Gravity

Gravity chapter 4

Why am I moving? Who is carrying me? This was all Miyu could think about as her world blurred by.
“Where am I going?” was all Latif could hear of her low voice as held Miyu close to his chest. He was running as fast as he could though the thick forest. All he could do was run. Latif forgot that he was a doctor, forgot everything except Miyu’s safety. He needed to get her somewhere close, somewhere safe. Miss Sasa’s home. After watching what had happened to her only moments ago, Latif was on auto pilot.
When Miyu started to stir again in his arms, Latif began to look for a place to get some water for her. The girl’s lips were so dry and pale, as if she was dying as Latif continued toward Miss Sasa’s home. He remembered a small river not too far off the trail, so he stopped and leaned Miyu against a tree trunk.
“La….t..t…if,” she breathed though pale, chapped lips. Latif went over to the small river and tore his shirt so to make a rag to cool Miyu off. She was running a fever high enough to make her feel sweaty, so Latif wash Miyu’s forehead. He could not help but wonder what was happing to his new, special friend. Why was she changing and what was that he witnessed only moments ago? He looked back at Miyu. She was passed out again. Her dress that she’d worn for the day was so dirty with leaves and soil that if Latif and not known better he might have said she was rolling around in the dirt all day.
He once again picked her up and headed back home. She was mumbling something that Latif couldn’t make out what.
“Oh my god, what has happened to Miyu?” Miss Sasa exclaimed when he reached the door.
Latif was at a loss for words. How could he explain what had just happened?
“Bring her in,” Miss Sasa ordered. He walked though the house to her room. Miss Sasa followed close behind them. Latif placed Miyu on her bed.
“Please leave us,” Miss Sasa told him quietly.
“Yes” was all he could muster at the time, even though he was the doctor and by all rights should have been there. As he walked back to the front room his mind began to spin around about what had happened these last few months. Who was this girl? Where did she really come from?
Miss Sasa had emerged from the room, “She’s asleep. What happened out there?”
Latif’s voice was monotone as he told her, “I really don’t know.”
He was just staring at Miss Sasa blankly. She walked over and gave him a hug, “She will be okay. I have faith that she will be okay.”
It was a role reversal. Hadn’t he been the one comforting Miss Sasa only weeks prior? He was so lost in worry and pain that what he said next surprised Mrs. Sasa, “I don’t think that girl in there is Miyu anymore.”
She backed away from him, “What do you mean that girl is not Miyu?”
He look downward to the floor, “The things she said on the way here, and her voice…those words didn’t belong to the Miyu who has been boarding here.”
Miss Sasa muttered, “Don’t be ridiculous. She’s the same girl. What she looks like, her scent, everything. Why are you questioning it?”
He looked back to her, “You didn’t hear that voice. Say what you want but that girl in there may not be the Miyu we know when she wakes up. She might be something completely different. Miss Sasa, she has wings, big dark brown wings. I felt a pain like nothing I have felt before. If you believe that is Miyu then you are out of your mind.”
Latif had done a complete one-eighty on what he felt about the young beauty. Miss Sasa was so angry about what he just said that she could not hold back any longer.
She slapped him. The sharp noise echoed though the house, “How dare you be so unkind and critical of her? You were her friend and caregiver and now you come back with this shit! She has never hurt you or me. In fact I feel more alive and free because she is here!”
Latif, with his hand on his cheek, listened to what Miss Sasa had to say. Then, in the middle of her heated argument interjected, “You are right. I don’t know what I was thinking. I am sorry about what I said earlier, I guess I was scared. I still am.”
Miss Sasa gave him a hug again, rubbing his back in soothing circles “I am too, but we will get though this. So will she, whoever she is.”
A storm was beginning to develop as Sa’tarin’s scout came back to the dark and cold western lands.
“My Lord, I have news of Nyth. I have already told general Haku about what I found in the neutral lands.”
The man he spoke to was seated in his throne made of dark cherry wood and engraved with depictions of his first battle as king.
“Then get out and bring Haku here now,” the man commanded.
“Yes my lord,” the little scout slithered away.
“Oh Mita, if you ever come here behind your general’s back again I will kill you and your family and anyone else you love, you got that?”
“Yes my lord,” Mita departed. Sa’tarin thought about what that little snake had said. Nyth was alive and was living the neutral lands. He played with a coin between his fingers, thinking about her.
“Nyth, oh Nyth. Your time of freedom is at an end.”