A Nagas tale

Follow the leader

The snow seems to only get higher the more we walk. I look up at the skies seeing the sun halfway up and the snow still falling. 'how is it snowing and sunny all at the same time?' I wondered rubbing my cold arms. 'mm I am not good at tracking time without my phone.' I frown "It's almost 3 pm." I lower my gaze to the tall man leading the way. "Oh... It's... been a while since we started walking." I mumble. He nods "Do you need to rest?" he asks almost as if he knew my legs were killing me. I shake my head "N...no I'm fine." I shake my head knowing I should not be a burden to the people helping me out. I keep my eyes down as I jump into the tracks he's leaving behind. I jump into the next track when I bump into the guy. I take a step back so I don't fall "Ah... I'm sorry, I didn't notice you stop." I murmur looking back up at him. He grabs my chin his hold is tight but not harsh. I instinctively try to pull my chin away from him. He lets go of my chin "hm.. your lips are blue," he points out. I reach up to my lips "Oh... My body must be colder than I feel." I whisper knowing I felt cold but still felt hot from moving around. He holds out his hand for me to grab. I look at his large calloused hand before looking up at him. "uhm? I can walk I won't get lost." I assure. He seemed to tilt his head towards me as if to encourage me to take it. "I'll carry you so you can warm up." He states. I shake my head "No way! I'm too heavy!" I refuse and make an excuse for not wanting to be in the arms of somebody I just met. "You are as thin as a twig there is no weight to that," he points out before grabbing my arm. I shake my head "N...no really! i... I'm ok... Ugh!" He shuts my protests up by smashing my face to his chest. I want to protest but the warmth that melts my nose feels too nice. "uhm... fine." I whisper too shy to admit he was right about how cold I was. I gasp as he tucks an arm under my butt cradling me like one would a toddler. I grab his clothes scared I'd fall off. I look up at him and see the little girl tucked under his clothes on his shoulder. Her brown eyes seemed devious as she poked my face "Hello Miss Pissy Pants." she giggled. I turn my attention from her to the world around us. "uhm... t..thanks." I whisper my gratitude. He nods and keeps walking as if he wasn't carrying a truckload of shit on his back and arms. I felt the air still bite at my face so I gave in and tucked my face towards his neck. 'ugh! This feels too close! so close!'  I sigh feeling the warmth of his body melt the ice on my face. "Is Miss Pissy also going to be married off to the men in the village?" The girl asks. "m..married?" I ask looking at her. She nods "Yeah! The chief will do his best to find your home to try and send you back but, if he doesn't find your home he will marry you off to one of the men in the village." She says this like it's a normal thing! I feel dread at the thought of being given away to some random guy. "I... that sounds bad." I whisper 'If I am in a different world altogether... then finding my home is next to impossible..' I look at the man who doesn't take notice of me. I sigh and look out at the forest as he walks down the path. 'ugh great.' I close my eyes feeling sleepy.

