Empress Dosha

Chapter 22

The cold wind howled, picking any weightless remnants of dirt it encountered on it's way. It waved by the trees, shrubs and dry grasses making a shrill sound of them.

Birds called out to each other from branches of trees, going about their activities of chasing, flying, jumping, building nests and feeding the young ones that barely had wings or shielded themselves from the cold wind.

Dosha's bare foot marched with the strong earth as she stepped out. Rubbing the blur off her eyes, she slapped her face lightly to get rid of the sleepiness in them, and looked around, beaming, thanking her Creator for the new day.

She stretched her bones with a crack, bending down to her ankles. She twisted and turned around, before sighing contentedly, lifting her eyes to see the dawn with a bit of rays of the pale morning sun.

She still needed sleep but Bizo wouldn't let her, because he snored loudly. She picked a cup, filling it with water from the clay pot and washed her face, also rinsing her mouth to wash off the morning breath.

She looked around the vast scanty lands with scant trees, shrubs and grasses, capturing the beautiful dawn, and looked back at their tent. They had been making that tent for four nights now.

Travelling from Durawa to the Sirzakwai empire takes a total of one week, if someone was quick, it's five days, but they weren't, and the quickest was the wilderness. And using the wilderness comes with risk, the way she had done while running away two years back.

Bizo said it was better to travel at day and rest at night because night time is dangerous in the woods. She had scoffed to that, as if she doesn't know, she who spent and entire night in the wilderness knows it all. She couldn't keep her eyes closed for five whole seconds before she snapped them back open if she heard a slight sound. Her uncle wondered how she spent an entire night just to reach the Hausawa empire the next day.

Did she ran all through the night? He thought because she didn't tell him how she did it. It's a mystery known to her .

She sat on the ground resting her head on a plank to see if she could get some sleep, but halted when she heard huffing sounds at the back, sensing it was the horses and went to check on them.

She saw Gima and Bizo's horse, looking at a particular direction into the woods, huffing.

They sensed something and she doesn't know what it is they see that she couldn't. It may be or may not be danger. She thought about going to check but stopped, since whatever was there wasn't attacking, they were safe.

She calmed the horses, giving them water and fruits, then went back to the front. She sat down to sleep again, hoping to get it for some time.

"I don't hate you."

"Yes you do, stay away from me."

"No, listen...." The voice disappeared.

In a dark room, "Dosha, I don't want to fight, listen to me. I want to help." She saw different reflections of what she thought were eyes.

"Who are you?"

"I am...." The voice faded.

Then, she was falling from air and not shouting, landing on, nothing.

Then she was eating and someone whispered in her ears making her laugh.

"You will not take him from me, I promise you that." A woman shouted.

"Why? Who are you?"

"You'll see."

Then, she was in the middle of strange people, all bowing their heads to her and she walking in the midst of them.