Chapter 48 : Theo's World

Rakiza's heart was pumping hard as they rushed through the dark woods. She felt protected again as Theo's hands were entwined with hers. She was perplexed as to why Theo made her feel so safe.
As they increased their steps, the woods became increasingly thicker.
As they followed the elderly man's lead, Theo kept turning around to look behind. He returned to protecting Rakiza. Rakiza had a tremendous sense of gratitude for it. Her heart swelled once again, and she collapsed, her power depleted by running and thirst overwhelming. Theo acted like a movie super hero, catching Rakiza just before she was about to slam into the ground. "Water!" exclaimed Theo.
Rakiza felt Theo's hands around her as her vision clouded, hugging her body tightly but not too tightly, as if she was frightened of breaking. Theo then lays her down beneath a huge tree. She closed her eyes in the darkness and heard Theo's footsteps fade and then return softly.
"Can you hear me, Rakiza?"
"Have some water, but not too much," Theo said, his voice calming in her ears. "It's better for your stomach if you take one sip at a time," Theo said gently. Theo then held Rakiza's jaw and let her drink from the animal skin water container, which she did quickly.
"Slow down," Theo said, "too much water will injure your stomach more than good." Just enough to quench your thirst.
She waited a few moments before opening her eyes, fearing that she would go blind. As she gently opened her eyes, she began to see lights. Theo's face, smiling down at her, was the first thing she saw. She moved clumsily, not realizing that Theo was still holding her back to lift her off the damp ground.
Rakiza held tightly to the water container in her hands and drank slowly. She picked up on Theo's voice and began to listen to it. With Theo still holding her, she became aware of her surroundings and carefully drew her body away from him. "Are we safe now?"
"Not really, because we're still on the outside of the safe zone." Theo explained, "If you are already able to walk, we must continue progressing."
Rakiza pulled herself up, but Theo grabbed her elbow and helped her stand. They gradually resumed their journey down the mountain's bushy slopes, still following the old man's lead.
Another hour passed as they walked through the mountain's various terrains. Until the old man signaled them to take a break. The old man explained, "This is a secluded and safe area to camp for the night."
Rakiza's eyes widened at hearing the Old Man's proposals, because that would entail sleeping on the ground with no shelter. And the cold of the night may kill them.
And then the night came, and the three of them prepared for the possible occurrence at night.
The camp fire was blazing, and Rakiza couldn’t sleep in the improvised tent Theo had made from an old picnic blanket that Theo carried in his backpack. Rakiza didn’t know how advanced in thinking Theo was. But she wasn't a fan of camping and sleeping outside the house or without a roof. Since childhood, she feared the crawling creatures of the night, and until now she was unable to cope with that fear. Once, her mother told her that the way to cope with her fear was to face the thing she feared, but still, it didn’t work for her. And the thought of her mother made her miss her a lot. It’s been a long time since they had a long talk with each other. It was cut off with an argument.
Rakiza didn’t want to stay away from her mother, but her mother was forceful in getting her to take the opportunity to study at the Sassarri School of Arts. She even scolded her and wailed about her effort to take several jobs a day just to make sure Rakiza could get a high education.
But Rakiza didn’t understand the aim of her mother, she even got mad and screamed, "I can’t be as ambitious as you, mother!"
And her mother, Veronica, felt taken for granted by Rakiza, and stopped talking with her. She only sent money when it was time to pay her daughter's tuition and allowances, but she stopped making an effort to contact her. And when Rakiza tried to call her, she was always unavailable.
And now Rakiza didn’t understand why she missed her mother so much.
As the evening progressed, the temperature began to drop. Rakiza noticed Theo wandering around, inspecting their surroundings, making sure no other souls were approaching them. Theo's attentiveness offered Rakiza a good point of view with him. He was a precocious man, and Rakiza admired Theo's alertness. Rakiza saw him as an attractive, energetic man.
After Theo’s roving, he checks on Rakiza. Rakiza was a bit nervous as he was approaching her tent. "Are you comfortable in that improvised sleeping tent?"
"I’m okay, and thank you."Rakiza felt a bit shy around Theo.
"You look timid." Theo commented, "Just relax. I assure you that nothing will happen tonight. Get some sleep. I’ll be right here, watching over you. I’ll promise to not close my eyes so I can kill anything that will give you harm. "
"That’s too much of a statement." She held herself back from laughing. Rakiza didn’t want Theo to know about her feelings. She was still embarrassed about it. "Don’t worry about me. I’m too large for a creature to eat all up." She joked and laughed a bit, but was cut with embarrassment when Theo didn’t join her joke. Instead, he stared at her intently.
"The creature you were talking about is not just some crawling creature, Rakiza, to be treated like a joke. There are many of them, and they are hungry and ruthless. So, you have to be ready all the time and keep this with you. " Theo said, and handed Rakiza a combat knife that glittered with its sharpness.
"Take that away from me, Theo." She refused to accept Theo's weapon.
"You have to." You have no choice but to hold a weapon that you could use when no one else like me was around to help you. " He tossed the combat knife in front of Rakiza and moved back to his post at the big root of a tree next to Rakiza’s tent. And after a few minutes, Theo was asleep as well as the old man.
