Nothing But Ashes #LWC2015

Chapter Four

Hey guys! This one is a little bit longer, but not much. It's got a lot of summarizing mostly because I'm trying to get to current times. I promise the next chapter is going to be a great one ^^ Enjoy :)

The Crusaders grabbed the children from my arms. I yelled for them and tried to reach my sword, but it was pinned. One of the men slammed the hilt of his sword on my head. I passed out. 

When I woke, I was imprisoned and interrogated. It was not long before I was sold into slavery once again. I healed from my injuries at a slow pace, and if it was not for the Tarik's spell, I would have more than likely died of infection and disease from the wounds. I never saw her children again, or heard what happened to them. 

Because I was better trained this time, it was only a few months before I had an opportunity to escape. 

Time passed and eventually she returned in my life. I traveled throughout Europe, but no matter where I went, Tarik made sure she was placed in my life somehow almost every fifteen to twenty years. It was almost seventy years after the fall of Constantinople before she fell in love with me again. It was an agonizing wait, but each time, Tarik allowed her to live longer. I lost all hope or expectation that she would ever fully grow; the oldest he ever allowed her to reach was twenty-four. 

In the 1600's, there was a charter to colonize the new world. I gave a fake name and a fake background and managed to get aboard, along with the hundred other men. It was a new world and a new start. I had high hopes for what this new world would bring, and was certain Tarik could not follow me. Despite how much I would miss seeing her, it would be worth it if she would not have to suffer any longer. I put it all behind me and had a new goal in mind: to help the colonists survive. 

It proved harder than it seemed; most of them did not know how to hunt or fish, and in this new world, survival was paramount. It was not very long before I encountered the natives of this world. I was scouting in the woods, trying to hunt.

All my hopes for a new start were crushed when I saw her. Her skin was dark, and her hair was long, straight and black. Her eyes were rounded and brown, full of wonder and curiosity, but it was her. 

She saw me and murmured something in a foreign language, one I did not recognize. 

I held up my hands and put the musket I had been holding on the ground. "I mean you no harm," I said in English. I hoped to reassure her with body language, and I wished more than anything I could speak her language. She ran off. 

It was days before I saw her again. Part of me hoped that I would not encounter her; that maybe what I'd seen had been my imagination, and the other part of me longed to see her again. 

I was captured by her people soon after, but she interfered and convinced her father to save my life. I befriended them and learned their ways. She was fascinated with me, and with these "white men" who had invaded her land. We became mediators between her people and the colonists. More and more of them were coming from England, and still more and more of them were dying.

I got to spend seven years with her before Tarik found us once again. Her father was devastated by her loss, and was convinced the white men were behind it. For years I tried keeping the peace between the natives and the colonists, but I was limited. Every ten years or so I had to move or someone would realize I was not aging. I had befriended the natives and learned their language and culture quickly, and so most of the time I stayed with them. They realized I was not aging, especially one man, who was one of the best warriors in the tribe. He did not pry, and mostly assumed I had some sort of magical power. I tried not to allow myself to befriend any more of them; I told myself I was only using them as a safe place to stay until all the colonists who knew me from the charter had passed on. But Tarik never came to kill them. I suspected there was something protecting them, and I came to like their way of life.