Chapter 5: 5. The Trials Of Zuri.
In the woods that had already turned dark as night time fell on it, amidst all the animals chattering, creaking branches, rustling leaves, whistling winds, and insects humming, was a beautiful young lady with charmingly gorgeously intimidating eyes and a wonderful youthful smile.
Amidst all of what was happening in that moment, was also August and his thoughts. Never in his wildest dream had he thought the Dark One would have turned out like that. She was not only attractive and young, but also sexually alluring as well. It was wrong of him to think that way, yet under their camp setting by the fireplace, her radiant cheery smile had completely mesmerized him. It was as if she possessed the beauty of a whole village of amazingly beautiful women, and it was a lot to see. His mind wouldn't settle. It functioned wrongly and it wasn't long before he realized he was falling straight to his doom.
True, she didn't possess amazing dark smooth skin, and her hair was definitely unkempt-of course, when would a runaway woman have time to wash her hair and adorn it with nice flashy items-black and untangled it looked, but asides from those down features, Zuri was still beautiful as ever.
They sat in a circle around the fire August had gathered woods to burn, and listened to the tales of little Gavil.
"They murdered all of them, and somehow, only I had managed to escape." Explained Gavil. "I've been running for days now. Four days."
"It's alright now," Ciara who had listened carefully to his tales, finally said. "We have a savior now, and she will avenge your family." She smiled slightly, flashing bright white teeth towards Zuri. Unfortunately, Zuri wasn't even looking.
With bright and shiny eyes, Gavil asked. "A new savior?"
"Yes." Confirmed Ciara.
Now, Zuri might have not been watching, but she could hear them, and clearly.
"Who?" Gavil asked with much excitement.
"The Dark One," Ciara said, confirming her claim with another smile, but this time it was brighter. August was quiet, and perhaps the reason was that his attention had temporarily been stolen by dear Zuri's... well, sparkly brown eyes.
There was silence for a while, besides the wood's muffled noises, until Zuri's sarcasm took the best of her. "Wow, hurray to this savior!" Without taking her eyes off the flaming fire, she uttered. Just loud enough for Ciara to had noticed, and perhaps little Gavil as well because he had on his face a relieved expression. Ciara on the other hand...
"What are you talking about?" She frowned.
"Well, there's another Dark One, my love!" With a smirk turned lively bright eyes, returning back to a smirk, she replied. "Hear that Gavil, we have a savior." She flashed a brief smile to the little boy before returning her attention to the burning fire.
"Gavil, she is the Dark One." Said Ciara, "right, August?" She waited for two seconds, then called out his name again.
As if he were under a trance, August returned his attention to the direction he'd heard his name. "Huh?" Seeing the flustered look on Ciara's face, he quickly added, "Yes, yes."
"Yes what?"
"Huh? I'm s-sorry I didn't get- uh, actually get-"
"Where were you?" Asked Zuri, who pretended to had been blind to the whole scenario.
"Oh, uh I-"
"Doesn't matter." Ciara cut in, revealing yet another frown."What matters now is that you help us, Dark One." Returning her gaze towards Zuri, Ciara continued. "Thankfully, you were able to recognize what just happened today."
"And what just happened?" frowned Zuri.
As if Ciara couldn't believe her eyes, she replied with just the right dose of arrogance. "The boy of course. It's clear that the evil queen was behind this."
"The evil queen?." It came out not really as a question, but rather a repetition of what she'd just heard(and she was as well expecting replies to justify the mentioning of an evil queen).
Almost immediately, Ciara replied. "Yes! You of course don't know why we've come to you for help, but this is it. We need you to vanquish an evil queen and the sooner the better."
"Can you even hear yourself, young woman? You know what?" Completely sure she'd had enough of the strange humans, she rose to her feet. The very first step of an attempt to run again. "Your time is over, lunatics." With a wave of her hands, she thought deep down and manifested with magic, just exactly what she needed: To get away from them. "Except you kid, you're not a lunatic." and with that, she vanished.
****
"Hello there, Lizardo?" A long lizard was strolling quietly along the bark of a big tree, but it wasn't a Lizard. At least it only looked like one, and men called them Lizards but this one, in ancient times was called a Walking Serpent. Well, it was much easier to just call them Lizards.
Her hair was a bird nest except no birds lived inside. They couldn't. I for one think that Zuri's dark and powerful magic would instantly kill any bird trying to live off on her hair.
On the other hand, her hair was not so much of a nest, rather it was thick and saggy. Zuri was tall and slender, but only averagely. Her body posture was all that mattered to her; she was always vigilant. Her boots made it easy for her to run whenever danger flew by, as well as the shirt and firm pants. Nothing could sneak up on her without somehow causing an alert. She had the spirit of a warrior. Not that of the Dark One. She was just... Zuri. So it disturbed her whenever people only saw in her the thoughts and image of some Dark menacing creature, instead of a twenty two years old young black woman.
"I don't understand. I have helped them enough, now do you really wish I continued further?" She flashed a furrowed brow to the Lizard, who for some reason, wasn't bothered at all and might had actually enjoyed the company of a forest woman. "Silence, huh?" She marched around, stomping her feet aggressively on the ground. It took a while before she brought her state of mind to a rest, and only one thing lead her to calmness.
Gavil.
He didn't deserve his fate. Why would anyone want to hurt such a little kid? It didn't make sense to her, because she wanted it to sound reasonable to her ears, but then it struck her.
Her terrible fate was given to her even when she never asked for it. She knew one thing; she was not willing to let poor Gavil share the same fate as she did.
"Oh no, you are right, Lizardo." Zuri paused for a while, taking her time to reconsider. She knew she would regret her actions, but she was willing to pay that price.
She appeared back to the place she had last seen them, and clearly took a moment to observe their faces.
The man was staring into the eyes of the blonde brat, while she sat next to Gavil. Although it was a dark atmosphere, she could still manage under the stars above them. He was resting on her shoulders, listening to things she told him.
Of the strangers before her, august was the most intriguing one. Dressed in a casual tunic, dark coat and pants, he held with him an attribute that Zuri had long been searching for her whole life. The strength of courage. Naturally, he was a leader and unlike her, he knew how to protect himself from threats. He also protected the ones he cared about. A trait which Zuri would never possess.
Although she wondered just the type of relationship they had going; both of them.
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