Rakiza shivered in the night's silence. She was both agitated and terrified of what she might encounter on the other side of the trees. Water was poured over the blaze to make the red charcoal lose its flame. They put out the fire so that it wouldn't be observed by folks passing by from a distance. And the only source of illumination was the starry night.
Rakisa was no longer sleeping. Her eyes swelled as a result of the sleep deprivation. So she got up and stretched outside her tiny tent. She braced herself with some warmth from her arms because it was so cold. She went to check on the old man and found him sleeping well. Then she took a cautious walk over to the tree where Theo sat and leant, and she noticed that he was also sleeping.
If Rakiza was correct, she finally had more time to stare at Theo as he slept.
Theo moaned, "What are you staring at?"
The sound of Theo's loud voice surprised Rakiza. She wasn’t expecting that he was aware of her moving around. "I can’t sleep."
Theo stretched his arms and rose to his feet. "Are you scared?"
She was contemplating what to discuss with him in the middle of the night when she remembered, “Where’s Ajella?” She seemed worried. “Why is she not joining us?”
“She’s just around.” He explicated. “She might be up in the tree, or just behind those big trees.”
“She should join us here.”
“Why has she suddenly become important to you? I thought you didn’t like her.” Theo stretched his arms again.
“Did I say something like that?” Rakiza sensed something from Theo’s tone but ignored it. Instead, she moved to lean against one of the trees facing Theo. She could feel Theo’s staring at her even if she’s not looking at him, and it made her uncomfortable.
“Do you want me to fix your tent?”
“No. It has nothing to do with me not sleeping. It’s just that… I’m not used to camping. I didn’t have any experience in sleeping outdoor.” She smiled shyly.
“I’m sorry to drag you into this place and situation.” Theo apologized. “But it’s unavoidable.”
“What do you mean by unavoidable?” Rakiza was perplexed and a bit agitated. “What is not unavoidable?”
“Some circumstances are inescapable. Like this one.”
Rakiza saw the sadness in Theo’s eyes and wanted to uncover it. “Why are you doing this to me?”
Theo looked at her with those apologetic eyes and did not respond.
“You drag me into a dangerous situation and in this cold scary forest and you didn’t tell me what going on. Or… just a little bit of idea why you forced me into this situation.”
Theo sighed, “I’m sorry to drag you this dangerous situation as you said. Yes, this is not good for you, but as I had explained earlier. This is something to happen, that you must know what else in this world are interesting to explore. And one more big reason why I drag you into this unimportant dreadful situation is Nikolas Augustus.” He stopped talking with Nikolas name emphasized.
Rakiza could read through Theo’s eyes how important it was for him that she must learn about Nikolas. "You already told me he was a vampire prince."
"And yet you didn’t believe it. You heard it but didn’t believe it. You didn’t believe that vampires do exist in this modern world of yours as well as werewolves. "
The word werewolf hit Rakiza’s nape’s skin to shiver with impact and her stomach to churn. This topic is new from Theo’s mouth, but he delivered it with emphasis and emotion. There was something in that declaration that made Rakiza scared. She was looking at Theo, who seemed startled by what he had just revealed.
"Maybe you should know something about vampires and werewolves' feud." Theo was getting to their talking point. "It was hundreds of years ago that vampires and werewolves' conflict escalated and never ceased and was passed on from generation to generation." And it has volatized currently and war has started again, vampire killing werewolf and werewolf killing vampire. "
Rakiza absorbed all of Theos's statements, trying to weigh all of them logically. And she was right; she is too small for the world’s unbelievable things and happenings. "I know I sounded weird and insensitive when I made that uninteresting gesture with something you said about myths."
"It’s not a myth, and it is happening right now. And to give you proof, you must come with us to a place where you can’t imagine how cruel your vampire friend is. " He went back to the tree where he sat against it. "Get some sleep, we have to be on our steps before the sun shines up."
Theo’s voice was still overpowering, and she went back to her tent without opposing a single word of protest. She was awakened by Theo the next morning. And after their coffee, they went on their journey.
After crossing the green trees' vast forest, they came to the orange-colored tree leaves. And it mesmerized her eyes, and staring at the falls ahead of them made Rakiza’s heart lift with happiness. "Wow." Her eyes widened to see a grotesquely beautiful waterfall. "
"This forest will soon vanish as the world is getting older." And humans' cruelty and love of money will destroy anything that God has created, "as they halted at the feet of the waterfalls.
The old man emersed in the water and swan under and didn’t emerge back. Rakiza’s agitated face whitened, "He isn’t emerging back, he drowned himself."
"We are now at the secret door to the safest place in the world."
"What are you talking about, Theo?" Rakiza panicked as she looked back at the waterfalls. Rakiza was worried when the old man vanished for about ten to fifteen minutes, which made her startled when he clasped her hand in his.
"Are you ready to see my world, Rakiza?" Theo asked, with excitement in his eyes. "I’m asking you, Rakiza." Are you ready? "
"Okay, fine. "Let's do it, Theo." She held tight to Theo’s hand as Theo led her into the water and they both walked under.