The Lady in Armour

Chapter 2 - PRISONER

CHAPTER 2               -               PRISONER

“Where are we?” Jo asked and slowly stood up. “Is the fight over? Did we win?”

“We really do not know what happened,” Hanna answered with her head slightly bowed to avoid her twin’s gaze. “We – we’re no longer – we’re –”.

“Where exactly are we, Hanna?” Jo cut in and tipped Hanna’s head upward to look straight into her eyes. Jo already had the slightest idea where they could be yet Jo refused to believe it. “Where is Mon and the others?”

“I’m so sorry, Jo…”

“Shit!” Jo let go of Hanna’s face and cursed more. “How’d you manage to take me all the way down here? Father is limping and you have to carry the child. And why the hell are we the only ones in here? Where are the others?”

Dalo stood up and handed Jo a bottle of water. He knew Jo would get pissed off when the medicine lost its effect so while waiting for Jo to come around, he thought of a tricky explanation that would make Jo forget everything that Mon did. Like Mon, he too believed that Jo shouldn’t stay there to fight no matter how skilled Jo was. He wanted to tell Jo the real reason why he and Mon did not think that Jo had to stay but he was afraid that it would only make Jo angrier.

“A woman helped me in carrying you all the way down here,” he explained once Jo started drinking water. “After having a rest for about thirty minutes, the others started travelling east where our second home is hidden.  We wanted to travel with them but I felt short of breath so Hanna decided that we rest for thirty minutes more. We were about to leave when you woke up.”

Jo calmed down a little. “Are you sure you are okay now and can travel? I think we could stay here for another ten minutes.”

Dalo nodded and looked apologetically at Hanna for lying on Jo. The truth was, they were not able to leave with the others because Mon’s little sister wouldn’t come with them. She kept on insisting that they wait for her brother until tonight. He and Hanna couldn’t leave her behind and were too weak to chase her so they decided to just wait for Jo to wake up for he knew that only Jo could tame the little girl. He did not tell the truth to Jo because it will only make Jo angrier. Also, the only way to make Jo forget about what Mon did was to make Jo worried about his health. Acting sick in front of Jo never failed in calming Jo.

Hanna, on the other hand, was a bit upset. She hated it whenever her father did that to her twin. She did not want anyone lying on her twin especially the ones close to them. “Shall we go now? It isn’t safe to stay here anymore. The enemies could find us here.”

“NO!” the little brunette girl shouted and headed for the tunnel but Jo caught her arm and stopped her. “Get away from me! Mon will be here any moment! I know he will!”

Jo looked regretfully at the tunnel and when Dalo saw this, he started coughing hard.

“Stop it, father...” Hanna hissed.

“I’m doing this to save Jo,” he hissed back and coughed harder.

Hanna looked angrily at her father but did not say anything. She wanted to get away from the mountain too but not by lying at her twin.

“I said let go hmmmph!”

The little girl was not able to finish hew sentence because Jo clamped one hand on her mouth. Jo could hear noises coming from the tunnel and it was getting louder and louder. “Someone’s coming. We have to get out of here.”

Jo dragged the little girl away from the tunnel and beckoned Hanna and Dalo to follow. Behind the thick bushes not far from the tunnel, Jo hid the bags and pushed the child down. And when the girl continued in clawing the hand clamped on her mouth and kept kicking, Jo looked at her threateningly and moved closer to her.