Kabul - Acceptance: Sequel to 'Yasak - Forbidden' (A Goktug Alp Love Story)

CHAPTER 30

"Ah, kahretsin."

Melike winced when her blade slipped from the stick she was whittling into an arrow, and cut her hand.

"Oh, Melike," sighed Gonca, shaking her head. "How did that happen?" "On accident," muttered Melike, getting up so she could look for a bandage. "I was careless."

"I see," said Gonca, her lips thinning. "Are you alright?" "Yes, I am fine," said Melike, rummaging through a small box, before drawing out a strap of linen. "It's just a scratch." She hastily wrapped the linen around her small wound, and tied it tightly to stop the bleeding.

She walked back over to the lambskin seat, and sat down next to Gonca where she had been sitting earlier. Gonca placed a hand on her arm; "When I asked you if you were alright, I was not necessarily talking about your hand," she said. "You look stressed. What is on your mind, bacim?" "The same thing that I believe is on yours, Gonca'm," said Melike. "Osman Bey...Targun Hatun...Bala...this whole ordeal. What could Targun possibly have been doing out in the woods, meeting with a Byzantine man?" "If she really is working with Nikola, she would be more careful," said Gonca. "She has been too obvious..."

"She has not been the only one who is acting too obviously," said Melike. "Hazal Hatun and Lena Hatun...they are planning something. They are always watching us, giving us strange looks." Gonca laughed sarcastically.

"What else is new, Melike?" she asked, but Melike shook her head. "I have a bad feeling, Gonca," she said. "I know they are planning something...I just do not know what. But I cannot help but feel this way." "Well, I cannot blame you," said Gonca. "They are always scheming, concocting some devious plan. Look at what they had tried to do to you and Goktug, using the both of you to taint Osman Bey's name. It was a horrid thing to do." Melike snorted.

"They can try all they want," she said. "But if they cross the line one too many times, whether with my family or with Osman Bey, then either their blood will be spilt across the floor or mine." Gonca chuckled, and Melike smiled half-grudgingly, and started to work on the arrows again.

The tent was silent for a while, and Gonca watched her friend work, before she spoke up; "Melike, can I ask you something?" she said, and Melike nodded. "Of course, kardesim," she said. "What is it?"

Gonca hesitated, and Melike frowned. "Gonca? What's wrong?" she asked. "What is it that you want to ask me?" "I am just curious, Melike," she said. "About...about you and Boran. About your lives before you came to the Kayi Tribe." She looked down at her twiddling fingers. "Is there anything I should know before I consider marrying him?" she asked, and Melike merely smiled. She took Gonca's hand in her own.

"The only thing you need to know, Gonca, is that he is a man who knows how to look after and take good care of the ones he loves the most," she said. "Neither of us speak of it often, especially Boran as he is so humble, but it is because of him that I am alive. He saved me." "How?" asked Gonca. "I have not been in the Kayi Tribe long enough to know his story...both of your story. But I do know that you both have grown up in this tribe without parents."

"Oh, I would not say that we grew up without parents, Gonca," said Melike. "Bamsi Bey and his late wife Hafsa Hatun were the ones who raised us...but as for our birth parents, our father died just days before my birth, and our mother passed on just days after, in a Mongol raid. Boran was not yet six years old, but he took me in his arms and ran through the forest, away from our tribe, to save me from what would have been a gruesome death." "Oh my," gasped Gonca, her hand covering her mouth. "How...how long did he run?" "I do not know for sure," said Melike. "But I know it took more than a few days for Turgut Bey and Bamsi Bey to find us alone in the wilderness, with no shelter or protection. Boran was starving and tired, but he still protected me."