Leave Me Behind [Winter Soldier] III

Little Wolf [Chapter 14]

"A girl should be two things: who and what she wants."

Coco Chanel

In the next week, Ophelia took the hiking very seriously. Each walk she took cleared her mind and made that throbbing fade to nothing more than a whisper. Every day she went a new route, never getting lost because Shuri had given her her own Kimoyo beads to map where she had walked. 

Some days Bucky came with her, but that day, Ophelia went on her own. She hiked for what felt like hours, the sun moving across the sky slowly, glaring down on her until she realized she was in a new territory completely. The sun was shrouded by clouds and it felt like nighttime by the time she realized she had hiked half a mountain.

She looked before her at snow; something she was surprised to see in Wakanda but knew all mountains could have snow. It was far less than she had seen in Siberia, of course. Looking up to a higher section of the mountain, Ophelia saw what appeared to be civilization. Glittering lights seemed to dance before her eyes, and she continued up that hill, driven by her curiousity.

As she neared, another half hour going by as she continued her hike, she saw three people walking towards her. They wore scarce clothing for such a location; in their hands were staffs with big clubs at the end of them. Part of Ophelia told her that this was threatening, and yet, she allowed them to approach her.

Before her was the tallest man she had ever seen in her life.

He stared down at her, not only over a foot taller than her, but also higher up on the mountain. She cocked her head to the side, not intimidated, but curious.

"What business do you have here?" He asked.

"I... I was just walking, I didn't know this would lead to anything," she admitted.

"What is your name?" he asked.

"Ophelia," she told him, offering a small smile. It was that smile that always won people over, from Bucky when he was a prisoner in HYDRA, to everyone else she met along the way.

"I am M'Baku. I ask again, what business do you have here?" He raised his voice.

"I was simply enjoying the beauty this place offers. There is something about mountains and snow that remind me of home." Ophelia had never admitted that to anyone. Despite the horrors she faced in Siberia, it was still where she was raised. Though very few good memories blossomed from that place, she was used to the cold, not the heat of Wakanda, and so the mountains did make her feel both at ease, and with slight paranoia creeping around under her skin.

"You are with the one they call White Wolf?" M'Baku asked.

Ophelia smiled again. "Yes, though I do not know why they call him that."

"Then come, Little Wolf," M'Baku beckoned for her to join him. "You must be hungry after that journey."

Her stomach rumbled as though in agreement. She rushed up to walk beside this massive human being, feeling completely dwarfed by him, but yet somehow so safe. "I should warn you, I do not eat meat."

M'Baku glanced down at her and grinned widely. "I think we will get along very nicely, Little Wolf."

It was the second nickname ever given to her, and she held it close to her heart as she was shown around the Jabari Tribe's home. As M'Baku showed her around, he invited her over for dinner -which was a feast to Ophelia's standards. If there was one thing Ophelia had never really experienced, it was good food. Having survived off of flavourless, sad excuses for food in Siberia, when her and Bucky moved to Bucharest she had to learn how to cook for herself. Her cooking was never quality, Bucky's was only moderately better, and the best food the two of them ate in their time together was the extras and leftovers from the diner where she worked.