A hut.
"Where have you been all this while?"
The middle-aged woman asked, her mean gaze eating up the indifferent lady walking towards her. She was seated on a stool at the door of the hut.
"Didn't you hear what has been happening? Don't you no one is safe anymore? Did you think I have been out working too? Isn't you the one have been looking for? Or do you want to end up like your father and sister too?"
She asked, standing from the chair. She wished she could make lashes off her words and lash the lady, but twas a mirage. The lady was very much beyond lashing.
"What do you care, ma?"
The lady shot at her finally, halting few steps away from the confused mother.
"Do not speak back to me in that manner!!!!"
The mother shot walking towards the lady to match up her face.
"Tahni, let that be the last time you would speak to me in that manner."
But Tahni threw her face away and walked off her towards the door. Then she sat on the stool, trying to prevent the face of the puzzled mother.
"You sure knew that I was sitting there, didn't you?"
The mother hopped on, trying to get a hold on her thoughts. Everything was happening too quickly, that she couldn't form the right words.
"How soothing to see that you're more interested in this stool than in your long gone daughter."
Tahni shot. The mother yet hadn't found her words.
"Wasn't that the first question I asked before you started exhibiting nuances and giving me that attitude."
The mother snapped. Tahni shook her head as though she was disappointed. The mother didn't know why her daughter was making a fool of her. That was exactly what it seemed.
"Did you care about Dad and Prium? Haven't you only been concerned about yourself? Yourself and your sex slaves or should I say other way round."
The mother at that made advances at her chanting,
"The gods roast your tongue."
She was almost on her going to grab and smack her when Tahni shot,
"Don't even dare. Your so-dumb Tahni is dead in the forest. Your mommy's-pawn Tahni died alongside your husband. She's no longer here. This is a new era, if you raise your hand at me you'll regret it."
The mother hung her hand in the air for a while wondering if a rollercoaster had just hit her. But then Tahni stood up from the stool and walked into the room.
The mother maintained the position for a while. She didn't know what to do precisely. Leaving there wasn't even an option. She felt like her brain had been swiped or cleared up by some force from her head.
Then she snapped back to reality and hurried into the room, in his mouth was,
"Are you crazy, Tahni. Have you forgotten who you are talking to? Have you forgotten who you giving an attitude? What have they done to you?"
She stopped talking immediately she saw Tahni packing her belongings. Tahni was putting her clothes in a sac, not even in the proper skin bag where clothes were collected.
The mother didn't say a thing, she just watched her continue with the process. In her mind, hoping perhaps the girl would change her mind or something close to that.
Then finally, Tahni was done packing and she picked up the sac. She didn't say a word as she turned and began to walk towards the door again.
The mother was just a puppet at that time. She had been looking for someone to confide in after she had seen Vulcan, but had gotten home to realize the absence of her second daughter.
She had been in search of her, troubled and spent, only for the child to return with such attitude? She wasn't even sure what to confide in. She wasn't herself.
She hurried out of the room to see where Tahni was going. To her dismay, Tahni wasn't going towards the road through which she had come. The popular road. She took the road which led to the stream instead. The road by their hut.
"Where are you going, Tahni. Have you lost it?"
She shot in rage, as she hurried after the lady. For a moment, it seemed as though she used to know her daughter.
Tahni's blue gown was quite dirty, which meant she had been through a lot. Though her face was neat, but there was a wave of stress she had noticed.
"Tahni!"
"Go away, woman!"
Tahni shot over her head without stopping. She was dragging nearer to the stream.
"Are you crazy?"
The mother was now in a full mood for the rage. She hurried towards Tahni who had just stopped at the mouth of the stream.
There was a lone pasture decking the lips of the stream on either end. There were few stones washed by the clean, nearly blue flowing water.
Birds loitered, lurking in transparent branches of big trees with scanty leaves. Majority in the land had said that the trees were cursed.
She got to Tahni and held her from behind, on the shoulder to spin her around. But luck was foul to her.
Tahni ducked her hand instead and pulled her forward. Then she pushed her into the stream, making sure the mother fell on her face, hugging the flowing water.
The mother couldn't believe what had just happened. It seemed as though she was held in a trance.
The flowing water fought against her gown, her face washed in the blue liquid, the force pushing the water into her nostrils, her head getting a share of the suffocation.
She stood up drenched, trying to get a hold on herself. She turned swiping her palm over her face as she walked out of the stream,
"Tahni, why?"
But she was shocked. Tahni was no longer in sight. She was nowhere to be found.
"Tahni."
She called, wondering where she had gone. Then suddenly she heard a call coming from the way which led to the stream,
"Mother!!!"
She couldn't believe her ears. She walked off the pasture of the stream dripping of water and trying to understand what was happening to her.
"Mother!!!"
She saw Tahni hurrying towards her. Tahni was putting on a white gown. And in her hand a gourd in which to fetch water.
"I knew I would find you at the river."
The mother hear Tahni say as she drew unto her and hugged her.
The mother didn't understand what was happening. She needed to be woken up from the dream.