Claimed (20 page)

Ellie sat on a stack of wooden crates, watching the children play in the sun. Tara glanced at her occasionally, her mind wrought with Jared’s warning. The sky was clear above them and the breeze gently blew through their hair, ruffling it. If she were a fortuneteller, then there was nothing foreboding in the weather or the people around them to tell her that there was going to be disarray in the very near future.

Ellie swe
pt her hair to the side, smoothening it down with her hands. “Kelly was awfully nice today.”

“I suppose she’s coming around to accepting you. You’re becoming quite a
fixture in Central. And Tessa has been a remarkable help.” Inside, she was relieved that Ellie had bought into her little lie about Jared’s illness that fateful night when they all first discovered he was a chimera. But a few false assurances later, Ellie had thankfully dropped the matter.

Ellie
chuckled. “Yeah, it’s nice to be trusted. But I guess it will take a little more time for us to build the same faith in the others.”

Tara nodded. “It’ll
happen gradually.”

“I’m sorry I dragged you into this along with me. I didn’t know how else to reach them.”

Tara reached out and squeezed her hand. “You know I want to be here with you. If I didn’t want to do this anymore, I’d have told you sooner. And besides, you showed me how to pay it forward. I’d have been lost otherwise.”

“Thank you,” Ellie smiled. She then bit her lips, brushing the sides of the
crate uneasily.

Tara watched her curiously but didn’t urge her to speak. If she trusted her, she would tell her
whatever it was that was plaguing her mind in her own good time.

“I’m going to break it up with Edmund,”
Ellie said finally after a long pause.

“Ellie?
Why?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Ellie said.

“I always thought you two were perfect for each other. And Edmund loves you, doesn’t he?”

“He sure doesn’t know how to show it.”

“Did you love him?”

“I thought I did… unti
l…,” her voice faded into her train of thoughts.

“Until Jared?”
Tara wanted to finish for her.

“Who was I to fool?” Ellie covered her face tiredly. “We were never going to suit each other. We’
re two different people with completely different goals, trying desperately to compromise in order to meet the approval of those around us. It would never work. Those fundamentals have never worked for a relationship- ever.”

“I’m sorry,” Tara mumbled. “I thought you were happy.”

Ellie shrugged her shoulders. “I thought I could be. But I think I had known long ago that Edmund wasn’t meant for me. I started giving excuses to distance myself from him. First, I began refusing to sleep with him and then, I couldn’t bring myself to kiss him. There were always excuses.
I want to reserve myself for marriage… I fear losing the intimacies after the marriage
… these were just that- excuses. But when he told me he was going to curb my travels to Central because he thought the people I was helping were influencing me against the government...,” she teared. She pressed her lips together tightly, trying desperately to restrain her tears from escaping her eyes.

Tara put an arm around her.

Ellie shook her head confusedly. “He never fussed about never sleeping together.  Or spending time together. Sometimes, we’d go weeks without talking or seeing each other and we were both fine with it. When I first told him I wanted to reserve our intimacies for marriage, he had accepted my decision without a fuss. I thought he was just a nice, patient guy. Where else would I get a man who respected such a serious decision in their relationship? But then he wanted me to stop coming to Central. To stop supporting the people here. He didn’t want me involved in the issues affecting the people of Central despite how I felt about it. How can I then continue to believe he respects me? How can I continue to believe that he agreed to my requests for abstinence because he loved and respected me, and not because he wants to marry Governor Callum’s daughter?”

“Ellie…”

“I’m such a fool, Tara. I’m always falling for the wrong men. Those who would never love me back. I have no idea why I do that.”

Tara caressed her shoulders. “If it helps, I also fall for the wrong sort of men. And I have
the two greatest evidences to prove that.”

“
Fern and Mae?”

Tara nodded. “And I’d do it all over again just to have them in my life.”

Her phone buzzed. Tara pulled it out of her bag and realized it was Jared. She smiled politely at Ellie who nodded as she stepped aside to answer it.

“Hey,” she said into it.

“Where are you?” he barked.

“At the playground by the Philips’ house.”

“Get out of there now!” he ordered.

“What?”

“The march is about to start. I want you and Ellie out of there!”

“Okay, okay,” she mumbled hastily into the phone.

She turned it off and glanced up at Ellie.

“Is everything alright?” Ellie looked up at her, shielding her eyes from the sun.

“Yeah… um… do you mind if we leave early today?” Tara asked, biting her lips. “I wanted to spend some time with Fern and Mae. They had this school project and
they really wanted me to help them with it.”

Ellie smiled. “Say no more.”
She jumped off from the boxes. “I’ll just quickly say thanks to Kelly and we’ll shoot off.”

“No, Ellie!”
Tara almost shouted and then eased down just as fast when she saw her frown. “Just don’t take too long, okay?”

