Lailah's Story

Lailah sighed. She had spent how many days in this forest with her 'Chosen'? To be honest, it becoming a little wearisome. The man was as arrogant as they came. She couldn't ask him to get firewood without getting a response similar to, 'You want me to do that?'
As of now, she had taken the opportunity to slip away for a few moments now that he was asleep. It was difficult to get any personal time with him around. She had pulled herself up onto the low branch of a tree with a good vantage point. From her perch, she could see a lot of the forest and the beauty around it. She could have gone further up, but for now she was content with the view of the flowers blooming and the sound of the birds chirping. She tilted her head slightly and closed her eyes, losing herself in the serenity of her location. Her mind lost its worried thoughts and she felt ten times more peaceful, especially now that dusk was falling.
It was decided. Today would be the day she told Abhimani her plan. It couldn't result in too much discord, could it? No, it couldn't.
Lailah felt a small smile tug at the corners of her lips. She would finally gather up the courage to tell him she wanted to travel alone. She would go right away. She was only less than a few hundred feet away from him, she could make it there quickly. Though she didn't quite know why she had never ventured further than a few hundred feet, but she brushed it off as nothing. It wasn't as if she was physically incapable of going more than a few hundred feet, right?
She found her way to their small, make shift camp and found Abhimani's still sleeping body. Softly, she shook his shoulder, trying to awaken him gently. “Hey. Wake up. I have something to tell you,” she said quietly.

One thing Abhimani had not counted on gaining in his rather undignified fall top earth was a rather irritating, noisy puppy. Leah, lialh Lailah whatever her name was had not left him alone for the last 8 days she insisted on hounding him, not a minute of peace.

Abhimani had left the rag tag group as soon as possible mostly because he couldn’t stand there company and if he was completely honest he was mildly unsettled by some of them. He had not counted however on his chosen to follow yapping after him.

Abhimani sighed. Why would she not leave? Had he not made his distain of her clear but there was little else he could do he would not lower himself into striking her…not yet he had some pride left. Which has done you a whole lot of good so far. Abhimani hissed squashing the voiced at the back of his head.

She was beautiful he supposed but too fragile, too soft and so easily broken. She does not belong with me. She’s far too weak, pathetic innocent whispered the little voice again. Abhimani rolled his eyes and settled down for some sleep on the forest floor to take his mind off foolish matters.

As soft shaking woke him up from a rather pleasant dream with falling wild flowers. “Hey. Wake up. I have something to tell you,” she whispered quietly. “Well don’t just stand there, speak quickly”.

There was no twinge of guilt at the hurt in her eyes. None at all.