I actually got some reviews from some DIFFERENT people! Yay! anyways, hope this update isn't too late. It's finally snowing! Yay! For the first time in TWO YEARS! YEAH! And ONE more week until Spring Break! Wheee! Thanks to those who reviewed (even thought I got 237 hits!)
To the.child.like: Yes, it does count! Thank you so much! I feel so flattered! Yay!
To JyouraKoumi: yeah, I think I might make it Koumi... that would work... I was planning on that. Hope you like this chappie!
To Key: Thank you! Hope you like this chapter!
To nickygirl: Yeah, I was wondering when someone would ask me about that. I know, I took the plot, but I just love it so much!
Enjoy chapter 3!
Mrs. Ishida presents...
Chapter 3
"Where are you from?" chief Takenouchi asked, eyebrow raised, slightly irritated at the stranger's stubborn nature.
"Why should I tell you?" the young man sneered.
"I am the chief and I demand to know where you're from!" the chief replied angrilly. Joe was getting mighty uncomfortable.
"Well I demand to know where I am!"
"I am not joking! Tell me where you are from and who you are or else you will face dire consequences!" the chief roared. Matt didn't flinch a bit. There was silence. then,
"No," Matt replied quietly, looking striaght into the chief's eyes, as if daring him to give him his worst.
The chief looked as if he was about to explode.
"That's it! Tie him up, and take him to the prisoner's chamber! Now!" he roared, and almost immediately, the guards stationed outside rushed in and took him forcefully by the arms. Matt didn't even try to resist, and ignored the dirty looks the guards and the chief were giving him. As he was being led out, Joe spoke up.
"Are you sure you're doing the right thing? He's probably just scared from not knowing where he is or anything about us," he said, still a little shook up from the loud yelling.
"Yes, Joe, if he won't talk willingly, we'll get it out of him somehow," the chief replied quietly, and walked out of the tent. Joe sighed.
(Later)
Sora had gone back up in her tree. She loved that tree. She'd been able to climb it since she was 4 years old, and ever since then, it was her tree. It was her thinking place, a place where she could go to escape people she didn't want to talk to, or who she was angry at, or just when she wanted to be alone. It overlooked the river and the forest, easily being one of the tallest trees in the forest. There was one flat spot where she could stand and do anything. She'd even spent the night up there a few times in the summer when the hut was too hot.
She had been sitting here thinking for a few hours about what Mimi had said. She knew she was right, but she didn't want to admit it and she definitely didn't want to admit that or explain what had happened to her to the stranger. She didn't even want to talk to him or see him.
Well, that was a lie. She had been telling herself that all day, and yet she knew it was a lie. Not only was she extremely curious about who he was and where he came from, she just liked to look at him. In all that strangeness, he was still more attractive than anyone in her village. Or than anyone of the neighboring villages, either. She walked into her village and looked around, trying to think of where her father would be at this time. Finally she found him at the other side of the village, apparently just thinking. Which wasn't something he did often.
"Father?" she asked quietly, but loud enough that he snapped out of his thoughts and turned around. His serious look was replaced with a smile.
"Sora, there you are. Mimi tells me you got angry at him, " she didn't need him to tell her who 'he' was, "and you went up in your tree for a few hours.,"
She nodded.
"Well, don't worry; I've had him locked up and put away, and if he still refuses to tell us any information, I'll have him executed."
Sora immediately felt an uncomforable and very unfamiliar feeling in her stomach, like something was gripping her from the inside.
"No, father, please!" she said, with more desperation than she really meant. He looked at her in surprise.
"What is it?"
"Well, I was just thinking... what if I went in to talk to him some more; to tell him everything that's happened... made him more comfortable... I mean, Mimi was right... he's probably just scared of being in an unfamiliar place an all," she explained in a rush. Her father gave her a strange look.
"Please? I'm sure I can do it. Just hold off on any plans of execution or anything. Please father," she pleaded. He sighed.
