44 Waking Up

(ATTENTION: THIS CHAPTER MAY CONTAIN TRIGGERING CONTENTS. PLEASE READ WITH CAUTION.)

I am once again numb and overcome with fear as it overrides all of my physical movements. "Move! Do something!" my brain was shouting loudly, yet my body didn't budge. He had a strong hold on me, including control of my volunteering movements.

"No!" The screams in my head continued as I stared out into space, dazed and emotionless.

"Oh this whore is submitting! REALLY? Not even going to fight me this time, eh?" Bjork yelled out in a roaring laughter.

He pushed my face down into the dirt, one knife in one hand pressing down onto my back as his free hand tugs at my trousers, trying to undress me.

"I've been waiting for this day for a long time!" He laughed in excitement.

I can feel his arousing shaft resting stiffly on top of my legs as he struggled to pull down my trousers. "What the fuck!" he yelled out in frustration.

Yes, because of Bjork I've learned to knot my trousers in a way where no one can ever undo them by force. The more you pull the tighter the knot got.

I felt a tug on my trouser as I lifted for a moment and then I heard my trouser tear in a slice. I guess he couldn't undo my trousers and decided to just use the knife. He then attempts to undress himself, groaning ecstatically.

"Sereen!" Nana's voice blew into my ears with the cool breeze. Suddenly, I can feel something cold at the tips of my fingers. This is the moment. I need to do something to save myself, again.

I reached out and gripped one of Jerell's ceramic potion jars tightly into the palm of my hand. I made sure the grip is tight so that it wouldn't fly off. In one swift move, I swung it around aiming right at Bjork's head and hitting him as hard as I could right in his temple. For a second, I thought I heard the sound of pebbles crunching, but it only took me a moment to realize that it was the sound of his skull crushing underneath the ceramic jar that was now shattered into pieces partially in my hand and scattered all along the ground.

Immediately, Bjork fell to the ground and spasm into what looked like a seizure. I looked at my hand, bloodied from the shards of the remaining potion jar.

"NOW!" Nana's voice rang.

I stood up, tossed the rest of what was in my hands into his face, and quickly collected my things. I then turned to Bjork and gave him a few very satisfying, very hard kicks right into his groin area, praying that I could break whatever it was that drove him to do what he did, so that he will never ever harm anyone again.

"Go!" Nana's voice demanded. "Go now, before he wakes."

I wanted to kill him, but Nana was right to lead me away. I had no weapons and I had to make sure I was going to survive this situation for me and for my unborn child's sake.

Again, I find myself running and asking myself, "Where is Jerell?" No time to wait, run towards the smoke. Bjork is here… that means he was fleeing whoever was camping. Run there." I was telling myself.

Suddenly, I felt my body jerk forward as I tripped on something protruding out of the unlevel terrain. I tumbled down a hill and into a ditch nearby. My breath was winded from the impact of my horrific fall from my unforgiving surroundings and all my things in my bags were forcefully swung out my bag.

Everything went black.

*

Jerell was collecting his kills, which were just a couple of hares and squirrels, while trying to hurry back to Sereen. He had seen fire and scouted around to find that it was the Ma'iingan's camp. Excited, he rushed back to give Sereen the good news. Jerell hates when Sereen becomes impatient waiting for him to return with meat. He knows how hangry Sereen can get if she doesn't get any food in her system. She can be happy one minute, sad another, and then just straight up angry. It kills him inside to see Little One in such disdain.

Finally, Jerell retrieved his last catch from the last snare, but as he was loosening the wires around the dead squirrel's neck, someone or something had hit him hard at the back of his head. When he came to, he was all tied up and hanging upside down off a tree.

Bjork gave him an ugly smile from below and shouted up to him. "Oi, I'm sure you can see a lot from up there. you know how I found you?" Bjork chuckled, "you never make fire… so I'm guessing you have someone with you! Tell me, whoever is with you, are they precious to you?"

"Don't even think about it!" Jerell yelled.

Bjork smiled then picked up his scythe and limped away in the direction of their campfire, in the direction of Sereen.