“I won’t,” she assured and
then skipped towards the cluster of little houses in the distance.

Tara leant against Ellie’s car, praying she’d be back before the protests would begin. In her mind, she was already
plotting a route for their escape should Ellie not make it in time.

She laid a small kiss on the baby’s plump cheek and then straightened up to look at the woman carrying the baby gingerly in her arms.

“I’ll see you next week, then, Kelly,” she smiled.

“Of course,” the woman nodded. “And thank you so much for the milk. Paul and I are extremely thankful for what you’re doing for us.”

“It’s nothing,” Ellie dismissed.

“It maybe but it’s more than what anyone would do for us.”

Loud chanting interrupted them and Ellie immediately turned towards the
intrusive sounds filling the air.

“What is that?” she said
, almost to herself.

“I think that’s the Central Monologues on another protest march,” Kelly replied, a little nervy about the entire disruption taking place in her once peaceful village. “Why can’t that Julian Henley just leave things be? We may be surviving on minimal wages but at least we are alive. With the way he’s doing things, he’s
gonna get all of us killed.”

Ellie stood staring into the distance, her mind too pre-occupied with
the march than her safety. “I will go check what it is all about.”

“No, Miss Ellie,” Kelly
panicked. “Please don’t go. The sentinels are not gonna hold back on the protestors anymore. There will definitely be some bloodbath today, I tell ya.”

“What’s the fastest route to the main street from here, Kelly?” Ellie insisted, ignoring the woman’s ominous tone.

“Umm… between those houses over there…,” she pointed hesitantly. “But Miss Ellie…,”

“I’ll be fine,” Ellie assured. She licked her lips and glanced back at Tara waiting for her by her car. “Don’t tell Tara, will you? She’d be worried for no reason. I’m going to just get a peek and I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

“Yes, Miss Ellie,” Kelly mumbled doubtfully, watching the young woman disappear off into the direction she had pointed out to her.

Ellie sprinted off, darting over logs and under laundry as she weaved her way between the
little cottages. The chants began to grow a deafening louder and threatening.

“
Pay up, pay up! Fair work, fair pay!”

She managed to catch sight of the large cluster of people pass by her with placards and banners, expressing their rage on their poor wages. She ran along the pathway of the main street and ahead of the protestors, wondering if the sentinels were really on
guard to attack the protestors should they decide to march up to the government offices like they did previously.

She gasped on seeing the law enforcers fully garbed in their
tactical uniforms and armed with batons and riot shields. Edmund hadn’t been kidding when he said he was going to ensure that these rioters and rebels, as he called them, were going to be silenced for good.

She made a dash for the guards. She needed to get to Edmund and convince him to stand the guards down from actively attacking the protestors. Surely, they could resolve this turmoil without the unnecessary, impending bloodshed.  She discovered though
, she was a tad too late when the marchers decided to sprint instead of walk the last lag to the public offices.

“
Please disperse. This is an illegal gathering. Anyone who refuses will be arrested,”
she heard one of the sentinels warn through his speaker cone.

The protestors pressed on.
“Raise our wages! We’re humans too! We deserve a livable wage! We’re standing for our right to live!”

“This is your last warning! Please disband this protest and clear the street! Or you will be arrested!”
the officer threatened again.

The crowd retaliated with a deafening boo.

“Look!” one pointed towards the roof of a store. “It’s The Archer and his Woodsmen!”

The crowd gradually
quietened as each one slowly grabbed the attention of another, all turning to stare at the hooded men observing them in silence from the roof above them.

Ellie followed also with
just as much intrigue of the masked rebels.

The sentinel officer
immediately issued an urgent command and some of his officers broke away from their unit, their heavy boots rhythmically clobbering the pavement as they raced up to the roof to arrest the hooded vigilantes.

“Hey, it’s Governor
Callum’s daughter!” one of the men shouted out from the crowd, shifting their attention to Ellie’s cowering body behind a large chalkboard A-frame. The crowd began booing at her, spilling out threats for her intrusive presence in Central.

Ellie retreated with fear. One of the men picked up a stone and threw it at her. She crouched
quickly, trying to duck the stone. She heard it whizz threw the air and she closed her eyes, hoping it would miss her. Someone fell before her in a flash, whirling her around and taking the full brunt of the stone against his back.

She opened her eyes and she was staring straight into the face of The Archer now busily engaged in defending himself against the sentinels filing up to attack him. His left hand tightly clasped her right while he deflected blow after blow with his right. He twirled her about him,
protecting her from getting hurt.

The crowd had b
y now disbanded chaotically. Some engaged to support the other Woodsmen in fending off the sentinels, while the others fled for their lives.

Suddenly,
The Archer’s arms wound around her waist and she found herself being lifted into the air and away from the rabid mob. She held tightly onto his nape, his wings fluttering heavily in the air.

