A Place To Bloom

Wait

At the medical ward, Dr Zughi unwrapped Renou's foot and examined it, then looked at me in astonishment. "You freed him from a box trap?"

Shamuni, the Eat-shit girl asked, "why didn't you just cut his foot off?"

Renou's eyes bulged at her, and she walked off. Plump eleven year-old Besami threw her arms around me. "I'm so glad you're OK!"

I rested my hand at the back of her head. "I'm glad I'm OK, too!"

A woman's voice came in from the far side of the medical ward, "what happened?"

The princess was a tall woman. Her skin wasn't as dark a green as the pure-blooded Na'uhui, and her father's dark-green hair had streaks of white. She wore a silken sash wrapped around her waist that glimmered like rose gold with a flap that hung down to her knees and ended in delicate blue embroidery, held together with a silver clasp at the center of her waist that had a crescent moon inlaid with tiny diamond-tree stones. That same spider pendant hung between her bare breasts, and on her left hand she wore a ring of twisted copper.

I looked up at her and asked, "have you heard from my friends?"

She held up one hand and glared at me through eyes like dark amber, then turned to Renou. Dr Zughi was examining his lacerations with some metal instrument.

Renou's eyes were wide and he wore a big smile. He called the Princess over to him, "come over here! Let me tell you what happened!"

As she made her way over to him, I stepped up to her. "Have you heard from Yumi?"

She waved me off. "I'll talk to you. Can you wait, please?"

"What about..."

She glared at me, "can you go, please?"

With that, she turned back towards Renou, took a few steps, then glared at me again, ushering me off with her fingers.

I took that as a cue to leave.

As for where I'd go, I hadn't considered it. Miyani had said she wouldn't be back until late in the afternoon, but that she would try to meet me at Tower One, at least I think that was what she said.

I'm pretty sure.

I wanted to go to the church. A part of me was still unable to accept the idea that I somehow survived, and felt it prudent to thank God for his hand in that. But then my stomach cast a deciding vote, and I drifted towards the mess instead.

Surely God knew I was hungry, right?

The place smelled like seared olive oil and rosemary. As I walked in, I saw three men about in the kitchen while another swept the floor of the dining room. He glanced up at me and taunted, "ain't nothin' left, man, you're late!"

Within the kitchen on the right, one man tended to a fire beneath a giant stone oven, while on the left was a rotund man stirring a steel pot over a brick fire. They were both new to my eyes, but a third man looked familiar, the man covered in tattoos. Except his eye patch was turned up, and he could clearly see just fine.

They all glared at me when I walked in.

I furrowed my brow. "Is there truly nothing here to eat?"

The man with the tattoos stood up straight, looked around with both eyes, then turned to the man stirring the pot with a big smile. "Shayden! You have a customer!"

The big guy's chin wobbled as he turned to look at me. He then ladled a good portion of something brown and soupy into a ceramic bowl and brought it over. It smelt like warm butter and had a massive ball of dough swimming in a thick gravy of carrots, beans, and corn.