Sidapa

Chapter 14: Where the Moon Shines

Calista's consciousness floats in an endless void of hazy memories. As she tries to look at the passing glimpses of still-framed images glimpsing from her mind, a voice breaks the silence. She is unable to understand what it's saying, nor know from whom the voice come from. It started as a buzzing whisper before it turned into an unintelligible noise that distracted her from drifting further.

"Ca...liiiiss..taaa.." the syllable rhymed her name, "Caaliii...ssttaa." the disembodied voice called again.

Her consciousness became focused on the voice, following it from her mind. The voice sounded deep and calm. It sounded familiar as if she had a conversation the owner of this voice before. Her mind starts to wander again, but it wasn't some far-fetched memory she was thinking about. Her mind moved, pass the still-frames one after the other until she reached to a halt. She remembered now! She knows who exactly that voice belongs to. She found it! The memory of his red eyes staring at her, piercing through her.

Her eyes suddenly found the strength to move, and without a second more she finally opened them.

" Calista? Oh! You are finally awake." the familiar voice said.

Her eyes tried to focus on the face she saw when she opened her eyes. She saw nothing but a silhouette of a face lined with the white rays of pale lighting. His eyes were fierce and wild, but there is a certain softness in his brown eyes.

"Master, let me carry her." a voice hissed from the background, " It is not for you to do such things. That's why you..."

"I have her already in my arms, get her a room!" commanded the voice.

Calista realized that she was carried by a man with strong arms and broad chest. She could smell him from where she was, he smelled amazing. Godly, if for a lack of a better term. She hid her face as she blushed.

"What are you doing? Why are you covering your face?" he asked.

"Master..." she timidly replied, "Why are you carrying me?"

"We found you slumped on a post by the dock." he replied, " You were bloody and there were talons stuck in both your arms."

Calista tried to get out from his arms, but he insisted on carrying her to the room, which he commanded Tagahatid to prepare. She tried it again, but this time he glared at her, changing his eye color to red. Calista felt the wave of shivers through her spine, for a second, she feared for her life again and the flashes of her arms and legs being ripped flooded her mind. She cowered again and hid her blood-drained face with her hair.

" I apologize about that, Master," she said with a tremble in his voice.

Sidapa was silent for a moment, " It's okay, even I should apologize to you as well, Lady Calista." he replied as he softened his gaze on her. He bowed his head a little and continued walking towards her newly prepared room.

" Tagahatid will tend to your wounds later, for now, we'd just wrapped it up to stop the bleeding," he said.

" Am I gonna die?" she asked then realized how stupid the question was. She can't take it back now.

"What? Pfffttt... Sidapa cannot hide his amusement and laughed so loud it echoed through the hallway. " I've torn you to pieces before, have you died?"

She opted to remain silent for the rest of the interaction. She was both embarrassed and scared at the same time as Sidapa wouldn't stop laughing at her, even until they reached the room, and laid her on her bed. She could still hear Sidapa's laughter from outside her room even after he left.

Calista woke up sometime later. She's not sure what happened, but it looks like the comfortable bed she laid on, made her eyes heavy, and got her to sleep. She focused her eyes on the empty space in front of her. She looked around seeing the grays of the huge room accented by the mellow strands of white rays coming from the canopy of Sulad.