Chapter 45

In a scanty forest, Havila.

"What do you remember?" Lailah asked the seemingly broken man who was beginning to gain his life gradually. Ja Lia. Ja wasn't sure if he even remembered his identity. When he tried to make meaning of things, he was always lost in the labyrinth of the complexity of it all. He was something close to a walking dead. He dumbed the thought.

He was bare-chested and had only a brown furry skirt on. He was barefooted too, but his eyes were sharp and his void sense of reasoning resounding. If only his skull could hit the dough.

"I remember you changing from a raven to a lady almost every passing day. Since like the past few days."

She grabbed him suddenly by the neck and pushed him to one of the trees by the path. She pressed his back to the hard bark of the tree.

Her hold on him was very strong and ruthless. Twas a silhouette of what she looked like. She was so beautiful and looked so delicately to be that ruthless.

She at that moment was the best definition of 'don't judge a book by its cover.'

"Snap back to reality, Ja. We won't go any far if you can't say a thing."

Her warm breath washed over his face. He didn't want her to stop that. Though her hold was discomforting, he could find solace in it. That was the magic that there was to it.

She let go of his neck and walked away, pacing the creeping vines as though they were some kind of mattress.

"I really do want to help, but I can't help it. I only see blur images flashing across my face when I close my eyes. That's all. I don't feel any other thing. I wish I could remember anything helpful. Even though I don't have the faintest idea who you are and what your plan is, your face looks familiar."

He quit talking. He felt thirsty for talking that long. Ja Lia wasn't who he used to be. All the scars on his body had been licked by new flesh. There was no trace of them at all.

"Come along. We'll do it the hard way then."

She plucked some roots and scrapped some bark off the tree with her bare hand. She was acting weird. At least, weird for a lady.

"Who's responsible for your pregnancy?" he called, trying to catch up with her. Lailah's pregnant belly was beginning to pop out; even a blind man would be able to identify it.

"You, of course," she said over her head. He chuckled and hurried behind her.

"I didn't know that you were a psycho as well as a weird woman," he shot.

She turned at him sharply and hurled almost immediately, "I'm afraid you'll crumble under the weight of the truth as soon as it begins to dawn on you."

Ja didn't read any meaning to it. It didn't really make any sense to him. All he could remember was the fact he had been fed by the pregnant lady. He didn't even know her name.

Plus, he had also seen her transform. She only would reveal herself as a lady to him. Whenever she was going to fend for their needs, she went as a bird. A raven. She had always prevented him from going into the village all by himself. He hadn't the faintest idea why.

He was sure that they had gone for that impromptu walk because she was going to fetch those herbs and roots. She was always hiding her plans. If he were asked, he would say happily that she was creepy.

After few moments of silence and walk, the hut came into view. He couldn't help but smother the silence as soon as he saw the lagging hut.

"You don't get tired of this hut, do you? I hope one day it won't fall on you."

He noticed that she wasn't interested in the discourse. He tried again.

"How long have you been living here? And why do you really fancy it that much?"

He heard her huff and puff as she walked to the bench opposite the door of the hut. That was their favorite spot.

"Our priorities are different. And I'm quite sure that as soon as you're your old self again, yours also will change."

That was more like a challenge to him. He watched her golden eyeballs shot a ray across his. He didn't know whether to feel seduced by her. He was trying to envisage what sex with her would be like.

And one of the other problems he had with her was not dwelling on the same topic. She loved hopping from one point to the other. Always answering a question with another relative answer. She pushed him out of his thoughts.

"Lie on your back."

Twas more of an order than an invitation. He went on his back. He felt like his ribs were shifting. He felt them with his left palm. Twas merely a false alarm.

"Here we go again," he muttered and closed his eyes.

"I didn't ask you to do that," she argued.

He shot back immediately in defense, rolling his eyeballs, "You don't have to tell me everything. Plus, who made me a puppet, preggers?"

He had worked so hard on that humor, but only he reaped it.

She crushed the roots with her palm and cracked the bark on the side of the wooden bench.

As soon as a liquid solution began to form at the base of the root, she positioned it on the bark that there the liquid could mix with the bark. Then she hovered the root over his face. And two drops dripped on each eye.

Ja felt pain tugging at the base of his consciousness and gradually ripping his sense of taste out. He was beginning to shake on the bench as her arms pressed him to the chair. He almost kicked her pregnant belly.

Then she began to chant. The whooshing winds seemed to be acquainted with what she was saying. Echoes of unseen ravens were heard, and the sound of the crashing waves seemed louder than usual.

Then there was a gloom. It felt to Ja as though he had been swallowed by a void. Thick darkness tamed his will.

Soon, strange pictures began to flash through his eyes, like the pages of a painted book. An art of multitudinous crafts.

Then silence devoured him. Suddenly, the pages of his eyes flipped open, his eyeballs, firm and shining, complementing the long face he was wearing—a felon frown.

His eyes went from the belly of the lady towering over him to her face. As soon as he saw the face he called, "Lailah!!!"

Urgency and rage filled his voice.

Lailah sighed and replied, "Welcome back, Ja Lia. Your baby just kicked."