Whisper in the Dark

Chapter 5

Adult Content 18+

The effects of the venom finally wore off and Soraya was able to get up from where her sister had left her after she dressed her. According to the stranger, it was the territory of the Manuka tribe. They were peace-loving farmers, so they had nothing to fear and could rest there for the night in peace.

Soraya felt violated, torn, deprived, saddened and utter hate. Her emotions were tearing her apart. She blamed herself, if only she had not gotten into the water. She did not know how to comprehend what had happened to her. She screamed but no sound would come out of her mouth and the tears just flowed freely down her cheeks. She sobbed and sobbed and nothing would come out and her heart felt like it was in agony and severely constrained in her chest, overwhelmed with the pain and violation of what happened. She prayed inwardly that someone would put a knife through her heart to relieve her from this draining, gut wrenching pain that was consuming her. He broke her. He violated her. He abused her. He . . . she couldn't. He or it took her innocence, her virginity, her vibrance. The world has lost its colour and Soraya has lost her will to live. She hugs her knees tightly, sitting there crying the last bit of her life out of her. He reduced her to nothing. He took her sacred gift she was guarding against all odds. She felt sore and ripped. She felt embarrassed.

Her mind twisted and turned in all different directions as to what she was going to say if questioned about what happened. She finally rested on the decision that she was going to keep that part to herself and avoid the embarrassment. She can't deal with having to talk about what happened. A piece of hers has been stolen. She would rather just bury it with all of her emotions. Dealing with it is too painful, no, it is unbearable. How could all those women who would speak up live with it and look so strong? Her body was shaking uncontrollably with guilt and pain. She sat there holding her knees until she stopped crying.

Soraya dried her face the best she could and got up and walked with difficulty to where her sister was seated with the stranger around a campfire. Her assailant ripped her and it has begun to burn as she tries to move. Luckily, the night would conceal her tear-streaked face. She came to sit next to the stranger wanting to thank him but stopped when she came into the light of the fire. She can't stand to be close to a man right now.

Alexa wrapped her in a hand-woven blanket they found in one of the huts and continued as far as they could during the daytime after the stranger saved them. She had an ill feeling in her stomach regarding this stranger. She could not place it but she did not trust him in the least bit. His timing was very impeccable and she did not scream. So how did he know where she was?

“You are awake! How are you feeling?” Alexa questioned her sister. Her eyes seemed concerned for her sister.

Soraya immediately knew that the stranger told her how he had found her.

“I am fine now that I am dressed. Thank you.” her tone cold towards her sister.

Alexa could sense the animosity from her sister but did not push it any further. She was not sure if something had happened or if the stranger, who had since introduced himself as Ritro, barged in just in time to stop something from happening. The thought of her sister being violated like that made her cringe. She pushed the thought aside and decided to leave it. Her sister will talk to her when they are alone. Soraya could not keep anything a secret.

Ritro stared at the two girls in curiosity before realizing they felt his eyes on them. Both of them looked at him simultaneously.

“Uhm...Hi, I am Ritro,” he quickly said to Soraya and extended his hand to greet her. “I assume this is the custom from where you are from. We are familiar with the traditions of Earth here.”

Soraya looked at his hand but did not take it. Instead, she turned to her sister sitting on the other side of the fire and took a seat next to her.

“Soraya, Ritro was just telling me about the tribe we met today.” Alexa hoped that changing the conversation would lighten the mood.

“Yes! As I told your sister, the people, or Nommo, as we call them that you encountered today are half fish, half-human. They descended over 8000 years ago from where we do not know. They have evolved over the years to the species we know now. It is said that a previous princess of our people fell in love with their prince in their previous form. She gave birth to an illegitimate child. Her people tried to kill her and the child when her pregnancy became visible. The princess escaped in the night to save her unborn child. It is said she gave birth to a child and raised multiple children with him in coves all over. They fled as soon as someone became aware of their presence. Both were outcasts from their people. He did return to take his rightful place on his throne. This was the apparent existence of the Nommo as we know them today. They were not as educated, well-spoken, or developed. There are many theories out there that speak of a prophecy that another princess will rise to birth and raise the next heir to their throne.”

“Wait a minute! How old is the current ‘king’?” Alexa asked as she made quotation marks when speaking the word king.

“As old as the tribe, I guess,” Ritro said.

“How is that possible?” Soraya quickly chirped in as she felt life leave her. Is that thing that took her an old, old Nommo? It makes her shiver at the thought. An old man took advantage of her, a pedophile.

“Easy. We do not age here.”

“What do you mean here?” Alexa looked at Ritro concerned.

“This is not Earth, as you people call that primitive planet. You are on Rusha. It was once a peaceful planet, a living planet, but it has seen better centuries. Our planet is alive, similar to yours, but she moves and she speaks to us when she has had enough. I have never seen it firsthand, but according to some, Rusha has swallowed some tribes whole due to their sin against her. There were many more of us. We do not die of age. We are killed or Rusha curses you with sickness. If you fall ill, you are exiled because Rusha has cursed you. No one mixes with a cursed individual in fear of Rusha’s wrath.”

