BEAUTY IN EXILE

||CHAPTER 8

The morning sun shone on the tropical vegetation brightly making the evergreen trees shine in orange. Wangui turned on her pallet. The moment she opened up her eyes, she jolted upright wondering how she had gotten into her hut. After a few seconds of overthinking, she smiled to herself as she figured that Gitahi must have carried her there. A bubble of joy built up inside her and as she envisioned how he must have carried her.

A sweet scent of roasted meat wafted into her nostrils. It prompted her to step out of the hut only to find the trio sitting around a fire. Ndegwa was roasting meat while Gitahi worked on cutting them to pieces. Njeri was sharing fruits she had gathered among them. The scene in front of her made her want to laugh at herself for sleeping in for the first time in her life. It also made her hope that it lasted forever.

"How much have I slept?" she asked gaining their attention.

"Not a lot. We just arose with the sun," Njeri responded lightly.

Gitahi was soaking her in with his jaws open. Ngare, on the other hand, was sneering at them in the corner of the compound but when he saw her he changed his expression. He relaxed and rose to meet her. She embraced the beast and petted him for a while. Then she joined the group. She sat next to Gitahi who gave her a heart-melting morning smile. It was so contagious she had no choice but to smile back. She was tough yet so vulnerable at his presence. It was an unprecedented thing to her but she didn't mind it.

"It's a good thing the messengers time is yet to bypass," she said trying hard not to look at the handsome man beside her. It was a way to divert their attention.

"We wouldn't let it bypass," Njeri said.

Ndegwa handed her a piece of meat which she heartily appreciated. Njeri passed her share of fruits. They ate in comfortable silence. Though between the two pairs, so much intimacy could be felt hovering in the spaces between them.

"I hope that you recall our strategy," Ndegwa stated.

While their eyes were heavy with sleep, they discussed how they could take down the fourth group of messengers. It wasn't something that they needed to discuss in a serious meeting. It was not like they were going for war. The only reason they needed a plan was that Wangui knew that the group would be heavily armed. And they needed to ambush them from a clever angle so that no one would end up injured.

"I do recall," Njeri said with a mouthful of a banana.

"Are you comfortable with it?" Gitahi asked Wangui.

"Very much," she responded smiling.

"We're ready to go them," Gitahi said with satisfaction.

As much as Wangui hoped that things would stay that way forever, she knew she couldn't ignore the fact that at some point, they would come to an end. There would come a time when Gitahi would need to go back home. To make matters worse, with a bride whom his father thought he went to look for. Something that gnawed on her. She was not sure if she would let that happen.

Perhaps acknowledging him as her mortal enemy would have been better. She wouldn't be worrying about losing him and going back to being lonely. More so when Ndegwa and Njeri decided to marry and start a family of their own. It was at that moment she figured that taking over the chiefdom wasn't going to fully satisfy her. Being with Gitahi was where her complete satisfaction lay.

"You'll grow wrinkles early when you overthink," Gitahi teased. He was working on tightening the bowstring.

After their much fulfilling breakfast, they worked on assembling their weaponry and anything else they would need on their way. His comment startled her. She didn't figure that he was watching her closely to notice it. She was not ready to tell him whatever was going on in her head and so she chose to lie.