to go." She rolled her eyes. "Why aren't you with them?"
"I just didn't want to" was the least lonely sounding answer that Kadian could muster.
Zee smiled at Kadian. "Because you like this place, don't you?"
"So far."
"And you want to know more about this place, eh?"
"Sure..."
"I know you do! I can sense it,"
Her eyes lit up suddenly, as though she had a brilliant idea. Zee spun around, held her hands in the air, and screamed into the sky "THEN I WILL TELL YOU CHILD, THE WONDERS OF AZURAYA!!!"
Unsure what to make of the sudden outburst, Kadian nervously looked around to see who had heard. There were only a few people nearby, who smiled in their direction, and quickly lost interest.
Before Kadian could ponder their lack of reaction, Zee had begun to walk rapidly across the market.
"Come along child!" she called. "I have a lot I need to say."
*Author's Note*
Hi you all :) This was a fairly short chapter, I know. Be prepared for a MUCH longer one the next time. Zee has a lot of interesting information to reveal about Azuraya- information that can't be revealed in a few pages. Certain things have to be established before we can get to the real action, so please bear with me! Hopefully you're enjoying everything so far. Vote and comment if you like what you see :)