Hey guys! Remember Chapter 7, where it was basically an emotional stream from Haytham? This one is the same but from Ziio.
I know it's become a little sad. Don't worry, it will get happier! Enjoy. :)
Time passed.
The daisies swayed with the sighing trees for only one more month. The songbirds and furry scavengers were no longer miniature. The grass – once a vibrant inchworm – was now a dull, drained complexion. The sun no longer hovered in the sky watching us all with warm pride as if we were its children: it glared mercilessly down at the land, scorching every last scuttling creature, and causing thick steam clouds to rise from the rivers. With the humid air came thousands of mosquitoes, who lathed themselves onto the skin like black slime. We had been born largely resilient to their bite but never was the pain fully masked.
Summer was here, and not a word from Haytham.
I began to feel betrayed at first. I assumed that perhaps he had been otherwise busy, but...he could've at least called in once? Even the children were asking after him. Even Koshisigre – who, to everyone's utmost relief – had made a full recovery, wanted to thank him. I supposed I'd become too used to this pattern of his visits. I shouldn't have excited myself so. Life is full of enough disappointments as it is.
I knew that just under six months ago I despised the man. My only desire was to be as far away from him that is physically possible. But he hurled me out of my orbit of hating the British, wanting to kill the British, igniting trouble for the British. I know by now that to convert a woman like me would take more patience than I dared to imagine. But the fact that Haytham did, and that he wanted to...it made me feel valued by him. I liked that.
Perhaps I liked it a little too much. How stupid of me to soften at the edges and learn to love something. Hadn't I already learned from life not to become too close to anyone, or my heart would only be broken (as it already had been a thousand times, it seemed)?
No matter how much I tried to build this protective layer around myself again, I couldn't stop the feeling. The feeling I wanted to deny so badly, yet couldn't. The feeling that both pierced my heart and sent it beating faster.
I miss him.