11: Zuri

Meanwhile, back on the mainland many, many, many, many miles away...

     The council is no more. Finally, I can act on my own in the best interest of the tribe. Little did I know those lowlife Trags would be the key to my succession, those weakling religious nutcases.
     All I needed was a show of strength, and they folded. Furthermore, I "convinced" the high priestess that I was chosen by the gods to rule.
     Almost no one questions me now.

     So why am I unhappy?
     That confounding woman.
     I'd insisted upon conquering the Trags to honor her after what they did to her. After convincing those old coots of the council to go to war, I triumphantly decided to visit her dwelling... to find the red-bearded bastard with his arms around her.
     My coronation finished, I look around my throne room, what was once the council chamber. It still needs work. For one, I wouldn't exactly call the best chair a "throne." It will have to do for now.
     A man walks in, just the man I'd hoped to see.
     "Did you find them?"
     "Nay, ...sire." He awkwardly bows. People still need to get used to this. He especially needs to wrap his head around the evident FACT that I alone rule the tribe. He's known me longer than anyone still here, which must be where the belligerent tone comes from. That will need correcting.

     Nevertheless, I allow myself a devastated sigh, and I sit with my head in my hands. A woman comes in with my meal, and I dismiss her with a wave after she's placed the food.

     My mind wanders far from this time and place.

     The war had ended. The plague had taken its toll. What was once 250 strong was reduced to a mere ten, and that included the sisters and children. In those months, I watched my best mate die, foaming at the mouth from eating what we discovered--from his sacrifice--was a poisonous berry.
     I only have a hazy recollection of the time immediately following. We would find random stragglers from different decimated groups, and we would assimilate them into what we now called our tribe. Luckily, one of the women we encountered understood plants, and thanks to her, we began to succeed.
     She died of pneumonia the following winter. Fate is wicked. However, she had her followers to take up her mantle--what are today the priestesses of the Earth Mother. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

    I remember the autumn following. We were shocked to hear a very young child screaming in the night, and it was closely followed by the baying of wolves. Four of us grabbed our weapons, running off in the direction of the cries, hoping there was something we could do.
    We burst through the trees to find a young girl, barely fourteen, trying to hold her little brother while also beating back the wolves with a large branch, but as I remember it, they were merely testing her. The death strike would've come swiftly after that had we not intervened. It was I myself who intercepted that strike, slicing the throat of the awful beast.
    When the battle was over, we all turned around looking for her. She'd vanished. Moments later, we discovered she'd climbed a tree with her brother during the chaos.

     After she finally was convinced to descend, I was met by the most beautiful face I'd ever seen. Zuri. The voice to match the face was enough to melt even the stoniest of hearts. Her beguiling accent always brought a smile to my face. Over time, she lost some of her accent, but she never lost her charm.
     I felt alive again after several years of dealing with loss after loss. Oh, I wasn't the only one to have caught her eye, but in the beginning, I worked the hardest to gain her affection.
     We watched her little brother grow, and I loved seeing her face light up whenever she saw him. He was the light of her life... until that monster Rohan killed him. Rohan the Coward left before the day of his trial.
     I could never convince her of his guilt. He was the only one there! It had to have been his fault!
     It was a little before then that she began accusing me of being a bully, and she started slipping away from me. Before I knew it, she was getting married into the Trag religious cult. That is... until they discovered her child was mine. Her marriage was quickly annulled; they returned her to us; and I met my daughter. For a short time, we were happy, but the two tribes just couldn't keep from viewing her as a jezebel.

    I'm brought back to the here and now. "What of the child?" At least give me my daughter's body to bury.
    He sounds apologetic, which angers me. I'm about to hear bad news that I don't want. "I'm sorry, ...sire. We tracked them to the coast, but after that, we didn't find them. Perhaps--"

    I'm not interested in his 'perhaps.' I let out a roar of anger as I jump up and punch the man in the jaw. He takes it, later holding his face and adjusting his bite.
    He pulls out a wad of cloth and spits a tooth into it, wiping blood from his mouth. "Permission to speak freely, ...sire." He clenches his jaw while he talks.
    "No!" I yell, enraged. Yet, after pacing back and forth a few times, I change my mind. "What is it?"
    His eyes furiously look at me, but he dare not act on his anger. "Before the newcomer Vik joined us, he mentioned having journeyed across a sea. It could be possible he had his sailboat somewhere, still in working order."
     "Yes," I say thoughtfully. "I believe you're right." For a moment, I'm happy. Then it all comes crashing down. "Which means they could be anywhere." I let out an aggravated sigh. "Thank you, Corin. I may have yet another plan, but it will require some thought." The question is statistically which route for them to take would be the easiest. I wave the man from the room. He bows stiffly and exits.