"Oh, fine. I doubt you'll be able to get through to him; he seems pretty stubborn. But, whatever makes you happy," She grinned, and sprinted off in the opposite direction.
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Matt sat in the dark, slightly damp and uncomfortably chilly tent. His hands were tied behind his back around a tall pole that went through the top of the tent, and he was dying to scratch his leg.
'Damn it! Why do I have to get itchy at a time like this?' he grumbled to himself, fuming. His hands were starting to tingle and go numb, and the breeze running through the tent was starting to make his skin numb also. Suddenly, light from the outside came pouring in, blinding him momentarily, as someone walked inside. A strange scent of something, something spicy, filled the tent. Matt realized just how hungry he was; he hadn't eaten since the afternoon before.
As his eyes adjusted to the semi-darkness again, he recognized the figure in front of him. The bright red hair, the odd name- Sora. The chief''s daughter. What the hell was she doing in here? After that royal hissy fit she had thrown?
She sank to her knees with a tray in her hands. It looked like a bowl of soup and a half a loaf of bread. It did look appetizing, but Matt wasn't about to give in to whatever they wanted just for food.
"I brought you some soup... it's fresh... I made it just this morning, and the cornbread's pretty fresh too," she said quietly, almost completely avoiding his eyes. Her voice was soft, but he thought it sounded like she was trying to be humble.
"What's she planning now... she probably poisoned the soup...' he thought, eyeing her and the bowl suspiciously. As if reading his mind,
"I didn't poison the soup... it's really good," she said, reminding him quite like a child who was eagerly trying to please a parent. She looked at him for a second, cleared her throat, and looked away, seemingly a little embarassed. After a few moments and him not making motions indicating he wanted any of the food she had brought him, she looked up.
"What do you want," he asked coldly, as his stomach protested the stalling, staring her down. She looked so timid and afraid at this point, he almost felt bad for her. For a split second he felt like a jerk for being so cold to her when she was trying to be nice to him.
"Nothing, I jsut thought you might be a little hungry," she whispered. He continued to stare at her angrilly. She then added louder, "I wasn't that hungry for a few days either when..." she stopped, looked up at him, then suddenly rose to her feet. "I'd best be going... things to do..." she mumbled. but as she was exiting the tent, she was stopped.
"Wait!" he said, glad she stopped. He was curious now; something had happened to her before; she looked as if that was an unpleasant memory. She turned around.
"What?" she asked, knowing his question.
"What happened... to you?" he asked, all coldness and anger gone. Sora bit her lip; she hated recounting her story to anyone. It still gave her nightmares. Seeing her reaction, he immediately felt some sorrow for her; she may have been a heathen barbarian, but something had obviously happened to her that affected her deeply.
"You can tell me," he said, not thinking at all that it sounded stupid that here he was, after being rude and ungrateful and just hating her moments ago, and now was telling her that she could confide in him. Apparently she wasn't thinking that either; she didn't get the normal feeling of dread that she got when someone asked. She wanted to tell him. He'd understand... well, sort of.
She sank back down to her knees, and took a breath.
"When I was about 7 or 8, another tribe, one of our rivals, kidnapped me during a brutal war we were going through... I didn't know whether they were going to kill me or anything... Father was telling me to be careful when I went out in the forest alone, and I didn't listen," she said, he throat starting to constrict and hurt and her voice shaking ever so slightly, while she tried to hold back her tears, doing a pretty good job of it. Matt felt awful; she looked like she was about to break. He actually liked seeing her angry at him than like this. She swallowed, and continued.
"A warrior took me back to their camp a few miles away, and the whole night I was tied up."
Matt knew that wasn't the end of the story. But he was almost afraid to know what else had happened to her.
"What did they do to you?" he asked very quietly. She didn't answer immediately, as if she was getting ready to reply.
