CHAPTER 9

The woman's home was made out of wood and mud but appeared to be comfortable. There were beds that looked to be handmade with blankets that too appeared to be hand woven. On a small table was a woven bowl, full of ripe fruit and vegetables. A few handmade chairs were placed around the table, the sunlight just hitting them from where the sun filtered through the windows that were cut out from the walls.

"Tris, why don't you sit down?" Tobias suggested. I wanted to say that I could stand, but my feet and back ached and my pregnant belly protested against it. Obligingly, I took a seat in one of the chairs at the table. I heard it squeak under my weight but it didn't collapse.

"So, do you understand the full idea of my hope for peace; a way to make us all equal?" Edith Prior began as she took a seat beside me.

Tobias was standing behind me when he placed his hands upon my shoulders and began to rub them. I almost breathed a sigh of contentment aloud as I sunk into his touch, but quickly stifled it. He began to talk from behind me, "Yes, we do." Edith slitted her eyes narrowly, assessing Tobias. "Jeanine, the leader of Erudite, was killed because she didn't want this to happen; but now we can be able to make this world a better place, make everyone equal; make our world a democracy or even lead it towards communism."

"Hmm, yes, I was leading it towards a communism—where everyone is equal in every way. By doing this we have to travel back towards the city and have everyone join in, otherwise this will never work if we don't all pitch in to make this work." I shifted in my chair as the baby squirmed in my stomach. Tobias' hands stopped massaging my shoulders and I glanced up at him pleadingly. At first he seemed confused by my look of plea, but soon he realised and his hands continued to rub at the ever seeming knots in my shoulders.

Evelyn looked at her son questioningly and he nodded at her. I didn't know what they were communicating silently between each other but whatever it was; I knew they had different plans to Edith.

"Well, actually," Evelyn began. "We were thinking that it would be better if we helped make this city more of a democracy. That way everyone has equal rights and choices but they have the freedom that they need, rather than having less freedom which is included in communism."

She thought for a second. "I suppose that could work. Freedom, yes..." Her eyes lit up. "Yes, that sounds good, not being so restricted to so little things, being able to do things you never could have done…" She was getting that dreamy look people got when they were imagining scenarios that could very well never happen. "So, what's the plan?" She began, hope blooming across her face.

And so it began; the first beginnings of a democracy world, where everyone had equal rights. It was the day where everything from that day on would change—for the better hopefully.

***PAGE BREAK***

"Are we all ready?" Edith Prior asked everyone.

We've been staying within the village for the past two weeks, thinking up strategies and for my sake; resting because I'm beginning to notice that at seven months pregnant, walking to the bathroom and back even has me exhausted. However despite the amount of rest they have been allowing me, I'm still drained because the baby inside me continuously keeps me up at night. I can tell Tobias notices how tired I am, so he keeps persisting for us to rest another night here.

One night while we were lying in our tent, I turned to Tobias. He looked half asleep and I didn't want to bother him but he must have felt my stare on him.

"What's up?" he asked me.

Instead of answering, I just clutched his hand in mine and pulled it over to my stomach. A few moments later, I felt the baby begin to calm down. I sighed in relief. "Thank you." I murmured.

Over the past few nights I had begun to realise that the touch of Tobias against my stomach, almost immediately had the baby settled.

And then we were standing in Edith's kitchen, about to venture back out into the desert like place. Our whole group from back in the city were all travelling back, along with Edith Prior and a few of her most trustworthy people. Despite Tobias' resistance on leaving me behind, he was at the front beside Edith and his mother; while I was at the very back of the group with one of Edith's people, Thom.

He doesn't complain about my slow pace, he just keeps in pace beside me, occasionally glancing at my face to see how I'm doing. I hate appearing this weak, how people can take one look at me and notice how I'm feeling at that moment. Although I guess it's a good thing because people can assess my health which affects the baby.

Tobias eventually returns and Thom is released from his duty of assisting me. Tobias takes one look at me and automatically knows that I need a break. He calls out to the others and they all stop for lunch and some water.

"Here, drink some of this, Tris." He gently commands as I sit down in the dirt. I take the bottle of water he has offered to me and take two sips of it before handing it back to him. He began to take some fruit out that Edith so generously gave us. I groaned softly as I saw my feet and ankles—that were swollen to the sizes of tomatoes.

Tobias glanced up worriedly but chuckled as he followed my line of vision. He handed me an apricot and then moved his fingers to my ankles and began to rub them soothingly. I groaned softly under my breath in pleasure and Tobias chuckled once more.

"Eat." He said to me. I took a bite, following his gentle instructions.

"You should eat too, you know? You don't have to rub my feet—you need to eat, who knows when our next stop will be."

He rolled his eyes at me, I smiled. "I'm fine, Tris and knowing how we've been going so far, we'll be stopping again soon." Nevertheless he stopped rubbing my swollen and sore ankles and began to eat an apricot.

I looked down at the fruit that I had nearly finished. "I'm sorry Tobias." He looked at me confused. "I'm making this harder for everyone; I'm making us take longer. You were right; I should have just stayed behind—that way you could have moved faster, travelled more distance. Instead I only considered myself, only considered my own wishes of wanting to stay with you."

Tobias looked at me incredulously. "Tris, you have nothing to be sorry for. I'm glad you came, so glad. If you hadn't have come, I still would have been worrying about you every moment that we were apart. I'm glad that I have your company and that I can see our baby grow within your stomach. And anyway, if it wasn't for you, we wouldn't have found Edith so fast and wouldn't have been able to win her over so easily. So Tris, you have absolutely nothing to be sorry for."

I shuffled slowly towards him, my stomach making it almost impossible to move an inch; although somehow I managed and was sitting with my back towards Tobias. He wrapped his free arm around me and pushed my shoulder back slightly so that I was leaning against him. Leaning my head back, I rested it against his shoulder.