The girls looked with complete awe at Ritro as he explained to them what sounded like a folktale. Nothing he said made sense, but neither did the few days they have had so far. The odd-looking castle with its eerie presence, the dark forest with its secretive mist, or the weird-looking species they came into contact with. It felt all too surreal. Nothing in this place or the world they found themselves in was adding up and the deeper they got into it, the more trapped but intriguing it became to them. Curiosity started to nibble away at them and they just had to explore more, see more and hear more of this fantasy world they did not even know existed a week ago.

“Do you think Rusha would approve our coming here?” Soraya quickly chirped in.

“To be quite honest...” he pauses for a moment and takes a deep breath, rubbing the back of his neck “... I do not even know who you are or how you two got from Earth to Rusha. How is that even possible? I can see you are from Earth because you are human.”

“We do not know either, all we know is that one minute our parents are brutally slaughtered and the next we wake up on this planet in a cell.” Alexa struggles to get the words out as her voice starts cracking as she struggles to keep the tears back. “It does not make any sense.”

Ritro sees her emotions trying to get the better of her. He looks at the ground so as to not embarrass her if she should start to cry. He can see that Alexa takes pride in her strong stance she tries to portray. Other than that, he truly did not know what to say to comfort her. Soraya quickly changes the conversation to a lighter tone.

“So Ritro... who are you?”

“Uhm, I am a simpleton. I am not someone of worth around here. I am a pilgrim. I have no home, no family, and no place to go. I travel to where there is work and food. I am a Ghoona. We are the majority of the species on this planet. We look very human-like except for our distinct tribal markings that we were born with. Each tribe has some differences.”

“I am so sorry to hear that.” Soraya immediately felt guilt creeping in for asking such a question.

“It is okay. It is not as bad as you think. There are many of us. On Rusha you belong mostly to a tribe or you are a pilgrim. As a pilgrim, you do not answer to any chief, except to the king or queen of that land that you find yourself in. The law stays the law and the law is the king or the queen. Some are lenient and some are not. You quickly pick up the way of the people where you are. You keep to yourself to stay out of trouble and work hard so that when work becomes available they will hire you. I prefer the open sea any day, but at this point and the ongoing feuds between the kingdoms, it is too dangerous to be out on the sea.”

“What do you mean ongoing feuds?” Alexa is immediately concerned. Why would the two of them be brought to a place in turmoil, unless they carry some significance and that alone makes her even more concerned?

Alexa’s mind was racing with possibilities of why they could be here. She knows that they possessed unique qualities that the people on Earth did not have. They were always warned by their parents not to let anyone know about them or see it. As they age, they become stronger. Alexa and Soraya each had their own abilities and, according to their parents, they will learn a lot more about themselves until they fully mature at the age of twenty-one. She never really thought about it much as the secretiveness of their abilities made it even more difficult to train and learn to control them. As secluded as they lived on Earth, it did not help much. She still recalls one incident when she lit an entire part of the house on fire. It was like a firestorm that broke loose in their living room when she learned about her then-boyfriend cheating. She felt murderous that day. Their parents still had difficulty explaining to the fire brigade what happened. It nearly cost them the insurance money to repair their home. Alexa loved that home and the smell of it. It was by far the best home that they lived in, but after that incident, they moved to another country. Since then, she and Soraya acquired two additional languages. Now, in the light of all that has happened, such knowledge that she once thought would be useful proved to be useless.

“Well, this world is divided into nine realms. This is just one of the realms. Each realm has tribes in it of different species, but only one king and queen. This realm that you are currently in is called Illuminada and it is run by Queen Vaneska. She is also the queen of Diem and Alantska. You can say by the name that the latter is cold and a water world. Each realm contains the same type of species but the royals are of different blood. Queen Vaneska is known for shapeshifting. She can transform into any species and inherit their abilities. She is the most feared of the royals. The Nommo used to rule Alantska until she dethroned them. Now they dwell wherever they find coves.”

“It still does not make sense why we are here,” Soraya added.

“It does not, but it does not help us now to ponder on it. We need to find a way to get out of here. I do not want to find out why we are here because I do not think we are going to like it.” Alexa could not shake the worry she felt about this whole scenario. Something surely did not add up and if they were brought into cells into the castle, then Queen Vaneska was sure to be the one behind this. Something just told her the queen is the one behind this.

“You are right. I am just really hungry at this point. Regardless of what else might happen, I might die of hunger and thirst first.” On that note, Alexa’s stomach started rumbling as well. With everything that has happened, they had completely forgotten about hunger until Soraya mentioned it.

Ritro started laughing at the girls’ tummies, speaking louder than them. “Do not worry, Ritro’s got you covered!”