Born to rule ('Born to be a slave' sequel)

46

My legs carried me faster in the direction of the voice. It was a human, a person, somebody who might help me get back home. Some of the tall stems hit my face despite my tries to pry my way through the grass.

"Please! Help me!" My voice was desperate.

I did not see anyone, but I knew he is still near me.

Then the man stood up, emerging from the meadow right in front of me, startling and making me squeak out in fright.

"Damn! I am really getting old." He grunted.

It was an old man, overgrown with dark gray hair and beard. It seemed he had tried to trim it, but the uneven shape did not look like anything that a civilized man would wear. His face was a bit wrinkly, suggesting he was quite old. I would guess more than sixty or seventy. He looked poor. The clothes were worn off and dirty.

My hopes were getting low to receive his help. He appeared to be homeless or even worse, lost, just like me. Though I didn't want to jump to conclusions.

"Please, help me! I am lost!" I reached out to him.

"Damn, are you real, madam?" He squinted his eyes and watched me all over like I was his imagination.

"Y..yes."

"Damn! Was it you who shouted? I thought my wife Grace climbed out of the grave. Never scare me like that again. I am old, but not so old to join her yet."

He turned around to face the sun over the field while his hand was supporting his slightly humped back. It was little bit hard to understand his words. This man's voice was raspy and each word came out nearly as a mumble, slow as if took lot of strength to take a breath and say it out loud.

"What's your name?" I asked cautiosly.

He turned back to face me, his back supporting hand moving up to his uneven beard, stroking it in deep thought.

"Damn! What was it...? Uhmmm... Ehhn.... Jo.... Jos... Joseph. Yes! Yes! Joseph it was. Nearly forgot." He chuckled lowly after remembering it.

" I am Thea. I am lost. Could you help me? Please!"

"Damn! You are lost indeed. I have not seen a single soul for many years." He took a deep breath. "Grab those potatoes and follow me. I will not make my guest stand on the field forever."

Joseph gestured on the ground next to his feet where a roughly dug hole revealed few small bulbs of roots, that very little resembled potatoes, something a lot different what I have used to see and eat. I picked them one by one and put everything in my lap, my dirty dress holding the earth covered roots.

I followed him in unknown direction which seems to lead deeper in the meadow. He walked grunting and taking deep breaths. I could tell it was hard for Joseph to move in a speed he wanted.

"Where am I?" I was impatient. All I wanted to know was how to get out of here back to my husband and civilization, be safe.

"You are in the middle of the woods darling."

" I know it, bet where is the nearest city, town, anything? I need to get back home!"

I wanted to cry. By every passing minute it seemed it will be harder to find my way back. Joseph seemed to be very isolated, hardly knowing his location or any human being near this area.

"Damn! Let me take a moment, I am not sure anymore. If I remember correctly the town of Shire was....uhmmm... that way?" He pointed in random direction and seconds later continued to ponder more if he is correct. "No...no... Uhmm... Shire, Shire... Well the water is coming from there and sun is setting there, the moon... Sorry, it will take some time to remember."

A tear escaped due to my aching heart. It seemed like all the odds for my soon return are against me. Joseph was clueless and here was no one else to help me.

Joseph stopped in front of the old, grey log house and sighed again.

"Don't cry, Thea. You will get home eventually. Right after the damn floods I will show you the way. Till then I might remember... something..."

"Floods?"

"Yeah! They are opening the damned dam. Forest will flood over. We need to wait until the water recedes."

"...no...!" I cried feeling defeated and hopeless. "I will never see him again... Please show me the way and I will go on my own."

"Damn, you out of your mind? You will drown right in front of my house. I don't want to see your rotten remains on my doorstep. Wait and you will have safe passage after that." He calmed down a bit, but I could not stop my tears. "In some parts there's strong currents, muddy swamps and what else not. They open the dam now and then and flood the forest. The land there is almost dead, they are destroying it. I am lucky that it's just on the boarder of my land. I would be long gone if that amount of water touched my fertile meadow."

"Isn't water good for the land?"

"These trees are rotting. They can't live in constant water as it comes so frequently." He looked me over again. My dirty clothes, skin, hair, my miserable state. "Good you came out of there in time."

My heart sunk in pit of my stomach. If I stayed in the forest longer I would face the floods. No, not only the floods. I would be dead, just exactly what Maria wants. If I wouldn't have gotten back my conciousnes, the water would swallow me, burrie me under the mud to never be found. I would not wake up and see my loved ones. Was it her plan all along? To place me in this forest, die and let me be eaten by animals and fish?

She will pay! For everything she has done to me, to Edmund... Maria will get what she deserves. This time I will not let her get away...

I caught Joseph gazing at me with his dark grey eyes that has lost the brightness of the youth as I was in my own world. I wiped my tears and put my hurt in back of my mind. Maybe not today, not tomorrow, but eventually I will find my way...

"What should I do with these, Joseph?" I showed him potatoes which I was holding all this time.