The Lost Tribe: Maliha the Wanderer (Book 1)

Night Terrors

Maliha's fingers sunk into the earth as The Great Tree sang its broken song into her heart. Her fingers trembled as the feeling of belonging washed over her.

This was her home

The Ishanu accepted her but she could not stay. Not when she had finally found what she had been looking for. She had a family, an origin and she owed it to the little girl who had cried out for the love of a mother she had never known. She owed it to the weak and vulnerable version of herself who had wilted without the protection of a father she had never met.

She owed it to that Maliha to find the answers she had always asked.

Maliha had to leave but a part of herself felt as if it were dying with the decision.

Her body trembled as she slowly pulled herself from the earth and left the luscious green of the Ishanu. There was a sharp contrast of feelings the moment she stepped outside of the holy place. She felt alone and weak, but she had made the choice and she had to stick with it.

Every footstep Maliha took, tore her heart apart, splintered her soul open. The leaves crumpled beneath her feet like the broken vestiges of her heart.

It was so hard to take that first step but once she had made it her journey became easier as the numbness set in.

Her mind remained blank as she rushed through the forest, trying her hardest to block the voice of doubt and reason that was screaming at her to turn back.

To be smart. To listen to her heart but Maliha had down that before and that was how she had ended up here. Maliha shut those voices away as her feet carried her on a journey only her soul knew the destination of.

By the time nightfall came, Maliha wasn't sure where she was or who she was anymore, nor did she believe she could ever recover from this pain.

Everything and everyone she had ever loved was left behind and she didn't know if she would ever see them again.

Her future seemed so dismal.  Though Maliha knew at the end of this journey, she would finally find a piece of her soul that had been missing, it felt as if she were exchanging one part of her being for another uncertain part.

Tears glided down her face in a continuous stream as she stumbled through the trees that expanded out form the heart of the Ishanu. She had no idea where she was going or if she was heading in the right direction, but her feet kept moving.

One foot moving in front of the other.

She was still in denial.

Maliha couldn't believe that this had happened. That she had lost her heart and her child in the same day.

Her heart wept for Enzo. Her soul wilting under the choice she had made.

She had abandoned him. Told him she loved him but when the time had come she hadn't proven that love.

Not to him.

For Maliha there had been no other option but to leave Enzo behind. The path she walked was dangerous and she had no compass to guide her. She couldn't take a child from a loving home and place him in the centre of danger and grief.

What mother would ever be so careless as to do that?

But what mother would leave her child behind?

Flashes of his distraught face had her heart cracking.

Her feet stumbled over a fallen tree branch and she tumbled to the floor. Mud splattered across her face and coated her skin in grime.