The following morning, I woke up to find my belongings had been returned to me. my coat jacket was now hanging on the wall beside the door and my boots were propped up on the ground underneath it. I got dressed then opened the door. I peered into the hallway of the temple and found it empty. I could hear the bustling of people outside, as well as the laughter of children. That suddenly made me remember the little girl. I needed to find her.

The hallway was illuminated by fire lamps lined up on the wall and I could see there were four other doors. Two on my left, and two on my right. Including mine, that made a total of five rooms. This was going to be a problem. I thought. I didn’t know which of the doors led into the room I was looking for. I recalled Lumia, the very pretty, very tall healer lady from last night saying something about how the little girl’s room was right next to mine. But since there were multiple doors on either side of my room, I was at a complete loss as to which of them was it.

I got out of my room and closed the door behind me. I needed to find the little girl. I was going to try every room by knocking on the door first. If a staff replied, I was simply going to ask them to point me in the right direction. I started with the immediate door to my right. I knocked on it, and the voice that came from inside suddenly froze my legs to the spot.

“Come in.” the voice said, and I instantly recognized who it belonged to.

It was Lumia.

But I wasn’t ready to talk to her.

I thought of what to say but I didn’t know how to reply. I thought of opening the door but I didn’t know if I was going to be able to convince my legs to walk into her room or not. An image of her face from last night suddenly popped into my head. Her snowy white skin, her jet-black hair. She was absolutely beautiful. I was so caught up in my day dreaming I didn’t take notice of the moment her door slowly creaked open and she peered out.

“Oh, you’re up.” she said, smiling. “I was just about to finish up and come get you down for breakfast. How did you sleep.”

She stood gazing at me while she waited for me to reply. “Snap out of it dummy.” Rachel said in my head, causing me to regain my focus. I faked clearing my throat then quickly issued a reply to Lumia, who was still patiently standing there, waiting for me to get my bearings.

“It was good.” I said. “How about you? I mean yours? I mean you? I mean fuck.”

She burst into sudden laughter and it was the most amazing thing I had ever heard. After she calmed herself down, she apologized for losing her decorum then told me to give her a moment while she finished getting ready. As soon as she was done, she stepped out of her room clad in her crimson bawl like gown from the previous night. Then she stepped in beside me, and we made our way downstairs for breakfast.

***

As soon as we stepped outside the temple after we had finished eating, the world became so much brighter. There were people everywhere. Merchants selling goods, black smiths clanking away at their iron. A few kids ran past me almost running into me in the process, but I suddenly remembered why I had woken up so early.

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Lumia had asked one of the other junior girls in the temple and they told her the little girl had finished her food early and had gone out to play. I was busy searching around for her in the nearby crowd when Lumia placed a hand on my shoulder and pointed in a direction opposite from the temple gates. A group of children were gathered round another smaller kid who was busy showing them something she was holding in her hands. This particular kid had cropped black hair and was holding a water lizard in her hands.

I was about to call out to her when I suddenly realized I didn’t know her name. I remember asking her about it when she had showed up at the cabin, but I quickly understood that the only word she was able to say was the letter ‘e’. I didn’t know if it was because she simply couldn’t talk yet, or perhaps it was some kind of developmental disability or vocal trauma brought on by injury when she was a baby. So, since I couldn’t get her attention from that distance, I began to stroll towards her with Lumia coming up behind me.

“Hey sun fruit, what you showing everyone?”

Seeing me approaching, the children suddenly made way so the little girl could see me. and the moment she did, her eyes grew wide and she immediately rushed towards me for a hug. I had to drop down to my knees so she could actually wrap her tiny arms around my neck.

“I missed you too Sun fruit.” I said, patting her on the back. She released me from the hug and then immediately turned her attention to the ground as if looking for something. Then a tiny invisible critter leapt onto the side of her white dress and rushed up her shoulder. “You too Slick.” I said, as the water lizard slowly made himself visible again while sitting on her shoulder. “I missed you guys both.”

I allowed the little girl to rejoin her friends while Lumia took me on a small tore of the town. She showed me the other temples, the markets, the various spots for tourists, and the restaurants. Some of the people we passed by fixed me with curious gazes, as if they knew right away that I was an outsider.

“It’s because of your height.” Lumia said, smiling. “Not many folks around town have seen someone as tall as you before.” She said this last part despite being only a few inches shorter than me. compared to the other women around town, she was practically one of the tallest if not the tallest woman around.

We eventually made our way to a garden where we sat side by side on a bench crafted from stone. There were kids playing around and running all over the place. I spotted the little girl among the children, in the midst of her friends. Slick was peaking out of her dress pocket, just chilling and going along for the ride.

“So, I guess they haven’t found her family yet.” I said, watching the little girl as she played with her friends. Lumia followed my gaze and understood what I was talking about.

“Not quite.” she said. “We did ask around but nobody could recognize her. We paid a visit to the orphanage, but even they didn’t seem to know who she was. You said you found her in the forest? What was she doing there?”

“I don’t know.” I replied. “But she seemed lost and a little hungry.”

After a moment had past with neither of us saying anything, I was suddenly conscious of how close we were sitting on the bench. Her snowy white skin was even brighter under the morning sun, and her luscious black hair looked incredible as always. She really was extremely beautiful, and I really wanted to say it to her. But, after formulating the sentence in my head, I couldn’t bring myself to say anything. I didn’t know how she was going to react.

Suddenly from a distance, I watched as one of the junior girls from the temple was running towards us with a panic expression on her face. Lumia was on her feet even before the girl arrived, and I joined her standing up.

“Emilia what is it? what happened? Why are you running?” Lumia asked the clearly frightened girl as she finally caught up to us and began panting.

“It’s the farmers.” The girl said, still trying to catch her breath. “Their under attack.”

“From what?” Lumia demanded. “What is attacking them?”

“Sigumanju!” the girl cried out, her voice shaking with terror. “They are Sigumanju in the fields and they are attacking the farmers.”

A chill suddenly ran down my spine as I realized what she was talking about. Widow makers, the massive, six-legged arachnid like creatures that could easily rip apart an entire village in a single afternoon, were now killing farmers out in the fields. From my experience fighting just one of the creatures, I instantly knew none of the farmers would be able to defend themselves, especially if they were caught unaware. It was going to be a slaughter. Unless I could do something about it.

“Go. Get the children inside.” Lumia said to the frightened girl before turning to face me. however, before she could say anything to stop me, I was already on the move.

“What’s the fastest route to the farmers?” I asked Rachel as I walked away from the garden, towards where I last saw a bunch of horses lined up in a stable. But when I found one parked in the streets instead, I apologized to the owner letting him know it was an emergency.

I climbed on top of the saddle and prepared to leave. Then, while I was distracted reading the map that had appeared in a corner of my vision, I felt a hand touch my knee and saw Lumia staring up at me from the side of the horse, with a determined look on her face.

“I’m coming with.”