"The closest way to get to a man's heart is to touch it," she giggled. The man lied on the rocky plain, his face and chest up. He paid her no mind, instead gazing into the sky, the sun in his eyes. The young woman knelt at his side, and as claimed before, she placed her palm on his chest, and set her head on his heart.
"I know you guys are always wanting to be tough," she said. "But, I can see right through ya! That's right, no man has successfully concealed his feelings from me! Wanna know how?"
She didn't wait for a response. As if she were telling a secret, she lowered her voice and spoke in a soft breath. "I usually catch it from the twinkle in their eye, you know, when the light catches it just right. You'd be amazed at the stories they tell."
She nodded agreeably to her own statement and glanced up at him.
The billowing clouds reflected in his eyes, enriched with the sun's rays. The woman traced his gaze and watched the clouds curiously. A gritty wind blew, and the clouds moved with it. A sort of nostalgia filled the woman, and she sighed pleasantly, again looking up at the man.
"Head in the clouds as usual, eh, Mordecai?" she asked. "You were never one to stick to one thought, one place. You're like the wind, and I'm like the cloud, going wherever you went."
She let out another sigh and nuzzled into his chest.
"Who knew nature could remind me of us in our younger days? When we were wilder, freer, nothing holding us back. Sure, it bit us in the ass here and there, but it also gave us some good memories, even influenced us to enlist in the Amyan Army... and also blessed us with a gift."
The woman gently set Mordecai's hand on her abdomen and she managed a smile.
"7 more months," she murmured. "We're having a baby in 7 more months, Mordecai. We're having a baby." She got off his open chest and stood before him. A tear streaked down her freshly bloodied cheek, creating a clean pathway to her lips. Her melancholic eyes bored into his, his nothing more than an egg white and yolk, frying in the sun.
"Though, it appears you beat me at my game now," she said. "The light will catch your eyes no longer." And with that, her fingers brought down his eyelids and all there was was darkness.
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All there was was darkness.
It was heavy, suffocating. She couldn't cry out, she couldn't move, she couldn't even breathe. She felt as if she were a baby again, with that warm, heavy blanket pressed against her nose and lips.
Where was she? Why is she here? Where is everyone? The last thing she could remember was giving a speech to her people, and in the middle of it, everything kind of went hazy, and then faded to total darkness.
How embarrassing, showing weakness to the people she was supposed to be leading.
But, that brings up another question: how are they going to defend themselves? The Colonel, although intelligent and tactile, if a bit abrasive, didn't know much about the enemy they were up against or how to defeat them.
In fact, there was no way he could. It wasn't in his blood.
Suddenly, the darkness shook. She couldn't see it, but she could feel the trembling around her body.
What's going on?
A sound best described as pure frequency rang throughout the darkness. Her head erupted into mountains of headaches and it felt as if someone had grabbed her eye balls and squeezed them as hard as they could.
