Alright, so I've decided to add chapter 2. I'm waiting for some kind of feedback on chapter 1 but yea. Please read and review this chapter too.
The next morning Elise woke up to the baby crying. She looked up at a woman reaching for Iya. The woman smiled at Elise. "Don't worry about her, darling. I'll feed her, you just get some sleep." Elise nodded and went back to sleep.
A little later, Dijori came in and woke up Elise. "I need you to come with me. We need to talk." Elise nodded and followed her brother outside. "Do you have any idea where Josh might have gone?"
Elise shook her head and stood in silence for a moment. Then it hit her, "Mom always told us that if anything were to happen, we should run home. I always thought it was run to where the last of our family is. And that's here. I don't know what he thought of it." She stood there thinking.
"Hmm… Could he have run back to the house he was raised in?" Dijori asked.
"I don't know. But it's worth a try."
Dijori nodded. "I'll send a team of people over there to check the place out. Maybe there's still stored food in the cellar. I'll have them check there too. We're running too low on supplies to take risks." He sighed. "We may have to move. We've raided everything we could find."
Nina walks out. "Miss Elise?" Elise turned and saw Nina carrying Iya. "She won't settle down." She handed the squirming baby to Elise. "She finished eating and started crying. I figured you'd be the only one who knew how to calm her down so I brought her to you."
"Thank you Nina." Nina bowed and left. "Iya…It's me. You'll be alright." Iya stared to calm down and she looked up at Elise. Elise smiled. "You wanna meet your other brother?" She turned Iya to face Dijori.
Dijori lightly touched Iya's hand. "Hi. I'm sorry you haven't gotten to know me." He sighed. "I'm sorry for not being there to save mom." He looked at Elise. "But that's going to change. I will bring this family together." Iya cooed and put her fist in her mouth.
"If I'm going to try to take care of her I need to start acting like a guardian." She looked up at Dijori. "I lost my baby. I'm not going to lose this one too."
"You can always ask the mothers here for help." He suggested. "I'm going to get a group together and go look for Josh."
"Thank you. I'm going to thank the mother who fed Iya." She hugged her brother and went back in. She walked over to the mother that took Iya that morning. "Umm… Excuse me..?" The woman looked up at her. The woman was holding another baby up to her chest, obviously nursing. "Hi. I'm Elise."
"Oh. Hi. She can't still be hungry can she?" The woman looked a little surprised.
Elise laughed a little. "No. I got her to calm down. I wanted to thank you for feeding her."
The woman smiled. "I'm Kat by the way. And don't worry too much. It's the least I could do for the alliance." She looked down at the baby who stopped nursing. She continued to talk as
she covered herself and began to burp the baby. "I'm one of the two nursing women whose milk drops at the cry of any baby. I took yours because the other women are either starting to dry up or have enough babies to tend to. I just had mine not long ago so I have enough to last for the ones that are soon to be weaned."
Elise smiled. "I dried up after she was born." Kat looked at her a little surprised. Elise laughed. "This one isn't mine. This is actually my sister."
"Oh. I'm sorry. If you don't mind my asking, what happened to yours?"
Elise frowned slightly and held Iya closer. "She died. She got sick and I wasn't able to leave. My father is one of the men on the science team. The government would cut our food supply every year. They wouldn't allow my father the medicine because my baby was a natural." Elise felt tears fall down her cheeks. "I watched her die. She got worse day by day. And then they my husband. They told him that he either had to join them or else. He wouldn't do it. They were killing his family and if he joined them it still wouldn't change."
"I'm sorry." Kat looked away, embarrassed.
Elise shook her head. "I'm glad I can tell someone. My baby died when she was a year. My mom gave birth to Iya a little while later. The government, however, found out she was pregnant and wanted my father to kill her before the baby was born." Her anger grew as she thought about him. "I'm glad he let me run away with Iya but I hate him for killing my mother." She paused and calmed herself down. "I remember when he was so in love with her."
"I'm sorry…" Kat looked sad. She had a look of a person with a scared past. Something had happened and she still couldn't open up about it. But at the same time she had met ends with herself and gotten over it.
Elise smiled at her. "It's ok. I miss my husband but he loved me and our daughter. He did what he felt was right. I do miss my baby too. And no one can replace them. But I have to be stay strong for Iya now. I can't let the past weaken me. I'll only get harder from here on."
Kat smiled. "That's a good thing to learn. I didn't learn that until a little bit before I gave birth to mine." Kat looked down and smiled at her sleeping baby.
Dijori came over and bowed. "Elise, would you like to come look for Josh or stay here?"
Elise shook her head. "I'm gonna stay and look around the area. I'm gonna get something to munch on and then find some place to shower."
Dijori smiled. "Alright. You be careful, ok?" He hugged his sister and kissed her on the forehead. "We're going to look for Josh now." He bowed. "Ladies." The two women smiled and nodded. He smiled and ran off.
"He has a good heart." Kat started. "It's hard to believe that a man as kind as him can be the leader of and alliance such as this."
Elise nodded. "I'm gonna go look around. Do you mind watching Iya?" She asked.
"Not at all." Kat smiled as Elise handed Iya to her. "I'll take good care of her."
Elise kissed Iya and went to walk around. She blushed every time someone bowed to her. 'Is this how it always is? My brother isn't the only leader…nor is this the only group.'Elise just shook her head and shrugged it off.
She finally stumbled onto an old bath house. She was surprised to find it still in good shape. She heated up the bath and went to find soap. She was lucky and found two bars and a small bottle of shampoo. She also found a cupboard still full of towels.
She sat her stuff down next to the bath and stepped in. She sank down into the warm water. "Mmhm…This feels good." She smiled and relaxed. She slowly drifted off into sleep. The dream that followed her disturbed her.
