Girl In August

One: Capture

Location: Forest of Village Uri, South of Diptabhumi
Time: 9:00 PM
Day: Second of Crown Days

Now, as an elder sister, it was Eka's inherent obligation to save her younger sibling's ass and fix every mess he left behind.

People always advised her to leave her brother to his own devices. He had to learn to face his music.

She told them, yes, it was his mistake and he did suffer the aftermath but people stood to oppose. They argued back that he should have straightened his actions by now. He was to be the young master of the house. All the land, the house, the livestock- he would inherit once he came of age.

That made Eka pause. That was something to think about. She had confronted the snapping jaws that were their kin and yet he would get what she accumulated throughout the years. She even had a niece to take care of. (She was the product of an adventure gone wrong.)

Society can be vicious when you take advice from them. They can be so wrong and yet so correct.

Why has she been so forgiving of her brother? Is it because she raised him like a son more than a sibling? Was it that she knew the hungry lebrouts that were their relatives would swallow him whole in the label of giving them the perfect home after their parent's passing?

Moreover, was it a sound decision, twelve years ago, to raise him when she, herself, was a teeny fifteen-year-old?

If Eka did a good job then why was she rocking a toddler who was not her child? Her brother should be the one putting her back to sleep when he decided to bring her home hours after she was born. Just because her grandparents decided to give her to the orphanage and he could not withstand their judgment. He realized, ultimately, Eka was the best option and it took him half an hour to carry this baby and be the best father of the year for that night. All was forgotten when he reached home and handed the basket to Eka and declared, "Didi, you are to be her mother as you have been mine."

And all Eka could do was stand there like a wall of the house, ready to accept the hammering of a nail into her. It did feel like a nail stabbing her head that time. Like the ever-loving and ever-forgiving elder sister she was, she welcomed her niece home and never stopped to think about putting her brother on a leash inside the cow shed.

Eka should have treated him like the bull he was and rained hell on him she was sure she felt then.

And oh, why was she thinking all of this?

As she was towed by the leader of lebrouts to his den to be a feast for his colony, Eka was questioning her sensibility and as well as worrying about her brother and her niece. Then came the concern about how she should free herself from this situation.

She was drying the clothes and the next thing she knew was being dragged by her feet. The best scenario could have been caught by the assassins. It would have a favourable outcome in the form of a dead body and all her possessions in her brother's name. But that seemed to be a distant dream as she watched her unavoidable doom.

You might be wondering why she was so calm. Oh, she had her time throwing her limbs all around and managing a stone or two towards the monster. She has grown passionless, you see. So numb she had forgiven her brother for his biggest blunder yet.

The sky took on a beautiful hue of crimson. It was probably seven in the evening. She could have finished picking and folding the clothes and then on her way to collect wood for dinner. Instead, she was on a journey to be food for someone else's appetite. She could not tire of referring to herself as food.

Did she taste that good? She wanted to ask but her mouth was tied. She had pushed them to the limit, especially the leader, with her incessant questioning when her feeble strength failed to save me. She did hope her chattering could kill at least one of them.