      I begin pondering my next move, heading over to the table as I do so.

     If it were me, I'd say, 'Balls to it, I'm going as far west as I can.' Their objective would be in getting away. Far away.

***********************************

Yadira

     I'm standing at the beach when I hear the new girl's voice. "Hello, Yadira!" She sounds happy.
     "Hi." I try to sound upbeat, but mostly, she's alone in that happiness. Rohan still insists that our marriage ceremony was real, saying Orion is full of hooey, whatever that is. But the damage has been done.
     "Something wrong?"
     "What did you all do to get married where you're from?"
     She smiles still. "We would stand before a priestess and the rest of the tribe and vow to be linked together until the gods saw fit to separate us."
     My brow creases. "Not for all time?"
     "Oh, it varies, I suppose. However, in my case, the gods saw fit to have my husband disown me."
     I gasp. "Oh no! He didn't even worry about your daughter?"
     "Amina was the problem. She wasn't his. The dates didn't add up. That is, unless a woman can carry a full pregnancy in only four months."
     "Then..." I ponder what could've happened.
     She continues anyway, "A bossy bully of a man with the Skeeves thinks she's his."
     "Then... who?"
     A huge grin covers her face. "I admit, at first I did think she was Reck's. But then, after really looking at the timetable, I realized that Vik is her father."
     My mind is whirling. "You mean you had two," I blush, "lovers?"

     She giggles. "Oh, Yadira! I knew I'd like you!" She draws me into a quick hug. Then she pulls me back at arms' length to look at me. "I have an ability. The Trags saw it as a sign. I can read a person's aura."
     I ask her to explain to me what that is. I think I'd read about it, but I wasn't sure.
     "It's like your life-force. And people have different colors, which typically--not always but most of the time--speaks of their true personality."

     Her face gets very close to mine, almost uncomfortably so. "And yours is a powerful, almost-blinding white with streaks of gold." Her hands touch my face. "Which is why you have this hair color, I think. Otherwise, you would be a brunette." She giggles. "You glow. No wonder Rohan couldn't resist you."
     I blush again.
     "Oh! He still makes you blush." She sighs happily. "L'amor." Then she looks up at the sky. "Yadira?"
     "Yes?"
     "I once tried to seduce him."
      I scowl at her, but she keeps going.

      "He liked it, but something held him back. Going after him made sense to me. We're close to the same age. He's attractive. He obviously thought I was attractive, so I thought to encourage him. It worked with most of the men I chose." She's had MORE than two lovers. "But not him."
     "How many?" I ask her slowly. I decide to leave speaking of her attempt with Rohan to a later time--after I've had a chance to talk to him about it.
     "Oh, I don't know. Enough. But now, I have my eye on someone new, and I want to ask you about him."
     "Not Vik?"
     She smiles in an understanding way. "Vik is nice, but we're not compatible. He's a good father, a good man, but spending over a month with only him and the ever-talkative Orion made me realize we are not for each other. No." She takes a breath. "Tell me about Asa."

     I tell her about how Asa found me as a toddler and how he and Sama took care of me. His father had died in the war and his mother with the plague. I tell her about his short temper, which she only nods and does a quiet laugh to. He's very good at fishing but failed every time he tried to build a boat. I also tell her of how he didn't want Rohan in the family at first.
     "He's protective over those he loves," she finishes for me. "But I think he will let me in."
     I suddenly get worried. Oh no. So this pretty woman who's had who knows how many lovers is now setting her sights on our Asa.
     "Have you seen him naked?"
     I gasp. "Absolutely not!"

     She giggles loudly.
     I have to say something. "Please don't hurt him."
     "Oh, Yadira!" She hugs me again. "For a sweet soul like that, he would be my last conquest." She pauses, thinking. "And I heard about your fight with Rohan. I think your marriage is real."
     I pull back. "You do?"
     She nods. "For one, you have no priestess and did the best you could without one, and another... that I do not know if you are ready to hear. Someday you will, though."

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The Skeeve village is Riverwood from Skyrim by Sarina Sims with only very minor alterations by me since I have my own needs for it and don't have all the packs.