Aurora

29

Jack and Aurora stood locked in each other's arms facing the mountains. Aurora felt very safe against his embrace and found herself loosening up to him,

"I'm starting to like it here." She admitted to him.

"What's there not to like?" He teased and Aurora bumped him slightly.

"Hyde?" One of the men dragged his attention.

Reluctantly, he pulled away from Aurora and went to attend to the townspeople. As Jack handled his dealings, Aurora wrapped his coat around herself and went exploring the village.

She found herself amongst the children.

The boys were chasing each other,

"Lady Aurora!!" Once they saw her, they began chasing her too.

She played with them and as they ran wild in the field,

Aurora noticed a little girl lurking behind the tree,

"I'll be right back..." She tugged her dress and went over to her, "Hey, Are you okay? What's your name?" She asked.

"R-ruchi.." She whispered in a stutter.

Aurora smiled and knelt down in front of her,

"Well Ruchi, my name is Aurora, nice to meet you." The little girl looked up at her full of curiosity.

"Aurora, What does it mean?" She asked.

"It means light..." Aurora answered with a smile.

"Light..I like it.." She beamed, "Sorry, I don't know what my name means..." Aurora suddenly felt the absence of the Internet.

"That's okay." Aurora assured her, "Why are you hiding and not out playing with your friends?"

"They are not my friends, they won't let a girl play with them." She said

"That's not very nice, come here and I will sort this out, of course, you must play." The little girl came out from behind the tree and followed Aurora to meet the other kids, who were huddled together. "Everyone, this is Ruchi, she's going to be playing with us."

"She's not allowed to play." One of the boys said.

"And, why is that?"

"She is a girl." Another said, everyone agreed.

"Well, I'm a girl too." Aurora objected, "Girls can play too, they are not aliens. How would you feel if you were left out because your little boys?"

"We'd feel bad," Another said.

"That's right you would feel bad. Now let's give Ruchi a chance to play shall we?"

Everyone agreed.

Ruchi looked up at Aurora and smiled.

"Thank you Lady Aurora, You are very nice ." She hugged Aurora.

"You're welcome." She said and kissed her cheek, "Now go play with the others." She smiled, watching the little girl runoff with the kids.

"You are very good with children." Jack said from behind me.

She turned and smiled at him.

"I love children." She said.

Jack chuckled,

"Come we are to join the others for a drink." he helped her up. Aurora nodded and followed him into the tavern where most of the town's men were.

Douglas, one of Jack's men, was standing in the middle of the room waiting for Jack, while everyone was trying to find a seat.

Jack led Aurora into the room and they sat down facing the people. When everyone was seated Douglas began to speak in a language Aurora couldn't understand, but she could tell they were speaking ancient Greek.

Aurora had a lot of questions, but she didn't want to interrupt and remained quiet.

After a while the town's men went silent, and began looking at another. Aurora felt something was wrong and bumped Jack.

"What's going on?" She whispered and it immediately dawned on him that Aurora was a foreigner, "Why are they—"

"Be quiet, woman!" He hushed her.

Aurora scoffed and backedway offended,

"Why because I'm a woman?" Aurora raised her voice alerting everyone's full attention,

"Don't..!" Jack read her mind.

"Listen up!" Aurora yelled, jumping to her feet, "I'm a woman, and women all over the world have the same right as men, gender equality, also known as sexual equality—"

"Yay!" Jack gasped.

He quickly got up and carried Aurora out of the room kicking and screaming, "Women empowerment!!!"

Once they were away from the tavern, and the town's men.

He placed her back on the floor.

"Jack Hyde don't you ever ask me to shut up again." She punched him repeatedly.

He snickered, holding her, "You sure know how to put on a show for a woman your size."

"You remember that when next you ask me to shut up, I will cut you." She warned him and hit him again.

He laughed, surrendering.

Aurora scoffed, "What was that anyway?"

He neared her, whispering.

"The villagers suspect a traitor in their midst, some say it's a foreign spy working for the king---"

Aurora felt sheepish, "It couldn't hurt you to start with that.."

"That's not the issue, if there really is a foreigner working for the king. Then you're in great peril, we need to leave tonight. Or Jonathan would find out you're alive."

"That's if he's not already here." They heard gunshots.