Chapter 2 confirmed
The feeling of being watched is stronger than ever; like one of them is going to show themselves to me. It's strange, now it feels like they are in the room right now (or at least out the teepee flap).
A shadow appears outside the teepee and it's too large to be Nala or Deven. It could be them if she's on her tiptoes with Deven on her shoulders. On the other hand, it could be she has the water bucket on her head. The shadow is too big even for those possibilities. It has to be one of the men coming to check in on me; that has to be it.
Why isn't the shadow moving? It's just standing there as if it can already see me clearly. I want to check it out, but I was told to stay hidden and in the teepee. Ohh, I don't like this at all I wish mom didn't leave. She couldn't just wait till dad or one of the other men came and got us or called when it was ready. Now I'm alone and I can't see if Nala or Deven are on their way back yet.
Maybe this whole thing is just getting to me. The wedding, maybe getting chosen, but that shadow and the feeling- I can't shake them. The shadow is still there; it doesn't even look like its breathing.
"Cooooommmmmeee." What is that? Is that the shadow talking or is it just me. I must be crazy thinking shadows talk. "Cooooommmmmeee." there it is again. "Who's there?" I whisper. "Cooooommmmmeee toooo meeeee." Is all I hear back.
I stood there, waiting to hear it again, but I didn't that's the last I hear of the voice for now. I have to ask mom about that if she ever heard anything like this. Looking around the shadow is gone also, but the feeling of being watched is stronger than ever. What's the deal with that?
I should go to bed to clear my mind a little sleep will do me good. I pull the covers over my head to under dress and put on my night clothes. Usually I do it out in the open, but with this feeling of being watched a little more covering won't hurt.
I finish dressing and crawled from under the covers. Folding up my day outfit, I notice a big grass stain on the back of it. Must have been from this morning, I thought as I set it aside and crawled back under the cover. Deven comes running into the teepee with Nala not far behind him.
He sees me and runs for me to snuggle up closely to continue his nap. Nala grabs him before he can jump on my head. She struggles against Deven's squirming body. She drops him and he begins to bawl his eyes out. I get up to comfort him. He stops once in my arms and snuggles close to me like he does with mom.
"Jaya, we met someone down by the river," Nala screeched.
"Tell me, who did you meet?" I asked not really interested.
"A strangely dressed guy, He asked if I had an older sister."
"What did you tell him? Did he ask anything else?" I queried now interested—and perplexed.
"I told him yes I did and he asked me if it was you that was sitting in the field earlier this morning, to that I also said yes." Nala said sounding proud of herself.
"You told him what?"
"The answers of his questions, oddly they were all about you. I invited him to come and meet you, but he said he'd find you in due time - whatever that means."
"Why did you talk to him? You know mom and dad said never to talk to strangers."
"I know, but he saved Deven from falling into the water. Deven was leaning too far looking at the fish."
"Okay, what else did he look like? Did you see his eye color or any jewelry he was wearing?"
"Yeah his eyes are the coolest silver a color I had ever seen before. Have you ever seen his eyes? And I wasn't paying attention if he was wearing jewelry."
"Are you positive you didn't see any jewelry on his hands or anything? Come on think Nala I know you pay more attention than that."
"Wait, yeah on his left hand there was a really weird looking ring. When he passed me Deven, I saw it. Why do you ask? And you never answered my other question."
"He did? Great. And he's going to meet me soon - even better." I grumbled sarcastically, trying to hide the fear rising inside of me; there was no need to worry the little ones.
"Why are you so negative? He seemed nice enough and he looked excited to see you. It's not like he's one of them. He's probably one of the new folk."
"Don't talk about them; you know you're not allowed. Now take Deven so I can get some sleep."
"Fine I won't talk about them anymore and you can keep Deven; most of the time he thinks your mom so why should I take him? On top of that, he's already back asleep on you. Look?"
"I'll be fine, I'll keep him. Can you stay quiet, play somewhere else, or go find mom and ask if breakfast is ready?"
"I'll go find mom. I don't want to wake Deven up again; he was a pain down by the river. Bye."
She ran out of the teepee before I could say anything else. I turn my attention back to sleeping Deven on my chest. He looks peaceful even after, what sounds like, Xavier held him. Everyone- besides mom- says the bloodsuckers are bad. Mom doesn't directly say it, but in a way, she does. Are they really bad? Did Xavier just use Deven to ask Nala questions about me and where to find me? I hope she didn't say where he could, but knowing her she probably did and that would be bad.
I tried to lift Deven off my chest so I could get comfortable, but he wouldn't let go- even in his sleep. Finally, giving up on getting him off me, I switch to my side. Instantly he wakes up and starts crying. I try to calm him down, but he won't stop, I switch back over to my original position. He stops almost as quickly as he started.
With a sigh, I close my eyes and try to sleep with the extra weight on my chest. I want to toss and turn, but I'll wake up Deven if I do that. I can't move him or he will wake up. What can I do that will either entertain me or make me fall asleep? I can count sheep, but that just bores me to death and it doesn't make me tired. What else is there? I can sing some of the songs mom used to sing to me maybe then I could move Deven aside and slide out from under him.
