• Ezekiel woke up to the worst feeling in his throat. Even worse than the thirst he was so used to. He sighed and rubbed at his throat, trying to ease the pain. His throat felt completely raw and he was almost completely drained of energy. A cup of green liquid that had the most repulsive stench he had even imagined was thrust out at him. He wrinkled his nose in disgust and turned away with a fit of coughing. She frowned, the ghost of anger looming over her, and pushed the cup toward him. The cup was hardened clay. He pushed it back sloshing it all over her. She got up angrily, the hidden anger bubbling over. She glared down at him, breathing hard.
    “Fine don’t drink it, but if you get sick don’t come crying to me!” She turned on her heel and stormed away.
    A smirk lifted the corner of his mouth and he looked down comically at the sickening medicine that was still splashing around in the cup. His face reflected in the deep green liquid, a darkness tinted in his eyes. He lifted the cup to his mouth and drank it down to the last drop.

    * * *

    Asmara had slaved for hours over a fire making the cup and then a potion to ease his drowning pains and to restore his strength, and he had thrown it back in her face. She hoped he choked. She stopped and laughed at herself, looking up at the ink black sky. She wondered how far off the troops were from finding them. She ached for civilization, to dress appropriately in her rank, to bath, dine, and to dance in the moonlight to the music of her people. If she remembered right, this was the day she was supposed to marry Tamari.
    She looked up at the moon, at its beauty and a cry choked out her lips. She realized she was crying. She reached up catching a tear on her finger tip watching the moon reflect off of it like dew in the morning. She laughed, halfheartedly looking up at the canopy far above. Streams of silver light cascaded down through the trees, the brilliant light of the moon casting her pale features aglow.
    Animal life hummed all around her. She planted herself firmly on a log, going into a meditative state of mind, bringing herself to full awareness of her wild friends. A bird sang on a low branch, a family of rabbits munched on some plants behind a log, and a male deer studied her with weary eyes for a brief second and then continued on its way. A smile played on her lips as the brush of the wildlife all around her filled her mind.
    But her thoughts soon came uninvited like they always did during meditative training at the kingdom. Yearning for her people and the familiar smile of a soldier or her bodyguard, made her take things for granted. Her mind was filled with Tamari’s face and her heart fluttered. Why now, because she had time to think? Heaviness weighed down on her heart and her conscious told her not to be fooled by Ezekiel’s kind nature. It told her that he would turn on her time and time again because that was his nature, he was a beast, and will always be the enemy.
    She sighed in defeat and lay down on the grass, Tamari’s face pooling into her vision, always smiling and laughing, enjoying her company, but he was gone now and she felt the emptiness of his absence weighing her down. She closed her eyes, wishing for the simpler days. The days where she was more into the people she served instead of the person she loved.
    Love is over rated her mother would have said laughing. Don’t put too much effort into it. It will come to you eventually. If that was true, why wasn’t she happy waiting. Tamari had been the one, but now her head was clouded with uncertainty. She was torn between her deceased and the supposed enemy Ezekiel, neither reachable. Like always she did the thing that was more suited for her people. She decided to mourn her fiancé’s death and treat Ezekiel as the enemy, because that was what was expected of her.

    * * *
    Ezekiel’s pains subsided and he got up to stalk his distraught companion. When he eventually found her she was in a hypnotic trance staring off in space, her eyes filmed over with white. She kept coming in and out of focus, her cheeks streaked with tears. He approached her slowly, trying not disturb her. But then he stopped a foot from her and decided to stand a few feet away leaning casually against a tree. Maybe he would learn something.
    He leaned against a tree at an angle so that he could see her and not being directly in her line of vision. She snapped out of it a minute later with a sad sigh and sprawled herself on the lush grass looking up at the barely visible stars through the trees. He watched like an over protective older sibling as she lay in harm’s way, until finally she sat up, fresh tears streaming down her face.
    He felt his heart squeeze and he charged forward catching her in an embrace. She stiffened in his arms, but then relaxed when it was him. Her heart hammered in her chest and she was hot to the touch. His nerves stirred all over his body, prickling at their closeness. Her body shook against his and he held her tighter with no intension of biting her. He messed up once; he didn’t want to do it again. He buried his face in her hair taking in its scent, then leaned back to examine her.
    He wiped away the tears with the back of his hand and smiled at her. “Don’t worry, I’m here for you. I don’t intend to ever hurt you again.” He closed his eyes and hugged her close. She relaxed into his embrace with a sigh, Ezekiel not knowing the doubt that lay in her heart.
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