Wild, The Child and their Warrior

Long raven curls flowed down her back and blew in the wind at the top of the ledge. She stood leaning on a pole of bamboo feeling the impermanence of the moment and reveling in the present. The pole bent slightly underneath her weight, preventing a nasty decent, the tip of the obsidian dagger strapped to her thigh dangled in the wind. She wondered how much longer the child would be.

Behind her, in a cave tucked inside the slope of the lands edge, a small girl with mud covered toes skipped into the light from the recesses of the dark. In her tiny hands was a box the size of her chest. She appeared from the extreme slope of the hill and the woman breathed out a sigh of relief. The girl came skipping over towards her, triumphant with a bleeding cut on her thigh.

“You have to be a little more careful.” The elder said, as she cleaned and wrapped the wound. The girl winced but her smile stayed.

“We needed to get it. You’re too big now Elelle.”

“I know.” THEY was written jaggedly across the top and the young one eyed each letter curiously.

The little girl grew antsy as her senior put the finishing touches on her bandage. She smoothed over the corner of the wrap against her skin and filled the bandage with the herbs the young one had collected earlier that day.

“How long until she is done?” Elelle asked.

Bowlegged and bandaged, she bent over and placed the box on the ground before she answered her question.

“Wild took some things out of the box. She’s making sure there isn’t anything else in the cave.”

Ové didn’t say anything further and proceeded to play in the grass.

Elelle stood watch and waited. Then she felt her on the move.

A black coat emerged from the cave and shimmered in the setting sun’s rays as knotted muscle bulged with each step. Two inch opaque daggers extended from each of the toes on her paws and sank into the soft grass as she got closer to her two companions. Elelle noticed what seemed to be a roll of cloth in her mouth. Ové paid it no mind and squealed with delight as the beast got closer.

“Wild! Wild! Watch!”

Ové stood solid and tall and then squatted low into small haunches and flung her body backwards. She landed on her toes, silently. She took a tiny to step to right herself.

“Did you see?!”

The big cat let out a small growl of admiration and dropped the roll of leather in her mouth.

“I did. You will be better with your body than me and Elelle.”

Ové beamed with satisfaction and picked up the box.

“Hold on little one, open it for me.” Wild picked up the small roll and put it in the box. She placed the top back on with her mouth and placed a massive paw over it, dismissing the little one.

Elelle grew impatient. “It will be dark soon.”

Wild replied back with little urgency. “The river has no place to be.”

Ové took off running down the hill towards the water. Elelle was about to follow suit before Wild stopped her. “Pick up the box. The child will stop at the river. You worry about all the wrong things……still.”

Elelle rolled her eyes. The cat tested her often. They walked together in measured pursuit of the short figure tumbling towards the river. They saw Ové hesitate for the briefest of moments before she jumped in.

Elelle looked down at Wild. Her green eyes were glowing and her dignified look retreated. She wanted to have fun with Ové. She could feel her yearning.

“Go Wild, thank you.”

The beast turned boisterous and let out a huge growl before she launched her body into the river. The monster stretched over 6 feet from the tip of her nose to the end of her tail and jumped a showy 10 to get to the river. Joy overcame them both as she and Ové splashed in the few remaining rays of the sun.

Elelle took the box and sat by the river, watching her two most cherished beings dance in the water and the light. She opened the box.

A machine bent in half by a hinge sat at the top of a stack of papers and photos. There was a screen like covering that reflected like solid water set in metal with small pebbles that had markings. Elelle reached into her memory. This was a phone. A razor. She couldn’t remember what to do. Wild’s voice sounded in her head, It does not matter. Keep looking.

Elelle put it aside and picked up the pictures. It was her. At least she thought. She had not paid much attention to what she saw looking up from the rivers and streams the trio visited. She seemed much younger in this picture. Much more lost. She sat there looking at herself in clothing she no longer recognized, surrounded by people she didn’t know anymore. A twinge of pain surged through her chest. She loved these people. She missed these people. But she did not know them. She saw picture after picture of the life she no longer lived. Pain. Happiness. Gratitude.

The roll of leather was pushed down at the bottom. Did Wild do this on purpose? She wasn’t sure. She unrolled it and realized it was the leather she found her dagger in before she left her old life so many years ago. She put everything back in the box and sealed each side with sap. She took a deep breath and placed the box in the river but she didn’t let it go.

Panic swept over her. Her heart raced. What if….. She wasn’t so sure. In the box lay all that was left of her previous life and the means to step back into it. Elelle was so lost in the moment she hadn’t noticed that the young girl and cat had stopped playing. Then she felt Wild’s head on her shoulder and Ové clinging to her lap.

She had risked all and given all to find them, they’re freedom was bought with the death of her old ways and old life. She let the box go and wrapped her arm around Wild and clutched Ové tightly.

The box stayed afloat and was swept away by the busy river.