“What happened?” asked Keid, laying eyes on her for the first time in three years.
Neagil opened her mouth, but she couldn’t make a sound. She wanted to tell him everything, but her own mind was still trying to understand whether the events of the past few days were true. Whether she really lost everything—her family, her home, her nation—all in one night.
She pursed her lips in, trying to keep herself from crying at the sight of him. It was a cruel reunion. He was in his shiny military jacket, and she was wearing the yellow detainee uniform that the authorities had forced her into. Her hair and face were still caked with mud residue from her great fall in the shallow water that happened days ago. Neagil looked down intensely at the floor as Keid approached her.
The guard on duty brandished his large firearm and warned Keid “First Lieutenant Keid, sir please keep your distance from the Isteni girl. She could attack.”
Keid looked at the soldier in shock, unable to understand how he could perceive this woman as a threat, but he knew there was no use arguing with the young soldier. He was just following orders. His best option was to exercise the power of his rank and get her out of here.
“Remove her restraints, please.”
“But sir—”
“Remove. Her. Restraints. Now.” Keid repeated his order, “She’s my wife.”
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Keid waited by the restrooms for Neagil to relieve herself and clean up. She eventually emerged, now wearing some of his spare clothes. Since they were much too large for her, she had to roll up the sleeves and pants a lot to accommodate her size.
“Thank you.” said Neagil, handing her former detainee clothes to Keid.
“You don’t need to thank me. I’m just grateful that you’re alive.”
Hearing him say that made Neagil feel overjoyed, until she remembered that she was still separated from the rest of her people.
“The others! The children. Princess Imrani—” She frantically tried to explain to Keid.
“They’ve been transported to camp. We’ll be heading there too.” He responded calmly, also holding her shoulders to keep her from panicking.
Then he slowed down to look at her shamefully.
“Imrani told me briefly about the dimensional collapse. I had no idea they kept you locked in that container for 3 days. I’m sorry for arriving so late.”
Neagil gave him a weak smile to ease his guilt.
“There’s no way you would have known. And my mother…” as her voice came down to a whisper, Keid firmly spoke to her. “Don’t worry. When you’re ready to talk, I’ll be right here. You’re exhausted right now and you need to rest.”
A sound made Keid look down at Neagil’s stomach. It was the sound of her stomach grumbling and gurgling. Neagil sucked her stomach in and clenched her teeth in embarrassment, along with an uneasy smile.
Keid kindly asked her “Let’s get you some food first. Any requests?”
Her stomach grumbled again.
“Anything that’s edible will do just fine,” Neagil responded softly, trying not to be too much trouble for him.
As they were walking towards Keid’s vehicle, she thought back to how Keid negotiated her release from the border forces.
“Keid...what you said to that soldier back in there. Won’t they find out that you lied? You could get into trouble.”
“Don’t worry about that. Your well-being was more my priority.” He huffed to gather some courage and then added “As for what I said, it may not be true now, but it’s not exactly a lie either”
He paused to look straight into the dark ink of her eyes.
“Nea, I promised to marry you and I intend to keep that promise.”
In awe, the only thing Neagil could say was “I hope to keep my promise to you too.”
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As the vehicle thundered down the dirt highway, Neagil took the opportunity to finally observe the mainworld with her own eyes. The road was mostly occupied by other armored military vehicles and large convoys carrying supplies. There was the dusty tan of the road and trucks, the brown-green fronds of the trees, and the murky navy of Keid’s military uniform. There were no other colors.
She couldn’t recall exactly when she was lulled into a deep sleep. Her vivid dreaming was to blame, because in her mind, she was not in the present, but somehow existing days back in time, when she made the critical choice to shift into her giant God form, to escape with her nation’s people from their collapsing city, and to face the hostility of the mainworld that knew nothing about them.
Neagil remembered the metal cords that were launched at her. They bound her legs together and pulled her arms apart, until she collapsed on the shallow water. There were sounds of heavy machines. She could hear shouting, and screaming. Princess Imrani’s voice screaming ‘Neagil, get up!’. The children’s cries. Other stern voices that she could not recognize.
She again heard Princess Imrani’s voice saying “Neagil get up!” and the voice solidified as Neagil was shaken awake.
“Neagil. Neagil, wake up”
And as Neagil resurfaced into consciousness, the first face before her eyes was that of Princess Imnari.
“Glad you’re finally awake. Here, you need to eat first.” Imrani pushed a bowl of what appeared to be rice porridge. Neagil took in a big spoonful of the salty dish and swallowed it. She then quickly cleared off the rest of the bowl.
With something finally in her belly, Neagil began to assess her surroundings. She was in a large tent. There were medical supplies and other equipment stored in it, but also boxes of rationed food, clothes, and blankets. Her eyes then fell on Keid who was sound asleep in a chair right next to her cot.
“He fell asleep while waiting for you to wake” explained Princess Imrani with some laughter.
It was unusual for Neagil to see the princess in her current state. She was no longer adorned with her shiny taffeta garments now that the plain white scrubs from the camp rations were all she had available. However, Imrani still wore her Isteni hijab.
“Everyone is standing outside to see you. We’re so relieved that Keid brought you back to us. Come out whenever you’re feeling up to it.”
And the way Imrani spoke and carried herself reminded Neagil that despite their tragic circumstances, she was still in the presence of a leader.
“Thank you Princess.” responded Neagil, bowing her head. Then Imrani opened the flap of the tent and stepped out.
To her left, Neagil noticed Keid rustling as he began to wake up.
“Did you sleep well?” Neagil asked
“Better than I thought I would,” Keid responded.
Keid began to stretch and crack his neck in an uncomfortable way.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah. It’s just my neck.”
“Next time, you could just sleep next to me. There's some room here.” She moved to one side of the cot and patted the empty space.
“I’ll take that offer,” said Keid.
Neagil looked at him shuffling and making himself more comfortable in the most uncomfortable of chairs ever. There was more she needed to tell him. However traumatic the events, they remained like a clog in her thoughts. It was then that the realization hit her: he was all she had left. He had to know.
“Also. I think I’m ready to talk about what happened.”
“Well then, I’m all ears.”
07062021 Edited by SilentStar
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