I find a place to rest after walking for an hour more. I look down at the oddly quiet woman. I met her this morning and I already understand she has a lot of questions. My eyes catch her long lashes finding she was asleep against my shoulder her nose is still slightly red but her lips are not blue anymore. Yyvonne poked the woman's face a few times before she woke up. "hmm I'm not sleeping?" she tried to lie but the sleep in her voice gave her away. "it's fine, you need rest to keep walking." I answer as I set her down. She nods standing in the snow that is up to her shins. She rubs her eyes a bit more before she turns to me. "Are we going to keep walking?" she asks. I shake my head "No, we are setting up a temporary camp." I explain. After eating some food and getting some rest we kept on walking. I listened to the girl jump from one track to the next. That night I set up the furs under a tree to give us a little bit of coverage from the slow-falling snow. The next morning I woke up to the snow falling heavier than the night before. I decided not to eat for the morning and get closer to the village in case an early storm came by. I listened to Yyvonne and the girl talk about anything and everything Yyvonne wanted to talk about. Once it was noon I decided to set up a temporary camp to eat and rest a bit. "We will set up a temporary camp to eat and rest." I let the girl know. Over the first day, she seemed to relax a lot more around us. She looks out at the clearing and nods "Alright, I'll get some wood to start a fire." she answers shaking the small snowflakes from her body. I noticed her lips were blue again. Yyvonne quickly follows after her ready to poke some more fun at the girl. I set the fur down so we had a warm place to sit. Hopefully, the fire's heat and the fur will help warm her up. I pulled out some meat to cook for lunch and pulled out some of the water I brought with us. It's frozen from the weather but heating it in the fire will be enough. I hear a roar of laughter come from the girls. I look over at them seeing Yyvonne had thrown a ball of snow at the woman. Other women would have thrown a fit from the cold assault. I watched them for a while as Yyvonne chased the girl down throwing snowballs at the girl. "Ah ha ha!" the girl laughed before falling into the snow dropping the wood she carried giggling at Yvonne's relentless assault. "wait! Wait! oh my gosh!" the girl holds her arms up to protect herself from the cold balls. Yyvonne simply laughed and continued. "N..not fair!" she cries out as she turns over and tries to crawl away from the devious child. "My arms are full! wait! thats cheating!" she cries out as she bolts towards the camp leaving the wood where she fell. 'is she going to throw a fit?' I sigh getting ready to reprimand Yyvonne, I stand up. The woman quickly runs behind me 'Yeah, this is...' I flinch as I feel a cold ball hit my back. "oh shit!" She cackled before running away. I turned to see that Yyvonne had already caught up to her. The woman throws balls at random none of which hit Yyvonne. The woman trips dragging Yyvonne with her. She is clumsy and cannot throw anything for her life. I note down her seeming inability to do something as simple as aiming. They both laugh at the mess of snow covering their fronts. I look at the elk fur thats now covered in snow. 'great.' I turn to clean it off of the snow. "Hehe, you are such a bad shot!" Yyvonne teases. I turn to them as they get closer to the camp. "hehe.. ah thats fun." the woman giggles as she crouches down catching her breath. "oh crap! the wood!" she realized once she saw the fire pit I had prepared with a few logs I found. She gets up and starts running towards the forgotten pile of branches. She quickly came back breathing heavily from running. She drops the wood near the fire pit and falls on her backside in the snow. I start the fire and move away from the fur. "what's your name miss?" Yyvonne asks. The girl nods "hm? My name oh right I haven't introduced myself." she realized only then. "My name is Audrey." she gives Yyvonne her name. "my name is Yyvonne!" The cheerful kid offers. Audrey nods "It's nice to meet you Yyvonne." Audrey answers. I point them both to the fur. They sit down on the fur to which I offer a closer seat to the fire for Audrey. The girls started chatting away like there was nothing else important. Audrey takes the spot nearest the fire and I can see over time her lips turn back into their rosy pink color. I look over at Yyvonne who is lying on the furs chatting away. Yyvonne has always been a good kid being the first to get the women to stop being scared. Audrey acts unlike most of the women I rescued before. She isn't standoffish and over all seems more curious than fearful. "You have a choice about being married off." Yyvonne answers. Audrey sighs "Can I just not? I hate the idea of getting into an arranged marriage again." she mutters. "Again?" I ask curious about her words. 'if she has a husband already then he will be able to track her down with their tribal seal.' She sighs rubbing the back of her head. "Well, yeah... my mom stuck me with the sleaziest guy in the world." she answers nervously. "what happened?" Yyvonne asks. Audrey nods "Well, I found him uhm...." She looked unsure if she wanted to say the rest "Anyway I broke off the engagement before it was official." She answers. I turn my attention back to the food making sure it did not burn.

After some play and some food, I felt so refreshed. I followed after Kogen careful not to bump into him again. I felt a bit bad for talking with a child about my relationship issues but, felt it was better not to lie about anything since these people were technically helping me. I look at this man's back it's wide and it seems safe. His hair is a dark shade of black and a lot longer than I'm used to seeing. His clothes looked like normal modern-day clothes except for a few embroidered patterns on the back. The basket he carried on his back where Yyvonne sat was made of bamboo and seemed sturdy 'How tall is this guy? I feel tiny compared to this guy.' I wondered as I jumped after his long strides. 'gosh... I feel like my legs are getting a good workout.' I jump into the next track tripping on a hidden rock. I let out a squeak of panic as I reached for anything to grab. My hands grab his arm before I can hit the snow he grabs my arm in return pulling me up. I sigh lifting my hand to my chest I quickly step back"Oh nice... I thought I would eat snow." I whisper as I try to calm my racing heart. "are you tired?" he asks. I shake my head "N..nope! I just tripped on a hidden rock." I answer. He nods letting go of my arm. I don't let go of him as I gather myself. "It's already getting too dark we should set up camp soon," he states. I nod letting go of his arm and watch him lead the way again.