Story
Amira had her back against the damp wall as water dripped onto her hair from above. The only sound to be heard was her heartbeat in her ears and a man somewhere off in the distance, crunching the leaves beneath him as he sauntered back and forth. “No, no, no, little Aamira. Running into a cave?” The man chuckled to himself. “What good do you honestly think this will do for you?” He slowly entered.
She could hear him loud and clear, even though he was at least five meters away. When the dark of the cave enveloped him, only the shimmering of the blade in his right hand gave away his position. Careful not to give any sign that she was there, Aamira sunk into her black cloak and pulled the hood over her head as the man walked deeper and deeper into the cave. Soon she could see the outline of his body stop in front of her; she released a quite sigh of relief when he became frustrated and briskly walked on.
Unfortunately, he heard the sigh very clearly and turned quickly to face the direction it came in. He took this moment to scoff at her. “For safety, you run into a cave with no exit hoping I wouldn’t find you, yet make it so easy for me by making so much noise?” He walked over to her area and kicked the wall a few feet away from her. He then moved a few inches closer and kicked again. He did this until he became so close to kicking Aamira that she jumped up and bolted deeper into the cave. He followed the sound of her footsteps, but she was much faster than he.
“If there’s no way out,” she called to her pursuer, “Then why are you chasing me?” There was no reply, just a ridiculing laugh. Aamira grinned when she hear this. “Why not just wait ‘til I stop running Garyk?”
Immediately after this remark, Garyk could not longer hear her footsteps. Confused, he continued to move forward – she would not have given up so easily. Little did he know, Aamira had found an opening in the wall, and was now standing outside the cave grinning at how Garyk had not seen this coming. She quickly turned and pressed onward. But nearly just as quickly, a thought came to mind – this thought would haunt her for some time, for she could not turn back. Damon. She had forgotten about Damon.
Tears filled Aamira’s eyes as she thought of the torture her brother would go through if Garyk had found him. Her mind flooded with hopeless options – she could go back into the cave, or she could take Garyk by surprise on his way out and threaten to take his life if Daman was not returned safely, or she could follow him and steal Daman away in the night…or…or… - both her hands and legs began to tremble ferociously until her knees gave way. There was a wide selection of choices that danced around each other in Aamira’s mind, and they were all doomed to failure. There was nothing she could do now for her brother. It was far too dangerous to go back into the cave – she was fortunate enough to have gotten out alive.
Aamira chose the only sound option. Bringing herself to her feet in one very clumsy movement, she moved on, stumbling miserably through the forest as regret ate away at her consciousness.
