The Gift

From the gloom of the cave only illuminated by a small torch. A larger and older man, in a beat up tunic that reeked of old olives, was looking around for the source of a strange song, and the glint of something caught his eye; a small teenage girl, with once gorgeous blonde hair, in a once beautiful, now mud stained, white shirt and a dark blue pair of jeans with a black hoody was sitting there rocking and humming a whimsical lullaby.

“Hey, kid, my name is Gabe, what’s yours?” asked the man

“Iris,” the girl’s voice is high and sad, and  in a way absent minded.

“Are you hurt, Iris?” inquired the old man

“Y-yes, I-I think I am, I-I can’t remember anything, but I’ll be okay” she said making it sound more like a joke than a problem “do you know where we are?”

“Oh, umm, we’re outside of the Thebes, near my wheat farm.”

“Thebes?” Iris said almost unintelligible, and this time she did sound scared, she started to stand and fell, Gabe gave her his hand to help her stand up with out falling tis time, he looked into her big, sad  eyes and saw they were bright and orange like a cat’s eyes, he gasped and drew away in shock.

“I’m sorry, my eyes are-um, strange.” Iris turned away her face and pulled her coat’s hood over her head to shade her eyes.

“No, no I didn’t mean that, your eyes are beautiful,” Gabe gently pulled her hood off, “let me take you to my farm, my wife and daughters can clean your clothes, you can bath and have a warm meal, come now little one” he helped Iris up and the started the walk to the farm house.

It wasn’t far but Iris didn’t have shoes and the road was so rocky she wince every time she stepped, by the time she came to the small farm her feet were achy and bruised, an elderly woman came out of the house, she was plump and had olive skin and graying blonde hair, she had a look off disbelief on her face, but when she spoke her voice was teasing “Gabe? You didn’t say you were going to bring home a girl.”

“I didn’t know myself till I found her Maya” said Gabe with the same teasing tone, “Iris this is my wife Maya, Maya this is Iris, she is lost and you know how I have to save every fallen bird I find back to its nest.” Maya laughed at that and showed Iris in to the house and into a room were she was to sleep, she helped her change into a gown to sleep in, she left to get some warm milk and herbs to help her sleep and to talk to Gabe. When she came back she made Iris drink down all the milk even though it was bitter because of the herbs she put in it. Iris was asleep and dreaming before she even knew it.