"I knew I shouldn't have made fun of Sereen. I knew I should have taken this stupid rope with me; it's the same rope that Sereen was caught in a few days ago." Jerell can see the orange evidential thread protruding from the lining of the rope, proving it were the very same rope. "Shit!" he screamed out. "Bjork, I'm going to kill you!"

Jerell's blood rushed to his head as he dangled upside down. It dripped out of the fresh gash that was now throbbing and he felt as if he was an animal gutted and hung up to dry. Just then, he remembered Sereen's garter dagger that he had taken with him for his hunt. He had strapped it on his ankle. Jerell tried to reach his arm up to his ankle, but struggled to retrieve it in his weird angle.

Jerell was forced to take breaks in between tries so he doesn't overexert himself. Minutes turned to an hour until finally he was able to grab hold of his dagger and pull it out.

"Now the hard part, cutting through all the ropes to finally loosen himself." He said out loud to give himself more spirit. Again, hours went by. It wasn't until midday when he finally fell through the ropes, only to land onto the hard ground.

Jerell moaned and coughed in pain. "Shit!" He forced himself to stand up and run towards Sereen, but suddenly became dizzy. The loss of blood and the sudden change of gravitational pull from being looped up upside down for too long has made him a little disoriented.

As he was running, he was also stumbling all over the place.

"Sereen!" his shallow voice tried to call out, but it was too late. He is completely out of stamina and passes out onto a pile of leaves at the stump of a tree a little more than a hundred meters away from their campsite.

*

When I regained consciousness, it was already dark. The crickets were chirping and the night sky was flaunting its stars.

I sat up, groaning in immense pain. My knees ache in excruciating pain from the fall. Shit, I've got to grab all of my things and continue running. I grab my bag and quickly began to recollect all of my things that were now scattered all over the place from my tumbling. Some items were still missing, but I've stalled long enough. I loop the torn up trouser together and double knot it behind my buttock to prevent it from opening. I can feel dirt, grime and debris all stuck inside the crevices of bottom, but there is no time to waste on cleaning oneself.

I began to run up the hill to get out of the ditch. I tried as best I could to run while trying to ignore the burning pain from both knees, but my run seemed to be lagged.

Just then, I felt a new kind of pain. It was sharp and deep, on the back side of my left shoulder. My initial thought, "bee sting this late at night? I thought bees don't fly at night!" I glance backwards and see Bjork with a crossbow, reloading to take another shot. The next arrow shot right past my face and I duck as I make a run for my life.

The cold air burning in my lungs brought back many unwanted memories. With every breath I took in, I pushed my legs to work a little harder. "Come on, legs. Come on!" I yelled. I took in another deep breath and to my avail I could smell burning wood. "Campfire, YES, fire means people!" and I did the only logical thing anyone in my position could do. I screamed for help.

"Help! Help! Someone, HELP!" I shrieked as loud as my lungs would let me.

Running footsteps followed from behind me and I feared Bjork was catching up to me.

"Watch out, BUDDY!" Jerell's voice called out. Relief and dread saturated me as my mind quickly understood Jerell's action..

Jerell jumped onto my back, knocking the both of us down. I heard the whistle of another shot fired and my gut sickened knowing what Jerell just did. He had lunged himself in front of a deadly shot that would have plunged through my head, but instead the arrow embedded itself into his back. My heart sunk deep into the pit of my stomach.

It's now life or death. My only friend, my buddy. I twisted my body around to hold him as he laid lifelessly on top of my legs. My tears streamed uncontrollably at that point as I forced myself to try to sit up to look at his face.

"Jerelly! Jerelly, you better not die on me. You have to stay alive… stay alive for me. You owe me that much you pompous traitor! Don't you dare die on me!" I shouted at him.

I struggled to push Jerell off of my legs, seeing that Bjork was limping his way towards us, wrestling to reload another arrow into his crossbow.

I finally broke free from Jerell's weight and embraced him tightly into my arms. Then I whispered to him, "You saved me, Jerelly." I pulled his face into my direction so I could look at him.

*Fiyuuuu~ another arrow flew by.

I ignore the shot to give Jerell my full attention."Why are you covered in blood?" I search for the arrow that had hit him and see it still glued to his back. "Jensen, always knew you were a good guy, Jerelly. Good guys don't die. You cannot die. I command you to wake back up now!" I demanded, tears filling up my eyes again.