“He had wings? He had wings! Who is this man?! What is this man?!”
panicked thoughts poured into her rapidly.

Undoubtedly, the winged a
rcher had just as much captivated the fanatical horde below them, allowing a small window of escape for the ordinary Woodsmen who were not as empowered as this one.

She tucked her face into his torso, closing her eyes, afraid to know what he was going to do with her. The height to which he soared to into the sky also m
ade her queasy. What if his hands slipped and he dropped her? Her arms wound even tighter to his nape, her body drawn inevitably closer into his. All she wanted was to once again feel the ground beneath her feet. And as if an answer to her silent prayer, she found him descending.

She peeked to her side, recognizing the playground in which Tara had been waiting for her.

Tara stood staring up at them, her hands wringing anxiously. The archer lowered down, landing neatly without as much as a bump onto the ground and then released her clutches
from his neck.

“Ellie!”
Tara sprinted up to her. “What happened?!”

“I… I…,” she stammered, floundering between her friend and The Archer.

The Archer gave Tara a hard threatening glare and then rose back into the air and towards the woods.

“
We had better leave,” Tara said firmly.

“Who do you think he was?” Ellie trembled. “Was he even human?”

Tara shook Ellie out of her panicked state. “Ellie, we’re leaving! Now!” She guided her into the passenger seat of the car and strapped her in. She slammed the door behind her and made her way toward the driver seat. She glanced back at the woods but Jared had already disappeared into its thickness.  She knew though, he would be storming for her back home, demanding to know why she hadn’t left Central when he had told her to.

*****

The men were already waiting for him at Platform 2. Unlike two weeks ago, when they had raided the Sector Dinner, there was loud bickering and accusations flying between them.

Jared marched
in and threw his ear piece onto the table, ignoring their fiery debate.

“The girl shouldn’t have been there!
” one screamed.

“
It shouldn’t have turned out like that at all!” shouted another.

“
We weren’t supposed to be involved!”

“
We were only there to give encouragement and support to the Central Monologues! Just in case there would be an attack by the sentinels! Not spark one!!”

“And what were we to do?!” retaliated another angry Woodsmen. 
“Leave Ryder in the lurch to manage the entire mob of sentinels on his own?!”

“Yeah, he
did right! Imagine if the Callum girl had been hurt, the Governor would have skinned the entire village! He’d have every dog hunting the forest for us!”

“And what makes you think he won’t do that now?! He’s delaying the hunt for a reason!”

“The Callum woman has grown on you softies! She’s fed you with her pathetic baskets of food!”

“Yeah, she has! But why must she be punished for the sins of her father?! At least, she’s trying to make amends!”

“It’s a plot by the Governor, I tell ya! She’s a spy!”

“You wouldn’t say that if you knew her! Besides, it wasn’t us or her
who sparked the attack! It was that bloody Monologue protestor who threw that rock at her!”

James threw a glass against the wall, smashing it to pieces. The noise stunned the arguing men, silencing them immediately.

“There was slight deviation from what we had expected to do at the march,” he started calmly. “But the possibility of a riot was always there. I had warned you prior to that and that was what you all should have foreseen.”

“We could have been killed!” cried one.

“Then you shouldn’t have stood with us,” he glared at the man. “Being killed is one of those things you will have to expect if you want to seek justice from an oppressive government. If you think you can’t handle that, then you should go back to your families where you can be assured you will be safe.”

Silence showered over the men as they shifted uneasily, trying to avoid looking directly into James
’ angry eyes.

“If you’ve finished squabbling, we could perhaps move onto other pressing matters,” he said, watching them critically.
Their reticence hinted that he could safely leave the issue of the riot in Central behind them. “How were the ear pieces responding?” he glanced over at Jared.

“Perfect,” Jared replied. “Conjoint
ly with our camera contact lenses, they worked excellently. We reacted much quicker, thanks to Dr Langford’s extra eyes from his lab.”

“Such as spotting the protestor picking up the stone to whizz at Miss
Callum,” Eric said. “We would not have caught that otherwise.”

“Good,” James nodded. “This was just a test on a sm
all scale. As we gradually move on to more serious matters, hopefully we’ll also get more adept at handling our weapons and our technology to prevent us from getting us killed. In the meanwhile, I have my blacksmiths working on better weapons. I know you have been preparing yourselves for a very long time; meeting me here faithfully to learn and acquire the martial skills necessary to make this revolution a success. And I am thankful. But now is the time to put those skills to the test and make our long dreamt freedom a reality.”

*****

He sat on the top most branch of a redwood tree, watching her walk to and fro from her bathroom to her room. He was at ease sitting on the sturdy branch, listening to the crickets sing below him on the shrubbery floor of the forest. A colony of bats clouded the moon above him and then drove down into the trees, screeching as they rustled the tree tops, nestling upside down from its branches.