World's Collide

Chapter 8: Caught

Adina's POV

We have been walking for hours. I'm covered in sweat. The sun is scorching and the humid air of the forest is not helping the matter. My wrists are red from all the tugging on the chain that he does. Sophia got tired so I pleaded with this stranger to let me pick her up. He wouldn't budge until I compromised and asked if I could carry her on my back, which is what I'm doing now, but it's slowly killing me.

I should probably learn this guy's name.

"Ang, I'm so hungry," Sophia moaned from my back. My heart sunk for her. It's going to be an entire day's journey to get through this forest on foot, and we are only a few hours into the journey.

"I know Soph. I know," I tell her, then stopping dead I'm my tracts. This causes him to stop and pull the chain, but I resist. He lets out a heavy sigh and turns around.

"Look Stranger, I told you I wasn't going to fight, but you need to let me feed her. She is way too hungry," I plead hoping he will abide.

"No," was his simple reply. He turned around to walk again.

"Can I at least know your name? That way I can stop calling you 'stranger'," I asked, feeling frustrated that I didn't know who my captive even is.

"I don't know your name, so that's fair," he says as his eye catches something.

"Well you do know Sophia's name, so is it really fair?," I rebuttal and watch him as he ties my chain to a tree. I guess we are stopping. I squat down and let Sophia off my back. I sit down crossed legs on the ground. Sophia immediately goes to put her head into my lap. Stranger disappears behind a tree. Please leave us, I secretly wish.

He comes out from behind the tree with a handful of berries. He hands them to Sophia and says, "Eat."

I quickly snatch them from his hand and try one. I don't feel poisoned. I wouldn't know what that felt like anyway. But I need to seem like I know everything. I then hand the berries to Sophia who is now sitting, eagerly awaiting the berries.

"Seems okay," I mumble as I give it to her.

Stranger lets out a laugh and says, "That's not how you check if berries are poisonous."

"And what makes you the expert," I say, taking another berry from Sophia's hand. Guess I'm hungry too.

"Well for starters, I have been scouting these woods for 4 months, preparing for our attack and my expertise is Botany. Second, breaks over. We need to make it to a place of safety before dark. It's way too dangerous here at night," he says the last part looking up to the sky.

"You know I can fly us out of here. A day's journey becoming an hour's. Just take the shackles off," I say, tired of being bound.

"No, we can't fly again," Sophia spoke up. Before I could ask why, she continued, "I don't feel so well when we do, I'm not doing that again."

Shit. Now to make our way back is going to be so hard. Maybe I will convince her otherwise when the time comes.

Stranger scoffed, "I don't want to think what my mom would do to me had I spoke like that to someone older than me."

I didn't ever see anything wrong with the way Sophia spoke to me but I think it was because I just saw her as a Royal having the right to speak like that.

"Well she is my protector. She suppose to do whatever I do," Sophia spoke up and I could see her smartness was surfacing, meaning she was getting more comfortable with the situation.

"And the Bird is just the loyal dog huh?," Stranger questioned Sophia.

She scrunched her eyebrows and said, "Well she ought to be loyal. I doubt someone who graduates top of her training class wouldn't be loyal. And someone who wasn't known for happily performing their duty wouldn't be assigned to me" She looks at me with pride, making me smile then continued, "Besides technically my groundsman guard would be a loyal dog since he shapeshifts into a wolf and my dad saved his life once so he is indebted to him."

Yeah. She has comebacks for days. The stranger just looked at her with wide eyes, but there was a glint of amusement in his eyes.

He looked to the sky and his expression changed to one of hurry. He quickly took a pen and paper out of this backpack and scribbled something down. I looked up to the sky and saw a bird circling above. He then made a bird sound and the bird came swooping down to his arm, which was held out. He tied the note onto the bird's leg and made it fly away.

"What was that?," I asked, concerned.

"Nothing for you to worry about. Stand up," he quickly replied and started gathering his things and went to untie my chain from the tree.

Sophia had taken off her gloves to eat the berries. I went to put it back on, when her eyes clouded over.

"You are scared and anxious, but not because we are caught. It's because you don't know how we are going to get out of this and you are scared this leads to you failing your duty. It feels like you will have nothing to define yourself if your duty is taken away, but this is not true. I also feel relief. Relief from something that has been troubling you for a long time. A knot in the gut that has been untied," she says and I realise she did a reading on me. I instantly feel vulnerable, knowing what she speaks is true and I quickly look up to the stranger. He seems amazed by what she just did. Like he couldn't fathom what she just did.

"Sorry Ang. I'm still learning how to control it," Sophia adds while looking down, ashamed.

I lift her chin and say, "Hey, head up. It's okay. Really." I give her a reassuring smile.

Stranger tugs on the chain and I'm jerked up and forward. That's when I realise it. A tattoo on his wrist. I heard about a tradition of the West, where once they become soldiers they can discard their given name and choose a soldier name, which they then tattoo onto the wrist. I didn't think it to be true. I mean why would someone give up their given name. Don't they feel like it's a big part of who they are. But I guess it really is a thing because right there on his wrist, written in calligraphy was a name. His name. Luca.