“She’s awake.” A voice said.
I heard feet scrambling beside me. I opened my eyes and quickly shut them again as the light took a shot at my eyes. I could hear people speaking in low whispers around me. I opened my eyes, slowly this time. I could see a crowd of raggedly dressed people surrounding me. I noticed the look in their eyes – fear – were they actually afraid of me?
I tried to stand up with the help of my hands but as I faced my palms down towards the ground and pushed myself up, a sharp pain shot up my arms causing me to fall back down onto the floor with a loud thud. I held my palms upward facing me, inspecting it closely. There were neither cuts nor bruises on my body yet there was a sharp pain every time it came in contact with anything.
I glanced over to the crowd of people surrounding me, in hope to find someone kind enough to give me a hand. They treated my pleading glance like daggers, all of them took steps back and children retreated to their mums. Seeing as hopeless as I was then, I tried to stand up by myself again.
An elderly man came up to me and gently placed his wrinkled hand on my shoulders. I looked up at him; he smiled at me and motioned for me to remain as I was.
“My apologies for my people. They do not understand the importance of you. They think you are one of them.” As he spoke, he pointed up towards the opening of the big hole we were in. I scanned my surrounding, trying to look for a glimpse of familiarity. My head throbbed with a dull pain; I closed my eyes and waited for it to pass.
I felt something hard being thrust into my hands. I opened my eyes and saw the roughly carved bowl with water filled inside. I took big hungry gulps of the water down; I hadn’t realized how thirsty I was till I the sweet tasting liquid flowed down my throat. A woman came forward with a big jar in her hand and refilled my bowl; again I downed it in a breath. I lightly placed the water down onto the sandy ground. A little boy came running forward to grab it and disappeared into the crowd. They are all afraid of me, I thought to myself.
I looked at the elderly man in hope for some kind of explanation. He just smiled at me and motioned me to eat the food placed in front of me. In the midst of all the commotion, I had not seen the food placed in front of me. I took a piece of bread and started taking small bites of them. There was a bowl of hot gravy beside it, I tore the bread into little pieces and dipped them into the gravy. The meal warmed my stomach and it ran though my body. I felt revived.
The elderly man whom I assumed was the chief around here nodded to the lady standing behind me which took the bowls away from me. With a wave of his hand, he dismissed the entire crowd till there were just us.
He stood up and started walking around me in circles. I just sat there quietly, trying to keep my cool though I felt like I was being called into the principal’s office for committing some serious offence. I couldn’t help but stealing glances at him from the corner of my eyes. A young looking guy walked into the room and said a few words to the chief. Before leaving, he gave me a strange glare.
“You have been chosen to join us. Your special ability had been given to you long ago.” The chief said. I just sat there motionless, not able to mutter a word at all. He continued, “They are back, they smelt you and tried to get rid of you. Lucky for you and us, you escaped. Now, you’re here to free us from this all.”
“I thank you for the food and drink just now but this is all getting too weird, chosen for what?” I got more and more agitated as I stood up and started backing away from the chief. “I have no idea who are you!”
“My apologies, dear child. I am Kao, the leader of them all here. You can call me Chief.” He said in a calm and serene voice. He closed his eyes and seemed to have drifted off into a faraway land. I wrapped my arms tightly around my body, trying to give myself some warm I have been craving for since I woke up. This was all getting too weird.
“How did I come here?” I managed to mutter out after a long silence. I had no memory of ever coming here. I closed my eyes and racked my brains trying to search for a hint of the situation.
“My dear, you fell from above.” My first reaction was to glance up to where his finger was pointing towards. The sky? This guy must be crazy, I thought to myself.
“If like what you said, I fell from above. Why don’t I have cuts or bruises on my body?” I answered the chief with a challenging tone. He chuckled. I shuddered, wrapping my arms around me tighter with a frown on my face.
“That’s where the story gets interesting. You are the one, my dear. You have been sent to help us.” He started walking towards me. A small whimper escaped my lips despite my effort to keep my cool in front of him. As he stood in front of me, he looked into my eyes. I diverted my attention away.
“I can’t even remember who I am.” I said with a small voice, lips quivering betraying all my emotions.