*fiyuuu~ another arrow flies nearly hitting me this time.

"Please… I am your Buddy. I am your Little One, remember? I know you can hear me. Please, Jerell… don't die." I begin to feel a weight anchoring heavily on my chest. My sobs turned into wailing, and my heart seemed to have been pulled out of my chest, exposed and displayed for all to see as it pumped its last beats.

(Why does everyone I love always end up dying?) I thought angrily to myself as I wiped away my droplets of tears splattered onto Jerell's bloodied face. I gave him a tender kiss on his forehead, held what was left of him in my arms, and closed my eyes.

I felt his hand touch my face and I quickly looked down at him."I'm alright," he mumbled, "knowing you're alright will make me alright." Jerell whispered, though his eyes remained closed. "I just need to rest. You have no idea the ordeal I had to go through to get to you, today."

"I can only imagine." I replied, tears dripping from my eyes onto his bloodied face and creating clear streaks as it slid off the edges. "Please don't die."

*thunk~

"Fecking bloody hell, worthless piece of shit!" Bjork roared as he tripped on the crossbow and fell foolishly onto the ground.

I watched as Bjork tussled to get back up, when I heard Jerell say, "You know you have snot running down your nose, right? How very unlady-like of you, Little one."

I let out a sobbing chuckle and palmed away the blood from his head.

I looked up at Bjork, who was now aiming crossbow right at my face from a short distance away.

"Awe, how lovely." Bjork said, "How very unfortunate." He began to laugh maniacally and then I heard the trigger click and whistle of the arrow made its way straight at me.

"My baby." I heard my voice whisper out loud as a vision quickly passes through me. Again, I heard my voice, only this time it wasn't a whisper.

"NOOOO!" I screamed, and as if it were magic, time slowed down into a motionless pause. All I saw moving was a bright light that bursted from within me as my screams turned into a roar, batting the arrow out of my way. Sparks flew from my white emitting light and traveled into the shape of a dragon, electrocuting everything in its path toward Bjork in white ultraviolet rays.

As the lightning sparks hit Bjork, I watched as his flesh sizzled like meat broasted in overheated oil and boils burst from the surface of this skin. His body tensed up and he bit his tongue so hard it was nearly mutilated, dangling by a string of flesh outside of his mouth. I observed him with complete ease as he fell stiff as a board onto the burnt terrain around him.

Time seemed to return to normal and all I could hear was my own breath. I just stared at Bjork's lifeless body, steam rising off of him as the light of the dawn and the rising sun reflected the smoke. Bjork's charred remains were now unrecognizable. I took a disgusted sniff and spat towards his corpse.

"Wahhh," a crowd of voices said behind me. I turned my unexpecting gaze to look behind me and when I did, it was all of my people looking back at me. The Ma'iingan tribe stood behind me bewildered and in awe.

Giken walked slowly to my side, showing his two palms as a sign of peace. "Sereen, my love. You are safe now. Naniizaanizi gaawiin giiyaabi… he is no longer dangerous."

"Giken," I whispered, finally recognizing his face as I came back to my senses, " Please…Giken…look at be my friend… he is hurt. Please save my friend." I cried, and for the first time in such a long time, as our eyes locked.

Giken studied Jerell for a little bit then said, "This man is the one who took you from the tribe." He puffed in a resenting tone.

"Yes, but only because he thought I needed saving. He is a childhood friend. Please." I pleaded.

Giken raises his eyebrows at Mooji and she, along with her followers, comes rushing to Jerell's aid, pulling him away from my arms.

"Sereen, are you alright? Are you hurt anywhere? We heard your screams for help and we all ran here to help you, but you… you were…" Giken paused as he searched my eyes.

He embraced me into his arms and the warmth and safety he projected only me made my lips tremble as I began to cry again. "Finally," I thought to myself, "I am safe in the arms of the man I love."

Giken gently kissed the top of my head and whispered into my ear, "Sereen, you were magnificent. I've never seen anything like it. It were as if you were a~"

"...dragon." I finished his sentence, and I whispered, "I know."