That's it! I'll sing to him; Nala already said he thinks I'm mom most of the time. Just which song to do it with? I know a lot from the ones mom used to sing to me. Which one does he like? I hear mom sing the same one to him all the time, but how does it go? Oh, I know it now. How am I going to do this?
Time to start, I sing the first couple of words an instantly Deven's whole body relaxes even more. I kept singing while I lifted up his body and stopped singing. He broke down and bawled his eyes out. I set him back on my chest again then, he was fine. I started the song over and his body relaxed again to the soothing words. This time, I continued to sing as I lifted him off of me and placed him next to me. I got him comfortable, but as I kept singing, he started grabbing my arm again. It looked like he needed to hold on to something, but what could I give him?
I looked around the teepee for anything that he could snuggle up to. There's a pillow, but he already had one of those. What else, there's a bag and in the corner, that's it. Nala's buckskin doll she was playing with earlier. I stopped singing and run to get the doll. Deven was bawling his eyes out and searching for something to snuggle with. I got the doll and ran back across the teepee. I tossed the doll into Deven's reach, he grabbed it, cuddled it, and went back to sleep with not even another peep.
I made sure he was fine then, I slipped out of the teepee unnoticed. I looked around to see if anyone was there, I could feel someone, I just couldn't see them. No one was there that I could see; I ran. As I ran, I didn't know where I was going to go to. There were probably older women at the lake washing clothes. So, that left the field. Let's finish this where it started or at least get to the bottom. I thought as I ran to the field.
I started to hear voices and see shadows a little ways down. As I rounded the corner, I jumped behind the nearest teepee to see who was talking. The two shadows stopped right in front of the teepee I was behind, which allowed me to see and hear them. However, they couldn't see me though, they might have heard me if I was too loud. One of the men was my father; he had his arm around the other in brotherly way. I had never seen the other man before; he could have been from the band of men from the Sioux tribe. I know who that must be - Makya. That's why dad was so friendly with him.
"I'm glad our tribes have finally settled their problems," Dad said.
"You sound happy about giving your daughter for a treaty."
"To tell you the truth, I am sort of glad to send her off to get married to you. She needs to learn some more about her mother's side. Even though she won't be with us, I know she will be protected. Right?"
"She will be, my tribe is very different from your's sir."
"You can call be Chief Dev or just Dev. I grew up in a family where we always called my father 'sir'. I never let my kids call me that," He interrupted. "Sorry, continue what you were saying."
"Thank you –Dev. You see our tribe doesn't let our women go anywhere unprotected not after five of the women were killed a couple years back. Jaya would be the most protected out of every one of them when she becomes my wife."
"Maya – her mother - would kill me if anything happened to her daughter after the wedding. She'd probably use her eye thing on me. Ugh." Dad said, he shuddered at the thought of it.
"Yeah, one of the women back at our tribe can do that; when she turns those eyes on me, my skin crawls."
"Same here," my father agreed.
"When will I get to meet Jaya? Before I marry her, I want to make sure we get along I don't want to be chasing her or fighting with her."
"At breakfast, Maya is supposed to bring her to the meal place soon, let's head up there."
"Wait. Does your tribe have them?"
"Yes, we do," my father admitted sadly. "But don't worry, she hasn't been chosen of what I know of."
Shows what you know. I thought to myself.
"We just want to let you know we will still do this treaty even if she is chosen."
"Thank you my tribe and I thank you very much we need this treaty badly I'm sorry to say."
"It's ok lets go to breakfast so I can meet Jaya my new wife, hopefully."
I moved back a couple of steps so when they moved they couldn't see me, being careful not to make any noise in the brush behind me. I had to feel around with my feet to avoid the sticks and leaves. I looked up; they were still moving. I took a couple steps back and banged into something rock hard.
Before I could turn to see what it was, a hand covered my mouth. I struggled with the hand, but then another one grabbed my shoulder, holding it hard. I couldn't move; no one in my tribe was this strong; could it be one of the ones from the Sioux tribe? I looked down at the hand, it's pale white not the reddish brown of the Sioux tribe. It must have been him, but why couldn't he wait till the field? For one thing, he didn't know I was heading there.
The feeling was gone, but who needed the feeling when the person was right behind you? I stopped struggling to see what would happen. His grip tightened more, which made it hard to breath. I wanted to struggle, but I kept myself calm.
"Are you calm now princess?" A deep voice asked. "Nod or shake your head if it's true."
I nodded my head.
"That is very good. We are going to go to the first place I saw you. Please do not squirm or I will have to tighten my grip on you even more and I might squish you if I do that. I really don't want to do that, okay. Nod or shake or head again if you understand."
I nodded my head again.
"One more thing before we get going, I am going to remove my hand from your mouth. I need you to be quiet. We can talk in the field where we will be alone. Once again, nod or shake your head."
