Talia

Chapter 11

Chapter 11

The ground underneath my feet is trembling, like we are experiencing an earth quake. My door opens. Banan, and Anzor steps inside. Banan close the door just enough so it don't lock itself. They don't pay any attention to me. They stay close to the door like they are listening to something.

"He's gone?" They nod in agreement and turns to face me.

"I said we had a plan," Banan says with a smile.

"What did you do? Bomb the city?"

"Not exactly." Anzor answers. Banan comes closer. He starts to poke my shoulder.

"You look so cute," Banan says and acts really happy. Suddenly he tugs his cloak.

"Now, give it back to me!" His friendly attitude becomes a serious face. I hand him his robe. He notices the paper I hold in my hand. Banan widens his eyes and looks a little shocked.

"How? I thought I had that in my purse."

"Why do you have such a weird poem?" I ask curious. Banan snaps it from my hand. He puts it in his bag. Immediately afterwards he starts to kiss his robe and mumble something about missing it.

"You took good care of her, thank you," he says and kiss my forehead. I am speechless. Even Anzor looks a bit surprised.

"Banan, why did you kiss her?" Banan turns his head. Even though I can't see it, I'm sure Banan uses his evil smile, Anzor looks afraid.

"I wanted to show my gratitude. You jealous?" He asks teasing. Anzor doesn't answer, but his face expresses something that tells me he doesn't care.

"Don't act like you don't care, I know you like her." Before this gets more awkward, I push them aside and go out of my prison room. There are no soldiers in the hall, which is surprising.

"Where are all the guards?" I ask.

"Oh.. they.." Banan covers Anzors mouth.

"We killed them," he says. Banan is probably lying, yet, there is nobody here. I'm bewildered.

We just walk peaceful out of the prison, like this is how criminals escape all the time.

The town is a mess in flames. Bucos are running over guards who try to protect commoners, and stop these strong beasts. Every store has either a hole in their wall, or a broken door. And people scream, really loud. I sympathize with Anzor and Banan. That pain they must have felt in their head when I did exactly the same thing. Except that this is most likely ten times worse. Anzor whistles. His pet comes running against us from the woods.

"Junior!" Banan shouts overjoyed and run towards it. The horse barely notices him, it runs past him and stops with Anzor.

"His name is junior?" I ask critical. We have to shout in order to hear each other.

"Actually Anzor junior," Anzor corrects.

"Yeah, junior sounds better," I say honest. Anzor gets a bit depressed.

"Anyway, where are Gifro?" Nobody answer me. Anzor jumps on his horse and holds his hand out to help me get up. I accept his help. Banan runs beside us as we trot out of the town. I feel a sting of guilt, this is partly my fault. And just leaving them like this is irresponsible and mean.

The ferry that goes to Akila is located in the big city Bju, the biggest in the world. I have heard rumors about people who were on vacation there, but got lost, and never came back. The buildings are supposed to be taller than mountains, which makes the whole city feel like a labyrinth. The thought of it makes me shiver.

"Talia?" Banan looks concerned. "Are you alright?" I nod.

We have confirmed that we will reach Bju by tomorrow. We've been following the road and many signs. Right now we are looking for a place to rest for the night after walking for hours; he horse couldn't bare our weight anymore. The road gets smaller and smaller for each step we take until it becomes a small path into a forest; a very tight forest. I swear I see fog come from a small lake we are about to pass. We haven't seen another human for the last miles. It makes me worry. Frogflyers screams a lot tonight, I startle every time. Luckily there are starflowers round the lake. Starflowers are white and they only grow close to water. They gather energy from the sun and lights up at night. Their light is surprisingly good for such a small plant. If you drag one out of the ground its light will last until the flower dies. These flowers can live without water or earth for several hours.

"We will sleep here for the night," Banan declares. Both I and Anzor looks at Banan like he is crazy, but he is…

"We will sleep on the ground. Let's start a fire." Anzor babysits me while Banan finds something to start the fire with.

We sit on the same rock.

"Anzor?" I ask. He is busy cleaning his sword. I wonder where he keeps his sword. Anzor looks at me; his face asks me what I want.

"Im just asking, but why did you want to know if I had this necklace?" I show him my necklace. It is made of silver and formed like a drop. I have been wearing it since as long as I can remember.

"Just to confirm something," he answers and switches over to focus on his sword again. Anzors sword has dried blood on the end, but he doesn't have to struggle to remove it.

"If I remember correctly, Linda said that you two had met?"

Since it is dark, and the starflowers are far away, it is hard to tell, but I think he is blushing. Anzor focus on me again and nods.

"How many times?"

"Not many, enough to make her trust me." I question Linda's intelligence. Firstly: for trusting him. Secondly: for trusting him with me. I honestly don't understand what goes through her mind.

"Wouldn't it have been easier to kidnap me immediately?" He doesn't answer.

Banan comes back with enough wood and sticks to keep the fire alive for several days.

"So Anzor, now I also have a question. How come you healed so fast? I'm sure my ax got deep into your leg," Banan says while he rubs two flint stones together to create a spark that makes the wood burn.

"You took a lot of blood from Talia yesterday. When I woke up, the whole place was covered in red." Banan places his hand underneath his chin and stare at the starry sky. It looks like he is thinking or just spacing out again.

Banan notice Anzors sword.

"Anzor? Is that the sword you used when you ruined my cloak?" He asks suspicious. Anzor gives him a charming and winsome smile. Banan grabs his ear and shouts some bad words. Anzor lets him do it. Somehow they seem a bit friendlier than yesterday.

"Oh, that right! I found soft moss." Banan runs back into the forest.

"What happened to Gifro?" I ask Anzor.

"Yeah, your boyfriend… we left him." Gifro is not the type to run away or give in. He never did, no matter how much mess I got us into.

Banan comes back with a large load of moss in his hands. We can't even see his face. Soft moss is a special kind of moss. When a living creature lies, stands or sits on it, it gets warmer. It adjusts to your body heat. Before we go to sleep, Banan finds another rope from his cloak and ties me to himself. This time he assures himself that I cannot escape.