INKWORLD

CHAPTER TEN

June 26, 2091

A tall, lean but well built man was standing in front of me. He was covered from head to toe in several colours of ink. There was no part of his body that was spared from the ink. He cocked his head to one side and stared at me. Then he blinked and asked hesitantly, "Ivy?"

"Tobi!" I jumped on him, sure that it was indeed him. The voice sounded like the one I had heard over the phone.

He still seemed frozen in shock but after a few minutes he put his arms around me.

"Tobi? Is that you?" I heard Wunmi ask behind me.

I released Tobi and turned to her. "Yes it's him, Wunmi. I can't believe it. He's alive." There were so many questions I wanted to ask him, so many things I wanted to know.

Wunmi pulled him into a tight hug and pulled away to examine him and that was when an arrow came sailing past us, nearly imbedding itself in my head. We turned to where it had come from and Tobi quickly raised a hand.

"No, Victoria! They are friends," he said.

I watched as a slim, inky covered girl came out from behind a tree. I could tell that underneath all that ink she was a very beautiful girl. She walked to us, scrutinizing us. "Friends? Where did they come from? They are barely covered in ink and they are wearing odd clothing."

Tobi moved towards her. "They are from..." He trailed off, probably realising he didn't know where we had come from.

"Inkwell," Wunmi supplied.

"Inkwell?" Victoria asked, looking more confused.

"I grew up with them in the village. They went with Angela Cassey. This is Ivy and Wunmi," he introduced, pointing to each of us.

Victoria looked at me, eyes narrowed. "You are the one who got Angela Cassey to come to your village."

I smiled and waved my hands at her, feeling awkward.

"This is Victoria," Tobi said introducing her to us.

After all the pleasantries had been exchanged, Wunmi spoke what was on my mind. "I have so many questions to ask you, Tobi. How are you still alive? Not that I'm not happy that you are alive but...I saw the ink trailing down your nose, you were infected."

"I also have a lot to ask you too but let's go in and sit down first."

As we walked to one of the buildings, people began emerging from the trees. Our small group from Inkwell stood at alert but Tobi smiled at us. "They are friends."

I wondered if he was telling them we were friends or telling us they were friends.

The inside of the house we walked into was better than outside. There were inky threads floating everywhere but at least I wasn't almost knee deep in ink.

From what I could see, Tobi seemed to be the leader of this band of people. There were about twelve of them with us in the room and I wondered if there were others hiding outside.

Luckily, the sitting room of the house we entered was large. Wunmi and I sat down and Tobi and Victoria sat opposite us. The others scattered themselves around the room, some sitting and others standing.

"I would have offered you something to drink but I have a feeling you wouldn't be interested," Tobi said.

Wunmi made a face. " You would be right."

I agreed with her. We now ate good and healthy food, I couldn't imagine eating inky food again.

"So," I sat forward in my seat. "how are you still alive?"