I nodded again. He removed his had from my mouth which allowed me to breath normally.
"Now, let's go; some more people are coming. I'm going to lift you up until we get to the field; it will be a lot faster. When I start running if you squirm, I might drop you and I really don't want to hurt you. Then I would have to find another bride." I was pretty sure that last part was supposed to be sarcasm.
He was about to say nod, but I did it automatically.
"Very good, you are getting this down; let's go."
He removed his hand from my shoulder and just stared at me. I guess he was trying to see if I would run away. He picked me up like a baby and squeezed again which made me gasp for air. When he heard it, he chuckled a little, but after that, he tightened a little more. I learned in order to breathe; I had to do it through my mouth.
He still hadn't moved; I looked up. He was still just staring at me. I looked at his face; he had long black hair and - as my mom said - silver eyes, but I didn't feel anything from them, only that they could probably see through walls, when his eyes met mine, a seductive smile spread across his face.
Then, we were running faster than I could run and it didn't even seem to tire him out. We reached the field in less than two minutes; it usually took me at least ten minutes when I was running. I looked up at him; he smiled back down at me and once again, tightened his hold on me.
He walked deeper into the field and sat on the grass without loosening his grip on me or letting me go. He shifted me as if I was a doll and I let him. He got me the way he wanted me.
"Now you may talk," Xavier said calmly.
"Okay."
"Don't you have questions for me - like why you?"
"Yes I do, but I was taught to let men talk first."
"Well with me, you may speak your mind."
"Okay. Let me just say, you were not at all what I thought you'd be like. But, I haven't been around for that long. Anyway, so why did you choose me?"
"Because you were the first one I saw and liked even though I only showed myself now, I have been watching you for some time now. I also know that you are to marry another man," he explained in a silky voice.
"Yes, I am betrothed to a Sioux man, but it doesn't look like I will be marrying him. My people say you are bloodsuckers; is that true?" I replied.
"Yes, that is one of the things I have to explain to you before I take you to be my wife. My people have to suck blood to live. We have found one way to make it so we don't have to kill an entire tribe when we feed; that's why we take brides. When we first suck their blood we imprint on them."
"What is imprint?"
"It is the time when we first suck our bride's blood. We create a bond with that person. Once we do that, it doesn't hurt them anymore. A lot of them say it makes them feel good; however, the good feeling doesn't last forever. That's why we take new brides every ten years. We have learned that there is one person out there for each of us that the good feeling lasts for and they won't age just like us."
"How to do you know if that bride is the one?"
"That I will explain some other time when you are my wife, for now, just know that that bride will bear a child."
"Has that ever happened before?"
"Yes; to many of us it has and because of that, my clan has gotten bigger than when it was first made."
"One last thing I'm confused about; what happens to the old brides when their ten years are done?"
"We either return them to their families or let them start new lives; whichever one they want. Most just want to start new lives; some actually change their names."
"That is why everyone thinks you killed them."
"I have killed some on accident, but that was their fault. They jumped and attacked me. I hated to see them die, but they didn't want to be my wife; I couldn't do anything. One thing I have to ask; are you going to attack me or jump off the roof? Because if you are, I might as well find a bride that won't."
"Why would I kill myself when you said after ten years if it doesn't still feel good then I can leave?" I asked matter-of-factly.
"Good. I have a strong feeling about you, a very strong feeling about you." He paused then whispered, "Someone is coming."
"Who is it? Is it one of the new men?"
"No he's much too small - two or three years old; he's yelling and crying. He keeps saying 'mama'." He sounded quite confused.
"I know who that is," I said calmly. "It's Deven - my little brother. Sometimes he thinks I'm mom. I better go get him; excuse me."
"Oh, the little kid I helped earlier. He called me dad."
"Great, not only does he not call his real dad dad, but now he's calling complete strangers dad."
Xavier still didn't let go of me, instead once again he stood with me in his arms.
"Xavier you can let me go, I'm not going to run. What would be the point in running? You could catch me with no problem. I just have to go get Deven before he gets hurt or is found by one of the men." I said as I tried unsuccessfully to squirm out of his arms.
"I will, but when you started squirming, I thought once out of my arms you were going to run. But you're right, I could catch you." Xavier said as he put me to my feet.
"Thank you. Where's Deven?"
"You're welcome. He's behind that bush over there," he said pointing to a nearby bush with his finger.
"I'll be right back so chill out will ya?" I teased.
"Just go before I carry you over there," he teased back, grinning.
"I'm going, I'm going. You're not going to start picking me up whenever you feel I'll run, right?"
"Only if I feel like it, now go," he kept grinning.
He finally let go of my hands, but kept an eye on me as I walked away. I felt his eyes bore into my back. Then I finally knew what mom meant my soul piercing eyes.
I started to walk to the spot he pointed out, when I heard a rustling in the bush next to me. As I stopped to check it out, I caught a glimpse of Xavier still staring at me. I smiled at him to show it was alright and turned back to the bush.