The Revelation

The Story: Part 3 Change of Heart

I wondered whether my hope was dead or alive. If I hadn't tripped and stumbled my vision never would have seen the massive stake confining my hope to the ground. She was unconscious, her head slumped against her chest and her legs limply dangling a foot in the air. I would have never heard her wails because she was ready to die at any given moment whether the crows ate or the sun swiftly took her life.

Standing before my hope tethered to her stake wasting away, I hesitated in my next course of action. A greater part of me believed as though I shouldn't touch her, she was a being on another planet that I could not match as The Hope. Like a wriggling worm another voice whispered she was a mere mortal desperately needing her own hope to come and rescue her before the grim reaper snatched her soul. She was clearly a sacrifice, but for what I didn't know. Far later I would become to understand the role she played for a short time in my life.

Still unsure, I dropped my sack and stalked towards the girl tied to a stake. I couldn't identify her as a Modern or Feral. Actions of a person allowed you to distinguish them apart, but this girl was swaying back and forth between life and death.

She stank horribly of urine, her raggedy dress soiled when she couldn't properly relieve herself. I noticed dried yellow stains on her frail legs and pixie like feet. The little girl was no older than eight, looking like she hadn't eaten or drank water in days, her skin stretched taunt over her skeletal frame. I brushed her knotted blonde hair from her gaunt face only to pull away as a clump fell off her head. Her hair was frizzy, tangled in massive knots and hung loosely well past her shoulders.

My hands trembled as I touched her delicate skin that was surprisingly soft. I wasn't sure how to react to being this close to a sacrificial girl, my whole body trembled as I warily looked around me for the perpetrators to come shooting out of hiding. Nobody darted forward to attack me, so I moved behind her to begin cutting the rope digging into her stomach. My knife easily broke the bonds of the rope, allowing the girl to slump forward. I caught her in my arms before she slithered to the ground and gently laid her on the dirt.

Her chest rose as she took shallow breathes, her eyebrows knitted together in a furrow. I used my hand to feel her forehead, jerking back in surprise at how hot she was. The sun had been slowly baking her alive, fever began corrupting her system. If I had been a few hours too late she would have died. Quickly, I reached for my water skin containing all my water needed for my journey. I would have to hurry to a city more hastily if I didn't want to suffer without water.

I poured some of the cool liquid on to her face, dampening her hot skin. She parted her lips and I let her sip some of the water to quench her parched throat. At first, the girl didn't react, mindlessly lapping at the nutrients like a dog. Then she began coughing as her body revived. Her eyes fluttered, allowing me capture a glimpse of green before they closed again.

Smiling, I recapped my water skin. She would live to witness another day.

I brushed some of her hair from her face. It was mid-day when the temperature was the hottest. I decided that it would be best if we both rested in some shade for a while. I had to make sure she would survive a couple more hours before I continued my journey.

When she awoke it was an understatement that she was human.

I carried her swaddled in my cloak to the safety of a rock overhang, seeking out the cool shadows it generously offered as cover from the sun. Beads of sweat glistened my brow and moistened my hair, giving me an awful odor to which I wrinkled my own nose at. With the combination of smells between me and the girl we unknowingly became two companions that would have only met due to the circumstances of fate and destiny.

She stirred from her slumber some time after I tucked her in the shade. I checked her temperature to find her skin cooler than before and slumped back onto the stone. The girl's eyes fluttered like butterfly wings when she awoke, her hand curled into a fist. Rubbing the crust glued on her lashes, she made a series of growling noises and I instantly realized I was in for some trouble. She was a Feral.