"The whole night... I was... well... they all were quite drunk and catching the rival chief's daughter was just making them even more big-headed than they wer already," she replied with a disguted tone. "And they... I... they just... all of them, about the 10 who were still conscious after the huge celbration they were throwing, one after one, just... took advantage of me... I was only 7 years old and was completely defenseless, and afterwards they jeered at me and mocked me and some were so drunk they were violent and hit me," she broke down sobbing, surprising him because she had managed to keep her composure during the rest of the story.
"I'm sorry," was all he could think of to say. What do you say to someone who just told you all this after you were a complete ass to them? She was... scarred in a way that he would never understand, and all he could think of to say was 'I'm sorry'. Why was she telling this anyways? He was a potential threat to their village, and she should want nothing to do with him. He should have nothing to do with her, but this was painful to watch.
would it be this hard to listen to and watch this if it were someone else? he thought, half wishing his arms were free to comfort her. She was trying to stop, but the tears just kept coming. She felt like such a fool.
Why am I telling him this and letting myself cry like this? I don't even cry like this when I'm alone... I don't even know him... He probably thinks I'm an idiot, she kept thinking. A few moments later, she regained her composure, it being only disrupted by the occaisional hiccup.
"I'm sorry for that... I usually don't act like that... I don't know what got into me," she said quietly, her head down, quite embarassed.
"It's alright... I really don't know what to say except... I'm sorry," he replied.
"I should be sorry... for how I behaved back in Joe's tent. I guess after... what happened... I don't really take to foreigners that easily. I mean, it wasn't anything about you personally, it's just..." she trailed off.
"Yeah," he replied.
"So... did you still want that soup?" she asked, then laughed a bit when his eyes lit up and he eagerly said "Sure!" She placed the tray in front of him and was about to get up to leave when he asked,
"Uhh... I don't mean to be rude, but could oyu untie my arms... I think it might be a bit easier to eat,"
"Oops," she giggled, and walked behind him. As she was untying the rope, she gasped as she saw his wrists were somewhat raw and a little bloddy from being roughly tied up with the rough rope.
"Oh my god... they really didn't have to tie you up so tightly... your arms look horrible," she said with furrowed brows as she freed his arms.
"Yeah, I know... I'm fine... I've been through worse than this," he replied, rubbing his wrists before digging in to his meal.
They spent the remainder of the afternoon talking and laughing, before she realized how dark it had gotten. It surprised her how fast the time had gone, and also how much they had to talk about. And how they went from hating each other to ebing completely civil and even friendly to each other. She left somewhat unwillingly leaving him to think about what just happened.
Who knew someone who could present themselves as a complete bitch could be easy to talk to?
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"It's all my fault," The brunette moaned, holding a small block of ice to his throbbing head.
"Tai, for the last time, it is not your fault." the young red-headed boy rolled his eyes. The brunette flopped back on his makeshift bed.
"Yes it is, Izzy, and you know it... If I hadn't gotten drunk, then I wouldn't have challenged him to a race, and then he wouldn't have had to save me and then he'd still be here. Instead, he's somewhere down the river, who knows where, perhaps dead, and it's all my damn fault!"
"I'm sure he's not dead," Izzy told him. That's a lie, he added mentally.
"And when we told the captain, he didn't even care... and it's all my fault he's dead... Izzy, what if he got captured by some cannibalistic tribe?" Tai moaned, his head under a pillow.
"Tai, we'll find him. Some of the men do care, and they're out there right now searching for him. I'm sure he's okay," he said. Lies, lies lies, a voice inside his head kept singing.
"I should be out there too!" Tai yelled frustrated, banging his fists on the bed.
"Tai, you know your leg is broken, you can't do anything!" Izzy said for what had to be the 6th time this hour. Tai grumbled something incomprehensible from under the pillow.
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Well, how was it? It was a tad bit longer than the last, but not by much. I know. Hopefully I'll be able to update sooner next week, on Spring Break! Just what I need, some R&R! Please review!